Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Current Affairs July PDF Capsule 2015 by AffairsCloud
Current Affairs July PDF Capsule 2015 by AffairsCloud
Table of Contents
Indian Affairs................................................................................................................................................. 3
International Affairs ................................................................................................................................. 41
Awards ........................................................................................................................................................... 66
Banking & Finance .................................................................................................................................... 76
Appointments & Resigns......................................................................................................................... 87
Acquisitions & Mergers ............................................................................................................................ 95
Business ........................................................................................................................................................ 99
Science & Technology ............................................................................................................................ 102
Environment .............................................................................................................................................. 106
Sports .......................................................................................................................................................... 110
Obituary ...................................................................................................................................................... 125
Books & Authors ...................................................................................................................................... 133
Important Days ........................................................................................................................................ 135
2|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Indian Affairs
The Government of India has launched the Digital India programme with the vision to transform
India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.This will be done by
transforming the entire ecosystem of public services through the use of information technology.
The project is intended for completion by 2019. The scheme will be monitored and controlled by
the Digital India Advisory group which will be chaired by the Ministry of Communications and
IT.
1. Broadband Highways
2. Universal Access to Phones
3. Public Internet Access Programme
4. e-Governance – Reforming government through Technology
5. e-Kranti – Electronic delivery of services
6. Information for All
7. Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO Imports
8. IT for Jobs
9. Early Harvest Programmes
The government has launched some initiatives in line with these objectives
• Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing
of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through
registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.
• MyGov.in is a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a “Discuss”, “Do” and
“Disseminate” approach. The mobile app for MyGov would bring these features to users on a
mobile phone.
3|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Swachh Bharat App to be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the
goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.
• eSign framework which would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar
authentication.
• Online Registration System (ORS) has been introduced to provides important services such
as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring
availability of blood online etc.
• National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process.
• Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would
facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
• Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country.
This would be the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre
• BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.
Literacy rate 71 percent in rural areas, 86 percent in urban areas: NSSO survey
• According to NSSO survey, the literacy rate in rural areas is 71% while it is 86% in
urban areas.
• Among the age group of seven years and above, male literacy rate was 83% while the
female literacy rate was 67%.
• The survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) covered entire country
with samples taken from 36,479 households in rural areas and 29,447 in urban areas from
4,577 villages and 3,720 urban blocks.
• In a great news for mobile phone users in the country, DoT (Department of
Telecommunications) has decided to implement nationwide mobile number portability
from July 3.
• Presently, MNP has been partially implemented, it allows subscribers to change mobile
network while retaining their number in the same telecom circle. This has also led to an
inflated mobile subscriber base in the country, as a person is forced to get a new number
when they relocate.
• From July 3, the full MNP will allow subscribers to retain their mobile number in any part of
the country even when they change their operator or state.
• Union Minister for Telecommunications: Ravi Shankar Prasad
• Soon, passengers who book their railway tickets online will get automatic refund if their train
gets cancelled. Already waitlisted e-tickets gets cancelled and passengers get refunded
automatically.
• There shall not be any requirement for cancellation/filing of ticket deposit receipt (TDR) for
refund of e-tickets in case of cancellation of trains.
• For those who book tickets at the passenger reservation system (PRS) counters shall
continue to be refunded across the reservation counter as per the existing provisions.
• Presently the systems needed for this facility are under upgradation.
• India has launched an online registration system for foreign employers who wants
to recruit Indian workers.
• All the foreign employers need to register in the eMigrate system. This will make compulsory
for the employer to fill in a registration application which will then be inspected by the Indian
mission.
• Kerala government has announced port development project worth Rs 850 crore.
• K Babu, Minister for Ports and Fisheries, said that a bunkering service would be introduced to
enable refuelling, provide water and other items for big vessels passing through the sea off
Kerala coast.
• There are also plans to set up a sand purification plant at the port at a cost of Rs 20 crore.
Mumbai to get first rail, road double-decker bridge at CST
• Mumbai will get its first double-decker bridge on P D’Mello Road at CST that will have
railway tracks and a motorway.
• Railway tracks will be constructed at an elevated level and cars will run above that as the
Eastern Freeway will be extended up from Orange Gate to GPO junction.
• Platforms between CST and Dockyard Road station will be built at the elevated level and will
be equipped with escalators.
5|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The mobile app “m-asset” can be used by citizens to capture photographs and geographical
coordinates of various assets available at Gram Panchayat level.
• It will enable these assets to be seen on a map and will be useful for planning by the
Panchayats and the government.
• The initiatives and programmes as well as important development of the ministry will be
communicated through the Twitter handle“@MoPRInida”.
• Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar launched a software to digitise records of over 12 lakh
soldiers of the Indian Army.
• The new automation software ARPAN 3.0. will provide easy access to pay, leave, transfer and
posting details of the personnel and could be accessed both by the units as well as individuals.
• ARPAN 3.0 – stands for Army Record Office Process Automation 3.0 was launched as a
part of Digital India Week.
• The Indian Army is targeting digitisation of its 45 Record Offices (ROs) across the country in a 1
year. It has already been test-bedded at seven ROs covering around 32 percent of the total
soldiers.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved Pradhan Mantri Krishi
Sinchayee Yojana.
• The aim of this scheme is to reduce the farm sector’s dependence on monsoon. This
scheme will provide irrigation facility to every village by converging the ongoing schemes being
implemented by various Ministries.
• The CCEA headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the scheme in which the
government will spend Rs 50000 crore in 5 years.
• In India, 65% of the total 142 million hectare of cultivable farm land is still not covered by
irrigation.
6|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• As a part of nationwide ‘Digital India’ week, the Punjab Chief Minister Mr.Parkash Singh
Badal launched the state Portal ePMS(Electronic Projects Management System) here at
his official residence.
• This portal was developed and managed by the Cabinet Secretariat Informatics Division of
National Informatics Centre (NIC),Rashtrapati Bhawan,New Delhi.
• To fast track infrastructure investment stalled projects,both in the public and private sectors,
involving investment between Rs.100crores and Rs 1,000 crores.
• This project was started to enhance efficiency, bring transparency, boost the investor
confidence, revive the investment cycle, eliminate the human interaction and improve the
communication between industries to Government (B2G),State to Centre (G2G)or vice versa
(G2B).
• Airbus has partnered with Mahindra Group to establish a joint venture for
manufacturing helicopters for the Indian Armed Forces.
• The joint venture between Airbus Helicopters and Mahindra Defence aims to become the
“first private Indian helicopter manufacturer under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
• This venture would produce helicopters to meet the country’s military requirements.
• Airbus Helicopters President & CEO – Guillaume Faury
• Mahindra Defence Systems Chairman – S P Shukla
• Union Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) aiming at
providing irrigation facilities to every village.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its approval to a Central
Sector Scheme for Promotion of National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech
Infrastructure Fund (ATIF).
• PMKSY will be monitored by National Steering Committee chaired by the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and concerned Union Ministers will be the members.
• The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC) will set it up through the Small Farmers
Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) by creation of a common electronic Platform deployable in
selected regulated markets across the country.
7|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• 585 regulated markets including private markets across the country will be integrated with
the common e-platform to provide farmers and traders with access to opportunities for
purchase/ sale of agri-commodities at optimal prices in a transparent manner across the
country
Socio-Economic and Caste census (SECC)-2011 is a study of socio economic status of rural and
urban households and allows ranking of households based on predefined parameters.It has three
census components which were conducted by three separate authorities –
About SECC
The Ministry of Rural Development Government of India, started the Socio Economic and Caste Census
(SECC) 2011, in June 2011 through a comprehensive door to door enumeration across the country.
This is the first time such a comprehensive exercise has been carried out for both rural and urban
India.Also this is the first paperless census conducted on hand-held electronic devices by the
government
The total households in the country are 24.39 crore, of which 17.91 crore live in villages. Out of
which, 10.69 crore households are considered as deprived.
8|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Adani Group has proposed to set up a solar park in Tamil Nadu which is expected to be
among world’s largest at an investment of Rs 4,536 crore.
• The proposal is to set up five solar power generation centres with a total capacity of 648
MW in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu.
• Adani Group MD Rajesh Adani said it will be one of the world’s largest solar parks and will
be set up in Kamudhi, Ramanathapuram district.
• To provide security to those devotees taking part in the 59-day-long annual Amarnath Yatra
in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Army in first week of July 2015 launched Operation Shiva.
The Yatra started on 2 July 2015.
• The operation was launched on the basis of intelligence report suggesting that a group of 15
terrorists are likely to attempt a strike.
• The operation will include Rashtriya Rifles unit, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for
surveillance of Yatra route and cave shrine, combing of forests located along the Yatra track,
Infantry Unit of Army, companies of Paramilitary Forces, CRPF and BSF.
9|Page
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The road network of India is 33 lakh kms which is the second largest in the world and
consists of 92,851 kms of National Highways, which constitute only 1.7 per cent of the road
network but carry about 40 per cent of the total road traffic.
Digital Guddi-Gudda Board is innovation of Jalgaon district Maharashtra was adopted as a best
practice under Beti Bachao Beti Padhao(BBBP) scheme by the Union Ministry of Women and
Child Development.
Features
Ravi Shankar Prasad Launches Four World-Class Broadband Products Developed by C-DOT
• Union Minister for Communication and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasadlaunched four world
class Broadband products developed byCentre for Development of Telematic (C-DOT).
• He said that the NDA Government is committed to bring all 2.5 lakh villages under broadband
services and enhance internet penetration from 300 million to 500 million within 2 and half
years.
• With this India has become at par with all other developed countries in the world in respect of
quality telecommunication services and effective penetration of advanced broadband based
services.
• Compliance window has given another chance to those who wants to utilize the recently
notified one-time black money compliance window can also use the e-filing facility of the tax
department.
• They can declare their foreign-based untaxed assets online now instead of manually filing
and committing of these stash properties.
• According to the scheme under the window, “digital signature” of the individual is mandatory
to validate the declaration.
• According to the government recent notification the three-month compliance window has
begun on July 1st.
• The tax and penalty on such declared assets or funds can be paid till December 31st.
10 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• This facility is provided with an aim that anyone who wants to use the window for declaring
unreported assets can do it with maximum secrecy and in quick time.
• Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) has become the first State
transport corporation to have a vehicle tracking system for inter-city buses.
• This has reduced accidents and deaths as drivers are cautious of crossing the speed limits.
• UPSRTC is planning to introduce common bus travel card for passengers travelling to Delhi,
Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
• Bangalore has been ranked 12th in the list of top 20 technology-rich cities in the world,
according to a survey conducted by global property consultant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL).
• Bangalore has helped India debut on the ‘City Momentum Index’ Top 20 list – an annual
survey carried out by JLL globally. Reinforcing the city’s status of being one of India’s
premier technology centres, Bangalore figures at No. 12 in the Top 20 technology-rich cities
globally
• London, San Jose and Beijing are top three cities on the list.
According to World Bank report, India’s rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA has been
ranked as the world’s largest public works programme.
• MGNREGA provides social security net to almost 15 per cent of the country’s population.
• World Bank Group’s report ‘The State of Social Safety Nets 2015′, said India is among the
five middle-income countries running the world’s largest social safety net programmes.
• The world’s five largest social safety net programmes are in China, India, South Africa
and Ethiopia reaching over 526 million people.
• The Mid-day meal scheme of India has been classified as biggest school feeding
programmebenefiting 105 million beneficiaries.
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has 182 million beneficiaries
which covers 15% of India’s population.
• Janani Suraksha Yojna with 78 million beneficiaries is ranked as the top-most social
security programme with conditional cash transfers.
• Also, the report ranked the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme as
the second-largest unconditional cash transfer social security programme in the world.
11 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President and Guy Ryder, Executive Director, ILO, in their
joint statement said, “The World Bank Group and the International Labour Organisation share a
vision of social protection for all, a world where anyone who needs social protection can access
it at any time.”
MGNREGA
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a social security
measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’.
• To ensure livelihood security in rural areas it provides at least 100 days of wage employment
in a financial year to every household.
• Janani Suraksha Yojana is a scheme to decrease the neo-natal and maternal deaths
happening in the country by promoting institutional delivery of babies under the National
Rural Health Mission.
• It is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme which integrates cash assistance with delivery and
post-delivery car
A delegation of Tata executives led by its Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata will sign
three Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tripura government.
• First with the department of Industries and Commerce for providing higher technological
knowhow to two Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in West Tripura district and Dhalai
district.
• Second for setting up a dairy farm at Ambassa in Dhalai district.
12 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
MoU inked between ICRISAT and Telangana government to promote digital agriculture
• International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics [ ICRISAT ] and Telangana
government have joined hands to implement Information and Communication Technology-
based knowledge sharing platforms for farmers.
• The MoU aims at promoting agricultural innovation initiatives to improve productivity and
profitability of small-holder farmers.
• The partnership will explore areas of collaboration in the field of digital agriculture which will
give Information that would be precisely targeted towards individual farmers .This will help
farmers to access agricultural-related and market-related information, which gives them an
opportunity to sell their produce at fair prices
• The MoU will enable the government to create new economic opportunities for rural
populations through digital agriculture and enable consumers to create direct linkages to
farmers
• The Centre has approved Rs 3,500 crore for two road projects in Jammu and
Kashmir in a bid to boost road development infrastructure in the state.
• Jammu and Kashmir Roads and Buildings Minister Altaf Bukhari said the accomplishment of
these ambitious projects would go a long way towards decongestion of traffic movement in
these cities.
World’s Oldest Active Aircraft Carrier INS Viraat Set to Be Museum Ship in India
• The oldest active aircraft carrier in the world will be converted into a docked museum when
the ship, now in the Indian Navy, decommissions next year.
• After 57 years of service life, the ship will decommission in 2016. Andhra Pradesh Tourism
Development Corporation (APTDC) authorities received an in-principle approval from the
Ministry of Defence to convert the ship into a museum at the Kakinada port in the Bay of
Bengal.
13 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on 7 July 2015 launched a mobile application
named Pashu Poshan that will boost dairy farmers’ income by raising milk yield and cutting
feed cost. The app will recommend a balanced diet for cows and buffaloes.
• The mobile application was launched by the Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.
The application will be available on both web and android platforms. It can be accessed by
registering on the INAPH portal http://inaph.Nddb.Coop.
• The Union home ministry has declared whole of Nagaland as a disturbed area for a further
period of one year from June 30, 2015.
• This declaration under Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 will give the
armed forces powers to search, raid and arrest without a warrant. Also, it would allow use of
force by the Army personnel even to the extent of causing death, against one who puts law
and order in a ‘disturbed’ area, in peril.
• MakeMyTrip, RBL Bank, Inox wind and IRCTC are among the firms that have made it to the
Fortune Next 500 list of Indian companies.
• Redington India, iPhone distributor, has topped the list.
• The companies featuring in the Next 500 list are mostly mid-sized and are capable of
breaking into the Fortune India 500, the magazine noted.
It is a ranking of the top 500 corporations in India compiled on the basis of latest sales and gross
revenue figures which is published by Fortune Magazine.
• Uttarakhad to be the first state in India to get earthquake early warning system
• Uttarakhad belongs to seismic zone V i.e. High-Risk Seismic Zone.
• It has been predicted that this area might get 8 or more magnitude of earthquake in future.
• eMudhra Limited, a leading certifying firm in the country for digital signatures, has
launched eSign services.
14 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• eSign can revolutionise the way business and governance is conducted in the country and pave
the way for a digital transformation into a paperless environment.
• eMudhra has also launched eMlocker which can be accessed at www.emlocker.com. It provides
facility to store documents such as PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, electricity bills or any other
documents electronically.
eSign
• eSign is an online electronic signature service which can facilitate an Aadhaar holder to
digitally sign a document within seconds.
• The signatures generated by eSign are legally valid and secure under the Information
Technology Act, 2000.
• It was launched on by Prime Minister as a part of Digital India Vision.
About eMudhra
• eMudhra Limited is a licensed Certifying Authority under the IT Act of India issuing digital
signature certificates in India since 2008.
• It offers various solutions to Indian consumers, with a large user base among Individuals,
Corporates, Banks, Government Organizations and several small and medium businesses.
• Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) made Akash has been inducted into Indian Air Force.
• BEL which is the nodal agency and supplies major sub-systems handed over the missile
system at a ceremony held at Air Force Station, Gwalior.
• BHEL has commissioned the second 500 MW unit at Tuticorin Thermal Power Station
(TPS) in Tamil Nadu.
• The first 500 MW unit of the project was commissioned on March 10.
15 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Tuticorin Thermal Power Station was set up by NLC Tamil Nadu Power Limited (NTPL), a joint
venture of Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation (TANGEDCO).
Tata Motors bags order for 1,200 trucks from Indian Army
• Tata Motors has bagged an order worth over Rs 900 crore to supply 1,200 multi-axle
trucks to the Indian Army.
• This is the single largest order by Indian Army to an Indian Company in land systems.
• The order is for 1,200 units of high-mobility 6X6 multi-axle trucks which will be used for
loading-unloading and transportation of ammunition pallets, spares and other operational
equipment.
• Ira Singhal, who topped this year’s UPSC examination, could be the brand ambassador for
the programmes of department of empowerment of persons with disabilities.
• Social justice minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said the young topper would be an
appropriate brand ambassador for the disability department. Her achievement shall
inspire a whole generation of youth to come forward and achieve glorious heights.
• India’s first Community Skill Park today opened at Chavara with Kerala Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy all praise for the ‘new-generation approach’ to developing skills and
increasing the employability of the youth of the state.
• ‘Kaushal Kendra’, set up at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore with world- -class facilities, works on four
fronts: the Assessment and Career Guidance Cell helps rural, educated youth realise their
career aptitude through the best global assessment tools and provides guidelines to choose
through the course that is best suited for them with regard to their socio-economic and
educational background.
16 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology and the minister for the
Ministry of Earth Science (MOES), inaugurated the 12th International Symposium on
Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES) on 13th July 2015 at Goa where scientific sessions have
been scheduled for five days from 13-17th July 2015.
• It has been organised by National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR),
Ministry of Earth Sciences, and Government of India.
• Nearly 40 countries of around 400 scientists will be participating in ISAES symposium at
Goa.
• Prof. Jeronimo Lopez-Martinez, President, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
(SCAR), is the guest of honour.
• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has set a target of
providing Rs. 30,000 crore as credit to farmers for irrigation over the next three years.
• So far NABARD has already sanctioned Rs. 1,000 crore and intends to provide Rs 10,000
crore of loans in this year.
• These funds will be additional to the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
(PMKSY) by the Government of India which will provide loans up to Rs 50,000 crore to the
farmers.
• India’s longest road tunnel, being built on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, will be opened
for general traffic in July next year and would reduce the distance between the two cities by
30 kms.
• The 9.2 km tunnel is part of 286 km-long four-laning project of the Jammu-Srinagar national
highway.
• Once this tunnel becomes operational it will reduce the traffic jams on National Highway-1A
that occur due to snowfall and avalanche in winter at Patnitop.
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has finalised 12,000
standards for food additives and ingredients in line with global safety standards Codex.
17 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• If food companies comply with these standards then they would not require to seek product
approval from FSSAI. This will save them from lengthy process of approval.
• Presently, there are 375 FSSAI safety standards for food items but none for food additives
and ingredients.
• The new FSSAI standards are compatible with the global food standards of Codex
Alimentarius Commission.
• Hartek Power, an engineering firm, has commissioned three substations for solar power
projects worth about Rs 220 crore in Punjab and Chhattisgarh during April-June this
year.
• Also, the company has so far been able to commission substations for 130-MW solar power
projects worth about Rs 700 crore.
• Hartek Power is operating projects in 17 states across the country and have constructed
more than 100 substations in the past seven years.
• India has secured second position amongst 40 countries in a survey of trust in national
governments for 2014 conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD). Switzerland has emerged at the top with Norway coming in third.
• An impressive 73 per cent of Indians polled in the survey answered ‘yes’ to the question ‘Do
you have confidence in the national government?’
• For the purpose of the survey, trust represents the confidence of citizens and businesses in
government to do what is right and perceived as fair, according to the OECD ‘Government at
a Glance 2015’ report.
• The central government will soon unveil a programme to develop new national highways
with focus likely to be on connecting border areas.
• Union Minister for Transport, Roads and Highways Nitin Gadkari said,”We are going to
announce ‘Rashtriya Mahamarghs’ (national highways)under the ‘Bharat Mala’
programme soon.”
18 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Under the programme the government wants to connect each district of the country with
national highway besides the backward areas.
• The focus is on the setting up roads in border districts.
There is 96000-km length of national highway in the country and there are 48000 kms of other roads
and government wants to add 30000 kms to this road length.
The government also wants to develop tourism and religious tourism related roads apart from port
connectivity.
12-day Godavari Maha Pushkaram was began in – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
• Godavari Maha Pushkaram began on the banks of River Godavari in Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh. It is a 12 days long event so it will be going on till 25th July 2015. Unique things
about this is that it happens once in 144 years.
• Godavari Pushkaram, a 12-day festival of worshipping the river is held once in 12 years.
Every 12th year Jupiter’s entry into the constellation Leo marks the Pushkaram for Godavari.
The celebrations include reverence of ancestors, spiritual discourses, devotional music and
cultural programmes.
MoU was inked between India and Georgia for cooperation in the field of election management
and administration which was signed by Chief Election Commissioner of India Nasim Zaidi and Tamar
Zhvania, Chairperson, Central Election Commission, Georgia.
19 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
On the occasion of the first ever World Youth Skills Day on 15th July 2015, the Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) will launch the SKILL INDIA Campaign. On this historic
occasion, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has consented to be the Chief Guest for the event to be
held at Vigyan Bhawan.
The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri
Rajiv Pratap Rudy has said that during the function, the Prime Minister will formally launch the
“National Skill Development Mission”, unveil the new “National Policy for Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship 2015”, and roll out on all-India basis the Ministry’s flagship scheme, “Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikash Yojana – PMKVY” – the pilot phase of which has already begun.
Key Highlights
• If China has this identity of being world’s manufacturing factory, then India can become
world’s human resource Capital
• Our training institutions must become dynamic, Look at the way technology is changing
things.
• We want opportunities to increase. That is why we have not restricted ourselves to skills, we
have focussed on entrepreneurship.
• Parents from middle-class,lower middle-class & poor families ask their children to learn some
skill so that they can stand on their feet.
• Skill India Mission is not just a prog to fill stomachs,but to instill self confidence in poor
families & bring a new energy to nation.
• And I will form an army of poor, every poor is my soldier, we will win this war against
poverty on behalf of their strength.
• We have strategically opened a war against poverty, and we must win this fight
Through a policy driven approach we have waged a war against poverty and we have to win
this war.
• According to a UN report, India has been able to achieve a more than 20 per cent decline in
new HIV infections between 2000 and 2014.
• The report that was released in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia by the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
20 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The report says that the world is on track to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
• The report titled “How AIDS changed everything – MDG 6: 15 years, 15 lesson of
hope from the AIDS response”, says the world has exceeded the targets contained in the
Millennium Development Goals (MGD) to halt and reverse the spread of HIV.
• New HIV infections have fallen by 35% and AIDS-related deaths by 41%, while the global
response to HIV has averted 30 million new infections and nearly 8 million AIDS-related
deaths since 2000.
• UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “The measure of success for the United Nations
is not what we promise, but what we deliver for those who need us most. When it comes to
halting and beginning to reverse the AIDS epidemic, the world has delivered.”
• India has changed the course of its national HIV epidemic through the use of strategic
information that guided its focus to the locations and population approach.
• HIV treatment coverage for people living with HIV and TB has also increased and in terms of
numbers of patients.
• The largest increases in antiretroviral therapy among people living with both HIV and TB
have occurred in India, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
• India accounts for more than 60% of the Asia Pacific region’s people living with HIV-
associated TB.
• At present nearly 85% of the antiretroviral medicines for HIV treatment come from India.
• It is a mega religious congregation, which is held every 12 years in Nashik on the banks of
the Godavari River. This year it will continue for over two months.
• Kumbh Mela is known as one of the biggest peaceful gatherings on the Earth and is held in
Allahabad, Nashik, Haridwar & Ujjain.
21 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• It empowers citizens to avail their rights in stipulated time with less efforts and cost.
• It will pave way for curbing corruption, bringing transparency and empowering citizens.
• It ensures essential services are delivered in a time-bound manner and at nominal charges.
• In case of failure in delivery in the stipulated time, the government employee will be penalized
for default, which ranges between 500 rupees to 5000 rupees.
• It provides for three-tier Appellate Authorities with first two being Government Officials or
Designated Officers and third will be a Right to Service Commission.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a power transmission
project worth Rs 8,548.68 covering seven states.
• The states covered in the project are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
• The project will have contribution of Rs 3,419.47 crore from National Clean Energy Fund
(NCEF) which is 40 per cent of the total estimated cost of project.
• The project includes establishment of 48 new Grid sub-stations of different voltage levels
with total transformation capacity around 17,100 MVA (Mega Volt Ampere) by installing over
7,800 Circuit Kilometers of transmission lines in these seven states.
• Estimated completion time of the project is 3-5 years.
• NCEF will contribute 40% of the cost, other 40% will be met through KfW loan and the
remaining 20% will be the state contribution.
• Creation of an intra-state transmission system will facilitate evacuation of renewable power
from generation stations to load centres.
• The government’s plan is to have 175 GW of power generation from renewable energy
sources by 2022, which includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-
power and 5 GW from small hydro power.
22 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Government sanctions Rs 700 cr additional fund for Regional Rural Banks capitalisation
• The government has sanctioned an additional Rs 700 crore for the recapitalisation of weak
regional rural banks (RRBs).
• The validity period for the fund infusion has been extended to2016-17.
• RRBs are unable to maintain their minimum Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR)
of 9% so this decision will help them improve this ratio.
• A strong capital structure and minimum required level of CRAR will ensure financial stability of
RRBs which will enable them to play a greater role in financial inclusion and meeting the credit
requirements of rural areas.
• In this year’s budget funds of Rs 15 crore were allotted for recapitalisation of RRBs.
• Varanasi has joined the list of UNESCO “Cities of Music” under the Creative Cities
Network.
• It has been chosen in the music category under UNESCO’s field of excellence plan.
• The fields of excellence are classified into categories of literature, film, music, craft and folk
art, design, media arts and gastronomy.
About Creative Cities Network: The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created
in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a
strategic factor for sustainable urban development.
Nine cities under UNESCO Cities of Music are: Glasgow in the UK, Hanover and
Mannheim in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, Hamamatsu in Japan, Brazzaville in the Republic
of Congo, Bogota in Columbia, Seville in Spain and Bologna in Italy.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley choose Amritsar to launch the “National Heritage City
Development and Augmentation Yojana ” ( HRIDAY)for 12 cities in the country.
About HRIDAY
• The National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) is a scheme of
Ministry of Urban Development.
23 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The aim is to preserve and revitalise soul of the heritage city to reflect the city’s unique
character by encouraging aesthetically appealing, accessible, informative & secured
environment.
• The Scheme with an outlay of Rs 500 Crores is being implemented in 12 identified Cities
namely, Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwarka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri,
Varanasi, Velankanni and Warangal.
Union Agriculture Minister launched PGS-India, Soil Health Card and FQCS Web Portals
Union Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh has launched 3 web portals namely, Soil Health Card
portal, Fertiliser Quality Control System portal and Participatory Guarantee System.
Soil Health Card portal - It has been developed for registration of soil samples, recording test
results of soil samples and generation of Soil Health Card (SHC) along with fertilizer
recommendations to create a national database on soil health for future use in research.
Participatory Guarantee System portal - It will help small and marginal farmers engaged in
organic farming to secure certification after checks for compliance to standards are carried out.
Fertiliser Quality Control System portal - It will compare results of drawn samples of
imported fertilisers helping both consumers and importers with analysis reports.
• The Home Ministry has given nod to the Chinese telecom giant Huawei to set up
a manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu.
• But the catch is that Huawei will have to appoint Indians in key posts like chief of technical
operations and chief security officer.
• At a cost of Rs 25 crore, Huawei wants to set up a unit for electronics and telecom hardware
and support services, including trading and logistics activities, at the Special Economic Zone,
Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
24 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
India inks $250-million loan pact with World Bank for Andhra Pradesh Disaster Recovery
project
India and World Bank have signed a $250 million credit agreement for the Andhra Pradesh
Disaster Recovery Project. It is a loan for an implementation period of 5 years which will be
implemented by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
• This project will help to restore, improve and enhance the resilience of public services and
livelihoods of communities affected by cyclone Hudhud in Andhra Pradesh.
• It will also increase the capacity of the state to respond promptly and effectively to an
emergency.
• The project will specifically benefit over 13 million people in the four severely affected
districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari.
• Through this project the state will restore the damages caused to roads, public infrastructure
including environmental services and facilities and increase the resilience of the power
infrastructure as well as that of its communities from impacts of future disasters.
• The Project will also help reconstruct the severely damaged zoological park at
Visakhapatnam and ecological park at Kambalakonda.
• It will help in restoring the lost shelterbelts, windbreaks and mangroves along the coast and
support livelihoods opportunities of poor vulnerable coastal families by building nurseries
that would supply saplings for farm forestry.
• India and Canada have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Civil
Aviation.
25 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• This will help in deepening the bilateral cooperation and enhancing the experience and
technical knowledge in the field of Civil Aviation between India and Canada.
• Indigenously built Torpedo launch and recovery vessel (TLRV) ‘INS Astravahini’ has been
decommissioned after almost 31 years in service to the nation.
• ‘INS Astravahini’ was decommissioned at a ceremony presided over by Commodore K A
Bopanna, Naval Officer-in-Charge ( Andhra Pradesh Division) at the Ship Building Centre.
The vessel was developed by Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL)
• Astravahini was auxiliary vessel of TLRV class, the ship was commissioned on November 5,
1984 at Visakhapatnam, the headquarters of Eastern Naval Command
• The only one of its class the ship was extensively used by NSTL as a test platform to launch
and recover experimental torpedoes prior to their induction into the Navy.
Union Cabinet approved redevelopment of 400 railway stations through Swiss Challenge
method.
• Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved a proposal to redevelop
400 railway stations using a contract method called the “Swiss challenge”.
• Under this model, interested parties coming through open bids would develop the stations
with their designs and business ideas while commercial development of real estate would be
allowed by the Zonal Railways
• These 400 stations are to be developed by leveraging real estate development of land and
air space in and around the stations
• These categories of stations are generally located in metros, major cities, pilgrimage centres
and important tourist destinations across the country
26 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
The Union government has launched the Centralized Delhi Police Railway Helpline No.1512. It
was launched by Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary.
• Government has approved a bill to scrap a set of 295 obsolete Acts dealing with several
issues.
• The Repealing and Amending (Fourth) Bill, 2015 will be introduced in Lok Sabha for
scrapping 295 Acts, several of them over 30 years old, which have been declared as
redundant by respective central ministries.
• 125 archaic laws have already been repealed. The Law Ministry has identified 1,871 more
laws which have lost relevance today.
India’s first private air freight station all set to open in Chennai
• India’s first air freight station in the private sector has come up at Irungattukottai near
Chennai.
• The first AFS in the country was set up in 2007 inside Central Warehousing Corporation in
the city.
• The AFS is set up by the city-based Indev Logistics at a cost of Rs50 crore.This will provide
relief to the long winding queues of cargo near the airport gateways.
• Madras airport lost out a lot of cargo because of congestion and inefficient ways of handling.
The AFS aims to tackle such problems with the help of technology.
46th Session of Indian Labour Conference on July 20-21, 2015 in New Delhi
• The 46th Session of the Indian labour Conference will be held on July 20-21, 2015 in New Delhi
and will be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi.
27 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Implementation of the conclusions/ recommendations of the 43rd, 44th and 45th Indian
Labour Conference particularly on Contract Labour, Minimum Wages and Scheme Workers
and Tripartite Mechanism.
• Social Security for the workers both in organized and unorganized sector.
• Amendment of Bonus Act – Removal of conditions on payment ceiling, eligibility limits,
decisions to pay minimum bonus without linking to loss when the performance indicator
satisfy grant of bonus.
• Labour Laws amendments proposed/done either by the Central or State Governments.
• Employment and Employment Generation
• A senior Home Ministry has announced that the government is on the track to ban the use,
sale and purchase of plastic-made national flags in the country soon.
• The decision has been taken after lots of flags are found lying on roads and gutters.
A proposal to ban manufacture of national flags made of plastic was pending, so the central
government has also informed the court about it.
• Earlier in March, the Bombay High Court had asked Maharashtra Government to come up
with a policy to ensure a ban on use, sale and purchase of national flags made of plastic and
also create public awareness.
• Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara, who served as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Somnath
Chatterjee when he was Lok Sabha Speaker, has been selected as the new secretary of Delhi
Legislative Assembly by Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel.
• Before moving to Delhi Assembly, Suryadevara served Lok Sabha for five years and Rajya
Sabha for over six years.
• The Government raised the daily minimum wage from Rs. 137 to Rs. 160. This goes into
effect from this month and is the first time in 2 yearsthat the minimum wage has been
altered.
• In a statement, the Minister of State for Labour & Employment Bandaru Dattatraya said that
the decision to raise the minimum wage had been taken in view of the recent increase in
retail inflation for industrial workers. He wrote to all the Chief Ministers and lieutenant
governors to take all measures to ensure the implementation of the raised minimum wage.
28 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Union Government has launched National Career Counseling Portal in a bid to modernize all
government-run employment exchanges.
• It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the aegis of National Career Service
(NCS) project of Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
• The web portal will be a one-stop platform for both job providers and job seekers where
registration can be done online. It will provide basic platform for searching and applying for
jobs on the portal.
• It will also provide candidates career-related counseling either by its helpline numbers or
visiting these centres along with other facilities like job posting, aptitude assessment, job
matching, training providers, skill courses and guidance on self-employment and
entrepreneurship.
• It should be noted that NCS project aims at transforming all the government-run
employment exchanges.
• Union Government extended the interest subvention scheme (ISS) on JULY 21,2015.
• PUBLIC SECTOR BANK, PRIVATE SECTOR BANK, COMMERCIAL BANKS, RURAL REGIONAL
BANKS, COOPERATIVE BANKS and NABARD were covered by the Union Government to
extend this interest subvention scheme.
• This scheme ensures availability of crop loans upto Rupees 3 Lakhs at the rate of 7
percent per annum.
• Additional interests subventions of 3 percent per annum were given to those farmers who
repay on time were approved by the cabinet.
• The agriculture credit in 2014-15 was Rs 8,00,000. It has been raised to Rs 8,50,000
for 2015-16.
• The Union Cabinet also decided to provide interest subvention to small and marginal farmers
with KISAN CREDIT CARDS for loans against negotiable warehouse receipts post-harvest
at the rate of 7 percent per annum interest in 6 months.
• The farmers who are affected by natural calamities, where the interest subvention of 2
percent will continue to be available to banks were covered in this interest subvention
scheme.
29 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Union Government has announced that 14 States and Union Territories (UTs) have achieved
or exceeded the literacy rate of 80 percent. It was announced by Union Human Resource
Development Minister Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
• 14 States and UTs are: Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Goa, Tripura, Daman and Diu,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, NCR of Delhi, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu.
• Union Government’s flagship scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has helped to improve
literacy rate. For implementing the scheme, Centre has helped the States and UTs. The
literacy of adults has been covered under the Saakshar Bharat Programme.
• It was also announced that 10 States and UTs have also been able to reduce gender gap to
10 per cent or less. These states are Punjab, Chandigarh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura,
Meghalaya, Goa, Lakshadweep, Kerala and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• India(1,883 projects) ranked third on USGBC’s(U.S. Green Building Council) second annual
rating of the Top 10 nations for LEED(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-the
world’s most generally used and recognised inexperienced constructing score system.
• India has dominant position in the green building movement is significant due to the
country’s aggressive plans to expand access to electricity, it explosive economic growth
projections and its unprecedented and rapid urbanisation
• Canada(4,814 Projects)and China(2,022 projects) are on the top two positions in this list and
U.S(53,908)- birthplace of LEED, is not included in this list.
• The analysis used to develop the list ranks countries in terms of gross square meters and
numbers of LEED projects to date.
30 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• India has earned nearly 100 million USD (Rs 637.35 Crore) in revenue by launching 45
foreign satellites into space. ISRO has launched 45 foreign satellites from 19 countries till
date and earned about 17 million USD and 78.5 million Euros (85 million USD).
• The revenue details earned by Antrix – the commercial arm of ISRO – from launching foreign
satellites into orbit. This was said by Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh in the
Lok Sabha.
• ISRO’s space mission is ready grow further as 28 more foreign satellites are being planned
for launch between 2015 and 2017. Antrix has signed the agreement with six countries
namely Algeria, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore and the US, for these future
launches.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Smart City initiative got its first nomination from Puducherry,
a former French colony, which was awarded 75 out of a potential 100 points by the High
Powered Steering Committee in less than a month since the launch of the ‘Smart City’
Mission on June 25.
• As per the criteria for assigning Smart City slots for each State and UT based on equal
weightage for urban population and number of urban local bodies and to ensure geographical
equity.
• Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list released on July 23,2015.India has the second-highest number
of companies on the list and dominated by China with 25 companies.
• Indian Companies in Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list
31 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
1. HDFC Bank
2.HCL Technologies BSE -1.70 %,
3.Tata Consultancy Services BSE -0.29 %,
4. Aurobindo Pharma BSE 0.28 %,
5.Lupin
6.Motherson Sumi Systems
7.Sun Pharma Industries
8.Tata Motors
9.Tech Mahindra
10.Titan.
• Forbes further said that the Fab 50’s brightest star, over the decade, was India’s HDFC Bank.
The bank has made to the list nine times.
• For the fifth year in a row, India claims the second-highest number of companies,10 this
time.South Korea is next with four. Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore have two each
and Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia one each.
Maharashtra cabinet approves SHYAM PRASAD MUKHERJEE JAN VAN VIKAS scheme on JULY
23,2015. Forest Minister SUDHIR MUNGANTIWAR proposed this scheme in the state’s annual budget
2015-16 and this scheme is launched on the project basis from 2015-16 to 2019-2020.
• The aim of this scheme is creation of comprehensive development of villages in the buffer
zones of tiger reserves.
• Through this scheme, the main objective is to reduce the man-animal conflit by reducing the
dependence of villagers on forest and to boost the supplementary business to farming
activities and also creating alternative employment possibilities in these ares.
First All-Women Trans Continental Road Expedition flagged off from New Delhi
• The All-Women Trans Continental Road Expedition has been flagged off from Delhi to London
by Union Minister for Chemical & Fertilisers & Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports.
32 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The 3 participants will travel via Myanmar, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Russia, Ukraine, Poland Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium & France for almost 55 days.
• The drive is approximately 12,000 kms from Delhi to London.
• Prime Minister, Narendra Modi launched DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAYA GRAM JYOTI YOJANA
(DDUGJY) in Patna on JULY 25, 2015.
• The main objective of this scheme is to provide round a clock (24×7) electricity supply to
farmers and households.
• This scheme is similar to earlier RAJIV GANDHI GRAMEEN VIDYUTIKARAN YOJANA (RGGVY)
for electrification to rural areas launched by previous UPA Government.
• An outlay of this scheme is Rs 76,000 crore for implementation of the projects under which
centre will provide a grant of Rs 63,000 crore.
• Rs 14,680 crore worth project already been approved out of which Bihar state is approved
with a project amounting Rs 5,827 crore.
SCHEME BENEFITS:
33 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The Govt. of India has constituted ‘All India Council of Sports’. The council will be an
advisory body for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. While the advice rendered by the
council will be duly considered by the government, it will not be binding and obligatory on
the government.
• The council may organize national, international conferences, seminars, symposia etc, for
promotion of sports and games in the country. The Council will be headed by a President in
the rank of Minister of State and will include four Members of Parliament, Sports
personalities, coaches, sports experts.
• The Council will meet from time to time, at least once in a quarter, and deliberate on
matters relating to the promotion and development of sports and games in the country.
The Council will have the aims and objectives as indicated below:
• Preventing drug abuse in sports, fraud of age and sexual harassment of women in sports;
• Bringing professionalism, transparency and good governance in functioning of national sports
federations.
• Ways and means to raise resources for the promotion of sports and games in the country.
• Promotion of sports sciences and sports medicine.
• Augmenting sports infrastructure and ensuring its proper utilization.
• Issues arising out of match fixing and other malpractices in competitive sports and Ways and
means to promote indigenous games in the country.
• Early identification of sports talent and nurturing of the identified talent.
• Integration of sports in educational curriculum in schools, colleges and universities;
• Welfare measures for sportspersons.
Union Government sanctioned 1000 crore rupees for Indo-Bangla Rail Link
• Union Government, to connect Indian Railway with Bangladesh through the North-East for
laying of 15.06 km sanctioned 1000 crore rupees on JULY 25,2015.
• The entire project will be constructed by IRCON and this Indo-Bangla Rail link will be
completed by 2017.
• Trough this project, it connects AGARTHALA with AKHAURA railway junction in Bangladesh
and this project will reduce the distance 1650 km to 515 km(Agarthala to Kolkata).
• It will improve the trade and commerce between the North-East region on India and
Bangladesh.
34 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Out of 15.06 km,five km falls in Indian territory and the rest in Bangladesh and 3.7 km
would comprise of elevated corridor.
• Bhowmik said that the alignment and other technicalities of laying the 15.06-km track to link
Agartala with Bangladesh’s Akhaura railway station has been changed by top engineers and
railway officials.
• This approval is made after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh
Hasina discussed it during Modi’s Dhaka visit June 6-7.
Maharashtra govt to develop six solar cities targeting solar capacity of 7,500 MW
• Maharashtra Government ,already have a installed capacity of 6,700 MW at present and now
the Government has set its sights on enhancing the capacity for renewable energy to 21,100
MW by planning to develop six solar cities targeting solar capacity of 7,500 MW.
• 5,000 MW will be added to this project through wind and rest from other industrial and
domestic waste sources.
• A total of 55 solar cities across the country were targeted to enhance the solar capacity and
among these cities 6 cities is from Maharashtra they are AURANGABAD,KALYAN-
DOMBIVLI,SHIRDI,NAGPUR,THANE and NANDED.
• These cities were selected based on the population and other criteria.
The Central government is planning to launch an all-in-one insurance scheme for farmers called
the Unified Package Insurance Scheme(Bharatiya Krishi Bima Yojna) as a part of its ongoing social
security scheme considering rising incidents of farmer suicides in the country.
The policy would contain nine features with mandatory crop insurance.As,formers have to choose at
least four other features to get subsidy under crop insurance section.
• This scheme will have various features like crop insurance,health cover,personal accident
insurance,live stock insurance ,insurance cover for things used in agriculture like tractors
and pumpsets,student safety insurance and life insurance.
• The aim of this scheme is to protect farmers from financial risks,ensure food security
,promote crop diversification and improve growth and compititiveness of agriculturesector.
• This scheme will be implemented through a multi-agency frame work under the control of
union agricultural & co-operation department and co-ordination with agencies like
commercial banks.co-operative and regional rural banks.
35 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The scheme would be offered through general insurers and will have a one year cover except
for agriculture insurance which will be bi-annual separately for kharif and rabi crops and will
be renewable from year to year.
• The policy will protect farmers from unexpected situations and provide insurance to personal
assets of farmers like their home,cattle,pump-sets ,tractors.
• This scheme will also provide protection to farmers and their family members in case of
accidental death.
Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan To Be renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan
• The government has announced that the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan will be renamed as APJ
Abdul Kalam Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan in memory of the former president, who passed
away on 27 July 2015.
• Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan is a unique concept developed by the Ministry of Human
Resource Development that aims to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and love for
Science and Mathematics in school children.Under Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan, the
government schools will be mentored by Institutes like IITs/ IIMs/ IISERs and other Central
Universities and reputed organisations through innovative programmes, student exchanges,
demonstrations, student visits, etc to develop a natural sense of passion towards learning of
Science and Maths.
36 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
About FKCCI
The chamber was started in 1915 by Bharath Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya to industrialise the then Mysore
State. He was ably supported by then ruler of Mysore State Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodeyars. The
federation’s main aim is to resolve the impediments and create harmony leading to economic
development of the State.
In April 2015 the union home ministry announced the renaming of the “tourist visa on arrival
scheme (VoA)” as “e-tourist visa” aiming to avoid inconvenience to foreign tourists who, misled by
scheme’s nomenclature, would fly into India presuming that they would be granted visa on arrival upon
landing.
To boost tourism, the union finance minister Arun Jaitley in his annual union budget announced visa on
arrival to 150 countries from the current 43 countries in stages. The most populous nation China was
certainly one of the targets and during the visit of PM Narendra Modi to China the announcement was
officially done.
As promised by our PM, the union government has declared to roll out e-tourist visa facility to Chinese
nationals from July 30, 2015. Beside Chinese nationals Hong Kong and Macao citizens will also be
provided the facility.
• The defence ministry has confirmed that the Defence Trade Show, Defexpo India, which was
used to be scheduled in Delhi will now onwards be held in Goa.
• Defexpo India, which was last held in 2014 at the Pragati Maidan trade fair ground in Delhi,
is organised by the defence ministry every alternate year, on even years. On odd years, the
ministry organises the Aero India Show in Bengaluru. There is no plan to shift future Aero
India shows to Goa.
• The 9 th Land, Naval & Internal Homeland Security Systems Exhibition – 2016, which is the
full name of Defexpo India 2016, will be conducted from February 17-20 in Goa.
• Defexpo is India’s premier land and naval systems show. It is expected to attract more than
400 defence companies, including practically every major vendor. India remains the world’s
biggest importer of defence equipment and Defexpo 2016 will provide another opportunity
for vendors to showcase their equipment for decision-makers.
37 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Gujarat became the first state to have a provision for compulsory voting with the state
government on Monday putting out a notification in this regard.
• Besides making voting mandatory in the local body polls, the communiqué, dated July 17,
announced the reservation of 50 per cent seats for women in municipal corporations,
municipalities, and village panchayats.
• With the government notifying the Gujarat Local Authorities Act(Amendment) 2009, a voter
in the state would now invite punitive action in case he or she fails to vote in the local body
elections without any acceptable reason.
• OLA,India’s largest cab service provider through App,launched a new App named “Ola
Store”, through this app Ola made an entry into on-demand grocery delivery service.
• The app helps customers to get all groceries delivered at the door step from local vendors
within 60 minutes and initially this service is available only in Bangalore between the timings
9 am to 11 pm.
• Currently, on-demand start-ups like Peppertap and Grofer provide similar services like Ola
Store. Ola already has a food delivery service called Ola Cafe launched in March.
• Ola has partnered with offline retailers like Family Mall, Grocery Mart, Namdhari’s Fresh, PNP
Retail and Top in Town for this initiative.
• Initially launched for Android users and will soon be launched for iPhone.
• World’s second largest automaker General Motors (GM) has announced to invest USD 1
billion (6, 400 crore rupees) in India by 2020 and has decided to close its loss making plant
at Halol, Gujarat. This announcement was part of its prior decision to invest over USD 5
billion in global markets like China, India, Brazil and Mexico.
• On priority company to make investments to expand capacity of Talegaon Plant in
Maharashtra from 1,30,000 to 2,20,000 units per year by 2025.
• Cyclone Komen came into news on 30 July 2015 after the depression over the Northern Bay
of Bengal turned into a cyclonic storm. The cyclone is expected to make landfall on the coast
of Odisha and West Bengal.
38 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• United Nations (UN) on 29 July 2015 released the report title World Population Prospects:
The 2015 Revision at the UN Headquarters in New York.
• According to the report, India will surpass China to become the most populous nation in the
world by 2022. In the forecast issued by UN in 2013 India was expected to surpass China’s
population by 2028.
• India by accounting 2.6 million cases of Tuberculosis as per the latest count ranked 14th
among 22 high TB burden globally .
• According to WHO Global tuberculosis Report 2014,in India, the estimated prevalence of TB
is 2.6 million cases.
• The action already taken by India is in consonance with the resolution of anti-microbial
resistance passed by the World Health Assembly in May 2015.
• “Due to the large population of our country,the same translates into the large number of
cases” health minister JP Nadda said.
“TATA Group” remains India’s most valuable brand: Brand Finance India 100 Report
• According to the Brand Finance consultancy study, the value of TATA Brand grew 4 percent
from 2014 and hence TATA Group remains the INDIA’S MOST VALUABLE BRAND at more
than $ 15 billion for the second consecutive year.
• Globally, Tata Group was ranked 65th in the Global 500 list according to the brand valuation
consultancy study in February.
• The top 10 brands includes Tata Group is in the No. 1 position with brand value $15,378
million and followed by State Bank of India with brand value $6,563 million , LIC ($4,927
m), Airtel ($4,524 m), Reliance ($3,663 m), Indian Oil ($3,493 m), Infosys
($3,414m),L&T($3,235m),HCL($3,148m),ONGC($2,899m).
39 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Bollywood veteran actors Tabu and Irfan Khan’s upcoming movie Talvar,which is based on
2008 mysterious Arushi Talwar Noida double murder case to be showed as premier at 2015
40th Toronto International Film Festival.
• It will be presented in ‘Special Presentations’ section selected by Toronto International Film
Festival(TIFF) that takes place between September 10-20 2015.
• Talvar is directed by Meghna Gulzar is daughter of acclaimed lyricist Gulzar and veteran
actress Raakhee.Talvar is produced by Junglee pictures and VB pictures .
• Talwar music director is Vishal Bhardwaj and cinematography by Pankaj Kumar.
• TIFF film festival shows around 300 films of all genres from more than sixty countries.
ISRO and NASA jointly working on NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission
• ISRO and NASA are jointly working on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)
mission to codevelop and launch a dual frequency synthetic aperture radar satellite.
• NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission is a dual frequency (L & S Band)
Radar Imaging Satellite. In this joint mission, JPL/ NASA will be responsible for design &
development of L-band SAR, 12m unfurlable antenna, GPS system and data recorder.
• ISRO will be responsible for design & development of S-band SAR, Spacecraft Bus, data
transmission system, Spacecraft integration & testing, launch using GSLV and on-orbit
operations.
• India will observe August 7th 2015 as National Handloom Day decided by central government.
It will be launched by Honble prime minister in Chennai on 7th August 2015.
Award in APJ Abdul Kalam’s name; birthday to be observed as ‘Youth Renaissance Day’
• Tamil Nadu Government said that an award would be would be constituted in the name of
former President A P J Abdul Kalam and his birthday would be observed as “Youth
Renaissance Day.”
• Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that ‘Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Award’ will be given to that
persons who strive towards promoting scientific growth, humanities and student’s welfare.
• Tamil Nadu government said Kalam’s birthday would be observed as ‘Youth Renaissance
Day’ on OCTOBER 15TH.
40 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Kalam died on July 27 in Shillong and was laid to rest at his native Rameswaram in the
TAMIL NADU state
International Affairs
On the last day of her three-day visit, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the 7th
meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation. Her counterpart is
Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn.
Agreements signed
2. Extradition treaty:
• The two countries inked the extradition treaty inked in 2013, now they exchanged
instruments of ratification with each other
• It provides for the legal framework for seeking extradition of fugitive offenders,
including those involved in terrorism, transnational crimes, economic offences etc.
• It applies to any person from either country who is wanted for trial or for the imposition
or enforcement of any sentence concerning that person who found in the territory of the
other country
• This would strengthen the relationship between the security agencies of the two
countries
41 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
3. Nalanda University
4. Ayurveda Chair
• An MoU on the establishment of an Ayurveda Chair in one of the Thai Universities was
signed between the Ministry of Ayush and Rangsit University of Thailand
• Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences will set up a Chair at the Thai
University to undertake academic and research activities in Ayurveda.
• An Indonesian military aeroplane, C-130 Hercules transporter has crashed in to the side of a
building, minutes after taking off from an air force base in Sumatra, killing more than 116
people.
• The crash killed all passengers on the plane (most of them are family members of
servicemen and women) and at least three people on the ground.
• Just 6 months ago, an AirAsia plane crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia, killing all 162
people on board. The crashed C-130 Hercules was 51 years old.
• Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has commissioned Sudan’s largest power
plant.
• BHEL has executed this project on the basis of Engineering, Procurement and Construction
(EPC). It has designed, manufactured, supplied and installed the complete power project
which consists of 4 units of 125 MW each.
• BHEL has commissioned the 500 MW Kosti Thermal Power Station (TPS) in
Sudan which is now Sudan’s largest power plant.
42 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• This came after a regional crisis erupted with hundreds of migrants from the nation found
adrift in the Bay of Bengal.
• The resolution condemns the systematic gross violations of rights and abuses committed
against all, including Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.
• In recent years, tens of thousands of persecuted Rohingya Muslims have fled on boats across
the Bay of Bengal in search of better prospects.
• India has abstained from a vote against Israel at the U.N. Human Rights Council in
Geneva.
• The U.N. Human Rights Council report found evidence of “alleged war crimes” committed
by both Israel and Hamas during the Gaza conflict in 2014.
• During the UNHRC resolution in July 2014, India had voted against Israel after which this
inquiry report was instituted for looking into the Gaza violence in which more than 2,300 had
been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
• In the voting, 41 countries voted in favour of the resolution against Israel, while only the
U.S. voted against it.
• Five countries including India abstained from voting.
• The US and Australia started off a massive joint biyearly military exercise with Japan taking part
for the first time.
• The two-week “Talisman Sabre” exercise in the Northern Territory and Queensland
involves 30,000 personnel from the US and Australia practising operations at sea, in the air and
on land.
• About 40 personnel from Japan’s army will join the American contingent apart from more
than 500 troops from New Zealand involved in the exercise.
• The Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars of France were granted with the World Heritage
Status by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
• The decision to grant the status was given during the 39th session of the World Heritage
Committee held in Bonn, Germany. The Committee was chaired by Maria Bohmer, Minister of
State at Germany’s Federal Foreign Office
• The Champagne World Heritage status covered the places where sparkling wine was developed
using a second fermentation method in the bottle from the beginning of the 17th century until
its early industrialisation in the 19th century.
43 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• It mentioned the historic vineyards of Hautvillers where the monk Dom Perignon invented the
fermentation process that gives champagne its fizz.
• Besides, another cultural site in France – The Climats, terroirs of Burgundy – was declared as
World Heritage Site.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is on a 8 day visit to Central Asia and Russia arrived in
the Tashkenton, the capital ofUzbekistan, on his first leg of the visit.
• India and Uzbekistan decided to boost ties in key areas of atomic energy, defence and trade.
Both countries signed three pacts to boost cooperation between their foreign offices and in the
field of culture and tourism.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uzbek President Islam Karimov as they also shared
concerns over rise in terrorism in their “extended neighbourhood”.
• Both the leaders agreed to intensify security cooperation and exchanges. The bilateral Joint
Working Group on Counter Terrorism will meet later this year. They also agreed to strengthen
cooperation in defence and cyber security.
• Last year India and Uzbekistan signed a contract for supply of uranium from mineral-rich
Uzbekistan. The two leaders also discussed ways to implement the contract. The pact was signed
for supply of 2,000 metric tonnes of the yellow cake.
• PM Modi briefed his Uzbek counterpart about the International North South Transport Corridor
and proposed that Uzbekistan consider becoming a member and sought his support for India
joining the Ashgabat Agreement.
• The two sides recognised tourism as an important area of bilateral cooperation.
• The two countries called for comprehensive reforms of the UN structures specially Security
Council, including expansion in both categories of membership.
• Both sides agreed for joint investment projects in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, light industry,
IT and communications.
• President of the United States of America Barack Obama and President of Brazil Dilma
Rousseff issued a joint statement on climate change on 30 June 2015 in Washington, the
USA.
• Both the countries jointly committed to work on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
and to protect bilaterally the planet from the adverse effects of climate change.
44 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Both the countries committed to increase the share of renewables (beyond hydropower) by
20 percent by 2030 in their electricity matrices.
• This implies that the United States and Brazil will need to triple and double their share of
renewable energy respectively, in the next 15 years.
• US being the second and Brazil being the seventh top greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter,
respectively, their commitments have significant implications on the global long-term
transition to low-carbon economies.
• The Chinese navy has got a four-engine Gaoxin-6, anti- submarine aircraft developed and
manufactured by Aviation Industry Corp of China based on the Y-8 transport plane.
• It is China’s first large aircraft specifically designed for anti-submarine warfare, making the
country the sixth nation that has the development capability for such a sophisticated plane
till now developed by United States, Russia, Japan, the UK and France.
• Solar impulse, an aeroplane powered only by sun has landed in Hawaii after making an
epic 7,200km flight across the Pacific from Japan.
• Solar impulse set records of manned solar powered flight for distance covered
(7200km) and time(118 hrs).
• After successful visit of two central Asian countries Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan Prime minister
Narendra Modi has reached Russia on his 3 days trip.
• He is going to attend 7th BRICS summit and Shanghai Cooperation Organization summits in
Ufa, Russia.
• First he is going to attend the BRICS summit for 2 days where five nations- Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa are going to participate.
45 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
PM Narendra Modi who is on a tour of Central Asia met withPresident of Kazakhstan Nursultan
Nazarbayev, on the second day.
Kazakhstan has vast natural resources and India has huge demand for these resources that is why
both countries have a great potential for partnership.
Important Points
• India and Kazakhstan signed five key agreements including a defence pact to enhance
military cooperation and a contract for supply of uranium.
• PM Modi and his Kazakhstani counterpart shared views on international issues including
regional peace, connectivity and integration; reforms in the United Nations and combating
terrorism.
• Emphasising on the defence and security cooperation as an important dimension of strategic
partnership between the two countries.
• Kazakhstan’s national atomic company Kazatomprom, signed a contract with Nuclear Power
Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for long term supply of natural uranium to India.
• India invested in a drilling operations launched for exploration oil field in Kazakhstan.
46 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Another area of cooperation is the renewable energy sector which includes manufacturing of
equipments.
• Both leaders agreed on the need for reforms of the United Nations and its Security Council.
• PM Modi thanked Kazakhstan for supporting India’s candidature for a permanent seat in UN
Security Council.
• PM Modi inaugurated the India-Kazakhstan Centre of Excellence in Information &
Communication Technologies at the Eurasian National University. He also contributed a super
computer from India.
• Prime Minister called for enhanced investment from Kazakh companies in India, particularly
in the areas of renewable energy, smart cities, housing, and railways.
• The other agreements included Treaty on Transfer of Sentenced Persons, human resources,
cultural exchanges and capacity building.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakhstan President Karim Massimov launched the first
exploratory drilling of theSatpayev oil block by India’s OVL and KazMunaiGaz.
• ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) which is the overseas arm of state-run ONGC, had acquired 25% stake
in the Satpayev oil block in the North Caspian Sea in 2011.
• OVL has committed to investing $400 million in exploration in the block. It will also pay $80
million to Kazakhstan’s KazMunaiGas as a one-time assignment fee.
• India will conduct a feasibility study on importing crude oil and gas from Kazakhstan either
through a pipeline or as liquid natural gas in ships.
• Crude oil can be brought first to Iran via the Caspian Sea and transported across the country
through a pipeline.
Oslo education summit 2015 was held on 6th July hosted by Government of Norway in cooperation
with UN Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.
Theme:- Delivering Quality Education for All.
Summit venue:-Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Oslo, Norway
• Summit was opened by the Prime Minister of Norway HE Ms Erna Solberg, the Secretary-
General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and Laureate of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize,
Malala Yousafzai.
• The Summit placed special focus on investment, girls’ education, quality and emergency
situations.
• It mainly aimed at mobilizing “strong and renewed political commitment” for children
deprived of the right to education, and to improve learning outcomes for those who attend
the school.
47 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• More than 58 million children throughout the world are out of education facility and most of
them who gets education are not learning. Progress has been reduced, says a report.
• The summit has initiated an international support to the children who are deprived of
education through innovative partnership and well-coordinated development aid.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 7, 2015 released first Uzbek-Hindi dictionary in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
• He released the dictionary along with his Uzbek counterpart and Prime Minster of Uzbekistan
Indologist Rakhmatov in the event in presence of Hindi language students and Indian
community members. It was launched during his visit to central Asian Countries.
Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka entered Guinness World Records for spending 804
days on ISS
• Russian Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has created world record in history by becoming the
first man to spend longest time on International Space Station(ISS).
• He has set the Guinness World record by spending 804 days by 1st July 2015.
• He was supposed to come back to earth on September 2015 by which he would have spent
877 days almost two n half a year in space.
• He beat the old record of another Russian cosmonaut Sergai Krikalev.
• Segai is now retired and spent almost 803 days on 9 hrs. and 41 minutes in ISS during 1998
to 2005.
• 57 year old Padalka has served as commander of the crew member on ISS.
• He has yet to set record for his nine space walks aiming to complete 1000 days in space.
Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has signed a MoU with India’s Infrastructure
Development Finance Company (IDFC) for funding of hydro-generation projects. This is an
important step in economic cooperation between the two countries.
RDIF has signed a MoU with its partners in the BRICS member-states to work with sovereign funds,
with the BRICS Bank and invest in the equity of infrastructure projects in these countries.
RDIF Director General Kirill Dmitriev said,” We have signed an MoU with five funds from our five
countries: the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the Silk Road Fund from China, the IDFC
(Infrastructure Development Finance Company) from India, the Development Bank of South Africa and
the Brazil BTG Pactual fund.”
Russia which has lot of expertise in hydro generation has discussed the projects with IDFC of India.
48 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
India in talks with Russia to lease new modern, world-class nuclear attack submarine
• India is in final talks with Russia to lease a newly built, customised submarine, unlike in
the past when older vessels were refurbished and handed over.
• This will give a much needed boost to India’s depleting underwater fleet.
• Talks are in advanced stages for leasing a new submarine under the ‘Chakra 3′ project.
• India has Chakra 2 nuclear submarine which was refurbished and taken on lease for 10 years
from Russia in 2012.
The World Heritage Committee has included 24 new sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List and
approved extensions to three existing sites. It also added three World Heritage sites to the List of
World Heritage in Danger and took one off that List.
Now the number of sites on the World Heritage List are 1031 from 163 countries.
49 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
India and US signed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to check offshore tax
evasion. This will facilitate exchange of information between the two countries from October 1.The
FATCA was signed by Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and US Ambassador Richard Verma in New
Delhi.
Features of FACTA
• Indian financial institutions would have to reveal information about US tax payers to the
revenue department which would be passed on to the US tax authorities.
• US will also share financial information with India.
• If a financial institution does not comply to FATCA, it will have to pay 30% penalty taxon
all its US revenues, including dividend, interest, fees and sales.
• FATCA will help India deal with the black money menace.
• India will start receiving information from other countries under automatic exchange of
information (AEOI) route from 2017 onwards.
• This initiative will mark a significant improvement in mutual cooperation to combat offshore
tax evasion and will benefit both the countries.
What is FATCA?
• FATCA is an acronym for the United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
(FATCA).
• FATCA is aimed at ensuring that US persons with financial assets outside of the US are pay
US tax.
• Under FATCA, Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) have to report accounts of US persons to
the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) either directly or indirectly. They have the option of
entering into agreements directly with IRS, or through the Inter-Governmental Agreements
(IGA’s) signed by their home countries.
• In order to implement FATCA norms in India, the Government of India has reached an “in
substance” Agreement to sign an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the U.S.A.
50 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The Government of India has concluded an ‘In Substance’ agreement with the
Government of USA for entering into an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for
implementation of FATCA.
• In view of this all banks and other financial institutions in India will be required to identify,
establish and report information on financial accounts held directly or indirectly by US
persons.
• Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has decided to include India as a full member.
• India will work with the SCO to enhance connectivity, combat terror and create an
environment for boosting trade by easing barriers.
• India was an observer for the past 10 years and now it will become member by next year
after completion of certain procedures.
• Apart from India, Pakistan is also included as the member.
• India was observer nation since 2005 and it applied for full membership last year.
• Belarus has obtained observer status, joining Afghanistan, Iran and Mongolia.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a Eurasian political, economic and military organisation which
was founded on 26 April 1996 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan.
Activities
• The SCO is primarily focused on its member nations’ Central Asian security-related concerns.
• It has been active in the area of social development of its member states.
• It has increased activities in military cooperation, intelligence sharing, and counterterrorism.
• The other areas where SCO is active are in economic and cultural operations.
51 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Raising goverment tobacco taxes can have control over tobacco Epidemic:WHO
Mpower:-
• Today half of world’s country have at least implemented one of the measures of MPOWER.
• R measure in MPOWER i.e. raising tobacco taxes is the main area of attention of WHO Global
Tobacco Epidemic 2015 Report.
• Raising taxes is the most cost effective and most effective way to reduce the consumption of
tobacco.
• Almost 80% of countries have not implemented the R measure so far.
• WHOFCTC has made specific commitments and strong control policies as per people’s health
is concerned.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Ufa, Russia. This was the second time when Modi
and Ghani had met in three months.
52 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Afghanistan–India relations
• Relations between the people of Afghanistan and India traces to the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• In 1999, India became one of the key supporters of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.
• India’s support and collaboration extends to rebuilding of air links, power plants and
investing in health and education sectors as well as helping to train Afghan civil servants,
diplomats and police.
• In 2005, India proposed Afghanistan’s membership in the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
• During the 15th SAARC summit in Colombo, India pledged another $450 million alongside a
further $750 million already pledged for ongoing and forthcoming projects.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Ashgabat, capital ofTurkmenistan after his three days visit
to Ufa, Russia.He attended BRICS and SCO summit and had bilateral talks with the leaders of China,
Russia Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• PM Modi emphasized the need to implement the TAPI Gas Pipeline project quickly.
• He welcomed the decision by ONGC Videsh Limited to open an office in Ashgabat.
• The MoU in the fertilizer sector to enable long term arrangements for supply of fertilizers.
• Both the leaders welcomed the Indian proposal to set up a urea production facility in
Turkmenistan.
• PM Modi proposed that Turkmenistan becomes a member of the International North South
Transport Corridor.
53 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• India will enhance its training scholarship programme and Turkmen India Industrial Training
Institute in Ashgabat will be upgraded.
• The agreements on sports and tourism to deepen the contacts between people of both the
nations.
• The agreement on cooperation in the field of Defence. This would provide a framework for
intensifying bilateral defence and security cooperation through exchanges of high and mid-
level visits, training and dialogue between the Ministries of Defence and other relevant
organisations.
• The MoU for cooperation in Science and Technology was signed.
• PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a Traditional Medicine and Yoga Centre in Ashgabat.
• PM Modi also unveiled a bust of Mahatma Gandhi.
• In the joint statement both the leaders acknowledged the urgent need for reform of the UN
Security Council in the context of strengthening and expanding the role of the United Nations
in addressing the pressing contemporary challenges.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and
showed India’s interest in long-term investment in the energy sector in Turkmenistan.
54 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Sunita Williams among four astronauts chosen by NASA to fly first commercial space vehicle
• Indian-origin Sunita Williams is among four “veteran” astronauts picked by NASAto fly the
first commercial space vehicles, a part of the space agency’s ambitious plan of human
landing on Mars by 2030.
• According to NASA, Williams, accompanied by Robert Behnken, Eric Boe andDouglas
Hurley, will train and prepare for commercial space flights that will open up low-Earth orbit
transportation to the private sector.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Kyrgyzstani President Almazbek Atambayev in Bishkek, the
capital of Kyrgyzstan signed four agreements including one on bolstering defence cooperation and
holding annual joint military exercises. The agreements signed are:
3. MoU between Ministry of Economy of Kyrgyzstan and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
on cooperation in the sphere of Standards – This MoU will strengthen and enhance technical
cooperation in the fields of standardization, conformity assessment and sharing of expertise on mutual
trade with the aim of exchanging necessary information and expertise between the two parties, which
would be mutually beneficial and also lead to a strengthening of bilateral ties between India and
Kyrgyz Republic.
55 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• United States has approved Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status of Tunisia.
• This step will pave way for enhanced military cooperation between the two countries.
• Tunisia is the 16th country to become a Major Non-NATO Ally of the United States.
• The website of Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix was
hacked on Sunday.
• The PRO of ISRO said there was some problem with the homepage of the Antrix website.
• Antrix Corporation Limited is the marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and
commercialization of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of
technologies developed by ISRO.
• Greece signed a historic agreement on bailout deal with the Eurozone. This deal was much
needed for Greece to be a part of euro.
• Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to harsh reforms after long negotiations in return for a 3
year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros (USD 96 billion).
• This is Greece’s third bailout programme in 5 years.
• Greek banks have been closed for nearly two weeks and there were fears they were about to
run dry due to a lack of extra funding by the European Central Bank.
• In the absence of bailout Greece would have had to print its own currency and effectively leave
the single currency.
Previous Bailouts – 1 2010 – 110 billion euros 2. 2012 – 130 billion euros
• Miss Oklahoma, Olivia Jordan, won big at the 2015 Miss USA pageant on Sunday, July 12,
beating out 50 women to win the crown.
• Jordan, 26, made it through the fierce rounds of the competition, sliding into the Top 15
after preliminary events and captivating viewers as she worked it in the live show’s bikini
and evening gown rounds.
• The Oklahoma native impressed during the question portion of the competition, which was
held in Baton Rouge, La. She spoke first on the issue of race relations in the United States,
56 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
stressing the need for improved dynamics, and later went on to name Oprah and Harriet
Tubman as two women she would like to see on the $10 bill.
• Jordan was followed in the top five by first runner-up Miss Texas Ylianna Guerra, second
runner-up Miss Rhode Island Anea Garcia, third runner-up Miss Nevada Brittany McGowan,
and fourth runner-up Miss Maryland Mamé Adjei.
Iran and six world powers P5+1 (United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) have
signed a historic nuclear deal.
• The aim of the deal is to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, in return for
relief from crippling sanctions.
• This deal would assure Iran’s right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian purposes under the third
pillar of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
• The agreement was concluded on the 18th day of marathon talks in Vienna between Iran and
P5+1.
• The head of the UN atomic watchdog had signed a “roadmap” with Iran for probing
suspected efforts to develop nuclear weapons, a key part of an overall accord.
• This deal would allow U.N. inspectors to press for visits to Iranian military sites as part of
their monitoring duties
• Iran would have the right to challenge the U.N request.
• China has established the world’s largest cancer registry system that will cover
over 300 million people.
• In China at least 3 million people develop cancer each year, and the registry is expected to
expand to include 40 per cent of the nation’s population of 1.36 billion by 2020.
Cancer Registry
A cancer registry is a systematic collection of data about cancer and tumour diseases. Cancer registry
records complete summary of patient history, diagnosis, treatment and status of every cancer patient.
57 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Foreign Minister of Myanmar, U Wunna Maung Lwin,
at the first meeting of the India-Myanmar Joint Consultative Commission in New Delhi.
• India has reaffirmed its commitment to support the modernisation of the Myanmar Armed
Forces.
• Also India would be happy to share its experience in functioning in a democratic
environment, cooperation in the field of IT, in dealing with emerging security challenges, and
military to military cooperation including in training.
• Both leaders repeated the assurance that territories of either country would not be allowed to
be used for activities inimical to the other.
• They also agreed that the first meeting of the India-Myanmar Joint Boundary Working
Group, to address all outstanding boundary issues, would be held in New Delhi at the
earliest.
• Sushma Swaraj extended the services of the Election Commission of India, in view of the
general elections in Myanmar in November.
• Investments by Indian companies in areas like ports, power, agro-industries, forest products,
mining, construction industry, consumer goods, highways, oil and gas, plantation,
manufacturing, hospitality and ICT would be specifically encouraged.
• Both leaders also agreed that both governments would work to identify and remove various
impediments to bilateral trade.
• India proposed to consider granting a license to an Indian bank to open a branch in
Myanmar so as to facilitate greater Indian trade and investment into that country.
• Both ministers emphasised the need for closer cooperation to further energy security and
agreed to encourage investment by Indian companies in the petroleum industry.
• European Union has formally approved a short-term loan of 7.16 billion euros to Greece
• This agreement is backed by the 28 member states and this loan will allow Greece to pay its
debt to European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) till new
bailout plan is ratified.
• Two Indian-origin students Shyam Narayanan, 17, and Yang Liu Patil, 18 have helped the US
win the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad after more than two decades.
• The six-member US team that won the renowned award after a gap of 21 years. India was
ranked 37th in the competition.
58 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• India and Singapore signed an agreement on July 21, 2015on sharing white-shipping
information to enhance maritime cooperation between the two natives India and Singapore.
• Navy chief Admiral R K Dhowan, who on his maiden visit to Singapore called on Singapore’s
Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen, Chief of Defence Force Lt-Gen Ng Chee Meng and Chief of
Navy Rear-Admiral (RADM) Lai Chung Han after inspecting a Guard of Honour at Ministry of
Defence.
• R K Dhowan visited the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN)’s Information Fusion Centre and
the Changi Naval Base, where he had RADM Lai signed a Technical Agreement (TA) on
sharing white-shipping information
• White-shipping refers to commercial shipping information about movement of cargo ships.
• This agreement would allow both sides to explore new areas of cooperation for mutual
benefit.
• The RSN and the Indian Navy conduct the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise
(SIMBEX) together annually and other year’s SIMBEX, held in May, was the 22nd in the
series.
• Both navies also interact regularly through high-level visits, dialogues, joint military training,
courses and other professional exchanges.
• Bollywood actor, model and a national level swimmer for India Milind Soman is just made the
country proud by successfully completing the Ironman Triathlon held in Zurich, Switzerland .
• The triathlon is considered one of the world’s toughest races and had 2,000 participants
which included seven Indians.
59 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The triathlon includes a 3.8-km swim, a 180.2-km cycle ride and 42.2-km run raced in that
order without a break which the participants are required to complete within 16 hours to win
the title of ‘Ironman’.
• Milind Soman, who took part in the race for the first time, took 15 hours and 19 minutes to
finish it very few Indians have achieved this feat.
• China is expected to become the world’s third largest nuclear generating country by 2017
surpassing South Korea and Japan, said US energy information administration (EIA).
• Chinese government has set a goal to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary
energy consumption to 15 per cent by 2020 to fight against climate change, according to the
China National Plan for Climate Change (2014-2020) released last year.
• To help achieve this target, China plans to increase nuclear capacity to 58 gigawatts (GW)
and to have 30 GW of capacity under construction by 2020,” the EIA said.
• China is expected to surpass the Republic of Korea and Russia in nuclear generating capacity
by the end of 2015, overtake Japan around 2017 and to be behind only after the US and
France, said the EIA.
• Since the beginning of 2013, China has added 10 reactors totalling more than 10 GW,
pushing China’s net installed nuclear capacity to 23 GW at present.
PIPAVAV DEFENCE AND OFFSHORE ENGINEERING(PDOC) lead by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group has
signed a multi-crore agreement with JSC Ship repairing centre Zvyozdochka,a Russian firm for medium
refits and life certification of 877 EKM submarines in India.
• This agreement is signed with the significant step of country’s Make in India programme.
• PDOC officials said that, it will be executed under a joint venture (JV) with 51 percent stake
with the indicative value of work planned under this JV is Rs 11,000 crore.
• Under this agreement signed, Zvyozdochka will provide complete technical assistance which
includes training of engineers,enhancement of infrastructure at PDOC facilities in Gujarat.
• According to PDOC,with a additional revenue of Rs 20,000 crore,the skills and experience
developed by Joint Venture will be undertaking similar work for large submarines forces
deployed by Algeria, Vietnam and Iran Countries.
• Through this agreement, Reliance Group became the first private Indian company to refit of
submarines in India.
60 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced
that Conakry(17th City)-capital of Guinea in west Africa was picked as World Book Capital for
2017.
• Seeks to promote books and reading and the dedication of all players in the book industry.
The designation runs for 1 year starting from UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day (April
23) till April 22 of the following year.
• Spain-2001 was the first city to be recognised as World Book Capital India, New Delhi was
recognised as World Book Capital in 2003. Wrocław city of Poland has been chosen as World
Book Capital for year 2016.
World Trade Organization have finalized to cut tariffs by adding more than 200 products to the list
of technology products covering from advanced computer chips to GPS devices,printer cartridges and
video consoles on JULY 24,2015.
Seven Indian companies are among the world’s 500 largest companies, according to a list compiled by
Fortune Magazine that has been topped by Walmart.
They are
• Indian Oil: ranked 119th on the list with revenues of about USD 74 billion.
• Reliance Industries: ranked 158th on the list with revenues of about USD 62 billion.
• Tata Motors: ranked 254th on the list with revenues of about USD 42 billion.
61 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• State Bank of India: ranked 260th on the list with revenues of about USD 42 billion.
• Bharat Petroleum: ranked 280th on the list with revenues of about USD 40 billion.
• Hindustan Petroleum: ranked 327th on the list with revenues of about USD 35 billion.
• Oil and Natural Gas: ranked 449th on the list with revenues of about USD 26 billion.
The world’s 500 largest companies generated USD 31.2 trillion in revenues and USD 1.7 trillion in
profits in 2014.
This year’s Fortune Global 500 employ 65 million people worldwide and are represented by 36
countries.
Top5: The list has been topped by Walmart of US, it is followed by Chinese petroleum refining giant
Sinopec Group on the 2nd position, Netherland’s based Royal Dutch Shell on the 3rd position, China
National Petroleum on 4th position and Exxon Mobil of US on 5th position.
United States: US is home to 128 of the 500 global companies, including Apple (15), JP Morgan
Chase (61), IBM (82), Microsoft (95), Google (124), Pepsi (141), Intel (182) and Goldman Sachs
(278).
China: It has close to 100 companies on the list, including Bank of China (45), China Railway
Engineering (71) and China Development Bank (87).
• China has successfully tested the power system of a fifth generation carrier rocket scheduled
for flight next year carrying twice the capacity of the payload by the present carrier.
• Development of the rocket, the fifth-generation Long March-5 launch vehicle of the Long
March family, has entered a “runoff” phase.
• The rocket will have a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low Earth orbits, or 14 tonnes to
geostationary transfer orbit, about twice the current capacity.
• The rocket will serve the final chapter of China’s three-step – orbiting, landing and returning
– lunar program and the building of manned space stations.
• The Long March rocket family has completed more than 200 missions since 1970, when a
Long March-1 rocket sent China’s first satellite, Dong Fang Hong 1, or “the East is Red”, into
Earth orbit.
The European Union made the largest ban of sales and distribution of 700 generic drugs and it will
come into effect on August 21, 2015.
62 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• World’s largest flower ‘Amorphophallus Titanum’ bloomed for the first time in 5 years in the
fourth week of July 2015 at the Jindai botanical gardens in Tokyo, Japan.
• The flower Titan arum measuring 2-meter (6.5 feet) in height rarely flowers and is
notoriously difficult to propagate.
• Titan Arum – a herbaceous plant – blooms rarely (maybe three or four times in its forty-year
life) and that too only for two or three days.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified the species as
“vulnerable” just below endangered.
63 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Till now diamonds were traded on mutual basis where retailers buy from polishers and
consumers buy it from retailers but now with the launch of of SDiX, customers can trade
diamond under one roof.
• Chief Operating Officer of SDiX,LATIKA KUNDU said that they are expecting a turnover of
$ 250 million in the first year(2016),and it is expected to double it in the year 2017.
• Indian diamond companies around 25 companies are Pioneer members for the launch which
includes Paragon Diamonds, Kiran Gems, SRK, Hari Krishna Exports, Rosy Blue, Sheetal
Group, Leo Schachter Diamonds, K P Sanghvi, Kapu Gems and UOB Kay Hian.
• The exchange is capable of handling 500,000 transactions per second.For payment
settlement United Overseas Bank is selected.
• Jim Rogers and Hsieh Fu Hua as angel investors for SDiX.
• International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore), the official agency promoting
international trade and helping Singapore companies expand overseas, is assisting SDiX
through its Global Company Partnership (GCP).
• WTO (World Trade Organization) headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland has added a new
member in its list by approving Kazakhstan’s membership after about 2 decades
negotiations. And this has made the country the 162nd member of WTO. Kazakhstan is a
member of the Russia-led economic blocs.
• The agreement was signed between the WTO Director General Robert Azevedo and
Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev at Geneva.
• The final accession will be done when the membership agreement will be ratified by
Kazakhstan Parliament on 31 October 2015.
• Though Kazakhstan currently trades with 185 countries, the country hopes that joining the
WTO will further encourage its foreign investment.
• After the signing ceremony Director-General of the WTO Roberto Azevedo said that he hoped
that in December Kazakhstan will take part in the 10th Ministerial Conference in Kenya.
• China has become the world’s largest potato producer, accounting for nearly a quarter of the
global production, according to a new report.
• World Potato Congress was held in Beijing’s Yanqing county yesterday. China plants more
than 13.59 million acres of potatoes every year, data provided by World Potato Congress
showed.
64 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Animal sacrifice banned indefinitely at Nepal’s 300 year old Gadhimai Festival
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has topped the list of the world’s wealthiest private
foundations established by living ultrahigh net worth (UHNW) individuals, according to a
Wealth-X report.
• With total assets of USD 43.4 billion, the Gates Foundation accounts for more than half of
the combined assets of the 10 charitable foundations on the list, the global wealth
intelligence and prospecting firm has said.
• Li Ka Shing Foundation, founded in 1980 by Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-Shing,
ranked second with USD 8.1 billion in assets followed by Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
(USD 6.4 billion) and Bloomberg Philanthropies (USD 5.4 billion) in the third and fourth
place, respectively.
• Collectively, the 10 foundations have total assets of USD 83.1 billion, equivalent to 29.7 per
cent of combined net worth of the UHNW individuals who established them.
65 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Awards
Indian-American professor R Paul Singh named for 2015 World Agriculture Prize laureate
• Indian-American professor R. Paul Singh has been named as the 2015 Global Confederation
for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences World Agriculture Prize
laureate.
• This award was announced last week and will be formally presented on September 20.
• R. Paul Singh got his bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from India’s Punjab
Agricultural University, then a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison and Michigan State University, respectively.
• UC Davis Chancellor Linda P B Katehi said, “For over four decades, Professor Singh’s work as
a pioneer in food engineering has been improving lives the world over.”
• His research group created food-processing equipment for a manned mission to Mars, under
a NASA contract.
• Darshan Jain, an Indian-American teacher from Illinois, US in July 2015 was named for
prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching by
President Barack Obama.
• Along with Jain, President named 108 Mathematics and Science teachers as recipients of the
Award.
• Jain has taught mathematics at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois for
eight years. Right now, he is serving the school as the director of mathematics. He is a BA in
mechanical engineering and a MS in secondary mathematics education from the University of
Illinois at Chicago.
• An Indian girl student in the US has received a LGBT scholarship from the prestigious
California University in Berkely to study how political issues brought new notions of sexual
identity in India.
• Shakthi Nataraj, who grew up in Chennai has been awarded with ‘The Philip Brett LGBT
Studies Fellowship’ that honours the memory of Philip Brett who is considered a pioneer of
lesbian and gay musicology.
• The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Fellowship will help Nataraj study how
political tensions brought new notions of sexual identity in Tamil Nadu.
66 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Prof. Sanjeev Galande selected for G D Birla Award for Scientific Research 2014
• Prof. Sanjeev Galande has won the prestigious G. D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for the
year 2014.
• Prof. Galande has been selected as the twenty fourth winner of this award for his contribution
and his pioneering research in the field of Epigenetics and Molecular Cell Biology.
• He is Professor and Team Leader at the Centre of Excellence in Epigenetics of the Indian
Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.
• Epigenetics is an area of study about changes that influence gene function.
• Prof Galande is also a recipient of Shantiswaroop Bhatnagar award.
• Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was honoured with Peru’s one of the highest
awards ‘Grand Officer’ for social work and mission to deliver peace through his foundation
The Art of Living.
• The award titled “Medalla de la Integracion en el Grado de Gran Oficial” was conferred to
Sri at Andean Parliament in Lima- The capital of Peru.
Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of Bangladesh-based poverty alleviation NGO wins World Food
Prize 2015
• Fazle Hasan Abed who created a Bangladesh-based nonprofit organization for poverty
alleviation was named the winner of the 2015 World Food Prize
• Abed founded BRAC- Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee which has helped
more than 150 million people out of poverty in Africa and Asia and is expanding efforts to 10
additional countries.
• BRAC was created as a temporary relief organization to help with recovery from the 1970
typhoon and the subsequent war fought in 1971 to win independence from Pakistan
• Four Indian-Americans have been honoured with this year’s prestigious “Great
Immigrants: The Pride of America” award.
• There are 38 distinguished personalities from more than 30 countries who have been
honoured with this year’s award.
67 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The Guinness Book of World Records has acknowledged a record created in Madhya
Pradesh on ‘World Hand washing Day’ on October 15, 2014.
• A new world record was made by 12,76,425 students by washing their hands
simultaneously at programmes held by panchayats and rural development departments on
the World Hand washing Day at 13,196 different locations across 51 districts in Madhya
Pradesh.
• Previously this record was jointly held by Argentina, Peru and Mexico when 7,40,870 people
washed their hands simultaneously at different locations on October 14, 2011.
• India’s noted biologist and ecologist, Kamal Bawa has been elected to the prestigious Royal
Society in recognition of his pioneering contributions in the area of conservation science.
• Bawa is a distinguished Biology professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
• He will join former and current fellows such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein,
Stephen Hawking and about 80 Nobel laureates.
• He is the second member of the University of Massachusetts faculty to be elected a fellow of
the Royal Society after Roger Davis.
• Now, rag pickers’ services will be recognised by the government which has decided to give
national award for their contribution to keep India clean.Rag pickers.
• There are millions of rag pickers in the country. This informal sector has saved the country.
They are doing a good job and I have decided to recognise their efforts
• In our country it generates 62 million tonnes of waste annually. “This is expected to increase
to 165 million tonnes by 2030 and 450 million tonnes by 2050,
• The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers
and three associations involved in innovation of best practices.
• From All india Level these three Rag pickers will Be Selected for Award.
68 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Lord Karan Bilimoria, leading NRI entrepreneur, has been awarded as the International
Indian of the Year for 2014-15 for his outstanding achievements in the fields of business
and education.
• Lord Bilimoria is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited.
Tata Steel’s West Bokaro Division conferred with Golden Peacock Environment Management
Award 2015
Golden Peacock Environment Management Award (GPEMA) 2015 was organized in New Delhi on 11
July 2015.
• Tata Steel’s West Bokaro Division has been awarded with the Golden Peacock
Environment Management Award (GPEMA) for the year 2015. Tata Steel has done a
recommendable job for responsible environment practices and resource management and
also training the employees with new technologies.
• GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd is also been selected for the Golden Peacock
Environment Management Award (GPEMA) for the year 2015 for achievements in the field of
environment management at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.
• Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh has received the GPEMA for its initiatives and
achievements in the field of environment.
• Prakash Javadekar, Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister gave away the
prizes to the teams at the function.
Buddha In A Traffic Jam’ wins best original screenplay award at the Madrid Film Festival
• Vivek Agnihotri’s political irony “Buddha In A Traffic Jam” won the Best Original
Screenplay in a foreign language award at the Madrid International Film Festival.
• This film was also nominated for two categories viz Best Foreign Language Film and Best
Lead Actress in a foreign language film for actress Mahie Gill.
Noted artist Sayed Haider Raza conferred with France’s de la Lgion dHonneur
• Well known painter Sayed Haider Raza was conferred with highest French Civilian Award
Commandeur de la Lgion dHonneur (the Legion of Honour).
• Raza was honoured with this award for his matchless achievements in transcending all
boundaries, forging ties between France and India and for continuing artistic quest straddling
nations, religions, cultures and philosophies.
• He was given this award on the occasion of the French National Day (14 July) celebrations
by Ambassador of France to India Franois Richier on behalf of the French President.
69 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Four Indians-Mishi Choudhary, Manish Dahiya, Sanjay Vijayakumar and Aarti Wig- were
figured in the Asia 21 Young Leaders Class of 2015 list that was released on 8 July 2015 in
New York, the USA.
• The selected leaders will be part of the Asia 21 Network where they will find mentors,
potential collaborators, who are devoted to find solutions to most vexing socio-economic
problems in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mishi Choudhary – She is a technology lawyer and an online civil liberties activist, is the founding
executive director of SFLC.in, a pro-bono legal services organization based in New Delhi.
Manish Dahiya – He is the executive director and Global Head of Energy Complex at Noble Group
Limited.
Sanjay Vijayakumar – He is the CEO of MobME Wireless Solutions, one of India’s most exciting and
innovative mobile value-added service companies.
Aarti Wig – She is co-founder of the Indian arm of the Yunus Social Business (YSB), which was
founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus to create selfless businesses that tackle
social problems
• An India-based software products and technology services company is among the winners of
the prestigious Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for 2015, a recognition that
honours the technology giant’s partner achievements across the globe.
• Comparex India Pvt. Ltd, headquartered in New Delhi, was honoured, along with 110
awardees in the category by Microsoft, at its Worldwide Partner Conference 2015.
• Another India-based IT company Quadrasystems.net was the finalist in the Cloud
Productivity Partner of the Year category, Microsoft announced.
• Make in India initiative has won the 2015- Economic Development Innovation
Award for Policy and Program Implementation Excellence. The award was presented by Frost
and Sullivan, US based Growth Partnership Company.
70 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Indian Oil Corporation bagged the Leading Oil & Gas Corporate of the Year award for
the fourth time in eight years at Petro Awards.
• IOC also clinched the Oil & Gas Marketing Company of the Year and the Human Resources
Management Company of the Year award.
• Dr Mini Shaji Thomas, Honorary Director, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Jamia has been selected for IEEE
Educational Activities Board (EAB) Continuing Education Award.
• Dr Thomas won this award for his design and development of curriculum and laboratory
facilities for professionals and students in the electric utility industry.
• This award recognize and honour individuals and companies for major contributions to
engineering and technical education.
• It was instituted in 1984 by IEEE, recognizes academician’s contribution to the design,
delivery, and support of continuing education courses and programs in the fields of interest
to IEEE members.
• Krishnapatnam Port in Andhra Pradesh has received the Golden Peacock environment
management award for its initiatives and achievements in the field of environment.
• The award was presented by Union Minister of State for Environment Prakash Javadekar to C
Sasidhar, Managing Director (Krishnapatnam Port) on Saturday at the17th World Congress
on Environment Management.
• Four Indian scientists from the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University,
have jointly been awarded the prestigious William Harvey Award for 2015.
• Hasan Arif, Kafeel Akhtar, Shagufta Qadri and Suhailur Rahman are the recipients of the
prestigious award in the field of Hematology.
• They have been awarded for their work in Hemoglobin C disease (Hb C) which is
predominant in West African and Mediterranean countries
71 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Churachandpur (Manipur) has won the 18th Youth Parliament
Competition for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.
• Indian-American woman Sunita Viswanath is one of the tewlve eminent persons who has
been honoured with ‘Champions of Change’ award by the White House for her effort in
protecting environment and communities from the effect of climate change.
• Sunita Viswanath was the only Indian American to figure in the list, and was selected for her
work in encouraging Hindus to take care of the environment
• The Kerala Tourism has won this year’s Pacific Asia Travel Association Award.
• It has won the award for its Muziris Heritage Project in the Heritage & Culture category.
• The award is given to the Muziris Heritage Project for its conservational efforts, uniqueness
and impact on local community.
• The Muziris project is aimed at restoring the historical and cultural significance of the ancient
town that stretches across North Paravur in Ernakulam to Kodungalloor in Thrissur.
• British university, The University of Central Lancashire has honored Indian-origin 77-year-
old doctor Shiv Pande in recognition of his contribution to the community as a general
practitioner and medical educator.
72 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Naomi Klein, the winner of American Book Award 2015 is well known for No Logo won the
award for her reverted title “This changes everything: capitalism vs. the climate”
• Naomi Klein won the award in the month of July and now in its 36th year recognizes excellent
books” from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community” the award would be
received by Klein at a public event alongside 14 fellow winners on oct 25th 2015 at san
Francisco jazz Centre.
Pamarthy Shankar won Grand Prix World Press Cartoon 2014 Award
Telugu cartoonist Pamarthy Shankar won Grand Prix World Press Cartoon Award for 2014
at Cascais in Portugal & carrying a cash prize of € 10,000. It was presented by the World Press
Cartoon (WPC) Organization based in Portugal.
Benoy Behl won the Best Documentary Producer award at Madrid International Film Festival
• Among the Important Awards, Best Documentary Producer award at Madrid International
Film Festival was bagged by Film-maker Benoy Behl for producing and directing a
documentary film titled Indian Roots of Tibetan Buddhism.
• He shot this documentary for XPD Division of the Ministry of External Affairs and this
documentary was released by Ministry of External Affairs in February 2014.
• The film traces the foundation of Tibetan Buddhism to its roots in ancient India’s Nalanda
University and the hundreds of year-old spiritual relationship that India share with Tibet.
Higgs Boson Theorist Peter Higgs Received World’s Oldest Scientific Prize
• Professor Peter Higgs Boson received the world’s oldest award for scientific research, known
as the “Copley Medal” from Royal Society for his Higgs Boson theory.
• His contribution to particle physics with his theory explaining the origin of mass in
elementary particles,confirmed by the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, in 2012.
• Boson theory-the mass of the particles came from its interaction with a field that is diffused
in the entire universe.
• Eminent Historian writer Ramachandra Guha was chosen for the Fukuoka Asian Culture
Prize in Academic category on JULY 24,2015.
73 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Ramachandra Guha along with Thant Myint-U(Grand Prize category) and Minh Hnah(Arts
anad Culture category) were choosen for this Prize.
• Ramachandra Guha is best known for his book “India After Gandhi” will speak on
Gandhi,India and the world and also increasing awareness of the value of asian culture
on SEPTEMBER 17,2015 on which the prize will be conferred upon him.
• Ramachandra Guha was awared with Padma Bhushan in 2009,Sahitya Akademi award in
2011.
• His famous writings are GANDHI BEFORE INDIA,PATRIOTS AND PARTIS,MAKERS OF
MODERN INDIA.
President of United Natios General Assembly,SAM KUTESA announced Dr. Helena Ndume of Namibia
and Jorge Fernando Branco Sampaio as the winners of first NELSON MANDELA prize on JUNE
22,2015.
• Sampaio,at the age of 75 was cited for his efforts as a consistent supporter of Portuguese
democracy when he was a student activist in the 1970’s during Carnation Revolution.
• He served as 18th president from 1996-2006.
• Ndume,head of Ophthalmology at Windhoek Central Hospital won recognition for her work
for providing no cost eye surgery to Namibians suffering from blindness.
• The award ceremony takes place at UN Headquarters in New York.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented journalist Gargi Parsai and five others with
Chaudhary Charan Singh Award for Excellence in Journalism in Agricultural Research and
Development, 2014 at Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s 87th foundation day
celebrations held here.
• Parsai, currently working as Associate Editor with “The Hindu” newspaper has been writing
on agriculture, food security, water resources and rural development in a career spanning 37
years.
• Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has bagged the Dun & Bradstreet’s ‘India’s Top
PSUs Awards 2015 in the electrical and electronic equipment sector.
74 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• S K Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, BEL, received the award for BEL along with
Anandi Ramalingam, General Manager -National Marketing, BEL, from R M Malla, Chairman,
Smera Ratings Limited, at Delhi.
• The Dun & Bradstreet ‘India’s Top PSUs Awards are an acknowledgement for the critical role
that the PSUs play in the development of the Indian economy.
• BEL has been at the forefront in providing critical communication, night vision, electronic
warfare and radar systems to the Indian Defence services ever since its inception post
Independence in 1954.
Indians Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Anshu Gupta win prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2015
• Former AIIMS officer SANJIV CHATURVEDI and Social worker ANSHU GUPTA along with
three Asian individuals won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award 2015.
• Kommaly Chanthavong(Laos), Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa(Phillipines) and Kyaw
Thu(Myanmar) were the other three asian individuals.
• Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said Anshu Gupta was recognized for “Enterprising
Leadership” and Sanjiv Chaturvedi for “Exposing Corruption”
• Actor Dhanush produced Tamil thriller ‘Visaaranai’ will have its world premiere in the
competition section of the upcoming 72nd Venice International Film Festival. The festival is
scheduled to take place between 2 September and 12 September 2015.
• With this, Visaaranai will become the first Tamil film to have its world premiere in the
competition section of the upcoming at Venice International Film Festival.
• Yet to be released, the film Visaranai written and directed by Vetrimaaran of Polladhavan
fame is an experimental Tamil thriller movie. It is based on true events and is about police
interrogation techniques and brutality.
• The film stars Attakathi Dinesh, Anandhi and Aadukalam Murugadoss in the leading roles.
HARJINDER SINGH, head of Massey University’s Institute of Food Science and Technology, an
Indian-origin scientist based in New Zealand is the first recipient from outside North America to get the
prestigious “International Dairy Foods Association Award”.
American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) said that this international award is given for his
contribution in improving the quality, safety and processing efficiency of dairy food.
75 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The RBI and the government are in discussions over recapitalisation of state-owned banks.
• It would also allow banks to take some decisions which may imply that they would need to use
• This year in the Budget, the government has allocated Rs 7,940 crore for capital infusion in
state-owned banks but the government has vowed to provide more in the current fiscal.
• RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said that there is a legitimate concern about whether banks have
the capacity to do the right thing in cleaning up their balance sheet and some of that requires
Recapitalisation of the Banks - Recapitalisation of banks is done with the aim of making its capital
structure more stable. This could be done by issuing new shares or loan from a government. This
improves the banks’ bank balance and prevents them from ruining.
Why Recapitalisation? - When the liabilities of banks are greater than their assets then they
technically owe more to other people than assets they own.
• State Bank of India has launched an initiative ‘Project Tatkal’ to provide doorstep
services and speed up home loans application process.
• Project Tatkal will help get the loan within 10 days after receipt of application form and
relevant supporting documents.
• This project will be implemented at large centres with sizable home loan business.
• The bank has also introduced an online customer acquisition solution (OCAS) for instant e-
approval of home loan applications.
76 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Kotak Mahindra Bank has got a go-ahead from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board
(FIPB) for its proposal to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) in the bank to 55 per cent.
• The FIPB, which takes up FDI proposals where approval is not automatic, gave a green
signal to Kotak Mahindra’s proposal in its meeting on Friday, following approval from the
Department of Financial Services and the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion. The
proposal was deferred four times before.
• India’s FDI policy allows 100 per cent foreign investment in banks. But Kotak Mahindra’s
plan of launching a general insurance venture had made the matter complicated.
• The Insurance Amendment Act passed in March 2015, which increased the FDI cap in the
sector to 49 per cent, stated that an Indian insurance company must be ‘Indian owned and
controlled’.
• Corporation Bank has launched the MUDRA card based on the RuPay platform.
• The card facilitates the withdrawal and use of the working capital finance by micro
entrepreneurs.
• The first MUDRA card was launched under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY).
• Under PMMY there are three schemes for providing loans –
• HDFC Bank became the first bank in India to launch Watch Banking for Apple Watch.
• Watch banking aims to provide banking services through all wearable devices across
platforms like iOS and Android.
• HDFC Bank will provide a total of 10 banking transactions in the beginning like view account
information, bill payments, recharges, hot listing facilities, locate nearest branch/ATM/offer,
request statement and cheque book.
• There is no need for customers to download a separate app, they can activate watch banking
from an upgraded version of HDFC Bank’s mobile banking app itself.
77 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• RBI has issued a notification which states prohibition applies on the manufacturing of
tobacco products activities such as wholesale cash and carry, retail trading as they fall under
the sectorial restrictions.
• It shall be governed by the sectorial restrictions laid down in the FDI policy framed by the
Department Of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry,
Government of India and in the Schedule 1 of Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or
Issue of Security by a Person Resident outside India) Regulations, 2000 as amended from
time to time.
• The notification have been issued under sections 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange
Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999).
• Manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes, of tobacco or of tobacco
substitutes have been prohibited by by FDI.
• MasterCard is trying out a smartphone app which allows people to confirm their identity and
authenticate online transactions via a facial scan.
• The users will have to download the MasterCard phone app and at checkout they will be asked
to hold up their phone to stare and blink at it.
• MasterCard is also experimenting with finger print and voice recognition.
India will contribute USD 18 billion to the forex reserves poolset up by BRICS nations. The USD
100 billion foreign-exchange reserves pool is set up by five nations of the BRICS grouping to help
each other “in case of any problems with dollar liquidity“.
78 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
The contributions from all five nations are: Brazil – $18 billion,Russia – $18 billion,India – $18
billion,China – $41 billion,South Africa – $5 billion
RBI released Final Guidelines on PPI for Mass Transit System (PPI-MTS)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) placed the final guidelines on Prepaid Payment Instruments
for Mass Transit System (PPI-MTS) enabling the issuance of a separate category of semi-closed prepaid
payment instruments for mass transit systems. The PPI-MTS will enhance commuter convenience and
will also facilitate the migration to electronic payments in line with the country’s vision of moving to a
less-cash society.
The PPI-MTS can be used within the mass transit systems and will have a minimum validity of
six months from date of issue. Such PPIs will be reloadable instruments subject to an outstanding limit
of 2,000/- at any point of time. Apart from the mass transit system, such PPI-MTS can be used at
other merchants whose activities are allied to or are carried on within the premises of the transit
system.
It may be recalled that the Reserve Bank had placed on its website the draft circular on
“Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) for Mass Transit System (PPI-MTS)” on May 28, 2015 for public
comments till June 15, 2015. This new category of semi-closed PPIs has been introduced taking into
account the requests received from various segments, including providers of mass transit services,
such as, metro train and road transport services, indicating the need for PPIs catering to the
requirements of this segment to enhance commuter convenience.
As you are aware, the Reserve Bank of India has, from time to time, issued a number of
circulars containing policy guidelines on Issuance and Operation of Pre-paid Payment Instruments in
India. This Master Circular has been prepared to facilitate the Prepaid Payment Instrument Issuers,
System Providers, System Participants and all other Prospective Prepaid Payment Instrument Issuers
to have all the extant instructions on the subject at one place.
Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has signed a multilateral agreement to cooperate
with New Development Bank (NDB) along with other member development banks of BRICS nations.
79 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Exim Bank also signed a cooperation agreement with Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).
• Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam revealed that Indirect tax collections have
grown up by 37.5% during the first quarter of current fiscal year, i.e. April-June 2015 as
compared to the last corresponding period (April-June 2014).
• These increases are across all three tax categories—customs, central excise, and service tax.
• He said “Given that GDP growth is the tax base, what it suggests is that the underlying
nominal GDP growth is growing at a healthy pace”.
• Also Indirect tax collections increased by 10.8 percent in June 2015 over June 2014. These
increased collections indicate that the economy is improving across all sectors, including
manufacturing, reflected in healthy excise tax collections.
• State Bank of India (SBI), the largest bank in India, has partnered online financial product
aggregator ‘bankbazaar.com’ along with the bank’s subsidiary SBI CAP Securities.
• Under this arrangement, the bank will be able to display its home loan products on
bankbazaar.com, generate leads and provide door-step delivery, thus improving the
response time. Bankbazaar.com offers end to end solutions to the home loan seekers from
getting the customised quotes, comparison of the offers and submission of online application
to SBI
• This partnership will help the bank to provide yet another online platform to the prospective
tech savvy home loan borrowers to apply for SBI Home Loans online. iv. The tie up with
bankbazaar.com also highlights SBI’s strategy to augment its Home Loan portfolio by
leveraging digital channels and increasing its presence in the digital/online space, it added.
80 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• YES Bank has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India to set up IFSC Banking
Units (IBUs) in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT).
• Setting up the IBU will propel YES Bank’s growth plans further by providing it access to
International financial markets.
• It will also provide a comprehensive product suite to its corporate clients requiring Foreign
Currency (FCY) funding.
GIFT city aspires to cater to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms a world-
class infrastructure and facilities.
• It aims to attract the top talent in the country by providing the finest quality of life all with
integrated townships, IFSC and multi-speciality special economic zone (SEZ).
• The site is 12 Km from the Ahmedabad International Airport and 8 KM from Gandhinagar
• Karnataka gets its first skin bank at Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru, the first in the state.
• It works like an eye bank.The skin bank team goes to a donor’s house when it receives word
that he has passed away, and harvests the skin within six hours of death.
• This skin taken out from thighs can enhance quality of life for those suffering with 50%-60%
burns.
• This will enable faster healing and help the burns patients.
• Currently, there are skin banks in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.
• The Reserve Bank of India has constituted a committee with the objective of working out a 5
year measurable action plan for financial inclusion.
• The committee will be headed by RBI Executive Director Deepak Mohanty.
• It will review the existing policy of financial inclusion, including supportive payment system
and customer protection framework.
81 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• It will study the cross-country experience in financial inclusion to identify key learnings,
particularly in the area of technology-based delivery models that could inform policies and
practices.
• It will suggest a monitorable medium-term action plan for financial inclusion in terms of its
various components like payments, deposit, credit, social security transfers, pension and
insurance.
• It will develop the underlying policy and institutional framework, covering consumer
protection and financial literacy, as well as delivery mechanism of the financial inclusion.
• It will encompass both households and small businesses, with more emphasis on rural
inclusion including group-based credit delivery mechanisms.
The Committee is expected to submit its report in four months from the date of its first meeting.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed a currency swap agreement with the Central
Bank of Sri Lanka.
• This agreement assist countries during periods of tight liquidity or balance of payments and
liquidity crises. According to which Sri Lanka can draw a maximum of $1.1 billion for a
period of up to six months.
• There is an existing framework on currency swap arrangement for the SAARC member
countries by which SAARC members can draw currency$100 million-
• $400 million, with a total limit of $2 billion, from an RBI financing facility set up for this
purpose.
• In in March 2015, India and Sri Lanka’s central banks signed a currency swap agreement
under the SAARC Framework.
• The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has approved a proposal from the
Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) to set up the
country’s first defence industrial park at Ottappalam.
• The park will be developed as a part of Make in India and will have modern common
infrastructure facilities aimed at attracting component manufacturers in the defence industry.
• The Union government has agreed to bring it under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure
Upgradation Scheme (MIIUS).
82 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The New Development Bank (NDB) floated by the BRICS nations, including India, to step up
infrastructure funding in the emerging economies formally started its operations at its
headquarters Shanghai.
• Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong and the bank’s President K V
Kamath attended the opening ceremony held in a hotel in Shanghai.
• The New Development Bank was agreed to by BRICS leaders at the 5th BRICS summit held
in Durban, South Africa on 27 March 2013.
The pension regulator PFRDA’S Chairman Hemant Contractor clarified that Non-Resident Indians
(NRIs) can now invest in National Pension System (NPS) on JULY 22,2015.
Important Points:
• National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) launched a mobile app to give
anytime, anywhere access to prices and market information about commodities traded on it.
• The online commodity exchange has partnered with Trakinvest, a Singapore based financial
technology firm, to develop this app. It will give users access to prices, news, updates,
market data and analysis for commodities.
• “The NCDEX App will help investors to stay in touch with the market. Our partner Trakinvest
has a deep understanding of technology and financial markets.
83 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Now an exclusive mobile app for Vat, GST and Service Tax.
• The rapidly changing indirect taxation system in India has made it essential for every
businessman or professional to be conversant in the basics of the indirect taxation. In the
current high tech era, everyone is a tech savvy so it is more convenient to use a smart
phone and browse the information rather than searching the information from the pile of
books.
• Keeping in mind the above, CA Atul Kumar Gupta along with his team has made an endeavor
to acquaint the common man apart from the professionals, regarding the dynamic indirect
taxation system, through mobile application TAXO.
• The idea behind TAXO is to update and educate not just the taxation professionals but every
one on ongoing basis by providing prompt and live access to the changing business
environment in India.
• TAXO is a platform where the general public can get an insight into the basic fundamentals of
Indirect Taxation.
• Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has constituted three
committees for review of regulations in life insurance, general insurance and reinsurance
including registration of foreign offices of reinsurers. After the Insurance Act has been
passed, there has been a need to review and revise existing regulations in these areas.
• The committees have to submit their report within one month to the Member-Actuary of
Irdai.
• The Life insurance committee will look into regulations in areas like assets, liabilities and
solvency margin and appointed actuary.
• The General insurance committee will look at regulations in areas including claim
reserving, reinsurance and appointed actuary.
• Reinsurance committee will look into issues relating to registration of branches of foreign
reinsurers among others.
• Infrastructure financing firm IDFC Ltd said that the Reserve Bank of India has granted
banking licence to IDFC Bank for undertaking banking business in the country.
• Bandhan Financial got RBI approval last month and is expected to start services from next
month.
• The Indian microfinance company Bandhan Financial Services and Mumbai-based IDFC were
the only two companies to be granted preliminary bank permits last year.
• Yes Bank was the last bank to be set up, in 2004.
84 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• IDFC Bank plans to start operation from October 1 with an initial loan book of around Rs
55,000 crore. The bank proposes to start operations with 20 branches.
• IDFC Bank was established as a public limited company to carry out the business of banking
pursuant to approval granted by the Reserve Bank in April 2014.
CSC, HCL form joint venture to provide technology services, solutions to banks
• Global IT leaders CSC (NYSE: CSC) and HCL Technologies (BSE: HCLTECH) today announced
the signing of a definitive joint venture agreement to form a banking software and services
company.
• The joint venture will invest in platform modernization and product functionality
enhancement and will capitalize on the proven capabilities of both companies in addressing.
• CSC, which currently serves over 100 premier banking and financial services clients in 15
countries, will provide its core banking, cards, payments and default management industry
talent, software and product development expertise.
• HCL will provide capital investment, extensive experience in product engineering and
application implementation services, as well as banking sales and client engagement
expertise.
• Axis Bank today signed a USD 200-million, seven-year bilateral loan agreement with the
Asian Development Bank.
• The loan will help bolster bank’s efforts to improve farm efficiency by extending customised
and affordable agriculture credit, that will help leverage its semi-urban and rural branch
network to deliver agriculture credit.
CCI imposes Rs. 420 crore fine on Hyundai for anti-competitive practices
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 420.26 crore on leading
automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motors for unfair trade practices. CCI decided to impose a penalty
of 2% of the average annual turnover for three financial years in India.
• Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan and European Central Bank president Mario
Draghi on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in central
banking.
85 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Shri Prashant Saran,Whole Time Member of Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI),has an
order directing the cancellation of the Certificate of Registration of Sahara Mutual Fund on JULY
28,2015.
• Considering the interests of unit holders, the order of cancellation of the Certificate of
Registration of the Sahara Mutual Fund shall be effective on expiry of 6 months from the
date of the said order.
• The main reason for cancellation of the certificate of registration is that the fund house
Sahara Mutual Fund along with Sahara AMC and Sahara Sponsor were found to be no longer
“fit and proper” persons to carry out the business of Mutual Fund.
• SEBI has ordered the fund house to not to accept any fresh subscription from investors and
directed to transfer the business to a new fund house.
• Failure of Sahara Mutual Fund to complete the process of transition as mentioned within a
period of five months from the date of this order, then Sahara Mutual Fund should
compulsorily redeem the units allotted to its investors and credit the respective funds to its
investors, without any additional cost, within a period of thirty days thereafter and wind up
the operations of the Mutual Fund.
• On expiry of six months from the date of this order, Sahara Mutual Fund shall return the
certificate of registration to SEBI.
• Sahara Mutual Fund had total assets under management of Rs.134.29 crore as on 30 June
across 24 equity funds, 12 debt funds and two hybrid funds.
Kotak bank launches ‘Kotak Bharat’ mobile banking app for ‘un-banked’ regions
For providing mobile banking services to the customers in the remote regions (customers in the under-
banked and un-banked regions) KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK launched a mobile banking application
named “KOTAK BHARAT”.
India Ink loan agreement of $300 million with ADB for NUHM
• Manila-headquartered Asian Development Bank(ADB) inked USD 300 million loan pact with the
government to support National Urban Health Mission(NUHM).
86 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• This is the ADB’s first loan project in India under NUHM to develop health systems in urban
areas that can deliver quality health services that reach the urban poor and vulnerable.
• This program is aimed at achieving good result in key sectors like urban health,urban local
bodies in planning and delivery of urban health services.
• Reserve Bank of India will soon issue 10 rupee denomination coins to commemorate
International Yoga Day which is observed on JUNE 21 every year,
• RBI said that these coins are legitimate delicate as given in the Coinage Act,2011 and the
current coins in this division will likewise keep on legitimate delicate.
• As informed by parliament India received USD 184.97 million(about Rs 1,186 cr) Foreign
Direct Investment(FDI) in the insurance sector during from March to May 2015
• Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said FDI inflow was USD 47.14 million
in the similar period last year(2014)
• As per the guidelines,FDI of upto 26 percent comes under the automatic route,while for
inflows beyond that and up to 49 percent,government approval is needed.
• Overall foreign inflows in the country rose by 27 per cent to USD 30.93 billion during the
previous fiscal. The amount was USD 24.29 billion in 2013-14.
• Rahul Yadav, CEO and co-founder of Housing.com has been fired by the company’s board.
87 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• He was removed with reference to his behaviour towards investors, ecosystem and the
media, company said in a statement.
• He was sacked because of the alleged leaking of information about Quicker hiring
Housing.com to the media.
• Dr Anup K Pujari has been appointed Secretary of Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises
(MSME).
• He succeeds Shri Madhav Lal whose tenure ended on 30 June 2015.
• Previously Mr Pujari was holding the charge of Secretary, Mines.
• He is an IAS of 1980 batch of Karnataka cadre. He is a post-graduate from the University of
Boston, and a Doctorate in Economics. He has served the Central and Karnataka
Government in various capacities.
• Cmde C D Balaji (Retd), Project Director, Light Combat Aircraft (Navy), today took over as
the Director of Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADA) and Programme Director of
LCA.
• He succeeds P S Subramanyam who superannuated on June 30.
• Balaji, commissioned into the Indian Navy in September 1978 in the Engineering Branch, has
specialised in the Naval Aviation Arm, according to a Defence Research and Development
Organisation release.
• China on Monday nominated one of its former Finance Minister to head the Beijing-backed
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
• Former Finance Minister Jin Liqun has been formally nominated by China as its preferred
candidate to head the $100 billion AIIB.
• It has been seen as a rival to the U.S. and Europe-dominated banking institutions.
• Bharti Enterprises has appointed Rahul Bhatnagar as its new Managing Director and
Chief Financial Officer.
• He takes over from Manoj Kohli, who has assumed the role of Executive Chairman, SBG
Cleantech – a JV between SoftBank, Bharti and Foxconn for renewable energy.
88 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Previously Rahul Bhatnagar has woked with PepsiCo, where he worked for over 19 years in
various senior-level positions across geographies.
• The government has appointed Sriram Kalyanaraman as Managing Director and CEO of
National Housing Bank.
• He has become the first person form the private sector to head a public sector financial
institution.
• Currently Kalyanaraman is Director-Business Development, Equifax Credit Information
Services.
• He is appointed for five years from the date of taking over the charge.
• Senior IAS officer S N Sahai is all set to be appointed as the new Home Secretary of Delhi, a
move aimed at ending the row between Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal over the top post.
• Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Jung have agreed on Mr. Sahai’s name for the Home Secretary’s post
following which a recommendation was sent to the Union Home Ministry.
• Credit Information Bureau India Ltd (CIBIL) has appointed Satish Pilai as its
• new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
• He succeeds Arun Thukral who served CIBIL for 10 years.
• Housing.com has appointed Rishabh Gupta as interim CEO, after it fired co-founder and
ex-CEO Rahul Yadav last week.
89 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Rishabh Gupta is currently working as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in the Housing.com.
• Last week the company’s board sacked the CEO Rahul Yadav stating that his behaviour
towards investors and media was not befitting of a CEO.
• Bandhan Bank, the first bank to be set up in West Bengal after Independence, plans to go
for an IPO in 2018,inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on August 23, 2015.
• Bandhan Bank has appointed former chief economic advisor to the finance ministry Ashok
Kumar Lahiri to head its 10-member board.
• The bank would start its journey with a Rs 3200-crore strong loan book but now nearly
Rs.10000 core and company has 67 lakh micro finance borrowers.
• The logo of the bank was designed by O&M and adding the number of branches would go up
to 1,000 in two years’ time.
• Lord Karan Bilimoria, a NRI entrepreneur, has been appointed as the President of theUK
Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).
• He will replace Usha Prashar who stepped down after serving the maximum term of nine
years.
• Viacom18 has launched its new digital business Viacom18 Digital Ventures.
• This will bridge traditional broadcasting and digital innovation.
• The company has named Gaurav Gandhi as its Chief Operating Officer. He has earlier
worked as Group Chief Operating Officer at IndiaCast Media Distribution (a TV18 & Viacom18
venture).
• Lt Gen Man Mohan Singh Rai has been appointed as the next Vice-Chief of the Indian
Army.
• He is presently posted as the Eastern Army Commander at Kolkata.
• He will replace Lt Gen Philip Campose who will retire on 31 July.
90 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Former Chief Secretary Rakesh Sahni has been appointed as the Chairman of Narmada
Valley Development Authority (NVDA) by Madhya Pradesh government.
• Rakesh Sahni is a 1972 batch IAS officer who has also served as the Chairman of MP
Electricity Regulatory Commission after his retirement from the post of chief secretary.
• Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has appointed Prashant Pathrabe, as the
new director of the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).
• He was former head of the National Film Archives of India (NFAI).
• He is an IIS officer of 1990 batch and was formerly Director of the Press Information Bureau
in Pune before taking over as Director, NFAI.
• He is an IIT Kharagur and IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus is also a member of the rock-pop band
‘The Aryans’.
Neeraj Kumar appointed chief security advisor for ICC World T20 2016
• BCCI has appointed Neeraj Kumar as the Chief Advisor of Security and Anti-Corruption
Unit (ACSU) for next year’s T20 World Cup.
• He was former Delhi Police Commissioner.
• Flipkart has appointed former Yahoo Inc. executive Eric Lange as Vice-President of
Product Management for its customer experience division.
• Previously Lange has worked as the Vice President of Product Management in the Ads
division for Yahoo and spearheaded Yahoo’s acquisitions of the mobile advertising and
analytics company.
• He also spent seven years at Google, where from 2010 to 2012 he was Head of Monetization
for Asia Pacific, leading product development and strategy for the company’s advertising
business.
Swati Maliwal took charge as the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Swati Maliwal took charge as the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW)
chief. Maliwal, who is an RTI Activist, and also the youngest member of India Against Corruption
succeeded Barkha Shukla whose tenure ended in July 2015
91 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Swati Maliwal, the wife of AAP leader Navin Jaihind, before this assignment, she was Advisor (Public
Grievances) to the Chief Minister of Delhi
• Hero Motors Group, which includes flagship company Hero Cycles, on Monday, said it has
elevated Pankaj Munjal as its Chairman and Managing Director (CMD).
• Pankaj Munjal has taken over from O P Munjal, who led the Ludhiana-based company for
more than 60 years.
• O P Munjal has now been elevated to the position of Chairman Emeritus.
• Bhanu Pratap Sharma, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare was given additional charge as
Chairperson of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ( FSSAI) for three months, is a
1981 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre.
• He has been given this additional charge of FSSAI for three months or till the appointment of a
regular incumbent. Union Government has appointed Bhanu Pratap Sharma as Chairperson
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India on July 21, 2015.
• White House economic adviser Maurice Obstfeld was on July 20, 2015 appointed as Chief
Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Obstfeld will succeed outgoing IMF
economist Olivier Blanchard.
• He will be responsible for handling the IMF’s huge, troubled rescue programs for Greece and
Ukraine while keeping a close eye on the slowdown in the global economy. He will take
charge with effect from September 8, 2015.
• Hisao Tanaka on 21 July 2015 resigned as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of
Toshiba. He will be succeeded by Masashi Muromachi, who is presently the Chairman of
Toshiba.
• Moreover, Toshiba’s other officials Norio Sasaki and Atsutoshi Nishida also resigned as Vice
Chairman and Advisor, respectively.
92 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Mobile fashion store Myntra has appointed Ananth Narayanan as its chief executive officer
(CEO). He will succeed Flipkart’s co-founder Mukesh Bansal who is currently serving as the
• He will start working from October 2015 from Myntra’s headquarters located in Bengaluru
and will directly report to the Myntra board.
• R K Pachauri, accused of sexual harassment by a woman employee, has been sacked as the
chief of TERI.
• Ajay Mathur has been appointed as Director General of TERI ( The Energy and Resource
Institute). Currently, he is the Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) of the
Union Government.
• The company’s managing director Etienne Benet is stepping down with immediate effect and
will be replaced by Suresh Narayanan, who is currently the chairman of Nestlé Philippines.
• Benet is leaving with effect from 25 July 2015 and will be relocating to Nestlé Group head
office in Switzerland.
• Nomination has been received from Nestlé SA for the appointment of Suresh Narayanan as
the managing director of the company with effect from 1 August 2015.
R S(Ram Sewak) Sharma who is secretary in Department of electronics and information &
Technology in which he experienced with crucial telecom issues is appointed as a new chief of Telecom
Regulatory Authority Of India(TRAI) from 2015 to 2017 succeeding Rahul khullar who is the first chief
of TRAI, which is vacant from may 2015 after the retirement of Rahul kullar.
93 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Anand Krishnamurthy is now the new MD and CEO of Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) replacing Rakesh
Bhatia who had quit due to personal reason. This appointment was done by the board of directors of
CSB among the three named sent to RBI.
• Ashok Kumar Balyan, former chief executive of Petronet LNG Ltd, has joined Anil Ambani-led
Reliance Group as CEO of its Oil & Gas Business.
• Former agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna has been appointed as the chairman of
the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India(FSSAI) for three years tenure
from 2015 to 2017.He succeeded K chandramouli who completed his tenure in January 2015
and the post of chairman of FSSAI is vacant after he completed his tenure .In third week of
july , Health Secretary Bhanu Pratap Sharma was appointed temporarily in-charge of chairman
of FSSAI.
• The Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble(P&G) has appointed its company veteranDavid
Taylor as the new CEO by replacing A G Lafley on 29 July 2015. Now,the chairman of the
company is A G lafley who led P&G from 2000.
94 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Manufacturer’s Association for Information Technology (MAIT), is the apex body of India’s
Information technology hardware,training and R&D service sectors appointed DEBJANI
GHOSH, as new President of MAIT.
• She was the vice-president sales and marketing group and managing director of Intel
Corporation,South Asia.
• She is the first woman President of MAIT in its 32 years of history.
• Apart from MAIT, she also chairs the IT Committee at the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
• Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT said that It is our pleasure to have Ghosh
taking over as President MAIT. She has always been an asset to MAIT and with her
leadership now, we are confident MAIT will scale new heights
• Larsen & Toubro has appointed Subramanian Sarma as non-executive director and made him
the head of its hydrocarbon business with effect from August 19.
• Sarma has been appointed as the chief executive officer and managing director of L&T’s
subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering,
• The subsidiary is currently headed by L&T CEO K. Venkataramanan & retiring in September.
• Aditya Birla Chemicals (ABCIL) has received shareholders’ approval for merging the
company with Grasim Industries.
• Both the companies are of Aditya Birla Group and are being merged in order to consolidate
similar businesses under one roof.
95 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The Board of Grasim Industries had approved to give shareholders of ABCIL one share of Rs
10 each of Grasim for every 16 shares of Rs 10 each they hold in ABCIL.
• This would issue 14.62 lakh new shares for Grasim, which will increase its share capital to Rs
93.31 crore.
• Bengaluru based healthcare company Practo has acquired Mumbai based Genii
Technologies, a technology services startup.
• Practo has an app and web service for scheduling appointments with doctors. It lists over
8,000 hospitals on its platform aims to reach to 20,000 hospitals by the end of this year.
• Previously Practo has acquired FithoWellness, a web and app-based fitness management
platform, in April 2015.
• Genii Technology is a services start-up focused on product design and development. It was
founded in 2011 and has launched 30 products across multiple domains including retail,
finance, real estate, travel and events over the last three years.
• Andromeda, loan distributor, has acquired the apnapaisa.com, an online loan solutions
space in a stock and cash deal.
• Andromeda which is present in more than 30 cities across the country along with a 1,000-
strong staff, is the largest loan distributor, distributing around ₹8,000 crore a year.
• Apnapaisa.com which was started 8 years ago, is an internet platform to help customers
find best possible loans.
• Drug company Torrent Pharmaceuticals has completed acquisition of Encore Group firm Zyg
Pharma Pvt Ltd.
• Zyg Pharma is a part of the Merchant family-promoted Encore Group. It manufactures
various dermatological formulations like creams, ointments, gels, lotions and solutions.
96 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Indian pharmaceutical major Lupin has acquired US based Gavis Pharmaceuticals in cash-
free and debt-free transaction for 880 million dollars (around 5,606 crore rupees). In this
regard, Lupin has entered into definite agreement with Gavis Pharmaceuticals LLC and its
subsidiary Novel Laboratories Inc.
• This acquisition will help the Indian company to expand and deepen its presence in US and
enter into niche generics areas such as dermatology and controlled substances along with
other high-value areas.
Cyient acquires Singapore based Global Services Engineering from Pratt & Whitney
• Hyderabad based Cyient Limited which provides engineering, data analytics, networks and
operations solutions has acquired Singapore-based Global Services Engineering Asia from
Pratt & Whitney Services Pte Ltd.
• Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies company has a global network of engine service
facilities and broad portfolio of service solutions it has 20 maintenance, repair and operation
(MRO) locations worldwide. The Singapore site provides repairs, development and validation
for aero gas turbine engine components in support of Pratt & Whitney throughout the region.
• Through the acquisition Cyient Limited intends to expand its aerospace service in Asia-Pacific
region as Cyient has built a strong presence over the years in mechanical and manufacturing
engineering, specifically in aerospace engineering, as well as software, systems and
electronics
• Cyient Asia Pacific is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia
97 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
IndusInd Bank acquires RBS’ bullion financing business for Rs 4,100 crore
• In April this year, IndusInd Bank said it has entered into an agreement with Royal Bank of
Scotland to acquire the latter’s diamond and jewellery financing business in the country for
an undisclosed sum.
• Finally, the Bank has completed the acquisition of the same for 4,100 crore rupees on 28
July 2015 with the entire business portfolio migrating to the bank.
• According to the agreement RBS’s employees within the diamond and jewellery clients in
India would be transferred to IndusInd Bank.
• IndusInd Bank is already into diamond and jewellery financing business and this acquisition
is expected to enhance its position in the segment.
• Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, will acquire certain tangible and
intangible assets of its US-based bankrupt partner Erik Buell Racing (EBR) for $2.8 million
(Rs 18 crore).
• Travel company Thomas Cook India has acquired Sri Lanka-based destination management
firm, Luxe Asia, for an undisclosed sum.
• The buyout has been done through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Thomas Cook Lanka Pvt Ltd,
and post acquisition Luxe Asia will be operated as an independent entity.
• Japanese media group Nikkei agreed to buy the Financial Times from Britain’s Pearson in a
$1.3 billion deal that makes two leading financial new operations together from Asia and
Europe.
• Nikkei newspaper ,which has a circulation surpassing three million for its morning
edition.171 year old person had finally decided to sell the pink paged business daily.
• In the sale of Financial times group it does not include 50% stake in The Economist
magazine or The London headquartes of the news paper on the banks of river Thames.
• Nikkkei chairman and group CEO is Tsuneo kita.
98 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Business
RIL to invest Rs. 2.5 lakh crore in digital space: Ambani
• Reliance Industries will invest over Rs. 250,000 crore in the digital space, including
rollout of wireless broadband infrastructure and manufacturing of mobile handsets.
• Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries said Reliance will invest over Rs. 250,000
crore across the Digital India pillars and the firm’s investments in digital space will create
employment for over 5 lakh people.
• Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group will invest about Rs 10,000 crore over the next few years
to expand its presence across digital, cloud computing and telecom space.
• The company plans to achieve full deployment of next generation content and Cloud Delivery
Network by the end of the year.
• Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has signed a contract manufacturing
agreement with Austrian automotive firm Magna Steyr.
• This collaboration is aimed at creating additional volumes needed to support the company’s
plans to achieve further growth.
• Blumberg Grain, US-based food storage technology provider is planning to enter the
Indian market by investing about USD 250 million over next 5 years.
• Currently the company is looking for setting up plant to manufacture components for
scientific warehouses.
• This proposed investment would be on manufacturing facility, upstream activities like
disseminating best farm practices to farmers and downstream infrastructure like processing
and packaging facilities.
99 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Chinese solar company Hareon enters India in tie-up with ReNew Power
• Hareon Solar Technology Company based in Shanghai has tied up with ReNew Power which one
of the larger renewable energy companies in India to set up a 72 MW solar power project in
Andhra Pradesh.
• Indian IT giant Infosys has signed a multi-million euro deal with Deutsche Bank.
• According to the deal, Infosys will provide services like development, application
maintenance, digital and mobility, package implementation and testing services across the
Deutsche Bank Group.
• Infosys will also be a strategic partner under Deutsche Bank’s Supplier Partnership
Programme which was launched in June 2014 to concentrate the most strategic vendors
based on business impact across all categories of the bank.
• Russian oil firm Rosneft will buy 49 per cent stake in Essar Oil, the firm that owns India’s
second biggest oil refinery, for an undisclosed amount, the Ruia-owned firm said on
Thursday.
• The proposed transaction is conditional upon various factors such as due diligence,
determination of the transaction price, execution of definitive transaction documents and
receipt of requisite approvals
• Also, a Long Term Crude Oil Supply Agreement by the two firms in was signed in Ufa, Russia
for import of 10 million tonnes a year of crude oil for a period of 10 years.
• This contract has been signed in pursuance to the Key Terms executed between the two
companies in December 2014 at New Delhi.
• BigBazaar has tied up with MobiKwik to allow its customers to pay for purchases using
mobile wallet facility.
• MobiKwik wallet users can pay through their mobile at any BigBazaar payment counter by
sharing their registered MobiKwik mobile number and an one-time-password (OTP) for
verification of the transaction.
• This facility will be extended to other Future Group entities like Central, Brand Factory, Home
Town and e-Zone in the coming quarter.
• MobiKwik which is a mobile payments platform, claims to have over 17 million mobile wallet
users and 50,000 merchants on board.
100 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd have signed an aerospace and defence
manufacturing pact.
• Both the companies will jointly manufacture aero-structures and collaborate on developing
integrated systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles.
• TASL is already manufacturing aero-structures for Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook and AH-6i
helicopters.
• KFC has entered into a partnership with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
( IRCTC) to launch a delivery system for consumers on trains.
• Now a person travelling on train can order KFC meal, while booking ticket through IRCTC
from July 20 onwards, under e-catering service initiatives. Presently, this facility is available
only on 12 trains passing through New Delhi railway station.
• The facility will be expanded to Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad and Bengaluru stations over the
next 10 days.
• The service will initially be limited to trains which do not have pantry cars and subsequently
would be expanded to trains like Rajdhani and Duronto
• Consumers will have to visit the IRCTC website or call on 18001034139 (Toll Free) to place
their order. A password will then be sent by KFC to the consumer’s mobile phone which will
have to be mentioned at the time of delivery.
Sri Lanka signs agreement with Google to launch Project Loon by 2016.
• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Government of Sri Lanka
and search engine giant Google to launch the Google Loon project in the country.
• Accordding to the MoU, high-speed 3G (3rd Generation) internet services will be provided to
the whole country by placing 13 high-altitude balloons over the island nation. Free Wi-Fi
connectivity across Sri Lanka is also expected from this project.
• Sri Lanka will be the first nation in the world to have Internet access covering the whole
country with the government support after the successful implementation of this project.
Reliance Group, Augur Overseas Operation signed MoU to manufacture Aerostats and
Airships
• Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group through its entity Reliance Unmanned Systems on 23 July
2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Augur Overseas Operation of
101 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India pitch appears to have caught the attention of
global aerospace and defence companies, with the Pune-based $2.5-billion Kalyani Group on
Thursday entering into a joint venture (JV) with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
• The JV aims to develop and manufacture a wide range of missiles, remote weapon systems
and advanced armour solutions. In line with the new investment norms in the sector, which
stipulate the Indian partner have majority control, Kalyani Group will hold a 51 per cent
stake in the JV, while the rest will be with Rafael.
• During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazakhstan, BHARAT HEAVY
ELECTRICALS LIMITED (BHEL) has signed three Memorandum Of Understandings (MOU)
with Kazah companies (JSC Samruk Energy, KUS and Kaznex Invest).
• Cuba became the first country in the world to receive validation from WHO for eliminating
mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.
• Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General said “Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the
greatest public health achievements possible.”
• This is a major victory in fight against HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and an important
step towards having an AIDS-free generation.
102 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Buoyed by growing sales, India will overtake the U.S. to become world’s second largest
smartphone market by 2017.
• According to international research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales are
forecast to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017.
• India will soon overtake the U.S. to become the world’s second largest smartphone market
by 2017 behind China, selling an impressive 174 million units.
• A Russian booster rocket today successfully launched an unmanned cargo ship to the
International Space Station, whose crew is anxiously awaiting it after the successive failures
of two previous supply missions.
• A Soyuz-U rocket blasted off flawlessly from Russia-leased Baikonur launch pad in
Kazakhstan, placing the Progress M-28M ship into a designated orbit, safely en route to the
station.
• The ship is carrying 2.4 metric tons of fuel, oxygen, water, food and other supplies for the
crew, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
• The previous Progress launch in April ended in failure, and on Sunday a US supply mission
failed too when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke apart shortly after liftoff.
• ISRO (Indian space research organization) with its commercial arm named Antrix is going to
launch five British Satellites that will be carried by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV ) on
10th july.
• It will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.
• The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its thirtieth flight (PSLV-C28), will launch three
identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites which are built by Surrey Satellite
Technology Limited (SSTL), United Kingdom(UK).
• High-end version of PSLV (PSLV-XL) will be used in this launch. Also, the four stage PSLV
rocket will start its venture around 10 p.m.
• Apart from it, two other auxiliary satellites are going to be carried with PSVL-C28 which are
built in UK.
103 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Chief of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC), vice-admiral Satish Soni, authorized ICGS Rani Durgavati
at the Coast Guard district headquarters on 6th july.
• It is the 3rd Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) of Indian Coast Guard (ICG)of
• five fast patrol vessels .
• Built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
• It is propelled by 3 MTU 4000 series diesel engines which has 2720 KW capacity at 2100 RPM
each coupled with three 7152 Rolls Royce kamewa jets.
• This IPV of 51 meter is equipped with the most-advanced equipment and navigational
communication sensors.
• It has the capability of 1,500 nautical miles with a speed of 34 knots.
• It is manned by a 34-member crew, including five officers.
• Commandant S Zakir Hussain is to command the IPV.
• Base is at Karaikal in Puducherry.
• ISRO (headquartered at Bangalore) has launched the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation
(GAGAN) system on 13 July 2015. GAGAN is a satellite-based air navigation system which will
make airline operations more efficient and in turn it will reduce costs also. Also it will reduce
workloads for flight crews.
• GAGAN will provide its services from Bay of Bengal, South East Asia and Middle East expanding
up to Africa.
• After the US, Japan and European Union (EU), India have developed such augmented
navigational system. It took over 15 years to develop this system.
• The new system has been developed jointly by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and
Airports Authority of India (AAI) at a cost of about Rs.774 crore.
India has test-fired its indigenously developed anti-tank guided missile NAG
• The test-fire of India’s indigenously developed Nag anti-tank guided missile was
successful from a helicopter at a firing range in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
• Three-round trial of helicopter-launched Nag (HeliNa) missile were conducted at the
Chandhan firing range.
• HeliNa is a helicopter-launched version of Nag and can hit a target up to 7 km.
104 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• It has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
As NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is approaching near to Pluto and as it zoomz past Pluto new things
are coming up, the dwarf planet isn’t quite as dwarfish as the scientist thought in fact, it’s the largest
known solar system object beyond Neptune.
• Based on New Horizons imagery, its diameter is 2,370 kilometers (1,473 miles), plus or
minus 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) which makes it almost 30 miles wider than Eris, the dwarf
planet whose discovery led to Pluto’s downfall as the “ninth planet” back in 2006 and it was
considered no more as a planet
• Eris’ diameter has been measured to be 2,326 kilometers (1,445 miles), plus or minus 12
kilometers (7.5 miles )
• New Horizons’ measurements confirmed that Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, is 751 miles
(1,208 kilometers) across and that the smaller icy moons Nix and Hydra are 20 and 30 miles
(35 and 45 kilometers) wide, respectively.
• AK SHRIVASTAVA, Director of National Diary Research Institute Karnal said that scientist
have succeeded in lowering the level of cholesterol.
• The main important part of this technique is that the ghee obtained through this technique is
qualifying the PRESCRIBED STANDARDS.
• NDRI signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Vaishal Patilputra Dugdh Utpadak
Sahkari Sangh Ltd,Patna(known as Patna Diary Project) and transferred the technology.
• The Patna diary officials planned to launch the product within two months.
NASA’s Kepler space telescope has spotted the most Earth-like alien planet yet discovered — a world
called Kepler-452b that’s just slightly bigger than our own and orbits a sunlike star at about the same
distance Earth circles the sun.
105 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• China launched two new satellites into space as it builds a domestic satellite navigation
system named “Beidou, or Compass” rivalling US’s Global Positioning System
• The satellites, designated BDS (short for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) M1-S and M2-
S were put into a medium-Earth orbit (MEO) about 13,700 miles (22,048 km) above Earth
• The two satellites launched Saturday are the 18th and 19th of the BeiDou system and the
2nd and 3rd for the third phase (BeiDou-3) of the network.
• Microsoft will start rolling out its new operating system Windows 10 around the world,
including India, with a host of new features as the long-time leader in PC software tries to
lure back consumers who gave up on Windows for mobile devices.
• Armed with new innovative features like Cortana, an Xbox app and Microsoft Edge, the long-
awaited Windows 10 would be available to computers and tablets in 190 nations.
• A start-up in Philippines in July 2015 developed a lamp named SALt (Sustainable Alternative
Lighting) that runs on a glass of water and two tablespoons of salt.
• The lamp is named after the company SALt that was founded by Aisa Mijeno and Raphael
Mijeno.
• This cost effective lamp burns for eight hours at a time to lighten a room and will also be
able to generate enough energy to charge a smart-phone through a USB cable.
• The lamp can also be lit by using ocean water and would be of great help for people living
along the coastline.
• The start-up hopes that the lamp will be in the market by 2016.
Environment
Surveys says Pong Dam wildlife sanctuary is nesting to 12314 bird species
• In addition to achievement of reverse climate change impacts, survey has revealed around
12,314 birds of various species were found at Pong Dam wild life sanctuary.
• The wild life sanctuary situated in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh.
106 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The reservoir is a popular wildlife sanctuary and is one of the 25 International wetland sites
declared in India.
• It has become the favorite places of various species that migrate from
• Siberia and Central Asia, according to a report dated July 1, 2015.
• Western ghat is well known as “Sky Islands” due to its higher altitude (1400m higher more
than sea level) and deep valley peaks inside it spread over 700km.
• A recent study says western ghat is a large migrants of various species of birds including 23
species of only song birds in tropical montane cloud shola forests.
• 2 species of those song birds are oldest among them inhabiting there since 6.78 million years
ago in Palghat valley.
• 10 species have never crossed 40 km inside the valley since 1000years.
• The National Centre for Biological Sciences researchers have told that they have found many
of these songbirds have now become new species or sub-species with genetic evolution.
• They have collected the data after a research over 350 individual birds for 3 years.
• They said that different side of valley get diverge potentially into new species having
different kind of genetically population.
• At least two new species of shortwing and laughing thrust birds which have shown genetic
diversity from their species.
• Apart from genetic diversity aspect, birds do change their color and size in evolution.
• 1000 year old corn, cobs ,kernels found near Thomsen Center Archeodome at the Mitchell
Prehistoric Indian Village, which has been the place of research for Archaeologists .
• The place has been considered as National Register and National Historic Landmark site.
• Students from the University of Exeter in England and Augustana College in Sioux Falls work
on this site every year.
• According to Augustana archaeology Professor Adrien Hannus research says people
belonging to this place weren’t exactly primitive. It was a successful village of farmers,
hunters and foragers and had a diverse diet.
• The discovery was made through cache pits, which were large holes used to store things like
food and tools found inside soil.
• Scientists from the Royal Ontario Museum have discovered a striking new species of horned
dinosaur in southern Alberta, Canada.
107 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Fossils were found of the dinosaur named Wendiceratops pinhornensis which is about
20-feet long and weighs more than a tonne.
• The dinosaur lived about 79 million years ago, making it one of the oldest known members
of the family of large-bodied horned dinosaurs that includes the famous Triceratops.
• A new tiny butterfly species christened Banded Tit (Hypolycaena Narada) has been
discovered in Arunachal Pradesh.
• It was discovered and is denizen of low-lying evergreen forests of the Changlang district of
the state which is part of the one of the biodiversity hotspot of World.
• Interesting life cycle: The adult butterflies of this species live only for approximately 2 weeks
in month of March every year. Remaining year, they spend in a dormant state in the form of
larval or pupal stages.
• It feed primarily on bird-droppings along cool streams in the forests. However, much of its
biology such as its larval host plants, breeding behaviour and precise habitat requirements
are still unknown.
Scientists from Kerala have discovered two new plant species from the forest regions of Western
Ghats. The two plants are:
The findings were published in the June 2015 issue of the international journal Webbia: Journal of Plant
Taxonomy and Phytogeography.
108 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• PUNTINUS DOLICHOPTERUS ,a new species of cyprinid freshwater fish has been discovered
and named by MATHEWS PLAMOOTTIL, head of department of zoology in Baby John
Memorial Government College of kollam district in Kayamkulam city in kerala.
• It is collected from a small fresh water stream flowing in the ALAPUZHA district.
• This discovery was published in the latest issue of ‘International Journal of Pure and Applied
Zoology’ covering July – September 2015
• Plamoottil said that six specimens of this new fish have been deposited Government museum
at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Researchers at the Biodiversity Research Centre of Christ College claimed to have spotted six
new species of spiders at Harithavanam (also known as Kuttivanam) located near the banks of
the Aluva Sivarathri manappuram in Kerala. This is the second time the same team has
discovered new species. The researchers have listed the six spider species under the genus
Chrysso, Dendrolycosa, Tetragntha, Trachelas and Argyrodes.
• A well-preserved skeleton of a Bronze Age teenager, dating back to 4,000 years, has been
discovered in a foetal position near the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in UK.
• The skeleton, believed to be that of an adolescent child, was discovered by University of
Reading archaeologists excavating Wilsford Henge in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire.
109 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Between 2004 and 2015, Bangladesh part of Sundarbans forest observed a gradual decline in
the population of tiger. In the 4th week of July 2015, Tiger Census 2015 disclosed this
information.
• According to Tiger Census 2015, tigers in Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans declined
sharply from 440 in 2004 to 106 in 2015.
• The decline was accredited to lack of proper forest management, unchecked wildlife plunder,
animal-human conflict in the forest and loss of habitat.
• Bangladesh-India Joint Tiger Census Project jointly conducted the Tiger Census 2015 and
was carried out under Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Wildlife Protection in Asia
Project with funding from the World Bank.
Sports
• Abhijeet Gupta, grandmaster and former world junior champion has won
th
the 19 Commonwealth Chess Championship.
• He won seven games against Arghyadip Das and was able to draw last two games.
• Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar has opted out of the World Championships after sustaining a
shoulder injury.
• The World championships which will be a ticket to Rio Olympics, is scheduled to be held in
Las Vegas from September 7-12.
110 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Indian Women’s Hockey team beats Italy, keep Olympic dreams alive
• India kept their Olympic qualification dreams alive by beating Italy in the shoot-out in
the Women’s Hockey World League Semi-finals.
• The Indian hockey eves, ranked 13 in the world defeated Italy by 5-4 in the shoot-out after
both teams ended with one goal each in the designated 60 minutes.
• The BCCI today congratulated Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Ajay Ratra on their India careers after
the two announced retirement from the game.
• Hrishikesh Kanitkar will be remembered for his contributions for India, at crucial stages in
several limited-overs matches and tournaments in the late 1990s. It was under his captaincy
that Rajasthan first won the Ranji Trophy, in 2010-11.
• Ajay Ratra was a member of the under-19 team that brought us World Cup glory in 2000.
His unbeaten 115 against the West Indies in Antigua in 2001-02 made him the youngest
wicketkeeper-batsman to score a Test hundred.
• Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
This decision came 4 days ahead of the Ashes.
• The 35 year old pacer is suffering from knee injury.
• He made his debut in 2010 and took 113 wickets in 27 Tests.
• World and Olympic champions Netherlands lifted the Women’s Hockey World
League trophy by defeating Asian games gold medallist South Korea by 2-1.
• This was the semifinal round of the 2014–15 Women’s FIH Hockey World League and
from here 7 highest placed teams apart from the five continental champions will qualify
for 2016 Summer Olympics.
Chile beat Argentina 4-1 on penalties to win country’s first Copa America
• Chile finally won the Copa America for the first time in the country’s history by defeating
Argentina by 4-1 on penalties.
• The match started off with both teams pushing the limits and creating chances. Argentina
came close in the opening minutes but couldn’t convert it into a goal. The game ended at 0-
111 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
0 and the final result was decided by penalties in which Chile triumphed with final score of 4-
1.
• Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the British Grand Prix for the second year in a
row.
• His Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg finished second while Germany’s Sebastian Vettel ended
up at third spot for Ferrari.
• USA has won the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 by beating Japan by 5-2 in the finals at
canada.
• This is the third time USA has won the World Cup. The previous victories were in 1991 and
1999.
• Carli Lloyd of USA broke multiple records by becoming the first player to score a hat trick in a
Women’s World Cup’s Final, second in either men’s or women’s final and the fastest in either
men’s or women’s World Cup tournament.
• Pakistan Hockey captain Muhammad Imran stepped down after the national team’s loss in the
World Hockey League to France.
• Due to this defeat Pakistan failed to qualify for next year’s Rio Olympics Games.
• There is a string of resignations as Chief selector, Islahuddin Siddiqui and two other selectors,
Ayaz Mahmood and Khalid Bashir have also resigned after the team’s lost in World Hockey
League.
• India won the South Asian Basketball (SABA) Championship title. In the final played at the
Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru, Karanataka, India defeated Sri Lanka 93-44.
• It was 4th edition of the championships. India was the winner of third SABA Championship.
With this win, India qualified for the FIBA Asia Championship in China. FIBA Asia Championship
will be played in September 2015.
• The winning team was given a cash prize of 35000 rupees as a personal gesture of Basketball
Federation of India President K Govindraj.
• Top three teams of the championships were India (gold), Sri Lanka (silver) and Nepal (bronze).
• The Karnataka Swimming Association on Saturday announced the 32nd sub junior and 42nd
Junior National Aquatics Championship is going to be held at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati
Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune, from July 13-19.
112 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been stripped of the welterweight world title which he won after
beating Filipino Manny Pacquiao in May.
• The 38-year-old failed to pay the WBO a $200,000 (£128,000) fee to administer the fight by
the 3 July deadline.
• The World Boxing Organisation said it is against rules for boxers to hold world titles in
multiple weight classes and that Mayweather had to indicate which weight division he would
retain.
India Wins More Than 150 Medals At “World Police and Fire Games”
• India has won a record 156 medals, including 89 gold and 50 silvers, in the World Police and
Fire games held in the suburb of the American Capital.
• Topping the tally Richa Mishra and Kulwinder Kaur bagged a combined 11 gold medals at the
2015.50-member Indian delegation competed in 7 categories:
Athletics,Wrestling,Boxing,Judo,Archery,Swimming,Shooting.
• This is for the first time that the Indian contingent’s medal tally has crossed 100 and
exceeding 3rd position holder Commonwealth Games. In 2013-India won 83 medals at
Belfast,Northern Ireland.
• US won by 1,777(700 golds),Canada finished second 430 medals.
• Star athlete Inderjeet Singh won the gold medal in shot put event for India in the World
University Games at Gwangju, South Korea.
• This year has been phenomenal for Indrajeet as he won five gold medals in all five
international events he has participated so far in 2015.
• Lord Patel of Bradford, who has been appointed by the England and Wales Cricket Board
(ECB) to its board of directors, has become the first British-Asian to be included to the 14-
member strong body.
• Patel, who has worked for the Yorkshire Cricket Academy as a part-time coach, will be
replacing Lord Morris in the ECB.
• Patel of Bradford, an OBE and a leading voice on health, social care and community cohesion
in the UK.
113 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Indian women’s cricket team defeated New Zealand by 9 wickets and clinched the ODI series
by 3-2.
• Batting first New Zealand collapsed for 118 in 41 overs. In reply India achieved the target in
27.2 overs.
• BCCI has announced a cash reward of Rs 21 Lakhs for the team.
• World Boxing Association (WBA) offered membership to the recently launched Indian
Boxing Council (IBC). This will boost its aim to promote the professional boxing in India.
• The IBC which was launched last week, has received a letter of support and an offer of
membership from the World Boxing Association (WBA) besides an invite to the annual
convention of the World Boxing Organisation (WBO).
• Also, the IBC has been extended an invite for the WBO convention to be from October 26 to 30
in Orlando.
Indian wrestlers have won 16 medals, including 3 gold, at the Junior Asian Freestyle, Greeco-
Roman and Female Wrestling championshipat Nay Pyi Taw in Myanmar.
Men’s Freestyle category: The Indians claimed a total of eight medals with bagging the
114 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Greco-Roman category:
• BCCI has suspended Hiken Shah from playing cricket for violating the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption
Code for participants.
• The left hander has played 32 Ranji Trophy matches for Mumbai, four for Jammu & Kashmir
and one for West Zone.
• Stating the reason for suspension, BCCI said that Hiken Shah made a corrupt approach to
one of his colleagues from first-class cricket, who is also a member of one of the IPL teams.
• Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended from the Indian Premier
League for 2 years for the betting activities of their key officials Gurunath
Meiyappan and Raj Kundra during the 2013 season.
• Meiyappan was the former Team Principal of CSK and Raj Kundra is the co-owner of the
Rajasthan Royals were suspended for life for involving in betting and bringing the IPL and the
game into disrepute.
• The Supreme Court of India appointed a three member committee headed by former Chief
Justice of India R M Lodha on January 22, 2015, gave the punishment.
• India thrashed Zimbabwe by 83 runs in the third and final cricket ODI to complete a 3-0
series whitewash.
• Kedar Jhadav’s maiden international hundred of 105 runs in 87 balls helped India to post a
score of 276/5 in 50 overs.
• In return Zimbabwe collapsed for 193 in 42.4 overs.
115 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• After the Supreme Court suspended CSK and and Rajasthan Royals for two years, cricket
authorities have decided to scrap the Champions League T20 tournament with
immediate effect.
• The Governing Council of the CLT20 which comprising representatives of the Board of
Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket South Africa (CSA) and Cricket Australia (CA)
made the decision unanimously.
• Bangladesh registered historic ODI series win by beating South Africa by nine wickets in
the third and final ODI to take the three-match series 2-1.
• After whitewashing Pakistan and defeating India in the series, this is Bangladesh’s third
continuous series victory over the world cricket heavyweights.
• In a rain hit game, Bangladesh restricted proteas to 168/9 and in return with the help of
Soumya Sarkar’s 90 and Tamim Iqbal’s 61 they score 170 runs for the loss of 1 wicket only.
• Pakistani All Rounder Mohammad Hafeez has been banned from bowling in international
cricket for 12 months by ICC.
• He failed an independent assessment of his suspect action was carried out at the Sri
Ramachandra University in Chennai.
• His bowling action came under question by the match officials during Pakistan’s first Test
victory over Sri Lanka.
ICC ODI Rankings: India retain 2nd spot after clean sweep over Zimbabwe
After a clean sweep victory by 3-0 over Zimbabwe, India have retained their 2nd spot in the ICC ODI
team rankings.
1. Australia 129
2. India 115
3. New Zealand 112
4. South Africa 109
116 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Shubham Jaglan, a 10-year-old son of a milkman from Israna village in Panipat, Haryana has
won at the Junior World Golf Championships being played at Welk Resort Fountain Course in
California.
• His competition was from a total of 114 other young golfers competing in the tournament
and he had a total of 7-under 179 in three days of competition.
• Shubham had missed out last year and came second.
• He thanked his family and coach, Nonita Lall Qureshi for his remarkable achievement.
Amelie Mauresmo, the two-time Grand Slam winner and former number one tennis player of
France, was on 18 July 2015 inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 21 July 2015 announced venues for the
Men and Women ICC World Twenty20. The World Twenty20 will be hosted by India from the
11 March to 3 April 2016.
117 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• BCCI in its press release said that finals of the 2016 World Twenty20 cricket tournament will
be held at iconic Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata.
• Bengaluru, Chennai, Dharamsala, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur and New Delhi will be the other
venues along with Kolkata.
Sangram Singh becomes the first Indian to win WWP Heavyweight Championship
• Sangram Singh became the first Indian in history to win the World Wrestling Professionals
(WWP) Commonwealth Wrestling Heavyweight Championship
• Sangram Singh made the country proud by defeating Canada’s Joe Legend to win the WWP
Commonwealth Championship held at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in South Africa.
• He had signed the death contract that clearly stated no owning up by organizers if either of
the two fighters are fatally hurt in the process.
• During fight with Joe Legend, (Canadian wrestler) Sangram Singh was nearly died as his
opponent was on top of him for over 10 minutes and Sangram nearly suffocated to death
Sangram Singh is the brand ambassador of People for Animal and Sanjay Gandhi Animal
Care Centre
• Sangram Singh was awarded the World’s Best Wrester of 2012 by WWP. He was selected for
the award among the other 118 wrestlers
• Amitoj Chhabra(20-year) lifted 628 kg, a total of 1,383 pounds at the US Powerlifting
Association National Championships in Las Vegas this week to win the junior title on July
23,2015.
• Kolo reported Chhabra has been dominating the Junior circuit.He now competes in the 20-23
age group, where he still holds those same records. He currently has 7 Nevada state records.
• Chhabra, who began powerlifting in December 2013 and began competing in May 2014, is
training with Adam Lauritzen of Silverback Strength and Conditioning in Reno.
• Chhabra, who works part-time at United Parcel Service, began training to get stronger for
competitive Crossfit, but enjoyed powerlifting more, reported the Gazetta-Journal.
• Major Dhyan Chand will be confered with the ‘Bharat Gaurav’ Lifetime Achivement Award by
NRI orgainsation Sanskriti Yuva Sangstha at the House of Commons inside the British
Parliament of July 25.
• On behalf of Dhyan Chand, his son and former Indian hockey player Ashok Kumar will
receive the award.
• Dhyan Chand had helped India win three successive gold medals in Olympics. To his credit,
he had scored over 400 goals in his international career.
118 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• In 1936, when India won the gold medal in Berlin Olympics, Hitler offered Dhyan Chand to
join the German team but he denied the offer.
• Dhyan Chand was one of the nominees in 2014 for the prestigious Bharat Ratna, an award
which cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and scientist C N Rao eventually received.
• Football Sports Development Ltd (FSDL) – the promoters of ISL – announced that the 2015
Indian Super League’s second season final will be held in Goa on December 20, 2015 at the
Fatorda Stadium, home of FC.
• The second season scheduled for October 3, 2015 kicks off with the opening match between
defending champions Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC in Chennai.
• The league stage will witness 56 games followed by a two-legged knock-out round to finally
culminate in Goa.
• Founder & Chairperson of FSDL: Mrs. Nita Ambani.
Shubham Jaglan won IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf event 2015
• 10-year old Shubham Jaglan on 22 July 2015 won the IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf event
in Las Vegas. Jaglan is the son of a milkman from rural Haryana, India.
• He shot a three round score of 106 winning by a five-stroke margin, ahead of two Americans
Justin Dang and Sihan Sandhu and Thailand’s Pongsapak Laopakdee for the Boys 9-10 years
category title.
• He also scripted a scintillating one-stroke win at the Junior World Golf Championships that
was held at Welk Resort Fountain Course in California.
• Ms.Dhoni has been named as the ninth most marketable sportsperson in the world ahead of
the likes of football superstar Lionel Messi and sprint king Usain Bolt in a power list prepared
by London School of Marketing.
• LSM researchers looked at the brand value of the individuals, along with their current income
from sponsorships and the percentage of their total earnings these accounted for. It also
considered their presence on social media.
• Swiss tennis star Roger Federer was named the most marketable sportsperson in the world,
followed by golfers Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at the second and third positions,
respectively.
119 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans was appointed coach of the Indian hockey team,
replacing Paul van Ass, who was unceremoniously sacked after a bitter spat with Hockey
India president Narinder Batra.
• The 61-year-old Dutchman, who has been associated with Indian hockey for close to three
years now, will be at the helm of affairs at least till next year’s Olympic Games in Rio de
Janeiro.
• The decision to appoint Oltmans was taken at a meeting between Sports Authority of India’s
director general Injeti Srinivas and Batra.
• India’s under-21 women hockey team has finished third at the Volvo Invitational
tournament. at Breda, The Netherlands. they recorded a penalty shoot out win against
England.
• In the penalty shoot-out, India’s star goal-keeper Inderpreet Kaur saved all the shoot-outs
and Deep Grace Ekka scored the winning goal for India.
• The 14th edition of Special Olympics World Summer Games is being held at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles from 25 July to 2 August 2015.
• Over 7,000 athletes representing over 170 countries are taking part in these games and will
compete in 25 sporting events ranging from weightlifting to the triathlon.
• Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports acitivity for children and adults with intellectual
disabilities.
• 14-year-old Ranveer Saini becomes 1st Indian golfer to play in Special Olympics World
Games.
• The Indian women’s wrestling team finished second in the fifth Senior International
Wrestling Tournament which is also known as Cup of the President of Republic of Kazakhstan
in Astana.
• Eight-member team of Indian women’s wrestling team bagged silver medal in the event that
was held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.Vinesh (48kg), Lalita Sehrawat (55kg) and Anita
(63kg) of the team performed splendidly in their respective categories
120 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The team received a prize money of USD 10,000 along with a trophy and medals for its
effort while host country Kazakhstan bagged the top spot, by defeating Mangolia which
settled for the third position.
Tillakaratne Dilshan becomes 4th Sri Lankan to get past 10,000-run mark in ODIs
• Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan on Sunday joined an elite club of cricketers by
crossing the 10,000 ODI run-mark during the 5th ODI against Pakistan at Hambantota.
• The stylish right-hander has now become 11th batsman overall and the fourth Sri Lankan to
cross the mark of 10,000 runs in 50-overs cricket.
• Before Dilshan, only three Islanders — Kumar Sangakkara, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mahela
Jayawardene — have managed to achieve the feat.
• Ferrari’s driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany won the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix of Formula
One (F1).
• Sebastian Vettel is a four-time world champion it was his 41st career win and first since the
Malaysian GP in the second race of this season.
• Vettel dedicated his win to Jules Bianchi, the French driver who died last week at the age of
25 from injuries sustained in a head-on crash at the Japanese GP last October.
• A minute’s silence was held in honor of Bianchi before the race, with drivers forming a ring
and placing their race helmets on the ground.
• Britain’s Chris Froome won the 102nd edition of the Tour de France, his second victory in the
cycling marathon.
• It was Team Sky’s third Tour triumph in four years after Bradley Wiggins prevailed in 2012
before Froome succeeded him in 2013.
• The Tour de France is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while
also occasionally making passes through nearby countries.
• It is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The prestigious cycle race is 3 week-
long, traditionally held every year in the month of July and covers around 3,500 kms.
121 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and other star grapplers gave their stamp of
approval as wrestling today joined the league bandwagon with WFI and Pro-Sportify
announcing the launch of Pro Wrestling League (PWL)
Mexico wins 7th Gold Cup title with 3-1 victory over Jamaica
• Mexico defeated Jamaica 3-1 in the final of CONCACAF Gold Cup football tournament to win
the regional tournament for the record seventh time. The final was played at Philadelphia,
US.
• Now Mexico will compete with US at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, for CONCACAF’S
spot in the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia.
• Dale Steyn became the second South African bowler to take 400 Test wickets after he
dismissed Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal on the opening day of the second Test in Dhaka
on Thursday.
• The 32-year-old fast bowler reached his landmark when South African skipper Hashim Amla
took a chest-high catch at first slip in Steyn’s third over of the match.
• Shaun Pollock is the only other South African to pass the 400-mark, taking 421 wickets
before retiring in 2008.
• Steyn, who is playing his 80th Test, became the 13th cricketer to take 400 or more wickets
in Test matches.
• Steyn joined Richard Hadlee as the second fastest bowler ever to take 400 Test wickets.
• He is one of only three currently active cricketers to achieve the feat, joining India spinner
• Harbhajan Singh and England pacer James Anderson.
• Steyn is the 13th cricketer to take 400 or more wickets in Test matches.
• Next time you are watching a one-day cricket match, you might just miss the “Sahara”
printed on the t-shirts of the players as it will be replaced by an emerging startup. Mobile
marketplace and payments site Paytm has bagged the title sponsorship rights of BCCI
(Board of Control for Cricket in India) for Rs. 203 crore.
• Shankar Nath, Senior Vice-President, Paytm told Business Line that the sponsorship rights
were acquired for all the 84 series India will play till 2019. Paytm will pay Rs. 2.42 crore for
122 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
every international match hosted by BCCI. The first home series will be against South Africa
starting September.
• The Alibaba-backed company, owned by One97 communications and founded by Vijay
Shekhar Sharma, won the bid against home-grown mobile handset maker Micromax, which
paid Rs. 2.02 crore per match.
• Beijing is set to become the first city to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics
after it was chosen to stage the 2022 Winter Games.
• International Olympic President Thomas Bach confirmed Beijing, which hosted the Summer
Games in 2008, had been chosen ahead of Almaty in Kazakshtan at the 128th IOC session in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Prize money - The Wimbledon total prize money for 2015 has been increased by 7% to £26.75m.
The winners of the men's and women's singles titles will earn £1.88m, up £120,000 from the previous
year.
• Novak Djokovic from Serbia defeated Roger Federer from Switzerland for the second successive
year on 12 July 2015 at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London.
• Djokovic defeated Roger Federer by 7-6 6-7 6-4 6-3. With this win he captured his third
Wimbledon title and ninth Grand Slam of his career and also equaled the number of Wimbledon
titles won by his current coach Boris Becker.
123 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Veteran American has now set the stage for a shot at history in her own backyard when she
returns to New York for next month’s US Open where she will look to become just the fourth
female player to win all four grand slams in a year.
• Youngster Sumit Nagal entered the history books as only sixth Indian to win a Grand Slam
junior title after winning the boys doubles trophy at the Wimbledon championships with partner
Nam Hoang Ly, in London on Sunday.
124 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• 17-year-old Nagal and his eighth seed Vietnamese partner overcame the fourth seeds Reilly
Opelka and Akira Santillan 7 -6(4) 6-4 in the title clash that lasted 63 minutes.
Obituary
• Matti Makkonen, known as the father of SMS has died. He is known for after developing
the idea of sending messages via mobile networks.
• Makkonen was an engineer from Finland and had worked with Nokia.
• Unassuming hero who to whom the second statue is dedicated died at the age of 106 in
Slough on July 1, 2015,coincidently anniversary of the departure of a train in 1939 carrying
the largest number of children-241.
• Winton save more than 650 Jewish children from the Holocaust-Nazi tyranny and slaughter
in Czechoslovakia-himself the label “Britain’s Schindler.”
• Sir Nicholas organised foster families for Jewish children in Britain, placing adverts in
newspapers.
• Nicholas Winton won an International Emmy Award in 2002 and knighted by the British
government in 2003 and also received the Order of the White Lion by the Czech government
in 2014.
• Former Indian Olympic swimmer Adi Bharucha has died. He was 85 years old.
• He took part in Helsinki Olympics and had the distinction of representing Maharashtra State
for nearly three decades at the Senior Nationals.
• He was the first recipient of the GMAAA Lifetime Achievement Award.
125 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Former Chief Justice of India Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal has died. He was 73.
• He was CJI from November 1, 2005 to January 13, 2007
• Well known Pakistani Urdu novelist Abdullah Hussain passed away. He was 84.
• He authored the bestseller and critically acclaimed ‘Udas Naslain’.
• His real name was Mohammad Khan.
• His other noted works includes famous novels – ‘Baagh’, ‘Nadaar Loag’ – and short stories
‘Faraib and Nashaib’.
• Hussain was honoured with this year’s Prime Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Veteran actress Diana Douglas has died. She was 92 years old.
• She appeared in dozens of films and TV shows including “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”,
“ER” and “The West Wing”.
• She was the mother of well-known actor Michael Douglas.
• The poet and longtime English professor James Tate at the University of Massachusetts-
Amherst, has died at71.
• Tate was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1992 for “Selected Poems”, National Book
Award for the 1994 Worshipful Company of Fletchers and a National Institute of Arts and
Letters award for poetry.
126 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• A celebration of Tate’s life and his poetry would be held in New York City in the fall, said
Jennifer Jacobson, associate director of the university’s MFA program
• Noted Urdu poet and critic Bashar Navaaz passed away on 9 July 2015 Maharashtra. He was
80. He was known as an Indo Pak shayar as his poetry is popular in India as well as in
Pakistan.
• Books Rayagan, Ajanabee samandar were amazing and popular books.His famous gazal is
Jaane vafaa, Bazaar, Tere Shahar me and so on.
• Omar Sharif,Egyptian-born actor has died on July 11 at 83 due to heart attack in Cairo.He
soared to international stardom in two classics,”Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago”.
• He won international fame and an Oscar-nomination for best supporting actor for his role in
the 1962 film “Lawrence of Arabia” with Peter O’Toole.
• Sharif became a Hollywood heartthrob and played a variety of roles, including a Spanish
priest in Behold a Pale Horse (1964), a Yugoslav wartime patriot in The Yellow Rolls-Royce
(1964) and the Mongolian conqueror in Genghis Khan (1965).
Prince Saud al-Faisal, World’s longest serving Foreign Minister passes away
• Former Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has died at the age of 75.
• He was the world’s longest serving foreign minister for 40 years.
• Prince Saud was appointed in 1975 and served under four Saudi kings, advancing the
kingdom’s foreign policy.
• Former Tamil Nadu minister and AIADMK MLA P Chendur Pandian died here today following
prolonged illness.
• Pandian (64), representing Kadayanallur Assembly constituency.
• Japanese videogame maker Nintendo Co Ltd’s CEO and President, Satoru Iwata has
died. He was 55.
• Iwata has been a director at Nintendo since 2000, and was appointed president in 2002. He
has also acted as CEO of the U.S. unit since 2013.
127 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• MS Viswanathan, a popular music composer of South Indian cinema passed away on 14 July
2015 in Chennai. He was 87.
• He was being treated for geriatric disorders i.e. old-age related ailments. Also he had lost his
memory. He was somewhat recovering but from past few days his situation was not good.
• M S Viswanathan (fondly called MSV) was born in Palakkad in Kerala and composed songs for
more than 1,200 films in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. He was popularly known as ‘king of
light music’ (Mellisai Mannar). “Sonnathu Needhana” (Nenjil Oru Alayam), “Viswanathan Velai
Vendum” (Kadalikka Neram Illai), “Kettavarellam Padalam” (Thangai) are among MSV’s all
time favourites that are still popular in Tamil Nadu.
• He composed music for 86 Tamil films with fellow composer T K Ramamurthy. He also
worked with legendary filmmaker K Balachander and produced hit music for his films.
• He also worked in some Malayalam films. But he could not make a good career in acting.
• He has received many music awards including Kakamamani award and the Thirai Isai
Chakravarthy (Tamil for “The Emperor of Cine Music”) by Tamil Nadu Government.
• His wife died in 2012 and he is survived by four sons and three daughters.
• The Tamil cinema industry has described MSV’s death as an irreparable loss.
• Former Billiards and Snooker Federation of India(BSFI) President Pashupatinath Roy passed
away. He was 76 years old.
• He served BSFI in various capacities. Apart from this he was also the president of West
Bengal Badminton Association for more than five decades.
• Iconic musician Joan Sebastian from Mexico has died after battling bone cancer for more
than 15 years. He was 64.
• He was a five-time Grammy Award winner and released more than 50 albums during his
career which spanned over 40 years.
• He was best known for his sentimental love songs such as “Secreto de Amor” and “Tatuajes”
• Veteran Telugu playback singer V Ramakrishna passed away on 15 July 2015 after battling
cancer. He was 68. He is survived by wife, a daughter and a son.
128 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Born in 1947, Ramakrishna sang about 5000 songs in a career spanning nearly four decades.
He had done huge hit songs in films like Andala Ramudu, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Mutyala
Muggu.
• Uruguay’s soccer legend Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia has passed away at 88.
• He scored the winning goal in the final game of the 1950 World Cup to give Uruguay a
stunning 2-1 victory over Brazil.
• French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi has died of critical head injuries sustained at last
year’s Japanese Grand Prix. He was 25.
• He had been in coma since the accident in last October.
• Bianchi had previously raced in Formula Renault 3.5, the GP2 Series and Formula Three and
was a Ferrari Driver Academy member.
• Alex Rocco, the US actor best known for his role in crime drama The Godfather, has died of
cancer aged 79.
• Rocco played Moe Greene, the casino boss who angrily resisted a takeover attempt from
rising mafia boss Michael Corleone and paid for it with a bullet through his eye.
• In a career spanning half a century, Rocco won an Emmy for his role in 1990s sitcom The
Famous Teddy Z. He also voiced the studio boss behind Itchy and Scratchy in The Simpsons.
• Rocco made his debut in cult director Russ Meyer’s 1965 film Motor Psycho.
• Six years later, he won a part in what was to become regarded as one of the best films ever
made.
• Noted Urdu fiction writer Dr Bisheshar Pradeep died in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on 19 July
2015. He was 80.
• Pradeep was a prolific writer who penned more than a dozen fiction books in Urdu and was
best known for his ‘Afsana Nigari’, the fiction writing form in Urdu.
• Retired as director from state PWD of Uttar Pradesh, he was a native of a place near
Pakistan’s Faisalabad and migrated to India after partition.
• He was awarded with ‘Urdu Hindi Sahitya Akademi Award’ in 1996 and also won a national
level award for his children’s book ‘Surkh Gulab’.
129 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Olaf Pooley passed away at the age of 101. He was a noted hollywood actor.
• He was very famous for his role as villainous scientist Professor Stahlman in Doctor Who
show, which he starred in during the 1970s.
• He was also a guest director at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and directed
Anthony Hopkins in The Waltz of the Toreadors.
• The “Archie” cartoonist who brought to life the escapades of the freckled- face, red-haired
character, has died in Texas.
• He began drawing cartoons while in the US Navy during the Korean War.
Moore drew Archie Andrews and his friends on and off from 1953 until he retired in the late
1980s. Annual sales of the comic regularly surpassed half a million during the 1960s,
according to the El Paso Times.
• After retiring, Moore kept tabs on Archie, and disagreed when the comic book company
decided to kill off the character.The El Paso Museum of Art displayed some of Moore’s work
and his vast comic collection about 20 years ago.
• Former Governor of Kerala and Bihar, R S Gavai, passed away after a prolonged illness at a
private hospital. He was 86.
• Gavai was a former Chairman of the State Legislative Council and Lok Sabha member from
Amravati Constituency.
• He was the Chairman of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, which manages the
Deekshabhoomi, the historic place where Dr Ambedkar embraced Buddhism in 1956.
130 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Former Union Minister and a six-time Lok Sabha member from Assam, Bijoy Krishna
Handique passed away at the age of 82. He was the veteran leader of Indian National
Congress from the Northeast state of Assam.
• Handique was first elected to Lok Sabha from Jorhat in 1991 and continued winning in six
successive elections.
• Handique has earlier served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1980 to 1986 and as minister of
state for defence and parliamentary affairs (2004-2007), chemicals and fertilizers (2006-
2009).
• Handique has also served as minister of state first for mines and later for development of
Northeastern region from 2009 to 2011 in the UPA governments under Manmohan.
Former Indian president and eminent scientist APJ(Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen) Abdul kalam(1931-2015)
who is India’s 11th president of India died at 83 on 27th july(Monday) evening at a hospital in
meghalaya,where he had gone to deliver a lecture.
• South Africa’s first captain of the post-apartheid era Clive Rice died on Tuesday after battling
a brain tumour Career.
• He played in 482 first-class matches for Transvaal, Natal and Nottinghamshire, scoring
26,331 runs at an average of 40.95.
• He also took 930 wickets at 22.49 apiece before retiring in 1994.
• The medical fraternity, scientists and biologists are mourning over the sad demise of India’s
most respectable HIV researcher and the President of the AIDS Society of India, Dr. Suniti
Solomon. Dr. Solomon, who was ailing from liver cancer, passed away at her residence in
Chennai.
131 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• She was 76 years old and was the first to bring to the world the prevalence of HIV infection
in India in 1986. She was also the first one to successfully lead the research into the
treatment of HIV infected individuals.
• Dr. Suniti Solomon earned an M.D in Microbiology from Madras University. She was trained
in pathology in the United Kingdom and the United States.
• Veteran Sri Lankan historian Santasilan Kadirgamar passed away following a brief illness. Mr.
Kadirgamar was born in Chavakachcheri of Jaffna in April 1934
• Santasilan Kadirgamar did his schooling from Jaffna College and pursued higher studies in
history at the University of Peradeniya and the International Christian University in Tokyo,
Japan.
• As a student Kadirgamar was involved with Left movement of Sri Lanka as a sympathiser of
the Lanka Sama Samaj Party.
• In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was among those who were instrumental in setting up
the Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE – Jaffna) and the Jaffna Citizens’
Committee.
• He was author of several books some of his works included “The Tamils of Lanka: Their
Struggle for Justice and Equality with Dignity” and “The Left Tradition in Lankan Tamil
Politics.
• Mr. Kadirgamar is remembered for his work in 1980 on the history and impact of the short-
lived Jaffna Youth Congress, which stood for egalitarian and democratic principles.
132 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• Vasundhara Komkali was recognised with several awards, including one conferred by the
Sangeet Natak Academy, and the prestigious Padmashri award.
Vice President Presented with the Books ‘Journey of A Curious Mind’ & ‘Lord Jagnnath’
• The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari was presented with two books entitled
“Journey of a Curious Mind” authored by Dr. Jagannath Patnaik and another one
entitled “Lord Jagannath” authored by Shri Prasnna Kumar Patsani, Member of
Parliament (Lok Sabha)
• The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari released a book entitled “Kashmir The
Vajpayee Years” authored by Shri A.S. Dulat, former Head of R&AW with Shri Aditya
Sinha, Senior Journalist. Addressing on the occasion, the Vice President said that an occasion
like this is rare and it does signal health rather than ill health of the Republic.
VICE PRESIDENT RELEASES THE BOOK ‘LOCALE, EVERYDAY ISLAM AND MODERNITY’
• The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari released a book entitled “Locale, Everyday
Islam and Modernity” authored by Shri M. Raisur Rahman.Addressing on the occasion, the
Vice President said that he is fully delighted to read such a valuable book which is in fact a
chapter of North Indian history on Qasbahs.
PM’s remarks at the release of the book “Early Hindu Temples of Gujarat”
• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today urged both greater awareness, and greater
pride, in India’s heritage. He was speaking after releasing a book “Early Hindu Temples of
Gujarat,” by Varun Maira, in New Delhi.
• He said efforts such as this book would help us rediscover this heritage. The Prime Minister
said heritage and history go together, and heritage buildings are not just stone, but “living
history.”
133 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Vice President Releases the Book ‘Swatantrata Senani Raja Mahendra Pratap”
• The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari released a book entitled “Swatantrata
Senani Raja Mahendra Pratap” edited by Shri Raghuvir Singh ‘Arvind’.
• Addressing on the occasion the Vice President said that Raja Mahendra Prarap was a true
nationalist and his ideas were far ahead of their time. He opined that his Memoir should be
made available in book and documentary forms for wider reach among the masses so that
people may learn from his great contribution in freedom struggle.
• Indian author Anuradha Roy and British-Indian Sunjeev Sahota are among 13
international authors long-listed for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, the prestigious literary prize
committee announced here on Wednesday.
• Roy has been picked for her third novel, ‘Sleeping on Jupiter’, and Sahota for ‘The Year
of the Runaways’.
• The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee received the first copy of the book ‘Uniki’in
Hyderabad today (July 3, 2015). The book has been written by Shri Ch Vidyasagar Rao,
Governor of Maharashtra.
• The President received the book from Shri K Chandrashekar Rao, Chief Minister of Telangana
who formally released it.
• Book titled India Central Asia Relations: The Economic Dimension authored by Amiya
Chandra came in news in second week of July 2015.
• It came in news during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to central Asian countries,
namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Vice President Releases the book Locale, Everyday Islam and Modernity
• The Vice President of India Shri M.Hamid Ansari released a book entitled Locale, Everyday
Islam and Modernity authored by Shri M. Raisur Rahman at a function.
• Dissolving the distinctions between centre and periphery, this book presents the Qasbahs of
colonial India as vital and vibrant centres of intense intellectual and cultural activity.
134 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
• The book demonstrates that the emergence of modernity among Muslims was a process
during their colonial encounter in which Qasbah residents were active agents, and the Islam
that emerged was that of everyday living.
• The music world celebrated the 76th birth anniversary of Rahul Dev Burman on June 27,
along with a documentary and a Rs.5 .
• Khagesh Dev Burman’s written a book RD Burman: The Prince of Music Published by Rupa
Publications.
• This book looks at his childhood in Kolkata, his failure in studies, his beginning as an
assistant to his father, SD Burman, his rise as a musician and his eventual downfall due to
ill-health and some bad decisions.
• The book also talks about the role of the film director in shaping its music, especially those
that shaped RD’s career.
Important Days
July 1 2015
July 4 2015
July 6 2015
July 11 2015
July 12 2015
135 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Purpose: It is a day to stand up for the rights of all children to receive a full, free, and adequate
education.
July 15 2015
July 17 2015
July 18 2015
July 23 2015
July 26 2015
July 28 2015
July 29 2015
July 30 2015
136 | P a g e
Current Affairs PDF: July 2015
Help:
If You Satisfied with our Capsule mean kindly donate some amount
to SavetheChildren.in – Education is a Gift for Life or Kindly Suggest this site to
our family members & friends !!!
137 | P a g e