10 July 2015 Important current affairs / Gk / GA: Akash made by Defence PSU Bharat Electronics inducted into Indian Air Force (IAF).
- BEL, the nodal agency and supplies major sub-systems, today at a ceremony held at Air Force Station, Gwalior, handed over the missile system.
- Akash is a great success story of the ‘Make in India’ initiative and Bharat Electronics Limited is proud to be a part of it. Barring a few electronic components, every bit of Akash has the ‘Made in India’ tag. Almost 92 per cent of the total cost of inputs is sourced within India.
- The induction of Akash into the Indian Air Force was marked by the symbolic handing over of the ‘key’ of the weapon system by S K Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, BEL, to the Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, who in turn handed over the key to Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Chief of the Air Staff. S Christopher, Director General, DRDO, was present.
- Senior dignitaries of the Ministry of Defence, Indian Air Force, DRDO and Defence PSUs were also present at ceremony.
India and Pakistan gets full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
- PM Narendra Modi congratulated Pakistan on joining the SCO.
- Modi is on a three-day visit to Russia to attend the BRICS and SCO summits
- Indian PM Narendra Modi has accepted an invitation from his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to attend a regional summit in Islamabad next year.
Bandhan Bank Ltd on 9 July 2015 appointed its Chairman and Board of Directors.
- The Bank is scheduled to commence its operation in india from 23 August 2015.
- It will be the first bank to be established in Eastern India post Independence.
Key Appoitments :
- Chairman of the Bank – Ashok Kumar Lahiri (former Chief Economic Adviser to the Union Government)
- MD and CEO of Bank – Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder of Bandhan Financial Services Ltd.
- Note : They both will be in the board of directors as well.
Appointment of Directors :
- Sambamurthy – former Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank
- C M Dixit – Senior Partner at GD Apte & Co
- Prof Krishnamurthy Subramanian – Associate Professor of Finance at Indian School of Business
- Snehomoy Bhattacharya – Former Executive Director (Corporate Affairs) of Axis Bank
- Pradip Kumar Saha – former Chief General Manager at Small Industries Development Bank of India
- Sisir Kumar Chakrabarti – former Dy. Managing Director of Axis Bank
- Bhaskar Sen – former Chairman and Managing Director of United Bank of India
- TS Raji Gain – Chief General Manager of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
Note : All these appointments are subjected to the approval of the RBI.
Record of spending longest time in space set by Russian Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.
- He has set a Guinness World Record for spending longest time in space with a total of 804 days as on July 2015.
- With this he broke the previous record of 803 days, nine hours and 41 minutes set by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev (now retired) across six missions from 1998 to 2005.
- Gennady Padalka was selected as a cosmonaut candidate at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 1989.
- Currently, he is the commander of the International Space Station (ISS) which is orbiting the Earth. He is associated with ISS from 2000 and had taken part in various space expeditions.
- Padalka is going to return to Earth in September 2015.
- When he will return to Earth, he would have spent record total 877 days or around 2.5 years in space.
Earthquake early warning system set up in Uttarakhand, thus becoming first indian state to install such system.
- The first system has been installed in its capital Dehradun which will issue warnings 1-40 seconds before earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more occur.
- The system is designed and manufactured by Italian firm, Space Dynamics which already has installed it in Japan, Italy and US.
- The system is incorporated with sensors which are capable to detect P (Primary) and S (Secondary) waves generated during an earthquake. It is capable to detect the harmless P wave, which travels faster than the S wave for advance warning.
- The second system will be established at Pithoragarh in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. Note : Uttarakhand falls under seismic zone V i.e. High-Risk Seismic Zone. Apart from it, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rann of Kutch (Gujarat), Northern Bihar and Andaman & Nicobar Islands also fall under this seismic zone.
SBT NRI family card launched by State Bank of Travancore.
- Jeevandas Narayan, Managing Director, launched the card at a function held at the NRI Premium Banking Branch of the bank here.
- State Bank of Travancore (SBT) has launched the ‘SBT NRI Family Card,’ a prepaid card for resident Indians – family member/dependent/acquaintance of NRIs.
- The card can be used for cash withdrawals through ATM, online payments and POS (point of sale) payments at merchant establishments.
- A card holder in India can now easily receive remittances from an NRI by way of periodic recharge through the NRI’s internet banking account.
Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) signed a multilateral agreement to cooperate with New Development Bank (NDB) along with other member development banks of BRICS nations.
- New Development Bank (NDB) is promoted by the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
- The agreement was signed between Exim Bank Chairman and Managing Director Yaduvendra Mathur and Chairpersons or Presidents of other member development banks of BRICS in Ufa, Russia during the BRICS Summit 2015.
Renowned Urdu poet and critic Bashar Navaaz passes away on 9 July 2015 following a brief illness in Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
- He was 80. He was known as an Indo Pak shayar as his poetry is popular in India as well as in Pakistan.
- He was born on 18 August 1935 at Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
- Navaaz was famous for his writings that were regularly published in various Urdu literary journals magazines in India and abroad.
- His books Rayagan, Ajanabee samandar were very popular among gazal lovers.
- He was also awarded with various prestigious awards for his contribution to Urdu Literature including Galib award of Galib Academy New Delhi, Maharashtra State Urdu Academy award, Iftekhaar E Adab award and the Pulotsav Samman.
PM modi proposed “Dus Kadam : Ten steps for Future” to bring BRICS member closer.
which are :
- Trade fair
- Railway Research Centre
- Cooperation among supreme audit institutions
- Digital Initiative
- Agricultural Research Centre
- State/Local Government’s Forum
- Cooperation amongst cities in field of Urbanisation
- BRICS Sports Council
- Annual Sports Meet
- BRICS film festival
- India will be hosting the 8th BRICS summit in 2016
