26 July and 27 July 2015 Important current affairs / Gk / GA : Missile man of India and former president APJ Abdul Kalam passed away on 27 July 2015 following his collapse during a lecture in IIM, Shillong.
- Kalam is considered as People’s president.
- He became the 11th President of the country and occupied the post between 2002 and 2007 during the NDA government headed Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
About APJ Abdul Kalam :
- Kalam was one of India’s most eminent scientists and had the unique honour of receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions
- He was born on 15th October 1931 at Rameshwaram, Tamilnadu.
- He completed his graduation in 1960 from Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai.
- Then he joined DRDO as a scientist. He started his career by designing a small helicopter for the Indian Army.
- In 1969, Kalam was transferred to ISRO, where he was project director of India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III).
- He also served as the Chief Scientific Adviser to then PM and as the secretary of the DRDO from July 1992 to December 1999.
- Awards : He has been awarded with the coveted civilian awards including Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997).
- Books : India 2020,Wings Of Fire and Ignited Minds.
Terrorist attack on dinanagar town of district Gurdaspur in Punjab, 7 people killed.
- Seven people including 4 policemen killed in terrorist attack on Dinanagar town of Gurdaspur District.
- This was the first such attack in Punjab in two decades since the end of Khalistani Terrorism in 1980s.
- SWAT, special units of the Punjab Police killed all the terrorist after 11 hours longs gun battle.
- Dinanagar town is located just 12 km away from India-Pakistan Border, 25 km away from J & K Border and 235 km away from Chandigarh.
Kargil Victory day : 16th anniversary of the Indian victory in the 1999 Kargil war was celebrated across the country on 26th July.
- Functions held in all army cantonments and by citizen groups across the country.
- The primary function, however, held in Dras under the aegis of 8 Division that bore the maximum brunt of the war.
- July 26, 1999, was a fateful day when the Indian Army put paid to yet another audacious misadventure by Pakistan in the unforgiving heights of the Kargil and the Batalik sectors.
- The Kargil war, that witnessed fighting in heights up to 18,000 feet with extremely low temperatures, culminated with the complete routing of the enemy and physical re-possession of the ground that had been occupied by stealth and deceit.
Christopher Froome became first Briton to win the Tour de France twice.
- Exceptionally, the 100th Tour treated itself to a nighttime finish on the Champs—Elysees.
- The famous avenue and the Arc de Triomphe at the top of it were bathed in yellow light emphasizing the canary yellow of Froome’s famous jersey.
- In two years, Britain has now had two different winners- Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and then Froome, a cooler, calmer, more understated but no less determined character than his Sky teammate with famous sideburns.
- Froome rode into Paris in style- Riders pedaled up to him to offer congratulations; he sipped from a flute of champagne; a Tour organizer stuck an arm from his car window to shake Froome’s hand. He dedicated his victory to his late mother, Jane, who died in 2008.
Axis Bank signed 7-year bilateral loan agreement worth USD 200-million 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, the city-headquartered lender said in a statement.
- Axis Bank treasury and transaction banking head Sidharth Rath said “this commitment from ADB will strengthen our rural lending and microfinance initiatives, which we regard as an integral component of its overall strategy.”
Maharashtra government plans to develop six solar cities in order to add solar capacity of 7,500 MW in the state.
- To enhance solar capacity in country Centre has planned to develop 55 solar cities across the country among them six are from Maharashtra these are – Nagpur, Thane, Aurangabad, Kalyan-Dombivli, Shirdi and Nanded.
- The selection of these cities was done on basis of the population and other criteria and would be developed through the joint funding from Centre and State Government.
- To meet the increasing demand for power Maharashtra government has targeted to add 14,400 MW through renewable energy source.
- Out of this target nearly 7,500 MW will be added through solar energy projects, over 5,000 MW will be added through wind and rest from other sources like industrial and domestic waste.
Two big IT companies CSC and HCL signed an agreement to form a new company to provide technology services and solutions to the banking industry.
- In the joint statement the partners said that their main focus will be on platform modernisation, product functionality enhancement and to capitalise their capabilities in addressing global core banking software market.
- According to the agreement CSC that serves in 15 countries with 100 premier banking and financial services clients, will provide its core banking expertise for software and product development. Whereas, HCL will provide funds, it’s banking sales and client engagement expertise and also its experience in product engineering and application implementation services in order to modernise the banking industries.
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Six times Lok Sabha member Bijoy Krishna Handique passes away on 26 July 2015 at the Jorhat Medical College Hospital in Assam following brief illness.
- He was 82. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.
- Handique was first elected to Assam Legislative Assembly in 1972, he then became a member of All India Congress Committee in 1973 and then served as Congress Working Committee member in 2002.
About Bijoy Krishna Handique :
- Handique was born in 1934 and was first elected to Lok Sabha from Jorhat, Assam in 1991, and continued to win in six successive elections from the same constituency until he lost to Kamakhya Prasad Tasa of the Bhartiya Janata Party in 2014.
- He had also served as a Rajya Sabha member from 1980 to 1986.
- He also served as Minister of State for Defence and Parliamentary Affairs (2004-2007), Minister of chemicals and fertilizers (2006-2009).
- In 2009, he became Minister of State for mines of Northeastern region and served there till 2011.
BEL wins Dun Bradstreet’s India’s Top PSUs awards 2015 in the category of electrical and electronic equipment sector.
- The award was received by CMD of BEL Mr. S K Sharma along with Anandi Ramalingam the General Manager-National Marketing for BEL.
- This award sponsored by The Dun & Bradstreet an US public company to acknowledge the critical role played by the PSUs in the development of the Indian economy.
- BEL was declared winner in electrical and electronic equipment category for providing electrical equipment and electronic services to the Indian Defence Services.
- It has provided night vision, critical communication systems, and electronic warfare and radar systems to the Indian Defence services for last 60 years.
Anand Krishnamurthy is the new MD and CEO of Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB).
- He replaced Rakesh Bhatia. This appointment was done by the board of directors of CSB among the three named sent to RBI.
- Anand has previously worked with HSBC for 22 years and also headed the Wholesale Banking and Treasury of CSB for last one year.
- He was responsible for corporate banking, integrated treasury operations of the Bank and SME business for CSB.
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About Catholic Syrian Bank :
The Catholic Syrian Bank is 94 year old private sector bank founded on 26th November 1920. It has its strong base in Kerala along with significant presence in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Recently it has filed for an IPO for 400 crore rupees.
Rajesh Exports acquire world’s largest gold refining company Valcambi for Rs. 2560 crore.
- Jewellery company Rajesh Exports Ltd on Monday said that it has bought Valcambi, the world’s largest gold refining company, in an all-cash deal worth $400 million ( Rs 2560 crore).
- The deal will help it secure raw material supplies and will add to earnings per share, the company said.
- India is the world’s biggest consumer of gold, with annual demand hovering around 900 tonnes per year.
SebastianVettel wins Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix 2015.
- The four-time world champion claimed his second victory of the season and 41st of his career — drawing him level with the late Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna in equal third on the all-time list — after leading from the start to dominate a thrilling and unpredictable contest.
- Runner up : The Red Bull pair of Russian Daniil Kvyat and Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished in second and third respectively.
Kazakhstan Presidential Cup 2015 : Indian women team wins silver medal .
- Indian women’s wrestling team finished second in the fifth Senior International Wrestling Tournament (also known as Cup of the President of Republic of Kazakhstan).
- The eight-member team bagged a silver medal at the July 23-26 event held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
- Team members who won the match are Vinesh (48kg), Lalita Sehrawat (55kg) and Anita (63kg) in their respective weight categories.
- Sakshi Malik lost just one fight in 58kg division which resulted with silver medal for Indian team.
- Indian team received a prize money of US 10,000 dollars along with a trophy and medals.
- Host country Kazakhstan won the gold medal, while Mangolia won the bronze medal.
