Ramanujan Prize 2015 bestowed upon mathematician Dr. Amalendu Krishna.
- He has been bestowed with this award for his outstanding contributions in the area of algebraic cycles, algebraic K-theory and the theory of motives.
- Presently, Dr. Krishna is mathematician professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.
- He hails from Bihar and had completed his early college and schooling education there.
About Ramanujan Prize :
- The award was established in 2005.
- It is named after the noted Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
- It recognizes a researcher from a developing country who has conducted outstanding research in a developing country and is less than 45 years of age.
- Krishna is the second Indian to win this award. First was Sujatha Ramadorai who had won it in 2006.
Asia’s biggest telescope Multi-Application Solar Telescope (MAST) inaugurated at the Udaipur Solar Observatory in Rajasthan.
- The telescope was inaugurated by Professor U.R Rao, Chairman of Physical Research Laboratory.
- The telescope was installed under the project undertaken by Union Ministry of Science and Technology and was funded by Department of Space (DoS).
- The project will be monitored by Ahmedabad based Physical Research Laboratory.
- MAST has been designed in 2004 and its optical elements were added to it in 2008. In 2013, it was installed at the Udaipur Solar Observatory.
“SAMANVAY”, a web portal launched by Union Ministry of Rural Development to monitor progress and implementation of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) for development of Gram Panchayats.
- It was launched by Union Rural Development Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh.
- SAMANVAY web portal consist a compilation of all Government schemes of both Centra and State governments for Gram Panchayats.
- The purpose of this portal is to help Member of Parliament’s (MPs) to utilise relevant schemes in the planning and implementation of SAGY.
- It will act as a database for compiled and mapped information on various gram panchayat related activities through various schemes undertaken by the Centre and State Governments.
- In SAMANVAY, around 1800 state schemes from across all states have been documented.
- Apart from this, minister also launched a magazine Panchayat Darpan to monitor the progress of the SAGY.
IDFC Bank is all set to start lending operations from October 1.
- RBI granted the license to IDFC bank to commence its banking business.
- According to the terms and conditions of the bank licence, the transfer of business of IDFC Ltd. to the proposed bank should coincide with commencement of banking business.
- The auditor certificate certifying transfer of business as on date of commencement of operations of the bank should be submitted to the RBI, the financial institution informed the bourses on Tuesday.
- The board of directors of IDFC and IDFC Bank, at their meetings held on July 30 and July 27, respectively, have determined that the demerger scheme could be effective only upon receipt of requisite operational licences from the RBI and IDFC Bank Ltd. will commence the banking business from October 1.
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) wins the Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award 2015 for exemplary work in Dairy Geographical Information System.
- The award ceremony was held recently at the annual Esri International User Conference in San Diego and presided over by Jack Dangermond, President and Founder of Esri.
- With the advancement of Internet-based GIS technology, it is now possible to integrate and quickly disseminate the tremendous amount of attribute and graphical data of villages into usable information for decision-making by all stakeholders of the dairy sector.
- NDDB’s Internet-based Dairy Geographical Information System (i-DGIS) application is the first of its kind in India, where village-level integration of data has been done, at such a large scale, for the dairy sector.
Attempt : English Practice Test for Bank exams
Delhi government on 4 August 2015 decided to run trams in several walled city areas including Lal Quila, Jama Masjid and Old Delhi Railway Station.
- The decision was taken to augment transport infrastructure of the city.
- The tram network in Old Delhi will comprise Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk, Sheeshganj Gurudwara, Old Delhi Railway Station and Fatehpuri Masjid. It will also link New Delhi Railway Station and several other localities.
- The government also decided to make Shahjahanad Redevelopment Corporation, set up to carry out infrastructure projects in Old Delhi, on the lines of New Delhi Municipal Council.
- As of 2014, the Kolkata tram in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is the only public tram system in the country.
Alibaba investing 4000 crore rupees in m-commerce giant Paytm to tame the world’s e-commerce giant Amazon.
- Alibaba has picked up 25 per cent stake in Paytm’s parent company One97 through its subsidiary Ant Financial.
- Earlier it has done investments in Snapdeal, FreeCharge and now Paytm which is the largest mobile payments space in India.
- Paytm has around 80 million digital wallets and Alibaba is interested in this major mobile commerce player in this mobile-first market to topple the largest global rival Amazon.
- Through the partnership with Alibaba Indian e-commerce players now also has access to Chinese market.
- It should be noted that the Indian merchants are second biggest sellers on Alibaba portal after the Chinese.
