GK and Current Affairs Updates

Multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $631 million loan for building India’s first coastal industrial corridor between Visakhapatnam (Vizag) and Chennai. 
•    The fund will help develop the first key 800-km section of the planned 2,500-km East Coast Economic Corridor. 
•    The coastal industrial corridor is expected to boost development on eastern coast of India and enable seamless trade links with other parts of Southeast and South Asia. 
•    The total cost of the project is 846 million dollars and work on it is expected to be over by 2031. 
•    The remaining 215 million dollars will be funded by Andhra Pradesh government. 
•    The new infrastructure will be built in the four main centres — Visakhapatnam, Amaravati, Kakinada and Yerpedu-Srikalahasti — along the corridor. 
•    It will include 138 km of state highways and roads, 10 power substations, 488 km of drinking water pipeline, 47 km of storm drains, water treatment plants, and 281 km of power transmission and distribution lines.

Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu on 20 September 2016 released the third list of Smart Cities that will get funding for initiating urban reforms. The list includes names of 27 new cities.
With this, the number of cities selected under Smart City Mission for financing implementation of smart city plans has gone up to 60.
The 27 smart cities announced are from 12 States including 5 from Maharashtra, 4 each from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, 3 from Uttar Pradesh and 2 each from Punjab and Rajasthan. Nagaland and Sikkim have made it to the smart city list for the first time. List of the 27 cities
States    Cities
Punjab    Amritsar, Jalandhar
Maharashtra    Kalyan-Dombivili, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, Aurangabad
Madhya Pradesh    Ujjain, Gwalior
Andhra Pradesh    Tirupati
Karnataka    Managaluru, Tumakuru, Shivamogga, Hubbali-Dharwad,
Uttar Pradesh    Agra, Kanpur, Varanasi
Odisha    Rourkela
Tamil Nadu    Vellore, Madurai, Thanjavur, Salem,
Rajasthan    Kota, Ajmer
Gujarat    Vadodara
Nagaland    Kohima
Sikkim    Namchi
 

India will finally ink the deal for direct acquisition of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France on Friday. 
•    IAF, after all, is down to just 33 fighter squadrons when at least 42 are required for dissuasive deterrence against China and Pakistan.
•    The overall cost of the 36 twin-engine Rafales , along with their weapon packages, associated supplies and logistics, is pegged at around 7.8 billion euros (over Rs 59,000 crore).
•    It is capable of delivering nuclear weapons, & will touch down in India within three years. 
•    All 36 jets will be delivered in 66 months. India will pay around 15% (around Rs 9,000 crore) as the first installment.
•    The inking of the IGA comes 20 months after the proposed government-to-government deal was announced during the Modi-Hollande summit in Paris in April 2015. 

Mortgage lender HDFC will raise Rs. 1,340 crore through an issue of bonds on private placement basis.
•    The bonds in the nature of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures will bear coupon rate of 7.67 per cent annually.
•    "The object of the issue is to augment the long-term resources of the Corporation. The proceeds of the present issue would be utilised for financing/refinancing the housing finance business requirements of the Corporation," it said in a regulatory filing. 
•    The issue opens on Friday and closes on the same day.
•    Axis Bank is the arranger of the issue.
•    HDFC stock closed 0.10 per cent down at Rs. 1392.20 on BSE.
•    HDFC Bank is an Indian banking and financial services company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. 
•    It has about 76,286 employees including 12,680 women and has a presence in Bahrain, Hong Kong and Dubai.

ICC Chairman Shashank Manohar has congratulated the BCCI for the country’s 500th Test, which will be played against New Zealand in Kanpur.
•    This is a huge milestone in the history of Indian cricket. 
•    India has been a very important member of the ICC with its rich heritage and great following for the game.
•    India has produced world-class players who have entertained fans the world over. 
•    The ICC wish its team all the best for this 500th Test and in the years to come,” he added.
•    India off-spinner Ashwin will work towards regaining the number-one spot in the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers in the three-match series.
•    Third-ranked Ashwin, who held the top spot for a fortnight at the end of 2015 and again for a week in July this year, starts the series just 19 points adrift of top-ranked Dale Steyn of South Africa and 11 points behind England’s James Anderson.

India on 20 September 2016 successfully test-fired the most advanced surface-to-air missile 'Barak-8' off the Odisha coast. 
•    The long-range nuclear capable ballistic missile, developed jointly with Israel, was launched from a mobile launcher at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur in Balasore district.
•    The 4.5-meter missile weighs around 3 tonnes and can carry a payload of 70 kilograms. 
•    The system also includes a Multi-Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar (MF STAR) for detection, tracking and guidance of the missile.
•    The missile swung into action after getting a signal from the radars to intercept a moving aerial target supported by an unmanned air vehicle ‘Banshee’ over the Bay of Bengal.
•    As a precautionary measure, Balasore district administration had made adequate arrangements to temporarily shift 3700 people residing within the 2.5 km radius. 
•    The fishermen were also asked not to venture into the sea during the launch.
•    Earlier between 30 June and 1 July 2016, the Barak-8 was successfully test fired twice.

India has been ranked 112th out of 159 countries in the 2016 World Economic Freedom Index (WEFI). 
•    The index was release as part of the 2016 annual report of the Economic Freedom. 
•    The report measures the economic freedom by analyzing the policies and institutions of all 159 countries and territories and was based on data from the year 2014. 
•    The economic freedom index of a country is directly proportional to the freedom and opportunities available to its citizens. 
•    Top 10 Countries in 2016 WEFI: Hong Kong (1st), Singapore (2nd), New Zealand (3rd), Switzerland (4th), Canada (5th), Georgia (6th), Ireland (7th), Mauritius (8th), UAE (9th) and Australia (10th). 
•    10 lowest-ranked countries: Iran (150th), Algeria (151st), Chad (152nd), Guinea (153rd), Angola (154th), Central African Republic (155th), Argentina (156th), Congo (157th), Libya (158th) and Venezuela (159th).

Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on 19 September 2016 inaugurated the super computer PARAM ISHAN at IIT Guwahati campus.
•    Students and faculty members of IIT Guwahati are expected to derive huge benefit from the facility.
•    It is the fastest and most powerful computer in North East, Eastern and Southern region.
•    It has been jointly developed by IIT Guwahati and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, C -DAC.
•    PARAM ISHAN has the power of 250 Teraflops and 300 terabyte capacity and can be used in the application areas like computational chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, computational electromagnetic, civil engineering structures, nana-block self assemble, optimization and others.
•    It can also be used for weather, climate modeling and seismic data processing.

NITI Aayog’s proposal for shutting down 17 sick or loss-making government companies has received the go-ahead from Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). 
•    A second set of proposals from the Aayog for strategic sales aimed at reducing government ownership to below 51 per cent in about 22 public sector companies has also got the green signal from the PMO.
•    This second list includes the Miniratna helicopter services operator Pawan Hans Limited, Scooters India Limited, Cement Corporation of India Limited and three plants of the Maharatna Steel Authority of India (SAIL) located at Salem, Durgapur and Bhadravati. 
•    The Finance Ministry is approaching the Cabinet for its approval separately for each of the strategic sales the PMO has approved. 
•    The list of loss-making companies to be closed includes Indian Oil-CREDA Biofuels Ltd and CREDA HPCL Biofuel Ltd, both Jatropha oil-focussed subsidiaries of state-owned petroleum giants.

The standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) cleared Phase-I of Ken-Betwa river link project in its first meeting with new Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave as chairman.
•    The minutes of the meeting, held on August 23, was approved Monday.
•    The Rs 10,000-crore project requires diversion of 5,258 hectares of forest land, including 4,141 hectares of Panna Tiger Reserve.
•    The project was given in-principle approval in the 38th meeting of the NBWL standing committee on May 10. 
•    At the 39th meeting on August 23, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) director “indicated that the (expert) group was convinced that reducing dam height by 10 metres will result in non-availability of water for linking”.
•    The dam reservoir area will be retained as core tiger reserve with minimum activities.
•    No fishing will be allowed at the dam site.
•    No new mining leases will be allowed on tiger dispersal routes.