GK and Current Affairs Updates

The 2016 International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer was observed across the world on 16 September 2016. 
•    The UN General Assembly in 1994 proclaimed 16 September as the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer to commemorate the date of the signing of the Montreal Protocol.
•    Montreal Protocol was signed on 16 September 1987.
•    It has been recognized as the most successful international environment treaty in history.
•    As of 1 January 2015, the production and consumption of key Ozone Depleting Substances (ODSs) like chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs), CTC halons, Methyl Chloroform and Methyl Bromide have already been phased-out globally.
•    The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer is a Multilateral Environmental Agreement.
•    It was agreed upon at the Vienna Conference of 1985 and entered into force in 1988.

An indigenously built warship equipped with a range of high-tech missiles was launched on Saturday with Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba.
•    Christened ' Mormugao ', the vessel has been built by government-run Mazgaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) and belongs to Visakhapatnam class of ships being constructed under Project 15B.
•    The Project 15B missile destroyers are modern warships equipped with the latest weapons package in continuation of the lineage of the highly successful Delhi and Kolkata Class ships.
•    Admiral Lanba's wife Reena launched the bedecked ship at a function at MDL here at 11.58am and it was released into the Arabian Sea for the first time. 
•    The vessel will undergo certain testings required by Indian Navy and would be subsequently known as INS Mormugao.
•    Four more such destroyers would be built and delivered by MDL during 2020-2024, the PSU said in a statement.
•    The first ship of the Visakhapatnam class was launched on April 20, 2015. 
 

Bharti Airtel sought Jio’s cooperation for timely testing and commissioning of the network ports.
•    Airtel said interconnect agreement provides for a commissioning period of 90 days.
•    The telecom operator said it has ensured there are no capacity constraints from its end. 
•    We hope Jio will extend its full cooperation to ensure timely testing and commissioning of the PoIs it said in a statement. 
•    Airtel released ‘demand notes’ for the additional PoIs on September 14 itself.
•    The payment against the demand notes was received in parts by Airtel on September 15, 2016 and September 16, 2016.
•    As per the bilateral agreement, Airtel and Jio will now have to jointly undertake the physical connection and testing of the PoIs. 
•    Consequent to successful testing of the PoIs, these will be opened for traffic. 

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance's IPO, worth up to Rs 6,057 crore and biggest for Indian markets in about six years, will hit the capital market on Monday.
•    Ahead of the IPO, ICICI Prudential has allocated over 4.89 crore shares at Rs 334, the top-end of the price band, aggregating Rs 1,635.33 crore to a clutch of anchor investors from India and abroad. 
•    It marks one of the biggest anchor investor placements in the Indian IPO market.
•    Among the 40-odd anchor investors are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Government Of Singapore, UTI MF, Russell Investment, GMO Emerging, SBI MF, Tata MF, HDFC Standard Life, Reliance, Birla Sun Life, Kotak Mahindra, IDFC,National Pension Service Managed By Oaktree Capital Management L P and The Boeing Company Employee Retirement Plans Master Trust.
•    The offer would constitute 12.63% of the company's post-offer paid-up equity share capital. 
•    At the upper end of the price band, the offer would be worth Rs 6,057 crore.
•    This would be the biggest initial public offering after Coal India. 
•    The state-run firm had hit the capital markets in 2010 to raise over Rs 15,000 crore.

Since 2010, FIFA had enjoyed the role of sole proprietor of football’s most prestigious individual award; FIFA merged the two awards into one, leaving its title as the Ballon D’Or, and doing away with the FIFA version.
•    France Football are set to regain control of the Ballon D’Or this year, while FIFA will take care of its own award once more.
•    The Ballon D’Or gala will take place in Paris, its original home until 2010, when Zurich took over as Ballon D’Or HQ.

•    FIFA, meanwhile, are working on getting their own award show ready, with London set to be their location.
•    FIFA President Infantino wants to make the FIFA World Player award the most prestigious award in football.

Scientists have found signs of a baby planet thought to be an icy giant – similar to Uranus and Neptune – growing around a nearby star, a discovery that may help better understand the origins of various types of planets.
•    While a number of new planets have been found in the past two decades, it is still unclear how the icy giant planets form.
•    The scientists hope that the finding could be another step towards understanding the origins of various types of planet.
•    Astronomers from Ibaraki University in Japan have observed the growing planet around TW Hydrae – a nearby young star. This star, estimated to be 10 million years old, is one of the closest young stars to Earth.
•    TW Hydrae is one of the most favourable targets for investigating planet formation.
•    Past observations have shown that TW Hydrae is surrounded by a disk made of tiny dust particles. This disk is the site of planet formation.
 

Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said 2.33 crore bogus ration cards have been weeded out all over the country, that nearly paralysed the public distribution system, due to Aadhaar seeding.
•    Addressing a conference on reforms in Public Distribution System (PDS), Pawan revealed that this weeding led to ‘Rightful Targeting of Food Subsidies’ of Rs 14,000 crore.
•    Eliminating duplicate or fake ration cards will help save a lot in subsidy bill annually.
•    The Union Minister also stressed on the importance and role digitisation played in automating 1.5 lakh fair price shops. He urged states to expedite reforms.
•    As on March 31, 2015, there were 11 crore households with public distribution system (PDS) ration cards.
•    The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is a government ministry of India. The Ministry is headed by a minister of Cabinet rank. 
•    The ministry is divided into two departments, the Department of Food and Public Distribution and the Department of Consumer Affairs .
 

India on Friday extended a fresh $750-million credit line to Nepal for post-earthquake reconstruction. 
•    This was among three agreements signed following delegation-level talks chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart, Puhspa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" here. 
•    The $750-million credit line is over and above the $1 billion aid that India announced following the devastating earthquake in the Himalayan nation last April that claimed over 8,000 lives. 
•    The two sides also signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU) for project management consultancy services for upgrading and improving the road infrastructure in Nepal's Terai area. 
•    Another agreement was signed on the first amendatory dollar credit line for post-earthquake reconstruction projects in Nepal. 
 

India lost its appeal at the World Trade Organization in a dispute over solar power on Friday, failing to overturn a US complaint that New Delhi had discriminated against importers in the Indian solar power sector.
•    The WTO's appeals judges upheld an earlier ruling that found India had broken WTO rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules. 
•    The appeal ruling is final and India will be expected to bring its laws into compliance with the WTO rules.
•    Indian officials made no immediate comment on the appeal outcome.
•    US solar exports to India have fallen by more than 90 percent since India brought in the rules, the statement said.
•    As in the earlier ruling, which was issued in February this year, the judges said India could not claim exemptions on the basis that its national solar power sector was included in government procurement, nor on the basis that solar goods were in short supply.
 

China on Thursday successfully launched Tiangong-2 — its space lab, which is part of an ambitious plan, stretched along several phases, to establish a manned space station around 2022.
•    A Long March-2F T2 rocket lifted the space lab from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi desert. 
•    After a flight of 580 seconds, it entered its designated orbit 380 kilometres above Earth. 
•    Initial tests would be conducted at this stage.
•    Subsequently, the space lab would be transferred to a slightly higher orbit, around 393 kilometres above Earth — the height of the future Chinese space station. 
•    Once this is achieved, the Shenzhou-11 manned spaceship would ferry two astronauts into space to dock with the lab in mid-to-late October.
•    The two astronauts will work in Tiangong-2 for 30 days before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. 
•    The two astronauts will carry out experiments related to aerospace medicine, space physics and biology, quantum key transmission, space atomic clock and solar storms.