GK and Current Affairs Updates

Mother Teresa was posthumously conferred with the UK's prestigious Founders Award 2016.The award is given to recognise and reward exemplary achievements of people within the global Asian community.
Teresa’s only living relative, her 72-year old niece, Agi Bojazhiu received the award on 8 April 2016.
Teresa, who will be made a saint on 4 September 2016, founded the Missionaries of Charity and spent 45 years serving needy people. She passed away at the age of 87 in Kolkata in 1997.
The Founders Awards recognise and reward exemplary achievement across 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. It was launched in 2010 by Paul Sagoo, entrepreneur and founder of the Lemon group.
• Community Service award: Rami Ranger, a leading NRI entrepreneur and philanthropist who contributed 100000 pounds for the Mahatma Gandhi statue.
• Business Leader of the Year award: Prakash Lohia, Chairman and co-founder of Indorama Corporation.
• Outstanding achievement in Television’ award: Kunal Nayyar, actor from the hit American comedy series The Big Bang Theory.
• Outstanding Achievement in Cinema award: Asif Kapadia, he is Oscar and BAFT-winning documentary-maker
• Outstanding achievement in Sports award: Tottenham Hotspurs football star Son Heung-Min of South Korea
• Entrepreneur of the Year award: Anil Agrawal, founder and Executive Chairman of the metal and mining company, Vedanta Resources Corporation.
• Outstanding achievement in Science and Technology: Shuji Nakamura, inventor of the blue LED.
• Social Entrepreneur of the year award: Vikram Patel, the leading mental health researcher of India.

American aerospace company SpaceX on 9 April 2016 achieved the historic feat of successfully launching and landing Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket landed on a drone ship at sea after being launched into space.
•    This was the first time that the company succeeded in landing the rocket in Ocean. The feat was achieved after the company failed to do so in its four previous attempts. This feat also is important because the landing proved that SpaceX can land its rockets both on solid ground and Ocean.
•    This was the second time SpaceX successfully landed one of its rockets post-launch, the first time was on 21 December 2015, when the company's Falcon 9 rocket touched down at a ground-based landing site in Cape Canaveral, Florida, after putting a satellite into space.
•    Falcon 9:
•    Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.
•    As the first rocket completely developed in the 21st century, Falcon 9 was designed from the ground up for maximum reliability.
•    Falcon 9’s simple two-stage configuration minimizes the number of separation events -- and with nine first-stage engines, it can safely complete its mission even in the event of an engine shutdown.
•    Falcon 9 made history in 2012 when it delivered Dragon into the correct orbit for rendezvous with the International Space Station, making SpaceX the first commercial company ever to visit the station.
•    Since 2012, SpaceX has made a total of three flights to the space station, both delivering and returning cargo for NASA.
•    Falcon 9, along with the Dragon spacecraft, was designed from the outset to deliver humans into space and under an agreement with NASA; SpaceX is actively working toward that goal.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt on 8 April 2016 agreed to build a bridge over the Red Sea. The announced bridge will connect the two countries.
•    The planned bridge would help in boosting commerce between the two allied countries. It will also connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, and result in increasing trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels.
•    The announcement was made by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz after meeting Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi at the President’s Ittahidiya Palace. King Salman, 80-year-old monarch, is on a five-day long visit to Egypt.
•    Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, who earlier presented the King with the ceremonial Nile Collar, Egypt’s highest honour, said the bridge would be named after the Saudi king as King Salman bin Abdel Aziz Bridge.
•    A Red Sea bridge linking the two countries has been proposed several times before, but has failed to become a reality. The idea of a causeway (bridge) between the two countries had been floated since the 1980s but in the past it never crossed its planning stage.
•    Previous plans for the bridge's route suggested a 32-kilometre span across the Tiran Strait, at the entrance of the Red Sea Gulf of Aqaba, which would allow for a commute between the two countries in just 20 minutes.

Shan-e-Punjab has become the first train in the country to have surveillance cameras as part of the Railways’ initiative to ensure safety of passengers and reduce crime. 
•    As many as 122 CCTV cameras have been installed in 21 coaches of the train, which runs between Amritsar and New Delhi.
•    The facility was inaugurated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu through video conferencing from New Delhi. In his message, he said, “We promised it in the Budget and today we have fulfilled our promise,” adding passenger’s security was their prime concern.
•    Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi, Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora and senior officials of the Railways were present at the station. 
•    Cameras had been installed at a cost of Rs 36.71 lakh. These have been put up in two sleeper class coaches, three chair car coaches and all 16 non-AC coaches of the train. Four to six cameras have been installed in each bogie.
•    Cameras had been strategically placed so that they did not undermine the privacy of passengers but acted as deterrent for miscreants. 
•    LCD screens to keep an eye on the entire train have been put up inside the guards’ compartment. Parkash said high-definition images of the surveillance system would be helpful in identifying miscreants.

A copy of the first edition of the original ‘First Folio’ authored by William Shakespeare was found at the Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute, off the western coast of Scotland. The edition was first published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare death.
•    The discovery comes ahead of the 400th death anniversary of the playwright. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616.
•    With this, the number of known surviving copies of the First Folio in the world to 234. Most others are in libraries and accessible only to scholars.
•    It is one of the world’s most sought-after books, which contains 36 of the Bard, 18 of which would otherwise not have been recorded.
•    The goatskin-bound book contains plays like Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and The Tempest among others.
•    The First Folio is worth an estimated 2 to 2.5 million pounds (about 18.8 crore to 23.5 crore rupees) but it is not up for sale. It will be on public display at Mount Stuart until October 2016.
•    The first page of the Folio is an inscription from an 18th century editor of Shakespeare called Isaac Reed, who has described the process that how he acquired the book in 1786. The Folio also includes annotations by Reed that suggest he used it as a working document.

India’s rank remained unchanged at 19th in 2015 in the list of top 30 merchandise exporters of the world, according to a WTO report. China continues to hold the top position in the list.
•    However, India’s ranking among top importers slipped by one notch to 13th in 2015, from 12th in previous year. In imports, the US topped the list.
•    India’s exports dipped by 17.2 per cent to USD 267 billion last year while imports aggregated at USD 392 billion. In 2014, the country’s outbound and inbound shipments aggregated at USD 317 billion and USD 460 billion respectively.Slowdown in the gobal demand hit India’s exports in 2015 and this year too the shipments are in the negative zone.
•    Further, India’s rank remained unchanged at 8th last year among the top 30 leading exporters of commercial services respectively. This list was topped by the US in both exports and imports. In imports, India positioned 10th.In 2015, India’s commercial services exports aggregated at USD 158 billion while imports were USD 126 billion.
•    Indian government has announced a host of incentives with an aim to nearly double goods and services exports to USD 900 billion by 2019-2020.The report said that China registered the highest merchandise trade by value in 2015 with USD 2,275 billion worth of exports.
•    Total world merchandise exports were USD 16,482 billion whereas imports were USD 16,766 billion.“Exports of developed and developing countries should grow at around the same rate in 2016, 2.9 per cent in the former and 2.8 per cent in the latter. Meanwhile, imports of developed economies are expected to outpace those of developing countries in 2016, with a 3.3 per cent rise in the former compared to a 1.8 per cent increase in the latter,” it said.
•    Falling for the 15th month in a row, exports dipped 5.66 per cent in February to USD 20.73 billion due to contraction in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods amid tepid global demand.

Government has roped in cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar to endorse the 'I Support Skill India' campaign, in an attempt to reach out to the youth and build awareness on the importance of skill development.
•    The campaign of the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) is an endeavour to galvanize stakeholders across states, organizations and industries to bring value and respect to skills and standardize the ecosystem to meet human resource requirements nationally and globally.
•    The ministry's target is to skill 40.2 crore youth by 2022. It has also introduced its flagship scheme Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), the world's largest monetary reward scheme promoting skill development to those who need financial support.
•    Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time.
•    He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. 
•    He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, holds the record for most number of runs in both ODI and Test cricket, the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.

The World Bank Group (WBG) on 7 April 2016 adopted the Climate Change Action Plan. The plan was designed to help countries meet their Paris COP21 pledges and manage increasing climate impacts.
It sets targets for 2020 in high-impact areas, including clean energy, green transport, climate-smart agriculture, and urban resilience.
• The climate-related share of WBG’s portfolio will be increased from 21 to 28 percent by 2020 in response to client demand, with total financing of potentially 29 billion US dollars per year by 2020.
• The bank will support countries in translating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into climate policies and investment plans into actions and in mainstreaming climate considerations into policies and budgets.
• The IFC, a member of the group, will crowd in private sector finance by significantly scaling up its own investments— from 2.3 billion to about 3.5 billion US dollars in 5 years.
• By 2020, it will have mobilized at least $13 billion per year in external private sector investments through its operations.
• Multiple instruments will be deployed to de-risk renewable energy investments, with a cumulative target of adding 20 GW in renewable energy generation over 5 years.
• The WB will “green” grids with the aim to enable the addition of 10 GW of variable renewable energy over 5 years and ensure that all energy investments are adapted to climate change.
• The WB will aim to mobilize 25 billion US dollars of commercial funding for clean energy over the next five years.
• It will pursue urban mobility and low-carbon, multimodal transport operations in all regions and aim for 2 billion US dollars in lending for adaptation between 2016 and 2020.
• The focus will be on integrating climate into urban planning, among others, by developing tools and knowledge products through the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities and aim to roll these out in at least 30 cities by 2020.
• Climate-smart agriculture profiles and investment plans will be developed by 2020 for at least 40 countries.
• By 2020, the WBG aims to have assisted 20 countries in enhancing their capacity to innovate in climate sectors and increase industrial competitiveness in response to climate change.

French lawmakers on 6 April 2016 passed a bill that makes it illegal to pay for sex and imposes fines of up to 3750 Euro (4270 dollar) on sex workers’ clients.
The bill was passed by 64 votes to 12 but many French MPs chose to abstain from the vote. Backed by the Socialist government, the legislation makes France only the fifth European country that punishes the clients of sex workers. Other four countries that punish the clients of sex workers are Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Britain.
• People who pay for sex can be fined 1500 Euro (1700 dollar) for a first offence, rising to 3750 Euro (4270 dollar) thereafter.
• A second offence would also be put on a criminal record and offenders would need to attend classes highlighting the danger of prostitution.
• It reverses the legislation passed by Nicolas Sarkozy's administration in 2003 that placed the legal burden on sex workers, rather than those seeking to buy.
• It also requires offenders to take a course to learn about the conditions faced by sex workers.
• The bill also calls for measures to help sex workers find other jobs.
The bill has been drafted by Socialist lawmaker Maud Olivier on the pretext that prostitutes should be seen as victims and no longer as delinquents. The bulk of sex workers in France are from Eastern Europe, Africa, China and Latin America.

Future Group in the first week of April 2016 acquired Rocket Internet’s online furniture platform FabFurnish for 20 crores rupees. It is the Future Group’s first acquisition of an e-commerce portal.
The all-cash transaction will see Future Group bring its entire portfolio of home furnishings and decor business under the FabFurnish brand, making it the largest home furnishings and decor business in the country.
• Future Group is an Indian private conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai.
• The company is known for having a significant prominence in Indian retail and fashion sectors, with popular supermarket chains like Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, lifestyle stores like Brand Factory.
• FabFurnish.com is an Indian furniture and home décor retailer selling furniture, furnishings, décor and kitchenware.
• The company retails online, and has partner showrooms in India.
• The company is headquartered in Gurgaon, NCR.