GK and Current Affairs Updates

To fasten payment of crop insurance claims to farmers, the Centre on Monday launched a pilot programme Kisan, which will use satellite and drone-based imaging and other geospatial technology to get timely and accurate data on crop yields. Also to access large-scale damage to standing crops, it launched an Android-based app for collection of data of hailstorm. The app will be used by State agriculture officials and the data will help the Union Agriculture Ministry in having very fast assessment of damage to crops because of hailstorm.

Ajay Sharma, an Indian-origin diplomat, will be the new British Ambassador to Qatar. Mr Sharma, currently the charge d'affaires to Iran, will take up his new assignment in November, an official release said. He will succeed Nicholas Hopton, who will be transferred to another post, according to a release on UK government's website. Mr Sharma has earlier served as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Head of Iran department and non-resident chargA© d'affaires to Iran. Britain had reopened its embassy in Iran in August this year, four years after it was stormed and ransacked in November 2011 by activists angry over Britain imposing sanctions on Iran. Mr Sharma has earlier served in different capacities in Turkey, Russia and France among other countries, according to the information available on UK government's website.

Three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering “therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases,” the Nobel Committee announced . William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won for developing a new drug, Avermectin, which has radically lowered the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). They shared the prize with Youyou Tu, who discovered Artemisinin, a drug that has significantly reduced death rates from malaria. Parasitic worms, which cause river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, among other diseases, afflict a third of the world’s population, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease called by single-cell parasites that invade red blood cells, kills more than 450,000 people a year, most of them children.

Shashank Manohar of the Vidarbha Cricket Association takes over as BCCI president after he was declared elected unopposed at a special general meeting at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai.A BCCI by-election needs only one proposer from the zone which is electing the president and it was the East’s turn this time. 

Kline is best known as the man who faced the last ball of the first tied Test, between Australia and the West Indies in 1960.A left-arm wrist spinner, Kline played 13 test matches between 1957-61, capturing 34 wickets at an average of 22.82. He took a hat-trick in just his second test, against South Africa in Cape Town in January, 1958

Indian star batsman Virat Kohli became the fastest player to score 1000 T20 runs in terms of innings (29) played in international cricket. Virat who needed 28 runs to complete 1000 runs, scored 43 on Friday in the first T20 game of the three-match series against South Africa in Dharamsala.India star batsman Virat Kohli became the fastest player to score 1000 T20 runs in terms of innings (29) played in international cricket. 

 Tournament Indo-Swiss duo of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reached the final of Wuhan Open Tennis Tournament. In the Semi-Finals, top seeds brushed aside 4th seeded Chinese Taipei pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan 6-2, 6-1 Friday. The Indo-Swiss pair is eyeing their seventh title together.They had earlier defeated fifth seeded American pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-2 in the last eight stage.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated distribution of loans under MUDRA Yojana and free LPG connections to families that are below poverty line in Jharkhand beginning with Dumka. "MUDRA Yojana will lift the standard of life of the people after several years of negligence and exploitation by usurers," Modi said after the inauguration of the twin benefits. Under the programme loans of Rs 26,000 crore would be distributed among 42 lakh people, including 20 lakh women across the country. Handing over the first instalment of Rs 10,000 to five men and women, he said it was a loan and not a grant. The loan would have to be repaid with nominal interest,he said and advised beneficiaries to take them in instalments to minimise interest. MUDRA Yojana (Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency) would benefit over one lakh people in Jharkhand where Rs 212 crore would be distributed. Inaugurating the distribution of free LPG connections to BPL families in the state, the Prime Minister said 31 lakh people across the country had given up LPG subsidy which had enabled 18 lakh BPL families get free LPG connections.  "This (free LPG connections) will not only help the women but also will help protect the environment," he said. One lakh BPL families in Jharkhand would also get free LPG connection.

Uday Shankar, CEO of Star India was adjudged Best CEO of a Multi National Company for 2015 at the Forbes India Leadership Awards presented in Mumbai on Wednesday. Other prominent winners were Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group and R S Sodhi, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Amul) who received the ‘Conscious Capitalist Company for the Year Award’ shared this year by Godrej Consumer Products Ltd and GCMMF; while R C Bhargava of Maruti-Suzuki received a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

The jury for the awards was headed by Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico Ltd, and included Naina Lal Kidwai, chairman, HSBC India and director, HSBC Asia Pacific; Manish Sabharwal, co-founder and chairman of TeamLease Services; Noshir Kaka, managing director of McKinsey India; Sanjay Nayar, CEO of KKR India; and Akhil Gupta, former senior managing director and chairman of Blackstone India.Entrepreneurial capitalism and the insight that entrepreneurs need to follow the rules while creating value for all stakeholders were behind the choice of outstanding leaders for the Forbes India Leadership Awards. The annual awards recognise transformational leadership across the entrepreneurial firmament, from start-ups and mid-sized firms to the more mature organisations of global scale.

Here is the complete list of winners of the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2015:

1.     Outstanding Start-up for the Year: Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati of Ola

2.     Nextgen Entrepreneur for the Year: Siddhartha Lal of Eicher Motors Ltd

3.     Entrepreneur with Social Impact: Samit Ghosh, Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd

4.     Conscious Capitalist Company for the year: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd and Gujarat  Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Amul)

5.     Best CEO – Multinational Company: Uday Shankar, Star India Pvt. Ltd

6.     Best CEO - Public Sector: Arundhati Bhattacharya, State Bank of India

7.     Best CEO - Private Sector: CP Gurnani, Tech Mahindra Ltd

8.     Lifetime Achievement Award for the Year: RC Bhargava of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd

9.     Entrepreneur for the Year: Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd

Maruti Suzuki Chairman R.C. Bhargava has been honoured with the lifetime achievement award at the Forbes India Leadership Awards (FILA), 2015.The award recognises his invaluable contribution to the Indian business community and exemplary leadership demonstrated over the years, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement An IAS topper of 1956 batch, Bhargava was one of the founding members of Maruti in 1982. He led the company as Managing Director from 1990 to 1997.Bhargava, who has been chairman of the country's largest car maker since 2007, also serves on the board of several leading corporates.