GK and Current Affairs Updates

Financial Times have declared that India is now world’s top FDI destination, as we attracted $31 billion from foreign investors during the first half of 2015. Thereby, we have overtaken US and China in this department. China received $28 billion of FDI, while US received $27 billion during the same period.FT’s report on global FDI growth says, “A ranking of the top destinations for greenfield investment (measured by estimated capital expenditure) in the first half of 2015 shows India at number one, having attracted roughly $3 billion more than China and $4 billion more than the US.”

This report was forwarded by Finance Ministry to showcase India’s remarkable growth in attracting FDI, especially in 2015. Compared to last year, FDI in India has increased by 47%, which has broken all records.This new found confidence in India’s economy becomes more fascinating when 97 out of 154 ‘emerging economies’ received less FDI and less confidence from foreign investors!
Top 10 FDI Destinations

Financial observers are clear on this one: It’s PM Modi’s whirlwind tour of foreign countries, which have an important role in this surge of FDIs. In 2015, PM Modi has already visited 25 countries, propagating India’s new development story.The countries where PM Modi visited in 2015: Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Fiji, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Russia, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan.Although some of these visits were mainly due to humanitarian purposes (for example Nepal visit); most of these trips triggered positive response from the investors, who wholeheartedly trusted in PM Modi’s pitch for a new, developed India.Other Emerging Asian Economies

 UST Global, a leading digital technology services company that provides powerful solutions for Global 1000 companies, has been recognized for the project ‘Shopping Portal for Health Insurance plans for a US Fortune 50 Healthcare Giant’. This solution won the award for Best Project of the Year in the small enterprises category at the PMI India Awards organized by Project Management Institute.

About UST Global

UST Global is a leading digital technology services company that provides powerful solutions for Global 1000 companies. UST Global’s mission is to lead companies through critical digital transformations to drive higher business value. UST Global specializes in six next generation digital services – design, cyber security, mobile, social, analytics and cloud.  Powered by the mantra ‘fewer clients, more attention’, UST Global strives for excellence in providing their clients high quality services and a commitment to long-term success. Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, UST Global has over 15,000 associates; operating in 25 countries across four continents. Please visit www.ust-global.com for more information.

South Star Dhanush was the Hero who had pretty good recognition as well as awesome fan following in India. Well,  his performance alongside Amitabh Bachchan in Shamitabh movie proved his caliber as an actor.Because of the craze and recognition all over the country, Dhanush was named as the brand ambassador of Hero Indian Super League(ISL) Season 2 for Tamil Nadu. In the first season of ISL, Attletico De Kolkatta was emerged as the winners by defeating Kerala Strikers with 1-0 in the final.

This ISL featured eight teams, which stared to popular the foot ball game in India. Despite ISL established in 2013, the first season was successfully ended in 2014. Well, Dhanush who was the brand ambassador for ISL was expected that it would become more popular from this Season.He also revealed that he was the great lover of foot ball and he would try to attend all the matches of ISL Season 2.Finally, he ended the interaction in official Hero ISL event by saying that he was very happy and proud to be associated with Hero Indian Super League.

The popular micro-blogging and networking site Twitter on Friday launched a new feature called 'Video App Card'.Twitter's new feature will allow the app makers to advertise their products via a video on the site.Ivan Santana, product manager at Twitter, in a blog post says "Starting today, advertisers can now use the power of video to promote their mobile apps on Twitter''.

The Video App Card will show people a preview of the app, resulting in a more educated and more qualified user joining as a subscriber, according to the San Franciso-headquartered company."In beta, we saw that this highly engaging format helped some advertisers nearly triple their conversion rate from app click to install," Santana said.He further added that the new feature autoplays in timelines, giving the app maker an opportunity to engage their audience with attention-grabbing content at all points throughout their day.The company is offering its entire suite of targeting tools, including interest, keyword, device, location, and tailored audiences to ensure that the app maker reaches people most likely to be interested in their app, at just the right time.Nearly, 82 percent of users watch videos on Twitter, and 90 percent of video views are on mobile devices, as per Twitter`s research.

The new feature will surely please the advertiser but likely to annoy some users as it will autoplay on your Twitter's timelines.Video App Cards is now available to all advertisers promoting mobile apps via Twitter.

Country's first dedicated satellite for astronomy research, Astrosat, will be launched from Sriharikota at 10 AM today. 50-hour countdown for its launch, which began at 8 AM on Saturday, is progressing smoothly. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C30 will carry Astrosat into a low earth equatorial orbit after its take off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre. 

The launch vehicle will also carry six small satellites from different countries. Specialty of Astrosat is its ability to observe celestial bodies like distant stars and cosmic X-Ray sources in different wavelengths simultaneously.AIR correspondent reports, Astrosat is India’s major scientific mission after the highly acclaimed Chandrayaan-I and Mangalyaan. It is the country’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. Its sophisticated payloads such as the telescopes, sky monitors, mirrors and special imager have been developed jointly by ISRO and many prominent research institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. 

In Japan, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton pulled off an aggressive passing move on teammate Nico Rosberg and went on to win the Japanese Grand Prix yesterday, moving a step closer to claiming his second straight Formula One title. Hamilton, who had his first retirement of the season at last weekend's Singapore GP, capitalized on a strong start and surged ahead of Rosberg at the first corner. He led the rest of the way, crossing the finish line a comfortable 18.9 seconds ahead. 

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was third, 1.8 seconds behind Rosberg, who started from pole. With five races left, Hamilton has a 48 point lead over Rosberg. Hamilton claimed his eighth win of the season. It was his 41st career win, tying him with his childhood hero Ayrton Senna.

India's most successful cueist Pankaj Advani today added another feather to his cap by winning the IBSF World Billiards Championship in Adelaide, Australia. He outplayed Singapore's Peter Gilchrist in the final to take his world title count to 14.

Bengaluru's 'Golden Boy' was in roaring form and appeared keen to not only defend his Time format world title but also avenge his loss of the Point format championship to Gilchrist, which happened under a week ago.

Beijing Olympics champion Abhinav Bindra clinched gold in the men's 10 metre Air Rifle event of the Asian Air Gun Championships in New Delhi today. Bindra, who won gold in 2008 Olympics in 10 metre Air Rifle event, shot 208.3 points to bag the top prize ahead of Kazakhstan's world number eight Yurkov Yuriy (206.6) and Korea's Yu Jaechul (185.3) on the first day of competition at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.Gagan Narang, who won a bronze in the same event in 2012 London Olympics, finished fourth with a score of 164.5 while another Indian, Chain Singh was two places below at seventh after notching up 122.7.

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on 26 September 2015 won the Guangzhou Open title of tennis. The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated the Chinese pair of Xu Shilin and You Xiaodi 6-3, 6-1 in the summit clash held at Guangzhou of China.

It was Sania's seventh title of the 2015 season and sixth with Hingis. She won one trophy with Bethanie-Mattek Sands in Sydney.Sania and Hinghis have now won six of 13 events they have played since March 2015 and the titles include Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, the US Open and Guangzhou.

Jharkhand Tourism will be promoted by brand ambassador and Indian cricket skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Chief Minister Raghubar Das."On October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will initiate online the rejuvenation and preservation of terracotta temples of Maluti at a cost of Rs.13 crore," Das said, while addressing the 'Unexplored Jharkhand 2015' programme organised on the occasion of World Tourism Day.

According to him, the state could benefit from eco-tourism, religious tourism, cultural tourism, medical tourism, adventure and mining tourism.Das said that Apollo Hospital has been given land at a token price of Re.1 to boost medical tourism.