GK and Current Affairs Updates

Bank of Maharashtra has launched Mudra card to meet the credit requirements of micro and small entrepreneurs. The card was launched by the Chairman-cum-Managing Director, S Muhnot, on the occasion of the bank’s 81st foundation day celebrations . Issued as a Rupay debit card, the Mudra card is a flexible credit product that meets the working capital needs of micro and small entrepreneurs as cash can be withdrawn from any ATM or merchandise purchased using POS machine. The Mudra scheme was launched by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, with an aim to fulfill the needs of micro/small entrepreneurs engaged in all non-farm sector income-generating activities such as manufacturing, trading and services whose credit needs are up to Rs. 10 lakh. Bank of Maharashtra is offering Mudra loans at base rate and no processing charges are levied for loans up to Rs. 5 lakh.

John Chambers, Executive Chairman of Cisco, has been elected as the new chairman of the US India Business Council (USIBC), the apex advocacy group for India and American companies in the US. A formal announcement in this regard was made at the USIBC’s 40th Anniversary Leadership Summit that kicked off the US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue . The transition will come at the end of a four-year term of Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard.  Banga has been its longest-serving chairman
“As a long-time supporter of USIBC, I have witnessed the Council’s influence rise dramatically as a direct result of the leadership provided by current chairman, Ajay Banga, and former chairs such as Terry McGraw and Indra Nooyi,” said Chambers. 
Banga during his tenure, blazed an equally impressive path by adding top American and Indian companies to the Council’s membership, increasing Council revenue and adding staff capacity at the Council’s regional offices to serve members, said Mukesh Aghi, president of USIBC.

The Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, under the Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the The New India Assurance Company Limited on providing a comprehensive and affordable Health Insurance Scheme - “Swavlamban Health Insurance Scheme” - for the Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), here today. Shri Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Honorary Secretary, Trust Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and Ms. Neera Saxena, Deputy General Manager, The New India Assurance Company Limited, inked the MoU in the presence of Mr. Luv Verma, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of People with Disabilities.  Health services and its access to persons with disabilities assume a very significant role in order to enable and empower persons with disabilities (PwDs) to live independently and with dignity as possible. In this context, the Health Insurance facility becomes important but presently such products are not easily available for persons with developmental disabilities. In such a situation, a tailor made Group Health Insurance Scheme like “Swavlamban Health Insurance Scheme” has been conceived with the objective of providing affordable Health Insurance to persons with blindness, low vision, leprosy-cured, hearing impairment, loco-motor Disability, mental Retardation and mental Illness. It also aims to improve the general Health condition & quality of life of persons with disabilities. 

The scheme has been designed to deliver comprehensive cover to the beneficiary as well as his family (PwD, Spouse & up to two children), has a single premium across age band and can be availed by PwDs aged between 18 years and 65 years with family annual income of less than Rs. 3,00,000 per annum. The scheme also ensures coverage of any pre-existing condition and a health Insurance cover up to Rs. 2,00,000 per annum as family floater. The scheme will be implemented through active participation of the National Institutes and Composite Regional Centres for Persons with Disabilities (CRC’s) under the DEPwD, MOSJ&E. The registered organizations shall liaise with the Insurance Company, MOSJ&E, Health service providers, National Institutes, CRCs and all the stakeholders concerned for awareness generation and enrolment. Under the MoU, the New India Assurance Company Limited will create a network of Hospitals, where the Insured persons can get cashless treatment.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vedanta to develop and modernise 4000 Anganwadis in the country. 

Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India and Mr. Mayank Ashar, Managing Director and CEO, Cairn India signed the MoU in New Delhi , to develop these ‘next generation’ Anganwadis. Speaking on the signing of the MOU, Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Shri V. Somasundaran, said “We are planning to modernize the Anganwadis and revamp these as enablers that will not only provide supplementary nutrition and basic healthcare services in villages but also function as a place to mobilize the village women to increase their participation in community development.”

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vedanta to develop and modernise 4000 Anganwadis in the country. 

Dr. Rajesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India and Mr. Mayank Ashar, Managing Director and CEO, Cairn India signed the MoU in New Delhi , to develop these ‘next generation’ Anganwadis. Speaking on the signing of the MOU, Secretary, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Shri V. Somasundaran, said “We are planning to modernize the Anganwadis and revamp these as enablers that will not only provide supplementary nutrition and basic healthcare services in villages but also function as a place to mobilize the village women to increase their participation in community development.”

President Pranab Mukherjee  said millions of people in the world dream of and aspire for a just world and praised former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey as one of those individuals who deserves salute for working towards creating such a world.Receiving the first copy of "Building a Just World, Essays in honour of Muchkund Dubey" at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Mukherjee said Mr Dubey is among those individuals who helped frame policies and contributed towards highlighting issues that "have to be addressed, and cannot be brushed under the carpet anymore".

Mr Dubey is credited with writing a major part of the UN report on the First Development Decade.The president said the insights provided by Mr Dubey help in understanding many of the complex problems afflicting the world today, especially at a time when the UN is to adopt a post-2015 agenda for sustainable development.Commenting on the climate change negotiations, the president said "users (countries) have to pay to meet the needs of everybody, but not the greed, and we are demanded to pay for the greed of a few for wanton destruction" of the earth's resources, that has affected the Earth's climate.

Greece's Alexis Tsipras has said his left-wing Syriza party has a "clear mandate" after winning a second general election in less than nine months.But he said Greeks faced a difficult road and recovery from financial crisis would only come through hard work.Syriza won just over 35%, slightly down on its previous result and still short of an overall majority. But it will renew its coalition with the nationalist Independent Greeks. Opposition New Democracy gained 28%. Far-right Golden Dawn came in third with 7%, slightly up on January's poll.Syriza was first elected in January on an anti-austerity mandate, but was forced to accept tough conditions for Greece's third international bailout.

Snapdeal  announced the appointment of Rahul Ganjoo as Vice President in its technology team. In his new role, Rahul will augment the company’s efforts to enhance customer experience across various Snapdeal platforms. He will also focus on program management and help build the most innovative tech company in the world.Prior to his appointment at Snapdeal, Rahul has spent 2+ years at Twitter where he worked on solving high visibility problems such as large scale spam and targeted abuse. He was working out of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, 

USA. Rahul also worked on evangelizing agile practices across engineering teams. His previous stints were with companies like Six Apart, Symantec, Thoughtworks and Wipro Technologies, where he built program management teams, led the execution of large scale programs and instituted processes to make engineering organizations more effective.Rahul holds a Masters in Software Engineering from BITS, Pilani and Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Pune Institute of Computer Technology.

London is the fifth most expensive city in the world to live in but wage levels have failed to keep up compared to other major center, a report by Swiss bank UBS has found.The British capital ranked behind Zurich, Geneva, New York and Oslo when it came to the relative cost of goods, including rent, but was in 13th place on a comparison of gross salaries.The study found that whilst it was cheaper to live in Sydney, Copenhagen and Chicago, residents there earned more relative to Londoners.

Rising levels of rent have helped to push up the cost of living in London in recent years with Britain having failed to build enough homes to meet rising needs.Demand has also risen because of growing levels of net migration and people opting to rent for longer in order to save up for increasingly more expensive properties, the report said.Meanwhile, earnings have risen more slowly than inflation for most years since the 2007/08 financial crisis although they have begun to pick up robustly this year.UBS found that London was also far more expensive than comparable European capital cities Paris and Berlin when the price of an average basket of 39 foodstuffs was compared but Zurich, Seoul and New York were the costliest locations.

A workaholic all his life, Jagmohan Dalmiya, 75, died. His working hours had shortened but most of last week he was a regular at his office, rather his den, the Eden Garden administrative block, from where he had planned big and small coups for close to three decades. Till he was hospitalised a couple of days back, complaining of chest pain, Dalmiya, like always, remained in the thick of things of Indian cricket administration. Till he breathed his last, he remained the most influential cricket administrator of the world’s most powerful cricket body.