GK and Current Affairs Updates

A Syria-based woman journalist Zaina Erhaim has won the prestigious 2015 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. She was bestowed with this award for her efforts to train citizen reporters in her war-ravaged country. She has trained about 100 citizen reporters (third of them are women) from inside Syria over the last two years. She also has helped in establishing new, independent newspapers and magazines in the war-torn country. Presently, Erhaim lives and works in Aleppo, Syria and will be presented with this award at a ceremony to be held at the National Press Club in Washington in late October 2015. It should be noted that since 2011, the media rights group has listed Syria as the deadliest country for journalists.

About Peter Mackler Award--The Peter Mackler Award honors reporters and editors who have demonstrated a commitment to fairness, accuracy and speaking truth to power, and a matching commitment to asserting the right to publish or air that story in countries where independent media is under threat.Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam  is a Sri Lankan journalist. He was detained by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Police on 7 March 2008. He was held without charge for almost 6 months. He was indicted on politically motivated charges under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act for intending to incite communal hatred through writing, and furthering terrorist acts through the collection of money for his publication.  Tissainayagam has been named the first winner of the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism.

World number two, Roger Federer from Switzerland has won the Cincinnati Masters title for record seventh time in men’s singles title category. In the final match played at Ohio near Cincinnati, US he defeated world number one, Novak Djokovic by 7–6, 7-1 and 6–3 score. Earlier, Roger Federer had won this title in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Also he  knocked out Britain's Andy Murray in the semi-final, 

Abut Cincinnati Masters-The Cincinnati Masters (currently sponsored by the Western & Southern Financial Group and called the Western & Southern Open) is an annual outdoor hardcourt tennis event held in Mason, Ohio near Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. The event started on September 18, 1899 and is the oldest tennis tournament in the United States played in its original city . The tournament is the second largest summer tennis event in the U.S. after the U.S. Open, as its men's portion is one of nine elite Masters 1000 tournaments on the ATP World Tour and its women's event is one of five Premier 5 events on the WTA Tour . The tournament was started in 1899 as the Cincinnati Open and was renamed in 1901 to Tri-State Tennis Tournament, a name it would keep until 1969 (it would later be known by several other names, including ATP Championships).

Gujarat is set to become the first state in India to launch ‘Agro-Solar Policy’ to encourage the farmers to tap the solar energy. The new policy seeks to encourage the farmers in the state to tap free solar energy from sun, which will in turn help them to earn additional income from power generation companies.

Important points

1. Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) will be nodal implementing agency for projects under this policy.

2. Farmers can use the free solar energy for their own consumption purpose and sell the surplus energy to the state run power generation companies. Thus, power generation companies and farmers will be in a win-win situation with generation of solar energy in agricultural fields.
3.Power generation companies will set up solar photo voltaic (SPV) plants in different agricultural fields for the purpose of power generation without disturbing agricultural production.
4. It should be noted that these SPV plants have been already tested in different agricultural universities in the State. On the experimental basis power generation companies like Gujarat Industries Power Company Limited (GIPCL), 
5. Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) and Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) have already set up SPV plants in farm fields The SPV plant will be set up on poles in the fields so that farmers can also grow their crops. After buying surplus power, 

6.power generation companies will give 30 to 40 per cent share from the profit to the farmers.
 Some other successful solar projects in Gujarat 

State has Asia’s largest solar power plant in Charanka village in Patan district which is built on a 2,000-hectare land.In January 2015, the first canal-top solar power plant (10 MW solar capacity) was inaugurated by UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon on Narmada canal in Vadodara.

Punjabi University of Patiala has clinched the prestigious sports award Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) trophy for year 2014. The Trophy will be awarded to Univeristy on 29 August 2015 on the occasion of National Sports Day. The university has won this trophy for the total eighth time and fourth time in a consecutive row. Earlier, Punjabi university had won this trophy in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The award was announced by the Association of Indian Universities by releasing the names and points of top nine universities in sports in India. In the list Punjabi University has topped with 71,840 points. Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar was placed at second spot with 65,170 points while Delhi University is placed third with 31,770 points.

About Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy

The Trophy is given annually to the university/institutions for their all-round performance in Inter-University Tournaments. Established: in 1956-57 as a Running Trophy by Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in the memory of scholar and a senior political leader Maulana Azad. Award carries: Replica of the Trophy and a monetary award of ten lakh rupees which shall be utilized for development of games and sports.

A 22-year-old IIT Delhi student has been named as the most Promising Young Entrepreneur at a business competition here.Chiraag Kapil, led a team of five from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in the 8th Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition and won the award prize of USD 5,000 last night."I feel brilliant. It is one of the most exciting things that happened in my life. (I am) very privileged to be called Most Promising Young Entrepreneur," Chiraag told PTI after receiving the award.Chiraag's team Leaf from IIT Delhi also won the second prize of USD 12,000 for its revolutionary smart pendant called SAFER, which together with an app, serve to enhance the safety of women.When a woman feels threatened, she just needs to press SAFER twice.An alert and her location will be sent to the people she had pre-designated as Guardians, as well as nearby SAFER users who will be able to track her location real-time by navigating on maps.The SAFER app is installed on mobile/cell phones for transmitting messages. SAFER is developed by five co-founders of Leaf Innovation Pte Ltd, a start-up from IIT Delhi which is seeking USD 500,000 

funding to expand its jewelry-embedded app product globally.

Ghirmay Ghebreslassie from Eritrea beat the scorching morning sun and a late chase by Ethiopia's Yemane Tsegay to win the men's marathon at the World Athletics Championships here on Saturday.The 19-year-old clocked two hours, 12 minutes and 27 seconds for his first world championship title, beating Tsegay into second place.
Tsegay, who had once overtaken Ghebreslassie in the last kilometers, timed 2:13.07 hours for silver with Munyo Solomon Mutai from Uganda taking bronze in 2:13:29 hours.
The world record holder, Kenyan Dennis Kimetto, dropped out late in the race.

History writer Balwant Purandare  conferred with the 'Maharashtra Bhushan' award, the state's highest honour, at a glittering function in Mumbai. The award ceremony was held at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai amidst tight security after the BJP-led state government's decision to honour Purandare received criticism from some sections of the Maratha community, which had protested against the move.While addressing the audience after receiving the award, Purandare said that he would donate the prize money of Rs 10 lakh to the Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital located at Pune. In addition, Purandare also plans to donate Rs 15 lakh to the hospital as his own contribution. Purandare said that he would like to help farmers reeling under severe financial distress in the drought-hit Marathwada region.
Using the opportunity to take a dig at the opposition, Fadnavis said that those who have been protesting against the government's decision have not understood Chhatrapati Shivaji.
"I have to clarify that this programme was not held at the Raj Bhavan because we got scared of anybody. According to tradition, the country's biggest awards are given by the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the ideal way to remember any person is to organize Memorial Lectures in his memory and it gave him immense pleasure to release the book- Modern Thought Leaders- Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lectures (1997-2014). Addressing after releasing a book ‘Modern Thought Leaders- Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Lectures (1997-2014)’ edited by Shri Anil Shastri, Former Union Minister and son of Late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at a function here today, he said that Late Shastri Ji was a life dedicated to public service. A person of great integrity and competence, humble, tolerant, with great inner strength and resoluteness, Shastri Ji was a leader of the people who understood their language. He was also a man of vision who led the country towards progress. He opined that this book of the Collection of Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial lectures present a unique perspective to the reader. The lectures not only illuminate the various facets of the life, work and personality of Shastriji, but also, in context of Shastri ji’s vision, present the opinions.The Vice President congratulated the Lal Bahdur Shastri Institute of Management for this initiative and the McGraw Hill for publishing the collected lectures.

The Government of India has launched a policy framework to promote e-marketing of handloom products, in order to promote marketing of handlooms in general and to reach the younger customers in particular. The policy framework has been developed by the Office of Development Commissioner (Handlooms) under the Ministry of Textiles, with the key objectives of promoting the interests of both producers and consumers of handloom products. Under the policy framework, the Office of DC (Handlooms) would collaborate with approved e-commerce entities in promoting e-marketing of handloom products, in a transparent, competitive and effective manner. The policy thus widens the existing ambit of institutional collaboration between Office of DC (Handlooms) and e-commerce players. 

Any e-commerce entity willing to work for promotion of online marketing of handloom products in collaboration with the Office may apply for the same. The application will be scrutinized by a specially constituted Committee. After satisfying itself about the track record and turnover of the applicant, the committee would give its recommendations, keeping in view the handloom fabric producing areas proposed to be covered through e-marketing and the proposed rollout plan. Decision on the application will be taken after duly considering the recommendations of the committee. Processing of applications will be completed within three weeks.

Brazil and Germany signed cooperation accords on renewable energy and sustainable development, and issued a joint declaration on climate change.The agreements came on Thursday, the second and final day of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the capital Brasilia.She was accompanied by a delegation of ministers and deputy ministers who held bilateral meetings with their Brazilian counterparts."We are interested in cooperating in renewable energies and also in providing all support in the area of infrastructure and transmission lines," Merkel said at a press conference following a meeting with Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff.