GK and Current Affairs Updates

Defence  Minister Manohar Parrikar launched a new automation software, ARPAN 3.0 for over 12 lakh soldiers of the Indian Army which would provide them easy access to their service records including pay and leave details and transfer and postings among others. The roll out of ARPAN 3.0 (Army Record Process Automation 3.0) is aimed at digitization of Indian Army’s 45 Record Offices pan India in one year time.

A woman assistant sub-inspector (A.S.I) of Rajasthan Police Athletics Team Sapna, who represented Indian police team won a gold medal in the 5 km race walk event in the World Police Games 2015, held in Virginia, USA. Sapna completed the event in 26.14 minutes, which is a new police games record.

The Union Cabinet approved the institutional framework for the National Skill Development Mission 2015. The Mission will provide a strong institutional framework at the center and states for implementation of skilling actitvities in the country. The Union Cabinet also gave its approval for a new scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (P.M.K.S.Y). The Yojana was approved it an outlay of 50,000 crore rupees over a period of five years (2015-16 to 2019-20). Its aim is to provide convergence to existing schemes of water management, thus bringing efficiency to the use of water.

The World Bank announced to provide $650 million loan for a major project of the Indian Railways, the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project. Construction of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor will help speed up the carrying of goods between Ludhiana in the west of India and Kolkata in the east. This huge project will span 1,840 kms (1,140 miles) across the North India. The loan is the third from the World Bank to help fund the freight corridor.

Indian-American Professor R. Paul Singh has been named as the 2015 Global Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agricultural and Life Sciences ‘World Agricultural Prize’ laureate. The award will be formally presented on September 20^th, during a ceremony at Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu Province, China.

According to the data released by World Bank in Washington the size of Indian economy stood at $2.06 trillion at the end of 2014. It has almost doubled in size since the financial crisis hit the country in 2008, and has more than quadrupled from the start of this millennium. India’s growth rate, at 7.4% in 2014, makes it the fastest growing major economy alongwith China’s.

Mobile Number Portability(M.N.P) has been launched across the country on 3^rd July 2015. With the launch of nationwide M.N.P, mobile users can retain their numbers despite changing states/circles across the country, without incurring any roaming charges. Telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Uninor, M.T.S, Reliance Communications, Videocon Telecom, B.S.N.L and M.T.N.L have already announced the launch of full M.N.P.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, or UNESCO, inducted the Old City of Sana’a to the list of World Heritage in danger due to the “serious damage” done amid clashes between Shiite Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in Yemen. The decision was made during the 39^th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany. While the Old Walled city of Shibam in Yemen and the ancient Iraqi city Hatra were also added to the list.

Country’s largest bank State Bank of India(S.B.I) announced its tie-up with travel company MakeMyTrip.com. This partnership includes partnership with personal banking unit for consumer facing propositions- including EMIs on purchase of holidays and international travel, customised travel products like Forex cards and travel products. On the other hand MakeMyTrip customers will be able to access special offers from SBI on debit/credit cards and personal financing.