Current Affairs 6th August 2015

Current Affairs 6th August 2015 - Important Points

• MoU to uplift ties in Renewable Energy Sector has been signed by - India and Mozambique

• Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Bill, 2015 approved by - Bihar Assembly

• Delhi High Court Amendment Bill, 2015 approved by - Parliament

• Union Cabinet accepted proposal to sign agreement with - UNESCO

• Direct Release of Wages into bank accounts of MNREGA workers approved by - Union Cabinet

• Which World War-II hero has passed away - Colonel Harwant Singh

• In how many towns did Bharti Airtel launched its 4G services - 296 towns across India

• With which country NASA has signed 490 million US dollars contract - Russia

• With whom did the Murugappa Group signed an agreement to form Joint Venture - Organo Corp

• Who is awarded with Poland's Solidarity Prize 2015 - Zhanna Nemtsova

• World's Highest-Paid Actors 2015 list released by - Forbes

• Name the telescope made operational at Udaipur Solar Observatory - Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST)

Current Affairs 6th August 2015 - Details

MoU to uplift ties in Renewable Energy Sector has been signed by - India and Mozambique

On 5th August 2015, a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to strengthen cooperation in New and Renewable Energy Sector by India and Mozambique during the official visit of Filipe Nyusi, President of Mozambique to India.

Apart from this, both nations also agreed to grow cooperation in maritime security and ocean economy as both the countries have large coastlines across the Indian Ocean.

Being a imminent source of minerals, natural gas and coal, Mozambique will also play an important role to fulfill India’s energy security.

Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Bill, 2015 approved by - Bihar Assembly

On 5th August 2015, Bihar Public Grievance Redressal Bill, 2015 passed by a voice vote by Bihar Assembly.

The bill pursue to provide legal rights to the people of the state for redressal of their complaints within a time-frame.

Characterstics of Bill

To dismiss grievances of the people in a time-bound manner, Duty-bound binding rules on government servants were applied.

Officials cab be dismissed from service if found guilty to do so in time.

Powers in this regard is vested on the Public Grievance Redressal Officer and the first and second Appellate Authorities to deal with delayed grievances cases.

A penalty will be charged ranging from 500 to 5,000 rupees on the government servants if they fail to hear and redress grievances.

Delhi High Court Amendment Bill, 2015 approved by - Parliament

On 5th August 2015, Delhi High Court Amendment Bill, 2015 was passed. It was passed in Lok Sabha by a voice vote on 5th June 2015 and in May 2015 it was passed in Rajya Sabha.

In order to minimize the workload of the Delhi High Court, the Bill seeks to modify the Delhi High Court Act, 1966.

Highlights of Bill

• Increment of pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court over suits above the value of 2 crore rupees from present 20 lakh rupees.
• Thus, it will reduce work load of Delhi High Court in case of civil suits by transferring them to 9 district courts in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
• Empowers the Chief Justice (CJ) of the Delhi High Court to transfer any pending suit to a relevant subordinate court.
• It should be noted that, pecuniary jurisdiction refers to the jurisdiction of a court over a suit based on the amount or value of its subject matter.

Union Cabinet accepted proposal to sign agreement with - UNESCO

On 5th August 2015, For establishment of a Centre for World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia-Pacific region, Union Cabinet gave its nod to a proposal to sign an agreement with UNESCO.

This centre will be confirmed as a category-2 centre (C2C) of the UN body at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.

WII Dehradun will be first existing institute to be accorded recognition by UNESC by signing this agreement. At present there are 9 C2C institutes related to cultural heritage and it will be the first institute to get natural heritage recognition by UNESCO.

This agreement was proposed by the Union Environment Ministry. For establishing this centre to support countries in the region for up keeping of heritage and natural sites, Union Government will provide capacity building.

Centre for World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia-Pacific region will provide :

Services for evaluation and preparation of proposals for new cultural and heritage sites in Asia-Pacific region.

Capacity building and training on management and monitoring of heritage sites.

Direct Release of Wages into bank accounts of MNREGA workers approved by - Union Cabinet

On 6th August 2015, The proposal of direct release of wages in to the accounts of the workers engaged under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was approved by Union Cabinet.

The objecive of this Direct release of wages system under the MNREGA is for the efficient flow of funds and to allow state governments to deliver entitlements as per the objectives of the Act.

Henceforth, the wage component of MGNREGA will be directly released to the worker’s accounts based on a fund transfer order to be generated by states’ implementing agencies of government.

The fund transfer order in case of wages of workers from implementing agencies will be based in accordance with procedures prescribed by Union Rural Development Ministry and the wage component will be given to the State Employment Guarantee Fund window for further transferring it to beneficiaries.

In the implementation of this scheme, the gram panchayats will be empowered to take up work according to the agreed labour budget and without struggling for release of funds.

The benefits of proposed system will be :

• Overall efficiency of implementation will be improved and stakeholders wil be benefitted.
• By bringing greater transparency in movement of funds the level of corruption will be reduced in MGNREGA.
• State governments can spend more time in planning and improving the process efficiency rather than bothering to manage funds.

Which World War-II hero has passed away - Colonel Harwant Singh

On 4th August 2015, a World War-II hero, Colonel Harwant Singh (retd) passed away at the age of 95. On the first Independence Day of India in 1947, he was officer-in-charge of the flag hosting ceremony.

In September 1941, he was Commissioned in 2nd battalion of the Sikh Regiment and he also served the British Army in Italy, North Africa, Palestine, Cyprus and Iraq during World War-II. Colonel Harwant Singh was one of the leading company commanders who was airlifted to Srinagar on the outburst of hostilities with Pakistan in October 1947.

Later when the state forces began to be merged with the Indian army in 1951, he was transferred to the Rajputana Rifles. Rajputana Regimental Centre, 6 Rajputana Rifles and 18 Rajputana Rifles were also commanded by him.

In 1944, during an offensive against the German forces in Italy he was awarded with the Military Cross for bravery.

Do You Know :

The Military Cross is the highest award of the British Army.

In how many towns did Bharti Airtel launched its 4G services - 296 towns across India

On 6th August 2015, 4G high-speed data services were launched in 296 tows in pan-India by Bharti Airtel. The service will be made available to customers through Wi-Fi routers, internet dongles and 4G-enabled mobile phones.

With this, Bharti Airtel, the largest telecom company of India, became the first company to offer pan-India 4G network.

4G service will be available to the customers at 3G prices with packs starting at 25 rupees. To provide the 4G services, Airtel has collaborated with mobile manufacturer major Samsung.

In April 2012, Bharti Airtel launched the first 4G services in Kolkata and after that it is now available in 15 other cities of India.

With which country NASA has signed 490 million US dollars contract - Russia

On 5th August 2015, a contract worth 490 million US dollars was signed with Russia's space agency Roscosmos for carrying the US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) by NASA.

The US space agency in a statement said that the US will continue to rely exclusively on Russia to take astronauts to the orbiting outpost under the new contract, which runs until 2019.

NASA further said a lack of funding for development of private vessels by US companies Boeing and Space-X over the last five years has left NASA with no other option. As a result, the US will pay for use of space vessels belonging to the Roscosmos.

Since the US ended its space shuttle program in July 2012, it has been dependent on Russia for ISS access.

With whom did the Murugappa Group signed an agreement to form Joint Venture - Organo Corp

On 4th August 2015, an agreement with Japan-based Organo Corp was signed to form a Joint venture (JV) of an industrial water treatment requirement company by the water treatment engineering company Polutech Limited of Murugappa Group.

51% in JV will be held by the Murugappa Group and the remaining portion will be held by the Organo Group. To meet the increasing demand of industries for waste water management, the new venture will handle in industrial water treatment requirements services.

Designing of Equipments for water and waste water treatment plants are manufactured by Murugappa Group’s Polutech. While, Organo is a major player in general water treatment engineering.

Who is awarded with Poland's Solidarity Prize 2015 - Zhanna Nemtsova

On 5th August 2015, Poland's Solidarity Prize 2015 was awarded to Zhanna Nemtsova for championing human rights and democracy.

As a recognition to this, she received 1.1 million US dollars human rights prize. Currently, Nemtsova works for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Berlin.

Do You Know :

• Anti-communist icon and former Polish President Lech Walesa launched a trade union and on that name the Solidarity Prize originated.
• To mark the 25th anniversary of Poland's semi-free elections in 1989, which caused the end of communism across the Soviet bloc, the award was set up in 2014.

World's Highest-Paid Actors 2015 list released by - Forbes

On 4th August 2015, World's Highest-Paid Actors 2015 list was released by Forbes. Robert Downey Jr., with earnings of 80 million US dollars, for the third year in a row topped the list, that includes names of 34 global actors.

Jackie Chan stood at the second place with an yearly income 50 million US dollars followed by Vin Diesel with earnings of 47 million US dollars stood at the third place.

Top ten

• Robert Downey Jr.(80 Million US dollars)
• Jackie Chan (50 Million US dollars)
• Vin Diesel (47 Million US dollars)
• Bradley Cooper (41.5 Million US dollars)
• Adam Sandler (41 Million US dollars)
• Tom Cruise (40 Million US dollars)
• Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan (33.5 Million US dollar)
• Akshay Kumar(32.5 Million US dollars)
• Mark Wahlberg(32 Million US dollars)

Indian Actors

Out of the 12 newcomers in the list of Forbes five are from India only. With combined earnings of 140.5 million US dollar, the Indian stars listed at the second position, just after the US.

Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor are the other two Bollywood actors who are able to make their place in the list.

Name the telescope made operational at Udaipur Solar Observatory - Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST)

On 5th August 2015, a telescope for the detailed study of the solar activity including its magnetic field, named as Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST) was made operational at the Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO) of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).

It has a 50 cm aperture and a off-axis Gregorian-Coude telescope.

Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) of Belgium build this telescope and was tested by USO for onsite acceptance. Its back-end instruments were developed in-house at USO and include an adaptive optics system and a narrow band imaging polarimeter using a tandem Fabry-Perot etalon pair and LCVR polarimetric module.

Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST)

• Its dome is made up of made of tensile fabric and is a collapsible dome.
• It will be used to calculate the vector magnetic fields of active regions at different heights of the solar atmosphere.
• It will also be used to examine seismic effects of solar flares.