Current Affairs 8th May 2017

Current Affairs 8th May 2017 -  Important Points

• Two Indian warships visited Egyptian port city on - 5th May 2017
• Every house in Haryana to get a - smart ID
• Bharti Airtel and Ola Cabs tie-up to offer - Integrated digital services
• Country’s 1st bio refinery plant inaugerated by - Gadkari

Current Affairs 8th May 2017 - Details

Two Indian warships visited Egyptian port city on - 5th May 2017

Two Indian warships INS Mumbai and INS Aditya arrived in Alexandria, the Mediterranean port city in Egypt on 5th May 2017. The warships visited Egypt as a part of Indian Navy's overseas deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and Africa's western coast. They are a part of Indian Navy's Western Naval Command based in Mumbai.

Vital Highlights

• The warships engaged extensively in professional interactions with the Egyptian navy upton their arrival.
• The ships also engaged in a number of sports and social engagements with their Egyptian counterparts.
• Both the countries being world’s most ancient civilisations have shared a rich history of close contact.
• India and Egypt have developed warm relations in several spheres.
• The training cooperation between the militaries of the two countries exists at the highest levels.
• The warships would be leaving the city on 8th May 2017, after completing their 3-day visit.

Every house in Haryana to get a - smart ID

Detailed data will be collected of every resident and every house would be allotted a smart house ID under a special mission in Haryana. It was announced by the state’s Chief Secretary, D.S. Dhesi while presiding over a meeting of the Deputy Commissioners of the state through video conferencing on 7th May 2017 in Chandigarh. Dhesi stated that the smart house ID would be generated through a tablet by visiting every house. The work on the project is expected to commence from 15th June 2017 and would be completed by 15th August 2017.

Important Highlights

• A real time-based survey will be conducted to gather the socio-economic data.
• The teams of Saksham and e-Numerator would be visiting each house to feed their GPS location in the tablets and create a smart house ID online to link the houses with biometric.
• During the survey, details including address of each house, photo, water connection, electronic devices, location, electricity connection, bank account numbers, IFSC code, Aadhaar and personal details of the house owner such as mobile number, e-mail ID, educational qualification and  religious affiliation would be gathered.
• The data collected is expected to help in getting land, pension, scholarship, MGNREGA, loan and LPG details.
• The state government would make sure that benefits of 150 services of 87 departments are provided online through this data.
• The unemployed youth would be provided employment through this survey under Saksham Yojana.
• Through the survey, bank accounts would be opened for those who have no bank account and Aadhaar cards would be made for those who have not got them as yet.
• The Haryana government plans to make people aware of the survey through the medium of schools, sarpanches and councillors.

Bharti Airtel and Ola Cabs tie-up to offer - Integrated digital services

Telecommunications services provider Bharti Airtel partnered with taxi app aggregator Ola Cabs to offer a range of exciting digital services to customers on 8th May 2017. Both the companies will collaborate to deliver enhanced convenience for customers by leveraging the strengths of their respective portfolios.

Ola will leverage Airtel’s integrated suite of enterprise services to power its operations, while Airtel will leverage Ola’s vast network of hundreds and thousands of driver partners. Ola will be benefitted from Airtel’s extensive retail network and its integrated suite of world-class connectivity solutions for businesses that help them drive growth through better efficiency. 

More Details

• Airtel Payments Bank will be integrated with Ola app to offer convenient digital payments solutions to customers for their rides.
• Ola Money will also be integrated as a digital payment solution within MyAirtel App and the Airtel website to enable recharge of Airtel prepaid mobile and payment of Airtel mobile/broadband bills through Ola Money.
• Airtel retail points will assist customers looking to book an Ola ride through kiosks in these locations.
• Airtel will leverage Ola’s massive base of driver partners, who will act as retail points for recharging Airtel prepaid numbers on the go.
• The partnership will also have Airtel and Ola build content solutions for the customers of Ola Play. Airtel’s suite of entertainment offerings will be available on Ola Play.
• Both partners will work to offer a range of value-added services from Airtel stable to Ola customers over time.
• Enabling seamless connectivity for Ola’s driver partners, Airtel will also facilitate migration of the Ola devices to Airtel 4G network.

 Country’s 1st bio refinery plant inaugerated by - Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways inaugurated India’s first biorefinery plant that produces ethanol from a variety of biomass in Pune on 7th May 2017. Gadkari stated that such projects will help stage a great revolution in India’s agriculture sector.  The project is located in a village Rahu, in Daund Taluka in Pune District of Maharashtra. The newly set up plant is capable of producing one million litres of ethanol annually by processing a variety of agricultural residue including  rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, cane trash, corn cobs with superior product yields.

Important Details

• It is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce power, heat,fuels, and value-added chemicals from biomass.
• The concept is similar to petroleum refinery, which produces multiple fuels and products from petroleum.
• Typical applications of Biorefinery are in the production of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides.
• Biofuel is cost?effective and pollution?free.
• The most common Biofuel crops include Corn, Rapeseed/Canola, Sugarcane, Palm Oil, Jatropha, Soyabean,Sugarbeet, Cassava, Algae, Coconut, Jojoba,  Cottonseed, Sunflower seeds, Wheat,and Castor Beans.
• Many countries including India have resorted to ethanol blending to reduce harmful emissions from vehicles.
• The inauguration of the refinery paves the way for a 20 percent increase in ethanol blending program and can reduce the import burden of crude petroleum.