25/01/2016
Amit Shah re-elected BJP president
i. BJP chief Amit Shah became the party President again today. Top party leaders led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a bevy of Union ministers and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states proposed his name for the party presidentтАЩs post during the nomination process.
ii. Among others who have proposed Mr. ShahтАЩs name are Union minister Rajnath Singh, Anant Kumar and J.P. Nadda, M. Venkaiah Naidu, besides BJP chief ministers Vasundhara Raje, Raghubar Das, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and others.
India's largest and tallest tricolour hoisted at Ranchi
i. IndiaтАЩs largest tricolour was hoisted atop the tallest pole at Pahari Mandir in Ranchi, by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
ii. This flag will remain hoisted for 24 hours and shall be illuminated with the help of twenty sodium vapour lights at night.
iii. It is worldтАЩs largest and the highest hoisted Indian flag.
iv. Dimensions of flag: It measures 66 feet in height and 99 feet in width in the proper ratio 2:3. It was hoisted on pole with height of 293 feet. It weighs 80 kg.
TranServ launches India's first social mobile wallet Udio
i. IndiaтАЩs digital payment startup company TranServ has launched countryтАЩs first Social Mobile Wallet named Udio.
ii. The digital wallet seeks to address the gap between real and virtual modes of payment as it has more social experience.
Key features of Udio Wallet
It integrates a social, community-driven aspect with anytime, anywhere accessibility to digital P2P (peer-to-peer) transactions.
These transactions take place via seamless and secure payment structure that creates a ubiquitous ecosystem for both consumers and brands.
It is relatively easy to use and is a more casual approach for making cashless payments similar to mobile banking.
It enables users to do squaring of dues, sharing dinner bills or a cab ride and also to pay electricity and gas bills and make DTH & mobile recharges.
India submits first Biennial Update Report to UNFCCC
i. India has submitted its first Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) towards fulfillment of the reporting obligation.
ii. The BUR has been submitted as per the provisions of the UNFCCC Convention which is obligatory on countries to periodically provide national information.
Key highlights of BUR
BUR has been prepared by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (UNFCC) under its NATCOM project funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Contains national inventory of Green House Gases (GHG) for 2010 and has been prepared in accordance with the guidelines of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
6 GHGs in Inventory: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) and Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Five categories: It covers agriculture, waste and Land-use, Land-use, Change and Forestry (LULUCF), energy, industrial processes and product use (IPPU).
IndiaтАЩs emissions: India has emitted around 2,137 million tonnes (mt) of CO2 equivalent GHGs in 2010.
India to be fastest growing economy in 216: UN Report
i. As per recently released United Nations (UN) World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016 Report, India will be the fastest growing big economy in the world in 2016.
ii. The report has projected IndiaтАЩs growth rate by 7.3 % in the year 2016 and 7.5 % in 2017 slightly up from an earlier estimated 7.2 % rate in 2015.
Report Highlights
The highest growth rate in India has been attributed to improvement in the macroeconomic environment with the help of sharp decline in the prices of oil, food and metals. Even the investor and consumer confidence has risen even after Indian government facing difficulties in implementing its wide-ranging economic reform agenda.
However, some of the economic indicators such as industrial production will remain volatile. In 2016 and 2017, South Asia region is expected to be the worldтАЩs fastest-growing region despite challenging global conditions.
In the South Asia region, IndiaтАЩs economy will account for over 70% of regions GDP.
Mosquito-borne Zinka virus creates panic over birth defects in Latin America
i. Mosquito-borne Zika virus has created a panic over thousands birth defects in the Latin America countries.
ii. New case of child born with the virus has been reported in these countries. However, Brazil is experiencing the largest known outbreak of Zika with most cases in the north-east region.
iii. In this region, babies have been born a with abnormal condition called microcephaly i.e. with abnormally smaller heads which can cause brain damage.
iv. To avoid the spread of Zika virus some Latin American countries viz. Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica have warned women to avoid getting pregnant.
v. The virus also has been reported in the United States (US) after three cases were detected in Florida in people who had recently travelled to Latin America.
Sri Lanka tops in 2015 HDI in South Asia Region
i. Sri Lanka has maintained its high ranking in 2015 human development index (HDI) in the South Asia Region.
ii. In the 2015 Global Human Development Report (HDR) released by UN Development Programme (UNDP) Sri Lanka was ranked 73rd with an HDI value of 0.757.
Sindhu wins Malaysia Masters title
i. Two-time World Championship bronze-medallis
t, IndiaтАЩs P.V. Sindhu made a rousing start to the new season as she clinched the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold title after defeating ScotlandтАЩs Kristy Gilmour in straight games in the final in Penang on Sunday.
ii. The third seeded Indian had lost to Gilmour in 2013 French Open in their only meeting but today she showed why she is considered to be one of IndiaтАЩs most revered womenтАЩs singles shuttler as she avenged her loss with a dominating 21-15 21-9 win in a 32-minute clash to clinch her fifth Grand Prix Gold title.
iii. This is her second Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold title, having won it in 2013 as well. She also completed a hatтАФtrick at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold in November last year.
