1. Wipro promotes Abidali Neemuchwala to the role of CEO

1. Wipro, India’s third-largest IT
services company, has announced that Abidali Z Neemuchwala, currently its COO,
would become the new CEO, succeeding T K Kurien, who would become executive vice-chairman.

2. Neemuchwala will also take up
the post of executive director on the board.

3. The firm stated that both
appointments would be effective from February 1, 2016.

4. Before joining Wipro in March
2015 as COO and Group President, Neemuchwala served in TCS for over 23 years.
He was instrumental in turning TCS’s BPO operations into a multi-billion biz
and also managed key clients like GE.

2. Nabard inks deal with NRSC for
web-based monitoring of projects

1. The National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) has signed a deal with National
Remote Sensing Centre for web-based monitoring of its watershed projects.

2. This includes the Indo-German
Watershed Development (IGWDP) projects in three states, namely Gujarat,
Rajasthan and Telangana and the Nabard-assisted watershed projects under
Watershed Development Fund (WDF) in Madhya Pradesh

3. NRSC will create a separate web
portal for Nabard, develop individualised software tool and mobile application
fir real-time monitoring, online comparison and visualisation as regards
activities implemented in Nabard-sanctioned projects.

3. Paytm acquires Shifu for $8
million

1. Paytm has acquired Shifu, a
context-aware personal assistant application, for $8 million in order to
provide more personalised and intuitive user experience.

2. Created by Delhi-based The
Signals, Shifu is a free task-managing app.

3. It tracks the smartphone usage
patterns of users, their location and other data to offer personalised and
relevant recommendations.

4. The
acquisition will also drive Paytm’s focus on Artificial Intelligence.

4.
Atul Sobti promoted to the role of BHEL CMD

1. Atul Sobti,
who was board director of Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) has been
promoted to the role of its CMD. He also held additional responsibility as the
chairman of Raichur Power Corporation Limited, a joint venture company of BHEL
and Karnataka Power Corporation Limited.

2. Under his
leadership, the company achieved major milestones, including the highest-ever
capacity addition/synchronisation of 13,452 MW and 11,941 MW in 2013-14 and
2014-15, respectively.

3. Prior to his
promotion to the board, Sobti was executive director (power) at BHEL, New
Delhi, and was also holding concurrent charge of Industrial Systems Group, a
Bengaluru-based unit of BHEL.

5. Radha Krishna Mathur takes oath as
Chief Information Commissioner of India

1. Radha Krishna Mathur took
oath as the Chief Information Commissioner of India.

2. Mathur replaces Vijai
Sharma, who completed his tenure on December 1, 2015.

3. Mathur is a retired
Indian Administrative Service officer of Tripura Cadre and also the former
Defence Secretary.

4. He is an alumnus of IIT
Kanpur and IIT Delhi and previously has been Secretary in Union Ministry of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and in Defence Production and Supplies.

5. He will serve a three-year
tenure as the CIC till he attains 65 years of age.

6. 
First power project commissioned under TBCB incentive regime

1. Sterlite Grid has
commissioned the Transmission Project to Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP)
ahead of schedule under the Tariff Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) incentive
regime.

2. Since the implementation
of the TBCB scheme, the RAPP is the first power transmission line to be been
commissioned ahead of schedule.

3. Sterlite Grid said that
the project, which was awarded to the company in 2013, was completed within 12
months from the start of construction and would directly benefit the states of
Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana.

4. The project has been
constructed with an investment of nearly Rs.275 crores and it includes laying a
200-km, 400-kilovolt double-circuit transmission line passing through Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh.

 7. ONGC wins 26th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey
tournament

1. ONGC has won the 26th
Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey tournament by beating Railways 3-0 at the Sivaji
Stadium in New Delhi.

2. The award for the ‘Top Scorer
of the Tournament’ was conferred to Diwakar Ram (ONGC) while the ‘Player of the
Tournament’ was awarded to Simrandeep Singh of the Railways.

8.   IUPAC adds 4 new elements to the
periodic table

1. The International Union
of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has announced the discovery and
assignment of elements with atomic numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118.

2. The four new elements
are synthetic in nature and now complete the seventh row of the Periodic Table.

3. The decision was taken
as the elements met the IUPAP/IUPAC Transfermium Working Group (TWG) 1991
Discovery Criteria.

4. The new elements will
be officially named in the next few months. However, element 113 has been given
a placeholder name of Ununtrium under IUPAC’s recommendation.

5. The elements have been
discovered by the scientists from the US, Russia and Japan.

9. Kate Atkinson wins Costa Novel Prize for
2015

1. Kate Atkinson has won
the Costa Novel Prize for 2015 for ‘A God
in Ruins’.

2. The Costa Book Awards
is one of UK’s most prestigious literary prizes and Atkinson has previously won
it two times for ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’ in 1995 and  ‘Life After Life’ in 2013.

3. Atkinson till date has
published another eight novels, one play, and one collection of short stories.
She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the
2011.

10.  Mumbai teen creates record by
scoring 1009 runs in 323 balls

1. Pranav Dhanawade, a Mumbai-based
teenager has made history by scoring an unbeaten 1009 runs in 323 balls in an
inter-school tournament in Mumbai. This makes him the first batsman ever to get
a four-figure score in any form of cricket.

2. The 15-year-old, who
was playing for KC Gandhi Higher Secondary School, managed the score at a
strike rate of 312.38 in the game against Arya Gurukul in the Bhandari Cup
inter-school tournament.

3. The tournament was
organised by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) and Dhanawade scored 129
fours and 59 sixes in an innings that lasted 395 minutes.

11. Akshay Kothari appointed as India Country
Manager for LinkedIn

1. Akshay Kothari has been
appointed as India Country Manager for LinkedIn, with immediate effect.

2. Kothari replaces
Nishant Rao, who quit the company in October 2015 to join Freshdesk as its COO.

3. India has the second-largest
base of LinkedIn members globally and Kothari has been associated with the
company since 2013, when LinkedIn acquired Pulse, the company co-founded by
Kothari.

12. Freecharge
founder Kunal Shah appointed as Chairman of IAMAI

1.
The Internet and Mobile
Association of India (IAMAI) has named Kunal Shah, Co-founder and CEO of
FreeCharge, as its new Chairman.

2.
Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015.
However, FreeCharge continues to be an independent
entity under Shah’s leadership.

3.
Shah replaces Nishant Rao, who quit the association in
October 2015 to join Freshdesk as its COO.

4. IAMAI has also named
Vishwas Patel, CEO of CCAvenue as its treasurer.

13. 
Forbes lists 45 Indian entrepreneurs as under-30 achievers

1. In the fifth edition of
Forbes’ ’30 Under 30′ list comprises 600 men and women under 30, who are
changing the face of industry and creating new rules.

2. The lists includes
young entrepreneurs, creative leaders from sectors like consumer technology,
education and media, among others.

3. Ritesh Agarwal, the 22-year-old founder
and CEO of OYO Rooms made the cut in the consumer segment.

4. Among social
entrepreneurs is 28-year-old Anoop Jain, founding director of Sanitation and
Health Rights in India, which builds toilets, collects human waste and uses
methane coming off the excrement to clean water.

5. Some other names
include Nila Das (VP at Citigroup), Divya Nettimi (Investment Analyst at Viking
Global Investors), Vishal Lugani (Senior Associate at Greycroft Partners),
Ashish Kumbhat (monetary policy expert in the Federal Reserve Board) and Sanjam
Garg, (Assistant Professor, University of California Berkeley).

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