1. IRCTC Survey – Surat cleanest railway station

1. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) survey – Surat is the cleanest railway station

(i) As per the recent survey conducted by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Surat has been termed as the cleanest railway station, followed by Rajkot and Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh).

(ii) The findings are based on the survey conducted in January-February 2016 at 407 railway stations, which included 75 A-1 stations (Those stations which earn revenue more than Rs.50 crore) and 332 A category stations(Those with revenue between Rs. 6 crore and Rs. 50 crore) in India.

(iii) The survey was based on the feedback of around 1.34 lakh passengers who gave their responses on 40 cleanliness parameters.

(iv) This survey was a part of Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan’. In all 40 per cent of all the stations surveyed fared ‘average’ in terms of cleanliness. Varanasi, PM Modi’s constituency’s railway station stood 65 among the 75 A-1 railway station.

(v) In A- Category, Beas (Punjab) followed by Gandhidham (Gujarat), Vasco Da Gama (Goa), Jamnagar (Gujarat), Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) and Nasik Road (Maharashtra) were among the cleanest railway stations.

2. India signs $35million loan deal with World Bank

(i) India recently signed a loan agreement worth $35 million dollars with the World Bank for the Madhya Pradesh citizen access to responsive services project.

(ii) The agreement was signed to this effect in New Delhi between Shri Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary (MI), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Onno Ruhl, Country Director, World Bank (India) on behalf of the World Bank.

(iii) The objective of the project is to improve access and quality of public services in the state.

(iv) As per the agreement, the project which cost about 50 million dollar, 35 million dollar will be financed by the Bank and the remaining amount is to be funded by the Madhya Pradesh State budget. The project duration is for five years.

3. India and Australia sign pact to avoid double social security contribution

(i) In a recent development, India signed a pact with Australia to avoid double social security contribution.

(ii) As per the pact, employees of India deputed to Australia and vice versa will not have to make double social security contribution. With this, Australia has become the 14th country with which India has a social security agreement in force.

(iii) The other countries with which India has this pact includes Korea, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Hungry, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Switzerland.

4. India to sign trilateral road pact with Myanmar and Thailand

(i) As per recent development, India is to sign a trilateral road agreement with Myanmar and Thailand with the view to link the North-East and two of the East Asian countries — Myanmar an Thailand.

(ii) Union Road Minister Nitin Gadkari said, “The landmark Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) Motor Pact has already been inked with identification of 14 routes for passenger services and 7 routes for cargo movement.”

(iii) The India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) trilateral pact is expected to provide ease of travel between SAARC and ASEAN Nation and expected to boost business, trade, education, trade an tourism among these regional groups.

5. Four Indians in World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders list

(i) Recently four Indian made it to the list of 121 young global leaders recognised by the World Economic Forum (WEF) namely, Kanika Dewan, Dhivya Suryadevara, Shaurya Veer Himatsingka and Sheetal Amte-Karajgi.

(ii) According to WEF, these 121 Young Global Leaders for 2016 are “shaking up policy, society and the world around them” and this includes scientists, government leaders, future business leaders, social activists and artists, aged under 40.

(iii) Of the Young Global Leaders Class of 2016, the majority include women and individuals from emerging economies.

(iv) Other eminent personalities who were named Young Global Leader (YGL) in the past include British Prime Minister David Cameron, Google chief Larry Page, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Alibaba Group chief Jack Ma, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer among others.

6. Hollywood Actress Ashley Judd appointed U.N. Goodwill ambassador

(i) Recently Hollywood actress, Ashley Judd was appointed as the United Nations (U.N.) Goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

(ii) Ashley Judd is an actor, writer, political activist and humanitarian. As a Goodwill Ambassador, Ashley is expected to support the agency’s efforts to stop women dying while delivering and to empower women to choose when and how often to conceive from their partners.

(iii) UNFPA is the lead agency with the aim for making a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

(iv) Miss Judd on her appointment said,”It was a honour to be appointed as UNFPA’s Goodwill Ambassador and to advocate for women’s rights.”

7. Meir Dagan, former Mossad chief passes away

(i) Meir Dagan, the chief of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad passed away recently at 71.

(ii) Dagan was widely known for disrupting Iran’s nuclear program. He served as the Director of Mossad from 2002 until his retirement in 2011.

(iii) Though Israel neither confirms nor denies, it was during this period, Israel carried out deadly assaults on Iran’s nuclear scientist and carried cyberattacks against its nuclear enrichment facilities.

(iv) In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, called the former spy director a “great fighter” who had devoted his life for the country and the Jewish people. He added that, “He led the organisation in daring, pioneering and groundbreaking operations.”

8. GenPact signs MoU with Olympic Gold Quest to support Indian woman athlete at Rio

(i) Recently, Information Technology(I.T.) firm GenPact signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Olympic Gold Quest organisation, with the view to help those Indian women athlete win Olympic medal, who are preparing for this year’s Olympic in Rio de Janeiro.

(ii) This is a part of the company’s Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR) programme, and is a second major initiative under the ‘diversity & inclusion’ pillar of company towards driving women in leadership. This deal marks GenPact’s first partnership in sporting arena.

(iii) Previously the company had also set up Genpact’s Center for Women’s Leadership, an industry-academia partnership in association with Ashoka University.

(iv) Olympic Gold Quest organisation (OGQ) was cofounded by sporting icons Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone and has in so far supported four out of the six medalists ( Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom) at the 2012 Olympics.

9. Infosys Foundation donates Rs 8 crore to Asia Heart Foundation 

(i) Recently, Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of tech firm Infosys signed a deal with Asia Heart Foundation to enable the adoption of robotics in healthcare.

(ii) As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the foundation has granted Rs. 8 crore to Asia Heart Foundation which will enable them to do robotic surgeries with the purchase of high end equipment, the IS 3000 da Vinci Si system.

(iii) The IS 3000 da Vinci Si system will enable, affordable, less invasive and high equality surgery to large number of people. A part of the funds will also be utilised in training surgeons and providing research opportunities for making use of robots in complex surgeries and indigenising the production of such technology in India.

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