1. Justice HL Dattu appointed as Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission

1. Former Chief Justice of India Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu has been appointed as the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission of India.
2. Dattu is the seventh Chairperson of the Commission and has replaced Justice Cyriac Joseph, who was the acting Chairperson of NHRC.
3. Chief Justice Dattu is the 42nd Chief Justice of India and has been associated with several significant judgments. He was on the bench that expanded the Indian jurisprudence on death sentence cases by commuting the death penalty of terror convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar to life term over mental illness and an inordinate delay in deciding his mercy plea by the government.
4. Justice Dattu also pronounced a landmark verdict giving a ruling that “bail is the rule and jail an exception” while granting bail to five big corporate in the 2G case.

2. Indian Railways launches bar coding system for unreserved tickets

1. Indian Railways has launched bar coding system for unreserved tickets to prevent revenue leakage and bring transparency in the ticketing system in New Delhi.
2. The bar coding feature includes details like ticket number, stock number, fare, source station, destination station, number of adults, number of children, train type, class code and date of journey, that are printed in the form of encrypted QR code.
3. The barcode being printed is QR (Quick Response) code by use of a thermal printer. This new feature will save approximately 3 seconds in the printing cycle of unreserved ticket.
4. Printing of encrypted QR code on Unreserved Tickets will be implemented at New Delhi, Delhi Jn. and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations as a pilot project.

3. RCom CIO quits; joins Royal Philips

1. Alpna J Doshi has quit as Reliance Communications’ Chief Information Officer.
2. She had been associated with the company for more than 6 years and was also serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Reliance Tech Services, the IT organisation of India’s integrated telecom company (RCom).
3. Doshi will be joining Royal Philips as Group Chief Information Officer, business transformation and IT worldwide and will be based out of the company’s Netherlands headquarters.

4. Akhilesh Yadav launches National Food Security Act in UP

1. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has launched the National food security Act, 2013.
2. The act aims to benefit more than 75% of the state’s population where every beneficiary will be provided with five kg foodgrain, that includes wheat at a rate of Rs 2 per kg and rice at the rate of Rs 3 per kg.
3. As per reports, its implementation would benefit more than 1.64 crore people in over 40.94 lakh households.

5. Jet Airways CFO Amit Agarwal gets additional charge of CEO

1. Jet Airways CFO Amit Agarwal has been given the additional charge of new acting CEO and will replace Gaurang Shetty.
2. Shetty, who is the Senior Vice President for commercial at Jet Airways, was given the acting charge of the post after the then CEO Cramer Ball quit in December last year.
3. It may be noted that this is Jet Airways’ sixth appointment for the position of CEO since April 2013 when the airline offloaded a part of stake to Abu Dhabi’s national airline Etihad.

6. Nobel Peace Prize receives record 376 nominations

1. As per official reports, Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 has received a record 376 nominations.The Norwegian Nobel Committee said that there are 228 individuals and 148 organizations among the contenders for the prestigious prize.
2. that includes governments, lawmakers, university professors and previous peace prize laureates. The earlier record of 278 nominations was set in 2014.

7. Basanta Bahadur Rana wins gold in 50km race walk at National Championships

1. Olympian Basanta Bahadur Singh Rana has won the gold medal in men’s 50km race walk event at the National Championships held in Jaipur.
2. Rana achieved this feat in 4 hours 7 minutes 24 seconds to win the gold while Chandan Singh and Jitender Singh Rathore won silver and bronze respectively.
3. In junior women’s 10km race walk competition, Neena K T finished first while Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Patel finished second and third respectively.
4. In junior men’s 10km race walk competition, Vikash Singh finished first while Naveen and Eknath Turamberker finished second and third respectively.

8. Forbes’ 2016: Bill Gates stays world’s richest, Mukesh Ambani 36th

1. According to Forbes’ annual ranking of billionaires, Bill Gates continues to dominate the top spot as the world’s richest person with a net worth of $75 billion. He has been number one for 3 years in a row and topped the list 17 out of 22 years.
2. Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, founder of clothing retail giant Zara and billionaire philanthropist and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett are second and third in the list.
3. Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani is positioned at 36, leading the list of 84 Indian billionaires in 2016.
4. This year the Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires includes 1,810 billionaires as compared to 1,826 last year. The total annual net worth this year is reported to be $6.5 billion.

9. Unilever’s Udayan Dutt joins Reckitt Benckiser

1. Udayan Dutt, Unilever’s HR director, marketing for South Asia has joined Reckitt Benckiser as the Regional HR director for South Asia.
2. Dutt joined Unilever in 2006 as General Manager- Reward for the South Asia and later became Director- HR and Corporate Relations, Sri Lanka in 2012.
3. Dutt is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur and has previously worked with Hewitt Associates, Sasken Communication Technologies Limited and Bharti Cellular Limited.

10. India Signs Financing Agreement with World Bank for US $300 Million

1. A financing agreement for IDA credit of US$ 300 for the “Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project” was signed with the World Bank.
2. The Objective of the project is to improve student outcomes especially of disadvantaged groups in selected Higher Education Institutions and to increase the effectiveness of the Higher Education System in Madhya Pradesh.
3. The project has three components that is Grants Support to Higher Education Institutions, State Level Initiatives and Improving System Management.
4. The closing date of Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project is 31st August, 2021.

11. Portugal nominates ex-refugee chief Antonio Guterres for UN Secretary-General

1. Portugal Government has nominated former Portuguese Prime Minister and head of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres as a candidate for General Secretary at United Nations.
2. Guterres led UNHCR at the beginning of the refugee crisis caused by the war in Syria, served as Prime Minister in 1995-2002 and as UN Refugee Agency High Commissioner in 2005-2015.
3. According to the UN Charter, the UN Security Council recommends a candidate to the General Assembly, where he or she must garner no less than two-thirds of the votes to be appointed Secretary General.

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