1. C P Gurnani
appointed as Nasscom Chairman for 2016-17
(i) The National Association of Software and Services
Companies (Nasscom) has appointed CP Gurnani as its chairman for 2016-17. Raman
Roy will hold the position of vice-chairman.
(ii) A chemical engineer from the National Institute of
Technology, Rourkela, Gurnani has over three decades of experience and has
earlier worked with Hewlett Packard Limited, Perot Systems (India) Limited and
HCL Corporation Ltd, and also steered the merger of Tech Mahindra with Satyam.
(iii) Gurnani will spearhead Nasscom’s vision 2020 for the
industry, which includes programs to make India a digital and innovation
hub in keeping with the Digital India campaign. The aim is to improve global
trade initiatives and increase market access in developed and emerging markets.
2. Sharad Agarwal
appointed as chief of Lamborghini India
(i) Lamborghini India Pvt. Ltd., the domestic arm of the
Italian luxury sports car maker, has appointed Sharad Agarwal as its head.
(ii) Agarwal will manage functions of sales, marketing,
after sales and network development in his new role. Earlier, he was the head of
Field Force for Audi India.
(iii) He has over 15 years of experience in the auto
industry and his expertise will be used to bolster Lamborghini’s presence in
India.
3. India sixth-highest military spender in 2015: SIPRI report
(i) As per the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute’s (SIPRI) report, India has moved up by one rank to become the sixth
biggest military spender in 2015. The nation’s military expenses amounted to $51.33
billion, a rise of 0.4%.
(ii) The US tops the list of nations with highest military
spending, followed by China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and the UK.
(iii) The institute, which monitors military expenditure
across the globe, stated that India had 3.1% share of world military
expenditure of the 15 countries with the highest spending last year.
(iv) Military outlay in Asia and Australia increased by 5.4%
in 2015 and by 64% between 2006 and 2015, reaching $436 billion in 2015.
(v) However, another study by US-based research firm IHS
Inc. placed India fourth among the world’s largest defence spenders, following
a 13.1% increase in its 2016-17 defence budget.
4. Nita Ambani is Asia’s
most powerful businesswoman: Forbes
(i) Forbes magazine’s ‘Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen’ 2016 list
has ranked Nita Ambani as the most powerful businesswoman in Asia. She is
followed by SBI Chairman and MD Arundhati Bhattacharya.
(ii) The list features women achievers from across China,
Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the
Philippines and New Zealand.
(iii) Six other Indian women who have bagged a place on the list
are: Mu Sigma CEO Ambiga Dhiraj (14th rank), Welspun India CEO
Dipali Goenka (16), Lupin CEO Vinita Gupta (18), ICICI Bank Managing Director
& CEO Chanda Kochhar (22), VLCC Health Care Founder and vice chairman
Vandana Luthra (26) and Biocon Founder, Chairman & Managing Director Kiran
Mazumdar-Shaw (28).
(iv) While Ambani has been given the distinction for the prominent
role she plays in Reliance Industries, Bhattacharya figures in the list for steering
SBI at a time when the bank is plagued with bad loans, which amounted to $11
billion in December 2015.
5. B B Tandon to head
panel to regulate govt. ads
(i) The Union Information & Broadcasting Ministry has instituted
a panel under former Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon to ensure that the Supreme
Court’s guidelines for government advertisements are followed.
(ii) The three-member panel also includes senior TV
journalist Rajat Sharma and ad guru Piyush Pandey.
(iii) Stipulating norms for government ads, the SC has
ordered that photos of leaders should not be published in government
advertisements except those of the President, Prime Minister and the Chief
Justice of India, Chief Ministers, Governors and ministers.
6. Indian participants
win Asian Nations Cup Chess tournament
(i) Indian men have won the Asian Nations Cup Chess
tournament defeating Vietnam 3-1 in the final round.
(ii) India scored 17 points and bagged the title, while
World and Olympiad champion China made only 15 points and take the second place.
Kazakhstan and Iran took the third and
fourth places respectively.
(iii) This is the third time that Indian men have lifted the
cup in the event. Earlier, they won at Esfahan, Iran in 2005 and in Kolkata in 2009.
7. Country music
legend Merle Haggard passes away
(i) Well known country music legend Merle Haggard has passed
away at the age of 79. In a career spanning over 60 years, Haggard recorded
over three dozen No. 1 country music hits.
(ii) He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in
1994 and won a Grammy Award for best male country vocal performance for his
“That’s the Way Love Goes.” Some of his other hits include “Sing
Me Back Home” and “The Legend of Bonnie and Clyde,
8. Indian-origin
student part of US team that decoded Zika structure
(i) Meerut-based Devika Sarohi, a doctoral student at Purdue
University, US, is the youngest member of a team of seven researchers which has worked
out the structure of Zika virus.
(ii) The team’s discovery, which is a first, will enable
creation of effective anti-viral treatments and vaccines for the disease which
has been reported in 33 countries.
(iii) Sarohi is pursuing a PhD in ‘Structure and Maturation
of Flaviviruses’. She pursued honours in biochemistry from Delhi University and
MSc from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
9. Haryana gets first
Horticulture University
(i) The Union Agriculture and farmers Welfare Minister Radha
Mohan Singh has laid the foundation stone of Haryana State University of
Horticultural Sciences at Karnal, Haryana.
(ii) It will address the need to support the bridge between
teaching, research and extension activities in Haryana and make available latest
technology and impart horticulture education to the young generation.
(iii) This university will enable improvement in
horticultural productivity, thereby help farmers to double their incomes and to
adopt suitable crop diversification as per the agro climatic conditions of the
region.
(iv) The university is set to function as a skill
development centre to cater the increasing demand for trained manpower in the
production, post-harvest and processing industries.
10. Odisha CM
launches Adarsh Vidyalaya project
(i) Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has launched the Odisha Adarsh
Vidyalaya project in order to establish schools along the lines of Kendriya
Vidyalayas in the underdeveloped rural areas of the state.
(ii) The government aims to create 314 such schools, of
which 100 started functioning with the official launch of the project.
(ii) Adarsh Vidyalayas will also have hostel facility in
future and will be affiliated to the CBSE. These schools will have
teacher-pupil ratio of 1:25 and classroom-student ratio of 1:40. Around 50% of
total seats would be reserved for scheduled categories and girls.
(iii) The schools will be managed by the Odisha Adarsh
Vidyalaya Sangathan.
11. Sigurdur Ingi
Johannsson takes charge as Iceland’s new PM
(i) After Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down as the
Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson has been appointed as the
nation’s premier. The latter is currently the Agriculture and Fisheries Minister and Deputy Chair of the Progressive Party (PP).
(ii) In order to resolve the situation, the nation’s leaders
have decided to call early elections in autumn this year, much ahead of the spring
2017 elections.
(iii) Gunnlaugsson was the first politician to step down
from his post in the aftermath of the Panama Papers leak which divulged details
about offshore wealth of public figures across the globe.
12. BEHL commissions
tiltable canal top solar plant in Andhra Pradesh
(i) Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has commissioned
a tiltable canal top solar PV plant at Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh.
(ii) This is the first such top be set up in the state and
also the first to be executed by BHEL. The project is developed by New and
Renewable Energy Development Corporation of AP Ltd (NREDCAP).
(iii) The Module Mounting Structure (MMS) is a unique design
that incorporates additional functions like lighting, cable support and fencing
into the MMS. The movable walkway, which enables effective maintenance of the
plant by providing easy access, is yet another feature.
13. World Health Day
observed on April 7
(i) On the occasion of World Health Day on April 7, the World
Health Organisation announced the theme ‘Beat Diabetes’ to increase awareness about
the disease curb rising number of cases.
(ii) WHO also released its first ‘global report on diabetes’
stating that the number of people suffering from the disease has nearly increased
four times since 1980 to 422 million adults (8.5% of the population) in 2014, most
of whom live in developing countries.
(iii) While diabetes resulted in 1.5 million deaths in 2012,
higher-than-optimal blood glucose caused an additional 2.2 million deaths by
increasing the risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.
(iv) Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for
NCDs and Mental Health, said that change depends on governments taking more
efforts to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, including achieving
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.4-to reduce premature death from
NCDs, including diabetes, by 30% by 2030.
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