Current Affairs 4th July 2015

Current Affairs 4th July 2015 - Important Points

• Project Tatkal was launched by which bank - SBI

• National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 was approved by - Union Cabinet

• Who won 2015 World Food Prize - Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh

• Which state govt gave in principle approval to give ownership rights to lease holder farmers - UP Govt

• Who took charge as Director of the Aeronautical Development Agency - C D Balaji

• Who was chosen for GCHERA World Agriculture Prize 2015 - Professor R. Paul Singh

• For what purpose Army launched operation Shiva - To secure Amarnath Yatra

• Which state will be replicating the Maharashtra's Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan - Rajasthan

• Mahindra Defence formed a joint venture with - Airbus Helicopters

• Which software company will be setting up Digital Village in Maharashtra - Microsoft

• Y K Sabharwal passed away, he was - Former Chief Justice of India

Current Affairs 4th July 2015 - Details

Project Tatkal was launched by which bank - SBI

Among Important Banking Current Affairs, On 3rd July 2015, India's largest public sector lender SBI (State Bank of India) launched Project Tatkal with an aim to provide doorstep services and expedite Home Loan Application (HLA) process. By this project SBI will be helping home loan applicants to get loan within 10 days of receipt of application.

SBI will roll out this project in a phased manner.

National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 was approved by - Union Cabinet

On 2nd July 2015, National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 was approved by Union Govt. It will be the first integrated National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India. Its aim is to acknowledge the need for an effective roadmap for promotion of entrepreneurship as the key to a successful skills strategy.

This policy will address key obstacles to skilling, including low aspirational value, lack of integration with formal education, lack of focus on outcomes, low quality of training infrastructure and trainers, etc and will be aligning supply and demand for skills by bridging existing skill gaps, promoting industry engagement, operationalising a quality assurance framework, leverage technology and promoting greater opportunities for apprenticeship training.

Who won 2015 World Food Prize - Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh

Among the important prizes, On 1st July 2015, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh was chosen for prestigious World Food Prize for year 2015. He has worked towards reducing hunger in Bangladesh and 10 other countries. He is working through his organisation BRAC.

BRAC is the largest non-governmental organisation which is having more than 150000 employees throughout the world. Due to BRAC's work on tackling child mortality in Bangladesh in the 1980s, the number of deaths halved over a decade. 

BRAC approach toward alleviation of poverty and hunger is multi dimensional that is evident from BARC’s activities towards increasing food availability and accessibility through modern agricultural practices, social and economic empowerment of women, child immunization, family planning, education, micro finance, legal services, etc.

For this great work Sir Fazle Hasan Abed has already been honoured with Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1980, the Maurice Pate Award by UNICEF in 1992 and Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) or Sir Honour in 2010 by the Queen of England.

Which state govt gave in principle approval to give ownership rights to lease holder farmers - UP Govt

On 4th July 2015, UP state govt gave its node to give in-principle approval to give ownership rights to aasami pattedar or lease holders of agriculture lands. By this decision lakhs of landless small farmers will be benefited.

State Govt has taken this decision on the basis of recommendations of the Revenue committee. This committee was set up by the government in 2012.

Important to mention here that, this decision will benefit only those aasami pattedars who were given the lease before 2000. Further, the ownership rights will remain non-transferable for the next 10 years.

Who took charge as Director of the Aeronautical Development Agency - C D Balaji

Among the important National Current Affairs, On 3rd July 2015, Retd. Commodore C D Balaji took charge as the Director of the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Programme Director of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). Before him this charge was with P S Subramanyam.

Before this Commodore C D Balaji was Project Director of the LCA’s naval version. He was commissioned into the Indian Navy's engineering branch in September 1978 and since then, he has specialised in the Naval Aviation Arm.

Who was chosen for GCHERA World Agriculture Prize 2015 - Professor R. Paul Singh

Professor Emeritus R. Paul Singh name was chosen for prestigious GCHERA World Agriculture Prize 2015. He is an Indian American professor. 

He will be honoured with this award for his lifetime contributions to food engineering research, education, development, consulting, and technology transfer. It is also worth to mention here that he was the man who was responsible for creating food-processing equipment for a manned mission to MARS under a NASA contract.

Do You Know : 

GCHERA means Global Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences. 

For what purpose Army launched operation Shiva - To secure Amarnath Yatra

Operation Shiva was in news as it was started by Indian Army to provide security to devotees taking part in the 59-day-long annual Amarnath Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

This holy Yatra was started on 2nd July 2015.

This operation will be including Rashtriya Rifles unit, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance of Yatra route and cave shrine, combing of forests located along the Yatra track, Infantry Unit of Army, companies of Paramilitary Forces, CRPF and BSF.

Which state will be replicating the Maharashtra's Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan - Rajasthan

Rajasthan government has planned to replicate the programme of Maharashtra Government named "Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan". This program was launched by Maharashtra Government to make Maharashtra a drought free state by 2019.

Rajasthan government has sent a delegation comprised of a minister and senior bureaucrats to Maharashtra to get more insights of this program so that it can be implemented in Rajasthan too.

In Maharashtra this progam was launched in March 2015 by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis with an aim to make 5000 villages free of water scarcity every year and make Maharashtra a drought-free state by 2019 with an active participation of the peoples from the villages.

This scheme will focus on Rain water harvesting within the village boundaries will help in increasing ground water levels and will also encourage micro-irrigation systems encouraged for proficient use of water. 

Mahindra Defence formed a joint venture with - Airbus Helicopters

On 3rd July 2015, Mahindra Defence tied up with Airbus Helicopters to form a Joint Venture to manufacture defence choppers jointly under the Make in India initiative. Mahindra Defence is an subsidiary of Mahindra Group while Airbus Helicopters is an European aerospace giant. This joint venture will be acting as prime contractor for India's military helicopter tenders including the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Helicopter, the Naval Utility Helicopter and the Naval Multirole Helicopter procurement programmes. Indian Armed forces will be getting state-of-the-art helicopters of high reliability, quality and safety standard based on combat-proven platforms from this venture which will be made in India.

Which software company will be setting up Digital Village in Maharashtra - Microsoft

Major Software Company Microsoft has agreed to develop Smart MIDC (industrial colony) and support Digital Village in Maharashtra as per the information given by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after his meet with India-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in Miscrosoft’s office in Seattle. This meeting was happened when Fadnavis is on a week-long visit to the US.

Microsoft will be providing technology support for health care services in remote tribal areas and will be setting up a pilot project at Melghat in Amravati district. Microsoft will also be setting up a cyber-security centre at Pune.

Y K Sabharwal passed away, he was - Former Chief Justice of India

On 3rd July 2015, Former Chief Justice of India Y K Sabharwal passed away. He was 73 years old. He became additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 1986 and became its permanent judge in April 1987. After that in 1999 he became Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, he was elevated as a judge of the apex court in 2000 and then later in 2005 he became Chief Justice of India.