Current Affairs 16th February 2017

Current Affairs 16th February 2017 - Important Points

• The ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd sold its 10% stake to – JERA
• Justice Vikramajit Sen took charge of – Delhi and Districts Cricket Association
• First Indian to be FIBA’s Technical Delegate – Norman Issac
• Who launched TAMRA Portal for transparent Mining Clearances - Piyush Goyal
• Air Services Agreement (ASA) between India and Rwanda is approved by - Union Cabinet
• Merger of 5 associate banks with SBI is approved by - Union Cabinet
• Indian Panorama Film Festival begins in – Port Blair

Current Affairs 16th February 2017 - Details

The ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd sold its 10% stake to – JERA

JERA, A Japanese firm has bought 10% of ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd shares for USD $200 millionon 14th February.

Interesting Highlights -

• ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd, founded by Sumant Sinha in 2011, is an independent power producer (IPP) company. 

• ReNew creates value through reliable and efficient generation of non-conventional power through innovation in solar and wind power solutions.

• JERA, a Japanese Energy Company with global reach, was established by the equal joint venture of two major Japanese electric companies - Tokyo Electric Power Company and Chubu Electric Power Company in 2015.

• It has marked its first entry into India’s energy market by investing in ReNew Power.

Justice Vikramajit Sen took charge of – Delhi and Districts Cricket Association

Justice VikramajitSen, a former Supreme Court judge took charge of Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) from JusticMukulMudgal on 15th February 2017.

Vital Points -

• DDCA is a governing body ofCricket activities in Delhi and the Delhi cricket team.

• DDCA accounts managersPritamPanwar and Vikrant will be the signing authorities in all financial and bank related matters. 

• The selection committeealso kept same.

First Indian to be FIBA’s Technical Delegate – Norman Issac

Norman Isaac became the first Indian to be promoted by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) as the Technical Delegate (TD)in February 2017.

More about Norman

• His first senior Nationals was at Ludhiana, Punjab as a ball-handler in 1981.

• He played for Andhra Pradesh till 1992.

• After his playing days, he joined the Basketball Federation of India’s (BFI)’s B panel in 1993.

• He graduated to the A level as the only one of 13 to pass the exams at Guwahati,later in 1996.

• In 2001, he became a FIBA Referee.

• In 2002, he officiated in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

• In 2004, he officiated in the FIBA Asia championship at Singapore.

• He was appointed as a Chairman, Technical Commission by the BFI in 2015.

Who launched TAMRA Portal for transparent Mining Clearances - Piyush Goyal

The Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines,PiyushGoyal launched the Transparency, Auction Monitoring and Resource Augmentation (TAMRA) Portal and Mobile Applicationon 15 February 2017.

This portal, developed by the Ministry of Mines, was launched across 12 mineral-rich states.

More info on TAMARA :

• TAMRA is created with an objective to speed up mining activities in India and facilitate all stakeholders to track the status of clearances linked to mining blocks for getting mines to reach till operationalization for the same.

• It covers state-wise, block-wise and mineral-wise information of the mines to be auctioned.

• This portal will going to help in enhancing transparency and accountability in mining.

• Each clearance status will be displayed on the portal.

• TAMARA will generate the trigger to ministry of mines helping them to expedite the clearance in case timeline for the statuary clearance is not met.

Air Services Agreement (ASA) between India and Rwanda is approved by - Union Cabinet

Union Cabinet approved the Air Services Agreement (ASA) between India and Rwanda. Indian Prime Minister, NarendraModi did this on 15th Feb 2017.

Important Highlights -

• The ASA will provide commercial opportunities for the carriers belonging to both Rwanda and India.

• It will also enable the environment for enhanced and seamless connectivity between both the countries.

• The agreement has the potential to encourage trade, tourism, investmentand cultural exchange between both the countries.

• India has extended millions of dollars for building infrastructure projectsto Rwanda till date.

• India’s engagement with Rwanda is at three levels which are 1) at the African Union (AU) level, 2) at the level of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and 3) at the bilateral level.

Merger of 5 associate banks with SBI is approved by - Union Cabinet

Union Cabinet has approved the merger of 5 associative banks to SBI. It was proposed in May 2016 and was scheduled for Mar 2017.

These five associative banks are - State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore,State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur,State Bank of Hyderabad and State Bank of Travancore.

Things to know :

• The imperial Bank of India became the State Bank of India on 1stJuly 1955.

• It is a government-owned corporationproviding banking and financial services with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

• SBI was ranked 232nd in the Fortune 500 global corporations.

• It has assets of Rs 30.72 trillion as of 2016-17.

• With more than 14000 branches, including 191 foreign offices spread across 36 countries, makes it the largest banking and financial services company by assetsin India.

Indian Panorama Film Festival begins in – Port Blair

The Indian Panorama Film Festival has begunat Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islandson 15 February 2017 and will continue till 19th Feb. Anindo Majumdar, Chief Secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands inaugurated the festival.

The Festival is organized by Andaman and Nicobar Administration and Directorate of Film Festivals, Government of India jointly.