Current Affairs 3rd August 2016

National News:

• The Odisha government has decided to recruit members of transgender community as warders in jails of the State
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a programme-’70 Saal Azadi-Zara Yaad Karo Kurbani’ on August 9
• MoC launches Twitter Sewa to address the complaints of common man
• Central body approves Rs 400 crore for Ganga rejuvenation projects
• Resolution for renaming of Madras High Court passed
• Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu laid the foundation stone of the Dhansiri (Dimapur)-Zubza broad gauge line at the Dimapur railway station
• Govt launches performance, credit rating scheme for MSMEs
• The Andhra Pradesh government inked a MoU with Japan to develop a food value chain in the state

International News :

• Virgin Galactic is one step closer to making us all space tourists: it just received its operator license from the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA-AST)

New Appointments :

• Bhaskar Khulbe appointed Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi
• Air Marshal S Neelakantan assumed charge as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Air Command
• Dilip Rath takes over as Chairman National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
• Chocolate maker Mondelez International has roped in Deepak Iyer as managing director of its India unit and part of the Asia-Pacific leadership team

Banking :

• RBI Releases Guidelines for ‘On-Tap’ Bank Licence
• Bank of Baroda   has tied up with a fintech start-up Fisdom for personal wealth management services
• ICICI Bank reduces MCLR by 0.05%
• SBI starts certification for officers who sanction loans
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued new guidelines for issuing ‘on tap’ banking licence, even as it excluded large business groups from the same

Business & Economy:

• India’s fastest growing digital payments platform Freecharge has partnered with the leading payment gateway solution provider, PayUbiz, to further strengthen its merchant base and help consumers move from cash to digital payments
• ICICI Bank ties up with Apollo India to form ARC
• NHPC to raise Rs 4,500 cr after Subansiri project clearance
• Alphabet arm Verily to collaborate with GSK for bioelectronic medicines
• Novopay aims to disrupt payments in rural India with its assisted wallet G-2016.
• Wipro Infrastructure to acquire Israel’s H R Givon

Obituary :

• Indian American linguist, Professor Braj B. Kachru passes away