Current Affairs 9th August 2016

National News:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched phase-1 of ‘Mission Bhagiratha’, a flagship project of Telangana government aimed at providing piped drinking water to every household in the state
• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched ‘Baristha Bunakar Sahayata Yojana’, a pension scheme for weaver community in the state
• Karnatka ranked first for attracting maximum‘investment intentions’
• In an e-governance initiative aimed at the common man in the power sector, the Tamil Nadu government has launched an online service for consumers to apply for low-tension service connections
• Gujarat Industries Power Company (GIPCL) said it had entered into power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Solar Energy Corporation of India for solar power projects in Gujarat

International News:

• The first-ever ‘Pizza ATM’ has been installed at a university campus of US by French- based company Paline, which developed the ATM

New Appointments :

• Network18 has appoints Sitaraman Shankar as Managing Editor – Special Projects
• KK Khurana, General Manager in-charge, has taken over as Head of BHEL Corporate R&D
• IDFC Bank has appointed former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Anand Sinha to the bank’s board

Banking:

• Arun Shrivastava, MD & CEO, Syndicate Bank, launched fund transfer based on ‘Aadhaar Number through NUUP’, using an ordinary mobile phone without internet connection.The bank also launched ‘Fund Transfer through IMPS’ at any branch for instantaneous credit to any bank account
• ICICI Bank aims facilitating 3 million transactions through e-toll plazas by March 2017

Business & Economy:

• IRCTC signs MoU with Manipur govt to provide hospitality & tourism services
• Japan records biggest current account surplus in first half of this year since 2007
• Germany’s ZF Friedrichshafen to set up technology centre in Hyderabad
• Minimum pension of retired central govt staff goes up by 157%
• Government’s divestment kitty to higher by Rs 16,000 crore

Science & Technology:

• Iran executes nuclear scientist who returned to country from US
• A new Guinness world record for the most robots dancing simultaneously has been set in China where 1,007 robots shimmied in unison, nearly double the previous record

Sports:

• Dipa Karmakar vaults into history, becomes first Indian to enter apparatus finals at an Olympics
• Lodha panel rejects BCCI request of deferring key meeting
• Michael Phelps clinches 19th Olympic gold medal in Rio Olympics

Obituary:

• Australian surfing champion Bernard Farrelly, best known as Midget for his slight size, has passed away