1. Swiss Government reveals
name of three more Indians with Swiss bank accounts
(i) The Switzerland Government has started
releasing names of Indians holding accounts in Swiss banks. The latest names
which were made public include Sneh Lata Sawhney, Sangita Sawhney, Gurjit
Singh Kochar, Syed Mohamed Masood and Chaud Kauser Mohamed Masood.
(ii)
The Swiss Federal Tax Administration has
asked the above mentioned Indians to fill an appeal within 30 days before the
Federal Administrative Court if they do not wish to share their details with
the Indian authorities under their ‘mutual assistance treaty on tax matters.’
(iii) According to sources, this is a
big victory for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the case of black money
stashed abroad. The SIT has claimed that 340 Indians hold accounts in Swiss
banks with over Rs. 4000 crore stashed in them.
2. High Court allows Greenpeace India to operate two of its domestic
accounts
(i)
The Delhi high Court on Wednesday allowed
Greenpeace India, to operate two of its domestic accounts to accept domestic
contributions which may be utilised for the routine functioning of the
organisation.
(ii)
The Court emphasised that it was an
interim relief for the NGO and it cannot utilise the amount frozen by the
Government.
(iii) The court was hearing the plea
of Greenpeace India to free its international and national bank accounts, which
were blocked as per the directives issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in April
2015.
3. Himachal Pradesh sets up satellite tracking system to check forest
fires
(i)
Forest fires have emerged as a big
challenge for Himachal Pradesh during summers. In an effort to safeguard the
forest cover in Himachal Pradesh, the state government has set up a satellite
tracking system to find forest fires and thereby safeguard the green cover.
(ii)
The launch of the satellite tracking
system will enable the state forest department to keep a constant vigil on forests as the satellite tracking system will promptly send an SMS alert to
state forest officials on the occurrence of any fire in a forest or in its vicinity.
4. Indian origin scientist, Latha Venkataraman, creates first single-molecule device
(i)
A team of Columbia Engineering
researchers led by the Indian-American scientist, Latha Venkataraman, has created
a single-molecule electronic device with a potential of real world
technological applications for nanoscale devices.
(ii)
With electronic devices becoming smaller and smaller each day, molecular electronics has gained more importance than
ever before for finding solutions to the problems of miniaturisation.
(iii) The idea of creating a single-molecule diode was given in 1974 by Arieh Aviram and Mark Ratner, suggesting
that the molecule could act as a rectifier, a one way conductor of electric
current.
5. State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015 report released
(i)
The United Nations released ‘The State of Food
Insecurity in the World 2015’
report on Wednesday. According to its latest
findings, world hunger has dropped to 795 million people – 216 million fewer than
in 1990-92 – or around one person for every nine.
(ii)
In developing countries, the
prevalence of undernourishment (which refers to the proportion of people who are
unable to consume enough food for active and healthy life) has declined to 12.9
percent of the population from 23.3 percent a quarter century earlier.
(iii) A majority 72 out of the 129 nations monitored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations have
achieved the Millennium Development Target of halving the prevalence of
under-nourishment by 2015, while developing regions as a whole missed the target by a
small margin.
6. AFSPA withdrawn from
Tripura
(i)
Stating that insurgency is on the wane,
the Tripura Government has revoked the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
(ii)
The Act had been in force in the state
since 1997 and was finally repealed this year, less than a month after the
elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council were
conducted.
(iii) AFSPA has been criticised over the years on account of human rights and democratic rights violations which led to alienation of tribal
and local people. Therefore, this decision has been hailed by leaders
across party lines.
7. ANZ to open two branches by early 2016
(i) The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ)
banking group, in a bid to enhance its presence in the Indian Banking Sector, is set to open its first rural branch in Bengaluru by early 2016.
(ii) Currently the bank has one branch in
Mumbai, which was opened in 2011. Earlier, ANZ owned the British bank
Grindlays before selling it to Standard Chartered in 2000.
(iii) Last year, ANZ received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to open branches in India. ANZ has a presence in 15 Asian countries.
8. Four Indians among Forbes World‘s 100 Most Powerful Women
(i) SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya,
ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar, Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar – Shaw and HT
Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia are the four Indian women among the World’s 100
most powerful women.
(ii) The Forbes list was topped by German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(iii) This was Forbes’s 12th
annual list of the 100 most influential women featuring extra-ordinary entrepreneurs,
visionary CEOs, politicians, celebrity role models, activists and others who
are transforming the world. They have been ranked on the basis of dollars, media
presence and impact.
9. India gets its first transgender college principal
(i) Manabai Bandopadhyay became the first transgender college
principal in India and probably in the world.
(ii) She is currently an associate professor in Bengali at
Vivekananda Satobarshikki Mahavidyalaya and shall take charge as the principal
of Krishnagar Women’s College, West Bengal on June 9th, 2015.
10. Abhinav Bindra makes the cut for Rio Olympics 2016
(i) Abhinav Bindra became the fourth
Indian shooter to win a quota place for the Rio Olympic Games 2016.
(ii) Bindra finished 6th in the Men’s 10 m Air rifle final at the ISSF shooting world cup in Munich.
(iii) Gagan Narang, Jitu
Rai and Apurvi Chandela are the other Indians to have secured an Olympic quota
earlier.
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