1. Storm Imogen causes heavy rains and flooding in Britain
(i) Recently, storm Imogen wrecked parts of Britain with high winds and heavy rains. The METoffice issued wind warning for Wales, south-west England, London and south-east England.
(ii) It stated that coastal areas could witness giant waves and localised flooding. Gusts in south-west
England is likely to reach 80mph, with high winds sweeping across the Bristol Channel area to Cardiff and Bristol.
(iii) Over 13,000 homes suffered power outage due to the storm.
2. 35,000 Syrian refugees assemble at Turkish border
(i) Recently, 35,000 Syrian refugees congregated along the Turkish border of Kilis after escaping the war-their wrecked country.
(ii) The Governor of Kilis informed that the government would provide aid to the migrants, but would only open its gates in case of an “extraordinary crisis.” Hitherto, Turkey has accepted 3 million refugees, including 2.5 million Syrians.
(iii) The number of people fleeing Syria has been the major cause of an international refugee crisis since 2015. People have been moving to economically strong countries in Europe. So far, over 250,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions have been forced to flee the country
3. India, China conduct first-ever joint tactical exercise in Ladakh
(i) Recently, India and China conducted their first joint tactical exercise in eastern Ladakh in order to ensure greater interaction between troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control and to boost bilateral military confidence-building measures (CBMs).
(ii) The exercise, held in the Chushul-Moldo area, concentrated on co-ordination of operations to jointly undertake disaster relief and humanitarian aid.
(iii) Lately, India and China have been improving bilateral military ties besides their routine annual joint counter-terrorism exercise ‘Hand-in-Hand.’
4. India’s first aviation park to come up in Gujarat
(i) The Gujarat government recently decided to set up India’s first-ever aviation park in the state in order to strengthen its aviation sector.
(ii) The aviation park will be equipped with facilities such as airstrip, training school, helipad and space for setting up small manufacturing units, among others.
(iii) As per officials of the government-owned Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Ltd. (GUJSAIL), this integrated park aims to increase awareness about the potential of this sector among students, professionals, policy makers and business entities.
5. NCPI launches Unified Payment Interface
(i) Recently, former Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani spoke about the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NCPI) new open source platform called Unified Payments Interface, which is for mobile-to-mobile fund transfers without account details.
(ii) The platform aims to facilitate transactions between mobile apps of different banks by enabling interoperability.
(iii) Nilekani highlighted that currently mobile wallets are not interoperable i.e. a person cannot make payments from one to another. Thus, with the launch of UPI and wallet companies becoming payments banks, their coming on to the UPI platform will make them interoperable.
6. Ratan Tata invests in e-commerce start-up Moglix
(i) Recently, Ratan Tata, chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, invested in the start-up Moglix, which became his sixth investment this year.
(ii) Moglix is an e-commerce company specialising in B2B procurement of industrial products.
(iii) This is the first time Tata is investing in a manufacturing tech. The other five start-ups that Tata invested in 2016 are: DogSpot.in, Tracxn, CashKaro, FirstCry and Teabox. He is already an investor in firms like Snapdeal, Kaaryah, Urban Ladder, Bluestone, \CarDekho, Sabse Technologies, China’s Xiaomi, Ola and DogSpot.in.
7. Zomato breaks even in six overseas markets
(i) Recently, Indian restaurant and food delivery service Zomato became one of the few Indian start-ups to succeed abroad. The firm broke even in key markets, including India.
(ii) As per Zomato’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal, the company has hit operational break-even in India, the UAE, Indonesia and three other markets in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
(iii) Combined, they account for three-fourths of the company’s revenue. The primary sources of revenue for Zomato are advertising and its delivery service. The company is also about to raise $200 million funding by April 2016.
(iv) Zomato has operations in 17 other countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, and has so far raised $225 million from investors including Temasek, Sequoia and Info Edge.
8. Sapna Devi bags gold in 12th Asian Games’ women’s Wushu Taolu competition
(i) Recently, the 12th Asian Games was held at the Rising Sun Sports Complex in Assam, wherein India’s Sapna Devi bagged a gold medal in the women’s Wushu Taolu (Changquan) competition.
(ii) Sapna scored 9.45 points to win gold, Nepal’s Susmita Tamang scored 8.72 points and bagged a silver medal. Pakistan’s Nazia Parvaiz won a bronze medal on scoring 6.30 points.
9. Australian women’s team wins three-match ODI series against India
(i) Recently, the Australian women’s cricket team won the three-match ODI series against India 2-1.
(ii) The Indian team ensured a five-wicket victory in the third match so as to prevent a complete loss as the Australian team had won the first two matches.
(iii) In the third match, which was played at the Bellerive Oval, Australia scored 7-231. India made 234 runs after losing five wickets, with three overs to spare.
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