1. Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar appointed as Chairman of ISRO Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar was on 12 January 2015 appointed as Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Kiran Kumar became eighth Chairman of ISRO after succeeding K Radhakrishnan who retired on 31 December 2014. He was re-employed on contract basis for a tenure of three years from the date of assumption of the charge of post. Kiran Kumar will also be the Secretary of the Department of Space and also the Chairman of Space Commission. His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. 2. Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank launches new product Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) has launched a new tax-saving term deposit product — ‘Vikas Tax Saver’. Launching the product in Dharwad on Tuesday, Ashok Reddy, Chairman of KVGB, said that income-tax payers can deposit ₹1.5 lakh in this term deposit and get income-tax benefit on it. This follows a notification by the Union Finance Ministry enhancing the investment limit to ₹1.5 lakh to boost domestic investment in long-term savings. The amount deposited under ‘Vikas Tax Saver’ for a term of five years will be deducted from income before calculation of personal income-tax. Though the lock-in period for deposit is five years, the deposit holder can get interest either in lumpsum or every quarter or month, he said. This deposit product offers a rate of interest of 8.6 per cent. Senior citizens will get an interest of 9.2 per cent in this scheme. 3. Australia launched Online Visa Pilot Programme for Indian business and tourism visitors Australia launched Online Visa Pilot Programme to make it easier for Indian business and tourism visitors to apply online visa for travelling Australia. The pilot programme has been launched on a trial basis. It covers online lodgement of subclass 600 visas for Indian business and tourism visitors. It will be rolled out through selected travel agents across India. As per the Tourism 2020 programme of Australian Government, India has the potential to contribute between 1.9 billion US dollars and 2.3 billion US dollars annually to tourism industry by 2020. This is the reason that the Australian Government has rolled out a trial of online visa applications to capitalize this rapidly growing visitor market and create jobs. 4. Dima Hasao District of Assam got its first broad gauge railway track Dima Hasao District of Assam got its first broad gauge railway track on 12 January 2015. A goods train with 43 wagons reached the main railway station of the Dima Hasao district using this broad gauge track. The train in its first ever journey covered 98 km from Patharkhula station to New-Haflong station while crossing 9 tunnels, 15 stations, 15 major bridges and 135 minor bridges. The passenger trains will also be commissioned on the route from Pathakhula to New-Haflong on the track that is extended up to Silchar after the approval of Railway Safety Commission. 5. Golfer Anirban Lahiri voted Asian Tour’s 2014 Players’ Player of the Year Anirban Lahiri, an Indian professional golfer was voted as the 2014 Players’ Player of the year in Asian Tour. He was voted for his successful exploits on the Asian Tour, wherein he won two titles and finished second on the Asian Tour Order of Merit. 6. Union Government appoints Pournima Gupte as IRDA actuary Union Government has appointed Pournima Gupte as member (actuary) of Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDA). With her appointment, IRDA got an actuary after a gap of three years. Since 2011, this post was lying vacant after R Kannan retired from IRDA. It should be noted that for the first time a woman has been appointed on the board of IRDA. Earlier, Pournima Gupte had worked with Life Insurance Corporation and has worked as actuary at Reliance Life Insurance and IDBI Federal. 7. Union Finance Minister Jaitley adopts 4 Gujarat villages as part of Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has adopted 4 villages in Vadodara district in Gujarat as part of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. He has adopted following 4 villages of Vadodara district: Karnali village Pipaliya village Valida village Baglipura village 8. Nabard signs MoUs with Gujarat Govt for Rs 25,000 cr assistance The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) on Monday said it has executed three MoUs with the Gujarat Government for a proposed financial assistance of nearly Rs 25,000 crore for various developmental projects. This includes refinance support of Rs 12,000 crore to cooperative banks and regional rural banks (RRBs) for facilitating disbursement of crop loan by them in the state in the next two years, Mukesh Kumar Agrawal, Chief General Manager, NABARD, Gujarat Region, said. Besides, it envisages loans of Rs 4,500 crore to the State Government for developing rural infrastructure in the next two years under the rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF). Also, Nabard has earmarked Rs 1,700 crore for supporting cooperative banks for their multipurpose lending , a measure to strengthen the cooperative banking system. Nabard also plans to increase term loan under agriculture for which it plans to disburse Rs. 1,200 crore to all types of banks in the state as refinance under investment credit operations. For the dairy sector in Gujarat, NABARD proposes to extend a financial support of Rs. 2,000 crore which includes working capital as well as term loan financing dairy unions and federations. Its other assistance included Rs 600 crore in food processing, Rs 500 crore for warehousing, Rs 300 crore for renewable energy sources, and Rs 500 crore for funding underground drainage, 9. Cristiano Ronaldo wins FIFA Ballon d’Or award for the third time Cristiano Ronaldo has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or award for year 2014. He has earned this title of world’s best football player for a third time. Earlier he was conferred with award in 2008 and 2013. He has retained this highest individual honour in football after scoring 61 goals for Real Madrid and Portugal in 2014. He also had played important role, by making record tally of 17 goals in a Champions League season that helped his club to win an unprecedented 10th European Cup title. While in women’s section, Germany’s midfielder Nadine Kessler has been awarded FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year title. 10. Idukki district of Kerala becomes India’s first district with rural broadband network Idukki district of Kerala has become first district in India to have high speed Rural Broadband Network i.e. National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) Internet connectivity. Union Minister of Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad commissioned this Hi-speed rural broadband network under the governments flagship Digital India programme. In Idukki, 8 block offices and 52 village panchayats out of 53 will benefit from this project. 11. Odhisa’s Sun Temple gets ASI’s Adarsh Monument tag un Temple at Konark, Odhisa has been the coveted with Adarsh Monument tag by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Along with Sun Temple, three other monuments of eastern India were given Adarsh Monument tag. They are Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. Vaishali-Kolhua in Bihar. Rang Ghar in Sibsagar (Sivasagar) district of Assam. At present, 25 out of 3,680 protected monuments in India have been selected under the Adarsh Smarak Yojana. It includes monuments like Taj Mahal, Khajuraho, Qutab Minar and Red Fort which have highest number of tourists visiting them. By awarding this monument Adarsh Monument tag, Central government gives them special attention in order to boost international tourism. Under Adarsh Smarak Yojana, ASI provides amenities of international standards like washrooms, drinking water, signs, cafeteria, audiovisual centres, Wi-Fi connectivity, interpretation centres and encroachment-free areas around these monuments.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 02:17:27 +0000
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