- J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed dead
- Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away of multiple organ failure in New Delhi on Thursday morning after nearly a week-long hospitalisation.
- He was 79. “He died due to multi-organ failure at 9:10 this morning despite our best attempts to resuscitate him,” said an AIIMS official.
- Mr Sayeed, a two-time chief minister, started his second tenure on March 1st, 2015 in alliance with the BJP, after having led the State government between 2002-05 previously.
- He was the founder of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (JKPDP) that he founded in 1999 to persuade “the Indian government into an unconditional dialogue with the Kashmiri people.”
- Mr Sayeed was a Congressman till 1987. He was Minister for Tourism in the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986, after which he joined former Prime Minister V P Singh’s National Front government as Home Minister.
- Apurvi Chandela sets a world record to win gold at Swedish Grand Prix
- Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela broke the world record on way to winning gold in the women’s 10 metre air rifle event at the Swedish Cup Grand Prix.
- Chandela shot 211.2 in the event held on Tuesday to surpass the feat of Chinese Olympic gold medallist Yi Siling, who held the record with 211.
- The result marked a positive start for Chandela, who has already won an Olympic quota place for the Rio Olympics.
- She had won an Olympic quota place for India after winning a bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, South Korea, in April.
- Cabinet okays aviation MoU with Singapore
- The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding between India and Singapore on cooperation in the field of civil aviation.
- The objective of this MoU is to cooperate in the field of civil aviation, which will cover, to begin with, the airports of Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
- The collaboration will focus on master-planning and design, traffic development, maintenance, repair and overhaul, commercial development, service improvement and cargo handling among others.
- Kate Atkinson wins the Costa Novel Award
- Kate Atkinson has won the Costa Novel Award for the second time in three years, with her ninth novel, A God in Ruins, the companion novel to Life After Life, which won the prize in 2013.
- A God in Ruins beat off competition from a shortlist including Anne Enright’s The Green Road, Patrick Gale’s A Place Called Winter and Melissa Harrison’s At Hawthorn Time.
- Cabinet approves creation of a Credit Guarantee Fund for MUDRA loans – A boost to refinance operations
- The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for the creation of a Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) loans and to convert MUDRA Ltd. into MUDRA Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) Bank as a wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI.
- The Fund is expected to guarantee more than Rs 1,00,000 crore worth of loans to micro and small units in the first instance
- Features of scheme are
- Establishment of Credit Guarantee Fund for MUDRA Units(CGFMU) for guaranteeing loans sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana with effect from 8th April, 2015 with the objective to reduce the credit risk to Banks / NBFCs / MFIs / other financial intermediaries, who are Member Lending Institutions (MLIs).
- The National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. (NCGTC Ltd.), a wholly-owned company of Government of India, constituted under the Companies Act, 1956 (2013) to manage and operate various credit guarantee funds, shall be the Trustee of the Fund.
- The guarantee would be provided on portfolio basis to a maximum extent of 50% of Amount in Default in the portfolio
- Govt. to implement BS-VI norms by 2020
- The government, in a move to fight pollution, will implement Bharat Standard (BS)-VI emission norms by April 1, 2020.
- The Petroleum Ministry would spend Rs.30,000 crore for upgrading refineries to implement the clean fuel technology
- The minister urged automobile manufacturers, who had opposed an early deadline to implement the norms due to financial burden, to co-operate.
- The decision was taken a day after the Supreme Court pressed for implementing clean vehicular fuel norms soon amid concerns on rising air pollution in the country, especially in Delhi. BS-VI is the Indian equivalent of the Euro-VI norms followed globally.
Read previous: « Daily GK Potion –6th January 2016
« Back to current affairs