World Today - 30th September 2015

1. Google has announced its plans to make Internet accessible to one crore passengers at 100 busiest railway stations in India by the end of 2016 and will later expand it to 400 other stations, making it one of the largest public Wi-Fi projects in the world. This announcement was made by Google CEO Sundar Pichai during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Google’s US headquarters in Mountain View, California.
2. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lowered the repo rate by 50 basis points from 7.25 per cent to 6.75 per cent, while keeping CRR and SLR unchanged at 4 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively in its Fourth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2015. The reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 5.75 per cent, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 7.75 per cent. However, it has lowered its FY 2015-16 GDP growth target to 7.4 percent from 7.6 percent.
3. Renowned Hindi poet and eminent journalist Viren Dangwal passed away. He was 68. His famous poem collection ‘Dushchakra Me Shrista’ had earned him prestigious Sahitya Academy award in 2004.
4. India bagged seven medals, including five silver and two bronze at the 16th Asian Rowing Championships that concluded in Beijing, China. China bagged the maximum medals including 15 gold.
5. NASSCOM, TiE and IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE India hosted the first ‘India-U.S. StartUp Konnect 2015’ programme in the Silicon Valley, to highlight the strengths of the Indian startup ecosystem. With an aim to boost startups in various organizations in India and the US seven MoUs were signed. During the programme Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Bharat Fund. It is aimed at providing seed funding to Indian entrepreneurs.
6. The Government of India signed a loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for US $123.51 million for tranche 3 of the Infrastructure Development Investment Program for Tourism to continue upgrading tourism infrastructure and services in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The loan will be used for development and conservation of places of tourist attractions. The third tranche loan is part of the $250 million multi-tranche financing facility that ADB approved in 2010.
7. Bengali movie Kadambari has bagged two major awards at the Washington DC South Asian Film Festival, including the best film honour and the best actress trophy for Konkona Sen Sharma, while India’s Oscars entry Court took home the best director gong for Chaitanya Tamhane. ‘Kadambari’ is directed by Suman Ghosh.
8. Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched a Railway Portal for dissemination of detailed information on Indian Railways. ‘Indian Railway Knowledge Portal’ which is accessible at www.kportal.indianrailways.gov.in is an initiative of the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) which allows the user to access most of the available knowledge about Indian Railways at one location due to linkage of websites, documents and much more. National Informatics Centre (NIC) has clustered all the libraries to a single interface via e-Granthalaya.
9. Gujarat Tourism Policy for 2015-20 was unveiled by state tourism Minister Saurabh Patel. In this policy, the state govt. accorded industry status to tourism for the first time. The policy document pegs the investment potential in the tourism sector in the state at $4 billion or around Rs. 26,000 crore by 2025.
10. Consequent upon the demise of Dr. Syed Ahmed, Governor of Manipur, the President of India has appointed V. Shanmuganathan, Governor of Meghalaya, to discharge the functions of the Governor of Manipur, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made.
11. Silicon Valley based chip-maker Qualcomm announced that it will invest 150 million US dollars for Indian start-ups. The investment will come through a venture fund. The announcement was made after the company’s executive chairman Paul E. Jacobs met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Digital Economy event in San Jose.
12. Mathematician Jacob Tsimerman of the University of Toronto, Canada was chosen for the prestigious 2015 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize. Tsimerman is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the University of Toronto. He primarily conducts research in Number Theory.