6th May 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Today (6th May 2016) is International No Diet Day.
• This day  is an annual celebration of body acceptance, including fat acceptance and body shape diversity.
• Nepal has recalled Deep Kumar Upadhyay, its envoy to India, allegedly on the grounds of "non-cooperation". 
• Note : Earlier, Nepali President Bidhya Bhandari cancelled her visit to India owing to political instability in Nepal (She was scheduled to visit from May 9).

National Affairs

• Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has decided to create more districts in the state.
• The new districts may come into being from either August 15 or Dussehra. 
• The total number of districts may go up to 24-25. 
• Note : As of now, there are ten districts in the state.
• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Delhi government to plant 2,000 trees for chopping 216 trees in a residential colony in North-East Delhi. 
• The Centre has approved plans to construct 1,000 kilometres of expressways at an investment of ₹16,680 crore under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP). 
• The corridors approved under the project include the Vadodara-Mumbai stretch, Delhi-Meerut on National Highway 58 and Bengaluru-Chennai on National Highway 4.
• The Union Government Committee on Yoga Education in Universities has submitted it's report.
• The committee has recommended 7 programmes for implementation in universities.
• Important Point to Note : The committee was headed by Professor H.R. Nagendra, Chancellor, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana, Samsthana, Bengaluru.

Places in News

• The Indru Nag hillock in Dharamshala is set to have its own sign similar to the famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. 
• A 100-feet high national flag mast shall also be erected near the sign. 
•  The budget for the project is ₹25 lakh. 

Science & Technology

• Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) has launched Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Shaurya at Panaji.
• The is the fifth ship of a series of six Off-shore Patrol Vessels  (OPVs) that the Indian Coast Guard had tasked the Vasco defence public sector undertaking to build.
• It was launched by the Governor of Goa, Mridula Sinha, in the presence of GSl and ICG officials. 
• The ICGS Shaurya will be commissioned into service in early 2017.

MOUs

• India and Iran reached an agreement for the former to pay Iran $6.4 billion in pending oil payments using European banks.
• Oil buyers could not pay Iran owing to the sanctions, which were recently lifted. 
• Indian refiners were holding 55% of the payments pending to Iran and were depositing 45% with India's UCO bank.
• The trade body of Indian IT firms NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) has signed a MoU with Social network giant Facebook to build a product design initiative for Indian entrepreneurs. 
• The NASSCOM-Facebook initiative seeks to catalyse the innovation ecosystem and to help design thinking in India. 

Business & Economy

• ICICI Bank has became the first financial institution in the country to tie up with the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Grouping-promoted New Development Bank (NDB). 
• The two banks signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to consider each other as “preferred” partners for collaboration in bond issuances, co-financing, treasury management and human resources.
• India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a mobile-based payments solution ‘mVisa’. 
• The application will enable users to make payments from their smartphones by scanning a unique QR (Quick Response) code at merchant outlets. 
• In its first phase, the service has been introduced in Bangalore and will be rolled out in other cities gradually.
• The Lok Sabha has passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 which aims at consolidating and amending laws related to reorganization and insolvency resolution in a timely manner. 
• It will cover individuals, companies, limited liability partnerships and partnership firms. 
• The bill proposes setting up of an Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board, and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Fund.
• India has secured 9th position in the 2016 Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index.
• The RBI has released draft guidelines for on-tap licensing of universal banks in the private sector, under which it would accept applications at any time. 
• Under the existing policy, the window for licensing is opened periodically. 
• Non-banking financial companies, experienced individuals, and firms that are not part of large conglomerates can seek bank licences subject to certain criteria.
• Zimbabwe is set to print its own version of the US dollar in order to ease a cash shortage in the country.
• The cash, known as bond notes, will be backed by 200 million dollars support from the Africa Export-Import Bank.
• The specially-designed two, five, 10 and 20 dollar notes will have the same value as their US dollar equivalents.
• Zimbabwe introduced the US dollar after ditching its own currency in 2009 following sustained hyperinflation.
• Since then Zimbabweans have been using the dollar as well as a number of other foreign currencies including the South African rand and the Chinese yuan.

New Appointments

• Former South African cricketer Mickey Arthur was appointed as the head coach of Pakistan after Waqar Younis resigned from the position in April. 
• This will be Arthur's third stint with an international cricket side after having previously coached South Africa (2005–2010) and Australia (2011–2013). 
• Enda Kenny, of Ireland's Fine Gael party, was re-elected Prime Minister after securing support from opposition Fianna Fáil party.
• Senior IPS officer Kumar Rajesh Chandra was appointed as Chief of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the aviation security wing of the Government
• Sudhir Yadav, the 1985 batch IPS officer of the Delhi police, was appointed as the new Director General (DG) of Tihar.

Awards & Honors

• Indian author Parashar Kulkarni has won the regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for 2016 for the Asia region. 
• He was bestowed with this award for his politically grounded, funny fiction story ‘Cow and Company’ about four men in search of a cow. 
• President Pranab Mukherjee has conferred the 15th set of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Niryat Shree and Niryat Bandhu Awards to Reliance, TCS and SBI.
• Reliance Industry was awarded as the top foreign exchange earner and leading exporter of last 50 years.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was honored with the Gold Award in IT services.
• State Bank of India (SBI) was honored with the Gold award among the supporting institutions.

Sports

• Indian batsman Rohit Sharma inaugurated India's first sports expo in Pune. 
• The Pune International Sports Expo, which is scheduled to run until​ May 8, will showcase various products and modern technologies for fitness and sports by Indian and multinational brands. 
• The expo will also feature talks by sportspersons including Zaheer Khan, Sunil Chettri and Milkha Singh among others.
• The Indian Women Shooters team of Sanjana Sehrawat, Chinki Yadav and Gauri Sheoran won the bronze medal in the 25m Pistol event at the International Shooting Sport Federation's Junior World Cup in Germany. 

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