25th feb news

1.India continues to remain the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 14% of the global arms imports in the 2011-2015 timeframe.

2.Google is shuttering Google Compare, its US comparison-shopping site for auto insurance, credit cards and mortgages after one year.

3.An Indian-origin Sikh Amar Singh has been appointed the Police Commissioner of Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur.

4.The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai Exports to boost trade and explore business opportunities.

5.Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 22 February 2016 inaugurated an exhibition on the Coin and Currency of India at the Great Hall of North Block in New Delhi.

6.Bihar became the sixth state to join Union Government’s UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) Scheme for financial restructuring of debt of power distribution companies.

7.Haryana is set become the first state in the country to complete aquifer mapping for its groundwater resources by May 2016.

8.North Korea has appointed Ri Myong Su as the new chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff.

9.GVK Biosciences has bagged the Global CSR Excellence & Leadership Awards in the category of Best Environment Friendly Project for its ‘Go Green, Grow Green’ plantation drive.

10.Noted singer Bhubaneswari Mishra  passed away on 19 February 2016 in New Delhi following a cardiac arrest.

11.Government will sell its 5 per cent stake in India's largest power producer NTPC at a floor price of Rs 122 per share to raise Rs 5,029 crore.

12.An Indian-origin art lover and playwright Ismail Mahomed from South Africa has been knighted by the French government for his lifelong devotion to the promotion of arts.

13.The fifth edition of IBSAMAR 2016 trilateral naval exercise between Brazil, India and South Africa kicked off in Goa.

14.Pakistan parliament became the first in the world to completely run on solar power, a venture supported by close ally China with a whopping $55 million funding.

15.Austria’s capital Vienna  is the best place in the world to live, according to an international survey on quality of life that has no Indian city in the top 100.

16.Tamil film Kanavu Variyam has won the prestigious 2016 Remi Award in the United States.

17.Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (formerly MCX Stock Exchange) has appointed its interim Managing Director & CEO Udai Kumar as MD & CEO after receiving necessary approvals from securities regulator SEBI.

18.World’s first fast-acting anti-rabies drug Rabies Human Monoclonal Antibody (RMAb) will be launched in India.

19. In order to enhance economic cooperation and strengthen financial stability, RBI has extended the $2 billion currency swap arrangement to SAARC nations till mid-November 2017.

20.India's 2nd largest airline Jet Airways India Ltd named Rahul Taneja as its chief people officer, responsible for shaping the operations and performance of the group.

21.The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (CGPDT) has issued an order excluding software patents in its revised guidelines for Computer Related Inventions (CRIs).

22.Distinguished scientist KN Vyas has been appointed as Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for a term of three years.

23.President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed Justice Vineet Saran as the new Chief Justice (CJ) of Orissa High Court as per the provisions of Article 217 of Constitution.

24.Bangladesh limited overs captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is set to be named as the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) “national goodwill ambassador for youth”.

25.India is going to host Asia Ministerial Conference (AMC) on Tiger Conservation from 12 April 2016 to save tigers.

26. Union Government has selected former Chief Justice of India (CJI) H L Dattu as new Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

27.Justice Dinesh Maheshwari of Lucknow bench of theAllahabad High Court was on 24 Feb 2016 sworn-in as the chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court.

28.The Assam Cabinet on 23 February 2016 approved the detailed project report (DPR) for a Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) for Guwahati.

29.Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated an exhibition on the Coin and Currency of India at the Great Hall of North Block in New Delhi
VVPAT - Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) , a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballot less voting system.

30.Hyderabad ranks highest among Indian cities on a quality of life survey by consulting firm Mercer, but is only at number 138 on a global list of 230 cities, Pune follows at 145. Big metros Delhi and Mumbai rank 154 and 152 respectively.
·China’s Beijing is ranked higher than any Indian city at 118. And Sri Lanka’s Colombo is at 132.
· Among Asian cities, Singapore tops the list at number 26, followed by four Japanese cities led by capital Tokyo. Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is number 84.

31.New Delhi has extended one million dollars as immediate assistance to Fiji , which was hit by a severe cyclone .

32.Madhya Pradesh's Katni District is all set to get India's Longest Railway Bridge,14 kms on the upline.

33.The use of LED bulbs has saved Andhra Pradesh 421 million units of energy in a year in domestic sector.

34.In Assam, the Centre will construct four new bridges over the Brahmaputra River.

35.The government has come out with a uniform definition of startups under which a budding entrepreneur with a turnover of less than Rs 25 crore can avail tax breaks and other benefits for a five-year period.

36.The Andhra Pradesh government and Confederation of India Industry (CII) would work together for establishing Knowledge Economic Zone (KEZ) in the new capital city of the State-Amaravati.

37.Government is Planning to set up a National Media Analytics Centre (NMAC) to track negative or provocative content that appears on Social Media Platforms, blogs, and web portals of Tv channels and Newspapers.

38.The Public sector oil major ONGC has approved an investment of Rs 5,050 crore in Tripura for drilling of wells and creation of surface facilities to produce 5.1 mmscmd gas from the states fields.

39.The Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking to make country’s intelligence agencies accountable to Parliament.

40.Republican Presidential candidate Donald J Trump won the primary in Nevada state, which is the third state in a row where he has won.

41.SBI launched SBI e-Smart SME, a working capital loan offering for sellers on ecommerce platforms. With this development, sellers can apply for the loan online on the e-commerce platform and get instant sanctioning of the loan .

42.Mastercard is launching new mobile technologies that will allow customers to authenticate their online purchases using selfies or fingerprints.

43.In a judgement that will have far reaching effects on the transparency in banking system, Supreme Court has ruled that the heads and employees of private banks will be considered public servants for the purposes of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

44.State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has declared 904 borrowers who owed it a combined Rs.10,869.71 crore as of December-end as wilful defaulters.

45.Flipkart backed Bengaluru Startup Ather Energy launched a Smart Electric Scooter 'S340' , which comes with a touch screen dashboard.

46.At the on-going MWC 2016 in Barcelona , Haier has launched the Haier watch smartwatch for about 15,000 .

47.Facebook has launched a birthday video cam on iOS that allows users to express birthday wishes by recording 15-second clips that can be shared to a friend's timeline.

48.Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has firmed up plans to invest around Rs 1,000 crore in developing petrol engines over the next two to three years .
Kotak Mahindra Bank’s acquisition of 19.9% stake in Airtel M Commerce to drive expansion.

49.Taxi-hailing app Uber launched a motorbike on-demand taxi service 'UberMOTO' in Thailand's capital Bangkok.

50.Renowned scriptwriter Sagar Sarhadi will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the second edition of the International Film Festival of Prayag (IFFP) .

51.Afghanistan's National Women's Cycling team has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. The Women are Challenging gender barriers in Afghanistan.

52.Facebook has announced the Telecom Infra Project, which will look at developing new and alternative technologies to build and deploy telecom infrastructure, with partners including Aricent, HCL Technologies, Intel, Nokia and T- Mobile.

53.Sea levels rose about 14 centimeters in the past century, faster than during the previous 27 centuries, due to man-made global warming , a group of scientists has said in an alarming report.

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