July Eng 15

RBI/ BANKING/BUSINESS NEWS THIS MONTH
1 July: The Union Government approved 643 crore rupees drinking water and sewerage project
for Shimla town for World Bank funding. Under the project, World Bank will provide a loan of 514
crore rupees and remaining 129 crore rupees will be provided by the state government as
counterpart funding over a project period of three years. The project would help the people of
Shimla and adjoining Special Planning Area in addressing the chronic water shortage problem
and also sewerage connectivity.
1 July: Country's second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank launched '30-min auto' and '15min 2-wheeler' loan schemes, for which customers have to provide only their biometric details.
The 30-minute auto loan is available for HDFC Bank customers, as well as others. With this
technology-enabled solution, loans for two-wheelers can also be approved within 15 minutes.
2 July: Infosys has launched a mobile app, the 'Finacle SME Enable' to help banks enhance support
and service for their small and medium business enterprise (SME) customers. The mobile-based
financial and business management solution will provide banks SME customers real-time access
to their account information and relevant financial management tools to manage their day-today business operations in a self-service mode.
2 July: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and JCB International Co. Ltd, a subsidiary
of Japan's JCB Co. Ltd., entered into a partnership for payment cards issuance and acceptance.
Under the pact, JCB cards will be accepted at all NPCI locations in India. The partnership will also
include the issuance of RuPay/JCB international cards by NPCI member banks that will be globally
accepted through the JCB network. These cards will be launched in the second half of 2016.
3 July: Greece became the first developed nation to default on International Monetary Fund
(IMF) debt. It became a defaulter after it missed the deadline for payment of 1.7 billion dollar
(1.5 billion euro) to IMF. According to IMF's Fund spokesman Gerry Rice, Greece has too much
debt to return and it can get finance from the IMF only if it repays the loan.
VISIT- WWW.BANKERSGURU.ORG
3 July: Countrys largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) announced its tie-up with travel company
MakeMyTrip.com. This partnership includes partnership with personal banking unit for consumer
facing propositions including EMIs on purchase of holidays & international travel, customized
travel products like Forex cards and travel products. On the other hand MakeMyTrip customers
will be able to access special offers from SBI on debit/credit cards and personal financing.
4 July: Just 4.6% of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with
salaried income are close to 10%, the first Socio-Economic and Caste Census released in eight
decades said. According to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 the percentage of
Scheduled Caste (SC) households paying income tax was 3.49% while Scheduled Tribe (ST) taxpaying rural households were mere 3.34%.
4 July: Mobile Number Portability (MNP) has been launched across the country on 3rd July 2015.
With the launch of nationwide MNP, mobile users can retain their numbers despite changing
states/circles across the country, without incurring any roaming charges. Telecom operators such
as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Uninor, MTS, Reliance Communications, Videocon
Telecom, BSNL and MTNL have already announced the launch of full MNP.
4 July: According to the data released by World Bank in Washington the size of Indian economy
stood at $2.06 trillion at the end of 2014. It has almost doubled in size since the financial crisis
hit the country in 2008, and has more than quadrupled from the start of this millennium. Indias
growth rate, at 7.4% in 2014, makes it the fastest growing major economy along with Chinas.
4 July: The World Bank announced to provide $650 million loan for a major project of Indian
Railways, the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project. Construction of the Eastern Dedicated
Freight Corridor will help speed up the carrying of goods between Ludhiana in the west of India
and Kolkata in the east. This huge project will span 1,840 kms (1,140 miles) across the North India.
The loan is the third from the World Bank to help fund the freight corridor.
6 July: Google India, Tata Trust and Intel have started a unique initiative to educate rural women
about internet and create awareness towards it. These companies joined hands to launch a
programme 'Internet Saathi'. Under the programme 1,000 specially- designed bicycles equipped
with internet devices will be sent into remote villages. The aim of the initiative is to create
awareness towards internet among 5 lakh Indian rural women in the next 18 months.
6 July: The countrys largest public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) launched Project
Tatkal, an initiative to provide doorstep services and expedite Home Loan Application (HLA)
process. The project will help home loan applicants to get the loan within 10 days after receipt
of application form and relevant supporting documents.
6 July: State-run operator BSNL launched a pre-paid card linked mobile wallet service which
would allow its customers to transfer money, pay for services as well as withdraw cash of up to
Rs. 1 lakh. The wallet service, Speed Pay, allows a customer to load money even if he does not
have a bank account. The money loaded in the mobile wallet can be transferred to a bank account
and even withdrawn at bank branches or at BSNL outlets.
7 July: Corporation Bank has become the first bank to launch the MUDRA Card. Hasmukh Adhia,
secretary, department of financial services, union ministry of finance launched the first MUDRA
(Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) card under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana
(PMMY) for small entrepreneurs. Mudra Card based on the RuPay platform. PMMY aims to fund
micro units in manufacturing, trading and services sectors with affordable credit upto Rs. 10 lakh.
7 July: Reserve Bank of India prohibited the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in manufacturing of
tobacco products, though activities such as retail and wholesale trading fall under the sectoral
restrictions. According to RBI notification Foreign direct investment (FDI) is prohibited in the
manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes.
Foreign direct investment in other activities relating to these products including wholesale cash
and carry, retail trading shall be governed by the sectoral restrictions laid down in the FDI policy.
7 July: China unveiled an Internet Plus scheme, aiming to integrate the Internet with traditional
industries and fuel economic growth. Chinas Internet Plus action plan will integrate mobile
Internet, cloud computing, big data with modern manufacturing, to encourage the healthy
development of e-commerce, industrial networks, and Internet banking, and to help Internet
companies increase their international presence.
8 July: Euclid Tsakalotos, the deputy foreign minister of international economic affairs and chief
coordinator of the country's negotiating team over the debt deal with lenders, has been
appointed as new Finance Minister of Greece after Yanis Varoufakis resigned from the post
because Greek voters delivered an overwhelming "No" vote in a referendum on whether to
accept more austerity measures in return for new bailout cash.
8 July: Taking a step towards digitalisation, Union Bank of India launched a slew of initiatives such
as IMPS at branches and M-passbooks for its customers. The bank has become the first lender to
launch immediate payment service (IMPS) through branches for its retail and corporate
customers by integrating the platform to its core banking solution. This will allow customers to
instantly transfer funds to any account from the branch. The limit has been set at up to Rs. 2 lakh
per day. The digital passbook or M-passbook feature will enable customers to view account
statement on mobile.
9 July: Sriram Kalyanaraman, Director-Business Development, Equifax Credit Information
Services Pvt. Ltd has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, National
Housing Bank for a period of five years from the date of his taking over the charge. The
appointment of Shri Kalyanaraman is unique in its way as he is the first person form the Private
Sector to head a Public Sector Financial Institution.
9 July: According to World Bank India's rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA has
been ranked as the world's largest public works programme, providing social security net to
almost 15 percent of the country's population. According to World Bank Group's report 'The State
of Social Safety Nets 2015', India is among the five middle-income countries running the world's
largest social safety net programmes. India's Mid-day meal scheme has been classified as biggest
school feeding programme benefiting 105 million beneficiaries.
9 July: China named Jin Liqun as the first Chief of the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank (AIIB), which is being established as an alternative financial entity to World Bank
and IMF. Jin Liqun is a former Finance Minister of China. AIIB is a multilateral development bank
proposed by the government of China to provide finance to infrastructure projects in the Asia
region.
9 July: State-run IDBI Bank has signed an agreement with Mudra Bank for refinancing of loans
given to small enterprises. As per the agreement, the Bank will offer credit facilities up to Rs. 10
lakh to micro enterprises, at a competitive interest rate under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana
(PMMY) and Mudra will be providing refinance assistance to the bank for eligible sanctioned loan
cases.
11 July: Vodafone India, the telecom service providers, has entered into a strategic tie-up with
Walmart India. This tie-up will enable business members of six Best Price Modern Wholesale
stores, owned and operated by Walmart India, to make payments using M-Pesa from their mobile
anywhere, anytime. The first-of-its-kind partnership with Walmart India, gives all its members,
including small businesses such as kiranas/resellers, the benefit of sending money through their
mobile phones instantly and securely and run their customer facing businesses more efficiently
and in hassle-free manner.
11 July: MakeMyTrip, RBL Bank, Inox wind and IRCTC are among the firms that have made it to
the Fortune Next 500 list of Indian companies, which has been topped by iPhone distributor
Redington India. Redington India tops the list with annual revenue of over Rs. 1,690 crore
followed by Inox Wind (Rs 1,689 crore), ISMT (Rs 1,685 crore), Emcure Pharmaceuticals (Rs
1,683.5 crore) and Orientcraft (Rs 1,683 crore).
11 July: Country's second largest IT services firm Infosys has signed a multi-million euro deal with
Deutsche Bank. Under the terms of the agreement, Infosys will provide services like
development, application maintenance, digital and mobility, package implementation and
testing services across the Deutsche Bank Group.
13 July: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed mass transit system (MTS) operators like Mumbai
Metro, Delhi Metro, Indian Railways, etc. to issue pre-paid cards to their customer. This is
expected to provide a huge relief to the commuters who face problems while purchasing tickets.
RBI guidelines also say that the balance in the prepaid instrument issued by the MTS should not
exceed Rs. 2,000 at any point of time. Also, MTS would not be allowed to refunds cash that is
stocked in the pre-paid instruments (PPI). These PPIs will have a minimum validity of 6 months
from the date of issue.
13 July: The World Bank and Norway has approved an amount of 55 crore dollars for education
sector in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Group has signed an agreement with Norway for result
based financial help in the education sector. Under this agreement both states will get a separate
loan of 55 crore dollars. Loan to the state of Bihar is sanctioned for capacity addition of Primary
teachers in Bihar while Madhya Pradesh will get the financial help for higher education reforms.
13 July: Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has signed a multilateral agreement to
cooperate with New Development Bank (NDB) along with other member development banks of
BRICS nations. New Development Bank (NDB) is promoted by the BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia,
India, China, and South Africa. The agreement was signed between Exim Bank Chairman and
Managing Director Yaduvendra Mathur and Chairpersons or Presidents of other member
development banks of BRICS in Ufa, Russia during the BRICS Summit 2015.
15 July: In order to leverage Indian creativity, expertise, and resources to identify and scale
innovative solutions, the FICCI and the World Bank announced their partnership to advance the
Millennium Alliance (MA) initiative. The agreement was signed to formalize a shared
commitment to support sustainable and scalable innovative solutions in the identified priority
areas of sanitation, education, healthcare, clean energy and agriculture.
17 July: The Reserve Bank of India constituted a committee to work out a medium-term (fiveyear) action plan for financial inclusion. The 14-member panel will be headed by RBI executive
director Deepak Mohanty. The Committee will work to spread the reach of financial services to
unbanked population.
20 July: Competition Commission of India (CCI) slapped Rs. 671 crore penalty on four state-run
insurance companies -- National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United
India Insurance -- for cartelisation and indulging in anti-competitive practices. It is being
considered as the biggest fine in the insurance sector of the country. Competition Commission
has imposed a penalty of Rs. 251.07 crore on New India Assurance, Rs. 162.8 crore on National
Insurance, Rs. 156.62 crore on United India Insurance and Rs. 100.56 crore on Oriental Insurance,
respectively.
20 July: The World Bank Group (WBG) and China signed an agreement to set up a trust fund to
help reduce poverty. The fund aims to enhance the WBG-China cooperation and leverage
financial and knowledge-based resources to help developing countries achieve inclusive and
sustainable development. The fund worth $50 million is expected to start later this year.
20 July: India signed a pact with the World Bank for $250 million financial assistance for Andhra
Pradesh Disaster Recovery Project which will help the state enhance its capacity to respond
promptly and effectively in times of crisis. The project, through its different components, will
provide both direct and indirect benefits to Andhra Pradesh. The beneficiaries include
populations of the affected coastal areas, specifically four heavily impacted districts of
Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari.
21 July: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) retained its India GDP growth projection for FY 201516 at 7.8 percent and 8.2 percent in 2016-17, but cautioned that delay in reforms relating to land
acquisition and GST could hamper growth. Indian economy grew 7.3 percent in 2014-15. ADB,
however, has cut its growth forecast for developing Asia to 6.1 percent from the earlier 6.3
percent.
21 July: The Reserve Bank of India signed a special currency swap agreement with the Central
Bank of Sri Lanka that will allow the latter to draw up to $1.1 billion. Under the arrangement, the
Sri Lankan bank can draw up to $1.1 billion for a maximum period of six months. Earlier in March,
RBI had signed a Currency Swap Agreement with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for $400 million
under the existing SAARC Currency Swap Framework within the overall limit of $2 billion.
22 July: The International Monetary Fund named Maurice Obstfeld, a widely respected
economist known for his work on how policies spill over into the global economy, as the
emergency-lenders next chief economist. Obstfeld, a University of California, Berkeley, professor
and a member of the White Houses Council of Economic Advisers, will replace Olivier Blanchard
in September.
24 July: Unveiling a set of 13 corporate governance principles for the banking sector, the BCBS
has said that regulators should set corporate governance guidelines in line with these principles,
besides addressing expectations for checks and balances, clear allocation of responsibilities,
accountability and transparency among the members of the board, senior management and
within the bank.
24 July: Non-resident Indians (NRIs) can invest in National Pension System (NPS) to get a social
security cover, pension regulator PFRDAs Chairman Hemant Contractor has said. While RBI has
communicated to PFRDA about NRIs being eligible to make such investments, the government
will shortly come out with a clarification on Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) guidelines
to facilitate non-resident Indians to invest in National Pension System (NPS), he said.
29 July: Axis Bank, Indias third largest private sector bank, has signed a $200 million 7-year
bilateral loan deal with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The deal will help bolster Axis Banks
efforts of improving farm efficiency by extending customized and affordable agriculture credit to
farmers. The bank would effectively leverage its extensive semi urban and rural branch network
to deliver agriculture credit.
30 July: India signed a loan agreement of 300 million US dollars with Asian Development Bank
(ADB) for its flagship programme National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). The main of the NUHM
is to improve the health status of the countrys urban population. The loan agreement is titled
Supporting National Urban Health Mission and it seeks to reinforce ongoing government efforts
under the NUHM to develop health systems in urban areas that can deliver quality health services
to the urban poor and vulnerable.
NATION THIS MONTH
1 July: Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurated the Integrated Security System
(ISS) at four railway stations in Mumbai comprising Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST),
Dadar, Kurla and Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT). The ISS was installed with a total cost of
21.72 crore rupees. The ISS is aimed at improving security on Railway premises, ensuring
safety of the people and averting terror attacks. It has a total of 118 CCTV cameras.
2 July: Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel has become the worlds third largest mobile operator
with 303 million subscribers. It operates in 20 countries. According to World Cellular
Information Service (WCIS) Bharti Airtel has moved up one position in the global rankings.
China Mobile is the top mobile operator in the world with 626.27 million subscribers.
Vodafone Group of UK ranks second with 403.08 million subscribers.
3 July: Literacy rate in rural areas was pegged at 71 percent in 2014, compared to 86
percent in urban areas, while among the age group of seven years and above, male
literacy rate was found higher than the female literacy rate, according to NSSO survey.
Among the age group of seven year and above, the male literacy rate was registered at
83 per cent vis-a-vis the female literacy rate of 67 per cent.
4 July: Partaking in 'Digital India' week, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal
launched the state Portal ePMS (Electronic Projects Management System) to fast track
infrastructural development. The project was kicked off to enhance efficiency, bring
transparency, boost the investor confidence, revive the investment cycle, eliminate the
human interaction and improve the communication between industries to Government
(B2G), State to Centre (G2G), or vice versa (G2B).
4 July: The Union Cabinet approved the institutional framework for the National Skill
Development Mission 2015. The Mission will provide a strong institutional framework at
the Centre and States for implementation of skilling activities in the country. The Union
Cabinet also gave its approval for a new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee
Yojana (PMKSY). The Yojana was approved with an outlay of 50,000 crore rupees over a
period of five years (2015-16 to 2019-20). Its aim is provide convergence to existing
schemes of water management, thus bringing efficiency to the use of water.
4 July: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar launched a new automation software, ARPAN
3.0 for the over 12 lakh soldiers of the Indian Army which would provide them easy access
to their service records including pay and leave details and transfer and postings among
others. The roll out of ARPAN 3.0 (Army Record Office Process Automation 3.0) is aimed
at digitisation of Indian Army's 45 Record Offices pan India in one year time.
6 July: The Maharashtra government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with global technology major Cisco for making Nagpur a smart and safe city. This MoU is
for making Nagpur a smart and safe city with the help of modern technology and use of
Internet to improve quality of life. It envisages for effective and fast delivery of services
like CCTV, intelligent transport system, integrated command and control, environmental
monitoring, improved health services in coordination with Nagpur Municipal corporation.
8 July: Latest UNICEF data showed that both child stunting and the number of
underweight children in India had fallen to a historic low for 2013-14. According to the
Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) conducted by the UNICEF, the Indian 4 states--Tamil
Nadu, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Tripura have successfully reduced the proportion of
underweight adolescent girls. Uttar Pradesh accounts for more than 50% of the children
under the age of five years who are underdeveloped.
9 July: Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, the railway coach manufacturing entity of
the Indian Railways, became the first in the world to have manufactured 50,000 railway
coaches. Union Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu released the 50,000th coach manufactured
by ICF. To mark this occasion the Rail Minister also dedicated the New LHB Coach (Modern
Passenger Coach) Manufacturing Unit in ICF itself to the nation.
10 July: The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) the government
company tasked to promote renewable energy has launched a new loan scheme in
order to promote rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects. The scheme will provide
loans at the interest rate of 9.9 to 10.75 percent to the system aggregators and the
developers. The scheme was launched by Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, New &
Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal.
10 July: Telangana government and International Crops Research Institute for the SemiArid Tropics (ICRISAT) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve
profitability of farmers. The MoU was signed by C. Parthasarathi, Secretary and AgriProduction Commissioner; Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, IT, Electronics & Communications;
and ICRISAT Director General David Bergvinson. Under this MoU, the organisation will
provide Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based knowledge sharing
platforms and other agricultural innovation initiatives to farmers in order to improve their
productivity.
11 July: Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA), a unique initiative developed by the Ministry
of Human Resource Development with the objective to inculcate a spirit of inquiry,
creativity and love for Science and Mathematics in school children was launched by the
former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This is the Phase I of RAA, while Phase II of RAA
will be launched in January, 2016 for higher education under which model science labs
will be established in all districts of the North Eastern States.
14 July: The foundation stone for an international Internet gateway was laid by Union
Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at Tripuras capital Agartala. This
Internet gateway is being established in an effort to create a hassle-free and potent
Internet link for the northeastern states. The Agartala Internet Gateway would become
third international Internet gateway in India after Mumbai and Chennai. This gateway will
comprise of the optical fibre cable (OFC) link between Akhaura (near Agartala) and Coxs
Bazar (Bangladesh).
15 July: In fresh trials, India has test-fired its indigenously developed Nag an anti-tank
guided missile, which can hit a target upto 7 km, from a helicopter at a firing range in
Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Three-round trial of helicopter-launched Nag (HeliNa) missile were
conducted at the Chandhan firing range. HeliNa is a helicopter-launched version of Nag
and has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
16 July: To address the growing problems of pollution, congestion and shortage of
housing stock for the poor and middle class in Delhi, the Ministry of Urban Development
has approved the Transit Oriented Development Policy (TOD) for Delhi. Minister of Urban
Development M. Venkaiah Naidu has cleared the Policy which is expected to recast Delhis
landscape as part of review of Master Plan for Delhi 2021. TOD is a key policy initiative
for low-carbon, high-density, compact, mixed land use and sustainable development by
minimizing travel time for citizens, promoting use of public transport, reducing pollution
and congestion in the national capital.
17 July: The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave its
approval for signing and ratification of an Inter-Governmental agreement between India
and Armenia, on cooperation in the field of Agriculture. This agreement will promote
cooperation through short and medium term programs, within the framework of the joint
activities mentioned in the agreement. The agreement will promote understanding of
best agricultural practices in the two countries and will be mutually beneficial.
17 July: Union Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurated Gandhidham-Tuna Tekra Port Rail
Line (Gujarat), a newly constructed broad-gauge railway-line which is the first NonGovernment Railway Project of Indian Railways. The 11-km long Gandhidham-Tuna Tekra
Port rail line connects Gandhidham in Kutch district of Gujarat with the Tuna-Tekra Port
which are ports situated around 20 km west of Kandla in Gulf of Kutch in the state.
20 July: The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave its
approval for forming an expert group under the Chairmanship of Arvind Panagariya, ViceChairperson, NITI AAYOG, to classify the Caste names returned in the Socio-Economic and
Caste Census, 2011 (SECC). The expert group will be serviced by the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Welfare.
20 July: Union Women and Child Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi along with
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh inaugurated country's first 'One stop Centre' for
women who have been victims of various kinds of violence in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The
victims of rape, dowry harassment, domestic violence, human trafficking, child marriage,
infanticide and sati etc. will get medical aid, protection and also help in filing FIRs, legal
advice and psychological counselling.
20 July: The Haryana government appointed Bollywood actress Parineeti Chopra as its
brand ambassador for the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign to promote the cause of
the girl child. She has bagged many awards including national and filmfare awards.
Parineeti was chosen for the campaign as she hailed from the state's Ambala town. The
campaign was launched from Haryana as the state has the worst sex ratio at 879 females
per 1,000 males. The child sex ratio in Haryana is worst among all states in the country.
22 July: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Career Service (NCS) Portal
at the 46th session of Indian Labour Conference as part of an endeavour to modernise all
government-run employment exchanges. This portal aims to create a direct market place
for workers and employers. The portal aims to bring on board around 20 million job
seekers already registered with employment exchanges across India. It also aspires to
bring 900,000 establishments and companies on the portal. The NCS will offer registration
for job aspirants and employers for free.
23 July: Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
launched the Surakshit Khadya Abhiyan, a countrywide campaign to create mass
awareness and capacity building for safe and hygienic food. The campaign planned by CII
and its partners including Consumer Organization VOICE, and National Association of
Street Vendors of India (NASVI), is an effort towards building a culture of food safety in
the country.
24 July: Seven Indian companies, including Reliance Industries and Tata Motors, are
among the worlds 500 largest companies, according to a list compiled by Fortune that
has been topped by retail giant Walmart. While Indian Oil, Reliance, Bharat Petroleum,
Hindustan Petroleum, and Oil and Natural Gas slipped in rankings from the previous year,
Tata Motors and SBI improved in rankings.
25 July: NITI Aayog has constituted an expert panel to suggest ways to promote
innovation and entrepreneur friendly ecosystem for pushing job growth. The group will
also workout the detailed contours of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Self-Employment
& Talent Utilisation (SETU). The Expert Committee has been constituted under the
Chairmanship of Prof. Tarun Khanna, Director, South Asia Institute, Harvard University
and Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School, USA.
25 July: Puducherry became the first city to send its nomination for the Smart City
mission as the Union Territory of Puducherry nominated its capital city for inclusion in this
ambitious project. Puducherry which has a population of 6,57,209 has done well in
respect of several Stage-1 evaluation criteria and scored 75 of the possible 100 marks.
27 July: In a major welfare measure for women employees in Jammu and Kashmir, the
state government has approved Child Care leave for them for a period of two years to
look after their children. As per the new provision, a women employee can avail a
maximum period of 730 days of child care leave during her entire service for taking care
of her two eldest children, an official spokesman said.
27 July: The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has finalised a new Green
Highways (Plantation and Maintenance) Policy, 2015 to tree-line 140,000 kilometres
of national highways. Under this policy, one per cent of the civil cost of national highway
development projects will have to be set aside for the planting of trees in a planned
manner, covering both existing NH sections and new routes that would be added to the
network.
27 July: Centre has said foreign direct investment amounting to USD 1.31 million has been
received in the defence sector in last three years and current year. Minister of State for
Defence Rao Inderjit Singh said that since the opening up of FDI in defence sector in 2012,
34 proposals involving foreign investment have been approved so far. He also said that a
total 287 industrial licenses have been issued till date in defence sector.
27 July: Prime Minister of India has launched various development projects at Patna:
Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana; inaugurated the Daniawan-Bihar Sharif new
railway line; flagged off the Rajgir-Bihar Sharif-Daniawan-Fatuha passenger train and
Patna-Mumbai AC Suvidha Express; dedicated to the nation the permanent IIT Campus at
Patna; and inaugurated the construction of the first phase of the Jagdishpur-Haldia
pipeline project.
28 July: Rajesh Exports Ltd (REL) has announced acquisition of 100% stake in Valcambi,
the world's largest gold refinery. The cash deal was settled on an investment of $400
million, which means, REL will maintain the globally acclaimed management of Valcambi.
REL hopes to expand revenues and profitability of both the companies. Valcambi is the
worlds largest precious metals refining company, headquartered in Switzerland.
28 July: Battling the Maggi controversy, global giant Nestle recalled its current India chief
Etienne Benet to Switzerland head office and appointed Suresh Narayanan as his
successor -- the first Indian to get this position after a gap of over 16 years. Narayanan
will take charge as the new Managing Director of Nestle India with effect from August 1.
30 July: Union Government has announced to roll out e-tourist visa facility to Chinese
nationals from July 30, 2015. Hong Kong and Macau nationals will also be provided with
e-tourist visa facility along with Chinese citizens. This decision was taken in lines with
promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard during his visit to China in
May 2015. It should be noted that PM Modi had made this announcement
notwithstanding frequent issuance of stapled visa by Chinese to Indian citizens from
Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
GLOBE- TROT THIS MONTH

2 July: Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, in an unprecedented move for the first time
nominated a female to the post of judge in Afghanistan's Supreme Court. He has appointed Anisa
Rasouli to the post of judge. Anisa Rasouli, the head of the Afghan Women Judges Association and
a former juvenile court judge, is the only female nominated to the nine-member bench.
2 July: The US and Cuba announced the opening of embassies in each other's capitals, a major
step in re-establishing diplomatic ties severed in 1961. Relations had been frozen since the early
1960s when the US broke links and imposed a trade embargo with the Communist island. But the
US and Cuba agreed to normalise relations at the end of 2014.
2 July: Cuba has become the first country to eliminate the transmission of HIV and syphilis from
mother to child, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The World Health
Organization hailed what it called one of the greatest public health achievements possible. Only
two children in the country were born with HIV and five with syphilis in 2013.
4 July: The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, inducted the Old City
of Sanaa to the list of World Heritage in danger due to the serious damage done amid clashes
between Shiite Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in Yemen. The decision was made during
the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany, while the Old Walled City
of Shibam in Yemen and the ancient Iraqi city of Hatra were also added to the list.
7 July: Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on his six-nation tour to attend the BRICS summit
in Russia and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Modi will visit five Central Asian
nations--Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to deepen strategic
relations and energy cooperation. He is scheduled to travel from July 6 to 13 to five Central Asian
countries and Russia where he will attend the summits of BRICS and SCO.
8 July: On the first leg of his visit to Central Asian countries and Russia, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi reached Uzbekistan. He held talks with Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov on key bilateral
and regional issues including the situation in Afghanistan. India and Uzbekistan inked 3 pacts to
boost cooperation between their foreign offices and in the field of culture and tourism.
8 July: Japan committed 6.1 billion US dollars (750 billion Japanese Yen) in Official Development
Assistance (ODA) to Mekong Region countries for the next three years. The decision was taken by
Japan during the 7th Mekong-Japan Summit held in Tokyo. The decision to provide the
development aid to Mekong countries was taken in line with the Development Cooperation
Charter approved by the Japans Cabinet in February 2015. The Mekong region countries include
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
9 July: India and Kazakhstan inked 5 agreements, including defence, railways and uranium supply,
as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev on
his second leg of visit to the Central Asian countries. Both sides also agreed to collaborate closely
in the framework of the International North South Transport Corridor and through bilateral
initiatives to improve surface connectivity.
9 July: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kazakhstan premier Karim Massimov launched the first
exploratory drilling of the Satpayev oil block by India's OVL and KazMunaiGaz. The two leaders
launched the drilling through live video conferencing. ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL) -- the overseas arm
of state-run ONGC -- had in 2011 picked up 25 percent stake in the Satpayev oil block in the North
Caspian Sea. The Satpayev oil block is an offshore field in the Northern Caspian sea, with potential
reserves estimated at 1.8 billion barrels.
9 July: India has overtaken the US to become the world's third largest steel producer and is
working towards achieving 300 million tonnes (MT) target in the next 10 years. So far India was
the 4th largest steel producer in the world only after China, Japan and the US. Last year the growth
in crude steel production in India was more than 8 percent.
10 July: 7th BRICS Summit commenced in Ufa, Russia on 9th July with the theme, "BRICS
partnership: A powerful factor for global development". The summit is being attended by Russian
President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, South African President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a significant step
in economic cooperation, Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) signed an MoU with India's
Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) for funding of hydro-generation projects.
10 July: Russian oil firm Rosneft announced to buy 49 percent stake in Essar Oil, the firm that
owns India's second biggest oil refinery. Both the firms signed a non-binding Term Sheet in this
regard. Also, a Long Term Crude Oil Supply Agreement by the two firms was signed in Ufa, Russia
for import of 10 million tonnes a year of crude oil for a period of 10 years. This contract has been
signed in pursuance to the Key Terms executed between the two companies in December 2014
at New Delhi.
11 July: India will host the next BRICS Summit in 2016. This was announced in the 7th BRICS
Summit held in Russian city of Ufa in Bashkortostan. The eighth BRICS Summit will be organised
in New Delhi in 2016 - four years after India organised the fourth summit in 2012. India would
become BRICS chairperson from February 2016.
11 July: India and United States (US) signed Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) to implement
the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The agreement will promote transparency on
tax matters between the two countries. As per the IGA, FFIs in India will be required to report tax
information about US account holders directly to the Indian Government which will, in turn, relay
that information to the IRS. The IRS will provide similar information about Indian account holders
in the United States.
13 July: India and Turkmenistan signed 7 agreements for enhancing cooperation in a number of
sectors during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fourth leg of his Central Asian tour to
Turkmenistan. The agreements were signed in the fields of defence, supply of chemical products,
foreign affairs, sports, science and technology, medicine and tourism.
13 July: India and Pakistan were accepted as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation (SCO), a regional grouping including China and Russia. This decision was taken at the
15th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held in Russia. India, which has had an
observer status for the past 10 years, will technically become a member by next year after
completion of certain procedures.
14 July: India and Tajikistan inked agreements in the field of culture and human resource
development after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tajikistans President
Emomali Rahmon. This is the last leg of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 6-nation tour of Central
Asian countries. As part of the agreement, India is to set up computer labs in 37 schools in
Tajikistan.
14 July: India and Kyrgyzstan signed four agreements including one on bolstering defence
cooperation and holding annual joint military exercises during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
fifth leg of his Central Asian tour to Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan's President Almazbek Atambayev and
Narendra Modi signed four key agreements including on cooperation in defence and culture
fields. Two MoU were also signed for cooperation between the Election Commissions of the two
countries and on cooperation in the sphere of Standards, a move that will help economic
relations.
15 July: India and Georgia signed a MoU in New Delhi, for cooperation in the field of election
management and administration. The major aims of MoU are: promotion of exchanges of
knowledge and experience in electoral processes; exchange of information, materials, expertise
and training of personnel; production and distribution of materials pertaining to electoral
systems, voting technology, voters education and awareness, and participation of women and
minorities in electoral process.
16 July: India is the highest recipient of US economic assistance according to USAID. The US
provided USD 65.1 billion as economic assistance to India between 1946 and 2012, according to
the US Agency for International Development (USAID) statistics. It was the highest among the
economic assistance provided to 200 countries and regions by the US during the period. India is
followed closely by Israel, which got USD 65 billion.
16 July: In an historic event, comprehensive deal on Irans nuclear programme was reached on
which brought to end a 13 year stand-off between Iran and western powers that had threatened
to trigger a new war in the Middle East. The agreement between Iran and P5+1 group (five
permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely China, France, Russia, the United
Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany) was reached after clearing final obstacles included
a compromise between Washington and Tehran that would allow U.N. inspectors of press for
visits to Iranian military sites as part of their monitoring duties.
17 July: The Russian government has chosen Anil Ambani's Pipavav shipyard for a 'Make in India'
naval frigate order that is likely to exceed $3 billion, making it the private sector's biggest-ever
warship-building project. Russia, which has been keen to build the frigates at a Russian shipyard,
was firmly told last year that the order would only be placed through the Make in India route but
it would have the flexibility to choose an Indian partner for the project.
17 July: Global aircraft maker Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems signed a pact to collaborate in
aerospace and defence manufacturing as well as to tap into integrated systems development
opportunities, including unmanned aerial vehicles. The companies, under the memorandum of
understanding, intend to access markets jointly for products and platforms developed together
by Boeing and TASL. The collaboration, which is in line with the government's 'Make in India'
initiative, will not only work in the domestic market but will also be for international markets.
20 July: Canada has been named as the most reputable nation in the world, in a recent survey on
how countries are perceived across the world. The north American country reclaimed the top spot
in the Reputation Institute's annual report, which looks at the government, environment and
economy of 55 nations. The top five countries in the survey are Canada, Norway, Sweden,
Switzerland and Australia.
20 July: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the
signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Canada in the field of Civil
Aviation. MoU will help in deepening the bilateral cooperation and enhancing the experience and
technical knowledge in the field of Civil Aviation between India and Canada.
20 July: Indian-origin John Paul Joy Alukkas has made it to the list of Asia's top 10 wealthiest
millennials, with a personal fortune of USD 820 million. The 29-year-old Alukkas, Executive
Director Joyalukkas group has been ranked 8th wealthiest on the Wealth-X list of millennials -defined as those born from 1981 to 1997, as per the global wealth intelligence and prospecting
company. The list was topped by the 34-year-old Yang Huiyan (USD 6.1 billion) - Vice Chairman of
Country Garden Holdings.
21 July: India and Russia signed an agreement in defence sector. In a move aimed at boosting
Indias defence sector, 200 helicopters will be manufactured in the country with Russian
collaboration as part of intensification and diversification of their strategic ties. According to
Indian Ambassador to Russia P.S. Raghavan the agreement is one of the several new defence
projects on which the two countries are working on, including under the ambit of Make in India
programme.
21 July: With bilateral trade extremely low, India and Russia have initiated steps to remove the
hindrances and boost commerce by signing an agreement in the area of customs and moving to
liberalize business visas. The bilateral trade during the last year was just $9.51 billion. The two
countries have fixed a trade target of $30 billion to be achieved by 2025.
23 July: Anil Ambani-led Reliance group company Pipavav Defence has signed an agreement with
Russia's company JSC Ship Repairing Centre for medium refits and life certification of 877 EKM
submarines in India. This will also mark the first time the work for refit of submarines is being
considered for the private sector in India. The indicative value of work proposed to be undertaken
by the proposed JV is approximately Rs. 11,000 crore.
23 July: India has jumped to the eighth position for tourist arrivals in Australia till May this year,
with over 27.5 percent more Indians choosing the country as their travel destination. According
to latest official data released by Tourism Australia (TA), India was ranked Australia's tenth largest
inbound market for visitor arrivals in 2014 but figures during the five months this year has moved
India to eighth position.
23 July: China and Taiwan inked a landmark deal that will see water pumped from the Chinese
mainland to a Taiwanese-controlled archipelago, in another sign of warming ties between the
rivals. The agreement will see water pumped from China's southeastern province of Fujian to the
100,000 residents of Taiwan's Kinmen County by 2017.
23 July: China has begun building the worlds largest amphibious aircraft. Amphibious aircraft can
fly in the sky and can also be used in the water. The assembly of the domestically developed AG600 seaplane started in Zhuhai city. The AG-600s overall specifications, such as the maximum
takeoff weight and flight range, are better than other amphibious planes in the world. The aircraft
can carry 50 people during a maritime search and rescue mission.
23 July: India and Singapore signed Technical Agreement (TA) on sharing white-shipping
information to enhance maritime cooperation between the two navies. The agreement was
signed during the visit of Navy chief Admiral R.K. Dhowan to Singapore. The White-shipping refers
to commercial shipping information about movement of cargo ships. The Singapore Navy and the
Indian Navy conduct the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) together annually.
24 July: India and Russia pursue joint programmes in a few areas of space research. Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) have signed a new
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on expansion of cooperation in the field of the
exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. There is no transfer of space technology
envisaged under this MoU.
25 July: China announced to provide cash assistance of $10 million to help quake-ravaged Nepal
in its reconstruction process. Nepal and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on
this following a bilateral meeting on Post Disaster Reconstruction Plan at Nepal's finance ministry.
25 July: Pakistan will buy eight submarines from China in a multi-billion dollar deal that will boost
Pakistani navy's maritime capabilities. An agreement was reached during a meeting between
Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Xu Ziqin, President of state-owned China Shipbuilding &
Offshore International Company Limited (SCOC)-- the trade arm of China Shipbuilding Industry
Corporation. The two sides in-principle agreed on the sale of eight submarines that China will
provide to Pakistan Navy.
27 July: WTO members has finalised a deal to cut tariffs on $1 trillion worth of information
technology products in a boost for producers of goods ranging from video games to medical
equipment. The agreement to update the WTO's 18-year-old Information Technology Agreement
(ITA) adds more than 200 products to the list of goods covered by zero-tariff and duty-free trade.
27 July: Singapores Foreign Affairs and Law Minister will address an industry symposium in India
on 27th July as part of the city-states 50th anniversary of Independence celebrations. K
Shanmugam will address the Singapore Symposium 2015, which will host dignitaries and experts
in a discussion and exchange with South Asian countries on issues pertinent to the region.
28 July: India has seen the second biggest outflow of high net worth individuals in last 14 years,
with as many as 61,000 millionaires shifting base to abroad due to reasons like tax, security and
child education. According to a joint report by New World Wealth and LIO Global the change in
domicile, along with a rise in second citizenship applications, has increased dramatically since the
turn of the century. Some 61,000 uber-rich Indians have changed domicile between 2000 and
2014, second only to China, which saw an outflow of 91,000 ultra-rich persons in the same period.
29 July: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her delegation to the UK signed 21
MoUs with the UK in the fields of industry, health, education and urban development. The
agreements were signed during a bilateral meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
According to Britain's Minister of State for Employment Priti Patel these MoUs will help bring the
UK and West Bengal ever closer, and unleash the potential of India-Britain relationship.
29 July: The World Trade Organization formally accepted Kazakhstan as its member, ending nearly
two decades of negotiations. Meeting at its headquarters in Geneva, the WTO General Council
approved the membership terms finalised last month. With this Kazakhstan has become the
WTO's 162nd member state.
29 July: Union Government sanctioned 1000 crore rupees for the laying of 15.06 km long tracks
to connect Indian Railways with Bangladesh through the North East. The Indo-Bangla Rail link
would be completed by 2017 and the entire route will be constructed by IRCON.
30 July: Government of Sri Lanka inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with search
engine giant Google to launch the Google Loon project in the country. As per the MoU, Google
will place 13 high-altitude balloons over the island nation to provide affordable high-speed 3G
(3rd Generation) internet services to the entire country. It is also expected that this project will
provide free Wi-Fi connectivity across Sri Lanka. Successful implementation of this project will
make Sri Lanka the first country in the world to have Internet access covering the whole country
with the government support.
30 July: The United States named a new special envoy to Syria, the third since the war began four
years ago, as Washington seeks a political solution to the conflict. Michael Ratney, an Arabic
speaker who served as US consul general in Jerusalem, and as a diplomat in Iraq, Lebanon,
Morocco and Qatar, replaces Daniel Rubinstein.
APPOINTMENTS/RESIGNATIONS THIS MONTH

1 July: Infrastructure financing firm IDFC appointed former Comptroller and Auditor
General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai as independent director. The appointment has been
made with immediate effect. Vinod Rai also worked as Financial Services Secretary. He
was director on several boards including the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank and
Life Insurance Corporation of India.
1 July: Senior IPS officer Y.C. Modi, who had been part of a Supreme Court-appointed
Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed 2002 Gujarat riots cases, has been appointed
as Additional Director in the CBI. Modi is a 1984 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya
cadre. He has been appointed in place of Archana Ramasundaram, who was recently
moved out of the CBI and appointed as Director, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
1 July: Nandkumar Saravade has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the
Data Security Council of India (DSCI). He will take over from the current officiating CEO,
Rama Vedashree, Vice-President of Nasscom. Saravade was, until recently, working as an
independent advisor on fraud and security to Ernst & Young (EY) and ICICI Bank. Till
September 2013, he was the South Asia head of security, investigation and vigilance
function for Citibank.
3 July: The government appointed U.P. Singh, a Joint Secretary in Oil Ministry, as the
interim chairman of state-run Oil India Ltd, after appointment of a regular head was
delayed because of questions being raised on the shortlisted candidate. U.P. Singh, Joint
Secretary (Exploration), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas assumed the additional
charge of Chairman and Managing Director in place of S.K. Srivastava who superannuated.
3 July: Balvender Kumar IAS (UP: 1981) took over as Secretary Ministry of Mines in New
Delhi. Before joining the Ministry of Mines, Balvender Kumar was holding the charge of
Vice-Chairman, Delhi Development Authority under Ministry of Urban Development. He
took over the charge from Dr. Anup K. Pujari.
3 July: Congress leader K.A. Sabarinathan was sworn-in as a legislator of the Kerala
legislative assembly. In the results for the Aruvikara by-election announced,
Sabarinathan, 31, secured 56,448 votes to defeat former speaker and Minister M.
Vijayakumar, 67, of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), who secured 46,320
votes.
3 July: Dr. Anup K. Pujari took over as Secretary Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
(MSME). He is a 80th batch IAS officer. He succeeds Madhav Lal who superannuated on
June, 30 2015. Before joining the Ministry of MSME, Dr. Pujari was holding the charge of
Secretary, Mines. Pujari has served the Central and Karnataka Govt. in various capacities.
6 July: Commodore C.D. Balaji (Retd) took charge as the Director of the Aeronautical
Development Agency (ADA) and Programme Director of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
He succeeded P.S. Subramanyam, a distinguished Scientist, who superannuated on 30
June 2015. Prior to this appointment, Balaji, an outstanding scientist, was Project Director
of the LCAs naval version.
9 July: Sriram Kalyanaraman, Director-Business Development, Equifax Credit Information
Services Pvt. Ltd has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer,
National Housing Bank for a period of five years from the date of his taking over the
charge. The appointment of Shri Kalyanaraman is unique in its way as he is the first person
form the Private Sector to head a Public Sector Financial Institution.
10 July: Sunil Bharti led Bharti Enterprises appointed Rahul Bhatnagar as its new
Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer. Bhatnagar takes over from Manoj Kohli,
who has assumed the role of Executive Chairman, SBG Cleantech -- a JV between
SoftBank, Bharti and Foxconn for renewable energy.
10 July: Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav appointed Justice Kalyan Shrestha as the new
chief justice of the country. The president appointed Shrestha, 64, as the new chief justice
on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council. He has been appointed to the post
after the retirement of Ram Kumar Prasad Saha.
11 July: Ashok K. Lahiri, a former Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), was named as the first
Chairman of Bandhan Bank during the announcement of appointment of Board of
Directors of the bank was made. Chandra Sekhar Ghosh will be the MD and CEO of the
bank. The bank will start its operations from 23 August 2015 and will be inaugurated by
the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
11 July: Credit Information Bureau India Ltd (CIBIL), Indias leader in credit information,
has appointed Satish Pillai as its new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Pillai
succeeds Arun Thukral who retires this year after a decade.
13 July: Cipla, the country's leading company in Pharma sector, has appointed Samina
Vaziralli as Executive Director on its board. Vaziralli is the daughter of M.K. Hamied, Vice
Chairman of the Board of Cipla. She is part of the core leadership team and has been with
the company since 2011. Earlier, she worked at Goldman Sachs's investment
management department. Vaziralli brings diverse experience of working in the US, the
UK, and more recently India.
13 July: NRI entrepreneur Lord Karan Bilimoria has been appointed as the President of
the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA). He will replace Baroness Usha
Prashar as she steps down, having served the maximum term of nine years. Hyderabad
born Bilimoria, the founder of Cobra Beer, is also the Chancellor of the University of
Birmingham.
15 July: Lieutenant General Man Mohan Singh Rai has been appointed as the Vice-Chief
of the Indian Army. Rai will succeed Lt Gen Philip Campose, who will superannuate the
office on 31 July 2015. Presently, Rai is working as the Eastern Army Commander.
16 July: Global financial services hub Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) has
appointed Ajay Kumar Pandey as its new Managing Director and Group CEO. Pandey will
take over the charge from August 1. Pandey will replace the current head of GIFT,
Ramakant Jha, who has been associated with the project since November 2009. Jha will
move to Mumbai as CEO of IL&FS's Smart City initiative.
16 July: Madhya Pradesh government has appointed former Chief Secretary Rakesh Sahni
as the Chairman of Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA). After his retirement
from the post of chief secretary, the 1972 batch IAS officer also served as the Chairman
of MP Electricity Regulatory Commission.
21 July: Prashant Pathrabe was appointed as the new Director of Pune-based Film and
Television Institute of India (FTII) by the Union Govt. Prashant Pathrabe is the Director of
National Film Archive of India (Pune) and he has been given the charge of FTII Director as
additional charge. Pathrabe, an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad joined the Indian Information
Service in 1993. He replaced D.J. Narain.
22 July: Bhanu Pratap Sharma was given additional charge of Chairperson of Food Safety
and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Sharma is an IAS officer of 1981 batch from Bihar
cadre. Sharma was given this additional charge of FSSAI for three months or till the
appointment of a regular incumbent. Currently, he is the Secretary of Union Ministry of

Health and Family Welfare.
22 July: Pankaj Munjal was appointed as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Hero
Motors Group. He succeeded O.P. Munjal, who was elevated to the position of Chairman
Emeritus. Pankaj Munjal joined the Hero group in 1988 as a trainee and was appointed as
its Co-Chairman and Managing Director in December 2011.
23 July: All India Football Federation President and senior NCP leader Praful Patel and
Souter Vaz have retained their posts as President and Secretary of the Western India
Football Association (WIFA) respectively. Former Union Minister Patel, who is also the
Vice President of the Asian Football Confederation, and Vaz were re-elected unopposed.
27 July: Roelant Oltmans is new coach of the Indian hockey team, replacing Paul van Ass,
who was sacked after a bitter spat with Hockey India President Narinder Batra. The 61year-old Dutchamn will be at the helm of affairs at least till next years Olympic Games in
Rio de Janeiro. Van Ass was the fourth foreign coach to be shown the door
unceremoniously ever since Hockey India took over the reins of the game in 2009.
29 July: Qualcomm Incorporated has appointed former BlackBerry India head Sunil
Lalvani as vice president and president of Qualcomm India, as Avneesh Agrawal, senior
vice president and president of Qualcomm India and South Asia exits the company.
Lalvani has more than 20 years of experience in sales, business development, strategic
planning and business operations across the IT and telecom sectors
30 July: Union Government appointed Ram Sewak Sharma as the new Chairman of
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the regulating body of Indian telecom
sector. R.S. Sharma, an engineering post-graduate from IIT Kanpur and a 1978 batch IAS
officer of Jharkhand cadre, was till now Secretary, Information Technology Department.
He will have tenure of 3 years. He succeeded Rahul Khullar who retired from post on 14
May 2015.
30 July: Union Government appointed Ashish Bahuguna as the Chairman of food safety
regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Former Agriculture
Secretary, Bahuguna's tenure will be of three years and he succeeded K. Chandramouli
whose tenure ended in January 2015. Since then the position was lying vacant and the
Health Secretary Bhanu Pratap Sharma was given the interim charge of chairman of FSSAI.
Bahuguna is a 1978-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Rajasthan cadre
who retired from the post of Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture in February 2015.
AWARDS/HONOURS/WORLD TITLES/NEW DISCOVERIES THIS MONTH

1 July: Bollywood stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Indian
cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni are among the world's 100 highest-paid celebrities,
according to the Forbes' annual list which is topped by American boxer Floyd
Mayweather. The Forbes 2015 list of 'Celebrity 100: The World's Top-Paid Entertainers
2015' has been topped by Floyd Mayweather with earnings of 300 million dollars.
Breaking into the elite global club, Amitabh Bachchan and Salman Khan are tied for the
71st rank with earnings of 33.5 million dollars each. Akshay Kumar is at 76th spot (USD
32.5 million). Dhoni is ranked 82nd (USD 31 million dollars).
2 July: Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was conferred with Peru's one of the highest
awards 'Grand Officer' for social work and mission to deliver peace through his foundation
'The Art of Living'. Earlier the government of Colombia honoured him with the country's
highest civilian award for his contribution to peace.
3 July: Noted scientist Sanjeev Galande has been selected for the prestigious G D Birla
award for 2014 for his pioneering research in the field of epigenetics and molecular cell
biology. Galande is a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
(IISER) in Pune and is widely respected for his works in genomics and related areas. He is
the 24th recipient of the award.
4 July: Indian-American Professor R. Paul Singh has been named as the 2015 Global
Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences World
Agriculture Prize laureate. The award will be formally presented on September 20, during
a ceremony at Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu Province, China.
6 July: Dr. Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of Brac, the largest non-governmental
organisation on the planet, has been awarded the World Food Prize 2015 for his
unparalleled work on reducing poverty in Bangladesh and 10 other countries. Abed
established Brac formerly known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
in 1972.
6 July: Four Indian-Americans, including top US attorney Preet Bharara, are among 38
distinguished personalities who have been honoured with this year's prestigious "Great
Immigrants: The Pride of America" award. Among other Indians honoured with the top
annual award by the prestigious New York-based Carnegie Corporation are Rakesh
Khurana, Dean of Harvard College and Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership and
Development; Madhulika Sikka Executive Editor, Mic and Abraham Verghese, eminent
physician, professor and author.
7 July: Hyderabad House, Vigyan Bhawan and Jawaharlal Nehru Bhawan have topped the
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) ratings, leaving behind 49 government buildings including
Rashtrapati Bhawan in the capital that were screened for overall cleanliness. The three
buildings scored 20 points each while Rashtrapati Bhawan and South Block were ranked
6th with 14 points each. The survey was conducted by the Central Public Works
Department (CPWD).
10 July: The Film Society of Jodhpur was conferred with the Pritiman Sarkar Award 201415 for the fourth time for being the best film society in Northern Region in raising
awareness and film appreciation. The award was presented by the Federation of Film
Societies of India (North Region). The award was given in recognition of screening of a
series of films by the society in 2014-15 in Jodhpur to mark 100 glorious years of Indian
cinema under the Incredible Journey of Indian Cinema.
10 July: Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka entered Guinness World Records for
spending most number of days in the space. He achieved the feat by spending 804 days
on the International Space Station (ISS). He surpassed cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, also a
Russian, record of 803 days, 9 hours and 41 minutes in the space which Sergei achieved
across six missions from 1998 to 2005. Padalka, who is the commander of the crew on the
ISS, is scheduled to return to earth in September 2015. It means he would have spent a
total of 877 days in space by then.
14 July: Buddha In A Traffic Jam film has won the best original screenplay in a Foreign
Language award at the Madrid International Film Festival. The film is a political satire
directed by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. It stars Arunoday Singh and Mahi Gill in a lead role
along with Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi and introduces Anchal Dwivedi.
15 July: An India-based software products and technology services company is among the
winners of the prestigious Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award for 2015, a
recognition that honours the technology giants partner achievements across the globe.
Comparex India Pvt. Ltd, headquartered in New Delhi, was honoured, along with 110
awardees by Microsoft, at its Worldwide Partner Conference 2015.
15 July: Tata Steel's West Bokaro Division was conferred with the Golden Peacock
Environment Management Award (GPEMA) 2015 during 17th World Congress on
Environment Management organised in New Delhi. It was presented by the Union
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar to Sanjay Rajoria,
General Manager of West Bokaro, Tata Steel of Jharkhand.
15 July: Olivia Jordan of Oklahoma was crowned Miss USA 2015.The competition was held
in Lusiana. The 26-year-old winner was followed by first runner-up Ylianna Guerra, 22, of
Texas, and second runner-up Anea Garcia, 20, of Rhode Island.
16 July: Frost & Sullivan, USA presented the 2015 Asia Pacific Economic Development
Innovation: Policy and Program Implementation Excellence Award in Manufacturing to
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for the Make in India initiative. Frost &
Sullivan, a US based Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth
and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation, and leadership. The award is in
recognition of the outstanding contribution of the Make in India programs vision and
implementation excellence to simplify the regulatory framework, reinforce connectivity
and incentivize investments.
16 July: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced to give Yash Bharti award
to noted Urdu poet Anwar Jalalpuri for translating Shlokas of the Bhagvad Geeta into Urdu
verses. It is one of the most prestigious awards of Uttar Pradesh. Jalalpuri has translated
the Shrimad Bhagwad Gita into over 1,700 Urdu couplets.
17 July: An Indian American woman is among 12 faith leaders to be honoured as
"Champions of Change" by the White House for their efforts in protecting environment
and communities from the effects of climate change. Sunita Viswanath, the only Indian
American to figure in the list, has been selected for her work to encourage Hindus to take
care of the environment. Working with women's and human rights organisations for
almost three decades, Sunita is co-founder and active board member of human rights
organisation, Women for Afghan Women.
17 July: Modern Indian artist Sayed Haider Raza, has been conferred with the highest
French civilian honour, The Legion of Honour for his peerless achievements. The award
was bestowed by Ambassador Francois Richier at a function at the French Embassy. The
French honour was conferred on the 93-year-old artist in acknowledgment of his peerless
achievements transcending all boundaries, the lasting ties he has forged between France
and India, and his continuing artistic quest straddling nations, cultures, religions and
philosophies.
17 July: Varanasi has been chosen as City of Music by UNESCO under the Creative Cities
Network. The city of Varanasi has been chosen in the music category under UNESCOs
Field of Excellence plan. The inclusion of Varanasi in this prestigious list paves the way
for representing the cultural heritage of the holy city on the world stage through the
UNESCO project.
20 July: A PSU of Ministry of Railways, namely, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. bagged
the 12th National Awards for Excellence in Cost management 2014. Col Rajyavardhan
Rathore (Retd.), AVSM, Union Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting presented
the award to RailTel in a function. This award is organized by The Institute of Cost
Accounts of India. RailTel has won the award in the category of Public- Service Sector
(Medium).
21 July: The Kerala Tourism has bagged this year's Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)
award for its Muziris Heritage Project in the 'Heritage & Culture' category. The award,
sponsored by the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), went to the Muziris
Heritage Project for its conservational efforts, uniqueness and impact on local
community. The flagship project of the government of Kerala is one of the biggest
heritage conservation projects of modern India.
21 July: The French government has knighted veteran South African freedom fighter
Ahmed Kathrada for his life-long service to the community. The award is part of the
National Orders of the Legion of Honour established by Napoleon Bonaparte in May 1802.
Kathrada, 85, became the confidante of anti-apartheid icon and former South African
president Nelson Mandela.
21 July: An Indian-origin doctor has received the honorary fellowship by one of the
leading British Universities for his contribution to the community as a general practitioner
and medical educator. 77-year-old Shiv Pande has been awarded an honorary fellowship
of the University of Central Lancashire.
22 July: Actress-politician Hema Malini has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement
Award for Art and Cinema. The 66 years old actress was honoured by the Bank of Baroda
on the occasion of its 108th Foundation Day on July 20
22 July: The British government has decided to honour India's greatest hockey player
Major Dhyan Chand with 'India Pride Award'. In British Parliament's House of Commons
this award will be presented to him on 25th July. On behave of Dhyan Chand, his son
Ashok Chand and former captain of Indian hockey Ashok Kumar has been invited to
London for the award. One of the world's best hockey players Dhyan Chand won Gold
medals in three Olympics: 1928, 1932, 1936. In 1956 he was awarded the country's third
highest civilian honor, the Padma Bhushan.
24 July: Nobel prize winner Peter Higgs has joined the ranks of Charles Darwin and Albert
Einstein by winning the worlds oldest scientific prize, the Royal Societys Copley Medal,
for his pioneering work on the theory of the Higgs boson, which was discovered in 2012.
The Copley medal was first awarded by the Royal Society in 1731, 170 years before the
first Nobel Prize.
24 July: Indian hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand will be conferred with the Bharat
Gaurav Lifetime Achivement Award by NRI orgainsation Sanskriti Yuva Sangstha at the
House of Commons inside the British Parliament of July 25. On behalf of Dhyan Chand, his
son and former Indian hockey player Ashok Kumar will receive the award
25 July: Pulitzer winning Indian-born American doctor Siddhartha Mukherjee has been
nominated for an Emmy Award for the documentary series on cancer based on his book
'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer'. The six-hour programme based and
titled after Mukherjee's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2010 book Produced and co-written by US
filmmaker Ken Burns, the documentary titled "Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies" is a
six-hour series for American TV channel PBS and is based on Mukherjee's book.
25 July: Ravi Kailas, Chairman and CEO, Mytrah Energy, was named the Wind Power
Person of the year 2015 at the 3rd World Renewable Energy Conference in New Delhi.
The award was conferred on him by the Renewable Energy Expert Committee headed by
Dr. Praveen Saxena, Former Advisor, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.
27 July: Veteran mountaineer Nalini Sengupta is set to become the first Puneite to have
a Himalyan peak christened in her honour. Sexagenarian Sengupta, who has scaled
several summits till now, was bestowed with his honour recently after trekkers of
Giripremi, a noted mountaineering institute in the city, conquered peak 5260 in the
Hamta pass region in Himalayas and decided to name it as Mount Nalini, to salute her
persistent efforts to inculcate mountaineering in youngsters since 1970
28 July: Helena Ndume of Namibia and Jorge Sampaio of Portugal were awarded the firstever Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize by the United Nations (UN) at the UN Headquarters
in New York. Ndume, a female ophthalmologist, was awarded for treating blindness and
eye-related illnesses in Namibia and throughout the developing world. While Jorge
Sampaio, the former President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006 and also the former mayor
of Lisbon from 1989 to 1995, was awarded for his contribution to his country for his
struggle for the restoration of democracy in Portugal.
30 July: Whistleblower Indian forest officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who was removed from the
post of Chief Vigilance officer at AIIMS, and founder of NGO Goonj Anshu Gupta are the
two Indians selected for this year's prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award. Three others
who have been selected for the award include Kommaly Chanthavong from Laos, Ligaya
Fernando-Amilbangsa from Philippines and Kyaw Thu from Myanmar. They will be
formally conferred the Magsaysay Award on 31 August at the Cultural Center of the
Philippines.
SPORT THIS MONTH

1 July: Brazilian racer Nelson Piquet Jr won the FIA Formula E Championship title
of the 2014-15 season. He beat Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi. He won the title
after finishing seventh in the final race held at Battersea Park in London, the UK.
Piquet drove for Chinese team Nextev. It is the first such championship held by
FIA, the global governing body for auto racing events.
1 July: Khalin Joshi was the best-placed Indian golfer as he finished tied sixth at
the USD 76,000 Bali National Golf Championship. Joshi carded one-under 71 and
finished at five-under 288 in tied sixth place. Also finishing in top-10 was Himmat
Rai (74) in tied ninth and Chiragh Kumar (75) was tied 15th. At the top, Matthew
Giles of Australia sank a clutch birdie putt on the last hole to win the Bali National
Golf Championship title by one-shot.
2 July: Goa has been selected to host FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017. Goa would be
one of the six centres in the country that are provisionally selected to host
forthcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 matches. FIFA has provisionally shortlisted
other centres like Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Navi Mumbai and New Delhi besides
Goa as the World Cup venues.
2 July: Star shot putter Inderjeet Singh and half-miler Jinson Johnson clinched their
third gold in a row at the third and final leg of Asian Athletics Grand Prix Series
2015 held in Thailand's Chantaburi. With this gold, both Inderjeet and Johnson
completed their golden hat-trick as they had bagged the yellow metal in their
respective events in the first and second legs. Johnson led men's 800m final all
through with a timing of 1:50.56 while Inderjeet produced a best effort of 19.83m
to take the top honours.
2 July: Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won the
Commonwealth Chess Championship after settling for a quick draw with
Arghyadip Das in the ninth and final round. Gupta made eight points out of a
possible nine. In the women's section, Padmini Rout won gold medal by defeating
S. Vijayalakshmi.
4 July: A woman assistant subinspector (ASI) of Rajasthan Police Athletics Team
Sapna, who represented Indian police team won a gold medal in the 5 km race
walk event in the World Police Games 2015, held in Virginia, USA. Sapna
completed the event in 26.14 minutes, which is a new police games record.
7 July: United States lifted the FIFA Womens World Cup 2015 for the third time.
In the finals played at Vancouver, Canada, USA scored 4 goals in the first 16
minutes to dethrone Japan, 5-2 and win their first World Cup since 1999. England
defeated Germany, 1-0 to finish third.
7 July: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain won the 2015 Formula 1 British
Grand Prix title by winning the final race held at the Silverstone Circuit in
Northamptonshire, England. This is his second consecutive British Grand Prix title
win. While his teammate Nico Rosberg stood second, Ferrari driver Sebastian
Vettel came at the third position. Both the drivers belong to Germany.
7 July: Chile created history by winning the Copa America tournament for 2015,
football's most prestigious competition, organised in South America. The host
team defeated the much-fancied Argentina by 4-1 on penalties to win the
tournament in the finals played at Santiago. This was the first Copa America title
for Chile. Chile had reached Copa America finals four times (1955, 1956, 1979 and
1987) times without winning the tournament. Peru finished at third place in Copa
America 2015.
7 July: India won the South Asian Basketball (SABA) Championship title. In the final
of the 4th edition of the championship played at the Kanteerava Stadium in
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India defeated Sri Lanka 93-44. India was also the winner of
third SABA Championship. With this win, India qualified for the FIBA Asia
Championship in China. FIBA Asia Championship will be played in September 2015.
8 July: India has won a record 156 medals, including 89 gold and 50 silvers, in the
World Police and Fire games held in the suburb of the American Capital. Topping
this tally on medal haul was Richa Mishra from Central Reserve Police Force, who
won six golds and two silvers in swimming events. This is for the first time that the
Indian contingent's medal tally has crossed 100.
8 July: Aseel Shaheen (Kuwait) made history by becoming the first-ever Arab
woman to officiate at Wimbledon Tennis Tournament 2015. Wimbledon tennis
tournament is a traditional competition organised by All England Club, which
primarily houses British match officials. She is a line judge and is one of around
350 men and women officiating at Wimbledon 2015.
8 July: Fiji broke the record for the biggest win in international football with a 380 victory over Micronesia. This match was played under Pacific Games 2015. Fiji
trounced the Federated States of Micronesia by 38-0 to break Australias long
standing record of 31-0 against American Samoa. That win came way back in 2001
during an Oceania confederation qualifier for the 2002 World Cup.
9 July: Indian woman cricketer Mithali Raj made history by becoming the first
Indian and second in womens ODI history to complete 5000 runs. Indian captain
Mithali Raj achieved this distinction as she scored a stylish 81 runs in the fourth
one day international (ODI) of the series against New Zealand to enable the Indian
team to register a comfortable eight-wicket victory. She became the second
woman cricketer in history to complete 5000 runs in ODIs after Englands
Charlotte Edwards.
9 July: Mariyappan Thangavelu from Salem district in Tamil Nadu clinched the high
jump gold medal at the just-concluded IWAS World Junior Games 2015 in the
Netherlands. He had cleared a distance of 1.77 meters in the F 42 category.
10 July: India's Shot putter Inderjeet Singh created history by winning the first ever
gold medal for India in the shot put event at the World University Games 2015 in
Gwangju, South Korea. His sixth and final throw covering a distance of 20.27 was
good enough to win him the coveted yellow metal. This helped India to register
its first ever win in the World University Games.
11 July: A brilliant half-century by Thirush Kamini lifted India to a nine-wicket win

over New Zealand and enabled them to take the five-match women's One-Day
International (ODI) series 3-2. After bundling out New Zealand for 118 in 41 overs,
India, spearheaded by Kamini (62 not out) and Deepti Sharma (44 not out), who
put on 103 runs for the second wicket, made 121/1 in 27.2 overs to round off a
commanding performance.
11 July: India dropped a whopping 15 places to languish at the 156th position with
161 points in the latest FIFA rankings, after successive losses to Oman and lowlyGuam in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match held last month. Earlier India
was ranked 141st in world rankings. Argentina, meanwhile, takes top spot in the
FIFA rankings from World Cup winner Germany despite losing another
tournament final. Beaten by Chile in the Copa America finalArgentina rises two
places to lead the rankings. Germany falls to No. 2, followed by Belgium.
14 July: Serena Williams claimed her sixth Wimbledon title by beating Spain's
Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-4 in the womens singles final. She now has 21 Grand
Slam titles. On the other hand, Serbias Novak Djokovic defeated Switzerlands
Roger Federer by 7-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the mens singles final of Wimbledon 2015.
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has now won three Wimbledon singles title 2011,
2014 and 2015.
14 July: In the Wimbledon 2015 womens doubles final, Indo-Swiss pair of Sania
Mirza-Martina Hingis defeated Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova- Elena Vesnina by
5-7, 7-6, 7-5 to win their first Wimbledon title. On the other hand Jean-Julien
Rojer, along with Horia Tecau beaten Jamie Murray and John Peers by 7-6 (5), 64, 6-4 to win their Wimbledon 2015 men's doubles title.
14 July: Indian tennis veteran Leander Paes won the mixed doubles title of the
Wimbledon Championship 2015 with legendary Martina Hingis. This was Paes
16th Grand Slam title. Whereas this was overall 18th Grand Slam title of Hingis.
Seventh seeded Indo-Swiss pair of Paes and Hingis drubbed the fifth seeded
Austrian-Hungarian team of Alexander Peya and Timea Babos by 6-1 6-1 in the
lop-sided summit clash which was over in just 40 minutes.
14 July: Sumit Nagal became the sixth Indian to win a Grand Slam junior title after
winning the boys doubles trophy at the Wimbledon championship 2015. 17-yearold Nagal and his Vietnamese partner Nam Hoang Ly overcame Reilly Opelka and
Akira Santillan 7-6(4), 6-4 in the title clash that lasted 63 minutes to make their
place in history books.
15 July: Indian grapplers finished with an impressive haul of 16 medals, including
three gold, at the Junior Asian Freestyle, Greeco-Roman and Female Wrestling
championship at Nay Pyi Taw in Myanmar. The Indian team's performance has
won them 68 Champion Trophy points, while the Greeco-Roman team finished
runners-up with 59 points. In Men's Freestyle category, the Indians claimed a total
of eight medals with Ravi Kumar bagging the yellow metal in 55kg division.
16 July: The eighth Asian Airgun Shooting Championship will be held in National
Capital New Delhi from September 25 to October 1 at the Karni Singh Shooting
Range. There are 12 men and women events over four days of competition in the
senior, youth and junior categories. Airgun competitions are restricted to the Air
Rifle and Air Pistol segments.
16 July: India won the three-match One Day International (ODI) Series against
Zimbabwe 3-0 played in Harare. India batting first in the third match of series
scored 276 runs at a loss of five and in reply to the target Zimbabwe was bowled
out at the score of 193 in 42.4 over. Kedar Jadhav for his 105 runs in 87 balls was
declared Man of the Match whereas Ambati Rayudu won Man of the Series
21 July: French Formula One driver Jules Bianchi (25), who sustained serious head
injuries at last years Japanese Grand Prix, passed away. He was in coma for last 9
months. He was racing for F1 team Marussia at this Grand Prix. He sustained
critical head injuries in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in October 2014.
22 July: Indian wrestler Sangram Singh made history by defeating Canada's Joseph
Edward to win the WWP Commonwealth Championship at Nelson Mandela Bay
Stadium in South Africa. He had signed the death contract that clearly stated no
owning up by organizers if either of the two fighters are fatally hurt in the process.
Sangram is said to be the first Indian wrestler to sign such an agreement.
22 July: Model-actor Milind Soman (49) has won the Ironman title at a triathlon
held in Zurich in Switzerland. Milind Soman, who took part in the race, which is
said to be the toughest triathlon, for the first time, took 15 hours and 19 minutes
to finish it. The triathlon, organised by World Triathalon Corporation, includes a
3.8 km swim, 180.2 km cycle ride and 42.2 km run and is widely regarded as the
worlds toughest race, which has to be completed in 16 hours by participants for
an Ironman title.
23 July: Zach Johnson won the British Open Golf title for 2015. Zach Johnson of
the United States claimed the second major triumph of his career as he won the
prestigious British Open. 39-year-old Johnson surged through the field with a
closing 66 before overcoming South African Louis Oosthuizen and Australian Marc
Leishman in extra holes. His first major title was the U.S. Masters in 2007.
25 July: 10-year-old Shubham Jaglan created history by winning the International
Junior Golf Academy World Stars event in Las Vegas. He brought home a score of
106 in three rounds to win by five strokes, ahead of two Americans Justin Dang
and Sihan Sandhu and Thailand's Pongsapak Laopakdee for the Boys 9-10 years
category title at the Angel Park. Less than a week back, the son of a milkman from
rural Haryana, scripted a scintillating one-stroke win at the Junior World Golf
Championships being played at Welk Resort Fountain Course in California.
25 July: First All Women Trans Continental Road Expedition from Delhi to London
was flagged off. The expedition, which started from Major Dhyanchand Stadium
of New Delhi, was flagged off by Union Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers,
Ananth Kumar and Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs &
Sports Sarbananda Sonowal. The three woman participants, namely Nidhi Tiwari,
Rashmi Koppar and Soumaya Goel, will reach United Kingdom in 55 days.
25 July: India climbed up a rung to occupy the eighth spot in the men's section,
while the eves remained static at 13th position in the latest International Hockey
Federation (FIH) rankings issued. The FIH released the latest world rankings
following the completion of four events comprising the Hockey World League
Semi-Finals in Buenos Aires and Antwerp (men); Valencia and Antwerp (women).
World Cup holders Australia men and the Netherlands women remain at the top
of the chart.
27 July: Indias ODI cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named the ninth
most marketable sportsperson in the world ahead of the likes of football superstar
Lionel Messi in a list prepared by London School of Marketing. Dhoni also pipped
football star Cristiano Ronaldo and Andy Murray in the list of the worlds 20 most
marketable sportspersons.
28 July: Former World Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel (Germany) won the
Hungarian Grand Prix in a surprising result as present champion and this years
leader Lewis Hamilton (Britain) finished the race at sixth place despite starting
from the pole position. This was Vettels 41st F1 title and with this win he equaled
the record of former F1 champion Ayrton Senna.
28 July: The Indian women's wrestling team finished second in the fifth edition of
Cup of the President of Republic of Kazakhstan held in Kazakhstan. The eightmember Indian team displayed a spirited performance in the event and won prize
money of 10,000 dollars. The event was topped by hosts Kazakhstan with
Mongolia settling for the third spot.
28 July: The 14th edition of Special Olympics Games is being held at the Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles (United States) from 25 July to 2 August
2015. Over 7,000 athletes representing over 170 countries are taking part in these
games and will compete in 25 sporting events ranging from weightlifting to the
triathlon. The games were the brainchild of President John Kennedys sister Eunice
Kennedy Shriver. Special Olympics is the worlds largest sports activity for children
and adults with intellectual disabilities.
28 July: India's under-21 women's hockey team has finished third at the Volvo
Invitational tournament in the Netherlands. They defeated England in a penalty
shoot out after the match ended in a 1-1 draw after regulation time. In the penalty
shoot-out, goal-keeper Inderpreet Kaur saved all the shots, with Deep Grace Ekka
scoring the winning goal for India.
28 July: Britain's Cyclist Chris Froome became the first Briton to win the
prestigious cycling championship of Tour de France twice when he safely reached
the finish line in Paris at the end of the race. The 2013 champion finished alongside
his team-mates on the final stage, behind a sprint won by Andre Greipel. Froome,
30, beat Colombia's Nairo Quintana to the yellow jersey by 72 seconds with Spain's
Alejandro Valverde third.
28 July: Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt won 100 metres
race in the Diamond League meet. Bolt, hampered by injury for much of this year,
prevailed in his first competitive heat in six weeks with a time of 9.87 seconds on
the same track at the London Olympic Stadium where he delivered three gold
medalwinning performances during the 2012 Games. Bolt, outpaced US runner
Michael Rodgers to claim the victory.
29 July: Mexico won the CONCACAF Gold Cup football tournament played in
Washington for a record seventh time by defeating Jamaica 3-1. Caribbean team
reached the finals of the tournament for the first time. This is Mexico team's third
title win in the last four tournaments. Andres Guardado in 31st minute, Jesus
Corona in the 47th minute and Oribe Peralta in the 61st minute scored one-one
goal each.
29 July: Shahrukh Khans Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel defeated Barbados Tridents
to win Caribbean Premier League T20 (CPL T20) 2015 at Queens Park Oval in
Trinidad. The Red Steel beat the 2014 champions, Barbados Tridents, by 20 runs.
29 July: The Australian state of Victoria has secured the rights to host football's
International Champions Cup (ICC) for a further three years according to which
Melbourne will host the tournament till 2018. New South Wales attempted to lure
the tournament to Sydney but Victoria was granted "exclusive" rights to host the
ICC for the next three years following the success of the three matches played in
July.
30 July: Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports constituted a Working Group
to prepare a revised draft of National Sports Development Code of India (NSDCI).
The nine-member Working Group will be headed by Justice C.K. Mahajan (retd.),
Former Judge of Delhi High Court. Its aim is to examine the existing NSDCI from
both sports governance and legal angles and fine-tune/revise the same with the
purpose of making it more precise and succinct.
30 July: Delhi boy Yash Singh bagged India's first medal at the Special Olympics
World Summer Games 2015 in Los Angeles. The 13-year-old swimmer (suffering
from autism) won bronze in the 25-metre backstroke swimming event.Yash
clocked 19.23 seconds. The gold medallist clocked 16.85 seconds and the winner
of the silver clocked 19.13 seconds.
EULOGIES THIS MONTH
3 July: Finland's Matti Makkonen, the man responsible for conceiving the idea of short messaging
service (SMS) technology, passed away. He was also known as Father of SMS. He was 63.
6 July: Former Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal passed away at the age of 73. Justice Sabharwal
was appointed as chief justice in 2005 and retired after a 14-month term. During his tenure, he
gave several important decisions
7 July: Renowned Urdu novelist from Pakistan Abdullah Hussain died in Lahore. He was 84. He
authored the bestseller and critically acclaimed novel Udas Naslain, it is considered as a
masterpiece of Urdu literature. His other famous works are Baagh, Faraib and Nashaib
8 July: Renowned American Actress Amanda Peterson, whose most famous role was in the 1987
romantic comedy Can't Buy Me Love, has died at age of 43.
10 July: Noted Urdu poet, critic and orator Bashar Nawaz, who had penned the immensely
popular song 'Karoge yaad' in Hindi film 'Bazaar', passed away at Aurangabad. Born on August 18,
1935 at Aurangabad, Nawaz's writings were regularly published in various Urdu literary journals
magazines in India and abroad. He was also honoured with prestigious "Pulotsav Samman" for
his contribution to Urdu literature.
15 July: Southern music composer M.S. Viswanathan, who has over 750 films to his credit passed
away. He was 87. He was popularly known as MSV in the film industry. Popular for composing
music in more than 750 films in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, MSV started his career as a
composer for 1952 Tamil film "Panam".
16 July: Former Billiards and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) President Pashupatinath Roy died
in Kolkata. He was 76. Roy was also the President of West Bengal Badminton Association for more
than five decades after he took over charge from his father B.K. Roy in late 1960s.
17 July: Sheila Ramani, famous Bollywood actress of 50s passed away. She was 83. She is well
known for her performances in films like Driver and Naukri.
23 July: Tom Moore, the "Archie" (America's famous cartoon character) cartoonist who brought
to life the escapades of the freckled-face, red-haired character passed away. He was 86. Moore,
who began drawing cartoons while in the US Navy during the Korean War, died in his hometown
of El Paso. Annual sales of the comic regularly surpassed half a million during the 1960s.
24 July: Popular Tamil film producer Ibrahim Rowther, who gave actor Vijayakant his moniker
Captain and produced some of his biggest hits such as Pulan Visaranai and Captain Prabhakaran,
died in Chennai. He was 64 years old.
29 July: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th President of India and a pioneer of the countrys space and
missile programmes, passed away on 27 July 2015 at the age of 83. He passed away after
collapsing during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Shillong (Meghalaya).
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, popularly known as Missile Man of India, was the
President of India between 2002 and 2007. He was honoured with highest civilian award Bharat
Ratna in1997.
30 July: Clive Rice, South African teams former captain and legendry cricketer has died in a Cape
Town hospital aged 66. He had been suffering from a brain tumour and visited India in March
2015 to have radiation treatment in Bangalore. He entered the first stage cricket in 1969. As
Nottinghamshire and South Africa's Captain Rice scored 26,331 runs and took 930 wickets.
MISCELLANEOUS NEWS THIS MONTH

3 July: China has become successful in making first fully indigenous bullet train. It has began
testing the first bullet train completely made from locally produced parts. This move of China is
being considered as a major step in eliminating dependence on import of bullet train from
Germany, Canada and Japan. Till now most of the parts of bullet trains made by China were
imported from abroad.
4 July: The Union Cabinet approved the institutional framework for the National Skill
Development Mission 2015. The Mission will provide a strong institutional framework at the
Centre and States for implementation of skilling activities in the country. The Union Cabinet also
gave its approval for a new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY). The
Yojana was approved with an outlay of 50,000 crore rupees over a period of five years (2015-16
to 2019-20). Its aim is provide convergence to existing schemes of water management, thus
bringing efficiency to the use of water
14 July: Indian-origin Sunita Williams is among four veterans picked by NASA to fly the first
commercial space vehicles, a part of the space agencys ambitious plan to put a man on Mars by
2030. Williams, 49, accompanied by Robert Behnken, Eric Boe and Douglas Hurley, will train and
prepare for commercial spaceflights.
14 July: India's first Community Skill Park has been opened at Chavara in Kollam district of Kerala
with the aim to train youths so that they may become skilled to get better employment. Kerala
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the first 'Kaushal Kendra'. These 'Kaushal Kendras'
will develop skills and increase the employability of the youth of the state which they need.
15 July: Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju launched the GPS-Aided Geo Augmented
Navigation (GAGAN) system, which would make airline operations more efficient and reduce
costs. GAGAN is a satellite-based navigation system which provides autonomous, high precision
geo-spatial location information of the user in terms of latitude, longitude and height along with
velocity and time. Jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the
Airports Authority of India (AAI), at an investment of Rs. 774 crore, GAGAN will offer seamless
navigation to the aviation industry.
17 July: The Prime Minister formally launched the Skill India Mission and unveiled the new
National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 on 15 July 2015 on the occasion
of the World Youth Skills Day. The aim of Skill India Mission is to converge and monitor all skill
development schemes across the country, promoting entrepreneurship and equipping 500 million
Indians with skills by 2022 that would enable them to find jobs. On this occasion Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship, was also launched. PMKVY seeks to inculcate various skills among 24 lakh
youth, across India, over the next one year.
22 July: Stephen Hawking, the eminent British scientist launched a whopping USD 100-million
project to search for aliens in association with Russia's billionaire entrepreneur Yuri Milner. This
is a 10 year project. This project was launched at the Royal Society in London and characterised
as the biggest scientific search ever undertaken for study of aliens
22 July: An Indigenous Visibility Measuring System Drishti has been installed at New Delhis
Indira Gandhi International Airport with which the airport has become the first Airport in the
country to have 10 indigenous systems operating in all its three runways. It that has been designed
and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), Bengaluru. It is primarily
used for reporting the runway visual range, which is a critical parameter for safe landing and takeoff of aircraft in poor visibility conditions.
23 July: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) achieved a huge milestone as it successfully
tested Indias latest and most powerful cryogenic engine for 800 seconds. This cryogenic engine
will be utilized to power ISROs next generation monster rocket, the GSLV Mark-III, which will be
capable of carrying the 8 ton class of satellites to space. This full duration test was performed
successfully at Mahendragiri (Tamil Nadu).
24 July: The January-June period of 2015 was the hottest such period since 1880, the US National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said.During the period, the average
temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 0.85 degrees Celsius above the 20th
century average.
24 July: With 14,310 suicides contributing 10.9 percent of total suicides in the country in 2014
West Bengal ranks third among of States in the number of suicides after Maharashtra and Tamil
Nadu as per the statistics released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).Rate of suicides per
lakh population in West Bengal was 15.5 per cent, while the national average was 10.6 per cent
in 2014.
24 July: RK Pachauri, accused of sexual harassment by a woman employee, has been sacked as
the chief of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). He will be replaced by Ajay Mathur who is
the Director General of Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
25 July: The hunt for India's most desirable man by country's oldest and most prestigious pageant
for men came to its end with Rohit Khandewal from Hyderabad being announced Provogue
Personal Care Mr India 2015. Rohit Khandewal from Hyderabad was announced Mr India 2015
winner, Rahul Rajasekharan from Bangalore was announced 1st Runner up and Prateek Gujaral
from Mumbai was announced 2nd Runner up.
27 July: The first cargo ships passed through Egypt's New Suez Canal on 25th July in a test-run
before it opens next month on 6th August, 11 months after the army began constructing the $8
billion canal alongside the existing 145-year-old Suez Canal.
29 July: Rajamahendravaram will be the new name of Rajahmundry, the historic and cultural city
of Andhra Pradesh, as announced by state Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The name
Rajamahendravaram is derived from a Chalukya dynasty ruler of the 11th century who ruled
over the city.
29 July: Google has partnered with NASA and 13 other companies, including Amazon and Verizon,
to create an air-traffic control system for drones, called the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Traffic
Management. The move comes after a series of incidents involving drones. The government is
seeking to work with the private sector to create rules of the aerial road and in view of growing
demand and use of drones.
RECURRING TERMS
Atal Pension Yojana (APY) for Social Security in India:
Financial inclusion, social security, and low-cost benefits for the masses have been high on the NDA
governments agenda. Ever since the NaMo governments ascent to the centre, PM Modi, FM Jaitley, and
the Cabinet have worked relentlessly towards promulgation of new schemes that make financial security
for the common man. The first step towards achievement of social security was the rollout of the Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). With Phase I being declared a major success and 1.8 crore accounts
having been opened across the country, the government has flagged off three new schemes on 9 May
2015 two insurance schemes (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha
Bima Yojana), and a pension scheme (Atal Pension Yojana). This is called Phase II of the PMJDY, since it
was important to get people into mainstream banking before any benefits can be extended to them.
Atal Pension Yojana:
As our young population ages, it is also going to be pension-less. Encouraged by the success of the
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, I propose to work towards creating a universal social security system
for all Indians that will ensure that no Indian citizen will have to worry about illness, accidents or penury
in old age, said Finance Minister Jaitley in his February 2015 Budget speech. In keeping with this ideal, a
National Pension Scheme, the Atal Pension Yojana will be effective from 1 June 2015. The scheme intends
to bring pension benefits to allow people of the unorganised sector to enjoy social security with minimum
contribution per month.People who work in the private sector or employed in occupations that do not
give them the benefit of pension can apply for the scheme. They can opt for a fixed pension of INR 1,000
or 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 on attaining the age of 60. The amount of contribution and the
individuals age will determine the pension. Upon the contributors death, the spouse of the contributor
can claim the pension and after the spouses death the nominee will be returned the corpus accrued.The
amount collected under the scheme is to be managed by Pension Funds as per the investment pattern
specified by the Government. Individual applicants will have no choice of pension funds or investment
allocation.
Benefits of Atal Pension Yojana:

The Atal Pension Scheme will bring security to ageing Indians while at the same time promote a culture
of savings and investment among the lower and lower middle class sections of society. One of the greatest
benefits of the scheme may be enjoyed by the poorer sections of society. The government of India has
decided to contribute 50 percent of the users contribution or INR 1,000 a year (whichever is lower) for a
period of five years. This contribution will, however, be enjoyed only by those who are not income tax
payers and those who join the scheme before 31 December 2015.
Indicative Contribution for Various Pension Options (in INR)
Entry Age
Monthly
Pension
INR 1000
Monthly
Pension
INR 2000
Monthly
Pension
INR 3000
Monthly
Pension
INR 4000
Monthly
Pension
INR 5000
18
42
84
126
168
210
20
50
100
150
198
248
25
76
151
226
301
376
30
116
231
347
462
577
35
181
362
543
722
902
40
291
582
873
1164
1454
Total
Corpus
1,70,000
3,40,000
5,10,000
6,80,000
8,50,000
*Data from Atal Pension Yojna brochure

Launch across the Country
The Atal Pension Scheme and the other insurance schemes were launched on 9 May, simultaneously by
Union and Chief Ministers. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the scheme from Kolkata.
Launch functions were held at about 116 locations across the country including state capitals and a
number of district headquarters. Post its launch, 41,124 people have already registered for the scheme as
on 11 May 2015.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)
What is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) or Housing for All by 2022 scheme?
Housing for All by 2022 Scheme has been renamed to Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). This scheme
has been launched on 25th June, 2015 at a launch ceremony in Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. This latest
housing scheme launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi aims to construct about Two Crore
houses in the country for common citizen, within these seven years when country will have celebrates its
75th Independence Day on 2022. People who will be benefited through this scheme will be homeless
ones, poor urban people and belonging to EWS and LIG categories.
Who will be the beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)?

According to the terms of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Scheme, the government of India will
undertake to construct about two Crore houses by the year 2022. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is very
much clear about its goals affordable housing for all by 2022. The main beneficiaries of PM Narendra
Modi recently launched Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Scheme or housing for all by 2022 scheme
will be following categories;
Women
People belonging to Scheduled Casts (SC)
People belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST)
Economically weaker section (EWS)
Apart from above mention groups members of society who often find themselves out of a home,
seniors and differently-abled people shall also gain preference in allotment of houses. They shall also be
able to choose a ground-floor house if need be. Apart from this, it is also mandatory that while registering
to avail the benefits of the scheme, the beneficiaries must necessarily mention their mother or wifes
name.
Central Government has planned to grant subsidy for these beneficiaries to buy home. The subsidy
amount will be from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2.30 lakhs.
What are the features of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Scheme?
As per the terms of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) Scheme some of the important features
about the scheme listed here;
Interest Subsidy of 6.5 % on housing loan will be provided for 15 years to the beneficiaries of
PMAY 2022 scheme.
While Registering for the various Affordable housing Schemes under the PMAY 2022 scheme, it
would be important for the applicants to include the name of Mother or Wife.
Note: The newly constructed houses will either be allotted on the name of the women head of the
family or it could be joint name of man and woen head of family
Older and Differently-abled persons will be given preference in the allotment of ground floors
under the PM Awas Yojana Scheme
Eco Friendly and sustainable technologies will be used during the construction process of housing
under Housing for All by 2022 scheme.
Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) An accidental insurance scheme
The Pradhan Mantri of India Narendra Modi has launched another flagship social security scheme:
Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) - An accidental Death and Disability insurance scheme.
A large part of the Indian population lives in rural areas and most of them are not covered under any kind
of social security scheme. A large section of this population has not even gained the benefits of the
banking system and most are still unaware of various governmental schemes that are launched from time
to time.
To correct this serious anomaly in the lives of ordinary and poor people, the Pradhan Mantri of India has
launched the PMSBY scheme in Kolkata on 9 May 2015, along with two other insurance- and pensionrelated schemes. Such is the seriousness of the government to make these schemes a success that almost
the entire senior Cabinet has fanned out to various state capitals and major towns to simultaneously
launch the scheme and ensure its successful implementation.
Who is eligible to be covered under PMSBY?
Any person between the age of 18 and 70 with a savings bank account and Aadhaar Card can join the
scheme.A person will need to fill out a simple form, mentioning the name of the nominee and linking the
Aadhaar Card to the bank account. The person will need to submit the form each year before 1st June to
continue the scheme.With this, the account can be easily activated and the entire premium due will be
auto-debited from his or her account. In other words, all a person has to do is to open a bank account and
then ensure the availability of at least Rs. 12/- before 1st June of each year to ensure automatic renewal
of the scheme. A person has the option to go in for a long-term inclusion under the scheme by instructing
the bank to auto-renew the scheme every year.
Who will implement the PMSBY?
All government-sponsored general insurance companies will offer the scheme, while other insurance
companies will have the option to join the program delivery by signing-up with banks.
ABBREVIATIONS THIS MONTH

ABBREVIATIONS
1. AMRUT 2. APY 3. MRT 4. PMJJBY 5. PMSBY 6. PMAY7. UPI 8. TLCs 9. POTUS 10. NERPAP 11. IRNSS -
Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation

Atal Pension Yojana
Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy
Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
Unified Payment Interface
Tech Learning Centres
President of the United States
National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System
IMPORTANT DAYS THIS MONTH

July 1 National Doctors Day
July 11 World Population Day
July 12 Malala Day
July 15 World Youth Skills Day
July 18 Nelson Mandela International Day
July 28 World Nature Conservation Day / World Hepatitis Day
July 29 World Tiger Day
July 30 International Day of Friendship / World Day against Trafficking in Persons
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE MONTH
(1) 2015 Wimbledon Championships
The 2015 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament which took place at the All England Lawn
Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom, from 29 June to 12 July 2015. It was the
129th edition of the championships. It is organised by the All England Lawn Tennis Club and the
International Tennis Federation. Novak Djokovic of Serbia won his third Wimbledon title in men's singles.
Serena Williams won her sixth Wimbledon. The tournament was an event run by the International Tennis
Federation (ITF) and is part of the 2015 ATP World Tour and the 2015 WTA Tour calendars under the
Grand Slam category.
Prize money
The Wimbledon total prize money for 2015 has been increased by 7% to 26.75m. The winners of the
men's and women's singles titles will earn 1.88m, up 120,000 from the previous year.
List of winners
Women's Single title
World Number One Serena Williams on 11 July 2015 has won Wimbledon Women's Single title. In the
final clash played at Centre Court, London, Williams (US) defeated Garbine Muguruza (Spain) in straight
sets 6-4, 6-4.
Mens Singles title
Its Novak Djokovics ninth grand slam. He is 28. He did what was beyond Andy Murray: he broke down
Roger Federers serve with the depth and ferocity of his returns and whenever he was in trouble on his
own serve, he always found a way. It was a bit anti-climactic in the end. The brilliant Djokovic refused to
be steered off course after losing that tie-break in the second set.
Mixed Doubles title
Seventh seed Indo-Swiss pair of Leander Paes and Martina Hingis won mixed doubles title at Wimbledon.
In the final clash, the duo defeated the fifth seed Austrian-Hungarian team of Alexander Peya and Timea
Babos 6-1, 6-1.
Womens Doubles title
Martina Hingis has waited 17 years half her life to add to her three Wimbledon titles. The wait is over
after a topsy-turvy, tooth-and-nail womens doubles final in which the 34-year-old Swiss and her partner,
Indias Sania Mirza, defeated the formidable Russian pairing of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
Mens Double title
Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) and Horia Tecu (Romania) pair won the 2015 mens Doubles Wimbledon
Title. In the final match they defeated Jamie Murray (UK) and John Peers (Australia) pair by 75, 64, 64
score.
Boys Doubles title
Youngster Sumit Nagal entered the history books as only sixth Indian to win a Grand Slam junior title after
winning the boys doubles trophy at the Wimbledon championships with partner Nam Hoang Ly, in
London.
(2) UNCTAD released World Investment Report 2015
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released the World Investment Report
2015 (WIR15) titled Reforming International Investment Governance. The WIR15 delineated the
investment trends at the global, regional and country level during 2014 and offered a comparative
perspective across the space and time.
Highlights of World Investment Report 2015
In 2014, Global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows fell by 16 per cent to 1.23 trillion US dollars
mostly because of the fragility of the global economy, policy uncertainty for investors and
elevated geopolitical risks. However, they are projected to grow by 11 per cent to 1.4 trillion US
dollars in 2015.
Inward FDI flows to developing economies reached their highest level at 681 billion US dollars
with a 2 per cent rise. China became the worlds largest recipient of FDI and among the top 10 FDI
recipients in the world, 5 are developing economies.
Despite a revival in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), 399 billion US dollars during
2014, overall FDI flows to developed countries declined by 28 per cent to 499 billion US dollars.
They were significantly affected by a single large scale divestment from the USA.
Investments by developing-country multinational enterprises (MNEs) also reached a record level.
They now invest abroad more than any other MNEs.
Nine of the 20 largest investor countries were from developing or transition economies. MNEs of
developing countries continued to acquire developed country foreign affiliates in the developing
world.
The groups of countries negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) saw their combined share of global FDI inflows decline.
However, ASEAN (up 5 per cent to 133 billion US dollars) and the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP) (up 4 per cent to 363 billion US dollars) bucked the trend.
In 2012, services accounted for 63 per cent of global FDI stock, more than twice the share of
manufacturing. The primary sector represented less than 10 per cent of the total.
In 2014, announced Greenfield investment declined by 2 per cent to 696 billion US dollars.
Developing countries continued to attract two thirds of announced Greenfield investment.
International production, production by MNEs, rose in 2014 generating value added of
approximately 7.9 trillion US dollars.
Developing Asia (up 9 per cent) saw FDI inflows grow to historically high levels. They reached
nearly half a trillion dollars in 2014, further consolidating the regions position as the largest
recipient in the world.
In South Asia (up 16 per cent to 41 billion US dollars), FDI has increased in manufacturing,
including in the automotive industry.
(3) 7th BRICS Summit
The 7th BRICS summit held on 8-9 July 2015 summit of the head of states or government of the BRICS
member states. It was held in the Russian city of Ufa in Bashkortostan.
During the 6th BRICS summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, the BRICS leaders signed a declaration reading: "Brazil,
India, China and South Africa convey their appreciation to Russia for its offer to host the Seventh BRICS
Summit in 2015 in the city of Ufa and extend their full support to that end."
Agenda
On 10 July 2015, the participating nations decided to lend in their own local currencies to the New
Development Bank starting April 2016.
The BRICS held a joint summit with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Eurasian, Economic
Union in Ufa on 9 July. Invited countries are- Pakistan, Armenia, Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Mongolia, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Highlights
New Development Bank
BRICS has established a New Development Bank, headquartered in Shanghai and headed by one of India's
most eminent private-sector bankers. But China's major priority remains the 57-member Asian
Infrastructure and Investment Bank, of which India and Russia are the second and third largest
stakeholders respectively (and to which Brazil and South Africa also belong).
BRICS countries, including India, voiced concern over the fragile recovery of global growth and the
potential spill over effects from the unconventional monetary policies of the developed countries and
felt that the BRICS Development Bank will serve as a powerful instrument for financing infrastructure
investment.
The BRICS Bank will approve its inaugural investment projects in the first quarter of 2016 and will work
closely with the China-led AIIB, said the declaration adopted at the Summit of five countries which are
members of the AIIB. The Declaration of the BRICS countries, which also include Russia, China, Brazil and
South Africa, said the global growth has witnessed fragile recovery.
BRICS countries together account for about 18 per cent of global trade and their combined GDP
(purchasing power parity) surged from USD 10 trillion in 2001 to USD 32.5 trillion in 2014. Referring to the
New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS, the declaration said it shall serve as a powerful instrument for
financing infrastructure investment and sustainable development projects in the BRICS and other
developing countries and emerging market economies.
Industrial development
The Ufa Declaration points to the industrial development as the key source of growth for the group. It
recognize that industrial development is a fundamental source of growth for the BRICS countries, which
possess ample natural resources and significant labour, intellectual and technical capacities. Increasing
production and export of high value-added goods will help BRICS countries enhance their national
economies, contribute to their participation in global value chains and improve their competitiveness.
In this connection, it reaffirm the unique mandate of the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO) to promote and accelerate inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
PM of India meets President of China
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up with President Xi Jinping the issue of China putting on technical
hold Indias move in the United Nations to question Pakistan on the release of 26/11 attack mastermind
Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi. During the course of their 95-minute meeting ahead of the BRICS and SCO summit
in the Russian city of Ufa, the two leaders also discussed border issues and the need to accelerate the
boundary talks process. Modi also conveyed to Xi concerns in India over the economic corridor China is
building through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
PM of India meets President of Russia

India and Russia reviewed their bilateral relations as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Foreign secretary S Jaishankar said in a briefing after the 90-minute interaction between
the two leaders that energy sector cooperation was a key area for rebooting the engagement, including
nuclear engagement and hydrocarbons. The nuclear cooperation includes building on negotiations to sign
advance contract for the design of the third and fourth reactor units to come up at the Kudankulam site
in Tamil Nadu. A contract for the design (of the third and fourth power units) has been under negotiation.
100-billion dollar forex pool pact inked, Indias share at 18 billion dollar
The central banks of the BRICS countries have signed an operating agreement on a $100 billion foreign
exchange reserve pool that is being set up by the groupings five member nations to help each other in
case of any problems with dollar liquidity.
The $100 billion pool aims to protect BRICS member states from currency volatility shocks. India will chip
in with $18 billion. The agreement was signed in Moscow after the meeting of the finance ministers and
heads of the central banks of BRICS, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) said in a statement.
India to be inducted into Shanghai Cooperation group as member
Russian President Vladimir Putin conveyed to PM Narendra Modi that the process of Indias accession to
the strategically-important Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has been set into motion. Putin, during
the course of his bilateral talks with PM Modi ahead of the BRICS and SCO summits being held in this
Russian city, said: We are beginning the process of full-fledged inclusion of India into the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation. Putin said it was a very important event, as Modi expressed his thanks.
(3) Digital India Week
Several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information Technology to empower people. Some
of the initiatives have resulted in development of products to extend various services in areas relating to
health, education, labour and employment, commerce etc. The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi would
launch the Digital India Week this evening urging people to gain knowledge and to empower themselves
through the Digital India Programme of his Government.
This programme has been envisaged and coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information
Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments.
The Prime Minister as the Chairman of Monitoring Committee on Digital India, activities under the Digital
India initiative is being carefully monitored. All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have
been revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.
The vision of Digital India programme also aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services,
products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas
-
(i)
Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen
(ii) Governance & Services on Demand and

(iii) Digital Empowerment of Citizens
With the above vision, the Digital India programme aims to provide Broadband Highways, Universal Access
to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, E-Governance: Reforming Government
through Technology, eKranti - Electronic Delivery of Services, Information for All, Electronics
Manufacturing: Target Net Zero Imports, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programmes. Several
projects/products have already launched or ready to be launched as indicated below:
Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of edocuments across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered
repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.
MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a
Discuss, Do and Disseminate approach. The mobile App for MyGov would bring these
features to users on a mobile phone.
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government
organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.
eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar
authentication.
The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This
application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and
appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.
National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from
submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all
the scholarships provided by the Government of India.
DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization
of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital
highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the worlds largest
rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.
BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which
is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and
other types of packet switched communication services.
BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user
can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.
To deliver citizen services electronically and improve the way citizens and authorities transact
with each other, it is imperative to have ubiquitous connectivity. The government also realises
this need as reflected by including broadband highways as one of the pillars of Digital India.
While connectivity is one criterion, enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of
services to citizens forms the other.
The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity
in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fihotspots. The programme will generate
huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme
will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of IT in delivery of services related to various
domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc.

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RBI/ BANKING/BUSINESS NEWS THIS MONTH

GLOBE- TROT THIS MONTH

APPOINTMENTS/RESIGNATIONS THIS MONTH

appointment of a regular incumbent. Currently, he is the Secretary of Union Ministry of

AWARDS/HONOURS/WORLD TITLES/NEW DISCOVERIES THIS MONTH

SPORT THIS MONTH

11 July: A brilliant half-century by Thirush Kamini lifted India to a nine-wicket win

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS THIS MONTH

Benefits of Atal Pension Yojana:

*Data from Atal Pension Yojna brochure

Who will be the beneficiary of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)?

People belonging to Scheduled Casts (SC)

People belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST)

Economically weaker section (EWS)

ABBREVIATIONS THIS MONTH

Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation

IMPORTANT DAYS THIS MONTH

Women's Single title

Mens Singles title

Mixed Doubles title

Womens Doubles title

Mens Double title

Boys Doubles title

PM of India meets President of Russia

Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen

(ii) Governance & Services on Demand and

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