Current Affairs Daily Updates: 7 & 8 July 2015

1) Chinese ex-FM to be AIIB chief:

--> China on 6 July 2015 named a former Finance Minister as its choice to head the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is being seen as a rival to the U.S. and Europe-dominated banking institutions.

--> Former Finance Minister Jin Liqun has been formally nominated by China as its preferred candidate to head the $100 billion AIIB.

--> Mr. Jin (65) is currently the secretary-general of the interim multilateral secretariat for establishing AIIB. 

2) Lord Kamlesh Patel becomes first British-Asian appointee to ECB:

--> Professor Lord Kamlesh Patel has become the first British Asian to be appointed as Director of England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

--> He succeeds Lord Morris of Handsworth, who had stepped down after 11 years as an ECB Director.

3) eMudhra launched eSign services:

--> eMudhra Limited, a leading certifying firm in the country for digital signatures launched eSign services.

--> eSign is an online electronic signature service which can facilitate an Aadhaar holder to digitally sign a document within seconds.

--> The signatures generated by eSign are legally valid and secure under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the company said.

4) Union Government appointed Sriram Kalyanaraman as MD and CEO of NHB:

--> Union government has appointed Sriram Kalyanaraman as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Housing Bank (NHB) for a period of five years.

--> With this he became the first person from private sector to be appointed as head of a public sector financial institution.

5) Home ministry declared whole of Nagaland as 'disturbed area':

--> The Union home ministry has declared whole of Nagaland as a "disturbed area" for a further period of one year from June 30, 2015.

--> The state was declared as “disturbed” area under Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.

--> With this declaration the armed forces get powers to search, raid and arrest anyone without a warrant.

6) Fergusson College wins heritage status:

--> Pune’s Fergusson College, founded in 1885, has been accorded the special heritage status by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

--> With the status, UGC will provide financial assistance for its upkeep.

--> Now the college is among the 19 institutions in the country to get the heritage status.

7) Floyd Mayweather stripped of title he won in Manny Pacquiao fight:

--> World Boxing Organization (WBO) has stripped of the Welterweight World title 2015 won by Floyd Mayweather in May 2015.

--> Decision in this regard was taken by WBO after Mayweather failed to pay the 200,000 dollar sanctioning fee to WBO prior to the deadline of 3 July 2015.

--> As per WBO rules, boxers are required to pay 3 per cent of their purse to fight for a world title which at maximum accounts for 200,000 dollars.

8) India and Kazakhstan ink deals on uranium supply, defence:

--> India signed a historic uranium deal with Kazakhstan on 6 July 2015 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit of Kazakhstan.

--> Under the deal, India will receive 5,000 metric tonnes much uranium from Kazakhstan.

--> Kazakhstan is Central Asia’s largest economy and the world’s largest producer of uranium.

9) Trujet becomes the latest to enter domestic skies:

--> Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) granted a regional air operator’s permit (AOP) to Turbo Megha to operate a regional airline Trujet.

--> TruJet will start scheduled regional services a little later.