NOV 2nd 2015

>> Air Marshal Virender Mohan Khanna took over as the Air Officer-in-charge Maintenance (AOM) at Air Headquarters, New Delhi.

On 25th July 1977, Khanna was appointed in the mechanical stream of Aeronautical Engineering branch in the Indian Air Force (IAF). Khanna is also an alumnus of the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.

He was awarded with the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal.

>> Pre-historian Professor and renowned archaeologist Virendra Nath Misra passed away at the age of 80.

Misra is famous for his research in Ethnoarchaeology, Prehistory and Protohistory. Excavations of the 6000-year-old site of Balathal in Rajasthan and the world heritage site of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh was his most remarkable achievement.

In 2000, he had also served as the Director of Deccan College. Madhya Pradesh Government awarded him for his contribution to pre-history with the prestigious VS Wakankar Award.

>> Anil Kumar Jha was appointed as the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL).

Prior to this appointment, he was serving as the Director (Production & Planning) in MOIL Limited.

>> Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) composed a drafting committee to frame the New Education Policy (NEP) and it will be led by former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian.

The purpose of the committee is verify the output of wide-ranging consultation process, among others, initiated by the ministry on 26th January 2015 and draft a revision to the NEP 1986 and also submit Framework for Action.

The other members of the committee are :

·         Sudhir Mankad, former Chief Secretary of Gujarat

·         JS Rajput, former Director, NCERT

·         Shailaja Chandra, former Chief Secretary, NCT of Delhi

·         Sewaram Sharma, former Home Secretary, NCT of Delhi

>> Rugby World Cup was won by New Zealand for the third time by defeating Australia.

Since 2011, under the leadership of Coach Steve Hansen, New Zealand has won 49 of the 54 games.

·         The Webb Ellis Cup is awarded to the winner of the Rugby World Cup.

·         It is named after William Webb Ellis, the inventor of rugby.

>> Mexican Gand Prix Formula 1 championship was won by Mercedes racing driver Nico Rosberg of Germany.

Lewis Hamilton of Britain was defeated by Nico Rosberg in the final race held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

>> Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications (RCom) took over Russian conglomerate Sistema Shyam Teleservices’ (SSTL) venture that is functional in the name MTS.

Around 1500 crore rupees in revenues and 9 million customers will be brought to RComby this merging activity. Besides this, it will also help RCom extend the validity of spectrum in 800/850 MHz band spectrum, ideally suited for 4G LTE services, in eight circles, including Delhi and Kolkata

>> Roger Federer has won the Swiss Indoors men’s singles tennis title 2015 by defeating Rafael Nadal of Spain.

About Swiss Indoors

·         It is a tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts for men.

·         It is initially an event of the Grand Prix tennis circuit between 1970 and 1989.

>> Hero Group founder Brijmohan Lall Munjal passed away at the age of 92.

Achievements of Brijmohan Lall Munjal

·         In 1956, he officially started the Hero Group along with this four brothers.

·         He led the Hero MotoCorp to the world’s largest two-wheeler company now for the 14th year in a row.

·         Since 1986, he led Hero Cycles, part of Hero Group, to become the largest manufacturer of bicycles.

>> In what a major step towards tackling the menace of wheat and paddy straw burning in Punjab, the State government on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up a bio-ethanol refinery.

The MoU was inked with a consortium of Beta Renewables, Novozymes and CVC India Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. for an estimated project worth Rs. 950 crore, during the Progressive Punjab Investor Summit, 2015.

Straw burning a menace

Punjab’s Renewable Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the bio-refinery could solve the chronic problem of straw burning, besides helping the farmers who would be paid for the agro-based produce. It would also help in containing the loss of fertility and damage to environment, the Minister and industry players at the summit said.

Solar plants

During the summit, 12 other MoUs worth Rs. 21,305 crore were also signed. These include 300 MW solar plant and 150 MW solar plant with Neuron Power Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Biomass Power Plant by Sukhbir Agro Energy Ltd., 100 MW waste-to-energy projects by AG Dauters Consulting Pvt. Ltd., 100 MW power generation unit by Navrattan Group, Co-Generation power plant by Indian Sucrose Ltd. and 50 MW solar power plant by Imperial Solution Pvt. Ltd.

>> BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile was successfully test-fired by India from INS Kochi to verify the capabilities of BrahMos and INS Kochi, the country’s newest stealth-destroyer.

·         BrahMos is the world's fastest cruise missile with a strike-range of over 290 kms.

·         As the prime strike weapon, BrahMos will engage naval surface targets at long ranges, thus making the destroyer warship another lethal platform of Indian Navy.

·         BrahMos missile having supersonic speed of Mach 2.8, a very low-cruising altitude of 10 metres at terminal phase and pin-point accuracy is one of the deadliest in the Indian Navy fleet.

·         The two-stage BrahMos missile has been jointly developed by India and Russia. It has been in service with the Indian Navy since 2005.

·         This launch was the 49th test-firing of the BrahMos missile.

>> India and Indonesia have signed two agreements on new and renewable sources of energy and cultural exchange.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Vice President M. Hamid Ansari and his Indonesian counterpart Jusuf Kala after their talks in Jakarta.

The MoU on New and Renewable Energy sector was signed between Indonesian Water Resources and Mineral Minister and Indian ambassador to Indonesia Gurjit Singh.

"The cooperation is important as both India and Indonesia have committed themselves to reduce carbon emissions by 35 percent and 29 percent respectively by 2030," .

cooperation in new and renewable energy, and renewal of the cultural exchange programme 2015-18.

The Vice-President thanked Indonesia for its support in organising Sahabat India: The Festival of India in Indonesia’ early this year. He also congratulated the country for having assumed the chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association last week.

Mr. Ansari maintained that the two nations shared similar positions on several issues — including climate change, maritime security and freedom of the seas in the South China sea.