Current Affairs Assam – July 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of July 2018 )
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August 12
Seven of 10 most valued cos add Rs 47,499 cr market capitalisation
Seven of the 10 most valued companies together added Rs 47,498.74 crore in market capitalisation, with RIL topping the chart. The gainers list comprised Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), RIL, HDFC Bank, ITC, HDFC, Infosys and SBI, while Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), Maruti Suzuki India and Kotak Mahindra Bank suffered losses in their m-cap.
The market capitalisation (m-cap) of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) jumped Rs 17,270.09 crore to Rs 7,63,053.04 crore. The m-cap of HDFC Bank zoomed Rs 12,597.94 crore to Rs 5,73,232.26 crore and that of TCS surged Rs 6,317.15 crore to Rs 7,63,360.46 crore.
State Bank of India (SBI) added Rs 5,220.89 crore to its m-cap to reach Rs 2,71,709.07 crore while Infosys saw a gain of Rs 4,608.51 crore to Rs 3,02,545.31 crore.
The market cap of ITC went up by Rs 1,306.69 crore to Rs 3,72,459.79 crore and that of HDFC rose by Rs 177.47 crore to Rs 3,33,892.33 crore. On the other hand, Kotak Mahindra Bank’s valuation slumped Rs 4,270.16 crore to Rs 2,45,305.58 crore and that of Maruti’s m-cap dipped Rs 1,117.69 crore to Rs 2,76,444.04 crore.
In the ranking of top-10 firms, TCS was at number one spot, followed by RIL, HDFC Bank, HUL, ITC, HDFC, Infosys, Maruti, SBI and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Market capitalization refers to when the total dollar market value of all of a company’s outstanding shares. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company’s shares outstanding by the current market price of one share.
As outstanding stock is bought and sold in public markets, capitalization could be used as a proxy for the public opinion of a company’s net worth and is a determining factor in some forms of stock valuation.
Digital North East Vision 2022 document launched
Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the presence of the chief ministers of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, released the document ‘Digital North East Vision 2022’ that profiles the assets, opportunities and challenges each of the northeastern states faces in the sector with an aim to bridge the digital as well as geographical divide in the region.
Alongside the event, the Union Minister and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation stone for Common Facilitation Centre and Smart Meter Manufacturing facility in the Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Tech City, Bongara near Palasbari for promotion of electronics manufacturing in the region.
e-Pragati will be available in all the northeastern states through ‘Digital India’. There will be e-classroom facilities in the medical colleges of Shillong, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Agartala and Imphal.
50,000 state government employees of the Northeast will be trained in digital technology with capacity building in GST.
The number of seats allotted to the Northeast under the BPO promotion schemes has been increased from 5,000 to 10,000. The scheme, which aims to promote BPO operations in smaller towns, provides special incentives of up to Rs 1 lakh per seat in the form of viability gap funding (VGF). Disbursement of financial support under these schemes is directly linked with employment generation.
Northeast will get the required bandwidth. A regional data centre will also come up in Guwahati.
A cloud hub for the Northeast will be created in Guwahati.
A network of Common Service Centres (CSCs) will be expanded to cover all villages.
High speed broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats or equivalent bodies and mobile connectivity in all uncovered villages in the northeastern region will be provided.
Several other projects were launched were
- The foundation stone was laid for four NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology) permanent centres in Guwahati, Shillong, Lunglei and Gangtok.
- The NIC (National Informatics Centre) launched the ‘Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service’ (SwaaS) websites for Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
- To take participative governance to last mile citizen, State MyGov portals were launched for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
- The STPI (Software Technology Park of India) incubation facility was inaugurated in Agartala, Aizawl and Shillong.
- A BPO centre under the North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS) was inaugurated in Majuli.
- The Manipur State Data Centre (SDC) was migrated to the Cloud Platform.
- Virtual classroom facility in Tripura was enabled through the ERNET (National Research and Education Network) India.
- ‘Digital Locker’ was being integrated with the Board of Secondary Education, Assam and the Nagaland e-District.
- A comprehensive GIS-based decision support system for the northeastern states and the North Eastern District Resource Plan Geo-Portal (NEDRP) were also launched.
Foundation stone of SWIFT Centre laid in ASSAM
Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad 11th Aug laid the foundation stone of the Startup World of Innovation in Future Technology (SWIFT Centre), also known as the Electronic Manufacturing Cluster, at Tech City at Bongara, Palasbari in Kamrup district.
The SWIFT Centre will have state-of-the-art facilities for manufacturing electronic products along with other manufacturing and support services such as BPO, skill development centre, data centre, testing lab, tool room, etc. Several companies, including JnJ Powercom Systems Ltd, have come forward to manufacture electronic products at the centre
The Central government would give Rs 50 crore for the project, while the remaining amount would be borne by the Assam government. Over Rs 2,500 crore would be invested in the SWIFT Centre and this is the beginning of the investment after the Global Investment Summit
The SWIFT Centre at Tech City is being set in 103 acres of land having a project cost of Rs 119.89 crore.
August 13
India ready to launch two space missions every month
India is ready to launch two space missions every month, with 31 launches slated to take place over the coming 16 months. The space agency has a tight schedule ahead, as we are targeting nine launches over the next five months and 22 missions from February to December in 2019, aiming at two per month.
ISRO is looking at 31 space missions in a span of 16 months starting September 2018 to December next year. The next mission by ISRO will launch two commercial satellites from Britain in September onboard Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-42 rocket.
The key missions are the launches of GSAT-29 onboard Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk 3 D2 in October to facilitate internet to rural India, GSAT-11 on November 30 onboard Arianespace space agency`s rocket from French Guiana on the north Atlantic coast of South America.
The space agency will be attempting its second lunar mission, “Chandrayaan-2”, on January 3, after its first mission a decade ago in 2008. Also scheduled the launch of GSAT-20 in August next year, which along with the three other satellites, will help in expanding 100 Gbps (Giga bytes per second) of internet connectivity to rural India.
ISRO will also be conducting a test flight in May-June next year of its new rocket, Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). With a cost one-tenth of that of a PSLV, and with a length of 34m, SSLV will be used to launch smaller satellites that weigh between 500-700kg.
The city-based space agency also plans to have a student satellite programme next year, inviting students to build their own satellites to be launched by ISRO.
FACTFILE – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
- ISRO is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bangalore.
- Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration.
- Formed in 1969, ISRO superseded the erstwhile Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) established in 1962 by the efforts of independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his close aide and scientist Vikram Sarabhai.
- The establishment of ISRO thus institutionalized space activities in India. It is managed by the Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister of India.
President approves Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018 providing death penalty for rape of girls below 12
President Ram Nath Kovind on 11th Aug gave his assent to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018, that provides either death penalty or life imprisonment to people convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years. This Act may be called the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018. It shall be deemed to have come into force on April 2018.
The amendment will replace an ordinance promulgated by the government in April after outcry over the murder and alleged rape of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district.
The amended law has also increased the minimum punishment for rape of women from seven years to 10 years. The legislation increases the minimum punishment for the rape of a girl under 16 years from 10 years to 20 years. The punishment can be extended to a life term.
The gang rape of a girl younger than 16 will carry the punishment of life imprisonment. People convicted of raping girls below 12 will face a minimum punishment of 20 years in prison.
Prior to the amendment, the maximum punishment for sexual assault of minors was life imprisonment and the minimum sentence was seven years in prison.
NASA launches the first ever mission to ‘touch’ the Sun
NASA launches the first ever mission to ‘touch’ the Sun. The probe is designed to come within 6.16mn kms of the Sun, the closest a spacecraft has ever gotten to the star. The $1.5bn mission has been in the works for five decades. In seven years, it aims to orbit the Sun 24 times, pushing closer each time.
The Parker will be facing temperatures of up to 1,400 degrees Celsius. To survive, it will be protected by a 4.5-inch thick carbon-composite heat shield. Even when the temperature would be million degrees Fahrenheit outside, the inside will remain at 85 degrees.
The spacecraft, which will move at 430,000 mph, has a white light imager to click pictures of the Sun’s atmosphere.
Parker will explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere and collect data which will also help in forecasting major solar eruptions and subsequent space weather events which might have disruptive potential for technology on Earth.
FACTFILE – National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the United States responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.
- The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
- The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958. Since that time, most U.S. space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle.
- Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Space Launch System and Commercial Crew vehicles.
- The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program(LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.
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