Current Affairs: 10 January 2017

World's Largest LED Street Light Replacement Project Launched

• Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal launched the "world's largest" LED street light replacement project completed by SDMC in south Delhi wherein two lakh conventional street lights have been replaced with energy efficient LEDs. 
• The initiative under the Street Lighting National Programme being implemented by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited of Ministry of Power, will save 6.10 crore units of electricity per year thus reducing the electricity bill by 54 per cent. 

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SBI Pension Funds appoints Kumar Sharadindu new MD & CEO 

• SBI Pension Funds, a subsidiary of State Bank of India, has appointed Kumar Sharadindu as its managing director and chief executive. SBI Pension Funds is one of the three pension fund managers appointed by the regulator PFRDA to manage the pension corpus of employees enrolled under the National Pension System for government employees. 
• Sharadindu was a general manager at SBI Corporate Centre, Mumbai, heading the private equity business.
•  He has held several crucial assignments in his banking career spanning over three decades in areas of credit, treasury, risk and large corporate lending.

IIT-Kharagpur alumnus garners prestigious 'Technical Oscar' 

• An IIT Kharagpur alumnus has won the prestigious Technical Achievement Award (the Scientific & Technical Awards prize), popularly called the `Technical Oscar', awarded by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.
• Parag Havaldar, who graduated from IIT-Kharagpur in 1991 with a degree in computer science and engineering, has been awarded for "the development of expression-based facial performance-capture technology at Sony Pictures Imageworks". 
• Havaldar's popular works include `Watchmen', 'Green Lantern', 'The Amazing Spider-Man', 'Beowulf ' and 'Hancock'.
•  He will be awarded a certificate from the Academy at Beverly Hills on Feb 11.

Anti-avoidance tax rule GAAR to kick in from April 2017 

• Tax anti-avoidance rule GAAR will kick in from April 1, 2017 
• In May last year, CBDT had started consultation with stakeholders asking them to give their views where they require clarity before GAAR is implemented. 
• General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) was part of the 2012-13 Budget speech of the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to check tax evasion and avoidance. 
• However, its implementation was repeatedly postponed because of the apprehensions expressed by foreign investors. 
• It contains provision allowing the government to prospectively tax overseas deals involving local assets. 
• There have been fears that the government may use it to target P-Notes. Through the use of GAAR, government may try to tax P-Notes as indirect investments, which could attract a tax rate of up to 15 per cent, experts say. 
• To avoid tax altogether under GAAR, an investor may have to prove that P-Notes were not set up specifically to avoid paying taxes. 

Air India ranked third-worst performing airline in the world

• Every year, the aviation insights company FlightStats puts together a list of the international airlines with the best on-time performance records. 
• Air India ranked third-worst performing airline in the world
• Icelandair – 41.05% El Al – 56% are on first and second position respectively.

Humanoid robot Ira to be deployed at HDFC Bank branch 

• Private lender HDFC Bank launched what it claimed to be the first ‘humanoid’ in the domestic banking space, and also said it is looking to partner with start-ups having technological solutions for rural operations. 
• The bank showcased human-sized robot Ira, developed in association with Kochi-based Asimov Robotics, 
• The robot will perform a limited role and act largely as a receptionist, though the humanoid can also move around in the branch. Chugh claimed this is the first ‘humanoid’ in the domestic banking space.  

 Assam govt comes up with e-Wallet 

• The Assam government will be shortly launching its indigenously-developed e-Wallet, Tokapoisa.in, to enable the people of the state for hassle-free online transactions in local language. 
• The mobile application Tokapoisa.in has been developed by the Assam Electronics Development Corp. Ltd. Besides being an e-Wallet, it will be a virtual payment terminal.

Big B awarded by US embassy for spreading awareness on TB 

• Actor Amitabh Bachchan was given an award on Sunday by the US Embassy for his contribution to the US-India partnership on tuberculosis. 
• Bachchan, who suffered from tuberculosis in 2000, is a brand ambassador for the initiative. 
• "I hope to continue to do my bit in this partnership to end tuberculosis in India," said Amitabh.

Netherlands' KLM rated best international airline of 2016 

• Netherlands' flag carrier KLM has been rated the best international airline of 2016 by aviation insights company FlightStats, which ranked carriers on their on-time performance records. 
• KLM, with an 11.47% chance of a flight delay, was followed by Spain's flag carrier Iberia (11.82%) and Japan's flag carrier JAL (12.2%). 
• Qatar Airways and Austrian Airlines completed the top five.

Flipkart replaces Binny Bansal with Kalyan  Krishnamurthy as CEO

• Flipkart has elevated former Tiger Global Management executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy as its new chief executive, replacing co-founder Binny Bansal, who has been named as the group chief executive of India’s largest online marketplace. 
• Co-founder Sachin Bansal continues to be executive chairman. 
• Under the new structure and in his new role as Flipkart CEO, Krishnamurthy will be responsible for the Flipkart profit and loss account, the company said. He will report to Binny Bansal.

9 La Liga players in FIFA FIFPro World XI 

• Five Real Madrid players and four Barcelona players were included in the 2016 FIFA FIFPro World XI, along with Juventus player Dani Alves and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel NEUER. 
• The five Real Madrid players are Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Cristiano Ronaldo. 
• On the other hand, Barcelona's four players were announced to be Gerard Pique, Andres Iniesta, Luis Suarez and Leo Messi.

Cristiano Ronaldo is crowned Fifa’s Best Player in the World 

• Cristiano Ronaldo has been named Fifa’s Best Player in the World – before aiming a cheeky dig at his great rival Lionel Messi. 
• The Real Madrid man beat off Barcelona’s Messi, who wasn’t at the event, and Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann to collect the award

Claudio Ranieri wins Best FIFA Men's Coach of the Year 

• Leicester City's Claudio Ranieri won the Best FIFA Men's Coach of the Year award after beating Portugal's Fernando Santos and Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane on the shortlist. 
• Ranieri beat strong competition from Zidane, who led his Real Madrid side to their 11th UEFA Champions League title in his first season as a manager and also won the 2016 UEFA Super Cup and 2016 FIFA Club World Cup. 
• Silvia Neid won the Best Women's Coach award after Germany won the Olympics gold medal. 
• It's the third time she has been honoured by FIFA after winning the World Women's Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2013.

USA's Carli Lloyd wins 2nd straight best female player award 

• USA women's football team captain Carli Lloyd was named as FIFA's Best Female footballer of the year for the second straight time, during The Best FIFA Football Awards in Zurich. 
• Lloyd, who plays for American football club Houston Dash, is a World Cup winner and a two-time Olympic gold medal winner.

Mumbai WiFi becomes India's largest public WiFi service 

• Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Monday activated 500 WiFi hotspots at various locations across the city of Mumbai, and announced that Mumbai WiFi is the largest public WiFi service in the country. 
• Claiming that it is one of the largest in the world too, Fadnavis said, "As committed, 1,200 WiFi hotspots will be activated by May 1, 2017."

 Shri Rajnath Singh lays the Foundation Stone of New NDRF Campus in Andhra Pradesh 

• The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh laid the foundation stone of the new NDRF campus at Konda Pavuluru, Gannavaram (Mandal), Krishna, Andhra Pradesh, 
• This campus will come up in 50 acres land provided by the Andhra Pradesh Government and the expenditure for construction will be borne by the Central government. The campus will be completed in two years.
•  10th Battalion of NDRF is responsible for looking after the areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka for disaster response. 

Vijayawada to host 1st Digi Dhan Mela in Andhra Pradesh 

• In Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada will be host to the first Digi Dhan Mela in the State this afternoon. Digi Dhan Melas are being organized across the country to promote cashless transactions. 
• Union Minister for Urban Development and Information Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu along with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu will launch the Mela at Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium, Vijayawada. 

The ninth edition of Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) begins 

• The ninth edition of Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) began here in the presence of renowned film makers including Hariharan. 
• The ceremony opened with tributes to veteran actor Om Puri who died of a massive heart attack 
• This years Life Time Achievement Award was presented to internationally acclaimed cine-visionary Ramesh Prasad hailed as creator of specialised post production facilities.

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