Daily GK Update [9th July 2015]

1. eMudhra launches eSign Services

i. eMudhra Limited, a leading certifying firm in the country for digital signatures launched first of its kind eSign services in the country as part of the Digital India Vision.

ii. 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

iii. As part of the Digital India Vision, Prime Minister launched eSign services in the country on July 1st.

iv. ESign can "revolutionise" the way business and governance is conducted in the country and pave the way for a digital transformation into a paperless environment, eMudhra said in a statement.

v. By using eMlocker along with eSign, one can store documents such as PAN cards, Aadhaar cards, electricity bills or any other documents electronically. 

2. Satish Pillai, new MD & CEO of CIBIL

i. Credit Information Bureau India Ltd (CIBIL), India’s leader in credit information, has appointed Satish Pillai as its new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer on Thursday.

ii. Pillai succeeds Arun Thukral who retires this year after a decade. Satish Pillai has been serving CIBIL in the capacity of Chief Operating Officer for more than four years where he was responsible for product development and bureau operations.

iii. Earlier, Pillai led TransUnion’s operations in India overlooking the creation of the solutions team that supported generic and custom analytics and decisioning technologies, including the launch of the CIBIL TransUnion Score- India’s first generic scoring model, CIBIL said in a statement.

iv. CIBIL, India’s largest credit information bureau, maintains credit information on more than 406 million consumer accounts and 22 million business accounts and has a membership base of over 1400 banks and credit institutions.

3. Lord Kamlesh Patel becomes first British-Asian appointee to ECB Director

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

ii. He succeeds Lord Morris of Handsworth, who had stepped down after 11 years as an ECB Director. Lord Patel was born to Indian parents in Nairobi, Kenya. He later had moved to United Kingdom. He hails from Bradford and is a leading voice on health, social care and community cohesion in UK.

iii. Presently, he is Labour Peer in the House of Lords and professor at the University of East London. He is also Chair of the Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust and is a former Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission.

iv. He had played cricket for number of local clubs and was allrounder. He had retired in 1998 from cricket after taking all 10 wickets in a league game. He formerly had worked for the Yorkshire Cricket Academy as a part-time coach.

4. Union Government appoints Sriram Kalyanaraman as MD and CEO of NHB

i. 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.

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

iii. Presently, Kalyanaraman is director-business development Equifax Credit Information Services.  Prior to joining Equifax, he was Director, Business Clients and Asset Products at Deutsche Bank India.

iv. NHB is apex regulator for housing finance sector and a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

5. Indian Railway’s launches Mobile ticketing app for suburban commuters in Mumbai

i. Indian Railways launched a mobile ticketing application for unreserved tickets for commuters in Western Railway. It was launched by Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. This mobile ticketing service will cover 35 stations between the 123 km long Churchgate -Dhauroad and facilitate a hassle free travel for lakhs of daily passengers in Mumbai.

ii. The app is based for both Android and Windows platforms and it can be downloaded from Google Play Store or Windows Store by the user.

iii. The app provides necessary on-screen alerts to guide the passenger during the booking process. Payment for booking the ticket can be done through railway wallet feature in the App. Passenger will get ticket confirmation screen after booking the ticket.

6. Sanjeev Nandan Sahai appointed as Delhi's new Home Secretary 

i. Senior IAS officer Sanjeev Nandan Sahai was today appointed as the new Home Secretary of Delhi, ending a bitter tussle between Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and the AAP government. 

ii. The order appointing Sahai, a 1986 batch Union Territory cadre officer, was issued by Union Home Ministry, official sources said. 

iii. Sahai's name was zeroed in as a compromise candidate for the high post after continuous tussle between the LG and the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. 

iv. Pal was removed by the AAP government after he signed a notification appointing Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police M K Meena as new chief of Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) following Jung's order. 

7. 

Essar Oil signs pact to sell 49% stake to Russia's Rosneft

 

i. Russian oil firm Rosneft will buy 49 per cent stake in Essar Oil, the firm that owns India's second biggest oil refinery, for an undisclosed amount, the Ruia-owned firm said on Thursday.

ii. The proposed transaction is conditional upon various factors such as due diligence, determination of the transaction price, execution of definitive transaction documents and receipt of requisite approvals

iii. Also, a Long Term Crude Oil Supply Agreement by the two firms in was signed in Ufa, Russia for import of 10 million tonnes a year of crude oil for a period of 10 years.

iv. This contract has been signed in pursuance to the Key Terms executed between the two companies in December 2014 at New Delhi.

8. Indian athletes win more than 150 medals at World Police & Fire Games

i. Indian athletes put up an impressive show at the 2015 World Police & Fire Games which concluded here on Sunday, winning more than 150 medals.

ii. Hosts United States won by far the most medals, 1,777, including nearly 700 golds. Canada finished second with nearly 430 medals.

iii. The Indian athletes’s tally included 89 golds and 50 silvers. They competed in only seven sporting categories: athletics, wrestling, boxing, judo, archery, swimming and shooting.

iv. Kaur, an assistant sub inspector with Punjab Police, earned 5 gold medals in the track and field events, winning every event she competed in. CRPF’s Mishra, who was taking part in her fifth Police & Fire Games, won an impressive 6 golds and 2 silvers in swimming events.