CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/16/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/16/2015

• Housing.com's Rahul Yadav Challenges Zomato and Olacabs CEO to give half of their shares to employees
  • Rahul Yadav, co-founder & CEO of Housing.com is back in news few days back he announced transferring his entire share holding worth Rs 150-200 crore to the company's employees now he has now challenged Ola and Zomato CEOs to return half of their stakes.
  • Hours after he allotted his personal equity worth Rs. 150 crore to Rs. 200 crore to Housing.com employees, Mr Yadav tagged two fellow IITians in a Facebook post, challenging them to follow his "noble" act.
  • Mr Yadav wrote on his Facebook wall"Now I challenge Deepinder Goyal of Zomato and Bhavish Aggarwal of Olacabs to continue this noble act and give away half (not full) of theur shares to their employees. And I hope both of them spread the nominations further,"
  • Mr.Deepinder Goyal, a 2005 graduate from IIT Delhi and Mr  Bhavish  Aggarwal, an alumnus of IIT Bombay from 2008 batch run very successful start-ups
  • Mr Yadav dropped out of IIT Bombay in his final year of engineering to start housing.com, a real estate website 
• India extends e-visa facility to Chinese nationals
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced that India will grant e-visas to Chinese tourists.The Prime Minister's Office overruled the opposition of security and intelligence agencies in its decision to grant e-visas for Chinese nationals.India and China also signed 24 deals worth over $10 billion, including MOUs in the area of skill development, railways,establishing sister relations between cities of the two countries among others.Security concerns have held up the move for several years.
  what is e-visa?
  • electronic or e-visas enabled by electronic travel authorisation, allows visitor to apply for an Indian visa from his or her home country online without requiring a visit to the Indian authorities.
  • The fee can also be paid online
  • Once e-visa gets approved, the applicant receives an email authorising travel to India and applicant can travel with a printout of this authorisation.
  • when visitor arrives the country he presents the authorisation to the immigration authorities who stamp the entry into the country.
  Economical Importance of extending e-visa 
  • It believes that extension of e-visa to China can boost India's tourism industry as 2015 and 2016 have been designated ‘Visit India’ and ‘Visit China’ years respectively, this year India can attract a large proportion of 100 million Chinese tourists who visited abroad last year and spent billions of dollars.
  • It is also a confidence building measure between the two countries 
• Doordarshan and China Central Television(CCTV) sign deal for exchange of art,culture programmes
  • Doordarshan and China Central Television – CCTV have signed an agreement for exchange of television programmes related to art, culture and development.
  • Prasar Bharathi CEO Jawhar Sircar, who signed the agreement on behalf of India in Beijing,said that the agreement enanbles both Doordarshn and CCTV to share programmes on their networks free of cost.
  • Jawhar Sircar said Doordarshan will provide programmes pertaining to art, culture and tourism and China in turn will exchange human interest and development programmes and success stories
  • The exchange of programmes will begin by the end of this year, Sircar said both networks will also take up co-production works.
• Gadkari launches integrated data collection system
  Gadkari Launched the integrated data collection system, the system will compile information on road assets, condition of the pavements and traffic through use of laser technology 
  • The outcomes and data of integrated data collection system will assist in developing an accurate and scientific maintenance planning mechanism and finalse road safety measures and development of the National Highways network in India
  • The data collected will be stored and managed through a web based application, which will be hosted in the public domain. 
  • The application, when fully developed, can also be accessed by smart phones.
  • Information collected from this project will be useful for Transport Ministry, Finance Ministry, NHAI, State PWDs, Police departments, funding agencies, developers and citizens
  • The development of Road Asset Management System (RAMS) for the entire National Highways along with collection of requisite data over 3,000 km of the pilot road network is underway as part of the Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative. 
  • The data collection over the pilot network of 3,000 km has commenced from Nagpur on 5 May 2015 on trial basis. 
  • It is expected that 150 km will be covered in one direction per day. Complete baseline data for 3,000 km will be available by September 2015.
• World’s first warm-blooded fish named "Opah" identified
  We have always been taugh that reptiles, amphibians and fish are cold-blooded while Birds and mammals are warm-blooded but it will be surprising to know that Scientists have discovered the first fully warm-blooded fish "Opah" 
  • The opah is the first fish species found to be fully warm-blooded, circulating heated blood throughout its body much like mammals and birds
  • The fish, found in the waters off the US, Australia and several other countries, generates heat by constantly flapping its fins and has developed an internal “heat exchange” system within its gills to conserve the warmth
  • The secret lies in a specially designed set of blood vessels in the fish’s gills, which allows the fish to circulate warm blood throughout its entire body.
  • The system is similar to that used by mammals and birds, which are known as endotherms for their ability to maintain body temperature independent of the environment
• Gagan Narang wins bronze in 50 m rifle event of ISSF World Cup bagged third Rio Olympic quota in shooting
  London Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang won a bronze medal in Men’s 50m Rifle Prone event at the season’s second ISSF World Cup, in Fort Benning, USA.The medal also helped India bag a third Rio Olympic quota in shooting.
  • Gagan Narang With a total of 626.3 Narang was the 8th and last shooter to qualify for the final stage. America’s Michael McPhail was the top scorer in the qualification round with a total of 631.9 points followed by Matthew Emons and Bojan Durkovic
  • Narang is third Indian shooter to make the Rio cut after Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela.
  • Chandela had secured the quota place by winning the bronze in the 10m Rifle at World Cup in Korea last month.
  • By winning silver in the 50m Free Pistol event,Pistol ace Jitu Rai had won India's first Olympic quota place at the World Championships in Granada, Spain last year
  Point to note
  Each country can win a maximum of 30 quota places from a total of 15 shooting disciplines (including shotgun events),two each from each discipline. 
• "Kung Fu Yoga" with Aamir Khan and Jackie Chan as it's stars
  Coinciding with the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi Chinese film regulators have announced three China-India co-production films
  1. Kung Fu Yoga -This film will be a perfect combination of  Chinese martial arts and Indian culture with  Aamir Khan and Jackie Chan as it stars
  2. A film on Xuan Zang with Wong Kar Wai as it's executive producer.Xuan Zang was a noted Buddhist monk during the Tang dynasty (618-907), who made an arduous journey to India to study Buddhism
  3. Da Nao Tian Zhu (Causing havoc in India) - First film directed by Chinese film star Wang Baoqiang.