Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 03 September 2015

:: National ::

India has added 52 million Internet users in first six months of the year, taking the total user base to 352 million as on June 30, 2015, industry body IAMAI today said.
Interestingly, 213 million (over 60%) users accessed the worldwide web through mobile devices.
The number of Internet users has grown over 26% from 278 million in October 2014. The number of mobile Internet users has also grown about 40% from 159 million users in October last year.
“The Internet in India took more than a decade to move from 10 million to 100 million and 3 years from 100 to 200 million. However, it took only a year to move from 200 to 300 million users. Clearly, Internet is mainstream in India today,” it said.

The 69 small and marginal fields holding 89 million tonne of oil and gas resources, worth Rs 70,000 crore at current rates, will be given to explorers offering the maximum revenue from hydrocarbon produced to the government.
Bidders will be asked to quote the revenue they will share with the government at low and high end of price and production band to capture windfall of steep rise in prices as well as quantum jump in production.
The government will allow companies to sell oil as well as natural gas produced from these fields at market price and with no restriction on who they sell the produce to.
While oil is priced at global benchmark currently, a complex international hub based formula determines gas price, which is roughly half of the rate at which India imports gas.
This model was criticised by CAG which said it encouraged companies to keep raising cost so as to postpone higher share of profits to the government.

With more travellers and higher consumer spending in key areas, overall hotel prices went up in the first six months of 2015 and the commercial capital of the country recorded the highest rise of 5 per cent with an average room of Rs 8,091 per night, a report said.
It said, Mumbai, known for its buzzing night life recorded the highest rise of 5 per cent with an average of Rs 8,091 making it the city in India where travellers paid the most in the first half of 2015.
In the first half of 2014, the travellers paid an average Rs 7,694 per night, according to Hotels.com data.
More travellers, higher consumer spending in key areas and strong currency fluctuations have all contributed to this result, it said.
The HPI is a regular report on hotel prices in major destinations across the world, tracking the movement in prices that people actually paid for their accommodation and providing valuable insight into the reasons behind these changes.
The data is drawn from bookings made on the hundreds of thousands of hotels on the Hotels.com websites worldwide.

Pacer Ishant Sharma broke into the bowlers' top-20, while Cheteshwar Pujara entered the top-20 of batsmen's list as Indian cricketers gained significantly in the latest ICC Test rankings following their first series triumph in Sri Lanka in 22 years.
"Cheteshwar Pujara has broken into the top 20 of the ICC Player Rankings for Test Batsmen for the first time in his career following the conclusion of the Colombo Test, which India won by 117 runs to clinch the series 2-1," the ICC said in a statement.a
The 27-year-old batsman carried his bat in the first innings and returned unbeaten on 145 not out, his seventh career century, which was the cornerstone of India's first innings score of 312.
For this performance, Pujara has been rewarded with a jump of four places, which puts him in 20th position.
Pujara is now the second India batsman to feature in the top 20, but following Virat Kohli's drop to 11th (down by one place), the fifth-ranked side has no batsman inside the top 10.
Rohit Sharma has moved up two places to 48th, Ravichandran Ashwin has gained five places and is now in 50th spot, while Amit Mishra, who scored 59 in the first innings and featured in a 104 runs eighth wicket partnership with Pujara, has vaulted 56 places to 91st.