Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 17 August 2015

:: International ::

Hamid Gul, who led Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency as it funneled U.S. and Saudi cash and weapons to Afghan jihadis fighting against the Soviets and later publicly supported Islamic militants, died late Saturday of a brain hemorrhage. He was 78.
Gul’s tenure at the ISI and his outspoken backing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and other extremists highlighted the murky loyalties at play years later when the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath tested the U.S.-Pakistani alliance.
Gul came to be seen as an increasingly out-of-touch braggart later in life, as he appeared on countless Pakistani television programs warning of conspiracies and demanding his country militarily confront India.

Within two quarters of losing its 23-year-old reign as the country’s most profitable company to TCS in the December quarter, Reliance Industries was again humbled in the June quarter, this time by IndianOil.
The state-run firm booked Rs.118 crore more profit than the Mukesh Ambani-run firm net income of Rs.6,318 crore.
Better refining margins arising from lower oil prices and almost full payback of subsidies by the government helped the nation’s biggest oil company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to report a massive more than twofold jump in the June quarter net profit at Rs.6,436 crore.
IOC’s refining margins soared to a seven-year high during the reporting quarter. For Reliance, losing the numero uno slot comes within two quarter as in the December 2014 earnings season as well it had lost out to TCS as it booked more profit than RIL with a net income of Rs.5,328 crore.
The loss in the December 2014 quarter was the end of RIL’s 23-year run as the most profitable firm with a net profit in the country, overtaking the long-standing champion Reliance which saw its profit dip to Rs.5,256 crore as falling crude prices hurt its core business.

For a country which produces world-class athletes miserly, something revolutionary is happening in the world of badminton with world No.2 Saina Nehwal leading the Indian charge.
There is a steep jump in the number of Indians competing at the highest level of the sport in the last few years, with currently three men and two women in the top 15 of the respective world rankings.
India had players like Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand, current national chief coach, in the past but they were exceptions at best.
Padukone won India's first World Championships medal, a bronze, way back in 1983 after winning the prestigious All England Championships in 1980, whereas Gopichand won the All England title in 2001.
Padukone even rose to the pinnacle of the sport when he was ranked No. 1 in the world badminton rankings in 1980.

Golfer Anirban Lahiri scaled a new high for India by becoming the first from the country to finish inside the top-five of a Major, signing off a brilliant tied fifth in the prestigious PGA Championships.
Lahiri played a superb final round of 68, after first three rounds of 70-67-70, for a total of 13-under 275. In fact, at one stage, he rose to as high as tied third during the day.
The 28-year-old, who hit the global golf headlines with stunning wins in the Malaysian Open and Hero Indian Open in a span of three weeks, will return to top-50 in the new rankings and is also a