Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 24 July 2015

:: National ::

Pachauri remove from TERI chief

RK Pachauri, accused of sexual harassment by a woman employee, was on Thursday sacked as the chief of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
R K Pachauri, facing sexual harassment charges, was today asked to step down from the position of director general of the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), bringing an end to his uninterrupted reign at the Delhi-based organisation he has been associated with for over three decades.
TERI’s governing council, comprising prominent corporate names like Deepak Parekh, Naina Lal Kidwai, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Hemendra Kothari, met in Bangalore today and decided to replace Pachauri with Ajay Mathur, who is currently director general of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) that functions under the power ministry.
A press release issued on behalf of TERI sought to give the impression that the decision had nothing to do with the sexual harassment case.
It said the search for a successor began in September last year, almost six months before Pachauri was accused of sexual harassment by a junior colleague.
The governing council is certain that the 1,200 persons working for TERI in different parts of the world would welcome this development and extend all their support towards a smooth transition,” said the press release.
Pachauri went on leave from TERI after the sexual harassment charge became public in February. Last week, a Delhi court that had restrained him from attending office allowed him to visit TERI premises other than the headquarters and the office in Gurgaon where the alleged victim is currently posted..
Today’s decision comes five months after the alleged victim filed a police complaint against Pachauri. Following that, Pachauri had to resign from the chairmanship of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global body of scientists, months before his second six-year tenure was to come to an end.
Pachauri also had to resign from the membership of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. But he continued to hang on to his position as director-general of TERI and only proceeded on leave when the allegations became public.

:: International ::

China begins assembling world’s largest radio telescope

China today started assembling the world's largest radio telescope, whose dish has the size of 30 football grounds, in the mountains of southwest Guizhou Province to enhance its ability to observe outer space.
China today started assembling the world’s largest radio telescope, whose dish has the size of 30 football grounds, in the mountains of southwest Guizhou Province to enhance its ability to observe outer space.
The Chinese technicians began to assemble the telescope’s reflector, which is 500 meters in diameter and made up of 4,450 panels. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 meters.
Once completed, the single-aperture spherical telescope called ‘FAST’ will be the world’s largest, overtaking Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter, state-run Xinhua news agency reported..
Wu Xiangping, director-general of Chinese Astronomical Society, said that for years Chinese scientists have worked on “second hand” data collected by others and failed to achieve breakthrough.
With a perimeter of about 1.6 km, it will take about 40 minutes to walk around the telescope. The giant dish is built upon a naturally-formed bowl-like valley in the southern part of Guizhou.
The Karst formation in the local landscape is good for draining rainwater underground and protecting the reflector, Sun said.
The construction of the telescope began in March 2011 and is set to finish next year.

:: Miscellaneous ::

India’s youngest Chartered Accountant

19-year-old Nischal Narayanam has become the youngest person in India to clear the Chartered Accountancy exam, The Hindu reports. The Common Proficiency Test is considered one of the toughest exams in the country.
Despite clearing the exam, Narayanam cannot enrol in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India this year as they don't allow members below the age of 21 years.
Narayanam is also the youngest graduate in Osmania University, from where he received his B. Com and M.Com degrees.
He has to credit other titles as well including the youngest 'Double Guinness World Record holder' in the category of memory and the youngest World Memory Champion. He is recognised by the National Geographic Channel one of the '7 brilliant brains of the world'.
If that's not enough, he has been invited as a special invitee and speaker at the Global Conference in Shanghai by Deloitte International, the audit firm where he did his articleship for CA.

:: Business ::

IDFC gets banking licence from RBI, to launch services by year-end

The Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC Ltd) on Friday declared on it's website that theReserve Bank of India (RBI) had granted banking licence to the financial company making it the second lender after Bandhan Bank to enter the banking sector after more than a decade.
IDFC and Bandhan Financial Services Pvt Ltd emerged successful out of 25 contenders for new bank licences issued by the RBI in April last year. Bandhan Financial got RBI's approval last month.
IDFC's executive chairman, Rajiv Lall after receiving the final nof for the banking licence had said that the company plans to start operation from October 1 with an initial loan book of around Rs 55,000 crore with an estimated 20 branches. Of these 15 are expected to be in tier-VI cities with rest of the branches in New Delhi and Mumbai.
YES Bank was the last bank to be set up in 2004. Bandhan said in June it would launch banking operations in August.
Millions of people in India do not have access to formal banking services. The move to grant new permits marked the start of a cautious experiment to create more competition in a sector dominated by state lenders many of which are reluctant to expand into rural areas or towns where banking penetration is low.

:: Sports ::

Shubham Jaglan wins second junior world golf title in two weeks

Ten-year-old Shubham Jaglan added another feather to his cap when he created history by winning the IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf event in Las Vegas on Thursday.
The son of a milkman from rural Haryana shot a three round score of 106 winning by a five-stroke margin, ahead of two Americans Justin Dang and Sihan Sandhu and Thailand's Pongsapak Laopakdee for the Boys 9-10 years category title at the Angel Park.
Last Sunday, Jaglan had clinched a one-stroke win at the Junior World Golf Championships at the Welk Resort Fountain Course in California.