Current Affairs Feb 2016 - Miscellaneous

News 1 − IT leader of India, Infosys will build the tallest clock tower of the world at its 345-acre global education center in Mysore. The estimated cost of about Rs. 60 crores will be required and it may take 20 months to complete. This was released on February 02, 2016.
News 2 − RMZ Corp has bought Essar Group's Equinox Business Park on February 03, 2016 for a sum of Rs 2,400 crores net. The 1.25 million square foot office is located near Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla Complex. It is the largest real estate property transaction in this year.
News 3 − Yahoo has announced on February 02, 2016 that it will lay-off about 1,700 employees. The decision will lead to an expected to lay off of 15% of Yahoo's workforce. This move is for cost-cutting and to save an estimated $400 million annually.
News 4 − Indian biotechnology company, Bharat Biotech said on February 03, 2016 that it has developed a vaccine to fight the Zika virus. If accepted, it will be world's first Zika vaccines. The two ZikaVac vaccines include one vaccine that is in pre-clinical testing on animals, and a recombinant vaccine.
News 5 − Cisco Systems announced on February 03, 2016 that it will acquire Jasper Technologies Inc., an internet of things start-up dealing in connecting medical devices to the Internet, for $1.4 billion. It is Cisco's largest acquisition since 2013 after Sourcefire was bought for $2.7 billion.
News 6 − The ICICI academy and the RSETIs are going to train 45,000 candidates in the fiscal year 2017. This was announced on February 06, 2015 that the total number of trained youth from economically weaker sections will go over one lakh.
News 7 − Mahindra Asset Management Company (AMC) has got the final nod from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to start the Mahindra Mutual Fund business. Mahindra Finance is a NBFC with over rupees 40,000 crores in managed assets. It has about 40 lakh customers in over 2.6 lakh villages.
News 8 − It was announced on February 06, 2016 that YES Bank and the Indian Railways will set up 1,000 water purifiers on stations across the country by 2019. The objective is to provide safe and clean drinking water to passengers.
News 9 − In a maiden initiative, starting February 07, 2016, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is raising a squad of 162 dogs to aid its personnel in rescuing people trapped under debris in the aftermath of natural calamities like earthquake.
News 10 − External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj inaugurated the Rise of Digital India Exhibition in Colombo on February 06, 2016. It was inaugurated as a part of Sangam - The Festival of India in Sri Lanka 2015-16.
News 11 − Ratan Tata, chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has decided on February 08, 2016 to invest in the B2B platform Moglix. This is Tata’s sixth investment this year.
News 12 − US President Barack Obama has unveiled new cyber security national action plan on February 09, 2016 in order to reconstruct old government networks and install a high-level commission to improve security awareness. An investment of $19 billion for cyber-security efforts with a 35% increase has been made.
News 13 − The Indian government sanctioned Rs.580 crores for the vital rail link on February 10, 2016. The 15-km-long rail line to connect Agartala with Akhaura will be completed by 2017. This track has 10 kms in the Bangladesh side and the rest in India.
News 14 − United Arab Emirates Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan came on a 3-day India visit along with seven ministers on February 10, 2016. He signed a landmark civil nuclear cooperation pact.
News 15 − The world's biggest concentrated solar plant, Noor Complex, is set to come up in the Moroccan city of Quarzazate. The plant could generate electricity for over one million households by 2018. An estimated carbon emission reduction of 760,000 tonnes will occur per year as well.
News 16 − Recently, Coca-Cola India's bottling arm, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB) will cease manufacturing at 3 units in India. These include Kaladera near Jaipur (Rajasthan), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Brynihat (Meghalaya) plants having at least 300 employees will be shut down. This was announced on February 11, 2016.
News 17 − Wipro, headed by Azim Premji, on February 11, 2016 acquired US based HealthPlan Services for Rs. 3150 crores. Wipro will acquire 100% ownership of HealthPlan Services and the transaction will be completed in the next 60-90 days.
News 18 − The Union Ministry of Railways launched three Information Technology enabled apps on February 10, 2016 in accordance with Digital India initiative by Union Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu.
News 19 − Amazon has announced on February 11, 2016 that it will invest in Westland, a Trent Ltd Subsidiary (Tata Group). The investment will increase its international reach and scale its physical and digital book businesses.
News 20 − Scientists have observed a stunning discovery on February 11, 2016. They have observed the warping of space time generated by the collision of two black holes, more popularly called gravitational waves more than a billion light-years from Earth.
News 21 − Apple has confirmed on February 16, 2016 that its 1st technology center in India will come up at Hyderabad, at a cost of $25 million. It will be spread across 2,50,000 square feet. This center will help Apple develop maps for iPhones and Mac systems.
News 22 − On the starting day of the 'Make in India' week in Mumbai, three MoUs between Maharashtra government bodies and various companies have been signed for total investment worth Rs. 21,000 crores.
News 23 − Around 25 Indian and 100 Israeli firms were on the same platform for a unique business seminar on defence and security in Israel, which was organized jointly by SIBAT, the Israeli defence ministry, the International Defence Cooperation Directorate and FICCI. The seminar will be held on 21-25 February 2016.
News 24 − Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) has launched a mobile application on February 14, 2016 for cargo operations to reduce paper work and track movement of shipments on real time.
News 25 − E-commerce major Amazon announced the launch of 'Amazon Tatkal' on February 17, 2016. This service will help small and medium business (SMB) to go online and sell products on Amazon.
News 26 − HCL Technologies have acquired Volvo Group's external IT business on February 16, 2016. HCL closed the deal in $1 billion-plus. HCL claims it to be one of the largest IT deals signed by any Indian IT company.
News 27 − A Tata Group company, TAL Manufacturing Solutions, is expected to launch the first ever India-made robot before May 2016. Dubbed as ‘Tata Brabo’, it was showed in the Make in India week in Mumbai.
News 28 − Cipla Ltd announced on February 18, 2016 that it has acquired 2 US generic drug companies, InvaGen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Exelan Pharmaceuticals Inc. to increase its revenue and introduce new products for oncology and diabetes.
News 29 − Microsoft has announced on February 18, 2016 that they're going to begin rolling out an update to Skype for iOS and Android that will support group video calling. The video call can now be shared among 25 persons on Skype.
News 30 − Aditya Birla Nuvo, one of the eleven entities that have received in-principle approvals from the RBI to set up payments banks, said it has incorporated Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd, is a 51:49 joint venture (JV) between it and Idea Cellular, its telecom subsidiary in which it owns 23.26%.
News 31 − On February 05, 2016, a US investigative body decided to carry out anti-dumping investigations into certain category of tyres imported from India that may damage US' domestic industry. US industry may be materially injured by the imports of new pneumatic off-the-road tyres, United States International Trade Commission (USITC) decided.
News 32 − Scientists have discovered five new Jupiter-like planets on February 18, 2016 that are similar in characteristics to our solar system’s biggest planet. The newly discovered planets are WASP-119 b, WASP-124 b, WASP-126 b, WASP-129 b and WASP-133 b.
News 33 − Ricoh India has received an order worth Rs 344 crores from Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation to supply computer hardware to 2,000 government schools in Odisha.
News 34 − The Public Sector Oil Major, ONGC has approved an investment of Rs 5,050 crores in Tripura for drilling of wells and creation of surface facilities on February 20, 2016 to produce 5.1 mmscmd gas from the states fields.
News 35 − Ather Energy, a Bengaluru based hardware start up launched on February 23, 2015 India's first electric scooter S340. The scooters will be available in the market by the end of 2016.
News 36 − World’s first fast-acting anti-rabies drug, Rabies Human Monoclonal Antibody (RMAb) will be produced by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and US-based MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. It was announced on February 24, 2016.
News 37 − French Government authorities demanded Google to pay 1.6billion ($1.8bn; £1.3bn) of the unpaid taxes on February 25, 2016. The amount is a lot higher than the £130million tax the company agreed to pay UK authorities recently.
News 38 − The Afghanistan’s National Women’s Cycling Team was nominated by a group of Italian MPs for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on February 22, 2016. This Team is among the first Afghan girls to be riding bikes socially.
News 39 − Facebook has announced on February 22, 2016 that the Telecom Infra Project will look at developing new and alternative technologies to build and deploy telecom infrastructure, with partners including Aricent, HCL Technologies, Intel, Nokia and T- Mobile.
News 40 − Taxi aggregator Ola has entered into an agreement with the Uttar Pradesh government on February 24, 2016 to create over 50,000 entrepreneurship opportunities across the state. Ola will work with the state government towards skill development of youth in state and provide entrepreneurship opportunities to youth of the state.
News 41 − Times Internet announced on February 25, 2016 a strategic partnership with Investopedia.com. Investopedia and Times Internet will collaborate to create and curate a blend of local and international content.