JANUARY 2016 CURRENT AFFAIRS (PART-3)

• India’s first River Information System was launched by Union Government to facilitate safe and accurate inland waterway navigation. It has been launched in phases and the first phase will cover 145-km stretch of National Waterways 1 (Phase I- Haldia to Farakka) on the Ganges River. Inland Waterway Authority of India (IWAI), a statutory body under the aegis of Union Ministry of Shipping is implementing the River Information System in India. River Information System is a combination of modern tracking equipment comprising of hardware and software designed to optimize transport and traffic processes in inland water navigation.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 103rd edition of the Indian Science Congress in Mysuru, Karnataka. The theme of this edition of the Indian Science Congress is “Science and Technology for Indigenous Development in India.” During the inaugural speech Prime Minister gave a new mantra comprising five Es – “Economy, Environment, Energy, Empathy and Equity”.
• Indian Army Day is being observed every year on 15 January in India. This year it will be the 68^th Indian Army Day. On this day in 1949, Lt. General (later Field Marshal) Kodandera Madappa Cariappa became the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army (of the independent India) by succeeding British Army General Roy Butcher (last British Commander-in-Chief of India).
• The 15th edition of bilateral exercise by the Indian Coast Guard and its Japanese counterpart titled ‘Sahayog-Kaijin 2016’ has begun off the coast of Chennai, Tamil Nadu in the Bay of Bengal. It is biennial bilateral exercise held once in two years and the venue would shift in both countries on alternate occasions.
• India and France have started their eight-day counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency bilateral military exercise Shakti-2016 in Rajasthan.
• The Union Government has reappointed Dr Urjit Patel as Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India for a second three-year term.
• Union Government has appointed Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Pandey as the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) for a period of three years.
• 15-year-old cricketer Pranav Dhanawade created a world record by scoring 1009 runs not out in HT Bhandari Cup, an under-16 inter-school tournament held in Mumbai.
• India’s star amputee mountaineer Arunima Sinha has successfully scaled Mount Aconcagua in Argentina as part of her Mission 7 Summits. In 2013, she made the world record by becoming first female amputee mountaineer to climb the Mount Everest (8,848 meters). She was awarded the Padmashree for her achievement. Her autobiography is ‘Born Again on the Mountain’.
• The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has won the National Award on e-Governance 2015-16 for launching the Universal Account Number (UAN). The roadmap for implementing the UAN programme has been prepared by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).