JANUARY 2016 CURRENT AFFAIRS (PART-6)

• Google India and Indian Railways’ telecom arm RailTel has launched free Rail Wire Public Wi-Fi service for railway passengers at the Mumbai Central Station. In the initial phase, this free Wi-Fi will be made available at 100 of the busiest railway stations and later on extended to 400 stations across the country.
• India celebrated 67th Republic day on 26th January 2016 by displaying its cultural diversity, economic progress and military might at Rajpath, New Delhi. French President Francois Hollande was chief guest of Republic Day function. For the first time in the history of Republic Day parade foreign contingent participated. It was 76-member contingent 35th Infantry Regiment of the French Army led by Lt Col Paul Bury. For the first time in the history of parade, the tableau of ex-servicemen of Army veterans was displayed in the parade.
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given it’s in principle approval for the Hybrid Annuity Model for implementing the National Highway Projects. The main objective of this model is to revive highway projects in the country by making it as one more mode of delivery of highway projects. Government will invest 40 per cent of the construction cost for building highways and the balance 60 per cent will come from the private developer. Government investment will be based on the targeted completion of the road project in 5 equal instalments. The private developer will be able to recover his investment from the government by receiving annuity payments over a period of 15 years. The highway toll tax will be collected by the government i.e. by the National Highways Authority of India unlike in the build, operate and transfer (BOT) toll model in which the private sector collects it. Thus, private party does not have to bear traffic and inflation risks as the project cost are also inflation indexed.
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has signed cyber security agreement with its counterparts in Malaysia, Singapore and Japan.
• Delhi-based Journalist-writer Ankita Anand has won the prestigious Lorenzo Natali Media Prize for 2015 under Asia and the Pacific–Amateur category. She was selected for this award for her article ‘Stirrings beneath the peepul’ published in the journal ‘The Equator Linel’. In this article she had portrayed the life of young women facing the threat of khap panchayats (parallel quasi-judicial bodies) in Haryana.
• The 19^th edition of National Conference on e-Governance has begun on 21 January 2016 in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
• The fourth edition of India Africa Hydrocarbons Conference (IAHC) has begun in New Delhi. 22 African nations have participated in this conference.
• India has overtaken Thailand as the world’s largest rice exporter in the year 2015 by shipping 10.23 million tonnes of rice.
• International Monetary Fund’s long-pending 2010 Quota and Governance Reforms have finally become effective. These proposed reforms are the biggest change in the governance of the IMF since it was established after World War II in 1945 after the Bretton Woods Conference. Reforms boost the representation of emerging economies like India, China, Brazil, Russia and increases their power and greater say in IMF. India’s voting rights increased by 0.3% from the current 2.3% to 2.6%. Under the reform, for the first time IMF’s Executive Board will consist entirely of elected Executive Directors and it ends the category of appointed Executive Directors.
• As per recently released United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects 2016 Report, India will be the fastest growing big economy in the world in 2016.