Current Affairs - July 4, 2017 Current Affairs

The International Plastic Bag Free Day (IPBFD) is observed every year on July 3 to highlight the need to phase-out plastic bags and to promote organic reusable bags. The day signifies the ability for the world to come together and create an environment that is plastic free and educating individuals about current alternatives to plastics and other wastes.

Google Doodle Celebrates 140 years of Grand Slam of Wimbledon carrying a green background, which is a tribute to the grass courts of matches are played. ss

FINO Payments Bank commenced operations as a payments bank with effect from 30th June 2017 according to the Reserve Bank of India. The payments bank will be registered as a public limited company under the Companies Act, 2013 and licensed under Section 22 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Fino Playtech was founded on 13th July 2006 is headquartered at Mumbai, with offices across India.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched G-Ride, a digital ride sharing platform designed and deployed for the IT industry by the Group of Technology Companies (GTech), the industry body of IT companies in the state. The G-Ride app automatically matches co-workers and neighbours and help them travel together to work. It is available in Android and iOS versions.

The Centre and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a 220 million dollar loan for improving connectivity as well as transport efficiency and safety on State Highways of Rajasthan. It will improve about one thousand kilometres of State Highways and major district roads. The loan is the first tranche of the 500 million dollar Rajasthan State Highways Investment Program, approved by ADB Board in May 2017. The first tranche loan will improve about 1,000km of State Highways and major district roads.

Realty firm Signature Global, which is into development of affordable homes, has roped in Bollywood actress Vidya Balan as brand ambassador. It has launched 9 affordable housing projects, comprising about 9,300 units in a price range of Rs 15-25 lakh, in Gurgaon in the last three years of operations. All projects are under the Haryana Affordable Housing scheme. Signature Global plans to expand business beyond Gurgaon and targets to launch 20,000 more affordable housing units by 2019.

India has ranked 88th with 676 million Swiss francs (about Rs 4,500 crore) in terms of money parked by its citizens with Swiss banks, according to an analysis by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) for 2016-end. As per latest figures, the money officially held by Indians with banks in Switzerland now accounts for a meagre 0.04% of the total funds kept by all foreign clients in the Swiss banking system. The SNB's official figures haven't include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.

Jehan Daruvala became the first Indian driver to win in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship on Sunday, claiming victory in Race 3 at the Nuremberg circuit. The 2.3-km Norisring is an extremely fast and flowing layout for a street circuit and mistakes are punished by the concrete walls instead of tyre barriers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a photo book titled "President Pranab Mukherjee - A Statesman", at an event in Rashtrapati Bhawan. It overs the Presidency and documents his various roles.

Syndicate Bank appoints Melwyn Rego as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. He was a rank holder at a programme on International Capital Markets at Oxford University, UK. He has also participated in several seminars including those organised by Entrepreneurship Development Institute / World Bank at Washington.

World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the end of the latest Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The announcement comes 42 days (two 21-day incubation cycles of the virus) after the last confirmed Ebola patient in the affected Bas-Uele province of DRC tested negative for the disease for the second time.s

India successfully test-fired its developed quick reaction surface-to-air short range missile (QR-SAM). It was test fired in a launch complex-3 at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur. The QR-SAM has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other establishments.