27 January 2016 – Daily Current Affairs

FIH Hockey Awards 2015 takes place

The FIH (International Federation of Hockey) hosted an award ceremony to honor the best players in International Hockey for the year 2015. The ceremony was hosted on January 26 2016. The winner of the best hockey player female was Lidewij Welten and the winner of the best hockey player male was Robert Van der Horst from Netherlands. Apart from these key awards, there were also appreciations for best goalkeeper of the year (women), best goalkeeper of the year (men), rising start of the year (men) and rising star of the year (women).

MoU signed by UG and CG on UDAY Scheme

The Union Government and the Government of Chhattisgarh signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 25 January 2016 under the UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) Scheme. The memorandum included provisions in respect of debt allocation of 75% by the CG on behalf of CSPDCL, improvement on billing efficiency to 85.28% by the financial year 2019, incentive to be provided to DISCOMs by the Union Government and others. The memorandum of understanding mainly focuses upon bringing about a positive change in Chhattisgarh and its nearby area with assistance from the Union Government.

Genius, Marvin Minsky passed away

Marvin Minsky, a key developer of artificial intelligence passed away on January 25 2016 after suffering from a celebral haemorrhage. Aged at 88 years, he was one of the finest contributors in the realm of artificial intelligence and had contributed to various projects such as developing a robot which could perform day to day activities through the use of AI. His works are also reflected through his books like The Society of Mind, Perceptrons, The Emotion Machine, A framework for representing knowledge.

2015 Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International

On January 27 2016, Transparency International released the CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) for the year 2015. The index includes stats of 168 countries around the world and highlights the level of corruption which exists among the given countries. In the list, Denmark was ranked 1 due to its corruption free mechanism. India was placed in the 76 ^th number with a score of 38 points. There is an improvement in India’s ranking by 9 places as previously it was ranked at 85 ^th position in 2014. The top four in the list were Denmark (91), Finland (90), Sweden (89) and New Zealand.

Tamil Nadu EWS houses to get solar panels under PMAY

The UG has approved the setup of roof top solar panel in 10000 houses in Tamil Nadu who belong to EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) in Tamil Nadu. The associated cost of the project is INR 253 Crore and will be borne by the UG itself. The initiative has been carried out under PMAY (Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana). According to PMAY, the Union Government has assured that it will offer benefits upto INR 1,50,000 for each house and in addition the State Government will also facilitate the same house with benefits upto INR 60,000 along with the beneficiary’s contribution of INR 43,000.