16 September 2015 Current Affairs in detail (2)

Airbus has inaugrated its first US plant

• European jetmaker Airbus has inaugurated its first US plant in a move to wrest away a chunk of rival Boeing’s domination of the domestic aircraft market, including lucrative Pentagon contracts.
• Airbus plans to assemble 40-50 of its single-aisle A320 family every year beginning in 2018 from the plant, built on the site of a World War II bomber support base in Mobile, Alabama.
• Decking out the location with US flags, the European industrial giant hopes the “Made In America” stamp on its aircraft will help carve a larger chunk from Boeing’s dominance of the North American market for passenger aircraft.
• Three years ago, Airbus had a 20 per cent share of the US market, against 80 per cent for Boeing. Since announcing the Mobile plant, its market share has doubled to 40 per cent.
• The company, based just outside Toulouse, France, is focused on the estimated 5,000 new passenger planes expected to be ordered in North America over the next 20 years.
• But another important aim of the new facility is greater access to the huge US defense budget. Airbus’s identity as a foreign maker helped undermine its fight in 2011 against Boeing for a USD 30 billion Pentagon contract for aerial refuelling tankers.
• The USD 600 million production line is only Airbus’s second one outside Europe — the first is in Tianjin, China.
• The company expects the new plant, which will employ 1,000 workers in the final assembly of the aircraft, to help reduce production costs and make them more competitive price-wise.
• The Mobile plant will assemble single-aisle A319, A320 and A321 jets, its best-selling aircraft first launched in 1988.
• Starting in 2017, it will also assemble the A320 Neo, a new version with a more fuel-efficient engine.
• The first aircraft is scheduled to roll off the assembly line in early 2016, destined for US carriers JetBlue and American Airlines.

Paytm introduces cashless payments in educational institutions

• Paytm has introduced cashless payments in educational institutions, which will enable users to pay school fees and dues, cafeteria bill, buy uniforms, books and merchandise.
• Paytm, the country’s India’s largest mobile commerce platform, has tied up with several premium educational institutions from pre-schools to colleges such as IIT Mandi, Universal Education Trust, KN Modi University, Vidyamandir Classes, Made Easy, Career Launcher, Jamboree, Primus Public School, Bengaluru and Swaminarayan Gurukul Vidyalaya, among others.
• Paytm is in advanced stage discussions with all leading IITs, IIMs, central and state universities.
• As per a Fitch report, the Indian education sector’s market size is estimated at $109.84 billion in FY15, which makes India the world’s third largest market for education by size.

Prabhat Singh appointed as MD & CEO Petronet LNG

• Prabhat Singh, Director (Marketing) at GAIL (India) Ltd, has been named the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer Petronet LNG Ltd.
• Singh, a civil engineer from Kanpur, has 35 years of experience in the hydrocarbon industry in both multinationals as well as public sector units.
• His key positions prior to being appointed as Managing Director and CEO of Petronet include being the Director (Marketing) at GAIL (India) Ltd for the since February 2010. He was also the Chairman of Ratnagiri Gas and Power Private Ltd and Chairman of GAIL Global Singapore Pte Ltd.
• Singh has also had leadership positions in British Gas, Engineers India Ltd and NTPC.

Sheikh Hasina wins UN award for leadership on climate change

• Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been declared as one of the winners of the UN Champions of the Earth award in recognition of her "leadership and vision" in both making climate change an issue of national priority and advocating for a global response.
• UNEP noted that Bangladesh is one of the world's most populated countries, with over 159 million people. It is also one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
• Cyclones, floods and droughts have long been part of the country's history, but they have intensified in recent years.
• The award cites, among other initiatives, the progressive Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009, which made the South Asian nation the first developing country to frame such a coordinated action plan.
• Bangladesh is also the first country to set up its own Climate Change Trust Fund, supported by nearly USD 300 million of domestic resources from 2009-2012.
• The award also noted that the Bangladesh government currently earmarks 6 to 7 per cent of its annual budget ? some USD 1 billion  on climate change adaptation, with only 25 per cent of this coming from international donors.
• In addition, under her leadership, the Bangladesh Constitution was amended in 2011 to include a constitutional directive to the State to protect the environment and natural resources for current and future generations.
• The awards will be handed out at a special ceremony on September 27 here at the close of the Sustainable Development Summit.

Gujarat has ranked best state for business

• Gujarat is the best Indian state to do business in, shows the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' ranking.
• The state, which has topped the list with a 71.14 per cent score, is followed by Andhra Pradesh (70.12 per cent), Jharkhand (63.09 per cent), Chhattisgarh (62.45 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (62 per cent).
• The World Bank report, Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms, was released in New Delhi on Monday, under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
• This is the first time that the World Bank has created a sub-regional state-wide report card on the basis of a 98-point action plan for business reforms, drawn up by the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion and state governments during a Make In India workshop in December last year.
• The other states that figure among the top 10 are Rajasthan, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh in the same order.

RBI  had cancelled the Sahara's NBFC licence

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had cancelled the licence of Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd (SIFCL), the Sahara group’s non-banking financial company (NBFC), effective September 3.
• In June 2008, the central bank had banned the finance company from accepting deposits.
• The regulator’s action comes seven months after the Securities and Exchange Board of India cancelled the licence of the group’s mutual fund arm, Sahara Asset Management Company, saying the entity wasn’t “fit and proper” to conduct the mutual fund business.
• Following the cancellation of registration certificate, the company (SIFCL) cannot transact the business of a non-banking financial institution, as laid down under clause (a) of section 45-I of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• The NBFC was registered on December 1998, with an office in Lucknow.
• During its investigations, RBI had found SIFCL had continuously flouted know-your-customer norms, as well as those relating to asset-liability management and investments.
• Besides prohibiting it from taking deposits, RBI has directed the Sahara group entity to repay the money as and when the deposits mature. SIFCL has also been asked to lodge all securities with the designated bank for custody.

Cyber insurance market to touch $7.5 bn globally by 2020: PwC report

• The global cyber insurance market could grow to $5 billion (about Rs 33,000 crore) in annual premiums by 2018 and at least $7.5 billion (about Rs 49,500 crore) by the end of the decade, according to a new report issued by PwC.
• The report titled "Insurance 2020 & Beyond: Reaping the Dividends of Cyber Resilience' said that said that 61 per cent of business leaders across all industries see cyber-attacks as a threat to growth.
• The report also showed that 71 per cent of insurance CEOs and 79 per cent of banking CEOs (the highest of any sector) perceive it as a future growth threat. Respondents also ranked it higher than shifts in consumer behaviour, the speed of technological change and supply chain disruption.
• Previous PwC research revealed that 61 per cent of business leaders across all industries see cyber-attacks as a threat to the growth of their business, and 2014 saw an average of 100,000 global security incidents a day.
• As a solution PwC suggests that insurers, reinsurers and brokers can capitalise on the cyber risk opportunity whilst managing the exposures by maintaining their own cyber risk management credibility through effective in-house safeguards against cyber-attacks.
• It also said that they making coverage conditional on a full and frequent assessment of policyholder vulnerabilities and agreement to follow agreed prevention and detection steps.
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• curtesy: OnlineTyari