29 July 2015 Current Affair Updates Download | Daily GK Updates

1. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th President of India and a pioneer of the country’s space and missile programmes, passed away on 27 July 2015 at the age of 83. He passed away after collapsing during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Shillong (Meghalaya). Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, popularly known as “Missile Man of India”, was the President of India between 2002 and 2007. He was honoured with highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in1997.

2. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her delegation to the UK signed 21 MoUs with the UK in the fields of industry, health, education and urban development. The agreements were signed during a bilateral meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. According to Britain's Minister of State for Employment Priti Patel these MoUs will help bring the UK and West Bengal ever closer, and unleash the potential of India-Britain relationship.

3. The World Trade Organization formally accepted Kazakhstan as its member, ending nearly two decades of negotiations. Meeting at its headquarters in Geneva, the WTO General Council approved the membership terms finalised last month. With this Kazakhstan has become the WTO's 162nd member state.

4. Qualcomm Incorporated has appointed former BlackBerry India head Sunil Lalvani as vice president and president of Qualcomm India, as Avneesh Agrawal, senior vice president and president of Qualcomm India and South Asia exits the company. Lalvani has more than 20 years of experience in sales, business development, strategic planning and business operations across the IT and telecom sectors.

5. Rajamahendravaram will be the new name of Rajahmundry, the historic and cultural city of Andhra Pradesh, as announced by state Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. The name “Rajamahendravaram” is derived from a Chalukya dynasty ruler of the 11th century who ruled over the city.

6. Union Government sanctioned 1000 crore rupees for the laying of 15.06 km long tracks to connect Indian Railways with Bangladesh through the North East. The Indo-Bangla Rail link would be completed by 2017 and the entire route will be constructed by IRCON.

7. Mexico won the CONCACAF Gold Cup football tournament played in Washington for a record seventh time by defeating Jamaica 3-1. Caribbean team reached the finals of the tournament for the first time. This is Mexico team's third title win in the last four tournaments. Andres Guardado in 31st minute, Jesus Corona in the 47th minute and Oribe Peralta in the 61st minute scored one-one goal each.

8. Shahrukh Khan’s Trinidad & Tobago Red Steel defeated Barbados Tridents to win Caribbean Premier League T20 (CPL T20) 2015 at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad. The Red Steel beat the 2014 champions, Barbados Tridents, by 20 runs.

9. The Australian state of Victoria has secured the rights to host football's International Champions Cup (ICC) for a further three years according to which Melbourne will host the tournament till 2018. New South Wales attempted to lure the tournament to Sydney but Victoria was granted "exclusive" rights to host the ICC for the next three years following the success of the three matches played in July.

10. Google has partnered with NASA and 13 other companies, including Amazon and Verizon, to create an air-traffic control system for drones, called the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Traffic Management. The move comes after a series of incidents involving drones. The government is seeking to work with the private sector to create rules of the aerial road and in view of growing demand and use of drones.

11. Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, has signed a $200 million 7-year bilateral loan deal with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The deal will help bolster Axis Bank’s efforts of improving farm efficiency by extending customized and affordable agriculture credit to farmers. The bank would effectively leverage its extensive semi urban and rural branch network to deliver agriculture credit.