7th August 2015 Current Affair Updates | Daily GK Download

1. Microsoft's Bill Gates tops the first Forbes list of the richest global tech billionaires. Gates led the group with an estimated worth of $79.6 billion, trailed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison at $50 billion. Jeff Bezos of Amazon came at third with net worth of $47.8 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg snared the number four position ($41.2 billion), followed by Google founders Larry Page ($33.4 billion) and Sergey Brin ($32.8 billion).

2. NASA has extended a contract with Russia's space agency for $490 million to carry US astronauts to the International Space Station amid a lack of Congressional funding. The United States will continue to rely exclusively on Russia to take astronauts to the orbiting outpost under the new contract, which runs until 2019, even as relations between the two countries have reached their lowest point since the Cold War.

3. Indian-American Atul Keshap has been confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, becoming the second Indian-origin diplomat to be posted to the region after Richard Rahul Verma. Keshap (44), a former official at the US Embassy in India, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the country’s envoy which would be his first Ambassadorial posting. He is currently working as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau of State Department.

4. President Mamnoon Hussain approved Justice Jawad S. Khawaja’s appointment as new Chief Justice with effect from August 17 after retirement of Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk. Justice Jawad S Khawaja will take charge as Chief Justice from August 17. Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk is set to retire on August 16 after completing his tenure. Justice Khawaja is the senior most judge in the ranks after Justice Mulk’s retirement.

5. India’s biggest telescope – Multi-Application Solar Telescope (MAST) was inaugurated at Udaipur (Rajasthan). MAST would help in the study of movements of stars and sun even in day time. MAST has been installed at the Udaipur Solar Observatory, where it is surrounded by water to keep temperature pleasant. Authorised by the Ministry of Science and Technology, MAST has been funded by the Department of Space. So far Rs. 26 crore has been spent on the project.

6. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated “Navachara Kaksh”, a science and innovation museum in the Rashtrapati Bhavan campus. The museum aims to spark curiosity about technology among children visiting the Presidential Estate. It has been established with the assistance of the chip-maker Intel while many of the innovations are by Indian students.

7. State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) inked Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with government aided telecom companies BSNL and MTNL for another term of 3 years. PNB, BSNL and MTNL had joined hands together in year 2004 and since then BSNL & MTNL are the primary IT link providers for providing connectivity to branches, ATMS and service outlets of the Bank.

8. In a historic first, a Chinese DNA experiment is set to fly on the International Space Station (ISS) as per the agreement signed between a US private firm and a research group from the Beijing Institute of Technology. The agreement was reached between the Houston-based NanoRacks and Beijing Institute of Technology. The Chinese team, led by Professor Deng Yulin, will shell out nearly $200,000 to NanoRacks for the delivery of the experiment to the ISS on board a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

9. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and FICCI took their partnership to the next level by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to impart training to MSMEs to make them competitive and boost productivity. This is the second phase of the signing of SCORE Global Programme, wherein national institutes provide training to MSMEs. In line with the objective of Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE), ILO is entrusted with building capacity of FICCI in three phases.

10. The US space agency NASA has named Kirk Shireman as the new manager of its International Space Station (ISS) Program, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Shireman has served as deputy director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston since 2013. Shireman succeeds Michael Suffredini.