26 September 2015 Current Affair Updates | Daily GK Download

1. Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani has been named India's richest for ninth year in a row with a net worth of $18.9 billion, while ecommerce giant Flipkart's co-founders Sachin and Binni Bansal made their debut at 86th position on the 'India top 100 rich list' released by Forbes magazine. Ambani was followed by Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi as the second richest, while Wipro's Azim Premji retained his third place. The combined wealth of India's 100 richest persons remained largely unchanged at $345 billion, compared with $346 billion in 2014.

2. The government has decided to confer the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) Lifetime Achievement Award for 2015 on V.S. Arunachalam, formerly a scientific advisor to the defence minister, for his outstanding contribution over several decades in the field of scientific research and technology.

3. Director Chaitanya Tamhane's debut Marathi movie Court was chosen as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards or 2016 Oscars. This year, the 17-member jury to choose the entry from India was headed by veteran actor-filmmaker Amol Palekar.

4. The All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) has appointed Sreedhar G V as Chairman. Sreedhar, who was the former Director and Vice Chairman of GJF.

5. Rajasthan government passed first-of-its-kind of legislative bill that provides 14% reservation (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutes in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) for economically backward classes (EBCs). According to Rajasthan Economically Backward Classes Bill 2015, criterion for reservation in the EBC category will be purely economic and not caste-based, enabling the poor among upper castes to be eligible for quotas in government jobs and educational institutions. 

6. Yudhvir Singh Malik, who presided over the ban of Nestlé India’s Maggi noodles as chief executive officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has been transferred to NITI Aayog as additional secretary. Malik is a Haryana cadre IAS officer of the 1983 batch.

7. Robert Lewandowski (Poland) created a Footballing history for the German football league (Bundesliga) as he scored record five goals in nine minutes to give his team Bayern Munich a 5-1 win over Wolfsburg.

8. Snapdeal, India's largest online marketplace in partnership with educational loans specialists Credila - an HDFC group Company, has launched the country's first customized education loans offering on an e-commerce platform. The partnership will usher faster loan process. Customers will have the opportunity to avail exciting benefits, like up to 100% finance of their education with no upper cap on loan and easy EMI repayments at attractive rates of interest.

9. India has slipped in global rankings on broadband penetration but has made slight progress in the percentage of individuals using internet in the country. The UN Broadband Commission released ‘The State of Broadband’ report, in which India ranked 131 out of 189 countries on fixed-broadband subscriptions in 2014, a drop from the 125th rank a year before. On active mobile-broadband subscriptions, India ranked 155, a significant drop from the 113th rank in 2013. India ranked 136th in individuals using the Internet in 2014, an improvement over the 142nd rank in 2013.

10. Women and Child Development Ministry has appointed Stuti Narain Kacker as Head of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). Kacker, a 1978 batch IAS officer, retired as Secretary from Disability Affairs, in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The Chairperson's position fell vacant after the tenure of Kushal Singh ended in October 2014.

11. A 13-year-old 9th class student from Odisha, Lalita Prasida Sripada Srisai has won the Community Impact Award at the prestigious Google Science Fair in the 13-15 years age category for developing a water purifier that works using waste corn cobs and is very cost-effective.

12. The Rajasthan Assembly passed the Rajasthan Special Backward Classes Bill, 2015 that provides 5% reservation (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutes in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) quota for Gujjars and some other communities under special backward classes (SBC).