Current Affairs July 09, 2015

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1. Invasive species of snail spotted on Goa varsity campus: The Giant African Land Snail (GALS), listed as one of the world’s 100 most invasive species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, was spotted on the campus of Goa University at Taleigao. Nandakumar Kamat, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany, who spotted it, called it an “unwanted guest on the campus” and said the species is one of the most damaging land snails in the world.
2. Modi takes up Lakhvi issue with Xi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi while meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at Ufa in Russia has conveyed India’s concern to the Chinese President over china blocking a proposal for action by the U.N. against Pakistan on the release of jailed Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. The two sides felt that the issue should be discussed further at the official level.
3. Centre wants to break forex reserves: The Modi Government is examining if India’s foreign exchange reserves held by the Reserve Bank can be deployed for funding infrastructure projects or recapitalising public sector banks.
4. Infosys partners Deutsche Bank: India’s second largest IT services provider Infosys has signed a multi-year agreement with Deutsche Bank under which Infosys will provide services such as application maintenance, package implementation ,testing services etc.
5. eMudhra launches eSign Services: eMudhra Limited a leading certifying firm in the country for digital signatures has launched eSign services. It is an online electronic signature service, which can facilitate an Aadhar holder to digitally sign a document within seconds.
6. China Stock Slump: Chinese shares plunged on 8th July, dragging down markets across the Globe and posing fresh risk for a world economy grappling with the Greek debt Crisis. Chinese markets were down by 30% since their peak last month. It is said that $3.5 trillion has been lost in three weeks. It is more than size of India’s $2trilion economy.
7. Govt allocates special fund to protect 5 endangered species: Waking up to the dwindling number of certain endangered species, the Centre has decided to step up efforts to protect five of them — Dugong (sea cow), Gangetic Dolphin, Great Indian Bustard, Manipur Brow Antler Deer (Sangai) and Wild Water Buffalo - for now and take up others in due course.
8. Microsoft to cut 7,800 jobs: Microsoft Corporation plans to cut as many as 7,800 jobs and write down about $7.6billion on its Nokia Phone handset unit, wiping out nearly all of the value of business it acquired just 14 months ago.
9. Oberoi Voted Best Hotel Brand in the World: International Travel + Leisure magazine has voted Oberoi Hotels and Resorts as the best hotel brand in the world based on the reader’s poll conducted by the Magazine in 2015.
10. Sriram Kalyanaraman Named NHB Chief: The Government has appointed Sriram Kalyanaraman, director-business development at Equifax Credit Information Services, as the next housing finance sector regulator. This is the new thought in the government initiative to bring in experts from the private sector to head state-run financial institutions.