Current Affairs Aug 15, 2015

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1. DMAT scam bigger than Vyapam, CBI informs SC: The CBI, in a recent affidavit, said the DMAT scam looked bigger than the Vyapam scam in its scope and depth. A Conservative estimate of the DMAT scam is said to be around Rs. 10,000cr. DEMAT scam involves private medical college admissions.

2. Parliament turning into combat arena: Pranab: In the wake of a washout of the monsoon session, President Pranab Mukherjee delivered a blunt message to the political class, stating that Parliament had been converted into an arena of combat rather than debate.

3. Tianjin blasts may derail China’s space programme: China has shut down its Tianhe-1A supercomputer, signalling that the massive twin blasts that rocked the port city of Tianjin might may have impacted the country’s space programme.

4. Indian-American loses Facebook internship for exposing privacy flaw: Social media behemoth Facebook cancelled an internship it earlier offered to Harvard student Aran Khanna, after an application that he created, “Marauder’s Map” was able to pull geo-location data from the Facebook Messenger programme to reveal within three feet the exact location of users of the app.

5. Government to transfer ownership in PSU banks to a new holding company: The government announced a seven-point action plan, Indradhanush to infuse professionalism and fresh capital in to public sector banks.As part of the plan, the government announced the setting up of Bank Board Bureau (BBB) that will give way to holding company to which the Centre will transfer it ownership of all these banks.

6. State Bank plans bigger digital push: State Bank of India (SBI) has indicated that it would stay-focused on rolling out digital initiatives that would transform the present eco-system by integrating with e-commerce platform. SBI commenced this journey last year and started offering a range of products on digital platform.

7. Govt unveils overhaul of PSU banks, inducts private sector executives in top slots: Five new bank MDs and an equal number of non-exec chairman appointed. P S Jayakumar of VBHC Values Homes appointed MD & CEO of Bank of Baroda. Rakesh Sharma of Lakshmi Vilas Bank appointed MD & CEO of Canara Bank. Infosys director Ravi Venkatesan named chairman of Bank of Baroda, Tech Mahindra’s TN Manoharan to be Chairman of Canara Bank.

8. Documentary on Rajinikanth fandom to premiere at Venice festival: The legend of Rajinikanth — or the Rajinikanth of legend — is set to become even bigger with the release at the Venice Film Festival of a documentary on his fan following called ‘For The Love Of A Man’

9. Supreme Court order on Aadhar puts brakes on EC's project: The Election Commission's project to link UIDAI (Aadhar) number with voters' electoral data to check multiple entries in electoral rolls is to slow down after Supreme courts verdict. The commission has asked its Chief Electoral Officers in all states and Union territories to "suspend with immediate effect till further orders" all activities to collect and feed Aadhar numbers of voters as part of its National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP).