President of India dedicates ‘RUPAY’ to the nation

1.       President of India dedicates ‘RUPAY’ to the nation

(i) The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee dedicated ‘RuPay’ India’s own card payment network to the nation today (May 8, 2014) at function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

(ii) Speaking on the occasion, the President congratulated the Reserve Bank of India for having envisioned the need for such an indigenously managed service in 2005 and for entrusting this task to the National Payments Corporation soon after its operationalization in 2010.

(iii) An indigenous system like RuPay will not only reduce the dependence on cash and cheque modes of settlement but will also make it easier to offer products based on specific requirements of diverse user sets within the country.

(iv) The President felicitated Shri A. P. Hota, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NPCI. He also presented appreciation plaques to 17 banks for their contribution in connection with RuPay card.

2.(i) Indian Aviation Academy (IAA) has been selected this year by the Business Initiative Directives Group (BIDG), Madrid (Spain) for the International Arch of Europe Award for quality and technology in Gold Category.

(ii) The award was received by Mr. Rajiv Goel, Director, IAA from Mr. Jose E. Prieto, President & CEO, BID Group at a function held in Frankfurt, Germany Later, the award was presented to Mr. Alok Sinha, Chairman, Airports Authority of India .

(iii) The Academy has been set up for training and development by pooling resources of the three mainstay organizations of civil aviation namely, Airports Authority of India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.

(iv) It conducts training in airport management, maintenance, airport safety and regulations, HR discipline, etc. The Academy has collaboration with several international agencies such as ICAO, IATA, ACI, FAA, European Union and CATC, Thailand.

3.       Delhi the most polluted city in the world: WHO

(i) As per a new study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the air in the national capital is laden with dangerous small particles of pollution, leapfrogging Beijing - the city which was once considered one of the most polluted. 

(ii) As per various studies conducted, air pollution is the fifth largest killer in India

(iii) The international organisation has measured that Delhi has the highest concentration of PM2.5 — particulate matters less than 2.5 microns— form of air pollution, which is considered most serious. 

(iv) Thirteen of the dirtiest 20 cities were Indian, which included New Delhi, Patna, Gwalior and Raipur in the top four spots, while the Indian capital had an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre.

(v) Beijing was in 77th place with a PM2.5 reading of 56, little over one-third of Delhi's pollution level, while at the cleaner end of the table, 32 cities reported a PM2.5 reading of less than 5 and three-quarters of those included Vancouver, Hafnarfjordur in Iceland and the other seven were American. 

(vi) The database covers the period from 2008 to 2013, with the majority of values for the years 2011 and 2012.