7 August 2015

Union Cabinet accepted proposal to sign agreement with - UNESCO

• Union Cabinet gave  proposal to sign an agreement with UNESCO For establishment of a Centre for World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia-Pacific region.

• This centre will be confirmed as a category-2 centre (C2C) of the UN body at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun(Uttarakhand).

• WII Dehradun will be first existing institute to be accorded recognition by UNESCO by signing this agreement. 

• At present there are 9 C2C institutes recognised by UNESCO.

• This agreement was proposed by the Union Environment Ministry. 

• Centre for World Natural Heritage Management and Training for Asia-Pacific region will provide :
• 1.Services for evaluation and preparation of proposals for new cultural and heritage sites in Asia-Pacific region.
• 2.Capacity building and training on management and monitoring of heritage sites.

India decided to boycott 61st Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference to be held in Islamabad

• The meeting was called to discuss the Pakistan's deliberate decision to not invite the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Kavinder Gupta.

• The unanimous decision to boycott the meeting was taken after the conclusion of the meeting of the Speakers of all State Legislative Assemblies that was called in New Delhi.

• A statement issued from the Lok Sabha secretariat after the meeting said that "Article 8 of  the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) constitution states that each branch shall be entitled to send a prescribed number of delegates and officials to each plenary conference and, accordingly, the J&K branch is entitled to send one delegate to the conference."

• CPA with its Secretariat in London was founded in 1911 as the Empire Parliamentary Association. 
• The original member Branches:
• 1.Australia
• 2.Canada
• 3. Newfoundland
• 4. New Zealand,
• 5.South Africa 
• 6.the United Kingdom.

Delhi High Court Amendment Bill, 2015 approved by - Parliament

In order to minimize the workload of the Delhi High Court, the Bill seeks to modify the Delhi High Court Act, 1966.

Highlights of Bill:

Increment of pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi high court over suits above the value of 2 crore rupees from present 20 lakh rupees.

It will reduce work load of Delhi High Court in case of civil suits by transferring them to 9 district courts in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Empowers the Chief Justice (CJ) of the Delhi High Court to transfer any pending suit to a relevant subordinate court.

It should be noted that, pecuniary jurisdiction refers to the jurisdiction of a court over a suit based on the amount or value of its subject matter.

Accenture appointed Rekha Menon as Chairperson of India's operation

Rekha M Menon  was appointed as the chairperson of Accenture India. She will take the charge of the company from 21 August 2015.

Rekha replaced Avinash Vashista who was both Chairman and Managing Director of Accenture India, since 2011.

She has been associated with the US-based global software major as Managing Director.

Human Resources and was driving Accenture's human capital strategy for Asia-Pacific, West Asia, Africa, Russia, Turkey and Latin America.

Besides, the 30 billion US dollars outsourcing firm also appointed Anindya Basu as Managing Director of Accenture India who will take the charge from 21 August 2015.

He will be responsible for driving Accenture's India business and building relationships with key clients by leveraging our capabilities in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations.

The Chief Executive Officer of Accenture is Gianfranco Casati.

World's Highest-Paid Actors 2015 list released by - Forbes

• World's Highest-Paid Actors 2015 list was released by Forbes

• Robert Downey Jr., with earnings of 80 million US dollars, for the third year in a row topped the list, that includes names of 34 global actors.

• Jackie Chan stood at the second place with an yearly income 50 million US dollars followed by Vin Diesel with earnings of 47 million US dollars stood at the third place.

• Top ten Actors:
• 1.Robert Downey Jr.(80 Million US dollars)
• 2.Jackie Chan (50 Million US dollars)
• 3.Vin Diesel (47 Million US dollars)
• 4.Bradley Cooper (41.5 Million US dollars)
• 5.Adam Sandler (41 Million US dollars)
• 6.Tom Cruise (40 Million US dollars)
• 7.Amitabh Bachchan & 9.Salman Khan (33.5 Million US dollar)
• 9.Akshay Kumar(32.5 Million US dollars)
• 10.Mark Wahlberg(32 Million US dollars)

• Indian Actors:

• Out of the 12 newcomers in the list of Forbes five are from India only. With combined earnings of 140.5 million US dollar, the Indian stars listed at the second position, just after the US.

• Shah Rukh Khan and Ranbir Kapoor are the other two Bollywood actors who are able to make their place in the list.