22th Feb Daily Updates

1. India to get $50 million loan from Asian Development Bank (ADB) to boost Power Generation Capacity in Assam. 

1. The signed 'loan agreement' aims to build up the capacity of power generation and distribution systems to meet the growing energy demand in the state of Assam.
2. Over a third of households in the State face daily electricity cuts of 5 to 6 hours crippling normal life and businesses alike.
3. In peak periods, Assam has to buy up to 15% of its power from independent producers at very high cost.
4. The project will finance investments to augment and improve generation capacity through the replacement of an inefficient generating plant and construction of new hydropower plant.

2. Nitish Kumar sworn in as CM of Bihar for 4th time

Nitish Kumar has sworn in as the Chief Minister (CM) of Bihar for the 4th time.

Governor of Bihar Keshri Nath Tripathi administered the oath of office and secrecy to him at the oath taking ceremony held at Raj Bhawan in Patna.

Along with Nitish Kumar, 22 Janta Dal United (JDU) Party legislators, including three women were also sworn in as Cabinet Ministers.

Earlier on 20 February 2015, Jitan Ram Manjhi had resigned as CM ending a month long political turmoil in Bihar

About Nitish Kumar

• Nitish Kumar was born on 1st March 1951 in Bakhtiarpur District of Bihar.
• He had started his political career by taking part in the mass movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan between 1974 and 1977.
• Kumar was elected to Bihar legislative assembly for first time in 1985. He was elected to Lok Sabha for 4 consecutive times, first in 1989 than in 1991, 1996 and 1998.
• Union Minister- In 1990, for a brief stint he was Union Minister of Agriculture. In 1998-99, he was Union Minister for Railways and Surface Transport and Minister for Agriculture.
• He was Union Cabinet Minister for Railways in the NDA Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 2001- 2004.
• CM of Bihar- In 2000, for first time he was made CM of Bihar but had resigned within 7 days. In 2005, he was sworn in as the CM of Bihar for second time and in 2010 for third time. In May 2014 he had resigned from the CM post taking the responsibility of his party’s (JDU) dismal performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

3. Exercise GARUDA SHAKTI-III: The 3rd edition of joint exercises between armies of India and Indonesia, concludes at Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Vairengte,Mizoram. 

The scope included sharing experience in counter terrorism and conduct of joint counter insurgency training at platoon level aimed at neutralizing of terrorist threat.
The exercise aim to bolster bilateral military relations between the armies of the two nations.

4. Centre rolls out Web-Portal to deliver e-certificates to the pass-outs from various NCVTcourses including ITI pass-outs.

1. The system is designed as a self-service digital platform to deliver various services to current and prospective trainees of the vocational training system, apprenticeship trainees, employers/establishments, ITIs and other institutions, as well as States/UTs.
2. The portal "www.ncvtmis.gov.in" is part of the Digital India Initiative and seek to improve the governance of vocational training across the field institutions of DGE&T by providing high degree of transparency, better analytics for decision making, and improved access to citizen services.

5. Dilip Shanghvi overtakes Mukesh Ambani as the richest Indian in terms of market value. 

1. The Sun Pharma's founder and MD, is worth about Rs 1.46 lakh crore thanks to his 63 per cent stake in three group companies - Sun Pharma, Sun Pharma Advanced Research and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
2. Mukesh Ambani, on the other hand, holds a total of 45 per cent stake in RIL and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, accounting for a wealth of Rs 1.32 lakh crore as per BSE.
3. The turnaround is majorly due to the rising stock value of Sun Pharma companies in the market.