Daily Updates 25th June

1. Former Pakistan captain Zaheer Abbas has been appointed President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) for one year term at the annual conference of the sport's world governing body in Barbados. Zaheer, 67, filled the vacancy for the post left by Mustafa Kamal, who resigned in April. Abbas played 78 tests and 62 one day internationals from 1969 to 1985 in which he has made 5,062 and 2,572 runs, respectively.

2. According to the UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2015, after 2008, for the first time, India again broke in to the top 10 recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) during 2014. India jumped to the ninth rank in 2014 with a 22 percent rise in FDI inflows to $34 billion. China became the largest recipient of FDI in 2014 with $129 billion inflows, followed by Hong Kong (China) that received $103 billion and the U.S. with $92 billion.

3. India has emerged as the third largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for United Kingdom (UK) after United States and France in terms of number of projects. According to a recent report released by UK Trade and Industry (UKTI), the U.S. remained the largest source of inward investment, with a total of 564 projects in 2014-15, followed by France (124 projects) and India (122 projects). The key sectors where Indian companies invested include healthcare, agri-tech, food and drink. 

4. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj during her two-day official visit to Nepal, announced that India would provide an assistance of $1 billion for quake-hit Nepal's reconstruction. India's total assistance to Nepal over the next five years now stands at $2 billion.

5. Australia announced that it would join the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding member, contributing about $930 million to the financial institution. Australia will contribute around A$930 million as paid-in capital to the AIIB over five years and will be the sixth largest shareholder.

6. Prominent journalist, writer and anti-nuclear activist Praful Bidwai passed away in Netherlands. He was 65 years old. Bidwai was a fellow at Transnational Institute at Amsterdam, an organisation of international scholar-activists. He also wrote a number of books, including the famous book ‘1999 New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament'.

7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three mega flagship schemes aimed at developing cities and towns. The three projects -- 100 smart cities, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Housing for All-2022 - will ring in a new urban era, which will entail an investment of over Rs. 3 lakh crore in the next five years. 500 cities having 1 lakh and more population will be chosen for AMRUT project.

8. Russia and Saudi Arabia have signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. For the first time in the history of Russian-Saudi relations the document creates a legal basis for cooperation between two countries in the field of nuclear energy on a wide range of areas, including construction of nuclear power reactors, provision of cycle of nuclear fuel, including for nuclear power plants and research reactors.

9. The board of directors of HDFC Bank, second largest private lender, has extended managing director Aditya Puri's tenure for another five years, with effect from November 1. Last September, the Reserve Bank of India raised the age limit of private bank chiefs to 70. Puri, 64, has headed the bank since its inception in 1994, the longest serving chief executive of an Indian bank.

10. Famous writer of Sanskrit and Telugu literature and Padma Sree awardee Professor Pullela Srirama Chandraudu passed away. He did verbatim translation of Valmiki Ramayana in Telugu language. He was 87. Professor Ram was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011.