Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 18 October, 2015

Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams

18 October 2015

:: Miscellaneous ::

World's largest toxin database to help develop new drugs

The European project Venomics has succeeded in creating the largest database of toxins in history after analyzing 203 species of poisonous animals, which will in turn help develop new medicines.
The pharmaceutical applications being worked on are chiefly focused on cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes, leaders of the project told a press conference here, EFE reported on Saturday.
The project, financed by the European Commission, was developed by a consortium of several companies and international research centres with the goal of speeding the development of drugs by using high-yield omics technologies.
One of these companies is Spain's Sistemas Genomicos, which led the development of the database.
To create it, venom was extracted from the various species and analysed to obtain small amounts of toxins in order to determine their potential uses.
Species including snakes, tarantulas, wasps, sea anemones and a very poisonous blue octopus were collected for study during the 2012 and 2013 expeditions to such places as French Guiana, Mayotte and Polynesia.
That company, a leader in next-generation sequencing and its bioinformatic analysis, worked up the database that contains all the data from different areas of the project that will serve for future research.."
Venomics is a project financed by the European Commission with a budget of 6 million euros ($6.8 million), and boasts of the participation of institutions like Belgium's University of Liege, the Portuguese company and leader in molecular biology NZYTech and the Danish pharmaceutical company Zealand Pharma.

:: Sports ::

BCCI to invite bids for new IPL teams to replace CSK, Rajasthan Royals

The ninth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is set to see two new teams take the field after the BCCI on Sunday said it will float a tender and invite bids for new franchises to replace the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for the next two years of the popular twenty20 tournament.
The BCCI said that it will implement in toto the interim report of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha committee, which recommends the suspension of the owners of both CSK and RR for two seasons following a betting scandal.
The two suspended franchises will return for the 2018 edition, the cricket board said after a working committee meeting in Mumbai on Sunday. The decision to draft in two-new teams for two years means that the IPL would remain an eight-team league.
The names and composition of the two new teams are not known. However, following the Lodha Committee’s recommendations in July, several leading business figures and corporate houses had expressed their interest in bidding for the franchises.
According to media reports, they included Gautam Adani (Adani Group), Venugopal Dhoot (Videocon Group), Harsh Goenka (RPG Group), PVP Ventures and the JSW Group.
The BCCI also announced that Vivo Mobile India, the Indian arm of Guangdong-based Chinese mobile communications firm Vivo Electronics Ltd will replace PepsiCo as the title sponsor of the IPL for the next two seasons.
Vivo, as per a BCCI media release, is to give the bank guarantee in the next ten days.” The move comes after PepsiCo confirmed its intention to exit the title sponsorship of the IPL earlier this month, citing concerns over the BCCI’s handling of the IPL betting and spot-fixing controversy and its aftermath.
In 2012, PepsiCo paid Rs.396.8 crore or $71.77 million for the IPL’s title sponsorship between 2013 and 2017.
As per the contract, PepsiCo paid Rs. 206 crore for the first three years and was supposed to pay Rs. 190 crore for the remainder of the five-year deal. PepsiCo has paid the BCCI a bank guarantee of Rs. 78 crore.
In a detailed e-mail response to queries about the project, the BCCI said, “The BCCI has certain standard operating procedures (SOPs) but considering the scale of its operations, a need was felt to have the SOPs vetted by an outside agency to make them more exhaustive.”

AIFF Appoints Bhaichung Bhutia as Advisor

All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Sunday appointed former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia as the advisor for “overall issues of the game and the Federation”.
AIFF President Praful Patel tweeted: “Have appointed Bhaichung Bhutia as Advisor to #AIFF and myself for the overall issues of the game and the Federation. “Welcome on board #Bhaichung. First call improving the #Indian National team and readying the boys for World Cup U17. #AIFF,” Patel wrote.
AIFF general Secretary Kushal Das said that the Federation would seek Bhutia’s suggestions in a lot of matters concerning the game. “We look up to Bhaichung to advice us on improving the national team’s performance and also help in the development of the squad for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup,” Das said in a release.
“Furthermore, we look forward to his advice on the licensing criteria of State FAs, development of clubs and all other domestic competitions, both men and women and across all age groups,” Das stated. Bhutia, who is already the chairman of AIFF Technical Committee, told AIFF’s official twitter handle @AIFFMedia that he was “looking forward” to the role.