Current Affairs Factsheet- 15th February

Indo-German bilateral Development Corporation

1. 2 umbrella agreements signed for financial and technical cooperation.

2. Signed by finance minister Dr. Chidambaram and German federal Minister for economic cooperation and development Gerd Mueller.

3. Concessional loans to the tune of 1.09 billion euros.

4. Financial Cooperation in term of concessional loans will be given for 9 projects such as -

a. Green Energy Corridors.
b. Affordable Housing Programmes. etc.

5. Technical cooperation refers to 13 projects in Energy, Environment and Sustainable economic development sectors which are priority sectors.

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana - Results of Evaluation Studies

1. Study conducted by Rural Electrification Corporation.

2. Has empowered the rural women according to the study report.

3. Survey says that in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir women and children have benefited quite a lot from this electrification scheme.

4. 96 % of the un-electrified villages of the country have been electrified.

5. Intensive Electrification of 80 % villages.

6. Free electricity connections to 77% Below Poverty Line households.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a phrase used to describe a variety of computing concepts that involve a large number of computers connected through a real-time communication network such as the Internet. In science, cloud computing is a synonym for distributed computing over a network, and means the ability to run a program or application on many connected computers at the same time.

The phrase is often used in reference to network-based services, which appear to be provided by real server hardware, and are in fact served up by virtual hardware, simulated by software running on one or more real machines. Such virtual servers do not physically exist and can therefore be moved around and scaled up or down on the fly without affecting the end user, somewhat like a cloud becoming larger or smaller without being a physical object.

In simpler terms -

Through Cloud Computing we do not need to buy all the resources on our own, instead we can get them from service providers on a rental basis. Through this internet based technology we can reduce our costs by renting services at lower cost from providers thereby giving them an opportunity to earn and therefore creates a win win situation.

7th Pay Commission

Chairman - Mr. Ashok Kumar Mathur( is a retired Supreme Court Judge and also the retired Chairman of Armed Forces Tribunal )

Member of the 7th Pay Commission -

Mr Vivek Rae - Full time member
Dr. Rathin Roy - Part time member
Ms. Meena Agarwal - Secretary of the Commission.

The Commission will submit its report in 2 years and recommendations will be implemented from January 1, 2016.

 6th Pay Commission Chairman - B.N. Sri Krishna

 1st Pay Commission Chairman - Srinivasa Varadachariar