Current Affairs 17-18 november 2016

Airtel announces merger with Axiata in Bangladesh

• Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has announced the completion of the merger of its subsidiary unit in Bangladesh with Robi Axiata.This entity will now be the second-largest mobile operator in Bangladesh.
• Bharti Airtel is an Indian global telecommunications services company based in New Delhi, India. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands.

Make in India in defence: Navy inducts 4 indigenous sonars

• The Indian Navy on 18th November formally inducted four types of indigenously developed sonars that will boost its underwater surveillance capability.
• The systems included Abhay, which is a compact hull mounted sonar for shallow water crafts; Humsa UG, which is an upgrade for the Humsa sonar system; NACS, or the Near-field Acoustic Characterisation System; and AIDSS, or the Advanced Indigenous Distress sonar system for submarines.
• The systems have been designed and developed by Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, a Kochi-based laboratory of DRDO.

Rishi Jaitly named CEO of Times Global Partners

• Times Internet, the digital arm of The Times of India group appointed former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Times Global Partners, a group initiative that supports the launch and expansion of emerging global digital companies in India.

HDFC Bank's Aditya Puri ranked 36th in Fortune's top business men list

• HDFC Bank's Aditya Puri has been ranked 36th in the US magazine Fortune's top 50 business persons list for 2016.
•  He is the only Indian among three persons of Indian origin in the global rankings. 
• Facebook's Mark Zuckerburg topped the list by the US magazine.

India-China joint military exercise 'Hand-In-Hand' begins in Pune

• The 6th Indo-China joint training exercise Hand- in- Hand 2016 commenced at the parade ground in Aundh Military Camp, Pune. 
• The exercise will finish on 27 November 2016. 
• The joint exercise intends to acquaint both the Armies with each other’s operating procedures in the backdrop of counter-terrorism environment.

Oxigen Partners Federal Bank for Cash Management Services

• Federal Bank has tied up with Oxigen to expand the bank’s e-collection facility to the about 3 lakh- retail outlets of Oxigen.
• The agreement was exchanged between Chief Operating Officer, Federal Bank, Shalini Warrier,  and Pramod Saxena, Founder and Chairman of Oxigen, in the New Delhi on November 17, 2016.

Sachin Tendulkar to adopt another village in Andhra Pradesh

• Indian Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar inaugurated projects worth Rs 6 crore at his adopted village of Puttamrajuvari Kandriga in Andhra Pradesh (AP).
• On this occasion he was adopted Gollapalli village in the same state under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna .It would be developed with an amount of Rs 3.05 crore.

Patel most common Indian surname in UK: dictionary

• Patel has emerged as the most common Indian surname in the UK, according to a new Oxford dictionary. 
• The ‘Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland’ has put together the origins of nearly 50,000. 

TCS awarded Digital Innovator of the Year

• India's IT majorTata Consultancy Services has been awarded 'Digital Innovator of the Year' in the Ecosystem Excellence category at GE's Minds + Machines event.
• The '2016 Digital Innovator of the Year' award recognises TCS innovation and excellence in developing the TCS Digital StoreTM, an expanding suite of ready-to-use digital solutions that deliver superior customer experience, real time data analytics and organisational agility across multiple industry segments. The award was given at an event held in San Francisco, California. 

BBC World Service announces biggest expansion 'since the 1940s'

• BBC World Service will launch 11 new language services as part of its biggest expansion “since the 1940s”, due to the funding boost.
• The new languages will be Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba.

Sprinter Dharambir handed eight-year ban

• Haryana sprinter Dharambir Singh, who was barred from representing the country in the Rio Olympics at the last minute for failing a dope test, has been slapped an eight-year ban by the National Anti-Doping Agency.