APRIL

MISCELLANEOUS

Ø  Google ranked as most trusted internet brand in India: Report

Ø  Online search engine Google is the most trusted Internet brand in India as per the TRA Brand Trust Report 2018. With 1.2 trillion searches per year, Google has become the first port of call for all things on the Internet. Google was followed by Facebook, Amazon and eBay. The biggest falls in trust were seen by Snapdeal, who fell by 142 ranks over last year. The top trust gainers this year were Netflix (up 506 ranks over last year).

Ø  Microsoft is India’s Most Attractive Employer: Randstad Survey

Ø  Technology giant Microsoft India declared the most attractive employer brand, followed by e-commerce giant Amazon India. The winners were named by HR service provider Randstad’s Employer Brand Research (REBR) 2018. Sector-wise, Tata Consultancy Services is most favored in IT, while Larsen & Toubro tops Infrastructure & Construction and Hindustan Unilever emerges the winner in FMCG.

Ø  Mohamed Salah crowned PFA Player of the Year

Ø  Liverpool and Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah was named Player of the Year by England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA). Salah has become the first person in Premier League history to claim three Player of the Month awards in the same season.

Ø  TCS becomes India’s first $100 billion IT company

Ø  Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest IT outsourcing company created history by becoming the first Indian company to reach $100 billion market capitalisation (m-cap) milestone.

Ø  World’s Greatest Leaders in 2018: Mukesh Ambani ranks 24

Ø  Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, human rights lawyer Indira Jaising and architect Balkrishna Doshi have been named by Fortune magazine as the World’s Greatest Leaders of 2018. The Fortune’s 2018 ranking of the 50 Greatest Leaders featured the three Indians at the 24th, 20th and 43rd places respectively.

Ø  Millie Bobby Brown youngest most Influential person by TIME’s

Ø  ‘Stranger Things’ star Millie Bobby Brown, 14, has become the youngest person to be named as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by TIME. 4 Indians featured on Time’s ‘100 Most Influential People’ of 2018- Virat Kohli, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Bollywood star Deepika Padukone and Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal.

Ø  India has second largest unbanked population: World Bank

Ø  The Global Findex Report released by World Bank, about 190 million Indian adults still don’t have a bank account, second only to China, despite the account ownership more than doubling from 35 per cent in 2011 to 80 per cent in 2017.

Ø  K-Pop Group BTS won TIME 100 Reader Poll

Ø  South Korean pop group BTS has won the online reader’s poll for TIME ‘Person of the Year 2018’. South Korean President Moon Jae-in finished second with 5% votes, followed by former US President Barack Obama with 3% votes.

Ø  Steven Spielberg becomes 1st director to gross $10b at global BO

Ø  Three-time Oscar winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg has created history by becoming the first director whose films have globally taken in over $10 billion. His latest film Ready Player One has helped the 71-year-old achieve this milestone. The Lord of the Rings filmmaker, Peter Jackson, and Transformers Michael Bay are the next two highest grossing directors.

Ø  ATP men’s singles ranking: Yuki Bhambri breaks into top-100 after 2 years

Ø  Indian tennis star Yuki Bhambri broke back into the top-100 of ATP men’s singles ranking for the first time since February 2016. As per the latest ranking, he jumped 22 places to his career-best rank of 83. This is also the best rank that any Indian has achieved in the ATP singles chart since Somdev Devvarman touched a career-high of 62 in July 2011.

Ø  Bengaluru Highest Paying city for Talent: Report

Ø  The garden city of Bengaluru is found to be the highest paying city in the country, with an average annual cost to company (CTC) for talent across all levels and functions standing at about Rs 11 lakh, according to Randstad Insights, the research and analysis division of Randstad India. Pune stands second at around Rs 10 lakh, followed by Delhi NCR and Mumbai with an average annual CTC figure of a little under Rs 10 lakh and around Rs 9 lakh, respectively.

Ø  Indian Swimmer Double Crosses Bangla Channel, Sets World Record

Ø  Pune-based 17-year-old swimmer Sampanna Ramesh Shelar has set a world record to double cross the Bangla Channel.

Ø  Index of Economic Freedom 2018: India ranks 130th

Ø  India ranked 130th out of 186 economies in recently released Index of Economic Freedom 2018 that measures the degree of economic freedom in the countries of the world. In this edition of index, India with score of 54.5 jumped 13 places from 143rd rank in previous year (2017) with a score of 52.6 points.

Ø  IGI Airport is in top 20 busiest airport list

Ø  New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport entered into the league of the top 20 busiest airports in the world for 2017 in terms of traffic volumes. The GMR-group-run New Delhi airport jumped from 22nd rank in 2016 to 16th rank, as per the Airports Council International (ACI). Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) was ranked the busiest airport in the world.

Ø  India’s Anish Sood wins at Independent Music Awards

Ø  Electronic dance music artiste and music producer Anish Sood became the first Indian artiste to win the Best Electronica/ Dance Single at the 16th Annual Independent Music Awards (IMA) in London.

Ø  Patna tops in 4G connectivity among 20 largest cities: Report

Ø  According to a report from OpenSignal, a wireless coverage mapping company, Patna has topped in 4G connectivity among 20 of India’s largest cities. It has emerged ahead of the likes of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

Ø  India ranked 3rd in facing most cyber threats

Ø  India ranked third in the list of countries where the highest number of cyber threats were detected, and second in terms of targeted attacks in 2017, according to security software firm Symantec. India was ranked second globally when it comes to spam and phishing (misleading emails, weblink etc). Symantec detected 133 targeted attacks in India which are the work of organised groups.

Ø  NIRF India Rankings 2018 released: IISc Bengaluru adjudged best institution in India

Ø  Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar released the NIRF India Rankings 2018 in various categories on the basis of performance of higher educational institutions.
Top 10 India Rankings 2018 in Overall Category:
1. Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
2. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
4. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
5. Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
6. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
7. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
8. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
9. Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
10. Anna University, Chennai

Ø  Hyderabad tops in Global City Momentum Index

Ø  Hyderabad has been ranked the top city in the short-term Momentum Ranking of JLL’s annual ‘Global City Momentum Index’. The report identifies urban economies and real estate markets which are currently undergoing the most rapid growth. The report ranked Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata and Delhi in top 10 cities.

Ø  India ranks 37th in global startup ecosystem in 2017: Startupblink Report

Ø  According to report released by global startup ecosystem map Startupblink, India was ranked 37th out of 125 countries in global startup ecosystem in 2017.

Ø  Mangaluru airport adjudged India’s cleanest

Ø  In the survey conducted across 53 airports in the country by AAI, Mangalore International Airport was adjudged the cleanest. A team of officials from AAI had inspected the airport terminal, parking area, toilets, commercial stalls, the road leading to the airport and customer lounge.

Ø  Bloomberg Billionaires Top 100 Index released

Ø  Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani has been ranked 19th on Bloomberg Billionaires Top 100 Index as he becomes the third richest Asian on the list with a net worth of approximately $38.3 billion. While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos takes the top spot, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was ranked 2nd. From Asia, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma (ranked 13th), Tencent co-founder and CEO Pony Ma (17).