Htin Kyaw sworn in as first elected President of Myanmar

Myanmar has sworn in Htin Kyaw, a close aide of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as the country’s first civilian President in more than 50 years. He belongs to National League for Democracy (NLD) Party and succeeds Thein Sein, who had stepped down after end of five years of army-backed rule.

SC asks SEBI to start selling Sahara group properties

  • The Supreme Court has asked SEBI to start selling 87 “unencumbered” properties of Sahara group, whose title deeds are with the market regulator.
  • This is to pay the bail amount for Subroto Roy, Sahara’s chief so that he can be released.
  • He has been in jail for 2 years. For his interim bail the court had demanded depositing 5,000 crore rupees in cash and a bank guarantee of equal amount.
  • The Supreme Court has asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to start the process of selling 87 assets of embattled conglomerate Sahara, to refund millions of investors.
  • These assets are estimated to be valued around 40,000 crore rupees. The court has asked SEBI to hire a professional agency to assess the actual market value of these assets.

Telecom Commission approves 112 as the single emergency number

The Telecom Commission has approved the number “112″ as the single emergency number for India, similar to 911 of United States (US) and 999 of United Kingdom (UK).

  • Henceforth Indian citizens in distress will be able to get all emergency services such as police, fire department and ambulance by just dialling this single-number.
  • The roll-out of the new service is expected to take place within a year, after gradually phasing out different numbers for different emergencies.

Playback Singer P. Susheela enters Guinness World Records

Legendary playback singer of South Indian languages, P Susheela, celebrated for her versatility, has entered the Guinness World Records for recording highest number of songs in several languages in a career spanning over half a century.

  • Guinness Book of World Records officially credited her for singing record 17,695 songs (solo, duet and chorus backed songs) in twelve Indian languages.
  • Asia Book of Records also has recognised her for singing close to 17, 330 songs. It bestowed certificate and a badge of honour to the singer for the most number of single studio recordings.

Sergey Karjakin wins 2016 FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament

Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin has won the prestigious FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament held in Moscow. In the final Round 14, he defeated American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana scoring 8.5 points.

  • With this victory, he will now play with the incumbent world champion, Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, in a match for the world chess crown in November 2016.
  • Sergey Karjakin, the youngest player ever to gain the Grandmaster title (at 12 years and 7 months), has reached a new and major peak in his chess career: a world title match.