Daily GK Updates - 24th July, 2015

  DAILY GK UPDATES - 24TH JULY, 2015

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.        SunEdison signs largest private solar PPA with Tata Power Distribution: The Renewable Energy Company signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Tata Power Distribution for supplying electricity from a 180 MW solar plant that it would build in Madhya Pradesh.SunEdison will sell electricity to Tata Power for 20 years.

   II.        Ajay Mathur replaces R K Pachauri as TERI chief: Nobel laurate R K Pachauri who is facing sexual harassment allegations from a woman employee, has been removed as the Director-General of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

 III.       Maharashtra Government approved scheme for development of villages around Tiger Reserves: The scheme is named Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Jan Vikas Scheme.

 IV.  Indian drug company Lupin acquired US generic company GAVIS Pharmaceuticals and Novel Laboratories for $880 million to strengthen its presence in the United States.

  V.      Supreme Court allowed States to release life convicts; Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case kept out of purview: It allowed state governments to exercise its power of remission to release life convicts with a rider. The decision was taken by a 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, which said that those life convicts who have undergone prison term of 14 or more years can be released.

 VI.       Haryanavi film ‘Pagdi: The Honour’ made tax free in Haryana: The film bagged the title of best Haryanavi film and its actress BaljinderKaur won best supporting actor (female) award at the 62^nd National Film Awards.

VII.     No citizen or institution has a fundamental right to affiliation or recognition: SC: The Supreme Court held that fundamental right given under Article 19(1)(g) of the constitution does not give an institution or a person or a citizen the fundamental right to affiliate or recognition of their institutions within the meaning of the article 19(6).

VIII. Reliance Group, Augur Overseas Operations signed MoU to Manufacture Aerostats and Airships: Anil Ambani led Reliance Group through its entity Reliance Unmanned Systems signed the MoU to manufacture Aerostat Radars and Airships. Aerostats are currently manufactured in US, Germany and France.

 IX.        Suresh Narayanan appointed as new Nestle India MD after Maggi scare.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

         I.     First all women Trans Continental road expedition from Delhi to London flagged off: The expedition was flagged-off from Major Dhyanchand Stadium of New Delhi. The three women participants namely NidhiTiwari, RashmiKoppar and SoumayaGoel will reach UK in 55 days covering a distance of 15000 kms via Myanmar, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and France.

   I  II.  Mosquirix, world’s 1^st malaria vaccine approved by European Medicines Agency: The world’s 1^st malaria vaccine developed by the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline in association with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, named RTS, S or Mosquirix got approval from the European Medicines Agency for use on babies aged between 6 weeks and 17 months in Africa.

II  III. Forbes Asia’s Fabulous 50 List of the year 2015 released: The most valuable company is Tencent and the biggest is Lenovo. Some Indian companies on the list are HCL Technologies, AurobindoPharma, HDFC Bank, Lupin, TCS, TATA Motors,and Tech Mahindra.

       IV.  NASA Scientists have announced the discovery of Kepler 452b, also known as ‘Earth 2.0’, an earth like planet in our galaxy: A year on this planet last for 385 days, just 20 days longer than a year here on earth.

 

OTHER UPDATES:

 

FINANCE/BANKING:

       I.     Pearson to sell Financial Times to Nikkei for $1.3 billion: Pearson PLC, the owner of Financial Times has agreed to sell FT Group to Nikkei Inc.

       II.     IT Companies CSC and HCL Technologies have signed an agreement to form a banking software and services company to provide technology services and solutions to the banking industry.

AWARDS 

III.   Peter Higgs received Royal Society’s Copley Medal, the world’s oldest scientific prize: He was awarded this prize for his fundamental contribution to particle physics and his pioneering work on the theory of Higgs Boson that explains the mass in elementary particles.