Daily GK Updates - 13th July, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 13TH JULY, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

I. Indigenously developed Nag anti-tank missile tested from Helicopter platform: India test fired its Nag anti- tank guided missile, which can hit a target upto 7 km from a helicopter at a firing range in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

II. ISRO’s GAGAN (GPS aided geo-augmented navigation system) satellite based navigation system launched: India joined a select league comprising the US, European Union and Japan having satellite-based air navigation services.

III. HCL Technologies to acquire certain assets of Trygstad Technical Services in all cash deal.

IV. Flipkart offers Rs 50,000 allowance to employees looking to adopt children.

V. CBI constituted 40 members team to probe multi-crore Vyapam scam: The scam is an admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh.

VI. LG Electronics India appointed Kim Ki Wan as MD.

VII.  Patnitop tunnel which is India’s longest road tunnel, set to open in 2016: It is located in Udhampur district of Jammu & Kashmir and the initiative is taken to make the Jammu Sri Nagar national highway (NH1A) all weather friendly.

VIII. Union Government appointed lawyer Rodrigo Oreamuno to arbitrate Vodafone Tax case.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

I. India, Kyrgyzstan ink 4 pacts during PM Modi’s visit: India and Kyrgyzstan have signed 4 pacts to enhance bilateral cooperation between the nations. The pacts include agreements on defence cooperation, MoU and cooperation in the field of elections, MoU on cooperation in the sphere of standards, Agreement on cooperation in culture.

II. Miss USA 2015: Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan wins the crown: Olivia Jordan of Oklahoma won the Miss USA beauty pageant beating 50 candidates.

III. India and Tajikistan inked 2 agreements during PM Modi’s visit, to strengthen bilateral relations: Both the countries signed MoUs to further strengthen  their defence cooperation which is a strong pillar of strategic partnership

IV. QS University Rankings: BRICS 2015 released: The QS intelligence unit released the rankings that reflect the increasingly strong global presence of leading Chinese universities.

V. The United States of America formally designated Tunisia as the 16^th Major Non- NATO Ally (MNNA).

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

I. SBI partners with Bankbazaar.com: The largest bank of India has partnered with online financial product aggregator ‘bankbazaar.com’ along with the bank’s subsidiary SBI CAP Securities.

II. Retail inflation up at 5.4% in June: Prices of costlier food items, fuel, housing, clothing and footwear rose and prices of sugar and confectionary items eased during the month.

SPORTS:

III. Leander Paes (IND) and Martina Hingis (SUI) beat Alexander Peya(RUS) and TimeaBabos (RUS) to claim their Wimbledon Mixed doubles title, the 2^nd grand slam together.

IV. Novak Djokovic beat Rodger Federer in the finals to claim Wimbledon 2015 men’s singles title.

V. Indo-Vietnamese pair SumitNagal and N.H Ly won 2015 Wimbledon Boys’ doubles title.

VI. Mumbai Ranji cricketer Hiken Shah suspended by BCCI after being found guilty of breaching BCCI’s anti-corruption code.                 

AWARDS:

VII. Tata Steel’s West Bokaro Division conferred with Golden Peacock Environment Management Award 2015.

VIII. ShreyaGhoshal receives Sera Sera Bengali Award in Houston: This award is known as the best of the best Bengali honour.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

IX.  The book Green Signals: Ecology, Growth and Democracy in India written by Jairam Ramesh released.

OBITUARIES:

X. Nintendo’s Lwata, who led Japanese video game Company Nintendo Co. died. He was associated with Pokemon and Super Mario franchises.