Daily GK Updates - 25th August, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 25TH AUGUST, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.       Union Government released Postal Stamp on Ashoka: Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad released a commemorative postal stamp on emperor Ashoka. The postal stamp of Rs 5 will be available for sale in the post offices.

II.    Jains held nationwide protest against ban on Santhara by Rajasthan High Court:Santhara, an ancient ritual also called Samadhi Marana, is the voluntary starvation to embrace death. The court termed it as a criminal offence under the section 306 of the Indian Penal Code.

III.       Justice M L Tahaliyani sworn-in as Lokayukta of Maharashtra.

IV.      India-Australia signed MoU on cooperation in the fields of education, research and training: The MoU was signed by HRD Minister SmritiIrani and Christopher Pyne MP, Minister for Education and Training, Australia during the meeting of the Australia-India Education Council (AIEC) in New Delhi.

V.          NITI Ayog decided to set up expert group to draft Model Land Leasing Law.

VI.      105-year-old Urdu copy of Ramcharitamanas written by Shiv Bharat Lal found: It was found from a scrap market at HauzKhas in New Delhi. The book written in 1904 and printed in 1910 was bought for Rs 600 by SankatMochan temple priest family.

VII.   eBird India Taxonomists reclassified Indian Bird species: The Taxonomists gave out a list of species that includes all species, subspecies groups, hybrids, intergrades, spuhs, slashes, domestics and forms.

VIII.  Government, Apollo Hospitals partner to launch new health service: It launched a health service called SEHAT (Social Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine) along with Apollo Hospitals which will connect 60,000 Common Services Centre (CSCs) across the country to a common network.

IX.      Extended implementation of APY through Post Offices: Government has decided to extend the benefit of the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) through post offices across the country to bring more people under its ambit.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

 I.         India, Egypt agree to step up bilateral cooperation: India and Egypt decided to put in place a bilateral framework for enhancing cooperation in key areas of security, counterterrorism, defence and investments. Both sides agreed to step up engagement in a range of potential areas while underlining the need to combat terrorism particularly the threat of IS in an effective manner as visiting External Affairs Minister ShushmaSwaraj called on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

II.     Two Guatemala ministers resigned amidst allegations of import bribery scandal: Guatemala’s Finance Minister D. Carias and Communication Minister V. Corado resigned from their positions as a result of mounting allegations against officials and ministers in the government for their involvement in the La Linea (the line) import bribery scheme.

III.  Indian-American Vince Chhabria appointed as a full-time federal judge by Obama: He was appointed as the full time federal judge of the California Court by President Barack Obama.

IV.       India and Nepal signed MoU for construction of Petroleum Products pipeline: The petroleum product pipeline will be built from Raxaul in India to Amlekhganj in Nepal.

V.         Seychelles President on a 3 day visit to India: Mr. Michael will deliver an address on Maritime Security for Blue Economy at the Indian Council for World Affairs besides addressing a business event.

VI.     Typhoon Goni rips through Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  I.    RBI okays re-appointment of Rana Kapoor as YES Bank MD, CEO: Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor has got approval from the RBI for his re-appointment as MD and CEO of the bank for 3 years.

SPORTS:

II.         Raipur to host 2015 FIH Hockey World League final.

III.  Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser retained Women’s 100m gold at World Championships in Athletics.