Daily GK Updates - 24th September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            MukeshAmbani India’s richest person for 9^th consecutive year: Industrialist MukeshAmbani has been named as India’s richest person for 9^th consecutive year in a row with a net worth of 18.9 billion dollars in the 2015 Forbes magazine’s India list.

II.            Union Government gives nod to IAF’s Integrated Air Command and Control System: IACCS system is an automated command and control system for Air Defence which integrates different air sensors and radars to protect Indian airspace.

III.            Marathi Film ‘Court’ selected as India’s official entry to Oscars: Critically acclaimed Marathi film ‘Court’ has been selected as India’s official entry to the best foreign language category of the 88^th Academy Awards 2016 (popularly known as Oscars). It is directed by Chaitanya Tamhane.

IV.            Arvind Panagariya replaces Suresh Prabhu as G20 Sherpa: A Sherpa represents the government or the Prime Minister at Group of 20 countries meetings and helps articulate the official position on critical issues.

V.            Uninor rebranded as Telenor India: Telenor Group announced that it has changed its brand identity along with legal company name from Unionor, its subsidiary in India, as Telenor India Communications Pvt Ltd.

VI.            Telangana-Chhattisgarh inked Power Supply pact to buy 1000 MW power: The supply pact aims bridging the demand-supply gap in Telangana, particularly when the demand spikes up during the Rabi crop season and the summer months.

VII.            UNDP to provide support for Arunachal Vision 2030: The United National Development Programme (UNDP) stated its intention to provide support in implementation of Arunachal Vision 2030 of Arunachal Pradesh. An announcement in this regard was made by Dr JacoCilliers, the country head of UNDP India during his meeting with the CM of the state NabamTuki in New Delhi.

VIII.            NITI Aayog constituted T Haque Expert Group on Land Leasing: The expert group will be headed by former Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) chairman T Haque.

IX.            Haryana Government increased the pension given to World War Soldiers: The pension has been increased by 1500 rupees to 4500 from 3000 rupees.

X.            Ex-Penguin India publisher ChikiSarkar launched publishing company Juggernaut.

XI.            Delhi Government approved Slum Policy for in situ rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers.

XII.            Stuti Narain Kacker appointed as Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

XIII.            Heritage Flying Expedition held to commemorate 1965 Indo-Pak war: 55 Year old Pushpak aircraft which was used by the IAF for observation role touched down Sanganer airport in a ceremony attended by Rajasthan CM VasundharaRaje. The aircraft was flown by Brig. A S Sidhu and Lt. Col. ArvindSaini.

XIV.            Filmmaker Rahul Rawail resigned from Oscar Selection Jury.

XV.            MoEF Committee gave environmental clearance for Ramagundam Urea Plant, Telangana.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            India-US Ministerial Energy Dialogue 2015 held: The India-US Ministerial Energy Dialogue 2015 was held at the US Department of Energy, Washington.Indian delegation was led by Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, New and Renewable Energy and the US delegation was led by Dr. Ernest Moniz, the US Secretary of Energy.

II.            BhartiAirtel ties up with Liquid Telecom in Africa:BhartiAirtel has signed an agreement with Liquid Telecom to share its fibre network to connect its mobile base stations across Africa, which will enable subscribers in Africa to access better speeds on 3G and 4G networks.

III.            India, US conclude MoU on energy security, climate change: India and the US have signed a significant MoU on energy security, climate change and clean energy which Secretary of State John Kerry said reflects the commitment of the two countries to make the Paris Summit later this year a success.

IV.            Alexis Tsipras sworn in as Prime Minister of Greece for second time in 8 months.

V.            Joint Statement on the 1^st India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue released: It was released in Washington, the USA, after conclusion of first of its kind bilateral dialogue that was joined by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and US Secretary of Commerce P Pritzker. The purpose of the dialogue was to ramp up bilateral economic exchange to 500 billion USD and enhance regional security.

VI.            Michel Kafando reinstated as president of Burkina Faso:He was reinstated in the capital Ouagadougou and the reinstatement was a result of an agreement reached between the Regiment of Presidential Security (RSP) and the National Army.

VII.            Martin Winterkorn resigned as the Chief Executive Officer of Volkswagen.

VIII.            Prime Minister NarendraModi visited Ireland: He is the 1^st PM of India to visit Ireland in 59 years. PM Modi held discussions with Irish PM E Kenny.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  I.            RBI draft proposes allowing companies to tap SWFs, pension funds for external debt: In order to encourage overseas funding, the RBI proposed to allow domestic companies to borrow money from pension funds; sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and insurance funds as part of the External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs).

II.            Paytm invests $10 million in logistics data startupLogiNext.

SPORTS:

III.               Indian Air Force won 2015 Baba Farid Gold Cup hockey title: The Indian Air Force defeated the Army XI 2-1 to lift the 24^th edition of the championships.

IV.               Abdul Bari Siddiqui elected as Bihar Cricket Association President.

OBITUARIES:

 V.            New York Yankees Catcher’s baseball legend Yogi Berra dies aged 90.

VI.            Revered Monk of the Hindu monastic order Swami DayanandSaraswati died in Rishikesh at the age of 85.