Daily GK Updates - 31st August, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            Rajiv Mehrishi appointed as Union Home Secretary: He will occupy the post for the next two years. He was due to retire on the day of his appointment but was given an extension of two years. He succeeded L C Goyal.

II.      Outgoing home secretary L C Goyal appointed as CMD of ITPO: He has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).

III.         R P Watal designated as new Finance Secretary: He was the senior most secretary in the Finance Ministry and now has been elevated to the post of Finance Secretary by PM Modi.

IV.    Housing for all: Centre identifies 305 cities, towns: The housing ministry has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states to start building houses for the poor in urban areas. The government has set the target to provide houses to two crore families belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS) in urban areas by 2022. The states that are likely to gain are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, MP, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.

V.            Supreme Court stays Rajasthan High Court verdict declaring Santhara illegal.

VI.       Eminent Kannada writer Dr. MM Kalburgi shot dead in Dharwad: He was a veteran Kannada writer and former vice-chancellor of Kannada University.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.        USITC extended anti-dumping duty on Indian preserved Mushrooms for 5 years: The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) extended the anti-dumping duty on Indian preserved mushrooms for another 5 years. The decision to extend the ban was taken on 30^th August 2015.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  

 I.        SBI and ICICI Bank receive domestic systemically important banks’ (D-SIB) status: RBI had announced the framework for dealing with D-SIBs in July 2014 and the framework requires RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as domestic systemically important every year in August starting from August 2015.

II.       Indian Bank launches ‘IndPay’: With an eye on people on the move, public lender Indian Bank has launched IndPay, a mobile application service that enables its customers to operate bank account from anywhere, anytime. It can be operated through smartphones compatible with Android, Windows and IOS mobile operating systems.

III.       HDFC Bank throws gauntlet, cuts base rate by 0.35%: The country’s second largest private sector lender, slashed its base rate, the minimum rate at which it lends by 0.35 % to 9.35 %.

SPORTS:

IV.     Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba won women’s marathon at World Athletics Championships, Beijing.

V.         Anil won gold medal in Cadet Wrestling World Championships: Indian wrestler Anil won gold medal in the 50 kg freestyle category in the Cadet Wrestling World Championships at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

VI.     15^th IAAF World Championships in Athletics concluded at Beijing: While Kenya topped the medal table with 16 medals, Jamaica stood second with 12 medals.  India could not win a single medal in the championships.

AWARDS:

  

 VII.    ITBP official Jot Singh gets Tenzing Norgay national adventure award: Indo-Tibetan Border Police official and mountaineer Jot Singh has been honoured with the Tenzing Norgay national adventure award by President Pranab Mukherjee.

OBITUARIES:

  

VIII.  Horror Maestro Wes Craven dies at 76: He was the creator of classic horror franchises Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.