Daily GK Updates 7th October, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            INS Astradharani commissioned into Indian Navy: The Indian Navy commissioned the 1^st indigenously designed and built torpedo launch and recovery vehicle INS Astradharani at the Naval Base in Visakhapatnam.

II.            India and Germany signed 125 million Euros loan agreement to fund two projects under Green Energy Corridor:Government of India and Federal Republic of Germany signed two loan agreements worth 125 million Euros for financing two projects under the Green Energy Corridor programme in Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Green Energy Corridor programme seeks to facilitate the flow of renewable energy into the national grid.

III.     Utkal starts ‘Project Saksham’ to empower rural women: In its bid to empower rural women, Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), a unit of Aditya Birla Group, has launched a unique project for the welfare of communities living in the vicinity of its project area in Odisha. ‘Project Saksham’ the new initiative involves an advanced training-cum-garment manufacturing unit at Tikiri in Rayagada district.

IV.      2016 PravasiBhartiya Divas (PBD) Conference to be held in New Delhi: The PBD Conference 2016 will be organised with an objective for developing a new paradigm for engagement with the Diaspora over the next decade.

V.            Growth of eight core sectors increased by 2.6% in August 2015.

VI.        Bank of Maharashtra to raise Rs 394 crore from Government: The shareholders of Bank of Maharashtra at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) approved the bank’s proposal for capital infusion of Rs 394 crore by the Government of India.

VII.   Three-member Achary Panel recommended 400% hike in basic salary of Delhi MLAs.

VIII.     Ashok Vemuri resigned as CEO of iGate Corporation.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.       2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar: They were awarded with the Nobel Prize for having mapped how cells repair damaged DNA and safeguard the genetic information at a molecular level.

II.            Indian-American Shital Patel appointed as USA Funds’ Chief Info Officer.

III.     WWF Report Hidden Himalayas: Asia’s Wonderland released: According to the report, 211 new species like sneezing monkey, walking fish and jewel like snake were discovered in the Eastern Himalayas region between 2009 and 2014.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  

I.          IMF released World Economic Outlook October 2015 update: The report projects global growth for 2015 at 3.1%, which is 0.3% lower than in 2014, and 0.2%  point below the forecasts in July 2015 World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update. India’s growth is expected to strengthen from 7.3% in 2015 to 7.5% in 2016.

II.        RBI relaxed norms of FPI investment in Government Securities: The RBI relaxed the norms of Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) of government debt and also announced higher investment limits in rupee terms in government securities with a view to bring in an additional 1.2 lakh crore rupees.

SPORTS:

III.      Sergey Karjakin wins 2015 World Cup Chess Championship: Sergey Karjakin of Russia has won the 2015 World Cup Chess Championship held at Baku, Azerbaijan.

AWARDS:

   IV.   Raif Badawi, James Fenton shared 2015 PEN Pinter Prize: Badawi was named as the 2015 International Writer of Courage by Fenton himself during a public event held at British Library in London.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

V.       Book titled The Clintons’ War on Women authored by Roger Stone and Robert Morrow released.