Daily GK Updates - 2nd November, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. BrahMos missile test-fired from Indian Navy’s stealth destroyer INS Kochi, hits target: Supersonic cruise missile BrahMos, with a strike range of over 290 kms, was test fired from the Navy’s newest stealth destroyer INS Kochi successfully hitting a decommissioned target ship in the Arabian Sea.

2. Punjab to set up bio-ethanol refinery: In what a major step towards tackling the menace of wheat and paddy straw burning in Punjab, the State Government signed a MoU for setting up a bio-ethanol refinery. The MoU was inked with a consortium of Beta Renewables, Novozymes and CVC India Infrastructure Pvt Ltd for an estimated project worth Rs 950 crore, during the Progressive Punjab Investor Summit, 2015.

3. Ex-cabinet Secretary to head panel on new education policy: Former Cabinet secretary T.S.R Subramanium has been appointed chairperson of a committee set up by the Human Resource Development Ministry to draft the new education policy.

4. A K Jha takes over as CMD, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (a subsidiary of Coal India).

5. Reliance Communications to merge SistemaShyam Tele with itself: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications Ltd (R-Com) is merging the telecom business of SistemaShyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) that operates MTS brand with itself in an all-stock deal worth Rs 4,500 crore.

6. Air Marshal Virender Mohan Khanna took over as the Air Officer-in-charge Maintenance(AOM) of IAF.

7. NPPA capped prices of 18 drug formulations: The revision in respect to 18 formulations like anti-diabetic MetmorfinHCltablets was done under the Drug Prices Control Order (DPCO) 2013.

8. Facebook and BSNL partnered to set up 100 WiFi hotspots in rural India: During the partnership, Facebook will invest 5 crore rupees per annum for buying bandwidth from BSNL. The hotspots will be set up by BSNL selected vendor Quad Zen and Trimax.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Flight 7K9268 of Russian Airbus A321 crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula: All the 224 people aboard are supposed to be killed in the deadly plane crash. 

2. China made sexual assault on men a crime: In this regard, an amendment to sexual assault laws was approved by the National People’s Congress, Country’s central legislature. As per the amendment, indecent assault on men or women now carries a minimum sentence of 5 years in prison.

3. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won majority in Parliamentary elections of Turkey: The Party founded by President RecepTayyipErdogan secured 316 seats in the 550-member parliament and garnered 49.4% votes.

4. Punjabi selected as third language in Parliament of Canada.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. NicoRoseberg wins Mexican Grand Prix: Mercedes driver NicoRoseberg claimed victory at the Mexican Grand Prix ahead of teammate and newly-crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton.

2. New Zealand All Blacks run over Australia to win record third Rugby World Cup: New Zealand cemented their status as the greatest team in rugby history when the overwhelmed Australia 34-17 at Twickenham to become world champions for a record third time, and the first nation to retain the Webb Ellis Cup.

3. Sania-Hingis won Women’s Doubles title of Singapore Open: The tope seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated 8^th seed Spanish team of GarbineMuguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro.

4. Rodger Federer won 2015 Swiss Indoors Men’s singles title by defeating Rafael Nadal: It was the 88^th title of his career. The final was played at Basel, Switzerland.

AWARDS:

5. Khel Ratna to be conferred posthumously on former footballer Late Ram Bahadur Chetri: The names of former footballer and Asian Games gold medallist late Ram Bahadur Chetri and renowned athletics coach Renu Kohli have been officially approved by the state sports ministry for the prestigious Khel Ratna (posthumous) and Devbhoomi Uttarakhand Dronacharya respectively.

OBITUARIES:

6. Hero Moto Corp’s Brijmohan Lall Munjal, doyen of India’s 2-wheeler industry, passes away at the age of 92.

7. Eminent Archaeologist V.N Misra passed away at the age of 80.

8. American actor, best known for TV series ‘Happy Days’ Al Molinaro passed away at the age of 96.