Daily GK Updates - 7th November, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Government to impose 0.5% Swachh Bharat Cess on Services from Nov 15: All services including air, travel, telephony, eating out and banking will become expensive from November 15 as the government decided to impose a 0.5% cess on all taxable services to fund the Swachh Bharat Programme.

2. Indian Army successfully test fired Supersonic Cruise Missile BrahMos in Rajasthan: It was test fired from the Pokhran test range. For BrahMos, it was the 50^th test flight. Recently, it was test fired from INS Kochi off the west coast.

3. From today, trucks passing through Delhi to ‘pay green tax’: After a six-day delay in the implementation of the Environment Compensation Charge or ‘environment cess’ on trucks entering Delhi, the concessionaire-SYMR Consortium LLP has begun to collect the tax at its toll booths.

4. Supreme Court upheld Kerala Government’s ban online lotteries: The judgement was delivered by a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India H L Dattu.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. India and China ink pacts on water resources and culture: India and China signed two agreements including one in the field of water resources on sharing hydrological data on Satluj River after talks between Vice President Hamid Ansari and his Chinese counterpart Li Yuanchao.

2. WHO officially declares Sierra Leone Ebola-free: The country has been declared Ebola free by the World Health Organisation, prompting nationwide celebrations tinged with sadness over the loss of 4,000 victims to the disease.

3. President of China and Taiwan shake hands in first ever meeting: President Xi Jinping of China met with Ma Ying-Jeou, the President of Taiwan in the first ever meeting between both the countries. The meeting is a high point in the two leaders’ efforts to bridge the divisions of civil war and decades of animosity.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Hina Sindhu won gold in 13^th Asian Shooting Championship: She won the gold medal in 10m air pistol women’s event at the 13^th Asian Shooting Championship held at Kuwait City. Hina was also the winner of the gold medal in the 10m air pistol event in the 8^th Asian Air Gun Championship held at Delhi.

2. India beat South Africa by 108 runs in the 1^st Freedom Series Test Match held at Mohali.