Daily GK Updates - 13th May, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. NITI Aayog to replace 5-year plans with 15-year vision document: These will be framed to meet the country’s social goals without wavering from the sustainable growth agenda. The first 15-year vision document will start from 2017-18, along with seven-year National Development Agenda which will lay down the schemes, programmes and strategies to achieve the long term vision. It will be implemented after the 12^th five year plan which is going to terminate in 2017.

2. Cabinet approves India’s first IPR policy: The policy is guided by seven objectives, including IPR public awareness, generation of IPRs, human development, and strong law enforcement.

3. Government approves Rs 1, 984 crore Delhi-Meerut Expressway stretch.

4. TRAI penalty on Telecom companies for call drops illegal: SC: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that Telecom companies will not compensate mobile phone users for inconvenience caused by call drops.

5. Indian Air Force’s Electronic Maintenance Management System inaugurated at Air Force Station, Pune.

6. Railways to constitute Mobility Directorate, Non-fare Revenue Directorate: It will be constituted to focus on areas like speed enhancement. It will handle work such as identification and prioritisation of train corridors for raising speed and identification of path for timetabled freight trains.

7. Sri Lankan President on a two day India visit: President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Srisena will arrive in the capital today. The visit is expected to contribute to further strengthening the close and cooperative relations between India and Sri Lanka.

8. Delhi no longer the world’s most polluted city as per WHO: The dirtiest air was recorded at Zabol in Iran, which suffers from months of dust storms in the summer.

9. India and five countries sign agreement on tax info sharing: As per a report published by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), India and five other countries have signed a multilateral pact for automatic exchange of information on tax issues and developing new tools to tackle the tax evasion. The signing took place in Beijing, China.

10. India and Bangladesh hold security talks in Dhaka.

11. Cabinet approves pact between SEBI and Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), Abu Dhabi for Mutual Co-operation and Technical Assistance.

12. World’s largest cargo aircraft has landed in Hyderabad, India: The World’s largest cargo plane Antonov-225 Mriya has landed in Hyderabad for refuelling today.

13.  Prakash Singh Committee headed by former DGP of UP Prakash Singh, has submitted its report on Jat Quota agitation to Haryana CM M L Khattar.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Central Asian state leaders inaugurated CASA-1000 power project in Tajikistan: Central Asian state leaders have inaugurated the Central Asia South Asia (CASA-1000) transmission line near Dushanbe in Tajikistan to link the four nations and to promote regional stability, security and prosperity. These countries are Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

2. Indian-American Manjit Singh appointed as Member of President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBI issues norms for prior approval of branch offices by foreign entities in India.

SPORTS:

2. Anil Kumble retained ICC Cricket Committee head, Rahul Dravid made Member.

OBITUARIES:

3. Head of Sant Nirankari Mission Guru Hardev Singh passed away at the age of 62.