Daily GK Updates - 8th December, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Union Cabinet approvals: Cabinet approves MoU with Afghanistan on cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space. Cabinet approves MoU with United Kingdom UK to support ease of doing business in India. India and United Kingdom (UK) MoU for cooperation in field of Intellectual Property approved. Cabinet approves Indo-Thai agreement on narcotics control.

2. Serendipity Arts Festival to be held in Goa: The Serendipity Arts Festival (SAF) is scheduled to be held from 16 December to 23 December 2016 in Goa. The festival will see a stellar line-up of 33 global artists, who will display their work at the eight-day inspiration-packed festival.

3. Microsoft launches solutions for SMEs: Microsoft has introduced business solutions from its partner ecosystem to meet the business needs of small and medium businesses across Kerala. Built by Microsoft’s ISV partners Smarter SMB and IDOS, these solutions address key areas like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Finance & Accounting and enhancing organisational efficiency. These solutions will run on Microsoft cloud and will be available at very low cost.

4. Karnataka Bank gets award: Karnataka Bank Ltd has bagged the ‘Best MSME Bank Award (private sector) 2016’ instituted by Assocham. Union Minister of State for MSME Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary handed over the award.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Donald Trump named TIME Person of the Year 2016: The TIME magazine has named US President-elect Donald Trump as Person of the Year 2016 and called him the President of the 'Divided States of America'. The magazine cited his role for the stunning victory in the US Presidential election.Prime Minister NarendraModi was among the 11 candidates shortlisted by Time for its annual honour.

2. Donal Trump selects lowa Governor Branstad as U.S Envoy to China: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has selected Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as his incoming government's ambassador to China. "Branstad has a tremendous understanding of China and the Chinese people and is someone who very much impressed the President-elect.

3. Justice Mian Saqib Nisar appointed as the next Chief Justice of Pakistan.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. NABARD to provide Rs 120 crore to banks for setting up PoS devices in villages: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) on 08 December said it will extend support aggregating about Rs. 120 crore to banks for deployment of two Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices per village in one lakh villages having a population of up to 10,000. The move is aimed at taking rural India closer towards cashless payment systems.