Daily GK Updates - 8th January, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Budget session of Parliament to begin from January 31^st, 2017: The Budget session of Parliament convened to start from January 31, a day before the Union Budget is likely to be presented. President Pranab Mukherjee has summoned the RajyaSabha to meet on January 31, 2017. A similar notification is also expected from the LokSabha secretariat. The practice of separate railway Budget presentation is being scrapped from this year. The railway estimates will be part of the Union Budget.

2. PM Modi and Portuguese PM Antonio Costa inaugurate PBD Convention at Bengaluru: In his key note address at the 14th PravasiBhartiya Divas celebrations, Mr Modi said, the Indian diaspora represents the best of Indian culture, ethos and values. Indians abroad are valued not just for their strength in numbers.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. China to build world’s highest altitude telescopes in Tibet: China is setting up the world's highest altitude gravitational wave telescopes in a Tibet prefecture close to Line of Actual Control with India with a budget of $18.8 million to detect faintest echoes resonating from the universe which may reveal more about the Big Bang theory. Construction has started for the first telescope, code-named Ngari No 1, 30 km south of Shiquanhe Town in Ngari Prefecture, said Yao Yongqiang chief researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

2. China’s forex reserves fall by USD 320 billion in 2016: China's Central Bank says, the country's foreign currency reserves shrank last year, marking large annual losses for the 2nd year in a row. Officials at the People's Bank of China said that foreign reserves stood at over three trillion dollars as of the end of December, 2016. For the year as a whole, China's foreign exchange reserve fell nearly 320 billion dollars from a year earlier, following a drop of more than 512 billion dollars in 2015.

3. Donald Trump names Dan Coats as new National Intelligence Director.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Sania wins Brisbane’s women’s doubles title but loses no.1 rank: In his key note address at the 14th PravasiBhartiya Divas celebrations, Mr Modi said, the Indian diaspora represents the best of Indian culture, ethos and values. Indians abroad are valued not just for their strength in numbers.

2. Djokovic wins Qatar Open tennis title: Novak Djokovic has won the Qatar Open tennis title. In an epic final in Doha, the Serbian defeated Andy Murray of UK by 6-3 5-7 6-4.