Daily GK Updates - 12th March, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. India successfully test-fires new BrahMos supersonic cruise missile: India successfully test-fired an extended range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the Chandipur Integrated Test Range, off the Odisha coast.

The strike range of the new BrahMos missile has been enhanced from 290 to 450 km.

2. PM Narendra Modi launches #IAmNewIndia campaign: PM Narendra Modi on Sunday unveiled #IAmNewIndia, a nation-building exercise on the NaMo App, which is "a pledge to build a new India".

3. 'Dangal' won the viewer's choice best film award at 2017 Zee Cine Awards: Alia Bhatt (for Udta Punjab) and Amitabh Bachchan(for Pink) have won Best Actor Female and Best Actor Male awards respectively at Zee Cine Awards 2017.

'Dangal' won the Viewer's Choice Best Film award.

Salman Khan (Best Actor) and Anushka Sharma (Best Actress) for their film 'Sultan' based on votes by viewers. Further, the song 'Channa Mereya' from the film 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' was named the Viewer's Choice Song of the Year.

4. Venkaiah Naidu Inaugurates India’s Largest Waste-To-Power Plant in New Delhi: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation launched India’s largest municipal waste-to-power plant at Narela-Bawana in New Delhi on March 10, 2017.

The 24 megawatt (MW) Narela-Bawana waste-to-energy plant was inaugurated by the Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu at the Civic Centre.

5. Exhibition “Revolutionary Patriots (1905-1947)” inaugurated: On the occasion of 127th Foundation Day of National Archives of India (NAI), an exhibition entitled “Revolutionary Patriots (1905-1947)” was inaugurated by Shri N.K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture in the presence of Shri Raghvendra Singh, Director General of NAI and many dignitaries. 

6.  India’s Largest Floating Solar PV Plant Installed by NTPC in Kerala: State-run National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has installed India’s largest floating Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Plant at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant (RGCCPP) at Kayamkulam in Kerala on March 10, 2017.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Thai contestant wins transgender beauty pageant: Thai contestant Jiratchaya Sirimongkolnawin was crowned Miss International Queen 2016 on Friday at a contest billed as the world's largest and most popular transgender pageant. The contest was held at the Tiffany's nightclub in the Thai seaside town of Pattaya.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

1. Paytm withdraws 2% fee on adding money to mobile wallets using credit cards: Paytm has withdrawn the 2 % fee on adding money to mobile wallets using credit cards, after introducing the levy.

The company had introduced the fee after finding multiple users using its platform to get free credit by using credit cards to top up their mobile wallets and then transferring the money back to their bank accounts at zero transaction cost.

BANKING:

2. Karnataka Bank, Bajaj Allianz sign MoU on general insurance business: Mangalore based Karnataka Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pune based Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company for General Insurance business on March 10, 2017

OBITUARIES:

3. Chemistry Nobel laureate George Olah dies aged 89: Hungarian–American chemist George Olah was passed away in in Beverly Hills, USA. He was 89. Olah received the chemistry Nobel prize for his work on carbocations via superacids in 1994. He also won the Széchenyi Grand Prize of Hungary and the American Chemical Society’s Priestley Medal.