Daily GK Updates - 24th June, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Maharashtra government to launch ‘My Plant’ mobile app on tree plantation: Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has announced to launch (on 1st July) a mobile app named 'My Plant', which would help in recording data about tree plantations in the state. Using this app, people and organizations can feed the data about the saplings they have planted with the Forest Department.

2. Govt. launches portal on weather information: At the meeting of the Forum of Regulators, The Union Minister of State (IC) Shri Piyush Goyal has launched Weather Portal for Power Sector in association with POSOCO and IMD. The portal provides regional weather information to help & manage power distribution for the current day and up to next 7 days. The weather information on the portal will also help in better planning for infrastructure availability to ensure cost effective and reliable supply.

3. Commemorative postage stamp on 50 years of Passports Act released: To mark the completion of 50 years of the Passports Act-1967, a new commemorative postage stamp. The passport rules have been reformed in the recent past and efforts are being to provide the passport to the citizens at the earliest and at his/her door steps. Now, no one should have to travel more than 50 kilometres to get his or her passport.

4. Maharashtra govt. enters into agreement with Ola for skill development: Cab aggregator ‘Ola’ and the Maharashtra govt. entered into an agreement to train 20,000 youth to become micro-entrepreneurs in the field of passenger transport in the next five years. The state govt intends to develop skills of youth and create jobs and through the Pramod Mahajan Kaushalya Vikas Yojana, youth in different sectors are being trained to become entrepreneurs.

5.Venkaiah Naidu presents 100 volumes of CWMG to Sabarmati Ashram: The Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has presented the 100 volumes of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) published by the Publications Division to Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. To ensure that Gandhian thoughts reach the new generation readers, all these restored editions have also been made available as e-Books, and are available for online sale. The Publications Division is working in coordination with Gandhian institutions to bring out restored editions of heritage books on Mahatma Gandhi.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. India & Russia agree to roadmap for development of defense cooperation: For the development of bilateral defense cooperation, India and Russia have agreed to a roadmap at the meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation in Moscow. The 17th meeting held under the Co-Chairmanship of the Defence Minister Arun Jaitley (India) and the Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (Russia). The roadmap includes specific activities to be concluded by both sides and aims to enhance cooperation in the field of political and military dialogue, exercises, exchange of visits, military cooperation and training of military personnel.

OTHER UPDATES:

AWARDS:

1. West Bengal wins prestigious UN Public Service Award: The state of West Bengal has received the ‘2017 UN Public Service Award’. The award has been given for the 'Kanyashree Prakalpa'. Department of Women Development and Social Welfare (DWD&SW), Government of West Bengal has designed the ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’, a conditional cash transfer scheme with the aim of improving the status and well-being of the girl child in West Bengal by incentivizing schooling of all teenage girls and delaying their marriages until the age of 18 years.

BANKING & FINANCE:

2.RBI amends Banking Ombudsman Scheme: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the scope of Banking Ombudsman Scheme, under which banks could be penalized for miss-selling third-party products like insurance and mutual funds via mobile or electronic banking. It enables a customer to lodge a complaint against the bank for its non-adherence to RBI instructions in India. As per the amendment, the pecuniary authority of the Banking Ombudsman to pass an award has been doubled to 20 lakh rupees.

3. Govt. asks banks to deposit junked notes at RBI by July 20: By 20^th July this year all the banks and post offices are permitted to deposit junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with the Reserve Bank. This is the second window (earlier till 31st Dec) the govt. has provided to banks, post offices and cooperative banks for depositing the junked notes with RBI. They should get the exchange value by credit to the account of such subject to the satisfaction of the RBI of the conditions specified.