Daily GK Updates - 17th August, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Amritsar: India opens first Partition museum 70 years after bloody event: A new museum on the Partition of the Indian subcontinent opens this week, as the two South Asian giants India and Pakistan mark seven decades as independent nations. The museum is a nonprofit trust that has raised money from individuals such as Indian ad guru Suhel Seth and companies including Airtel and the Hindustan Times. The Punjab government donated the space.

2. Maharashtra CM inaugurates next gen projection mapping system: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today inaugurated the next generation projection mapping system at the iconic Gateway of India in south Mumbai.  Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Nana Patekar narrated the story and history of Mumbai at the arch monument against the backdrop of a laser and light show held tonight.  Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, business tycoon Anand Mahindra, ministers Subhash Desai, Ram Shinde, Jaykumar Rawal were also present on the occasion.

3. Shantosh Sharma-a newly appointed CMD of HCL: Santosh Sharma was on Monday appointed as chairman and managing director (CMD) of Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL). He is currently director (operations) in the same company. The appointments committee of the cabinet (ACC) has approved his appointment to the post for a period of five years.

4. Parsi Festival – Navroz: Navroz, the beginning of the Parsi New Year, falls today. It is celebrated for health, wealth, prosperity and productivity. Parsis are a very prominent community in India despite their small number. They have made a mark in diverse fields. Scientist Homi Jehangir Bhabha was a pioneer in atomic research. JRD Tata was a legendary businessman. Sam Manekshaw was India's first field Marshal. Parsi community is known for contributing greatly to Indian business. The government-supported Jiyo Parsi Scheme was launched on September 24, 2013. It is unique programme aimed at arresting the decline in population of the Parsi community in India. Parsis don't cremate or bury corpses but leave them for vultures to feed on at a place called Tower of Silence. After 1990, when there was a decline in the number of vultures, many began using electric crematorium. Parsis have more females compared to males in their community—1,050 females per 1,000 males, much higher than India’s average of 933 females, according to the 2001 Census. Parsis are commonly seen speaking either Gujarati or English. But their native language is Avestan. Zoroastrianism was founded by Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran about 3,500 years ago. The Avesta is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism. Demographic trends project that by 2020, there will be only 23,000 Parsis left in the country which will take away their community tag and label them as tribals. According to the 2001 census, the Parsi community has the highest literacy rate in the country. Perhaps that's why it has been so successful.

5. Launch of Indira canteen scheme: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched the Indira Canteen scheme—a state government initiative named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi—aimed at providing food at low cost to the urban poor.  The canteen, located at Kanakanapalya in Jayanagar, an upscale locality in Bengaluru, is one of 101 such across various locations in the city on Wednesday.  To be sure, many of the Indira Canteens did not open for service on Wednesday.  The canteens are loosely modelled on late Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s ‘Amma Canteens’.

6. Establishment of GeMSamvad: An MoU was signed today between Government eMarketplace (GeM) SPV and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Smt S Radha Chauhan, CEO GeM and Sh Chandrajit Banerjee, DG, CII singed the MoU on behalf of GeM SPV and CII respectively.  This MoU between GeM and CII is aimed at establishing GeM Samvaad- a participative and collaborative approach with the industry for promoting Indian industry and entrepreneurship. As part of this initiative GeM & the Indian industry shall work together to create GeM related awareness and onboard industry members from across the country.

7. CCEA approves DIPAM for strategic disinvestment:  On August 16, 2017, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved following two proposals of Department of Investment and public Asset Management (DIPAM) for strategic disinvestment. (i)Setting up an Alternative Mechanism (ii)Empowering the Core Group of Secretaries (CGD).

8. Petrol pumps to sell EESL’s energy efficient bulbs, fans:Energy efficient appliances will now be sold in fuel retail outlets of Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs). An agreement between the oil companies and Energy Efficiency Services Ltd was signed by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas. The petrol pump dealers will directly do business with EESL and would get about 10 per cent margin.An eco-system is being developed to enhance the non-fuel retail business of fuel retail outlets.

9. Govt approves completion of North Koel Reservoir Project: The Union cabinet on Wednesday gave its green signal to complete the remaining works of the North Koel Reservoir Project in Jharkhand and Bihar at an estimated expenditure of over Rs 1,622 crore and also approved raising extra budgetary resources of up to Rs. 9,020 crore for completing ongoing irrigation projects in the country.

10. India has 27,312 elephants, census shows : While numbers are lower than in 2012, previous counts were not synchronised & may have had duplication. According to the report, released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change on August 12, Karnataka has the highest number of elephants (6,049), followed by Assam (5,719) and Kerala (3,054).

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Barcelona and Cambrils: Terrorists planned bigger attacks, police reveal amid hunt for van driver. The Spanish terror suspects had been planning even bigger attacks, police have revealed as they continue a massive hunt for the rampaging van driver who ploughed into a crowd in Barcelona. Authorities are in a race against time to find the driver who left 13 people dead and more than 100 wounded on Las Ramblas yesterday afternoon.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Real Madrid wins Spanish super cup 2017: Real Madrid beat Barcelona, 2-0, to complete a 5-1 victory on aggregate in the Spanish Super Cup on Wednesday, dominating its fiercest rival without the need of Cristiano Ronaldo or Gareth Bale. Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema provided the goals in the second leg for a home side that showed confidence that Barcelona sorely lacked.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1.  Aadhar linkage mandatory for farmers to aware crop loans: To ensure hassle-free benefits to farmers under Interest Subvention Scheme, the Reserve Bank of India has advised banks to make Aadhaar linkage mandatory for availing short-term crop loans up to ₹3 lakh in 2017-18. This move is in line with the government’s increasing emphasis on linking Aadhaar to various transactions in the economy including filing Income-Tax returns and getting direct benefit transfer.

2. Shubh Aarambh- a new home loan product by axis bank: Axis Bank has launched Shubh Arambh, a home loan product, that entails waiving off four EMIs each at the end of the fourth, eighth and 12th year of a 20-year loan. In a bid to expand its customer base in the affordable housing segment, Axis Bank on Thursday launched a new product wherein disciplined borrowers will be eligible for waivers of 12 instalments on loans of up to Rs30 lakh.

SCIENCE/ TECHNOLOGY:

1. Malpelo- a new tectonic plate discovered: Misfit plates in the Pacific led scientists to the discovery of a microplate between the Galapagos Islands and the South American coast. This research has been done by the researchers at Rice University.