Daily GK Updates - 20th August, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Utkal Express derailment - Railways to probe if maintenance work caused accident: The Indian Railways on Sunday indicated negligence could be the reason behind the derailment of the Utkal Express, with a senior official saying a probe would ascertain if any maintenance work was being done on the tracks without permission. The probe, which will begin on Monday, will be conducted by the commissioner (railway safety), Shailesh Kumar Pathak, who will look into “every angle, be it sabotage, technical lapse or manual fault”.

2. Bank unions call for all-India strike on 22 August against privatisation: Nearly 10 lakh bank employees are likely to participate in the strike to protest plans to privatise PBUs, merger, consolidation of banks and not to write-off NPAs, say unions. Services at public sector banks (PSBs) may take a hit on Tuesday as all unions under the aegis of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) have threatened to go on strike against the government’s proposed consolidation move besides raising a host of other demands.

3. IIT JEE (Advanced) to go completely online from next year: The entrance examination for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will go completely online from 2018, the joint admission board decided on Sunday. The joint admission board, which is the policymaking body on IIT admissions, took the decision at a meeting in New Delhi.

4. Govt plans monthly fellowship of Rs70,000 for IIT, IISc researchers: The Centre will provide Rs70,000 as monthly fellowship to those researchers doing their PhDs in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) or Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Union higher education secretary Kewal Kumar Sharma has said. However, the scholarship recipients can’t do any other job.

5. BRO gets more powers for road construction along China border: Concerned over inordinate delays in the construction of strategic roads along the India-China border, the defence ministry has delegated more administrative and financial powers to the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) for the speedy completion of the projects. The decision to give additional powers to BRO came months after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) also took strong objection to the long delays by the BRO in constructing 61 strategically important roads, with a total length of 3,409km, under the India-China Border Roads (ICBRs) project.

6. BSF begins drive to curb suicides: In a first-of-its-kind step, the Border Security Force (BSF) has launched two ambitious projects to curb suicides and depression amongst its jawans and has introduced a ‘wellness quotient assessment’ test in their annual medical check-up.

7. Rajiv Gandhi remembered on his birth anniversary: Rajiv Gandhi was born on 20th August, 1944 and was assassinated on May 21, 1991.“On his birth anniversary, we remember former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi & recall his contribution to the nation,” Modi tweeted.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Indian-origin TV star crowned ‘Child Genius’: A 12-year-old Indian-origin boy has been crowned as the U.K.’s ‘Child Genius’ in a popular television quiz competition, days after he became an overnight sensation after answering all questions correctly. Rahul Doshi won the Channel 4 show ‘Child Genius’ by beating his nine-year-old opponent, Ronan, 10-4 in the programme’s finale.

2. Iraq starts offensive to take back Tal Afar from Islamic State: Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar on Sunday, their next objective in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was quoted saying.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. England thrashes West Indies: Stuart Broad starred as England thrashed the West Indies by an innings and 209 runs to ensure the inaugural day/night Test in Britain ended inside three days at Edgbaston.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:

2. Three insurance companies file IPO papers in 3 weeks, may fetch Rs20,000 crores: HDFC Standard Life Insurance’s IPO is expected to fetch Rs7,500 crore, while IPOs of New India Assurance and GIC of India may raise over Rs6,500 crore each. A positive outlook of the market is the reason behind increase in the number of IPOs.

3. Infosys approves Rs13,000 crore share buyback at 24.57% premium: The buyback offer size is 20.51% of the total paid-up equity capital and free reserves of the company as per the latest audited balance sheet as on 30 June, 2017,” said a company statement to BSE. However, the buyback price at Rs. 1,150 per share is at a steep 24.57% premium to the closing price of Rs. 923.10 on 19th August.