Daily GK Updates - 22nd August, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Supreme Court Bans Triple Talaq: According to the Supreme Court, triple talaq will not be in operation for six months and asked political parties to keep their differences aside and help Centre in bringing out law on triple talaq. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar also asked the union govt. to come out with legislation on ‘triple talaq’. The Supreme Court set aside the practice of instant triple talaq saying it was violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Triple Talaq is a form of divorce practiced in India, whereby a Muslim man can legally divorce his wife by pronouncing talaq (the Arabic word for divorce) three times. The pronouncement can be oral or written, or, in recent times, delivered by electronic means such as telephone, SMS, email or social media.

2. US-based Indian doctor ‘Dr. Pinaki Panigrahi has discovered an inexpensive prevention technique against sepsis:  His team found that feeding babies with probiotic bacteria dramatically reduces the risk of sepsis in new borns. This is a breakthrough study and going to be an inexpensive treatment that could possibly save hundreds of thousands of newborns from a top killer ‘Sepsis’. Sepsis is a life-threatening illness caused by your body’s response to an infection. In early infancy, it results in one million annual deaths worldwide, most of them in developing countries.

3. ‘Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jayanti’: The 413th ‘jayanti’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (11th guru of Sikhs) is being celebrated with religious fervour on 22nd August, 2017. The Guru Granth Sahib (also called the Adi Granth or Adi Guru Darbar) is more than just a scripture of the Sikhs for the Sikhs treat this Granth as their living perpetual Guru. Sri Guru Arjan Dev ji completed the Aad Granth in 1604 and first Parkash was done at Sri Harmandir Sahib.

4. Digital police portal of India: The union Home minister ‘Rajnath Singh’ has launched a digital police portal to create a national database of crimes and criminals (under the CCTNS project). The police portal will provide 11 searches and 46 reports from the national database for state police and central investigation agencies. The Central investigating and research agencies have also been provided logins to the digital police database to access crime statistics. The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Project (CCTNS) has enabled 13,775 out of 15,398 police stations to enter 100 % data into the software. He said as of now the CCTNS national database has around 7 crore data records pertaining to past and current criminal cases.

5. Urad and Moong dal - under restricted category: According to Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification, Govt. has put imports of ‘Urad’ and ‘Moong dal’ under the restricted category and fixed an annual cap of three lakh tonnes for their import.

6. IFFI to be held in Goa in November2017: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has constituted a 40-member 'preview committee' with filmmaker ‘Vivek Agnihotri’ as its convenor to select movies for the international film festival at Goa. The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Goa from 20 to 28 November this year. Earlier, Information and Broadcasting Ministry had constituted the steering committee and the technical committee for the IFFI.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  ICMR – India signs pact with IVI – S.Korea:  The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Union Ministry of Health inked a pact with the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), South Korea to collaborate on vaccine research and development. The ICMR is the apex body in the country for the formulation, coordination, and promotion of biomedical research. India officially became a signatory to the treaty of the Seoul-based organisation International Vaccine Institute(IVI) in 2012. Now, India is committing an annual contribution of USD 5,00,000 to IVI and joins as financially contributing signatories to IVI.

OTHER UPDATES:

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. ONGC approves to acquire 51.11% stake in HPCL: The board of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has given 'in-principle' approval to acquire government's 51.11 % stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. in New Delhi. The ONGC board also constituted a committee of directors to examine various aspects of the acquisition and to provide its recommendations to the board of directors. Earlier, the union govt. had also approved the sale of its 51.11% stake in oil refiner HPCL to India's largest oil producer ONGC.

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY:

1. World's smallest surgical robot – Versius: British scientists have developed the world’s smallest surgical robot ‘Versius’, which could transform daily operations for tens of thousands of patients. The robot ‘Versius’ mimics the human arm and can be used to carry out a wide range of laparoscopic procedures like hernia repairs, colorectal operations, and prostate and ear, nose, and throat surgery. The robot is controlled by a surgeon at a console guided by a 3D screen in the operating theatre.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Android ‘Oreo’ is launched by Google: Google has launched the latest version of its mobile operating system ‘Android Oreo’. The Oreo boasts of a two times faster boot speed, autofill option, and a longer battery life. The new update comes with a Picture-in-Picture feature that allows the user to see two apps simultaneously. There is also a Notification Dots option, which when pressed pops out the notification at a glance without having to open the app. Android Instant Apps is another new feature, which teleports directly into new apps from the browser, with no installation needed. Android Oreo is more secure with Google Play Protect built in, security status front and centre in settings.

2. FDI growth 37% to 10.4 billion USD: Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country grew by 37% to USD 10.4 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal and bulk FDI came from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands, and Japan. According to the figures of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) India had received around USD 8 billion during the same period last year. The main sectors which attracted the highest foreign inflows include services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment made by a company or individual in one country in business interests in another country, in the form of either establishing business operations or acquiring business assets in the other country.