Daily GK Updates - 21st October, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Film on murdered journalist Gauri Lankesh to be made: A Kannada film will be made by director AMR Ramesh who knew Gauri Lankesh personally. He said that his focus will be on who killed her and would be done with clarity.

2. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar resigns: The Solicitor General of India is below the Attorney General for India and its primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India. Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar has resigned due to personal reasons. In June 2014, he was appointed solicitor general after the Modi government came to power.

3. Meals served on train to have details of quantity and supplier: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has directed officials to ensure that meals served onboard trains carry information about quantity, date of packing and the contractor supplying it. As of now, the packets only mention if the food is vegetarian or non-vegetarian.

4. IIT Bombay partially rolls back hiked fee: After students protested against the fee hike introduced in May this year, the institute has decided to partially roll back. The roll back varies between 28-43% depending on various categories.

5. 150 people trapped after dam collapses in Maharashtra: A check dam on Pimpaldoh lake in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar collapsed causing flooding and inundation in Arangaon village . They have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force teams which were rushed to the spot. 

6. Centre gives clearance to greenfield airport project at Hirasar near Rajkot in Gujarat: The Centre has given clearance for a greenfield airport project at Hirasar, near Rajkot in Gujarat.The Environment Ministry has given the environment clearance to the Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Ltd (GSAICL) for development of a greenfield airport at Rajkot at a cost of over 1,400 crore rupees.The proposed project will aid the development of trade and tourism besides improving regional connectivity in Gujarat.

7. Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurates 1st phase of PNG supply system in Bhubaneswar: The Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has inaugurated first phase of Piped Natural Gas supply system in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. In the first phase, 255 houses in Nalco Nagar in Chandrasekharpur of Bhubaneswar were supplied with environment-friendly PNG. Around 25 thousand households in twin-city Bhubaneswar and Cuttack would get PNG connection by end of next year. The overall capital expenditure for the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack gas distribution projects will cost around Rs. 1700 crore. Piped Natural gas (PNG) is used for Domestic, Commercial and Industrial Consumption. PNG has several distinctions to its credit of being a pollution-free fuel, economical and safer fuel being few of them.

8. 500 long distance trains to run quicker from next month: The Indian Railways will soon cut short the running time of over 500 long distance trains by up to two hours. The new timings will be updated in the November timetable of the railways. The railways has also started the exercise of an internal audit through which 50 mail and express trains will be upgraded to super-fast services. This is part of an overhaul of the rail system of increasing the average speed of existing trains.

9. International conference on consumer protection to be held on 26th Oct: A two-day international conference on consumer protection will be held in New Delhi on 26th October, 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the conference. The conference will discuss how the UN guidelines on consumer protections can be implemented. The Consumer Affairs Ministers and representatives of 24 South East Asian countries will attend the conference on the theme of empowering consumers in the age of new markets.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Jacinda Ardern to be next New Zealand PM: Jacinda Ardern (37-year) is set to become the next prime minister of New Zealand just months after taking control of the opposition Labour party in the middle of an election campaign. She will become one of her country’s youngest prime ministers and the third woman to lead a government after winning the support of the nationalist New Zealand First party. The Labour-NZ First coalition controls 55 of the 120 seats in the country's parliament and the Green Party supporting it with eight lawmakers cross the 61-mark to pass policies.

2. Musharraf blames Zardari for Benazir Bhutto’s murder: Pakistan’s ex-President Pervez Musharraf accused former PM Benazir Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari of Bhutto’s murder. Musharraf claimed that Zardari,who co-chaired the People’s Party of Pakistan after Bhutto’s death had the most to gain from her murder.

3. Hurricane Maria towards Atlantic Ocean: Hurricane Maria which struck the Dominica Island made landfall in Puerto Rico. It is likely to reach the Turks and Calicos Islands, the Bahamas and travel north into the Atlantic Ocean.

4. UAE appoints country's first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence:  Artificial intelligence (AI) is apparently intelligent behavior by machines, rather than the natural intelligence (NI) of humans and other animals. The UAE has named Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama (27-years) as the country's first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence (AI). His appointment is part of the UAE's ambition to be at the forefront of the global technological revolution. Other new positions created in the reshuffle include a Minister for Advanced Sciences and another for Food Security.

5. Have short range nuclear weapons to counter Indian conflict - Pakistan: Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the country has short range nuclear weapons to counter India’s Cold Start military doctrine. Pakistan is on course of having 350 nuclear weapons, the world’s third largest stockpile after US and Russia.

6. China gets world’s fastest bullet train: China started operating the world’s fastest bullet train, Fuxing between Beijing and Shanghai. The train has an average speed of 350 km/hr and maximum speed of 400 km/hr.

 OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Dhoni becomes 6th cricketer to play 300 ODI’s for India : MS Dhoni played 303 ODI’S overall with the former captain having played 3 ODI’s for Asia XI in 2007.Sachin Tendulkar has played most ODI’s for India at 463 followed by Rahul Dravid at 340.

2. Sindhu, Saina crash out of Japan Open : Sindhu lost to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara and Saina lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin in the second round. Both of them lost to their opponents in straight sets.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Birla Sun Life, Max Life initiate merger talks: Analjit-Singh promoted Max Financial services is in talks with Aditya Birla Group to explore a merger of their life insurance businesses. Singh is also in talks with Apax Partners to sell his 30% stake in Max Financial.

2. GSTN launches excel-based offline tool to file initial GSTR-3B returns: Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has launched an Excel-based offline tool for businesses to file initial GSTR- 3B returns. Now, taxpayers can download the offline utility from the GSTN portal and after filling in the data the file can be uploaded on GST portal. After uploading of the return to the GST Portal, the taxpayer has to preview the form, complete formalities like submit, offset the liability and file their GSTR-3B Return using digital signature or electronic verification code. This facility will provide an opportunity to the taxpayer to verify details of GSTR 3B before filing and minimise chances of error.

3. BlackRock sells Singapore office tower for $1.5 billion: World’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, is selling its Asia Square Tower 2 in Singapore. The deal will mark Singapore’s second largest office building sale. Last year, Qatar Investment Authority had bought Tower 1 from Black Rock for $2.5 billion.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1.Govt permits banks to sell more small savings schemes: The government has authorized all public-sector banks and three private banks (ICICI, HDFC, and Axis) to accept deposits under various small savings schemes like National Savings Certificate (NSC), recurring deposits and monthly income plan. So far, public sector banks were allowed to receive subscription under Public Provident Fund (7.8%), Kisan Vikas Patra-2014 (7.5%-mature in 115 months), Sukanya Samriddhi Account (one for girl child savings-8.3%), Senior Citizen Savings Scheme-2004 (8.3 per%- quarterly). Increased outlets for selling small savings scheme would result in higher mobilization under the scheme.

2. Yes Bank cuts over 2,500 jobs: Private sector lender Yes Bank cut nearly 2,500 jobs citing reasons such as digitisation and bad performance. The bank had 20,851 employees at the end of June.

OBITUARIES:

1. Former CPI-M MP Amal Datta passes away: Former CPI-M Lok Sabha member Amal Datta (84-year) passed away at a private hospital in Kolkata yesterday following a cardiac arrest. Datta represented Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal for 14 years. He was a nephew of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu.