Daily GK Updates - 8th November, 2017

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. India successfully conducted a test of its indigenously designed and developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’ at Chandipur, Odisha: Nirbhay missile carries warheads of up to 300 kg and capable of carrying 24 kinds of war weapons. Nirbhay is very maneuverable and can fly at tree-top level, making it difficult to detect on radar, and strikes targets of 1,000 km away carrying nuclear warheads. India successfully conducted a flight test of its indigenously designed and developed long-range sub-sonic cruise missile ‘Nirbhay’.

2. The 20th International Children’s Film Festival of India (ICFFI) has been started at Shilpa Kala Vedika in Hyderabad with “New India”- as the main theme this time would last from 8 to 14 November: 317 films from over hundred countries will be screened in about 40 theatres in Hyderabad and also at the district headquarters across the state. Children's Film Society, India (CFSI) and Telangana State Government are jointly organizing the biennial children’s event. They include - Sweeden film ‘SIV Sleeps Astray' Russian film Pitch', Netherlands film 'Sky', the film from Germany Nelly's Adventure, Canada film ‘Anthems: A Journey Around The World’, film from Egypt-Wintry Spring. Children's Film Society of India (CFSI) is a nodal organization of the Government of India that produces children's films and television programmes in various Indian languages. CFSI promotes films which provide healthy and wholesome entertainment for children.

3. Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani flagged off Digital Rath in New Delhi to create awareness among people for the cashless transaction: UPI transactions have increased from 3.8 million in April to 77 million in October this -year. The digital Rath will travel (20 thousand kilometer) from Delhi to Lucknow, then Kolkata, Puducherry, Mumbai, and Bhopal till 31st Dec 2017.

4. Prince of Wales Charles Philip Arthur George accompanied by Duchess of Cornwall  Camilla has arrived on a 2-day visit to India: This visit is a part of their ten days tour to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, and India. This visit will be the 9th visit of the Prince of Wales to India. India-UK trade is at 12.19 billion dollars. India is the 3rd largest investor in the UK and the 2nd largest international job creator in the United Kingdom(UK).

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. NATO to boost Afghan mission by 3,000 troops: NATO will boost its training mission in Afghanistan by 3,000 troops, chief Jens Stoltenberg said today as Kabul reeled from the latest deadly attack on civilians. Around half the new troops will come from the United States, and the overall size of NATO's training and support mission in the unrest-hit country will increase from 13,000 to 16,000, he said. Speaking a day before NATO defence ministers meet in Brussels, Stoltenberg said the alliance would boost its presence "to help the Afghans break the stalemate, to send a clear message to Taliban to the insurgents that they will not win on the battleground".

2. Trump's China visit - US defends 'Indo-Pacific' concept: As US President Donald Trump began his China visit, a top American official on Wednesday defended Washington's use of the new phrase 'Indo-Pacific' as a "useful construct" and pressed Beijing to join the campaign to target ISIS and the Taliban.

3. 'Storm in a tea cup' - Catalonia is no repeat of euro crisis:  Even though Catalonia's bid for independence may be Spain's worst political crisis in decades, it has been no Grexit, Brexit or even Frexit for foreign investors. Overseas holders of Spanish stocks and bonds -- and indeed owners of euro zone assets in general -- have been quick to dismiss comparisons with a succession of rolling sovereign debt crises that hit the euro zone between 2010 and 2012. Even though Spain's wealthiest region has a bigger economy than Greece, Portugal and Finland, relatively unfazed Spanish and Catalonian assets to date shows markets are treating the crisis ovr Catalonia as a largely domestic issue with few if any systemic sovereign, banking or euro wide threats. On one level the scale of financial risk more than gross domestic output of the area is of a different order. Catalonia's debt level -- at around 77 billion euros -- is around quarter that of Greece. In addition, 52.5 billion euros of that— just over two-thirds — is owed to Spain, a further 8.175 billion euros to resident financial institutions, 6.018 billion euros to the rest of the world and 10.035 billion euros to others, according to the data from the Spanish central bank.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. India beat New Zealand by 6 runs to win T20 Cricket series: India beat New Zealand by six runs to win the three-match T20 Cricket series 2-1 at Thiruvananthapuram. The host India made 67 for 5 in 8 overs as the rain-affected match was reduced to an eight-overs-a side game. New Zealand could manage only 61 for 6 in the stipulated 8 overs. Jasprit Bumrah claimed two wickets while Manish Pandey was the highest scorer with 17 runs.

2. Mitchell Starc makes history with two hat-tricks in one game: left-arm paceman bowler Mitchell Starc (Australia) has become the first man to take two hat-tricks in the same first-class game in Australia as he hit ominous form ahead of the Ashes Test series against England. The left-arm paceman became only the eighth player in first-class cricket history and the first in 39 years to achieve the feat as he spearheaded New South Wales to victory over Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield in Sydney. Starc finished with the match figures of seven for 97 in NSW's 171-run victory.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. India signs loan agreement with World Bank for 119 million dollars for OHEPEE project: India has signed a loan agreement of 119 million dollars with World Bank for the Odisha higher education programme for excellence and equity project. The objective of the project is to improve the quality of students' equitable access to selected institutions and enhance governance of the higher education system in Odisha.

2. Apollo Munich Health Insurance wins ‘General Insurance Company of the Year’: Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company has been conferred with the 21st Asia Insurance Industry Awards in the “General Insurance Company of the Year” category. Its joint venture between integrated healthcare provider, Apollo Hospitals Group, and the Munich Re Group.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Twitter says it is ending its 140-character limit & giving nearly everyone 280 characters: According to the Twitter, it is ending its iconic 140-character limit and giving nearly everyone 280 characters. The expanded limit will get more people tweeting more, helping its lackluster user growth. 9% of tweets written in English hit the 140-character limit. Users tweeting in Chinese, Japanese and Korean will still have the original limit as writing in those languages uses fewer characters. Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages. Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July of that year.

2. Paytm Introduces BHIM UPI for seamless money transfer: Digital payment platform ‘Paytm’ has introduced payments using “BHIM UPI” BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) UPI (Unified Payment Interface) on its platform. Now, users can create their own Paytm BHIM UPI ID on the app, which will be issued by Paytm Payments Bank. They will also not have to share their bank account details and IFSC code with anyone to receive money. As per the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) guidelines, users can send up to Rs. 1 lakh a day using BHIM UPI; while there's no receiving limit.

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY:

1. Most ancient spiral galaxy discovered: Scientists have discovered the most ancient spiral galaxy in the universe that existed 11 billion years ago and could provide insights into the early cosmos. The galaxy, known as A1689B11, existed just 2.6 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only one fifth of its present age. Researchers used a powerful technique that combines gravitational lensing with the Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) to verify the vintage and spiral nature of the galaxy. Gravitational lenses are nature's largest telescopes, created by massive clusters composed of thousands of galaxies and dark matter.0 The cluster bends and magnifies the light of galaxies behind it in a manner similar to an ordinary lens, but on a much larger scale.

HONOURS/AWARDS:

1. Indian short film 'The School Bag' has won the Best Short Film Award at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal (SAFFM): The movie’s plot is based in Peshawar (Pakistan) and tells a story about the relationship between a mother and her seven-year-old son who wants a new school bag on his birthday, but fate has something else in store for him. The film is directed by Dheeraj Jindal.