Daily GK Updates - 5th March, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES

1. Silver Jubilee of Losar festival celebrated: Buddhist Community of Itanagar celebrated the silver jubilee of the Losar Festival. The festival was full of cultural presentations from across the state, including the colourful Bhutanese and the Gorkha Cultural programs. For the locals, Losar gives them a good harvesting year ahead. For the Buddhist community, the festival is termed as the ‘New Year’ according to their Buddhist calendar.

2. KHUSHI Scheme launched by Odisha: The Odisha government launched KHUSHI scheme to provide free sanitary napkins to school girls across the state.  The scheme will be implemented by the health and family welfare department of the state at a cost of 70 crores per year. Under the scheme, the state will provide free sanitary napkins to 17 lakh girls studying in Classes 6 to 12 in government and government-aided schools. The announcement was made by the CM of Odisha Naveen Patnaik.

3. Smiriti Irani inaugurates the FICCI Frame: Information and Broadcasting Minister Smiriti Irani inaugurated 2018 edition of FICCI Frame in Mumbai. This year a maiden edition of Content Market has been added with over 70 buyers for a curated slate of new Indian Films. The event will have more than 35 knowledge sessions by experts besides having over 200 high profile speakers from across the world.

4. Conrad Sangma to be the next CM of Meghalaya: National People’s Party (NPP) President Conrad Sangma will be the new chief minister of Meghalaya. NPP came out as the second largest party with 19 seats in the recently held elections which threw a hung verdict. He will replace congress leader Mukul Sangma.

5. “Arogya Karnataka” Scheme launched: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah unveiled a healthcare scheme named 'Arogya Karnataka' (Healthy Karnataka) aimed at benefitting about 1.43 crore households in the state. It will provide quality primary, secondary and tertiary treatment to both below-poverty-line (BPL) and above-poverty-line (APL) families in the state. Through the scheme, all households will get free treatment at government hospitals while for households, the state will bear about 30% of the treatment cost.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES

1. The Shape of Water wins the Best Picture Award at Oscars: The Shape of Water has won the Oscar for best picture at the 90th Academy Awards. The Shape of Water is American fantasy drama film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. Set in Baltimore in 1962, the plot follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid-amphibian creature.

2. Merkel secures fourth term in power as the Chancellor of Germany: Angela Merkel has secured her 4th term in power after Social Democratic party agreed to form another “grand coalition” govt. with conservative Christian Democratic Union. The decision ends almost 6 months of political uncertainty in Germany, the longest time the country has been without a govt in its post-war history. The deal will form her third grand coalition during her time as the Chancellor.

3. India is the 12th largest holder of US securities: India’s exposure to US government securities rose sharply to a high of $144.7 billion at the end of 2017. In 2017, China was the largest holder of US government securities with holdings to the tune of $1.18 trillion, followed by Japan at $1.06 trillion.

4. Hindu woman elected to Pakistan’s senate: Krishna Kumari Kohli from Pakistan’s Sindh province has become the first ever Hindu Dalit woman Senator. She is a member of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan People’s Party. Her election represents a major milestone for women & minority rights in Pakistan. She has actively participated & worked for the rights of downtrodden people of marginalised communities living in Thar and other areas.

5. Oscar Complete List of Winners: The 90th Annual Academy Awards (also known as Oscar Awards) were held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the USA. The Shape Of Water won the top prize - Best Picture. Jimmy Kimmel hosted the ceremony for the second year in a row. He has become the first host since Billy Crystal to do it again.

1.    Best Picture    The Shape Of Water 2.    Best Director    Guillermo del Toro, The Shape Of Water 3.    Best Actress    Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 4.    Best Actor    Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour 5.    Best Supporting Actress   -Allison Janney, I, Tonya 6.    Best Supporting Actor    Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 7.    Best Original Screenplay    Get Out 8.    Best Adapted Screenplay    Call Me By Your Name 9.    Best Animated Feature Film    Coco 10.    Best Foreign Language Film    A Fantastic Woman, Chile 11.    Best Original Score    The Shape Of Water 12.    Best Original Song    Remember Me, Coco 13.    Best Documentary Feature    Icarus 14.    Best Documentary Short    Heaven Is A Traffic Jam On The 405 15.    Best Live Action Short    The Silent Child 16.    Best Animation Short    Dear Basketball 17.    Best Sound Editing    Dunkirk 18.    Best Sound Mixing    Dunkirk 19.    Best Production Design    The Shape Of Water 20.    Best Cinematography    Blade Runner 21.    Best Makeup And Hair    Darkest Hour 22.    Best Costume Design   Phantom Thread 23.    Best Film Editing    Dunkirk 24.    Best Visual Effects    Blade Runner

OTHER UPDATES

SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY:

1. Bandicoot robot developed to eradicate manual scavenging: The Bandicoot Robot, developed by a start-up in Kerala, GenRobotics, is a semi-automatic robotic system for manhole and sewer line cleaning. Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), a start-up incubator under the Kerala government, funded the project proposed by GenRobotics to find a solution for manual scavenging. Kerala will become the first state in India to be manual scavenging-free.

2. NASA to launch TESS for the discovery of planets: Launching in April on a two-year primary mission, the observatory could ultimately discover 20,000 planets. Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will operate as a kind of exoplanet surveillance camera, making its journey around Earth every 13.7 days. The target area for the TESS mission doesn’t exceed 300 light-years distant from Earth.

DEFENCE:

1. DefExpo to be organized: DefExpo 2018 will, for the first time, project India’s Defence manufacturing capabilities to the world. DefExpo 2018 will brand India as a defence exporter of several defence systems and components for all three Services – Army, Navy and Air Force. The DefExpo is being held on sea-shore, along the East Coast road enroute Chennai to Mahabalipuram.

BANKING / FINANCE:

1. RBI tightens PSL norms for banks: RBI has tightened priority sector lending norms for foreign banks by directing them to create sub-targets so that they lend a portion of their loans to small & marginal farmers as well as MSMEs. Move is directed at foreign banks with over 20 branches & will come into force from next financial year. PSL norms mandate foreign banks to lend 40% of their total loan book to the priority sector.

SPORTS:

1. Viswanathan Anand won Rapid event: Viswanathan Anand won the rapid event at the 11th Tal Memorial chess in Moscow. Anand finished with six points out of a possible nine, scoring four wins and four draws. Anand defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexander Grischuk and Daniil Dubov of Russia and Hikaru Nakamura of United States en route to his final score.

2. Dhoni becomes brand ambassador of Dream 11: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has become a brand ambassador of gaming platform Dream11. Dhoni will be the new face of the gaming platform’s multi-channel marketing campaigns and brand engagement activities.

Currently the gaming platform has an user base of 2 crore sports fans playing “fantasy cricket, football, kabaddi and NBA.