Daily GK Updates - 8th April, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES

1. India’s forex reserves at all time high: The country’s foreign exchange reserves hit a life-time high of 424.361 billion US dollar. Previously, the reserves had touched a record high of 421.914 billion dollar on February 9, 2018. Gold reserves remained unchanged at 21.614 billion US dollar.

2. Anushka Sharma wins Dadasaheb Excellence Award: Anushka Sharma will be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award 2018 for being a path-breaking producer. The actress has been appreciated for breaking new grounds as a film producer, along with her brother Karnesh Sharma. Three movies produced by Anushka, NH 10, Phillauri and Pari belonged to three different genres, thriller, romance and horror.

3. Tripura launches the state version of PMKVY: Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has launched the state component of Pradhanmantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) in Agartala. He has assured that the target to give training to more than 1 lakh 16,000 youths by 2020 will be achieved. Tripura is the first state in the country to implement pilot project for accreditation for skilled candidates.

4. Kerala to issue brain death certificate: Kerala has become the first state to adopt a standard operating procedure (SOP) for determining brain death cases. According to the SOP, a medical board comprising four doctors-at least one should be from the government service-will be authorised to declare a patient brain dead. To check any misuse, the SOP defines brain dead and state of coma in detail.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES

1. UK’s first permanent Middle East military base: UK has opened its first permanent military base in the Middle East in more than 4 decades in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain. The £40m UK Naval Support facility ‘Jufair’ at Mina Salman will be staffed by up to 500 soldiers, sailors and airmen. Both the countries hope that this base will increase military cooperation between the Royal Navy and its Bahraini counterpart.

2. Japan activated its 1st marine unit since WW2: Japan has activated its 1st marine unit since 2nd World War to counter invaders from occupying Japanese islands. The Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade is the latest component of a growing marine force that includes amphibious ships & assault vehicles. After WW2, a clause was written into Japan’s constitution which stated that armed forces with potential to wage war would not be maintained.

OTHER UPDATES

DEFENCE:

1. Indo-Korean joint exercise SAHYOG- HYEOBLYEOG: Indo-Korean joint anti-piracy, search & rescue exercise ‘SAHYOG- HYEOBLYEOG 2018’ was conducted off the Chennai coast. The joint exercise is a part of ongoing cooperative arrangements b/w the 2 coast guards for the past 12 years. The exercise aims to develop working level co-operation & enhance inter-operability in the fields of maritime search & rescue, anti-piracy operations.

SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY:

1. NASA’s first flight to Sun: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — humanity’s first mission to the Sun — is undergoing final preparations. The mission is scheduled for launch on July 31, 2018. Parker Solar will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere – the corona – closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone.

BANKING / FINANCE:

1. ICICI Bank becomes the first bank to live on SWIFT’s new payment service: ICICI Bank has become first Indian bank to go live on SWIFT’s Global Payment Innovation, an improved cross-border payments service. The service enables real-time payments tracking across correspondent banks & has a facility to track payments instructions across correspondent banks globally. The announcement of the service comes weeks after the discovery Rs 12,900-crore Nirav Modi scam at PNB

BUSINESS / ECONOMY:

1. CCI may be a trouble for Flipkart-Amazon merger: The possible coming together of online retailers Amazon and Flipkart is likely to face close scrutiny on competition issues.

Engaged in intense competition, home-grown Flipkart and Amazon India are leading players in the Indian online retail market place. The combined market share of the two parties, which is around 80 percent is most likely to  pose challenges to the deal.