Daily GK Updates - 20th June, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. India BPO promotion scheme : The Union government is planning to expand its BPO promotion scheme under the Digital India initiative.The government has proposed to more than double the number of seats under the scheme.The India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS), envisaged under Digital India Programme, seeks to incentivize establishment of 48,300 seats in respect of BPO/ITES operations across the country.

2. Anukreethy Vas crowned Miss India 2018 : Tamil Nadu’s Anukreethy Vas was named Miss India at the 55th Femina Miss India 2018.Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar, who won the title last year, crowned Anukreethy, who will go on to represent India at Miss World.Haryana’s Meenakshi Chaudhary stood second while Andhra Pradesh’s Shreya Rao Kamavarapu ranked third.Malaika Arora and Irfan Pathan were among the judges.

3. Free meal on Sunday in case of train delay : Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said that free meals will be provided to passengers if trains get delayed by five-six hours because of maintenance works on tracks on a Sunday.“We are also considering free meals to passengers travelling on unreserved tickets,” Goyal added.The Railways will also rework its passenger train timetable to reflect all the planned traffic blocks.

4. Jammu & Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti Resigns : Jammu & Kashmir’s Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti submitted her resignation to the Governor after BJP announced to pull out of an alliance with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).The reason for the pullout was failure to control the situation in the state and meet its promises.

BJP’s General Secretary Ram Madhav also called for Governor’s rule in Jammu & Kashmir.

5.workshop on Cyber Security Framework 2018 : A workshop on cyber security for Department of Defence was organised by Department Defence Production, MoD. It was inaugurated by Defence Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.The framework is in line with guidelines for organisations to target the area of cyber security and identify improvements in the area.Joint Secretary and Chief Information Security Officer of DDP is Dr Amit Sahai.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Pakistan has more nuclear warheads than India : Pakistan, with 140-150 nuclear warheads, is ahead of India which has 130-140 warheads, according to a report by global think-tank SIPRI.“India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear weapon stockpiles as well as developing new land-, sea- and air-based missile delivery systems,” the report stated.Meanwhile, US and Russia are on top with 6,450 and 6,850 warheads, respectively.

2. World Refugee Day : World Refugee Day, international observance observed June 20 each year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world.On 4 December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 55/76 decided that, from 2001, 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day.UNHCR host World Refugee Day events in order to draw the public’s attention.

3.India, Italy agreed to revitalise ties : India and Italy agreed to boost cooperation in counter-terrorism and cybersecurity as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met the top Italian leadership and discussed steps to revitalise bilateral ties.It was the first major political exchange between the two countries.Ms. Swaraj is there on the first leg of her seven-day tour of four European countries.

4.Google to train 8000 Indian journalist : Google will provide training to 8,000 journalists in English and six other Indian languages on fact checking.Training workshops will be conducted in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and Kannada.Google News Initiative India Training Network will select 200 journalists from cities across India and train them during 5 day train-the-trainer boot camps.

5. SAARC launches social enterprise programme : SAARC Development Fund launches a social enterprise development programme (SEDP) to fund 80 entities annually across eight-member states.SDF was established in April 2010 and its council comprises finance ministers of these eight SAARC countries.The SDF CEO is Sunil MotiwalSDF has already committed $73.74 million for social window projects out of which it has disbursed $47 million.

OTHER UPDATES:

BANKING/FINANANCE:

1. ICICI Bank Names Sandeep Bakhshi As COO : The ICICI Bank board has appointed ICICI Prudential Life Insurance CEO Sandeep Bakhshi as whole-time director and chief operating officer (COO).It is a new top position at India’s second largest private bank, to steer all its businesses.Chanda Kochhar, ICICI Bank’s managing director and CEO will remain on leave until a committee investigating allegations of impropriety completes its work.

DEFENCE:

1. Dhanush artillery gun clears final trials : The indigenously upgraded artillery gun Dhanush has successfully completed final user trials and is ready for induction into the Army.Dhanush is an upgraded version of the Swedish Bofors gun procured by India in the mid-1980s.This was the third and final phase of user exploitation firings in which six Dhanush guns were fired in battery formation at the Pokhran field firing range.