Daily GK Updates - 7th July, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. President to visit Goa : The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, will visit Goa on July 7 and 8, 2018. This will be his first visit to Goa as the President of India.The President will visit the Basilica of Bom Jesus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Old Goa, and Shri Mangueshi Temple in Mardol, before returning to Delhi.The President will also address the 30th annual convocation of the Goa University.

2. Highest LHS launched in Sambalpur : East Coast Railway launched highest ever 6 (six) Limited Height Subways (LHS) in Sambalpur Division.With this, the Sambalpur Division became the first to eliminate all unmanned Level Crossing Gates in Indian Railways.In view of the launching of six LHS, 7 unmanned Level Crossing gates will be totally closed in Bhawanipatna-Lanjigarh Road Section of Kalahandi area of Odisha.

3. Justice Goel as new chairperson of NGT : Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel has been appointed as the chairperson of National Green Tribunal (NGT) for a five-year tenure.NGT is a statutory body established under National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for effective expeditious disposal of cases related to environmental protection.Earlier Justice Swatanter Kumar was the Chairperson of NGT (2012-19 Dec.2017), Since then the post was vacant.

4. Ghatam maestro to receive lifetime award : The Music Academy has announced a Special Lifetime Achievement Award to be conferred on ghatam maestro T.H. Vinayakram.The award is conferred, once in a while, on artists of outstanding calibre who, the Music Academy feels, deserve independent recognition.Vikku Vinayakram, is a Grammy Award-winning Indian percussionist and is a recipient of Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Nawaz Sharif sentenced to 10 years in jail : The former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for corruption.The court ruled that Sharif and his family laundered money in the 1990s to pay for 4 luxury apartments in London.The court also sentenced Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, to seven years’ imprisonment, fined the family £10m and ordered the seizure of the Avenfield properties.

2. Maldives signed power deal with Pakistan : The Maldives has signed a capacity-building agreement in the power sector with Pakistan, thus posing fresh security challenges for India.Officials of the Maldives state electricity company, Stelco signed a MoU for cooperation in institution building activities when they visited Pakistan last week.The Maldives has stopped issuing work permits to Indians.

3. UK launched new visas to Indian scientists : The UK has launched new visas that will be open to overseas scientists and researchers, including Indians.UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Science, Research, and Academia scheme is being added to the already existing Tier 5 visa route.UKRI along and other organisations such as the Natural History Museum will now be able to directly sponsor highly skilled individuals.

4. NASA puts Kepler space telescope to sleep : The Kepler Space Telescope, which is a famous planet-hunting telescope of NASA has been put to sleep since it is almost out of fuel.The telescope was launched by NASA in 2009 to learn more about the frequency and number of planets in our galaxy.Scientists have found many exoplanets with the help of this telescope, which is 94 million miles away from the Earth.

5. International Day of Cooperatives 2018 : The International Day of Cooperatives is an annual celebration of the co-operative movement, observed on the first Saturday in July since 1923.Observed on 7 July 2018 and theme was the ‘Sustainable societies through cooperation’.Co-operatives are committed to the sustainable development of communities – environmentally, socially and economically.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Rupee among top 10 EM currencies : The rupee has been ranked as one of the 10 best-performing currencies, beating rivals like Real and Rand ever since the NDA government came into power in May 2014.Although all emerging market currencies have lost value to the dollar, rupee’s slide is relatively controlled compared with peers.In the 4 year period, the dollar index gained 17% compared with 14.2% loss in the rupee’s value.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. Union Bank of India to raise equity capital : Union Bank of India will raise equity capital of Rs. 1500 crore.The proposal was approved at its annual general meeting by the bank’s shareholders.The bank said that this capital raise will be in addition to the capital support which has been granted by the government.

2. Most valuable bank in the emerging market : HDFC Bank has gone past Russia’s Sberbank to become the most valuable bank in the emerging market outside China.HDFC Bank was one of the top performing major banks globally in 2017. The Bank’s current market capitalization is $78.4 billion.Globally, America’s JPMorgan Chase is the most valuable with a market cap of $353 billion, followed by Bank of America at $282 billion.