Daily GK Updates - 3rd August, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Karnataka launched “Swachhameva Jayate” : Karnataka government launched “Swachhameva Jayate”, a campaign in rural areas to take a pledge on cleanliness.Logo of the campaign released by Department of Rural Development includes a boy and a girl standing in front of the map of Karnataka.The campaign coincides with the “Swachh Survekshan Grameen” survey by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

2. Justice KM Joseph’s elevated to Supreme Court : The Central Government has approved the elevation of Uttarkhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court, seven months after the SC Collegium’s recommendation.A five-member Supreme Court collegium had recommended K.M. Joseph’s name for the first time in Court in January 2018.The presidential warrants for the appointment will be taken out soon to complete the process.

3. AP launches ‘Mukhya Mantri-Yuva Nestham’ : The Andhra Pradesh government has launched ‘Mukhya Mantri-Yuva Nestham’, a scheme through which an allowance of Rs 1000 per month will be provided to unemployed youth in the state.About 12 lakh youths in the age group of 22-35 years will get the benefit of the scheme.The scheme will be extended to all those eligible even if there are more than one beneficiary in a family.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. US cuts off security aid to Pakistan : The United States Congress has slashed the security-oriented financial aid to Pakistan by approving a $716.3 billion defence authorisation bill.The security aid was earlier around $1 billion to $750 million per year.The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2019, the security aid to Pakistan has been cut down to $150 million.

2. Jongdari tropical storm hits Shanghai : Downgraded from a typhoon, Tropical Storm Jongdari arrived in Shanghai on August 3, 2018.It is expected to gradually weaken as it moves westward into the Yangtze River delta.Jongdari, which means skylark in Korean and is the 12th typhoon of the season.Jongdari is one of the four Pacific tropical cyclones.More than 130,000 people have been evacuated as a tropical storm arrived Shanghai.

3. Sushma Swaraj meets Kazakhstan counterpart : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held a comprehensive discussion with her Kazakhstan counterpart Kairat Abdrakhmanov.The discussion was on deepening cooperation in areas like trade, energy and defence and security.Ms. Swaraj is on a three-nation tour to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as part of India’s efforts to boost strategic partnership with the resource-rich nations.

4. Iran officially joins ASEAN treaty : The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ratified Iran’s membership in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC).There was a consensus among southeast Asian countries to accept Iran as a party to the treaty.This indicated the significance of interaction with Iran as an important and influential country in regional and international equations.

5. Google to launch censored search engine : Google is developing a new search engine for China that will be in line with the country’s stringent censorship rules.The “revised” search engine, which has been codenamed “Dragonfly” will block western services that are already outlawed in China.Google withdrew its search engine from China eight years ago due to censorship.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Facebook announces $4.5 mn investment : Facebook will invest an additional $4.5 million towards helping the news industry globally.Earlier, Facebook gave $3.5 million towards ‘Facebook Membership Accelerator’, a three-month pilot programme designed to help news organisations with membership models.The ‘Facebook Membership Accelerator’ will help non-profit news organisations and local, independent publishers.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. RBI bars Fino Payments Bank : Fino Payments Bank has been barred by the Reserve Bank of India from adding new customers since the end of May 2018.The central bank in its auditing of payments banks in May found Fino Payments non-compliant with the operational guidelines laid down by it.According to RBI’s operating guidelines for payments banks, a customer can make deposits of up to ₹1 lakh per account in a year.

DEFENCE:

1. DRDO develops indigenous landing gear for UAV : An indigenously designed and developed landing gear for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-Rustom II has been successfully tested.The landing gear developed by a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory has undergone low-speed and high-speed taxi trial in Karnataka.Rustom II is a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV designed for carrying out surveillance.

2. Another success for naval LCA : The naval version of the indigenously built Tejas Light Combat Aircraft underwent a series of successful tests to check its capability to land on an aircraft carrier.The Naval LCA is expected to begin touch and go landings on the INS Vikramaditya.Tejas is a four-and-half generation light combat aircraft developed by state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).