Daily GK Updates - 4th January, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.Indian Panorama Film Festival begins in New Delhi : The Information and Broadcasting Secretary Amit Khare has inaugurated the ten-days Indian Panorama Film Festival at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.A total of 26 Feature Films and 21 Non-Feature Films will be screened during the festival.The film festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.Directors of the opening feature film - Olu, Shaji N Karun and non-feature film Kharvas, Aditya Suhas Jambhale will be present on the occasion.All the films selected under the Indian Panorama section in the 49th International Film Festival of India will be screened during the Festival.

2 .HRD Ministry constitutes a task force to look into suicides of JNV students : The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has constituted a task force to look into the issues of suicides of the students in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) residential schools.The task force has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Psychiatrist, Dr Jitendra Nagpal .It will also suggest ways and means arrest the trend of suicides by students .According to the report, around 49 students of the residential Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas committed suicide between 2013 and 2017

3.Arunachal Pradesh’s East Siang District achieves 100% electrification : East Siang District (in Arunachal Pradesh) has achieved 100% electrification under the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana - Saubhagya Scheme.Pasighat Electrical division has electrified 2,662 households which were earlier left out till the end of December last year.The power department has electrified 1,483 villages under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya-Gram Jyoti Yojana in the state so far.

4.V K Yadav takes charge as Chairman, Railway Board : General Manager of South-Central Railway (SCR) Vinod K. Yadav (1980 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers) has been appointed as the Chairman of Railway Board.Yadav succeeds Ashwani Lohani (retired on 31st Jan 2018)The Railway Board is the apex body of the Indian Railways.It reports to the Parliament of India through the Ministry of Railways headed by the Railway Minister of India.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.4th January-World Braille Day : The World Braille Day is observed across the world every year on 4th January to mark the birth anniversary of Louis Braille.He was the inventor of Braille script or Braille code .Braille is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired.

2.Indian-American takes oath as Fort Bend County Judge in Texas : Indian-American K P George (53-years) has been sworn in as the Fort Bend County Judge, becoming the first person from the community to hold the office of one of America's most diverse counties.In the US, county judges' duties vary from state to state.Depending upon the size of the county, they perform a wide range of judicial and administrative duties.The Fort Bend County in Texas has a sizeable population of Indian-Americans.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1.Allahabad Bank & SBI Life join hand for bancassurance partnership : Allahabad Bank and SBI Life Insurance came together and signed a bancassurance pact to sell the policies of the insurer from over 3,200 branches of Allahabad Bank across the country.This will empower the consumer to address theircomplete financial needs under one roof.The agreement was signed in the presence of Allahabad Bank Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mallikarjuna Rao and Sanjeev Nautiyal.