Daily GK Updates - 27th February, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. PM Narendra Modi confers National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 awards : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given away the National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 awards in New Delhi.Earlier, Youth in the age bracket of 18-25 years were invited to participate in the District, State and National level Youth Parliaments. More than 50 thousand youth participated through Youth Parliaments at all levels.The best three speakers at the National Youth Parliament 2019 has been awarded 2 Lakh rupees, 1.5 Lakh rupees and 1 Lakh rupeesrespectively in order of merit along with a certificate. On 12th January 2019, the Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore had launched the festival to encourage the youth to engage with public issues & understand the common man's point of view.

2.  National e-Governance Awards 2019 presented in Delhi :  Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office, Dr Jitendra Singhhas presented National e-Governance Awards, 2019 in six categories at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.The awards are given every year to recognise and promote excellence in the implementation of e-Governance initiatives. The initiative seeks to disseminate knowledge on effective methods of designing and implementing sustainable e-Governance initiatives. It also recognizes initiatives in Startups, Academic Research Institutions as well as initiatives in adopting emerging technologies

3.  Lifetime achievement award for G. R. Karthikeyan :  G.R. Karthikeyan was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at the FMSCI annual awards function. Mr. Karthikeyan is the father of India’s first Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan, FIA president Jean Todt was the chief guest and handed over the awards.

4. Civil aviation ministry organised 'flying for all' conclave :  The Union Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu has inaugurated the Aviation Conclave 2019 with an overarching theme of “Flying for All” in New Delhi. It brings together industry leaders, government and regulators for setting the tone and propelling us to realize our Vision-2040. Over 200 delegates are taking part in the discussions.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  Muhammadu Buhari re-elected Nigerian President : According to Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has secured a second four-year term in office. Buhari defeated his main challenger Atiku Abubakar by a margin of nearly four million votes. Mr Buhari first came to power in 2015 after defeating then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan. Mr Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) won in 19 of the 36 states while the PDP was victorious in 17 states.

 2. Zimbabwe starts trading new currency RTGS dollar : Zimbabwe started to trade its new currency ‘the RTGS dollar’ after the central bank announced measures to try and resolve a chronic monetary crisis. The bank unveiled a foreign exchange trading system that effectively devalued its quasi-currency, the bond note, which was officially pegged at parity with the US dollar. The new currency replaces electronic bank savings called digital dollars and the bond notes and was named after the real-time gross settlement system that banks use to transfer money between each other.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Britannia to replace Hindustan Petroleum in Nifty 50 :  Britannia Industries will replace Hindustan Petroleum Corporation(HPCL) in the National Stock Exchange Fifty (NIFTY) 50 index (from 29th March 2019). Britannia Industries hand gained 1.43% to settle at Rs 3,056 on the bourse, on the other hand HPCL share dropped 1.54% to Rs 227.40 on NSE. The NIFTY 50 index is the National Stock Exchange of India's benchmark broad. It represents the weighted average of 50 Indian company stocks.

SPORTS :

1. Hungary's Veronika Major wins the gold medal at ISSF World Cup  : Hungary's Veronika Major has won a gold medal in 10-metre air pistol event at the ongoing ISSF World Cup at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi. She bagged the medal with 245.1 points in the tournament. Taipei's Chia Ying Wu won a silver medal, with 238.4 points Korean Bomi Kim came third, with 218.3 points.

2. Sanath Jayasuriya banned from cricket for two years :  Former Sri Lankan Cricket Captain Sanath Jayasuriya has been banned from Cricket for two years after he failed to co-operate in a corruption investigation. According to the ICC statement,  Jayasuriya admitted to breaching two counts of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code. He served as chair of the selection committee during 2016-17during which team performance dipped and has remained uneven since then. Sri Lankan cricket has been under investigation by ICC for last few years and Jayasurya was served a notice a few months back.

3.  Afghanistan Scores highest ever T20 International Score :  Afghanistan scored 278 for the loss of 3 wickets (in 20 overs) to register the highest-ever total in T20s at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. First player from Afghanistan Hazratullah Zazai scored 162 runs from just 62 balls.Earlier, in 2016 Australia’s record score of 263/3 which they achieved back against Sri Lanka. Zazai’s 236-run opening stand with Usman Ghani became the highest partnership in T20Is.