Daily GK Updates - 7th March, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.Indore awarded the cleanest city in Swachh Survekshan 2019 awards : Indore has been awarded India's cleanest city for the third straight year in the central government's cleanliness Swachh Survekshan 2019 (SS 2019) awards. The secon and third positions in the category were grabbed by Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh) and Mysore (Karnataka). The New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the 'Cleanest Small City' award, Gauchar (Uttarakhand) was adjudged the 'Best Ganga Town' in the central government survey. The 'Cleanest Big City' award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the 'Fastest Moving Big City'. Ujjain has been the adjudged the 'Cleanest Medium City' and Mathura-Vrindavan bagged the tag of the 'Fastest Moving Medium Cities'. Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) has been declared as the cleanest capital. Swachh Survekshan 2019 covered all urban local bodies in the country, making it the largest such cleanliness survey in the world.

2. Uttarakhand CM Rawat lays foundation stone for Doon-Mussoorie ropeway project :  Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat laid the foundation stone for the Dehradun-Mussoorie ropeway project to boost the tourism of Mussoorie. The Doon-Mussoorie ropeway would be among the five longest ropeway projects of the world. The ropeway project (cost Rs. 300-crore rupees) is expected to be completed in three years. Once completed, it will shorten the one-hour zigzag drive to just 15 minutes from Purkul village the base camp at Dehradun to Mussoorie.

3. PM releases new series of coins for Divyang kids : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released the new series of visually-impaired friendly circulation coins in the denomination of Rs 1, Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20. Various new features have been incorporated in the new series of circulation coins to make it easy for the visually impaired to use them. The coins are characterised by the increasing size and weight from lower to higher denominations.

4. Notun Disha’ Initiated by Tripura Government : Tripura Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath has announced ‘Notun Disha’ for assessing the academic level of students in classes III-VIII and then improving their current level. Training will be provided by NGOs and educational institutions to 800 teachers. The duration of the project is 1 month. Rs. 28 crores have been allocated to the project.

5. IRDAI, NHA form working group to curb fraud in Ayushman Bharat scheme : The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI) and the National Health Authority (NHA) jointly formed a working group on the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY). The 10 members joint working group will be chaired by Dr Dinesh Arora (Deputy CEO of NHA).It will submit a report on how to detect and deter fraud through a common repository and capacity-building.

6. Janaushadhi Diwas is being celebrated across the country : Janaushadhi Diwas has been celebrated across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed five thousand Janaushadhi stores across the country through video-conferencing on the occasion. More than five thousand 50 Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana Kendras(PMBJP) are functional in 652 districts. The Janaushadhi Kendras are providing quality medicine at an affordable price.10 to 15 lakh beneficiaries are getting medicines from Janaushadhi stores every day.

                                   INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1.  Google launches 'Bolo' app to tutor children to read in Hindi, English :  Tech giant Google unveiled a new free app 'Bolo' that aims to help children in primary school learn to read in Hindi and English. The free app uses Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech technology. The app features an animated character 'Diya', who encourages children to read stories aloud and helps if the child is unable to pronounce a word. It also lauds the reader when she completes the reading.The users are a not asked for details like email ID and gender for logging into the app.

2. Mumbai airport tops in ‘over 40 m’ passenger category :  As per the Airport Council International (ACI) World, The GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) has been awarded for the best airport by size and region in the ‘Over 40 Million’ passenger category. The award was in recognition of excellence in customer experience in the Asia-Pacific region. This is the highest possible reward for any airport operator covering more than half of the world's 8.3 billion passengers.The award ceremony will be held in Bali, Indonesia.

3. Malaysia joins the International Criminal Court : Malaysia has become the 124th member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC is the world’s only permanent war crimes court and aims to prosecute the worst abuses when national courts are unable or unwilling. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands, establishment in 2002.

OTHER UPDATES:

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. United Bank, HDFC Life sign bancassurance deal : United Bank of India (UBI) has signed a bancassurance deal with private life insurer HDFC Life Insurance Company. United Bank’s customers will be able to take advantage of HDFC Life’s expertise in life insurance products, distribution and customer service. United Bank has a strong presence in rural and semi-urban areas, with over 2,000 branches and offices, while HDFC Life is India’s largest non-bank-promoted private life insurer.

SPORTS:

1. Manpreet Singh named the captain of Indian hockey team :  According to Hockey India, Manpreet Singh has been named as the Captain of the 18-member Indian hockey team to play in the upcoming 28th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Surender Kumar will be the Vice-Captain of the team. India will start its campaign against Japan on the opening day itself (23rd March). Participating nations in the tournament are India, Malaysia(host), Canada, Korea, South Africa, Asian Games gold medallist Japan.