Daily GK Updates - 10th June, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. All States Can Now Constitute Foreigners Tribunals: The Ministry Of Home Affairs (MHA) has amended the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964, and has empowered district magistrates in all States and Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not. Earlier, the powers to constitute tribunals were vested only with the Centre. The amended Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019 also empowers individuals to approach the Tribunals. These tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, earlier unique to Assam.

2. Govt notifies extension of PM-KISAN scheme to all farmers: The Union government has notified its decision to extend the benefit of six thousand rupees per year to eligible farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. Notifying the decision, the Union Agriculture Ministry has written to all state governments, asking them to identify beneficiaries subject to the existing exclusion factors. Now, the revised scheme is expected to cover two crores more farmers with an estimated expenditure of over 87 thousand crore rupees in the current financial year. The decision will benefit all 14.5 crore farmers, irrespective of the size of their landholding, in the country.

Note: PM-KISAN scheme was announced in the interim budget, under which the government decided to provide 6,000 rupees per year to about 12.5 crore small and marginal farmers.

3. The main event of International Yoga Day celebrations to be held in Ranchi: The main event of International Day of Yoga 2019 celebrations will be held at Prabhat Tara in Ranchi (Jharkhand) on 21st June 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the main function. Jharkhand government has planned to celebrate the day in a grand manner by organising a week-long programme starting June 15. From 15th June, a week-long event will start with 'Run for Yoga', that would culminate on 21st June International Yoga Day. About 35 thousand people will take part in Yoga Day event along with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ranchi, in the open air.

Note: This year International Yoga Day of 21st June of Ranchi would be eco-friendly and hence Khadi Yoga Mat would be used, in place of the usual rubber mat.

4. Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha gets three months extension: Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha (1977 batch -IAS officer) has been given further three months extensions.

The appointments committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the extension beyond 12th of this month until further orders. In May 2015, Mr Sinha was appointed as cabinet secretary for a fixed two-year term. This is the third time that Mr Sinha's tenure has been extended.

Note: The Cabinet Secretary is the ex-officio head of the Civil Services Board, the Cabinet Secretariat, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and all civil services under the rules of business of the government. The Cabinet Secretary is under the direct charge of the prime minister.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. NCGG and Maldives Civil Services Commission Sign MOU: The National Center for Good Governance (NCGG), India’s leading civil services training institution, has entered into an MOU with the Maldives Civil Services Commission for capacity building of 1000 Maldives civil servants over the next 5 years. The agreement was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Male. The agreement envisages that NCGG will be the nodal institution for designing customised training modules and its implementation taking into account the requirements of the Civil Service Commission, Maldives.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Gopalaswami Named BCCI's Electoral Officer for AGM: Former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami has been appointed as an electoral officer for the BCCI's Annual General Meeting (AGM), to be held on October 22, 2019. The Committee of Administrators (CoA), which was appointed by the Supreme Court in January 2017 to oversee the sweeping reforms recommended by the Lodha panel, met at the BCCI headquarters to discuss the road map for the elections.

2. Yuvraj Singh Announces Retirement from International Cricket: Yuvraj Singh announced retirement from international cricket, ending a roller-coaster career during which he became the hero of India's 2011 World Cup triumph and fought a gritty battle with cancer. The 37-year-old cricketer announced his decision in Mumbai. Yuvraj played 40 Tests, 304 ODIs and 58 T20Is for India. He put together 1900 runs in the longest format, and 8701 in the one-dayers, the format in which he enjoyed the most success.

3. French Open 2019 Concludes: The 2019 French Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 123rd edition of the French Open. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. Rafael Nadal was the defending champion in the Men's Singles and won his 12th French Open title. Ashleigh Barty of Australia won the Women's Singles Category after defeating Marketa Vondrousova. Now she is the first Australian to win a singles titles at Roland Garros since Margaret Court in 1973.

Note: The French Open officially called ‘Roland-Garros’ is a major tennis tournament held at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France. The venue is named after the French aviator Roland Garros. It is the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments the other three being the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. The total prize money for the 2019 edition is €42,661,000, an increase of 8% over 2018. The winners of the men's (€2,300,000,) and women's (€2,300,000,) singles title receive.

4. Indian archers bag four berths for Tokyo Paralympics: Indian archers secured two quota places each in the recurve and compound sections for next year's Tokyo Paralympics after dishing out superb performances at the World Para Championships in the Netherlands. Punjabi University's Harvinder Singh and Uttar Pradesh's Vivek Chhikara finished joint ninth to bag the two available berths in the recurve men's open section. In the compound men's open category, Jammu's Rakesh Kumar was first to qualify after making the bronze play. He was later joined by Rajasthan's Shyam Sundar Swami after his joint ninth finish.

5. Hamilton wins 7th Canadian Grand Pix: Lewis Hamilton secured a record-breaking seventh win at the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel was penalised for dangerous driving. During the race, both Vettel and Hamilton were engaged in a head-to-head battle when the former ran across the grass accidentally, in the process squeezing the Britsh driver when he re-joined the track. The incident led to the stewards awarding a five-second race time penalty to the German driver. Ferrari will appeal against the decision over the five-second penalty given to Vettel which cost him the race.

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. RBI issues new guidelines for resolution of bad loans: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a new framework for resolution of bad loans, offering a 30-day gap for stress recognition instead of the one-day default earlier. According to RBI, Lenders will have complete discretion with regard to the design and implementation of resolution plans, subject to the specified timeline and independent credit evaluation. Lenders may recognise incipient stress in loan accounts, immediately on default, by classifying such assets as special mention accounts (SMA). In case a borrower is reported to be in default, the lenders should undertake a prima facie review of the account within 30 days from the day of default. These norms come about two months after the Supreme Court held the February 12, 2018 RBI circular on Resolution of Stressed Assets as ultra vires.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. Automobile Major Mahindra wins Gold Award in South Africa: India's Automobile major ‘Mahindra’ has won the Gold Award in South Africa for fairing on various indicators, including level of satisfaction among its network of dealers and the manner of allocation of vehicles to them. Mahindra has received the award from the country’s National Automobile Dealers’ Association (NADA) which tests dealers’ satisfaction with the way a brand supports and communicates with them. The automobile giant, which has more than 60 dealers in South Africa (for the past 16 years), secured the top position out of the 29 vehicle brands surveyed for the awards.

OBITUARIES

1. Noted Playwright, Actor and Filmmaker, Girish Karnad Passes Away: Noted actor, filmmaker and playwright Girish Karnad passed away in Bengaluru due to multi-organ failure. He was 81. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India. He was also conferred the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan, and had won several accolades for direction in Kannada cinema. Vamsha Vruksha, Ek Tha Tiger, Nagamandala and Malgudi Days are some of the movies and TV serials in which he played a role and Odakalu bimba, Taledanda and the fire and the rain are some of the plays written by him.

2. Comedy legend Crazy Mohan passed away: Tamil writer, comedian and actor, Crazy Mohan, who was also a Kalaimamani awardee, was known for his witty one-liners passed away in Chennai. Crazy Mohan's first film was K Balachander's Poikkal Kudhirai for which he wrote the dialogues.

Note: Kalaimamani Award: It is given by Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram for excellence in the field of art and literature.