Daily GK Updates - 22nd September, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Shri Amit Shah launches Emergency Response Support System (ERSS- Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App in Chandigarh: Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah has launched three citizen-centric services of the Chandigarh Police. These are: Emergency Response Support System (ERSS – Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and the ‘E-Saathi App’. ERSS is one of the key projects of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under the Nirbhaya Fund.

ERSS provides a single emergency number (112), computer-aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress. Citizens can send their emergency information through call, SMS, email and through the 112 India mobile app.

The ‘E-Beat Book’ is a web and mobile-based application which will ease the collection, updating and analysis of the information related to crime and criminals in a real-time.

The ‘E-Saathi’ App would help the general public, including senior citizens, to remain in touch with the police and also give suggestions to facilitate participative community policing (‘Your Police at Your Doorstep’ initiative). The beat officer would be able to provide services like passport verification, tenant verification, servant verification, character certification, etc. at a click of a button through the app, without the people needing to visit the police station.

2. 2019 India Design Summit held in Goa: The 19th edition of the India Design Summit was held from 20 & 21 September 2019 in Goa by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The theme of the 2019 Summit was : Design for Social Sector. The summit is a platform to create partnership between the discipline of design and organizations leading to innovation and increased economic competitiveness to synergize, find new methods of working together with an attitude of openness, cooperation, and exploration, bring the traditional fields of design in partnership with the fields of technology and business towards the development of new products, both real and virtual.

3. 37th GST Council meeting held in Panaji, Goa: The 37th GST Council meeting held in Panaji, Goa. The GST rate of various Goods and Services was changed in the meeting. The GST council is headed by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. For Transaction value per unit per day of ₹1000 or less, will attract nil GST. For ₹1001 upto ₹7500, now the tax rate will be 12%. Anything above ₹7501 will attract 18%. It was 28% till now. GST rate hiked on railway wagon, coaches from 5% to 12%. Uniform GST rate of 12% to be levied on polypropylene bags and sacks used for packing of goods. Jewellery exports to now attract zero GST.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 63rd General Conference of IAEA held in Vienna, Austria: The 63rd Annual Regular Session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference was held in Vienna, the capital of Austria with participation from 171 IAEA member states from September 16-20, 2019. The conference is conducted to jointly discuss about the issues related to the IAEA’s work, budget and priorities. The Indian delegation to the conference was led by Dr. K N Vyas, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and Secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy(DEA). Vyas talked about various achievements made by the Indian government that formed part of support in the IAEA’s growth.

The National Cancer Grid- Vishwam Cancer Care Connect (NCG-Vishwam 3C), which is a global cancer care network, was launched by Vyas in Vienna. The NCG-Vishwam’s key work is to integrate hospitals and relevant cancer care institutes from partner countries with the National Cancer Grid (NCG) of India

2. MIT Tops, IIT Bombay Top Indian Institute in QS’ Graduate Employability Rankings 2020: The QS’ Graduate Employability Rankings 2020 was released and four Indian institutes have made it to the top 200 among the 500 Universities in the list. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is the top among all Indian institutes and has been ranked in the 111-120 range. At 151-160 band IIT Delhi, 171-180 band IIT Madras and Delhi University have found their positions in top 200. Fifteen Indian universities participated in the 2020 edition of the Rankings and 10 of them made it into the published range which is one more than previous edition.

Top Institute: The 2020 edition of the QS’ Graduate Employability Rankings has been topped by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Stanford University is second and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is at third place.

3. International Coastal CleanUp Day: 21 September: Every year, the third Saturday of the month September is observed as International Coastal CleanUp Day. The day encourages people to rid beaches of the garbage plaguing beaches. Apart from this awareness is also spread about preserving and protecting the world’s oceans and waterways.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Arthi Arun wins five gold medals in Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships: Chennai-based powerlifter Arthi Arun has won five gold medals in the ongoing Commonwealth Powerlifting and Bench Press Championships 2019, St. John’s, Canada. She has won the medals in the 72 kg category. She is also the current Asian Powerlifting Gold Medalist and National Champion.

2. Deepak Punia Wins Silver, Rahul Aware Settles for Bronze in World Wrestling Championships 2019: In world wrestling championship 2019 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Deepak Punia lost in the title clash in 86 kg bout against Iran’s Hassan Yazdani to settle for silver. Deepak was the only Indian to enter a final bout in this edition of the tournament. He has also secured 2020 Olympic quotas. In 61kg bout, Indian wrestler Rahul Aware won a bronze medal as he beat American Tyler Lee Graff. With this, India finished the 2019 edition of World Wrestling Championship with 5 medal including 1 silver and 4 bronzes.

3. Sebastian Vettel wins the Singapore Grand Prix 2019: German racing driver, Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) has won the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix 2019. This is his first win of the year. Charles Leclerc remained on second position while Max Verstappen was third. Lewis Hamilton is on fourth.

4. Carolina Marina and Kento Momota wins China Open Badminton Title 2019: Carolina Marina and Kento Momota have won the China Open Badminton Title 2019. The list of winners in all the events are:

Men’s Singles- Kento Momota (Japan)

Women’s Singles- Carolina Marín (Spain)

Men’s Doubles- Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (Indonesia) and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (Indonesia)

Women’s Doubles-Chen Qingchen (China) and Jia Yifan (China)

Mixed Doubles- Zheng Siwei (China) and Huang Yaqiong (China)

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. SEBI constitutes working group on ‘Social Stock Exchanges’ (SSE): Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has constituted a working group on ‘Social Stock Exchanges’ (SSE). Ishaat Hussain (Director, SBI Foundation) is the chairman of the panel. The panel has total 15 members (including the chairman). SSE will help in listing social enterprise and voluntary organizations. The working group shall examine and make recommendations with respect to possible structures and mechanisms, within the securities market domain, to facilitate raising of funds by social enterprises and voluntary organizations.

2. IMPS rated world’s best in ‘Faster Payments Innovation Index’: As per the fintech firm, FIS India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) has been rated as the world’s best real-time payment service in an analysis of 54 countries that have similar facilities. IMPS is rated highest in FIS’s ‘Faster Payments Innovation Index’. India is the only country that received the 5+ rating.

3. Bank of Baroda launches agri digital platform – “Baroda Kisan”: Bank of Baroda has launched an agri digital platform named “Baroda Kisan”. It is a web-based portal that can also be accessed by farmers via mobile. The portal will cater to all the needs of farmers, including weather forecasts, crop conditions, the moisture levels of the soil, information on crop worms, market prices, special crop-related consultation.

4. Madhukar Kamath elected chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations: Madhukar Kamath has been elected chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for 2019-20.  He is the chairman emeritus of DDB Mudra group and mentor of Interbrand India. Kamath has also been the president of Advertising Agencies Association of India.

Note: The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) of India is a non-profit circulation-auditing organization.

5. HDFC Bank to hold 1,000 grameen loan melas over next 6 months: HDFC Bank has announced to organise 1,000 grameen loan melas over the next six months with an aim to expand its retail portfolio. These grameen loan melas (or village loan fairs) will be held across more than 300 districts and cover around 6,000 villages across India. Customers can avail of tractor, auto, two-wheeler and agri loans or open current or savings accounts, it said. Besides, self help groups (SHGs) can avail of finance through the bank’s Sustainable Livelihood Initiative.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

1. Reliance Industries becomes the most valued domestic firm in market capitalization: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) became the most valued domestic firm in market capitalisation (m-cap) by surpassing Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). RIL’s m-cap stood at Rs 7,95,179.62 crore at the close of trade on September 20, 2019 while that of TCS stood at Rs 7,75,092.58 crore. The top 5 most valued firms by m-cap are as follows:

Sr. No.	Firm Name
1	RIL
2	TCS
3	HDFC Bank (Rs 6,56,546.37 crore)
4	Hindustan Unilever Ltd (Rs 4,26,467.98 crore)
5	HDFC (Rs 3,54,270.94 crore)

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. Sonu Nigam wins 21st Century Icon Award in UK: Singer Sonu Nigam has been awarded the Magnificent Performing Arts Award at the annual 21st Century Icon Awards in London. The nominations were from 22 different countries and Sonu Nigam won the award among these.

2. Kerala tourism wins 3 awards in 2019 PATA gold awards in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan: The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) awards for the year 2019 were held in Nur-Sultan (Astana), the capital of Kazakhstan. The Kerala tourism has won 3 PATA gold awards at the event and the awards are given for an ethnic food restaurant run by women at Kumarakom (Kerala) under its Responsible Tourism(RT) mission, for Kerala tourism campaign advertisement ‘Come Out and Play’ and the third one was for its website www.keralatourism.org. This year (2019), Kerala Tourism won the highest number of PATA awards in South Asia region. Recently in July 2019, “Find the Incredible You” campaign under Incredible India campaign was declared the winner of PATA gold award 2019 for “Marketing – Primary Government Destination” category.