Daily GK Updates - 25th November, 2019

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Sangai Festival 2019 begins in Manipur: Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has inaugurated the week-long Manipur Sangai Festival 2019 at Hapta Kangjeibung, Imphal. Every year the State of Manipur celebrates the “Manipur Sangai Festival” from 21st to 30th November. It started in the year 2010 and has grown over the years into a big platform for Manipur to showcase its rich tradition and culture to the world. The festival is organized by the State Tourism Department and biggest festival held annually to promote tourism. During the festival, cultural programmes, traditional games, folk dance and classical music will be performed by different communities of the State as well as from other States.

Note: Capital of Manipur: Imphal; Governor of Manipur: Najma Heptulla; Chief Minister of Manipur: N. Biren Singh.

2. Amaravati included in India map as the capital of Andhra Pradesh: The Survey of India, India’s central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying has released an updated map of India with Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh (AP). Amaravati had been missing from the previous map released by the Centre On November 2, 2019, which showed Hyderabad as the common capital of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. The state of AP was bifurcated in the year 2014 and while it was initially decided that Hyderabad would serve as the common administrative capital for a period of 10 years.

Note: Governor of Andhra Pradesh: Biswabhusan Harichandan; Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh: Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

3. UP govt launches immunisation campaign against Filaria: Uttar Pradesh Health & Family Welfare Minister Jai Pratap Singh has launched a massive immunisation campaign against the filariasis or Filaria. Under this campaign, more than 65 thousand teams of health workers will distribute medicines to around 6.5 crore people till 10 December. This year, state’s 19 districts have been divided in double drug and triple-drug categories in which they will be provided DEC tablet, Albendazole and ivermectin. The union government has set the year 2021 as the deadline for complete eradication of filaria in the country.

4. Gujarat Govt. announces Rs 3,795 Cr relief package for farmers: Gujarat Government has announced a relief package 3,795 crore rupees for farmers who suffered crop loss due to unseasonal rains. The relief package will help more than 56 lakh farmers across the state. According to Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, total package (1,641 crore rupees) will be given through a budgetary provision and 2,145 crores under the State Disaster Response Fund. Farmers will get assistance in the range of 4,000 rupees to 13,000 rupees.

5. Centre extends the ban on NDFB for 5 years: The union Govt. has extended the ban on National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) along with all its groups, factions and front organisations, by 5 more years. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs notification, NDFB was involved in the killing of 19 civilians in incidents of violence since January 2015.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Ocean Dance Festival 2019 starts in Cox Bazar: Bangladesh’s State minister of cultural affairs KM Khalid has inaugurated the Ocean Dance Festival 2019 in Cox Bazar of Bangladesh. Ocean Dance Festival is the largest international dance festival of Bangladesh in which more than 200 dancers, choreographers and scholars from 15 countries are participating. The theme of this year's festival is 'Bridging the distance' or Durotter Shetubandhan. The festival is being organised by the Nrityajog which is the Bangladesh wing of World Dance Alliance (WDA). The festival aims to expand cultural tourism in Bangladesh. It also features seminars and discussion apart from the dance performances by the artists.

Note: Bangladesh Capital: Dhaka; Currency: Taka; PM: Sheikh Hasina.

2. New Delhi ranked 9th in fastest growing prime residential market in world: As per the ‘Prime Global Cities Index’ by Global property consultant Knight Frank, New Delhi has been ranked at 9th place in terms of fastest growing prime residential market in the world. Moscow has topped the ranking. Bengaluru is at 20th while Mumbai is ranked at 28th position. Frankfurt is at second and Taipei is at third. Seoul was the weakest-performing global city in the year.

3. G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting 2019 held in Nagoya, Japan: The G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting 2019 was held in Nagoya, Japan. The G20 is made up of 19 countries and the EU. The 19 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US

4. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: 25 November: The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed across the world on 25 November annually. The theme for this year is “Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape”. This is a efforts to prevent and end violence against women at the global, regional and national levels show that there is widespread impunity on sexual violence and rape. The colour orange in the theme symbolizes a better future without the pervasive human rights violation that affects 1 in 3 women and girls all over the globe.

5. NVIDIA announces world’s largest GPU-accelerated cloud-based supercomputer: NVIDIA has announced a new kind of GPU-accelerated supercomputer in the cloud on Microsoft Azure. NDv2 supercomputer is designed to handle demanding AI and high-performance computing applications, using up to 800 NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs interconnected on a single. Mellanox InfiniBand backend network, making it the world’s largest GPU-accelerated cloud-based supercomputer. It enables customers to rent an AI supercomputer on-demand from their desk, and match the capabilities of large-scale on-premises supercomputers.

Note: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) NVIDIA: Jensen Huang; Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States (US).

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Lakshya Sen wins Scottish Open title: India’s Lakshya Sen has won the Scottish Open badminton men’s singles title, defeating Brazilian Ygor Coelho to seal his fourth title in 3 months. Entering the tournament as the top seed, the world number 41 registered an 18-21, 21-18, 21-19 win in 56 minutes to claim the title in Glasgow, Scotland. Within a month, Lakshya won his first BWF Super 100 title at the Dutch Open, with the second one coming soon after, at the SaarLorLux Open in Germany.

Note: Capital of Scotland: Edinburgh; Currency: Pound sterling.

2. India bag 28 medals including 13 gold in U-15 Asian Wrestling C’ships: India concluded its campaign at the Under-15 Asian Championships with 28 medals (13 gold, 14 silver and a bronze). For the first time, India finished on top of the team rankings in freestyle category with 225 points as all 10 wrestlers finished on the podium. Kazakhstan finished second while Japan was third.

3. MP athletes to get five per cent reservation in govt jobs:  Madhya Pradesh Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Jitu Patwari has announced that sports-persons of the state will get 5% reservation in government jobs. The Minister also announced that children from all CBSE, government and private schools would be involved in the Under 16 state-level Olympics. At present, the competition is being organized for children above 16 years of age. It includes 10 sports (hockey, basketball, football, volleyball, kabaddi, kho-kho, athletics, wrestling, badminton and table tennis).

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. RBI enhances scope of Non-Resident Rupee Accounts: The RBI expanded the scope of Special Non-Resident Rupee Accounts (SNRR account) by permitting non-residents to open such accounts for rupee-denominated overseas borrowings, trade credit and trade invoicing for popularising cross-border transactions in the domestic currency. Any person resident outside India, having a business interest in India, can open a non-interest bearing Special Non-Resident Rupee Account (SNRR account) with a bank for bona fide transactions in rupees. The restriction on the tenure of SNRR account, which is currently 7 years, has also been removed.

2. Muthoot Finance to acquire IDBI Mutual Fund for Rs 215 crore: Muthoot Finance Ltd, the largest gold loan non-banking finance company in the country, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire IDBI Asset Management Ltd and IDBI Mutual Fund Trustee Company Ltd. Muthoot Finance will purchase 100 per cent equity shares of IDBI Asset Management and IDBI MF Trustee for a total consideration of Rs 215 crore. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of February 2020. The deal is subject to receipt of approval from regulators including the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Note: Managing Director(MD) of Muthoot Finance Ltd: George Alexander Muthoot; Founded: 1939; Headquarters: Kochi, Kerala.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

1. Manoj Bajpayee bags best actor Asia Pacific Screen Award: Manoj Bajpayee has bagged the Best Performance by an Actor Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards for his role in ‘Bhonsle.’ The Hindi feature ‘Bhonsle’ narrates the story of a police constable (Bajpayee), who tries to fight the struggles of migrants and their battles with the local politicians. The movie was directed by Devashish Makhija. The acclaimed actor Manoj Bajpayee won against international actors like Wang Jingchun (China), Navid Mohammadzadeh, Mohsen Tanabandeh (Iran), and Eran Naim (Israel). Ridham Janve won the Young Cinema Award for his directorial debut film The Gold-Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain.

2. Floating school project in Bangladesh wins Aga Khan Architecture Award: Bangladesh’s Floating school project (in South Kanarchor) ‘The Arcadia Education Project’ wins the Aga Khan Architecture Award. The project involved the construction of a school in an area which is underwater during the monsoon months. The architect (Saif Ul Haque) designed this school which remains on the ground during the dry season and floats on water when the area is submerged in water during monsoon. He utilised only the local material-bamboo, used tyres and steel drums for constructing the amphibious structure for the school.

Note: The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is presented in three-year cycles and has a monetary prize totalling US$1 million that is shared by multiple winning projects. It recognizes projects, teams, and stakeholders in addition to buildings and people.

OBITUARIES

1. Former WB minister Kshiti Goswami passes away: The General Secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and former West Bengal Minister Kshiti Goswami (76-years) passed away at a private hospital in Chennai. Goswami was PWD Minister in Jyoti Basu and Buddhadev Bhattacharjee’s cabinet in the Left Front Government in the State. He was also the state secretary of the RSP for a few years since 2012.