DAILY GK UPDATES - 8TH AUGUST, 2015
NATIONAL UPDATES:
I. BHEL commissions 500MW
thermal unit at Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Station: State
run BHEL commissioned a 500MW unit of NTPC’s Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power
Station located at Vindyachal, Singrauli (MP).
II. Government to impose
10% import duty on wheat till March 2016: The
step has been suggested by the Food Ministry to curb the premium quality
Australian wheat shipments in order to liquidate the stocks lying with the Food
Corporation of India.
III. Government to allow
aadhaar enrolments of NRIs, PIOs, and OICs: Government
has decided that Aadhaar enrolment of Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian
Origin and Overseas Citizens of India should be eventually allowed to help them
authenticate their identity digitally.
IV. Mumbai gets a Flamingo
Sanctuary: Mumbai is setting another record after
being home to a national park for decades. The Maharashtra Revenue and Forest
Department notified the northern part of the Thane Creek as a wildlife
sanctuary under section 18 of the Wildlife (Protection Act), 1972.
V. 3 Kancheepuram weavers
get national awards: Expert weavers V.
Sundararajan, K. Jayanthi and V. Palanivelu were presented with the SantKabir
award by the PM for their contribution to the revival of the World famous
Kancheepuram silk saree.
VI. Tendong Lho Rum Faat,
annual festival of ethnic Lepcha tribe of Sikkim was celebrated on 8th
August 2015.
VII. Tripura Legislative
Assembly passed a resolution against death penalty: The
resolution moved by Congress MLA JitendraSarkar requested the Union Government
to amend the section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and replace it with
life sentence unto death.
VIII.Accenture appointed
RekhaMenon as chairperson of India’s operation and AnindyaBasu as MD.
IX. Boost for ‘Make in
India’: Global electronic manufacturing giant
Foxconn to invest $5 billion over the next five years in Maharashtra, the
company chairman Tery Gou said.
X. Ram NathKovind,
AcharyaDevVrat appointed as Governers of Bihar and Himachal Pradesh: Mr.Kovind
will succeed KeshriNath Tripathi, the governer of WB who was holding additional
charge of Bihar. AcharyaDevVrat will succeed Kalyan Singh (Governer of
Rajasthan) who was holding additional charge of HP.
XI. ESIC extends health
insurance scheme to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur.
INTERNATIONAL
UPDATES:
I. Thomas Cook acquires
Kouni Travel for Rs 535 crore: Travel Major
Thomas Cook has acquired Kouni Travel (India) Pvt Ltd and Kouni Travel (China)
Ltd.
II. China remains World’s
largest robot market: It has retained its
rank as the world’s largest robot market for the second successive year. It
accounted for one fourth of the world’s total.
III. Pramerica AMC to
acquire Deutsche’s India AMC business: Pramerica
Asset Managers Pvt Ltd is going to acquire Deutsche’s Bank’s Asset management
business in India for an undisclosed amount.
IV. Typhoon ‘Soudelor’
battered Taiwan leaving four people dead and a trail of devastation.
V.
India decided to
boycott 61st Commonwealth Parliament Conference to be held in
Islamabad: The reason for the boycott was
Pakistan’s deliberate decision to not invite the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir
Kavinder Gupta.
VI. Global Satellite to be
named after the ‘Missile Man’: A global
satellite for earth observation and disaster risk reduction – Globalsat for
DRR, proposed under the UN framework is to be dedicated to APJ Abdul Kalam as a
tribute to the vision of the celebrated scientist and former Indian president
who died recently. The satellite will be renamed as UN KalamGlobalSat.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS:
I. Bronte
dethrones sister Cate for 100m freestyle gold: Bronte Campbell of Australia took the 100m freestyle gold
at the World Championship, in Kazan (Russia), to succeed her sister Cate
Campbell as champion.
II. BCCI
announced ad-hoc committee for Cricket Administration in Bihar and Uttarakhand:
The Bihar panel will be headed by its
chairman Niranjan Shah while the Uttarakhand panel will be headed by MP
Pandove.
OBITUARIES:
III. F. O Kelsey, the anti-thalidomide Canadian
Doctor died in London at the age of 101.
