Daily GK Updates - 14th July, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 14TH JULY, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

I. Nashik-TrimbakeshwarSimhasthaKumbhMela began in Maharashtra: The festival known for its largest peaceful gathering in the world will continue for one year and will end in August 2016.

II. Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to increase employability of ex-servicemen: The MoU will be a harbinger of skill development in the country that will align Armed Forces and the civilian field.

III. Lt. General Man Mohan Singh Rai appointed as vice-chief of the Indian Army.

IV. Gujarat International Finance Tech-City Company Ltd has appointed Ajay Kumar Pandey as the new MD & Group CEO.

V. Operation Talaash for missing Dornier ends: The 35 day search operation has been terminated by the Indian Coast Guards after recovery of human remains and parts of the plane.

VI. 12-day Godavari MahaPushkaram began on the banks of Godavari in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh: It is a unique event which happens once in 144 years.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

I. India and Georgia signed MoU for cooperation in field of Election Management: The MoU was signed by Chief Election Commissioner of India NasimZaidi and T. Zhvania, Chairperson, Central Election Commission, Georgia.

II. PM Modi concluded his 6-nation tour to Russia and 5-central Asian nations: During the visit, he met with the presidents of the 5 countries as mentioned below.

President of Tajikistan: E. Rahmon

President of Kyrgyz Republic: A. Atambaev

President of Turkmenistan: G. Berdimuhamedov

President of Kazakhstan: N. Nazarbayev

President of Uzbekistan: Islam Karimov

III. India second among 40 countries in terms of Confidence in National Government: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) released the report based on a sample survey of 1000 citizens in each country. Switzerland was placed on top while Norway stood third.

IV. Iran, P5+1 countries reached agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme at Vienna: Ending a 12-year stand-off, Iran and P5+1 countries comprising of the US, UK, Russia, China, France and Germany reached an agreement called ‘Joint Comprehensive plan of Action (JPCA) or Vienna Agreement. The agreement restricts Iran from producing Nuclear weapons.

V. Four Indians Mishi Choudhary, Manish Dahiya, Sanjay Vijayakumar and Arti Wig were figured in the Asia 21 Young Leaders class of 2015 list by the Asia Society that was released in New York, USA.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

I. IT department launched OTP to e-file Income Tax: The Income Tax department launched one time password (OTP) based e-filing verification system for taxpayers.

SPORTS:

II. IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, Rajasthan Royals suspended for two years by Justice Lodha panel: Two timeIPL champions CSK and inaugural winner RR are suspended with immediate effect.            

AWARDS:

III. ‘Budhha in a Traffic Jam’ bagged best screenplay award at Madrid Film Festival.

IV. India based software products and technology services company Comparex India Pvt Ltd won Microsoft Country Partner of the Year award along with other 110 companies.

V. Noted artist SayedHaiderRaza conferred with France’s de la Lgiond Honneur.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

VI. The book Green Signals: Ecology, Growth and Democracy in India written by Jairam Ramesh released.

OBITUARIES:

VII. Legendary music composer MS Vishwanathanpasses away.

IX. Former President of Billiard and Snooker Federation of India (BSFI) Pashupathinath Roy died.

Daily GK Updates - 13th July, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 13TH JULY, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

I. Indigenously developed Nag anti-tank missile tested from Helicopter platform: India test fired its Nag anti- tank guided missile, which can hit a target upto 7 km from a helicopter at a firing range in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

II. ISRO’s GAGAN (GPS aided geo-augmented navigation system) satellite based navigation system launched: India joined a select league comprising the US, European Union and Japan having satellite-based air navigation services.

III. HCL Technologies to acquire certain assets of Trygstad Technical Services in all cash deal.

IV. Flipkart offers Rs 50,000 allowance to employees looking to adopt children.

V. CBI constituted 40 members team to probe multi-crore Vyapam scam: The scam is an admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh.

VI. LG Electronics India appointed Kim Ki Wan as MD.

VII.  Patnitop tunnel which is India’s longest road tunnel, set to open in 2016: It is located in Udhampur district of Jammu & Kashmir and the initiative is taken to make the Jammu Sri Nagar national highway (NH1A) all weather friendly.

VIII. Union Government appointed lawyer Rodrigo Oreamuno to arbitrate Vodafone Tax case.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

I. India, Kyrgyzstan ink 4 pacts during PM Modi’s visit: India and Kyrgyzstan have signed 4 pacts to enhance bilateral cooperation between the nations. The pacts include agreements on defence cooperation, MoU and cooperation in the field of elections, MoU on cooperation in the sphere of standards, Agreement on cooperation in culture.

II. Miss USA 2015: Miss Oklahoma Olivia Jordan wins the crown: Olivia Jordan of Oklahoma won the Miss USA beauty pageant beating 50 candidates.

III. India and Tajikistan inked 2 agreements during PM Modi’s visit, to strengthen bilateral relations: Both the countries signed MoUs to further strengthen  their defence cooperation which is a strong pillar of strategic partnership

IV. QS University Rankings: BRICS 2015 released: The QS intelligence unit released the rankings that reflect the increasingly strong global presence of leading Chinese universities.

V. The United States of America formally designated Tunisia as the 16^th Major Non- NATO Ally (MNNA).

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

I. SBI partners with Bankbazaar.com: The largest bank of India has partnered with online financial product aggregator ‘bankbazaar.com’ along with the bank’s subsidiary SBI CAP Securities.

II. Retail inflation up at 5.4% in June: Prices of costlier food items, fuel, housing, clothing and footwear rose and prices of sugar and confectionary items eased during the month.

SPORTS:

III. Leander Paes (IND) and Martina Hingis (SUI) beat Alexander Peya(RUS) and TimeaBabos (RUS) to claim their Wimbledon Mixed doubles title, the 2^nd grand slam together.

IV. Novak Djokovic beat Rodger Federer in the finals to claim Wimbledon 2015 men’s singles title.

V. Indo-Vietnamese pair SumitNagal and N.H Ly won 2015 Wimbledon Boys’ doubles title.

VI. Mumbai Ranji cricketer Hiken Shah suspended by BCCI after being found guilty of breaching BCCI’s anti-corruption code.                 

AWARDS:

VII. Tata Steel’s West Bokaro Division conferred with Golden Peacock Environment Management Award 2015.

VIII. ShreyaGhoshal receives Sera Sera Bengali Award in Houston: This award is known as the best of the best Bengali honour.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

IX.  The book Green Signals: Ecology, Growth and Democracy in India written by Jairam Ramesh released.

OBITUARIES:

X. Nintendo’s Lwata, who led Japanese video game Company Nintendo Co. died. He was associated with Pokemon and Super Mario franchises.

Daily GK Updates - 12th July, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 12TH JULY, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

I. Big Bazaar ties up with MobiKwik for mobile wallet service: Kishore Biyani’sBigbazaar ties ups with mobile payments platform MobiKwik to allow the retail firm’s customers to pay  for purchases using the mobile wallet facility.

II. US Taxi hailing app Uber Technologies to accept payments through credit cards.

III. Union Minister of Science and Technology inaugurated the 12^th International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences (ISAES) at Goa.

IV. Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha has left on a four day visit to South Africa during which he will hold talks with senior military leadership there and discuss a wide range of issues on enhancing bilateral defence ties.

V. India has included Japan for its forthcoming Malabar Naval Exercise with the US in the Bay of Bengal.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

I. NASA picks Sunita Williams for 1^st commercial space vehicles: Indian origin Sunita Williams is among 4 ‘veteran’astronauts picked by NASA to fly the 1^st commercial space vehicles, a part of the space agency’s ambitious plan to put a man on Mars by 2030.

II. Lord Bilimoria appointed as President of UKCISA: NRI entrepreneur Lord Karan Bilimoria has been appointed as the president of the UK Council for International Student affairs.

III. Land Exchange Deal: Till now, not many people have expressed the wish to go to Bangladesh as 80% of the survey gets complete. The full survey will complete by July 16.

IV. India and Kyrgyzstan to hold annual joint military exercise to combat terrorism and extremism.

V. Malala Yusufzai turned 18 and told the world leaders that they are failing Syrian Children.

VI. China’s National capital Beijing has announced plans to restrict population to 23 million to curb traffic woes.

  

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

I. NABARD has set a target of providing Rs. 30,000 crore as credit to farmers for irrigation over the next three years.

SPORTS:

II. Sania Mirza (IND) and Martina Hingis (SUI) beat Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) and Elena Vesnina (RUS) to claim their 1^st ever Wimbledon title together: SaniaMirza becomes the 1^st Indian women to win a Grand Slam.

III. India crush Zimbabwe by 62 runs to seal ODI series 2-0.

IV. Top seeded SauravGhoshal and JoshnaCinappabagged Men’s and Women’s titles respectively at the 63^rd National Senior Squash Championship that was held at Thiruvanathpuram.

AWARDS:

V. ‘Budhha in a Traffic Jam’ wins best original screenplay award at Madrid Film Festival.

OBITUARIES:

VI. Former Tamil Nadu minister and AIADMK MLA ChendurPandian passed away.

VII. Cricket South Africa mourned the death Indian origin veteran cricketer Sam Bulbulia.