Daily GK Updates - 10th August, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 10TH AUGUST, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.     Union Government launches SurakshaBandhan drive in Mission mode: It has launched ‘SurakshaBandhan’ drive in a mission mode through participating banks and insurance companies to facilitate enrolment under PM SurakshaBimaYojana and PM JeevanJyotiBimaYojana through the JeevanSuraksha Gift Cheques (Rs 351 for Suraksha Deposit scheme, Rs 201 for JeevanSuraksha Deposit Scheme and Rs 501 for Atal Pension scheme) to ensure social security for all especially the poor and underprivileged section of the society.

II.    Indian Army tops popularity charts on Facebook: Leaving a host of foreign government organisations including CIA, FBI, and NASA behind, the Indian Army has once again topped the popularity charts on the social network.

III.      Ravi Shankar Prasad launches mobile app to aid digital literacy in Bihar: The app named DISHA, launched by the Telecom Minister is expected to help people learn about computers and internet through self-learning modules. It is free and available on Google Play Store.

IV.       India stays World’s Top Beef Exporter despite new bans on slaughtering cows.

V.       NIYATAM: Aayog’s push to improve states’ efficiency: The NITI Aayog plans to work with states to prune their administrative structure to improve their efficiency and governance. The move is part of a larger interaction with states called NIYATAM or NITI Initiative to Yield Aspirational Targets and Actionable Means.

VI.   The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have signed a MoU for establishing a Centre of Excellence in Disaster Research and Resilience Building at JNU.

VII.  Union Government and Delhi Government agreed to prepare blueprint to Clean and Rejuvenate Yamuna River.

VIII.ParamTyag Chakra initiative launched to honour families of Martyrs: This initiative was launched by the Alumni Association of Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology to honour the family members of brave military men, who sacrificed their lives for the nation.

IX.  Union Government launched School Nursery Yojana in New Delhi to bring students closer to nature: The Yojana seeks to engage class 6^th to 9^th students in raising of sapling in nurseries created in schools.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  

 I.       The SRK-Kajol starrer DDLJ will be screened at the South Asian Gallery of the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, marking yet another milestone in the film’s 20^th year of interrupted run.

II.   TurkmenGaz to head TAPI pipeline, consortium to jointly own the project: Turkmenistan’s state-owned company TurkmenGaz will lead the consortium for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline, with a major investment.

III.     Singapore turns 50: An island of 5.5 million people that sits just north of the equator, Singapore was a post-colonial backwater when it gained independence from Malaysia in 1965.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

   

I.      India’s 1^st IBU to be operational in two months at GIFT: Business at India’s 1^st International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gandhinagar International Finance-Tech City (GIFT) is set to kick start very soon. As many as five banks are expected to start their International Banking Units (IBUs) in the IFSC over the next two months. Yes Bank and IndusInd Bank have already received approvals from the RBI and SEZ development commissioner to set up IBUs.

AWARDS:

   

II.       Goa Tourism Minister D Parulekar conferred with PATWA 2015 Award: He has been awarded with the PATWA-Safari India South Asia Travel Award for the year 2015. Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) is an affiliate to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (WTO).

III.      Ajit Kumar Saroj, Varanasi jail inmate awarded with IGNOU gold medal: He was awarded the gold medal for securing 1^st position in Diploma in Tourism Studies.

IV.     Raghavendra Gadagkar awarded with Germany’s Cross of Order of the merit: The Indian Sociobiologist was awarded with Germany’s highest civilian honour at the German Consulate in Bengaluru.

OBITUARIES:

V.       Centenarian Kannada poet and freedom fighter KayyaraKinhannaRai breathed his last at his residence in Kasaragod district of Kerala.

Daily GK Updates - 9th August, 2015

DAILY GK UPDATES - 9TH AUGUST, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.      Coal India to invest over Rs. 62,500 crore by 2019-20: CIL, the largest producer of the fuel in the country, will invest over Rs. 62,500 crore in the next five years with an aim to ramp up annual production to 908 million tonnes by 2019-20.

II.    National ‘Kala Utsav’ to be held in Delhi in December: Union HRD Minister SmritiIrani announced that the national-level Kala Utsav for students studying in CBSE School would be held in Delhi in December every year.

III.     Government notifies changes in IT rules to comply with FATCA pact: The revenue department has amended income tax rules to provide for reporting of information with regards to financial assets and accounts, a month after India and the US signed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a tax information sharing agreement.

IV.   India received $24 bn in FDI from EU in last 3 years: Despite the free trade agreement talks with the European Union being in limbo, India has received an impressive $24 bn in Foreign Direct Investment from the 28-nation bloc over the last three years.

V.        Government to ship 10,000 tonne of rice branoil this fiscal: Government is expecting to ship 10,000 tonne of rice bran oil this financial year after it eased restrictions on its bulk sale, giving a boost to small rice millers.

VI.   Mysuru tops Swachh Bharat rankings: Mysuru in Karnataka topped the Swachh Bharat rankings. The 2^nd position was bagged by Thiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu followed by Navi Mumbai.

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.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

I.         Michael Clarke announces retirement from International Cricket: Australia Captain Michael Clarke will retire from international cricket at the end of the Ashes series.

AWARDS:

 

II.   Indian origin Scribe A.Batra awarded ‘Best Journalist’ in Canada: An Indo-Canadian woman journalist has been awarded by Indian community members in Ottawa for outstanding achievements in the field of journalism.

Daily GK Updates - 8th August, 2015

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 8^th 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 61^st 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.