Daily GK Updates - 2nd September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   

 I.         Snapdeal acquires Silicon Valley start-up Reduce Data: New Delhi based Snapdeal has acquired Silicon Valley based start-up Reduce Data, a programmatic display advertisement platform.

II.    West Central Railway Zone became 1^st zone to eliminate all Unmanned Level crossings.

III.      Union Cabinet approved Policy for Marginal Fields of ONGC and OIL: Marginal fields are those discoveries that could not be monetized for many years due to various reasons such as isolated locations, small size of reserves, high development costs, technological constraints, fiscal regime, etc.

IV.         D K Likhi took charge as the CMD of Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited.

V.            Bihar to give 2% reservation to grandchildren of freedom fighters in Government jobs: The reservation will be given to those freedom fighters whose names figured in the list prepared by the Union Government.

VI.     Allahabad High Court asked Uttar Pradesh Government to ensure flag hoisting ceremony of National Flag on Independence Day and Republic Day in Madarsas and other schools all over the state.

VII.     Railway Ministry launched three IT initiatives developed by CRIS: The initiatives developed by the IT arm of Railways, Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) are Paperless unreserved ticketing through mobile phones between New Delhi-Palwal section (NR), Currency coin cum card operated automatic ticket vending machines at New Delhi railway station and Mobile application for freight operations (PARICHAALAN).

VIII. Swachhata Sangraam Abhiyan in Indore to make it open defecation-free: It was launched in Indore district of Madhya Pradesh. On this occasion, over 100 public representatives donated 140 toilets for the poor. The aim of the programme is to make the entire district open defecation free by the end of the financial year 2015-16.

IX.        Uber to introduce cash payment facility in Kolkata: Taxi aggregator service Uber will expand the cash payment option to riders in Kolkata.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  

 I.        Los Angles to be US Bidder to host 2024 Olympics: It has hosted the prestigious event twice before in 1932 and 1984.

II.        Durban in South Africa confirmed as 2022 Commonwealth Games host: The South African city of Durban has been selected as the host for the 2022 Commonwealth Games at the Federation’s general assembly in New Zealand. The Commonwealth Games are held every four years and feature athletes from over 50 countries, mostly former British colonies.

III.      NASA’s SERVIR-Mekong project to help monitor environment in Southeast Asia: NASA and US Agency for International Development (USAID) have started the SERVIR-Mekong project to strengthen the environmental monitoring in the Southeast Asian region. It has been launched in the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre in Bangkok, Thailand to serve 5 countries of the Mekong River Basin viz. Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

IV.        India emerged as 8^th largest tourism market for Australia: Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb said that India has emerged as 8^th largest tourism market for Australia with over 2 lakh Indians visiting the nation and spending about 1 billion dollars which was an increase of 39%.

V.    India partnered with UN’s Better than Cash Alliance to speed up PMJDY Programme: By joining the alliance, the Indian Government will have a research, technical and policy partner as it continues to create a digital financial economy.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  I.            FIIs/FPIs exempted from MAT purview for the period prior to 1^st April 2015: The Union Government decided to exempt Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) from paying Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) for the period prior to April 1, 2015. The decision was based on Justice AP Shah Committee’s report and is expected to improve ease of doing business conditions in the country.

II.         RBI proposed marginal cost of funds methodology to calculate Base Rate: The new methodology is aimed at bringing uniformity among Base Rates of banks so that they will be more sensitive to any changes in the policy rates of RBI like CRR, SLR, etc.

SPORTS:

III.         Mumbai won BuchiBabu Memorial Trophy of Cricket: Mumbai defeated Tamil Nadu by six wickets in the final match played at Chennai.

IV.      India won three matches test series against Sri Lanka 2-1: Cheteshwar Pujara was adjudged Man of the Match for his outstanding century in the final test and RavichandranAshwin was adjudged the Man of the Series for his 21 wickets in 3 matches.

AWARDS:

   

 V.          India wins UNESCO Award for conserving SreeVadakkunnathan temple in Kerala: India has won the UNESCO prize ‘Award of Excellence’ 2015 for the conservation of SreeVadakkunnathan temple in Kerala.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

VI.       Book titled ‘The Duels of the Himalayan Eagle’ authored by Air Marshal Bharat Kumar released.

Daily GK Updates - 1st September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.        Union Government releases Rs 2000 crore for Employees’ Pension Scheme: This contribution is in addition to the 250 crore rupees contributed by the government as grant-in-aid in the EPS in order to provide minimum pension of Rs 1000 to pensioners under the scheme.

II.        Union Government approved Smart National Common Mobility Card Model for seamless travel across India: The model will enable commuters to travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases.

III.      Anjali Duggal takes charge as Financial Services Secretary in the Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry.

IV.        Manish Sisodia got additional charge of Law Ministry of Delhi: The Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi will hold additional charge of the Law Ministry of Delhi replacing Kapil Mishra.

V.            A K Jha takes charge as NTPC interim CMD.

VI.        Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports recognised as sports discipline:  It was placed under priority category in order to encourage the practice of yoga across the country especially among the youth.

VII.    Haryana Government inaugurated Sakhi, one stop centre for women in distress: Haryana Women and Child Development Minister Kavita Jain inaugurated state’s 1^st One Stop Centre, known as Sakhi, at Karnal. This is the 2^nd such centre in the country after Chhattisgarh.

VIII.     Raghav Chandra took charge as the Chairman of NHAI.

IX.   Law Commission of India submitted its report on Death Penalty: The Law commission of India submitted its report on the Death Penalty to the Union Government. The report was submitted by the Chairman of Law Commission Justice (Retd) AP Shah. The commission favoured speedy abolition of the death penalty from the statue books of India as it doesn’t serve the goal of deterrence any more than life imprisonment. However, the capital punishment should not be abolished in cases of terrorism.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  

 I.          Highest mountain of North America Mt.Mckinley renamed as Denali: The Mountain was renamed by President Barack Obama. This designation will now recognize the sacred status of Denali to generations of Alaska natives. The Mountain has been known as Denali in Alaska since 1975.

II.       Tejinder Pal Singh named as Australian of the Day by Commonwealth Bank: An Indian-origin driver in Australia Tejinder Pal Singh was named as Australian of the Day by Commonwealth Bank of Australia for feeding the homeless in Darwin for the past 3 years.

III.   IS damages ancient temple of Bel in Syria’s Palmyra: The ancient temple was dedicated to the Palmyrene gods and was one of the best preserved parts of the historical sites of Palmyra.

IV.    Reliance Entertainment ties up with French Studio Pathe: Anil Ambani’s film production and distribution outfit Reliance Entertainment has tied up with French Film production and distribution house Pathe to distribute director GurinderChaddha’s next movie titled Viceroy’s House.

V.      Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Imperial College of London warned that 99% of the world’s seabird species will be ingesting plastic by 2050 if current marine pollution trends continue.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  I.        RTGS will not operate 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays: RBI: The RTGS system which allows real time transfer of large funds will not be operated on 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays with Banks observing public holiday on these days.

II.      At 7%, India remains fastest growing major economy: India remained the fastest growing major economy of the world for the second straight quarter, with GDP growth at 7% during April-June 2015. Data was released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

SPORTS:

III.         India beat Sri Lanka by 117 runs to win Cricbuzz Series 2-1 in Sri Lanka after 22 years.

IV.   Ishant Sharma and 3 Sri Lankan players namely LahiruThirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhamika Prasad were charged for misconduct in the last test match played at Colombo.

AWARDS:

   V.        ITBP official Jot Singh gets Tenzing Norgay national adventure award: Indo-Tibetan Border Police official and mountaineer Jot Singh has been honoured with the Tenzing Norgay national adventure award by President Pranab Mukherjee.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

VI.      Book titled ’30 Women in Power: Their voices, their stories’ authored by Naina Lal Kidwai released.

Daily GK Updates - 31st August, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            Rajiv Mehrishi appointed as Union Home Secretary: He will occupy the post for the next two years. He was due to retire on the day of his appointment but was given an extension of two years. He succeeded L C Goyal.

II.      Outgoing home secretary L C Goyal appointed as CMD of ITPO: He has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO).

III.         R P Watal designated as new Finance Secretary: He was the senior most secretary in the Finance Ministry and now has been elevated to the post of Finance Secretary by PM Modi.

IV.    Housing for all: Centre identifies 305 cities, towns: The housing ministry has identified 305 cities and towns across nine states to start building houses for the poor in urban areas. The government has set the target to provide houses to two crore families belonging to the economically weaker section (EWS) in urban areas by 2022. The states that are likely to gain are Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, J&K, Jharkhand, Kerala, MP, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.

V.            Supreme Court stays Rajasthan High Court verdict declaring Santhara illegal.

VI.       Eminent Kannada writer Dr. MM Kalburgi shot dead in Dharwad: He was a veteran Kannada writer and former vice-chancellor of Kannada University.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.        USITC extended anti-dumping duty on Indian preserved Mushrooms for 5 years: The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) extended the anti-dumping duty on Indian preserved mushrooms for another 5 years. The decision to extend the ban was taken on 30^th August 2015.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  

 I.        SBI and ICICI Bank receive domestic systemically important banks’ (D-SIB) status: RBI had announced the framework for dealing with D-SIBs in July 2014 and the framework requires RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as domestic systemically important every year in August starting from August 2015.

II.       Indian Bank launches ‘IndPay’: With an eye on people on the move, public lender Indian Bank has launched IndPay, a mobile application service that enables its customers to operate bank account from anywhere, anytime. It can be operated through smartphones compatible with Android, Windows and IOS mobile operating systems.

III.       HDFC Bank throws gauntlet, cuts base rate by 0.35%: The country’s second largest private sector lender, slashed its base rate, the minimum rate at which it lends by 0.35 % to 9.35 %.

SPORTS:

IV.     Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba won women’s marathon at World Athletics Championships, Beijing.

V.         Anil won gold medal in Cadet Wrestling World Championships: Indian wrestler Anil won gold medal in the 50 kg freestyle category in the Cadet Wrestling World Championships at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

VI.     15^th IAAF World Championships in Athletics concluded at Beijing: While Kenya topped the medal table with 16 medals, Jamaica stood second with 12 medals.  India could not win a single medal in the championships.

AWARDS:

  

 VII.    ITBP official Jot Singh gets Tenzing Norgay national adventure award: Indo-Tibetan Border Police official and mountaineer Jot Singh has been honoured with the Tenzing Norgay national adventure award by President Pranab Mukherjee.

OBITUARIES:

  

VIII.  Horror Maestro Wes Craven dies at 76: He was the creator of classic horror franchises Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.