Daily GK Updates - 3rd September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

  

 I.            PHDCCI launched Intellectual Property Rights Facilitation Centre for MSMEs in Lucknow: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry launched Intellectual Property Rights facilitation centre for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. The focus of the centre is to nurture innovative activities in the MSME.

II.            Bazmi Husain appointed as Chief Technology Officer of ABB India Ltd.

III.        4^th India-Bhutan Development Cooperation talks for the 11^th Five year plan held in New Delhi: During the talks, both sides reviewed the overall progress of Project Tied Assistance (PTA) projects and agreed to a reprioritized list of projects. Further, the two sides agreed to hold the next Annual Development Cooperation Talks in 2016 in the Bhutanese capital Thimpu.

IV.        2^ndAustrailia-India Defence Minister’s dialogue concluded in New Delhi: The meet was chaired by visiting Australian Minister of Defence Kevin Andrews and Defence Minister ManoharParrikar.

V.          Union Government launched Indian Wind Resource Atlas as an online GIS tool: The atlas will help policy makers at centre and state governments to deal with issues related to tariff fixation, transmission, grade frequency, etc.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  

 I.            Canada entered first technical recession in six years: Pulled by falling energy prices and economic troubles in China, Canadian economy entered into the first technical recession in six years. Technical recession means negative economic growth by a country’s GDP for two consecutive quarters.

 II.       Low cost device to monitor air quality unveiled by UNEP in Nairobi: The United Nations Energy Programme (UNEP) unveiled a low cost device to monitor air quality in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.

III.        IGAD-Plus brokered Peace Agreement came into effect in South Sudan: IGAD-Plus brokered Agreement on the Resolution of the conflict in the Republic of South Sudan came into effect on 29 August 2015. South Sudan is the youngest nation and came into existence in 2011. The objective of this agreement is to end the inter-ethnic Dinka-Neur conflict that led to the killing of around 1 lakh civilians.

IV.         Logo for 2020 Tokyo Olympics scrapped amid plagiarism accusation: The logo was scrapped amid allegations by a Belgian Graphic Designer Oliver Debie that it was plagiarised from his work.

V.     Russia rejected French proposal to limit veto power of UNSC’s permanent members.

 VI.     HIV prevention drug PrEP showed positive results: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug designed to help people at risk of contracting HIV, was in news as the practical tests have shown that people who took the drug stayed HIV-free.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

 I.      Forward Markets Commission to be merged with SEBI with effect from 28^th September 2015: For this purpose, the government repealed the Forward Contracts Regulation Act (FCRA) 1952 and made a way to shift the Regulation of Commodity Derivatives Market to SEBI under Securities Contracts Regulation Act (SCRA) 1956.

II.            NSE enters into MoU with Stock Exchange of Mauritius: The MoU will facilitate the development of channels for knowledge sharing and developing mutual synergies for the growth and development of SEM (Stock Exchange of Mauritius) and NSE (National Stock Exchange).

III.       ICICI Lombard in Bancassurance tie-up with CSB: ICICI Lombard General Insurance has tied up with Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) for sale of its products through 431 branches of the bank.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

  

 IV.        Book titled ‘Globalisation, Democratization and Distributive Justice’ authored by M C Sharma was released by Vice President Hamid Ansari.

OBITUARIES:

 V.            Disney Star Dean Jones dies at 84.

VI.            Hollywood actress Amanda Peterson dies at the age of 43.

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.