Daily GK Updates - 12th September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            National highways to grow by 50,000 km in 6 months: The road transport and highways ministry will add nearly 50,000 km of roads to the National Highways network in the country in the next six months.

II.            Rakesh Sharma appointed as MD and CEO of Canara Bank: Prior to his appointment as MD and CEO of the Bengaluru headquartered Canara bank, he was holding the same position at Laxmi Vilas Bank.

III.            Union Government approved the purchase of 10 Heron TP drones from Israel: The Drones will be operated by the Indian Air Force. This 400 million US dollars proposal for buying missile-armed drones from Israel will enhance India’s cross border military strike capability.

IV.            Professor KumkumDhar appointed as Vice Chancellor of Bhatkhande Music Institute.

V.            CarDekho acquired Auto portal Zigwheels: Jaipur based CarDekho acquired Zigwheels, an auto portal owned by Times Internet.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.            Radical Leftist Jeremy Corbyn becomes head of Britain’s Labour Party: He won with nearly 59.5% of first preference votes beating rivals Andy Burnham and Y. Cooper.

II.            J K Tyre, Singapore arm to buy 100% stake in Cavendish Industries: J K Tyre & Industries and J K Asia Pacific Singapore Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of J K Tyre has signed a binding term sheet with Kesoram Industries Ltd (KIL) to acquire 100% equity in Cavendish Industries Ltd at a value of Rs 2,200 crore.

III.            Singapore’s ruling party wins elections, returns to power: Singapore’s PM lauded the city-state’s youth  vote for helping return his party to power in a massive victory for the 12^th time since independence a half century ago. The People’s Action Party (PAP) got 83 of the 89 seats. PM L H Loong won from the Ang Mo Kio constituency.

IV.            Russian record-breaker Astronaut Padalka returns to Earth: Russian astronaut Gennady Padalka has returned to earth with the record for having spent the most time in space. He has spent a total of 879 days in space over five trips.

V.            Google launches new mobile wallet Android Pay in US: Android Pay allows the users to make contactless payments using their smartphone at participating retailers.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  I.            Current Account Deficit narrows to 1.2% of GDP in April-June: A decline in merchandise imports helped the country narrow its current account deficit to 1.2 % of GDP in the 1^st quarter of the current financial year compared with 1.6 % inthe year ago period.

II.            Rs 500 notes most in demand, Rs 1000 notes at second place: Rs 500 bills top the demand charts in India, followed by thousand-rupee notes at second place, an Assocham study said today.

SPORTS:

III.               Leander Paes and Martina Hingis won US Open Mixed Doubles Title 2015: The 4^th seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated Americans B Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey in the finals.

IV.               Indian Golfer Aditi Ashok claims Singha Thailand Amateur title.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

V.            Book titled ‘Novelist by Profession’ authored by Japaneese authorHaruki Murakami was released. 

VI.            Vice President Hamid Ansari releases book by Jamia Faculty: He has released the book titled ‘Feminist and Orientalist Perspectives- A study of Lady Mary Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters’ authored by Dr.FarhaHibaParvez.

OBITUARIES:

VIII.            Veteran Congress leader G K Chatrath died.

IX.            Actor John P. Connell dies aged 91.

X.            Dennis Greene, a founding member of the rock and roll group Sha Na Na and former Columbia Pictures executive died at the age of 66.

Daily GK Update - 11th September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I. National Web Portal for apprenticeship training launched: Human resource development minister SmritiIrani launched the portal for promotion of a national apprenticeship scheme. The scheme which provides opportunities for practical training is for graduates, diploma holders and 10+2 pass vocational certificate holders. A logo and a slogan ‘ShakshatYuva, Samarth Bharat’ was also released for the portal.

II.       10^th World Hindi Conference begins in Bhopal: The theme for the conference is Hindi-JagatVistarAvamSambhavanaye.

III.      Download ‘NarendraModi Mobile App’; connect with the PM, learn about his day to day activities digitally: He is the 1^st political leader to have a mobile app, developed for him to digitally connect with the citizens of the country. He himself has launched the app.

IV.        Shashidhar Sinha has been appointed as the new head of ABC.

V.        Mumbai dialogue: Towards a TB-free India launched: It was launched by the US Ambassador to India Richard Verma along with Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and Ratan Tata, Chairman Tata Trusts.

VI.     Global Investors Meet 2015 held in Tamil Nadu: It was officially inaugurated by Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha at the Chennai Trade Centre. The 1^st of its kind investor’s summit in Tamil Nadu was aimed at targeting investment commitment of 1 lakh crore rupees. Over 5000 delegates including from foreign nations attended the 2-day summit.

VII.    Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories signed pact with US Firm PanTheryx: It has signed pact with US based PanTheryxto market PanTheryx’s nutritional invention ‘DiaResQ’ for infectious diarrhea in Nepal, India, Russia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and many other countries.

VIII.  Rajasthan 1^st state to submit Annual Action Plan under Atal Mission (AMRUT): It has become the 1^st state to submit the Annual Action Plan under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).

IX.    Expert discovered existence of thriving port town in Thanjavur district in Sangram Era: The findings were based on the results unearthed during an archaeological excavation at Mandripattinam fishing hamlet in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.      Indian American JagdeepGrewal chosen as postmaster of Sacramento: The post service in Sacramento has got a female postmaster after a span of 166 years and the new postmaster is an Indian American named JagdeepGrewal.

II.       UNGA adopted resolution on Raising of Flags by non-member observer states: The resolution introduced by Iraq says the flags of non-member observer states like Palestine shall be raised at UN Headquarters and United Nations Offices following the flags of the Member States of the organisation.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

 I.       FIPB clears 14 FDI proposals: The Foreign Investment Promotion Board cleared 14 investment proposals including that of ShyamSistema Teleservices and IIFL Holdings.

SPORTS:

II.        Virat Kohli starts tennis innings as UAE Royals co-owner in IPTL: After picking up minority stake in the Goa franchise of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) last year, Indian Test captain ViratKohli has now invested in the Dubai franchise of Mahesh Bhupati promoted Coca Cola International Premier Tennis League.

OBITUARIES:

 III.     Former Member of Parliament BalkrishnaWasnik died of cardiac arrest at the age of 86.

IV.        Renowned Water Policy Expert Ramaswamy R Iyer died at the age of 86.

Daily GK Updates - 10th September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.   Union Cabinet gave nod to transfer regulatory authority on potable alcohol to states: It will ensure that industries engaged in manufacturing alcohol meant for Potable purposes shall be under the total and exclusive control of states in all respects.

II.       Election Commission of India announced election dates for Bihar Assembly polls: The election will be held in five phases from 12 October to 5 November and counting will take place on 8 November.

III.      Union Cabinet approved National Offshore Wind Energy Policy 2015: The focus of the policy is to harness offshore wind energy potential in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The EEZ is an area up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

IV.    Telangana Language Day observed to commemorate birth anniversary of Kaloji Narayana Rao: 1^st Telangana Language Day was observed on 9 September 2015 to commemorate the birth anniversary of noted poet Kaloji Narayana Rao who was also called people’s poet.

V.   Union Cabinet approved India’s Preferential Treatment to LDCs in Trade in services in the WTO.

VI.  Union Cabinet approved guidelines for spectrum trading between service providers: Under the approved norms, spectrum trading will be allowed between two access service providers in 800 Mhz/1800 Mhz band. Till now, a licensee had the sole authority to use spectrum as it was not tradable.

VII.   Sun Edison Inc., Tamil Nadu Government signed MoU to develop 2-GW projects: US based global renewable energy company SunEdison Inc, signed MoU with TN Government to develop 2 GW of wind and solar power projects in the state in the next five years.

VIII.  Union Government approved 6% hike in DA for central government employees: With this announcement the total Dearness Allowance will go up to 119 % from 113 %.

IX.      INS Vajrakosh commissioned by Defence Ministry at Karwar: It was commissioned into the Indian Navy by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at Karwar, Karnataka.

X.         Andhra Pradesh interlinks mighty Godavari and Krishna rivers.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

  I.         Seven Indians featured in the Forbes Asia’s list of philanthropists: The list includes Infosys co-founders Senapathy Gopalkrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and S D Shibulal, Rohan, son of Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, Kerala born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey and two India-born brothers Suresh Ramakrishnan and Mahesh Ramakrishnan.

II.         World Suicide Prevention Day observed with theme ‘preventing suicide: reaching out and saving lives’: It was observed on 10 September 2015. The theme speaks up to reduce the stigma around talking about suicide prevention.

III.         India, Indonesia signed pact to cooperate on criminal matters: Both the countries signed the pact for repatriation of wanted prisoners and cooperation in all matters including gathering evidence.

IV.         NASA’s Mini Satellites set to transform Space Exploration: NASA is working on miniaturised satellites, known as Nanosatellites or CubeSats that can fit in the palm of your hand and are providing new opportunities for space science.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

I.        Abitha Mary Manuel and Anamika Das bagged bronze medals in 2015 CYG: Manuel won the medal in girls 800m race, while Das won it in shot put event on the final day of the Commonwealth Youth Games held at Apia, Samoa.

AWARDS:

 II.         President conferred Gandhi Peace Prize on ISRO: On behalf of the organisation, the award was received by ISRO’s Chairman A S Kiran Kumar. It was awarded for its contribution in development of space technology and satellite based services like launch of Mangalyaan, PSLV and others.

III.      Anupam Kher conferred with Honoured Guest of Texas Award: The 60-yr old actor received the award from Deputy Mayor of Houston Ed Gonzalez for his contribution to the cinema and the world of art.

IV.    Acclaimed writer Jhumpa Lahiri awarded with 2014 National Humanities Medal by White House: The medal was conferred onto her by President Barack Obama at a ceremony at the White House.