Daily GK Updates - 1st October, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.        Union Government released commemorative postal stamp on Dr B R Ambedkar: It was released by Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as the Government is celebrating 125^th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar in the year 2015.

II.        Union Government reduced domestic natural gas price by 18 % to 3.81 USD per mmBtu.

III.     Uttar Pradesh decided to implement National Food Security Act, 2013 in three phases: The National Food Security Act, 2013 is an act of the parliament of India which aims to provide subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people.

IV.        Union Government notified Mid-Day Meal Rules, 2015.

V.        PM Modi briefed about Project Loon during Google headquarters tour: Google’s flagship Project Loon was praised by PM Modi as he believed that it has multiple uses like long distance education, rural schools and telemedicine.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.    India up 16 places to 55^th on global competitiveness index released by World Economic Forum: In a big jump, India has moved up 16 positions to rank 55^th on a global index of the world’s most competitive economies, where Switzerland remains on top.

II.         China launched 20^th satellite for its BeiDou Navigation System: It was launched on the Long March 3B carrier rocket and has put China one step closer to providing an alternative to the U S operated Global Positioning System (GPS).

III.   Palestinian flag hoisted at UN headquarters for the 1^st time: The flag hoisting ceremony was attended by the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.

IV.        Russian parliament gave green signal to Putin to use troops in Syria, however the ‘Kremlin’ decided that it will only use Air Force there, and not ground troops.

V.         WHO removed all limitations on eligibility for Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV infected people.

VI.     World Vegetarian Day observed globally: It was observed on 1^st October 2015 as an annual celebration to promote joy, compassion and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism.

VII.    International Day of Older Persons observed across the world: It was observed on 1^st October 2015 with the theme ‘Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment’.

VIII. Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif proposed 4-point Peace Initiative with India during his speech at the UN General Assembly.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  I.     IMF announces disbursement of USD 504 million to Pakistan: The International Monetary Fund has announced ‘immediate disbursement’ of USD 504 million to Pakistan bringing the total amount released to bolster the country’s struggling economy to USD 4.54 billion..

SPORTS:

II.      Hina Sidhu and Shweta Singh win gold and silver in 10m Air Pistol event at the Asian Air Gun Championship.

III.    ICC Women’s team rankings released: Australia topped the list while India was placed on the 4^th spot.

AWARDS:

IV.     Zenia Bhumgara of India conferred with Merlin Award by International Magicians Association in Mumbai.

V.            Ratan Tata honoured by UK City of Coventry: The leading Indian Industrialist took oath as an Honorary Freeman of the City of Coventry. Since 1914, only 13 people have been conferred with the honour.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

VI.      Book titled ‘Hungry Bengal: War, Famine, Riots and the End of Empire’ authored by Janam Mukherjee was released.

OBITUARIES:

 VII.     Twin Peaks star Catherine Coulson died at the age of 71.

Daily GK Updates - 30th September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            Microsoft launches data centres in India at cost of $200 million: Microsoft India launched commercial cloud services from local data centres in India. The company has invested around $200 million to set up three centres in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai.

II.            Neelesh Garg appointed as MD and CEO of Tata AIG General Insurance.

III.   Union Government appointed four Brand Ambassadors for Digital India Programme: The list of brand ambassadors comprises of SatwatJagwani (IIT-JEE Advance Topper-2015), KratiTiwari (IIT-JEE Advance Girl Topper-2015), AnkitFadia (Author and Ethical Hacker) and PranavMistry (Computer scientist- Samsung USA).

IV.            Piyush Goyal launched ‘Access to clean cooking energy and electricity-survey of states report’: The study was conducted by the council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) in collaboration with Columbia University with support from the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation.

V.            NOC online application portal and processing system for the National Monument Authority launched: An initiative of the National Monument Authority, NOAPS will make the approval procedure more efficient for construction related activities in regulated/restricted areas in the vicinity of ASI protected monuments in different cities of India.

VI.        Jayant Prasad appointed as Director General of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

VII.       CCMB Scientists developed nano-particle-based drug delivery method to fight fungal keratitis: Scientists from Centre of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad have developed the innovative drug delivery method.

VIII.     Can’t force political parties to keep poll promises:SC: A bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said that it was not the judiciary’s job to force political parties to fulfil their pre-election promises or stay away from post-poll alliances.

IX.            21^st meeting of the Western Zonal Council held in Panaji: The council was headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The meeting planned upon development issues which have mostly social and economic bearing. Issues related to internal security were also discussed in the meeting.

X.   NDTV signed 100 crore rupees deal with Taboola, a US based content recommendations engine: The deal is signed to boost the entire network of desktop and mobile sites of NDTV.

XI.      The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched ‘Accessible India Campaign’: Social Justice and Empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot launched the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan) that focuses on building accessible government buildings for persons with disabilities.

XII.    17^th All India Government Whips Conference held in Visakhapatnam: It was presided by Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu. The two day conference was attended by 179 whips from various state assemblies, legislative councils and the two houses of Parliament.

XIII.    Tamil Nadu Government increased the MSP for paddy crops.

XIV.      Praveen Dixit appointed as Maharashtra DGP.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

   

I.            Leader’s Summit on Peacekeeping held at the UN headquarters in New York: The high level summit reviewed the on-going operations of 125000 strong UN Peacekeeping force and announced commitments to modernize the force. Besides the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, it was attended by leaders of more than 50 countries including PM Modi and the US President Barack Obama.

II.            International Translation Day observed across the world: It was observed on 30^th September 2015 with the theme ‘The Changing Face of Translation and Interpreting’.

III.     1^st ever US-India-Japan trilateral ministerial dialogue held: It was held on the sidelines of the 70^th UN General Assembly session in New York. It was attended by Japanese Foreign Minister F Kishida, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Union External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj.

IV.  A team led by Charles Chiu, associate professor of laboratory medicine at University of California San Francisco developed DNA sequencing-based blood test to diagnose Ebola and other pathogens.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  

I.        RBI allows corporates to raise up to $750 million via rupee denominated bonds overseas: The Reserve Bank of India has allowed corporates to raise $750 million under the automatic route per annum by way of rupee denominated bonds overseas. Cases beyond this limit will require prior approval of the RBI.

II.     SBI cuts lending rate by 0.4%: Soon after reduction in repo rate by the RBI, the country’s largest lender SBI slashed minimum lending or base rate by 0.4% to 9.3%, setting the trend for benign interest rate regime.

III.     London based business daily Financial Times released FDI data for the period January-June of 2015. As per the data, India in the 1^st half of 2015 surpassed China to emerge as the most favoured destination for FDI.

SPORTS:

IV.   M R Poovamma and BabitaKumari conferred Arjuna Award 2015: Both sportspersons have been conferred the award for their outstanding achievements in Athletics and Wrestling respectively.

V.           India’s Gurpreet Singh wins silver medal at 2015 Asian Air Gun Championship held in New Delhi.

VI.     Sportzlive appointed as official marketing partner for 2^nd India Badminton League 2016.

AWARDS:

VII.          Indo-British van driver Dee Patel honoured with Pride of Britain Award.

VIII. India-American environmental engineer KartikChandran named MacArthur Fellow.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

IX.      Book titled ‘Hungry Bengal: War, Famine, Riots and the End of Empire’ authored by Janam Mukherjee was released.

OBITUARIES:

   

X.          Twin Peaks star Catherine Coulson died at the age of 71.

Daily GK Updates - 29th September, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

   I.            Meghalaya Governor V Shanmugnathan got additional charge of Governor of Manipur: He was given the additional charge by President Pranab Mukherjee after the demise of incumbent Dr Syed Ahmed Khan.

II.            Ministry of Railways launched Indian Railway Knowledge Portal:It was launched by Suresh Prabhu for dissemination of detailed information on Indian Railways. It is an initiative of the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) which allows the user to access most of the available knowledge about Indian Railways at one location due to linkage of websites, documents and much more.

III.            Boat with 200 onboard capsized in River Koholi in Kamrup district of Assam.

IV.            NLC set up its first 10 MW Solar power plant: Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) set up its 1^st 10 MW solar power plant at Neyveli. It is the 1^st renewable energy project of the corporation.

V.            Union Ministry of Road Transport launched Green Highways Policy, 2015: The policy that seeks to promote green covers along the National Highway corridor was launched at the National Conference in New Delhi.

VI.            Wipro selected as member of Dow Jones Sustainability World Index: It was selected as the member for the 6^th consecutive year.

VII.            INS Kochi commissioned into Indian Navy:Indian Navy has commissioned INS Kochi, a Kolkata-class Guided Missile Destroyer in its contingent to showcase India’s indigenous efforts in the field of underwater warfare. The ship was commissioned by Union Defence Minister ManoharParrikar in Mumbai.

VIII.            Delhi HC admitted plea challenging validity of Article 370 of constitution of India: The High Court of Delhi agreed to hear a PIL that challenges the constitutional validity of Article 370 of the constitution of India that deals with the special status of J&K.

IX.            Maharashtra Government declared 2017 as ‘Visit Maharashtra Year’.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

   

 I.            Seven MoUs signed to boost start-ups in India: Aimed at giving a big boost to start-ups in India, as many seven MoUs have been signed between various organisations of India and US. These were signed as PM Modi attended the India-US Start-up Konnect 2015 in San Jose.

II.            Reliance Defence and EDIC sign MoU to manufacture defence equipment: Reliance Defence Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, has signed a strategic MoU with Emirates Defence Industries Co. (EDIC) for manufacturing, servicing, knowledge transfer and technology development from the UAE.

III.            India signs deal with Boeing, US for Apache, Chinook copters: India signed a nearly USD 3 billion deal for purchase of 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy lift  choppers with American aviation giant Boeing and the US Government.

IV.    Evidence of summertime water flows on Mars:NASA Study: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found the first evidence that briny water may flow on the surface of Mars during the planet’s summer months.

V.      World Heart Day 2015 celebrated with theme creating heart-healthy environments: It was celebrated on 29^th September 2015 across the world. The purpose of the day is to ensure people participation across the globe in the world’s biggest intervention against cardiovascular disease (CVD).

VI.         India signed 123.51 million USD loan agreements with Asian Development Bank: This was done to upgrade tourism infrastructure and services in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

VII.       India-Sri Lanka joint military exercise MITRA SHAKTI 2015 begins in Pune.

VIII.   1^st Indo-Africa ICT Expo launched in Nairobi: Indian Government in conjunction with ICT Authority of Kenya, India’s Telecom Export Promotion Council (TEPC) and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) launched the 1^st Indo-Africa ICT Expo in Nairobi.

IX.         China’s DidiKuaidi joined hands with Ola to compete Uber in India.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

  

 I.      RBI Governor has surprized with 50 bps cut: This surprise is pleasant with the announcement of 50 bps rate cut. Banks need to pass on this rate cut to industry and consumers. The new repo rate is 6.75% and the reverse repo rate is 5.75%. The MSF and Bank rate is 7.75%.  The CRR and SLR remain unchanged at 4% and 21.5% respectively.

II.     The World Bank has promised $30 billion financial assistance to the Indian Railways.

AWARDS:

 III.           Indo-British van driver Dee Patel honoured with Pride of Britain Award.