Daily GK Updates - 19th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Harvard University’s Public Health School opening Mumbai centre: The Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health is to open its new centre in Mumbai, the first in South Asia, in a bid to help broaden and coordinate the school’s nearly 60 years of collaboration to improve health in India and around the world.

2. Mumbai’s iconic Marine Drive turns 100: Mumbai’s iconic boulevard Marine Drive, also popularly called the Queen’s Necklace, completed 100 years, and residents of city’s western waterfront flagged off the centenary celebrations with a postcard showing the crescent-shaped bay off the Arabian Sea.

3. PM Narendra Modi hands over Shyamji’s UK Bar certificate to CM Anandiben Patel: PM Modi recalled nationalist leader Shyamji Krishna Varma as the 1^st ‘non-brahmin’ to have received a ‘degree of pandit’ in Varanasi. The certificate was given to Modi in the presence of UK PM David Cameron, during his visit to London last month.

4. DAC approved purchase of Russian S-400 Triumf Air Defence Missile System: The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the purchase of Russian advance S-400 Triumf Air Defence Missile Systems from Russia at an estimated cost of 40000 crore rupees. This system is capable of destroying incoming hostile missiles, aircraft and even drones within a range of up to 400km.

5. Government lowers Growth Projection to 7-7.5% for 2015-16.

6. Hindustan Unilever signed agreement with Mosons Group to acquire Indulekha: Hindustan Unilever (HUL) announced that it signed an agreement with Mosons Group to acquire its flagship brand Indulekha for 330 crore rupees.

7. K K Maheshwari appointed as new MD of UltraTech Cement.

8. Priyanka Chopra 3^rd most followed woman on Twitter in Asia: Indonesian singer-actress Agnez Mo and Bollywood actress DeepikaPadukone were ranked 1^st and 2^nd respectively.

  

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Jeff Williams appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Apple Inc.

2. 2^nd World Internet Conference concluded in Wuzen, China: The three day long 2^nd World Internet Conference concluded at Wuzen in China. The conference was held with theme ‘An Interconnected World Shared and Governed by All-Building a Cyberspace Community of Shared Destiny. 

3. India-born Padmasree Warrior named US CEO of Chinese Company: Warrior, 55, will be the Chief Development Officer and CEO of the US start-up NextEV. 

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBI released final guidelines of Marginal Cost of Funds Methodology to calculate Interest Rates: The new methodology is aimed at bringing uniformity among BRs of banks so that they will be more sensitive to any changes in policy rates of RBI like CRR, SLR, etc.

AWARDS:

2. Husband-wife duo Claude and Norma Alvares awarded with 2015 Sanctuary Lifetime Service Award: The husband-wife duo was honoured with the 2015 Lifetime Service Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine.

OBITUARIES:

3. British Novelist Peter Dickinson passed away at the age of 88.

4. Veteran Communist leader Noorul Huda passed away at the age of 86.

5. Musician and TV composer Adam Roth died of cancer at the age of 57.

Daily GK Updates - 18th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. MLAs of Arunachal Pradesh Assembly passed resolution to remove Speaker NabamRebia.

2. A P Shah Committee to look into ONGC, RIL dispute on KG gas fields: Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas appointed a single-member committee to look into the dispute between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) and Reliance Industries Ltd on Krishna Godavari gas fields.The committee will be headed by the Chairman of the 20^th Law Commission of India Justice (retd.) A P Shah.

3. CII-ITC Sustainability Awards 2015 for Excellence in Sustainable Business conferred: The awards conferred in New Delhi are part of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development’s efforts to create awareness, promote policy and practices, and create capacity to mainstream sustainability practices.

4. NSE launches three new group indices: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has launched three separate indices on three corporate houses viz. Tata, Aditya Birla and Mahindra Group. The first of its kind three separate indices based on corporate houses have been designed to reflect the performance of companies belonging to the respective corporate group.

5. R K Mathur appointed as CIC: Former Defence Secretary R K Mathur has been appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), breaking away from the convention of appointing the head from among the serving Information Commissioners.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. American University announces APJ Abdul Kalam Fellowship for Indian student: The University of South Florida (USF) has announced a postgraduate fellowship in the name of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to support accomplished and talented Indian students looking to study abroad.

2. International Migrants Day observed across the world on 18^th December 2015: The year 2015 will be remembered as a year of human suffering and migrant tragedies.

3. Indian-origin official Sanjay Pradhan to lead Open Government Partnership: The Open Government Partnership (OGP) selected the Indian-origin World Bank official Sanjay Pradhan to lead the organisation. Open Government Partnership is an international organisation promoting multilateral initiative. It was formally launched when the 8 founding governments (Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, UK and USA) endorsed the Open Government Declaration, and announced their country action plans. 

4. WTO approved Afghanistan’s membership terms to join as 163^rd member:  World Trade Organisation unanimously approved Afghanistan’s WTO membership at the WTO’s 10^th Ministerial Conference (MC10) in Nairobi.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBI released final guidelines of Marginal Cost of Funds Methodology to calculate Interest Rates: The new methodology is aimed at bringing uniformity among BRs of banks so that they will be more sensitive to any changes in policy rates of RBI like CRR, SLR, etc.

SPORTS:

2. Rory Mcllory wins European Tour Player of the Year Award 2015: He has won the award for the third time in the past four seasons.

AWARDS:

3. Sahitya Akademi Awards announced for the Year 2015: Among the winning books are six poetry collections, six books of short stories and four novels, besides two books each of essays and criticism. The awards were recommended by distinguished jury members representing 23 Indian languages and approved by the Executive Board of the Akademi, under its President Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari.

4. President Pranab Mukherjee earns Garwood Award for Outstanding Global Leadership in Open Innovation: He received the award from UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business at RashtrapatiBhawan. Prof. Solomon Darwin, Executive Director Garwood Centre for Corporate Innovation presented the award to the President.

OBITUARIES:

5. Theatre Artist ChatlaSriramulu passed away at the age of 84.

Daily GK Updates - 17th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Union Cabinet approved MoU with BRICS for energy conservation: The MoU provides for joint scientific and technological research and conferencing and holding of lectures and seminars. Capacity building and technology transfer and technology development, sharing policies and best practices was also included in the MoU.

2. Justice Reva Khetrapal took oath as Delhi’s Lokayukta.

3. Union Cabinet approved revised Model Text for Indian Bilateral Investment Treaty: The revised Indian model text for BIT will be used for re-negotiation of future BITs and negotiation of future BITs and investment chapters in Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreements (CECAs)/Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs)/ Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).

4. IRCTC ties up with Paytm for e-catering payments: Train passengers will now find it easier to make online payments for the food ordered through e-catering with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) entering into a tie-up with Paytm, a leading payment and e-commerce shopping website.

5. UP Governor Ram Naik gave assent to state’s Revenue Code (Amendment) Ordinance 2015: The proposed ordinance will enable dalits of the state to sell their land to non-dalits without approval of the administration.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 14^th Meeting of the heads of governments of SCO member states concluded in Zhengzhou, China: India, which is a acceding state at present, was represented by Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meet.

2. ISRO’s PSLV-C29 successfully launched 6 Singapore satellites into space.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBI liable to disclose information about banks under RTI Act: Supreme Court:The Supreme Court held that the Reserve Bank of India is liable to disclose information about the banks and financial institutions for their action against the loan defaulters including industrialists under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

SPORTS:

2. Lalit Modi back as Rajasthan Cricket Association President: After being ousted as president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) for 14 months, former IPL Commissioner LalitModi was reinstated.

3. Rohit Sharma to launch cricket comic series ‘Hyper Tygers’: Cricketer Rohit Sharma along with Graphic India, UK-based ISM Komix and Cornerstone Sport are set to launch a new environmental superhero team called ‘Hyper Tygers’.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

4. The book titled ‘The Bose Brothers and Indian Independence-An Insider’s account’ authored by Madhuri Bose was released.

Daily GK Updates - 16th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Vijay Divas observed across the country to commemorate India’s victory in 1971 war: On this occasion, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Army Chief D S Suhag, Navy chief R K Dhowan and Air Force Chief Arup Raha remembered martyrs and paid tributes at Amar Jawan Jyoti in New Delhi.

2. World Bank approved 1.5 billion USD loan to support Clean India Campaign (Swachh Bharat Mission) : The loan was granted to support the government in its efforts to ensure all citizens in rural areas have access to improved sanitation and end the practice of open defecation by 2019.

3. Combined Commanders Conference held on INS Vikramaditya off Kochi coast: It was attended by Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, all three services chiefs and other senior officers of three armed forces. The conference is also known as the Unified Commanders’ Conference (UCC).

4. Supreme Court appoints Virendra Singh as Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh.

5. Supreme Court bans registration of new diesel SUVs, luxury cars in Delhi: The ban will be valid to SUVs, luxury cars with engine capacity of 2000cc or more till March 31, 2016.

6. Arun Kumar Jain appointed as the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

7. NIIT Technologies appointed Amit Kumar Garg as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

8. Snapdeal launched mobile website in Hindi and Telugu.

9. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation approved Smart City Proposal for Maharashtra: It approved the smart city proposal for Maharashtra with worth of 32000 crore rupees.

10. Supreme Court asks Government to prepare draft memorandum of procedure on appointment of judges to higher judiciary.

11. UP Governor Ram Naik gave assent to state’s Revenue Code (Amendment) Ordinance 2015: The proposed ordinance will enable dalits of the state to sell their land to non-dalits without approval of the administration.

12. Union Ministry of Finance raised monetary limit for filing appeals to 10 lakh rupees in Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and 20 lakh rupees in High Courts.

13. Green Peace India released report on National Air Quality Index of 17 cities: As per the report, Delhi was listed as the most polluted city in the World, while 13 Indian cities were figured in the list of 20 most polluted cities on the planet.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Pakistan successfully tests fires nuclear capable Shaheen-IA ballistic missile: Range of the missile is 900 kilometres.

2. IAEA ends 12 year Iran Nuclear Weapon probe: International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has ended its 12-year investigation into concerns that Iran might be developing nuclear weapons. The move is seen as a key step towards lifting EU, UN and US sanctions and a symbolic victory for Iran.

3. Arctic Region hits record high temperature over land: NOAA: The average temperature over Arctic land for the year ending in September 2015 was the highest on record indicating that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the earth. It was revealed by the annual Arctic Report Card of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency of US for monitoring condition of the oceans and the atmosphere.

4. Japan’s SoftBank wins its 1st solar project in India:  Marking its debut in the Indian solar industry, post its investment announcement of 20 billion USD, Japan’s SoftBank won its 1st 350 Mw solar power project in Andhra Pradesh through its joint venture company SBG Cleantech.

5. Merriam-Webster declares ‘ism’ as word of the year for 2015.

6. 14th Meeting of the heads of governments of SCO member states concluded in Zhengzhou, China: India, which is a acceding state at present, was represented by Minister of State for External Affairs Gen V K Singh at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meet.

7. European Commission adopted proposal for a European Border and Coast Guard force to protect Schengen area: The creation of new border force was part of proposals to manage migration more effectively, improve the internal security of the European Union and safeguard the principle of free movement of persons.

8. ISRO’s PSLV-C29 successfully launched 6 Singapore satellites into space.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. PAN mandatory for all transactions over Rs 2 lakh from New Year: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that to counter domestic black money, the centre will make it mandatory to furnish PAN for cash dealing above Rs 2 lakh. The Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia confirmed the same later on.

2. ICICI Prudential Life launches iProtect Smart: It offers cover against death, critical and terminal illness, accidental death and disability due to an accident.

SPORTS:

3. Apoorvi Chandela wins gold medal at 59th National Shooting Championships: She won the gold medal in 10 m air rifle event in the women’s category by shooting 207.8 score in the finals.

4. IPL 2016: Dhoni, Ashwin to play for Pune; Raina, Jadeja for Rajkot: India’s limited overs captain MS Dhoni emerged as the top draw in the IPL draft with the Sanjeev Goenka-owned new franchise Pune to pick him first for the stipulated price of Rs 12.5 crore. Suresh Raina also went for Rs 12.5 crore to Rajkot.

5. Chain Singh won gold at the 59th National Shooting Championships: He won the Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions gold at the event held at Tughlakabad in New Delhi.

6. Serena Williams is SI’s Sportsperson of the year: Serena Williams was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, the first female athlete honoured on her own by the magazine in more than 30 years.

7. Rory Mcllory wins European Tour Player of the Year Award 2015: He has won the award for the third time in the past four seasons.

8. Shiva, Mandeep among four boxers to receive IOC Olympic scholarships: Four Indian boxers namely Shiva Thapa, Mandeep Jangra, Gaurav Bidhuri and Sumit Sangwan were selected by the International Olympics Committee for a scholarship.

Daily GK Updates - 15th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Maharashtra Government constituted a task force for setting up an IFSC in Mumbai: The task force for setting up an International Financial Services Centre will be headed by Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha.

2. Mahindra Group acquired Italian Auto design firm Pininfarina: Tech Mahindra and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, part of the Mahindra Group acquired Italian car designer Pininfarina SpA for 165 million US Dollars in an all-cash deal. Pininfarina is well known designing cars for Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls-Royce and Cadillac.

3. Union Government appointed L Narasimha Reddy to head Judicial Committee on OROP: The committee has been given a six month deadline for submission of its recommendations. It may give interim reports to the government on any of the matters related to its terms of reference.

4. Operation Smile-II to start from January 1, 2016: Operation Smile-II is a campaign to rescue/rehabilitate the missing children. It is a follow up of the exercise Operation Smile that helped in rescuing and rehabilitating 9146 missing children.

5. Gift City Phase-2 work launched: Gujarat International Finance Tech-City announced the launch of phase 2 development, which will be focused on International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) to be set up in GIFT SEZ. GIFT IFSC has already made allotment to around 20 institutions including leading names such as YES Bank, SBI, IDBI Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

6. Infosys invests USD 3 million in sports startup WHOOP: WHOOP’s system includes a device worn by athletes on their wrist that continuously measures key strain and recovery variables and actionable analytics powered by proprietary algorithms that generate intensity and recovery scores.

7. Rajasthan first to submit smart city plan: Rajasthan has become the first state to submit smart city action plan to the Urban Development Ministry.

8. Lok Sabha passed Atomic Energy (Amendment) Bill 2015: The bill seeks to overcome difficulties encountered in the setting up of new nuclear projects and enhancement of nuclear power generation.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. United Nations Human Development Report 2015 released: The report was released with the title ‘Work for Human Development in Ethiopia’. As per the report, 2 billion people lifted out of low human development in the last 25 years. India has been ranked 130th out of 188 countries.

2. Indian-origin politician Pravin Gordhan becomes South Africa’s Finance Minister.

3. Saudi Arabia launched a 34-nation Islamic Military Coalition to counter terrorism: It was established in pursuance of the principles and objectives of the charter of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which calls for member states to cooperate to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt are also a part of the coalition.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. World Bank released Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty report: The report examines the two-way relation between climate change and poverty and concludes that climate change is one of the primary contributing factors for growing poverty scenario across the world.

2. World Bank Group, FIRST Initiative launched Principles for Public Credit Guarantee Schemes: The principles provide a generally accepted set of good practices that can serve as a global reference for the design, execution and evaluation of public CGSs that serve small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

SPORTS:

3. Anirban Lahiri wins Order of Merit crown of Asian Tour: India’s star Golfer Anirban Lahiri has won the coveted Order of Merit crown of Asian Tour for the year 2015.

AWARDS:

4. West Bengal Government honoured Bappi Lahiri and Kumar Sanu with Lifetime Achievement Awards: State CM Mamata Banerjee handed over the awards at the inauguration of the Annual Bangla Sangeet Mela. Besides, Bollywood musician Shantanu Moitra was awarded with the Sangeet Mahasamman Award.

5. Renowned Violinist Itzhak Perlman won 2016 Genesis Prize: Renowned Israeli-US violinist Itzhak Perlman was announced as the 2016 Genesis Prize laureate for his accomplishments as a musician, teacher and advocate for people with disabilities. He will receive the award from Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

Daily GK Updates - 14th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Mumbai Police Commissioner Ahmad Javed appointed as the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

2. Security expo in Capital concludes: UBM India recently concluded its 9th International Fire and Security Exhibition and Conference (IFSEC) India Expo 2015 in the capital. It was inaugurated by Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. COP 21 under UNFCCC adopted Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Conference of the Parties 21 (COP 21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which was attended by 192 parties. India was represented by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar. The agreement facilitates enforcement of global greenhouse emission reduction measures in the post 2020 (post Kyoto Protocol) scenario. The primary objective of the protocol is to limit the global average temperature to well below 2̊ C above pre-industrial level.

2. Losar, the biggest Tibetan Buddhist festival, began in Ladakh region: The festival marks the beginning of New Year of Buddhists. The annual festival is celebrated by people of the area with traditional and religion fervor.

3. Saudi voters elected women candidates for first time in Municipal council polls: Saudi Arabian voters voted to elect women in at least 18 municipal council seats. This was a historic local elections in Saudi Arabia in which women were allowed to vote and run for office for the first time in the history of the country.

4. Construction work of TAPI Gas Pipeline started: The construction work of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) started after the button to begin the welding process was pressed by Vice President Hamid Ansari along with PM of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimohamedov.

5. Typhoon Melor struck Philippines: The storm is expected to trigger flooding, landslides and 4 meter storm surges in the coastal region.

 OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Mascot and Logo of 2016 South Asian Games unveiled: Organising Committee of 12th South Asian Games unveiled mascot of the games and logo at ITA Cultural Centre Machkhowa in Guwahati, Assam. The mascot Tikhor is a one horned Rhino. On the other hand, the logo has eight petals representing the countries participating in the mega event.

2. Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, Kento Momota won singles titles at World Dubai Super-series Finals: The shuttlers won the Women’s singles and Men’s singles titles respectively.

3. Vijay Kumar won gold at the 59th National Shooting Championships: He won the centre fire pistol gold at the event held at Tughlakabad in New Delhi.

AWARDS:

4. Indian-origin writer J M Sali won 2015 South East Asian Write Award for Singapore: The legendary actor was presented the award by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the thespian’s residence in suburban Bandra.

Daily GK Updates - 13th December, 2015

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. NGT bans registration of new diesel-run vehicles in Delhi: National Green Tribunal has ordered ban on registration of new diesel-run vehicles in Delhi to curb the growing menace of air pollution in the capital city.

2. Union Government inks MoU for establishing IIITs at Ranchi, Nagpur and Pune: The agreement to this effect was signed between Department of Higher Education (DoHE) and private agencies including Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, ADCC Infocad and Hubtown.

3. 3-day international tourism expo from December 11 at Madurai: In a release there will be several stalls from Mauritius, Malaysia, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Goa and Karnataka.

4. Government to construct 7000 kms of new national highways under ‘Bharatmala Pariyojna’: The Ministry has taken up detailed review of national highways network with a view to improve connectivity in border areas, including coastal boundary and connectivity covering development of about 7000 kms of new national highways.

5. Lok Sabha passes bill to transfer control of potable alcohol to states: The bill proposes to amend the first schedule of the Act so that it would be in conformity with the judgement of the Supreme Court and also ensure that the industries engaged in the manufacture of alcohol meant for potable purposes shall be under the total and exclusive control of states in all aspects.

6. Chhattisgarh joins UDAY scheme for debt-laden discoms: Chhattisgarh has formally joined the ‘UDAY’ scheme of the central government which is meant for revival of debt-laden discoms. Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojna (UDAY) aims at reviving ailing state electricity boards and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies. It envisages on reducing interest burden, cost of power and AT&C losses.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Myanmar launched its first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Inle Lake: The Inle Lake was designated as UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Paris in 2015. The Lake is situated in Taunggyi district in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State.

2. Alibaba agreed to buy 112-year old newspaper South China Morning Post of Hong Kong:  The agreement includes acquisition of SCMP Group’s other media assets, such as licenses to the Hong Kong editions of Esquire, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBI lets IDFC Bank into Second Schedule list: Earlier, in October this year, IDFC Bank started its formal banking services with a total of 23 branches across the country. Of these, as many as 15 branches are in rural Madhya Pradesh.

AWARDS:

4. Dilip Kumar gets Padma Vibhushan award: The legendary actor was presented the award by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the thespian’s residence in suburban Bandra. 

OBITUARIES:

5. Renowned agro-economist and veteran leader Sharad Joshi passed away at the age of 81: He was the founder of Shetakari Sangathana (Farmers’ Organisation), an NGO dedicated to the cause of farmers in Maharashtra.