Daily GK Updates - 5th May, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba to be next Navy chief: He will take over on 31^st of this month following the retirement of Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan.

2. President of India present Niryat Shree and Niryat Bandhu awards: The total awards are 52 which include 46 Niryat Shree and 6 Niryat Bandhu Awards. The Niryat Shree Awards accorded to exporters for their contribution in 12 categories. Niryat Bandhu Awards presented to Export Promotion Councils and Banks for their support to the exporting community.

3. Projects worth Rs 2, 446 crore approved under Namami Gange Programme: The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 2446 crore and these projects have been carved to improve the facilities of Ghats and crematoria for reduction of pollution load into river Ganga.

4. Reliance Power to set up plant in Bangladesh: It is all set to set up a power plant in Bangladesh as it got the approval for the first phase of Reliance Power’s Project. As per the approval, the company will set a 3,000 MW gas based power plant.

5. Bhupendra Kainthola appointed as Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

6. Swiss honour for Yash Chopra: Late Director Yash Chopra, who captured the verdant Swiss valley in his films, has been honoured with a special statue by the Switzerland Government.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 49^th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank started at Frankfurt (Germany): The Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has also reached there to attend the ADB’s board of governors meet.

2. European Central Bank (ECB) decided to end production and issuance of 500 euro banknote: The issuance of the 500 euro banknote will be stopped around the end of 2018, when the 100 euro and 200 euro banknote of the Europa series are planned to be introduced.

3. Researchers from the University of Montreal created a programmable DNA thermometer that is 20,000 times smaller than human hair.

4. Mexican Diplomat Patricia Espinosa selected as the next Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. Kotak Mahindra Bank opens IFSC banking unit at GIFT City in Gandhinagar: IFSC is India’s first and only financial centre.

2. IREDA may be converted into a Green Bank: IREDA, the state run Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency can be converted into a Green Bank to enable its access funding from overseas banks. But this will be done without any alteration in its basic structure.

3. Wilful defaulters owe Rs 66,000 crore to government banks: The number of wilful defaulters of Public Sector banks rose from 5554 to 7686 in three years to December 2015 while the amount involved more than doubled to Rs 66, 190 crore from Rs 27, 749 crore.

4. Corporation Bank gets MSME Award: Corporation Bank has been awarded ‘excellence award on empowering MSME’s’ by the Federation of Industry, Trade and Services (FITS). The MD & CEO of the bank is Jai Kumar Garg.

SPORTS:

5. Seven Indian shuttlers qualify for Rio Olympics: The list includes Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy.

Daily GK Updates - 4th May, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Lok Sabha passes Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015: It passed the bill for the establishment of funds under the public accounts of centre and each state towards compensatory afforestation.

2. 63^rd National Film Awards ceremony held in New Delhi: Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Kangana Ranaut received National Awards for their roles in ‘Piku’ and ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ respectively. Actor Manoj Kumar was conferred with Dada Saheb Phalke Award and ‘Bahubali’ won the best film award.

3. Piyush Goyal unveil portal on payment to contract workers: The portal provides access to all contract workers, through a Workers Identification Number (WIN), to view their personal details and payment status. Contract workers can also register their grievances through this portal.

4. Commerce Ministry launches web-based dashboard for export, import data: The dashboard will provide an accurate perspective to the general public on the facts around the trade performance in India. It will provide a graphical collection of export and import from India.

5. India to host festival in Egypt to mark Tagore’s birth anniversary: To mark the 155^th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, India will organise a cultural festival in Egypt next week. It will build the connections between the people of the two countries who share strong cultural bonds.

6. NSE to launch new exchange for MSME: This new exchange will help MSMEs to file their bill against large companies, which can be accepted electronically and auctioned so that these small enterprises are paid immediately.

7. Jindal Brothers sign Rs 6,500 crore power deal: JSW Energy Ltd, led by Mr. Sajjan Jindal has agreed to buy a 1000 MW power plant of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), which is located in Chattisgarh.

8. Uber ties up with Alipay globally: Uber, the online cab aggregator has announced its partnership with the third party payment platform, Alipay.

9. Sameer Chadha appointed as the Partner and CEO of KPMG India Pvt Ltd.

10. Progeria affected teen Nihal Bitla died at the age of 15 in a hospital in Telangana.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Financial inequality highest in India and China as per IMF report: According to the International Monetary Fund report, financial inequality is highest in India and China among Asia Pacific countries despite the two being among the fastest growing economies.

2. World’s smallest engine powered by light created: It was created at Cambridge University by UK based researchers. The engine is fuelled by lasers and gold and a few billionth of a metre in size, which uses lights to power the engine. 

3. Italian sports car maker Ferrari appointed Fiat Chrysler’s chief Sergio Marchionne as the new CEO.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. England’s world no.1 Mark Selby won World Snooker Championship 2016.

Daily GK Updates - 3rd May, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Railway Minister launched e-enabled application, PMIS to monitor Railway Projects: The application will be used for proper monitoring of all the Railway projects throughout the country.

2. RajyaSabha passed Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015: The bill amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 in order to regulate the mining sector in the country.

3. Supreme Court appointed R M Lodha-panel to reform Medical Council of India: The court appointed the panel as the MCI is often been accused of indulging in corrupt practices.

4. Supreme Court banned all diesel cabs in NCR-Delhi from May 1, 2016.

5. DilipTuli appointed as Senior Vice President of Housing.com.

6. Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu launched ChandrannaBimaYojana: Under the scheme, any insured worker who meets an accidental death and permanent disability will be paid 5 lakh rupees. The worker who suffers partial disability will be paid a sum of 3 lakh rupees.

7. Madhya Pradesh High Court terms reservation in promotions in the State as unconstitutional.

8. Maharashtra Government launched AdiPraman, online app for tribal caste validity certificate: With this Maharashtra becomes the first state to provide caste validity certificates online.

9. Government launches MICE initiative for up-gradation of tourism sector: Union Government has launched an initiative name MICE which is based on meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions for the up-gradation of the tourism sector in India.

10. BHEL commissions 600 MW thermal power plant at the Jhabua Thermal Power Project (TPP) located in Seoni district in Madhya Pradesh.

11. Kishore Biyani appointed as the MD of Bharti Retail.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World Wide Fund (WWF) released report titled ‘Protecting People through Nature’: The report says that nearly half of the iconic 229 natural and mixed world heritage sites in 96 countries around the world, including Western Ghats, face significant threats.

2. Astronomers discovered 3 Earth like planets using TRAPPIST telescope: Michael Gillon led team of astronomers of the University of Liege in Belgium used the TRAPPIST telescope to observe the ultra-cool dwarf stars 2MASS J23062928-0502285, now also known as TRAPPIST-1.

3. World Press Freedom Day observed across the world on 3 May 2016 with the theme ‘Access to Information and Fundamental Freedoms-This is your right’.

4. Indian-American Sikh woman, HarmeetKaurDhillon elected as National Committee Woman of the Republican National Committee of US.

5. ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) Plus Exercise on Maritime Security and Counter Terrorism begins in Brunei: The nine day exercise seeks to strengthen the strong bilateral ties and extensive maritime interactions between India and ASEAN countries.

6. Google acquires Toronto based start-up Synergyse, developed by Indian-origin businessman VarunMalhotra.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Leicester City crowned English Premier League champions for the 1^st time in 132-years history.

2. Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy named Football Writers Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year 2016.

3. Indian Team comprising of DeepikaKumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi bagged one silver and two bronze medals at the Archery World Cup held at Shanghai, China.

4. Rohit Sharma signs as Brand Ambassador for Hublot Watches.

5. Sachin Tendulkar to be India’s Goodwill Brand Ambassador along with Salman Khan and Abhinav Bindra.

6. Virat Kohli nominated for Khel Ratna and Ajinkya Rahane for Arjuna Award

Daily GK Updates - 2nd May, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. PM Modi launches country’s first solar-powered e-boats in Varanasi: He launched the country’s first solar powered e-boats at the AssiGhat in the river Ganga, Varanasi.

2. PM Modi launched PradhanMantriUjjwalaYojana: The scheme was launched at Ballia in Uttar Pradesh. It aims to provide cooking gas connections to five crore below poverty line beneficiaries, especially women, over the next three years.

3. EPFO launches One Employee-One EPF Account drive: The initiative of launching the Mission consolidation One Member One EPF Account is a step towards encouraging EPF members to access enhanced IT enabled services through Universal Account Number that are linked with Aadhaar.

4. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia have now become the classical languages of India.

5. India and New Zealand sign agreement for direct Air Service: Both the countries signed a bilateral air service agreement that would facilitate the operation of direct flights between the two countries. The agreement was signed by President Pranab Mukherjee and PM of New Zealand John Key.

6. Paytm ties up with Wipro for payments bank.

7. Airtel and GBI announce partnership for West Asia: Airtel, the enterprise arm of BhartiAirtel and networking player GBI has announced the partnership to increase its reach in West Asian countries.

8. Reliance Defence gets 15 new defence licenses.

9. Jammu and Kashmir Government signs MoU with IIT Delhi to set up IIT in Jammu.

10. Ajay Mittal takes charge as new Information and Broadcasting Secretary.

11. Indian Railways signed MoU with Haryana and Punjab to plant trees alongside Railway tracks.

12. IISc Professor S Ramaswamy elected as the Fellow of the Royal Society.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Wipro inaugurates Saudi’s 1^st all-women IT park: IT Service Company Wipro has inaugurated Saudi Arabia’s first all women business and Technology Park at the Princess Nourah Bint Andulrahman University in Riyadh.

2. International Labour Day observed across the world on May 1, 2016: The theme for this year was ‘Celebrating the international labour movement.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. NABARD partners with Germany for food security initiative: It entered into collaboration with the German government for a special programme on ‘Soil Protection and Rehabilitation for Food Security’.

SPORTS:

2. Mercedes driver NicoRoseberg won Russian Grand Prix held at Sochi.

AWARDS:

3. Indian-American journalist, Neela Banerjee received the Edgar A. Poe Award and was felicitated by US President Barack Obama.

Daily GK Updates - 1st May, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016 came into force: It promotes the growth of real estate sector in an environment of trust, confidence, credible transactions and efficient and time bound execution of projects.

2. Reliance Defence signed agreements with 3 Ukranian companies: This will allow them to collaborate on a range of military products including transport aircraft, upgrade of armoured vehicles, maritime gas turbines and unmanned aerial vehicles. The agreements were signed during meeting between Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani and Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine.

3. Government approves Rs 9005 crore investment for affordable housing for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) under the Prime Minister’s AwasYojana (PMAY) in three states viz. Maharashtra, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

4. First in South India, underground corridor of Namma Metro inaugurated in Bengaluru: The newly inaugurated underground section of about 5.12 kilometres long from Cubbon Park to City Railway station completes the 18.10 kms long east west corridor which is also called Purple line.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. China developed world’s first graphene electronic paper: It will be a huge breakthrough that will catapult the material to a new level. It was developed by the Guangzhou OED Technologies in partnership with a company in Chongqing. Compared with traditional e-papers, a graphenee-paper is more pliable and has more intensity and its high-light transmittance means optical displays will be much brighter.

2. Bitcoincreater confirms identity as Australian Craig Wright: Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright has reportedly confirmed that he created digital payment system bitcoins and provided technical proof for his claims. He had earlier developed it under the pseudonym ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Charles Borromeo resigned from Tata Steel Sports Department.

2. Vijender Singh records 5^th consecutive victory in professional boxing as he defeated Frenchman Matiouze Royer at London’s Copper Box Arena via knock-out.