Daily GK Updates - 25th April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Centre to provide Plastic Park to Andhra Pradesh: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananta Kumar announced that Andhra Pradesh would be the plastic hub in a short while from now and that the centre would provide a plastic park to the state with Rs 1000 crore.

2. NABARD gives Rs 1000 crore to HSWC for wheat procurement: National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned a loan of Rs 1000 crore to Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) for purchase of wheat during the on-going rabi marketing season.

3. TATA Trusts sign pact with Odisha for Malaria elimination: Tata Trusts has signed a pact with the Odisha government to achieve elimination of Malaria from the state by 2030.

4. Cadbury inaugurates largest Asia-Pacific facility in India: Cadbury India, part of Mondelez International inaugurated its $190 million factory in Sri City SEZ, on the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

5. India banned milk and mobile phone imports from China: India has banned import of milk and milk products, certain mobile phones and a few other items from China after finding them sub-standard or not following security codes.

6. Uber partners with Election Commission in Tamil Nadu: It has partnered with Election Commission in Tamil Nadu to spread awareness on voting among the electorate for the May 16 assembly polls.

7. Manoj Bajpayee to receive Dadasaheb Phalke Award for ‘Aligarh’.

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. World Malaria Day observed across the globe on 25^th April: 25^th April, every year is observed as World Malaria Day (WMD) to create awareness among the people about this vector borne disease. This year’s theme is End Malaria for Good.

2. International Solar Alliance Cell and UNDP declared Cooperation for Promoting Solar Energy.

3. Former Finance Minister Clement Mouamba appointed as Prime Minister of Congo.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Rafael Nadal wins Barcelona Open to equal clay-court record of Guillermo Vilas of 49 titles.

2. India to host 2018 Commonwealth Judo Championships in Jaipur.

Daily GK Updates - 24th April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. President nominates 6 eminent members to Rajya Sabha: President Pranab Mukherjee has nominated of six eminent members to Rajya Sabha as per the provisions of Article 80 of the constitution. The nominated members are legendary Boxer Mary Kom, renowned economist and Olympic bronze medallist Narendra Jadhav, Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi, Journalist Swapan Dasgupta, BJP leader Subramanium Swamy and Cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu.

2. India and France launch $1 trillion Potential Solar Programme under ISA: It is a solar finance programme under the International Solar Alliance (ISA) that aims at helping developing countries to fully harness their solar resources for a clean energy future.

3. India’s first online interactive heritage portal Sahapedia launched in New Delhi: The web portal is a collaborative knowledge resource on the arts, culture and heritage of India.

4. Union Government notifies new rules to revamp SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act: The new rules seek to tighten provisions to ensure speedy justice to members of the SC/ST community. 

5. India ratifies Trade Facilitation Agreement of WTO: India has formally ratified the WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement, which aims at easing customs procedures to boost commerce.

6. Salman Khan named as Indian contingent’s Goodwill Ambassador for 2016 Rio Olympics to be held in August 2016.

7. Union Government merged Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan with Khelo India.

8. ISRO Scientists made world’s lightest synthetic material ‘Silica Aerogel’ to keep soldiers warm in Siachen.

9. 19^th round of talks held between India and China on Boundary issue held in Beijing.

10. Union Government constituted panel to double farmers’ income by 2022: The panel will be headed by Ashok Dalwai, Additional Secretary at the Union Agriculture Ministry. The panel will prepare a plan to shift farm policies from being production-oriented to income based ones.

11. Mahindra became first Indian Company to join EP100 Campaign.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Europe became world’s first region to end malaria as per a report by WHO.

2. Idriss Deby elected as the President of Chad for the fifth time.

3. Pakistan and China signed agreement to launch a special satellite to monitor China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

4. World Anti Doing Agency (WADA) suspended accreditation of National Anti-Doping Laboratory of Beijing. 

5. Japan successfully tested its first stealth fighter X-2 Jet.

OTHER UPDATES:

AWARDS:

1. Actress Radhika Apte won best actress award for ‘Madly’ at Tribeca Film Fest 2016.

OBITUARIES:

2. Hollywood movie director Guy Hamilton died at the age of 93.

Daily GK Updates - 23rd April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Bhupendra Kainthola is new FTTI Director: Bhupendra Kainthola, an Indian Information Service (ISS) officer has been appointed as the new Director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTTI).

2. India signs climate pact along with over 170 states at UN: India today signed the historic Paris Climate agreement here along with more than 170 nations, marking a significant step that has brought together developing and developed nations for beginning work on cutting down greenhouse gas emission to combat global warming.

3. Uber partners with FICCI, Gujarat Tourism for soft skill training: Cab aggregator Uber has entered into a partnership with Gujarat Tourism and FICCI in Ahmedabad city to facilitate training for Uber driver-partners.

4. PM to launch Rs 8000 crore scheme for free LPG connections to poor: He will on May 1, 2016 launch Rs 8000 crore scheme to provide 5 crore free LPG connections to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families using the money saved from 1.13 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies. 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 22^nd April celebrated World Book and Copyright Day: This is an annual event celebrated every year by the people all over the world on 23^rd April. It is the most important event organised annually by the UNESCO in order to promote the reading, publishing and copyright among the public worldwide.

2. Harriet Tubman to be the first African-American on US currency: Anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American on the face of US paper currency.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Ace Shooter Jitu Rai finishes sixth in the men’s 50m pistol event at Shooting World Cup held in Rio de Janeiro.

2. Hong Kong cricket team’s all-rounder Irfan Ahmed suspended for two years and six months for breaching the ICC’s Anti-corruption code.

3. BCCI to host first Day-Night Test against New Zealand this year.

Daily GK Updates - 22nd April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Government’s Twitter Seva to address grievances of start-ups: The Commerce and Industry Ministry has launched a Twitter Seva service, a special Twitter cell by the Narendra Modi government manned by a set of dedicated officers of the Commerce and Industry Ministry was launched.

2. President Pranab Munkherjee to attend Khongjom Day in Manipur: Khongjom Day is observed on the 23^rd April every year to pay rich tributes to the brave sons of Manipur who made supreme sacrifice for the cause of their motherland.

3. Department of Disinvestment is now Dipam: The Department of Disinvestment has been renamed as the Department of Disinvestment and Public Asset Management or ‘Dipam’.

4. Dr Harsh Vardhan celebrates Earth Day by inaugurating India’s 1^st Cellulosic Alcohol Technology Demonstration Plant in Uttarakhand: He inaugurated India’s 1^st Second-Generation (2G) Ethanol Plant at Kashipur in Uttarakhand. 

5. Six Indians in TIME’s 100 most influential people list: The list included RBI Governor Raghuram G Rajan, Priyanka Chopra, Sania Mirza, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Environmentalist Sunita Narain along with Flipkart co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal.

6. Goa to host international seminar on wheat products: The 8^th International Seminar on Wheat and Wheat Products is scheduled to be held in Panaji, Goa on July 17-18, 2016.

7. Vistara and TCS entered into strategic partnership: Full service airline Vistara has entered into a strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for a broad range of Information Technology (IT) services, including application maintenance services and airport infrastructure support.

8. TCS in TIME’s Top 50 Employers for Women in UK.

9. India replaces China as top FDI destination in 2015 as per FDI Intelligence Report.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 22^nd April celebrated as the World Earth Day: This is an annual event which is celebrated all over the world to demonstrate support for environment protection. 

2. Harriet Tubman to be the first African-American on US currency: Anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American on the face of US paper currency.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. BCCI appoints Rahul Johri as its new CEO.

AWARDS:

2. Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter Tara Gandhi gets top French honour, the Order of Arts and Letters for her remarkable work for promoting peace, solidarity, culture, education and development.

OBITUARIES:

3. Renowned Music Legend Prince Rogers Nelson has passed away at the age of 57.

Daily GK Updates - 21st April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurates second edition of ‘Global Exhibition on Services’ in Greater Noida.

2. PM Modi confers awards for excellence in implementation of priority programmes: He conferred the awards for excellence in implementation of priority programmes on the occasion of 10^th Civil Services Day today. For the priority programme PM Jan Dhan Yojana, Nagaon, Assam was awarded in North East and Hill states category, Chandigarh in UTs and North 24 Parganas, West Bengal in other States group. Under Swachch Bharat Mission (Gramin), West Sikkim and Bikaner, Rajasthan were awarded in North East and Hill States and other states category respectively.

3. First meeting of All India Handloom Board held in New Delhi: The Chairman and Union Textiles Minister, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar gave an overview of the various initiatives being taken by the government for the development of the sector.

4. The 3 day Curtain Raiser International Yoga Fest inaugurated by Shri Shripad Yesso Naik: It was inaugurated by the Minister of State for AYUSH and Health and Family Welfare in New Delhi. 

5. High Court of Uttarakhand revoked President’s rule in Uttarakhand.

6. Accenture launches Cyber Centre in Bengaluru to expand its global security pressure and help organisations tackle complex security challenges.

7. J K Tyres acquired Cavendish Industries for 2200 crore rupees.

8. Zee Media Corporation Group CEO Bhaskar Das quits following his transfer to another Essel Group entity.

9. Centre appoints IAS Officer A Ajith Kumar as Chairman of the Kerala based Rubber Board.

10. Goa appoints Justice P K Mishra as its Lokayukta.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. IMF, WB, UN and OECD form new group to stop tax erosion: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank has stated that they are going to join forces with the UN and OECD to cooperate on tax issues and develop new tools and standards to halt tax base erosion and evasion.

2. Communist Laos appoints new President and Prime Minister: The National Assembly of Laos elected the chief of the ruling Communist Party, B Vorachit, as President in a transition of power necessitated by the completion of the maximum permissible 10 years in office by the outgoing President C Sayasone. Foreign Minister T Sisoulith was elected as the Prime Minister.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBL Bank becomes first private sector bank to open dedicated branch for start-ups.

AWARDS:

2. Indian Diplomat Amitav Banerji honoured with Commander of the Order of Merit, the highest award of Cyprus for his work in a number of senior roles within the Commonwealth Secretariat for over two decades.

OBITUARIES:

3. Comedian, Singer and Writer Victoria Wood has passed away at the age of 62.

Daily GK Updates - 20th April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. India ranked 133 on World Press Freedom Index: The 2016 ‘World Press Freedom Index’ released by ‘Reporters without Borders’ (RSF) is led by Finland which retained its top spot for the 6^th consecutive year, followed by the Netherlands and Norway.

2. MoU between India and Bhutan on Technical Cooperation: The MoU was signed between India and Bhutan on technical cooperation in the field of capacity building, benchmarking and bilateral exchange in infrastructure engineering.

3. Cabinet approves signing of Paris Agreement: The Paris Agreement recognises the importance of sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption with developed countries taking the lead and notes the importance of ‘climate justice’ in its preamble.

4. Compat sets aside Rs 258-crore fine on Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet: The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) stayed penalties totalling Rs 258 crore imposed by Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet for fuel surcharge collusion.

5. Panasonic, US-based AES to install energy storage project in Haryana: Panasonic India and AES India Pvt Ltd has announced an agreement to construct a 10 MW energy storage array at Panasonic’s Technopark manufacturing facility in Jhajjar, Haryana.

6. Affordable plotted housing policy notified in Haryana: Under the DeenDayal Jan AawasYojna, the policy will enable the creation of additional affordable housing stock in the low and medium potential towns of the state.

7. J K Tyres acquired Cavendish Industries for 2200 crore rupees.

8. KadambotSiddique named ambassador for International Year of Pulses.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 2016 Pulitzer Prize announced: The prizes were announced in the US. The awards are for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition in the United States.

2. Sri Lanka to sign MoU with Japan and India for collaboration in Science and Technology: Sri Lanka’s University of Sri Jayawardenepura will sign the MoU with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science (AIST) and Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI) of Japan and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of Ministry of Science and Technology, India.

3. Barack Obama nominates Indian-American GeetaPasi as US envoy to central African nation Chad.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. RBL Bank becomes first private sector bank to open dedicated branch for start-ups.

SPORTS:

2. BCCI appoints Rahul Johri as its new CEO.

3. India’s Durga Thakur promoted as International Umpire by International Hockey Federation.

4. English Snooker legend Steve Davis retired.

5. ICC and Emirates Airlines renewed their deal for additional seven years.

AWARDS:

6. Chinese professor GeFuping honoured with George Grierson prize for promoting Hindi: President Pranab Mukherjee awarded him the prize for his remarkable works done for the propagation of Hindi abroad.

OBITUARIES:

7. William Bill Campbell, Silicon Valley Coach and Mentor passed away at the age of 75.

8. Renowned American Hollywood actress Doris Roberts passed away at the age of 90.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS:

9. Book titled ‘The Making of India: The Untold story of British Enterprises’ authored by KartarLalvani was released.

Daily GK Updates - 19th April, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Maneka Gandhi launches BetiBachaoBetiPadhao scheme in 61 more districts: On completion of its first year, the BBBP Scheme is being executed in additional 61 districts across 11 states/UTs with low Child Sex Ratio.

2. India’s ad growth rate to be the fastest in 2016 as per a report: According to agency Carat, India’s 2016 advertising growth rate will be the fastest at 12%, which is ahead of global average of 4.5%.

3. Inflation negative for 17^th month; at -0.85% in March: Continuing the deflationary trend for 17^th month, WPI inflation was at -0.85% in March but may inch up gradually in the coming months on growing pressure on food and vegetable prices.

4. PM Modi inaugurates super-speciality hospital in Katra: Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Super-speciality Hospital was inaugurated at Katra in Jammu and Kashmir.

5. Maneka Gandhi to inaugurate conference of North-east states on Child Adoption in Shillong, Meghalaya.

6. India, Afghanistan and Iran finalize draft of Chabahar Trilateral Agreement on Transport and Transit Corridors.

7. India sign MoU with Mauritius for Cooperation in Traditional Medicine and Homeopathy.

8. India to purchase 145 M777 Howitzers for US$ 740 million to equip its Mountain Strike Corps: The decision to buy Ultra-light Howitzers produced by BAE Systems under the ‘Make in India’ program was discussed at a meeting on April 12 between Indian Defence Minister ManoharParrikar and his US counterpart Ashton Carter.

9. Petroleum Minister visits Bangladesh: Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, DharmendraPradhan is on a three day visit to Bangladesh to take stock of the ambitious agenda set for the India-Bangladesh Hydrocarbon Sector during the visit of PM Modi to Bangladesh in June 2015.

10. Culture and Tourism minster releases commemorative and circulation coin on Tatya Tope: The memorial coin of Rs 200 and the circulation coin of Rs 10.

11. FICCI Ladies Org plans to set up centres in Gujarat: It has planned to set up two Mahila Huts in Vadodara and Ahmedabad. These centres will help in the upliftment of women belonging to all sections of the society through education and training.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 14^th meeting of Foreign Ministers of Russia, India and China held in Moscow: The ministers discussed various aspects of trilateral cooperation on global and regional issues, the progress in strengthening the international legal framework underlying the modern world order and the neutralisation of common challenges.

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. Banks to share all transaction details in Standard Format: From now onwards all the banks have to share the transaction details in a standard format. The revenue intelligence and central security agencies are looking seriously into money laundering and financial fraud cases.

SPORTS:

2. Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams bagged their third Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year award respectively at the Laureus World Sports Awards.