DAILY GK UPDATES 23RD APRIL 2016

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. 22nd April celebrated World Book and Copyright Day: This is an annual event celebrated every year by the people all over the world on 23rd 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 IrfanAhmed 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

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 23rd 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 by inaugurating India’s 1st Cellulosic Alcohol Technology Demonstration Plant in Uttarakhand: He inaugurated India’s 1st 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 8th 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. 22nd 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

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 10th 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

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 6th 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 Deen Dayal Jan Aawas Yojna, 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. Kadambot Siddique 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 MoUwith 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 Geeta Pasi 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 Ge Fuping 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.