DAILY GK UPDATES 28TH MAY 2016

DAILY GK UPDATES 28TH MAY 2016

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Lakshadweep becomes the first Union Territory to sign 24x7 ‘Power for All’ documents: The document chalks out a plan to increase solar capacity of the region from 2.15 MW to 8.45 MW.

 

2. New committee to swipe towards cashless society: From past couple of month, the GOI and RBI have been working on how to reduce cash transactions in the economy. For this, they have formed a committee of 7 members which is chaired by a ministry official, NeerajKumar Gupta. The committee is working on maximizing the acceptance of card payments.

 

3. PM Modi flags off direct train from Kamakhya to Katra: The train will connect the two pilgrim towns of Devi Peeth of Maa Kamakhya and Shri Mata VaishnoDevi shrine. 

 

4. President of India to present Malti Gyan PeethPuraskars tomorrow: Every year the Malti GyanPeeth Puraskars are awarded to five teachers, one each in the subjects of Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, English and Social Studies.

 

5. FM Arun Jaitley to embark on six-day official visit to Japan: He will have meetings with CEOs of Japanese companies including Soft Bank in Tokyo and will also attend the 22nd International Conference on the Future of Asia.

 

6. Bihar Government, UNICEF and MDM join hands to curb Malnourishment: As per the MoUsigned between the three, an Agriculture Nutrition Cell would be set up in the Rajendra Agriculture University, Pusa.

 

7. Committee of Evolution of a National Education Policy submits report to Ministry of HRD: The committee headed by Ex-Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanium submitted the report. The report containing its recommendations to the Ministry of HRD which had undertaken a consultation process for framing a New Education Policy and this process included online, grass-root and national-level thematic deliberations on 33 themes.

 

8. Special webpage on two years of NDA Government unveiled by Press Information Bureau.

 

9.  Sadhguru to lead Yoga Session at UN on 2ndInternational Yoga Day: Spiritual leader and IshaFoundation founder, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev will lead a yoga session at the UN on the occasion of the 2ndInternational Yoga Day on 21st June. The theme for this year will be Sustainable Development Goals.

 

10. Tata Group forays into e-commerce with the launch of ‘Tata CliQ’, an online and app-based platform to let users buy apparel and electronics.

 

11. Tech Mahindra to acquire UK-based Target Group.

 

12. Ashok Leyland reappoints Vinod K Dasari as Managing Director for 5 years.

 

13. Three school-girls from J&K scale Mount Everest: The girls Stanzlin Laskit, Tashi Laskit and Tsering Angmo were a part of the first ever all-girls Mount Everest expedition of the National Cadet Corps (NCC).

 

14. Telangana Government enters Limca Book of Records for conducting the most intensive household survey by a state.

 

15. Man gets 366 flag tattoos for Guinness record: Har Prakash Rishi is an Indian man who holds the Guinness World Record for having the maximum number of flags (366) tattooed on his body.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Google cleared of infringement in Oracle lawsuit over Java: Google has won a major US court battle with software firm Oracle after a jury ruled it did not unfairly appropriate parts of the Java programming language.

  

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. Number of public sector banks to come down to 8-10: As per the Minister of State for Finance JayantSinha, India will have 8-10 very competitive public sector banks once the ‘dust settles’ and the consolidation phase ends.

 

2. RBL Bank to launch scheme for fintechentrepreneurs: RBL Bank is going to set launch an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) programme for fintech start-ups in the next 9-12 months.

 

AWARDS:

3. India Author Aditi Krishnakumar wins Asian Book Award for her 32000-word manuscript rooted in ‘Love of Indian History’.

DAILY GK UPDATES 27TH MAY 2016

DAILY GK UPDATES 27TH MAY 2016

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Government approves over Rs 5500 crore investment to improve infrastructure in six states: The centre has approved an investment of over 5500 crore rupees for basic urban infrastructure in six states under the Atal Mission. The states are Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya.

 

2. 1st bullet train to run in India in 2023 as per a statement by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu: According to him the train will connect Mumbai and Ahmedabad and is expected to cover 508 km in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph.

 

3. I&B Ministry frames guidelines for online government advertisements: All online ads from the Centre would now be routed via the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), which would empanel eligible websites.

 

4. India’s growth to rise to 8% in FY 2019 according to the US Global rating agency Fitch.

 

5. Mamata Banerjee takes oath for second successive term as West Bengal CM.

 

6. Centre approves Rs 4241 crore National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) in Odisha: The project will create job opportunities for around 1.5 lakh people and will help Odisha grow as a manufacturing hub and help Paradip port’s growth.

 

7. BrahMos supersonic cruise missile successfully test-fired by IAF at the Pokhran field range in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district.

 

8. Indian Coast Guard Ship ARUSH commissioned at Kochi.

 

9.  Cabinet approves the takeover of Hindustan Steel Works Construction Limited (HSCL) by National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) for financial restructuring of HSCL.

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Google cleared of infringement in Oracle lawsuit over Java: Google has won a major US court battle with software firm Oracle after a jury ruled it did not unfairly appropriate parts of the Java programming language.

 

2. China signs deals with Sudan to build 600 MW atomic reactors: The agreements were signed during a three day visit to Sudan by a Chinese delegation led by Nur Bekri, head of the National Energy Administration (NEA) and deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

3. Guinea Bissau President Jose Mario Vaz named Baciro Dja as Prime Minister.    

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. HDFC among world’s top 10 consumer financial services company: The mortgage lender HDFC Ltd has been ranked among the world’s top ten biggest and most powerful companies in the consumer financial services sector on a Forbes list. The list is topped by American Express and HDFC was ranked 7th in the list.

 

SPORTS:

2. Indian boxer Sonia Lather settles for silver after losing World Championship final.

 

3. Para-athlete Amit Kumar Saroha from Haryana won gold medal in record breaking performance in men’s club throw (F-51) at the recently concluded 2016 French Open Athletics Championship in Paris.

 

4. Sanjay Bangar appointed India’s coach for Zimbabwe tour and Abhay Sharma to be fielding coach.

 

AWARDS:

5. Indian-American Rishi Nair wins 28th Annual National Geographic Bee Competition.

 

6. Sunil Bharti Mittal receives 2016 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.

 

OBITUARIES:

7. Veteran Communist leader K C Mathew passed away at the age of 92.

 

8. Noted Marathi literary critic R G Jadhav passed away at the age of 83.

 

 

 

DAILY GK UPDATES 26TH MAY 2016

DAILY GK UPDATES 26TH MAY 2016

 

NATIONAL UPDATES:

 

1. Government approves Capital Goods Policy, aims 21 million new jobs by 2025: The objectives of the National Capital Goods Policy are to create an ecosystem for a globally competitive capital goods sector to achieve total production in excess of Rs 7.5 lakh crore by 2025 from the current Rs 2.3 lakh crore, and also to raise direct to increase direct domestic employment from the current 1.4 million to at least 5 million and indirect employment from the current 7 million to 25 million by 2025.

 

2. EPFO doubles insurance for subscribers to Rs 6 lakh: The Government has enforced the decision of retirement fund body EPFO to almost double the maximum sum assured under its insurance scheme from 3.6 lakh to 6 lakh for its 4 crore subscriber.

 

3. Government waives over Rs 9000 crore loans of HFCL: The Union Cabinet has waived off loans worth more than Rs 9079 crore owed by Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd (HFCL) as part of a financial restructuring package for the PSU.

 

4. Cabinet gives ex-post facto approval to the MoUbetween India and Maldives: It has granted ex-post facto approval to the MoU signed between the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Maldives for strengthening cooperation in the field of tourism.

 

5. Cabinet gives ex-post facto approval to the MoUbetween India and Japan: It has given ex-post facto approval to the MoU between India and Japan for promoting sustainable, stable and low-carbon thermal power development in India.

 

6. HRD Ministry launches portal: The Ministry of Human Resource Development has announced the launch of a multilingual knowledge portal www.bharatavani.in. It aims to not only ensure universalization of education but also creation of a knowledge society in the digital age.

 

7. Union Government gives approval to 6 new IITs: The new IITs will be functional at Tirupati (AP), Palakkad (Kerala), Dharwar (Karnataka), Bhilai(Chhattisgarh), Goa, Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, the cabinet also gave approval to convert the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad into an IIT.

 

8. Union Cabinet approves MoU between ISRO and United Arab Emirates Space Agency.

 

9.  Union Cabinet gives ex-post facto approval to Amendments in Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950: The approval was given to modify the list of Scheduled Tribes in respect of five states, namely Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Tripura.

 

10. Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkarilaunches safety feature-rich Nirbhaya buses: He launched 20 Nirbhaya buses of Rajasthan State Transport Corporation with multiple safety measures to better protect women passengers. The buses are equipped with safety features like VTS, CCTV and panic buttons on every seat.

 

11. Draft rules of Juvenile Justice Act 2015 released: Maneka Gandhi has released the draft model rules to repeal the existing rules for effective implementation of Juvenile Justice Act. The rules take care of the development needs of children and child friendly procedures are incorporated in it.

 

12. Cabinet clears Railway Projects worth Rs 11000 crore.

 

13. Dial 139 for wait-listed ticket cancellation: Railway passengers can now cancel their wait-listed and RAC train tickets by just dialing 139.

 

14. ISRO to test Air-breathing Propulsion System: It has decided to test an Air-breathing Propulsion System after the successful test of Reusable launch vehicle technology demonstration (RLV-TD).

 

15. Gujarat CM launches Ujala Scheme from Vadodara: Under this Central Scheme, the state government will distribute more than one crore LED bulbs at subsidized rate of Rs 80 to Rs 85 per piece. The bulb will have a 3-year replacement warranty. It will be of 7 to 8 watt capacity.

 

16. Telangana Government signs MoU with EclatHealth Solutions.

 

17. Aditya Birla Fashion buys India rights of Forever 21 to acquire its India business from its current franchisee, Diana Retail Pvt Ltd for an unspecified amount.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World leaders kick off G7 talks with economy in focus: The World leaders begin two days of G7 talks in Japan with the deteriorating global economy, terrorism and refugee crisis, China’s controversial maritime claims and a possible Brexit headlining on top the agenda.  

OTHER UPDATES:

FINANCE/BANKING:

1. Islamic Banking to debut in Gujarat: Saudi Arabia based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has announced to open its first branch in India at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

 

SPORTS:

2. Mirza, Bopanna and Paes win at French Open: The Indian contingent got off to a winning start at the French Open. Mirza-Hingis pair defeated the Russian pair of Daria Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova. Paesand Bopanna also win their first game at the French Open.