DAILY GK UPDATES 18TH DECEMBER 2016
NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Lt Gen Bipin Rawat to be next Indian Army chief; B.S Dhanoa to be IAF chief: The Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Bipin Rawat will be the new Chief of Army Staff, while Air Marshal BS Dhanoa, the next Chief of Air Staff. They will take charge in the afternoon of 31st of this month.
2. India, Tajikistan decides to strengthen cooperation to address issue of terrorism; Sign four agreements: India and Tajikistan have signed four agreements in areas including on double taxation avoidance, money laundering and counter-terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon witnessed the exchange of MoUs in New Delhi following delegation level talks.
3. Rajiv Jain named next Director of IB, AK Dhasmana to head RAW: Jharkhand cadre IPS officer Rajiv Jain was appointed as the new chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB) while Anil Dhasmana will head external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Both the officers will have a tenure of two years. Jain, who is at present serving as the Special Director in the IB, will take over on January 1 after the incumbent Dineshwar Sharma completes his two-year tenure on December 31, 2016.
4. First Cyber-crime police station opens in Shimla:In Himachal Pradesh, the first Cyber Crime Police Station has been opened at state police headquarter in Shimla. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh inaugurated this Police Station through video conferencing from his office.
5. Odisha Govt sets target for construction of 1000 km concrete road: Odisha government has decided to construct more 2,000 kilometre of cement concrete roads under the Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana in rural areas by March 2017. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaikissued this direction while chairing a review meeting on the progress of concrete road construction works in rural areas at the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar.
6. Himachal Pradesh becomes sixth in India to attain 100% Aadhaar saturation: The Himachal Pradesh has achieved 100 percent Aadhar saturation on the basis of population of year 2015. With this, Himachal Pradesh has become the sixth State/UT in the Country.
7. Priyanka Chopra beats DiCaprio, JLaw on IMDb’s most popular celebs list: Here’s another achievement in Priyanka Chopra’s kitty. She has now made it up to the list of IMDb’s most popular celebrities’ list. Standing at number 55, Priyanka is ahead of Hollywood’s big names like Jennifer Aniston, Emma Watson, and Leonardo Di Caprio, Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson and others.
OTHER UPDATES:
FINANCE/BANKING:
1. State Bank MobiCash Mobile Wallet launched: Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitleyand Minister of State for Communications (Independent charge) and Minster of State for Railways Manoj Sinhahas jointly launched State Bank MobiCash Mobile Wallet, a product by SBI and BSNL.
2. RBI lowers charges on debit card payments to promote digital transactions: In order to incentivise greater adoption of digital payment methods, the Reserve Bank has announced special measures to be adopted between 1st January 2017 and 31st March 2017.
SPORTS:
3. Vijender Singh retains WBO-Asia Pacific Super title: Indian boxing star Vijender Singh knocked out former world Francis Cheka to retain WBO-Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title. Vijender took less than 10 minutes to beat Tanzanian boxer to defend his title at the packed Thyagraj Stadium in New Delhi last night.
4. Paris opens 'world's largest non-permanent indoor ice rink: A 2,700-square-meter skating space, which is being considered the world's largest non-permanent indoor ice rink, recently opened at the Grand Palais in Paris. Over 100 workers constructed the ice rink, which will remain open until January 2. The rink was inaugurated by a show featuring skating stunts and acrobatics as part of the 'Grand Palais des Glaces' festival.
