Daily GK Updates – 21st February 2015
1. China again protests against PM Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh
i. Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Friday to inaugurate the opening of a train line and power station. He did not 
mention China but pledged billions of dollars of investment to develop infrastructure in the region.
ii. “I assure you that you will witness more development in the state in the next five years than it has seen in the last 28 years,” Modi said, addressing a huge crowd.
iii. Faster transport links and exploitation of Arunachal Pradesh’s hydro-electric potential are the keys to fighting poverty and bringing about rapid development in the frontier state, he said. In January, China objected to statements by Japan’s foreign ministry supporting India’s claim to the region.
iv. A visit by US President Barack Obama to India in January was widely seen as a sign Modi is moving closer to the United States, to offset rising Chinese influence in Asia and, in particular, intensifying activity by the Chinese navy in the Indian Ocean.
2. IAF’s Sarang team gets first woman pilot
i. Breaking yet another glass ceiling, two women officers have made their way into the IAFs much-heralded
helicopter display team ‘Sarang’.
ii. Squadron Leader Deepika Misra and engineering officer Flight Lieutenant Sandeep Singh made their debut in the ‘Aero India’ air show in Bengaluru.
iii. It was during her passing out parade at Air Force Academy in December 2006 that Deepika Misra, then a Flight Cadet, first fell in love with the aerobatic displays by the ‘Surya Kirans’ and ‘Sarang’, IAF’s fixed-wing and rotary-wing aerobatic display teams respectively.
iv. She imagined herself flying some day in either of the formation flying teams. Back then however, it seemed an impossible dream but she never gave up hope and prayed hard.
She was commissioned in the helicopter stream and posted to a Chetak/Cheetah helicopter unit.
3. Barack Obama welcomes Narendra Modi’s assurance of equal respect to all faiths
i. US President Barack Obama has welcomed the recent remarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which he 
condemned religious based violence and gave an assurance that his government will give equal respect to all religions.
ii. “The President welcomed Prime Minister Modi’s February 17 condemnation of religious-based violent acts, and his assurance that his government will give equal respect to all religions,” the White House said on its website yesterday in response to an online petition.
iii. Launched by the New York-based Sikh for Justice, the online petition had urged Obama before his India trip to raise the issue of “Sikh Genocide” and “Sikhs’ Right to Self-determination” during his talks with Modi.
iv. “President Obama underscored that India’s success depended on the nation not being ‘splintered along the lines of religious faith’,”
4. India Signs Loan Agreement with ADB for $50 Million Loan To Boost Power Generation Capacity in Assam
i. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed here today a $50 million loan agreement for the second Assam Power Sector Investment Program which aims to build up the capacity of power generation and distribution systems to meet the growing energy demand in the state of Assam.
ii. The first tranche loan of the $300 million multi-tranche financing facility will fund generation capacity enhancement and distribution efficiency improvement subprojects in the state.
iii. He added that the project will finance investments to augment and improve generation capacity through the replacement of an inefficient generating plant and construction of new hydropower plant.
iv. The project agreements were signed by Sh. V. B. Pyarelal, Additional Chief Secretary (Power) on behalf of the Government of Assam and Shri K. V. Eapen, Chairman, Assam Power Generation Company Limited (APGCL). The project is expected to be completed by 31 December 2018.
5. Balco bags one more coal block in Chhattisgarh
i. Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) bagged one more coal block on the eighth day of the auction, taking the total number of mines sold so far through the ongoing auction to 18 that will generate an estimated over Rs 1 lakh crore for respective states.
ii. “Gare Palma IV-1 mine closed at Rs 1,585 (per tonne) and the winner is Balco,” a coal ministry official said. Earlier, Balco had bagged Chotia mine in the same state.
iii. Gare Palma IV/1 in Chhattisgarh has an extractable reserves of 49.57 MT. This is expected to generate an estimated Rs 7,856 crore for the state.
iv. “Hindalco is the highest bidder at Rs 3,001 (per tonne) for Gare Palma 4/4,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted.
6. Scientist Tapan Misra Appointed as Head of ISRO’s Space Application Centre
i. Eminent scientist Tapan Misra was on 20 February 2015 appointed as the Chief of ISRO’s Space Applications
Centre (SAC) at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
ii. He succeeded AS Kiran Kumar, who was appointed as Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on 12 January 2015.
iii. Prior to this appointment, Tapan Misra was Deputy Director of Microwave Remote Sensing Area in SAC. He is also heading the Office of Innovations Management of ISRO at Bengaluru.
7. India lacks specialists who can prepare budget: RBI governor
i. There are far too few people in the government who can even prepare a budget, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said Friday adding that well-trained economists were at a premium throughout the government sector.
ii. “(There are) too few people who can prepare a budget, too few people who can do public debt management. We need far more capacity in government,” Rajan said while speaking at an ongoing lecture series here.
iii. The RBI governor`s comment comes ahead of the budget session of Parliament, where union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to present the first full budget of the National Democratic Alliance government (NDA).
iv. As the economy develops, the country would need specialists with domain knowledge and experience in many areas of governance and regulation and there are few going around, Rajan said.
8. State Bank of India to finance small tea growers in NE
i. State Bank of IndiaBSE -0.03 % (SBI) will provide finance totaling Rs 100 crore benefiting 3,000 small tea growers in the North East soon, a senior official of the public sector bank said today.
ii. Finance will be provided to tea growers who have proper basic documents of their existing garden as per Tea Board of India norms, SBI Eastern Range Circle Chief General Manager Sanjay Kumar Magoo
iii. “We are aware that Assam small tea growers play a pivotal role in easing the unemployment problem and boosting the state’s economy. That is why SBI is helping the small tea sector, the CGM added.
iv. In deference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to develop the region, to make it ‘organic’ and a tourist destination, the SBI N-E Circle has planned to help the north east youths to undertake projects related to the tourism industry.
9. Decks Cleared in Jammu and Kashmir for PDP-BJP Government
i. After about two months of hard negotiations, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP have sorted out
differences on contentious issues and almost finalised the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), and are expected to announce a deal on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir in the next couple of days.
ii. “We have almost finalised the CMP and the coalition government will be based on this,” J&K BJP general secretary (Organisation) Ashok Kaul told Express. He confirmed that the two parties have sorted out differences on some key issues on which they had varied ideologies and stands. “There are no hiccups and the government formation between the two parties will be announced in a few days,” Kaul said.
iii. The BJP central leadership had on Friday summoned the party’s core group to New Delhi.
iv. “The PDP has also dropped its insistence on getting a written assurance from the saffron party on Article 370, AFSPA and WPRs. The wordings on these issues in the CMP will reflect the principles of the two parties,”
10. Glowing tributes paid to senior CPI leader Govind Pansare
i. Tributes poured in for veteran Communist leader Govind Pansare who succumbed to bullet injuries last night here– with a demand to nab the culprits at the earliest and need to take stern action against elements acting against progressive thinkers in Maharashtra.
ii. Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao expressed grief over Pansare’s demise, saying the attack earlier this week had caused extreme grief and anguish to all right thinking people.
iii. “The assassination of a selfless social worker like Shri Pansare is a dastardly act.I have no doubt in my mind that the state government will take every step to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice,” he said.
iv. NCP leader Supriya Sule said Pansare’s death comes as a shock because everyone thought he will survive the murder attempt.
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