Daily GK Updates – 8th May 2015
1. Jitu Rai wins ‘Sportsperson of the Year’ Award at TOISA
i. Ace marksman Jitu Rai was on Thursday declared the Sportsperson of the Year’ at the Times of India Sports 
Awards in a glittering ceremony that was graced by the legendary Carl Lewis.
ii. ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the ‘Olympian of the century’ and Times Group MD Vineet Jain in a ceremony that was attended by the whose who of India’s sporting fraternity.
iii. Besides Lewis and Milkha, prominent figures from the sporting world included former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Olympic bronze medallists boxer MC Mary Kom, shuttler Saina Nehwal and CWG gold medallist squash player Dipika Pallikal.
iv. While Jitu, who won an unprecedented seven medals in the last one year, was the jury’s choice, champion cueist Pankaj advani bagged the Popular Choice Award.
v. Young shooter Malaika Goel won the Emerging Players’ Jury Award along with five others while weightlifter Sanjita Chanu won the Popular Choice Award.
vi. Test captain Virat kohli and was named the ‘Best Cricketer’ with Harmanpreet Singh winning it in Women’s section. Nehwal was named the ‘Youth Icon of the Year’.
2. SBI launched RuPay Platinum Debit Card in association with NPCI
i. State Bank of India on 7 May 2015 launched State Bank RuPay Platinum debit card in association with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
ii. Initially, the card will be issued free to customers maintaining a quarterly balance of 50000 rupees. The RuPay card is accepted at all payment channels like ATMs, PoS and eCommerce.
iii. At present, SBI has 19.7 crore debit cards in circulation of which 4.5 crore are RuPay cards
iv. Besides, the NPCI Managing Director and CEO A P Hota announced that the company will soon launch international RuPay debit cards which will allow customers to use them outside the country. It will also issue RuPay credit cards by January 2016.
3. Jitan Ram Manjhi announces new party as Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM)
i. Expelled JD(U) leader and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today announced launching of a new party “Hindustani Awam Morcha” (HAM) which he said would contest alone all the 243 seats in coming Bihar polls.
ii. He named former Bihar minister Shakuni Chaudhary as Bihar President of the HAM. But, neither Manjhi nor 17 others rebel JD(U) MLAs name figure in the list of the new party for technical reasons.
iii. “We will soon approach the Election Commission for registration of the new party HAM with a flag (green on top and bottom while middle portion will be white with the word HAM),” Manjhi flanked by Shakuni Chaudhary and two rebel JD(U) MLAs Nitish Mishra and Anil Kumar, told reporters.
iv. Names of 108 leaders were announced in the Bihar unit of the party. It comprises former Union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav, ex-MP Brahamdeo Anand Paswan and former state ministers and Legislators like Ganesh Yadav, Ram Kumar Yadav, Om Prakash Paswan, K D Yadav and Ramchandra Prasad Singh.
v. Manjhi spitted venom against his mentor Nitish Kumar and identified him as the new party’s “number one enemy”.
4. YES Bank ties up with Payworld to distribute prepaid cards
i. Mid-sized private lender YES Bank has tied up with Payworld to distribute co-branded open loop prepaid cards to customers.
ii. “Payworld will be distributing the Yes Money Prepaid Cards through its Business Correspondent Agent Network in partnership with Yes Bank,” Payworld said in a statement.
iii. Open Loop Prepaid Cards can be used at POS (point-of-sale) terminals, eCommerce sites for payments, as well as to withdraw money at ATMs. Strategically, customers who remit money to their families, can now also safeguard their remaining cash through this prepaid card, which is PIN protected.
iv. The programme also offers a Rs. 1 lakh personal accident insurance and has seen a good response during the test phase, the statement added.
v. Praveen Dhabhai, COO of Payworld, said: “We plan to distribute over 5 lakh cards during the next 12 months, of which 10,000 cards have already been distributed.
5. Prime Minister releases commemorative coin on Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati
i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative coin to mark the birth centenary of Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati in New Delhi.
ii. Swami Chinmayananda was a renowned Hindu spiritual leader and teacher who had inspired the formation of a global nonprofit organisation called Chinmaya Mission to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta.
iii. Advaita Vedanta is the nondual system of thought found in the Upanishads, which epitomise the philosophical teachings of the Vedas.
About Swami Chinmayananda
He was born as Balakrishna Menon on 8 May 1916. He was known for teaching Bhagavad gita, the Upanishads, and other ancient Hindu scriptures.
Since 1951, he had spearheaded a global Hindu spiritual and cultural renaissance that popularised the religion’s esoteric scriptural texts and also taught them in English all across India and abroad.
He had authored around 95 publications that mostly include commentaries on the major Upanishads and Bhagavad gita.
He was also a visiting professor of Indian philosophy at several American and Asian universities. He also had conducted university lecture tours in many countries.
He died on 3 August 1993 at age 77 in San Diego, California of United States.
6. Achal Kumar Jyoti appointed as Election Commissioner
i. Achal Kumar Jyoti, the former Chief Secretary of Gujarat, was appointed as the Election Commissioner of India. Jyoti (62) will have tenure of nearly three-years, when he will turn 65, the age at which Election Commissioners demit office under the Constitution of India.
ii. His tenure will commence from the day he assumes the charge. With this, the strength of three-member Election Commission of India has gone up to two.
iii. Till this appointment, two posts were vacant in the three-member election commission due to retirement of VS Sampath and HS Brahma.
iv. At present, Nasim Zaidi, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), is the other member of election commission.
7. Singapore PM Lee opened first museum Indian Heritage Centre inLittle India
i. Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong opened first museum Indian Heritage Centre in Little India.The museum was dedicated to Indian history. Singapore is celebrating 50 years of its independence in 2015 as well as 50 years of diplomatic relations with India.
ii. The Government of India has presented busts of four nationalist leaders to Singapore’s Indian Heritage Centre (IHC). IHC is now open to the public.
iii. The nationalist leaders’ busts – including of Mahatama Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Pandit Jawarhalal Nehru and Netaji Subash Chandra Bose – are displayed in IHC’s gallery on Social and Political Awakening in Singapor.
iv. The IHC is built at a cost of 16 million Singapore dollars and managed by the country’s National Heritage Board. The four-storey building is located in the heart of Little India, and blends traditional Indian and modern architectural elements.
8. RBI’s new mechanism for banks to check loan frauds
i. The RBI today put in place a new framework to check loan frauds including by way of early warning signals at banks and red flagging of accounts, while swindlers will have no access to further banking finance.
ii. Besides, the central bank will set up a Central Fraud Registry that can be accessed by all banks to identify borrowers having committed frauds with any bank in the past.
iii. The CBI and the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) will also share their databases with banks.
iv. The concept of a Red Flagged Account (RFA) is being introduced in the current framework as an important step in fraud risk control, RBI said in guidelines for banks to deal with loan frauds.
9. UK election shock: David Cameron defies polls with clear victory
i. David Cameron has returned to Downing Street with the Tories having defied polls and won the general election.
ii. The Conservatives are expected to get a 37% share of the national vote, Labour 31%, UKIP 13%, the Lib Dems 8%, the SNP 5%, the Green Party 4% and Plaid Cymru 1%.
iii. Labour has been hammered in Scotland by the SNP, with Nicola Sturgeon’s party seizing 56 of the nation’s 59 seats. Jim Murphy, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, and shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander both lost their seats to the SNP.
10. Myntra.com acquired startup firm Native5 Software Solutions Pvt Ltd
i. Online fashion retailer Myntra.com on 6 May 2015 acquired Bengaluru-based startup firm Native5 Software Solutions Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed sum. With this acquisition, founders of Native 5 will join Flipkart, parent company of Myntra.
ii. From now onwards, Native5 team will work on Myntra’s mobile only strategy and will help its mobile apps to grow.
About Native5 Software Solutions Pvt Ltd
Founded in 2011 by technology professionals Manish Priyadarshi, Barada Sahu and Shamik Datta, Native5 has developed a cloud platform to create and distribute mobile apps across smart phones, tablets and desktops.
Native5 was incubated at Microsoft Accelerator in 2013. In the same year, it was also the part of Nasscom 10000 Startups.
11. Govt gets SC notice on PSB chief criteria
i. The Centre’s new appointment norms for public sector bank chiefs — capping the age at 55 years and mandatory three-year board level experience — has come under judicial scrutiny with the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking explanation from the government for a decision that may bar executive directors at state-run lenders from applying for the top job.
ii. A bench of Justices A R Dave and R K Agrawal issued notice to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India seeking their response on a PIL filed by a retired banker who alleged that the policy was intended to pave the way for private bankers to lead the country top banks – Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and IDBI Bank.
iii. Earlier, the upper age limit for the post was 58 years but the government decided to amend the rules, arguing that it was part of a plan to professionalize bank boards.
iv. Against the earlier practice of appointing chairmen and managing directors, the government has also opted to split the post with a non-executive chairman leading the board and an MD & CEO heading the operations.
12. Nepal Rastra Bank to provide interest-free loans for rebuilding houses
i. Nepal Rastra Bank announced to provide interest-free loans for rebuilding houses. The bank will provide interest-free loans of up to 25 lakh nepali rupees in the Kathmandu Valley and 15 lakh nepali rupees for those outside the capital for house reconstruction. Nepal Rastra Bank is the regulatory authority of the Nepalese economy.
ii. The central bank also said the commercial banks and financial institutions could take a maximum interest of 2 per cent under home loan for such purposes.
iii. Meanwhile, Nepal’s Parliament unanimously passed a resolution committing to work together in the reconstruction work in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated central and eastern hilly parts of Nepal.
iv. The earthquake on 25 April 2015 and another one the following day of 7.9 and 6.7 magnitude have claimed 7765 lives and have left over 16000 injured.
v. It is the central bank of Nepal. It supervises the banks and financial institutions in Nepal and guides monetary policy. Nepal Rastra Bank also oversees foreign exchange rates and the country’s foreign exchange reserves and regulates the foreign exchange policy.
13. Pakistan helicopter crashes killing Norwegian, Philippine ambassadors
i. A Pakistan military helicopter carrying diplomats to the launch of projects in northern Pakistan crashed on Friday killing six people, including the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines and the wives of the ambassadors of Malaysia and Indonesia, the army said.
ii. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was travelling to the mountainous northern region of Gilgit on a separate aircraft to launch two projects when the accident happened. He returned to Islamabad, his office said.
iii. Military spokesman Asim Bajwa said in a Twitter post that as well as the four foreigners, the two pilots were also killed.
iv. He said the ambassadors of Poland and the Netherlands were among the injured.
v. Media said 11 foreigners and six Pakistanis were on board the MI-17, which crashed into a school in Gilgit and caught fire.
14. High Court of Gujarat ordered shutting down of 67 sand mines in Gir Forest Sanctuary
i. High Court of Gujarat ordered shutting down of 67 sand mining units in the Gir Forest Sanctuary, the only adobe of Asiatic lions. These 67 mining units were ordered to stop operation as their leases were not renewed.
ii. The order was passed by a two-judge bench of High Court comprising Justice Jayant Patel and Justice GB Shah on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a Surat city-based citizen Rajkumar Sutaria.
iii. The petitioner alleged that illegal mining in the area threatened the lives of the wild animals like Asiatic lions, bears, hyneas and golden jackals.
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