Daily GK Updates – 9th May 2015
1. INS ‘Sardar Patel’ commissioned in Porbandar
i. India’s latest naval establishment – INS ‘Sardar Patel’ – was commissioned in Porbandar, Gujarat, by state Chief
Minister Anandiben Patel on Saturday.
ii. “INS Sardar Patel will offer operational, logistic and administrative support for coordination requirements – ships, submarines and aircraft deployed in Gujarat region,” the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral R K Dhowan, told media here.
iii. “Technology has been leveraged and in the entire coastline of our country, 46 coastal radar stations have been put, 74 automatic identification systems have been put and one National Command Control Communication and Information Network has been established,” he added.
iv. The commissioning of INS Sardar Patel would enable the Navy to supplement its infrastructure and organisational effectiveness in Gujarat.
v. It would also improve coordination and synergy with other maritime agencies.
2. Jet Airways launches express cargo service
i. Jet Airways has launched FAST-TRACK, a premium express cargo service on its domestic network for customers needing urgent shipment of air cargo in a defined timeframe.
ii. This new offering from Jet Airways Cargo will provide priority access to capacity, later bookings and guaranteed uplift with a money-back guarantee in case of non-delivery of service, the airline said.
iii. FAST-TRACK has expedited tender time of 120 minutes, retrieval time of 90 minutes, premium boarding priority and round-the-clock real-time tracking.
iv. This facility will be rolled out on the airline’s international network soon.
3. Google’s first Asia start-up campus opens in Seoul
i. Google’s first campus for start-ups and entrepreneurs in Asia has opened in Seoul.
ii. Google on Friday cited South Korea’s flourishing start-up scene and pervasive smartphone use as the reasons for picking Seoul after opening similar sites in London and Tel Aviv.
iii. Located in Gangnam, Campus Seoul rents out its 21,528 square foot space to start-ups.
iv. It also plans to host events for tech start-ups and for female entrepreneurs with children.
v. “Our goal with Campus Seoul is to create a space where entrepreneurs can thrive,” Mary Grove, Director of Global Entrepreneurship, said on Google’s official blog.
vi. “Where they can feel at home with the local community, yet have everything they need to build a global company.”
4. Russia celebrates Victory Day as Western leaders boycott parade
i. Russia is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with a sweep of pageantry as Western leaders boycott a military parade in Moscow in protest at the Ukraine crisis.
ii. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president and commander in chief of the armed forces, will lead the celebrations on Red Square.
iii. An estimated 200 pieces of military hardware including intercontinental ballistic missile carriers and 16,500 troops are expected to file past the Kremlin, as 27 world leaders join Mr Putin for the events.
iv. President Pranab Mukherjee will be in Moscow on Sunday to inaugurate an Indo-Russian cultural festival, “Namaste India” and attend a reception for the Indian community before returning to India on Monday.
5. Navneet Rajan Wasan appointed as DG of Police Research & Development Bureau
i. Senior IPS officer Navneet Rajan Wasan was appointed as (DG) of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D). He will serve the post till 30 November 2015, the date of his superannuation.
ii. The post of Director General (DG) of Bureau of Police Research and Development had been lying vacant since March 2015 following the retirement of Rajan Gupta.
iii. Presently, Wasan is working as Special Director General in the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He is a 1980-batch IPS officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
6. Modi to inaugurate first Gandhian studies centre in China
i. The first centre for Gandhian studies in China will be inaugurated at Shanghai’s Fudan University next week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will also announce the setting up of a Yoga College in the country during his three-day visit.
ii. The Centre for Gandhian Studies will be established at the Fudan University in China and the staff for it will be provided by Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), officials here said. The university already has a centre for Indian studies.
iii. However, this is the first time a centre dedicated to Gandhian studies is being established in China even though a few books on Gandhian thoughts have been published in the Chinese language earlier.
iv. Though contemporaries, Gandhi and former chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong advocated contrasting philosophies for national liberation.
7. MoUs worth Rs 24,000 cr signed during PM Narendra Modi’s visit
i. In a big push for infrastructure development in Chhattisgarh, MoUs worth Rs 24,000 crore were signed at Dantewada in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
ii. From railway lines to steel plants and pipelines, the MoUs are meant to enhance development of the state.
iii. The 140-km rail link, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 24,000 crore, will connect Bastar region with important cities of the state like Raipur, Bilaspur and Durg. The rail link will also help in easy and cheaper transportation of iron ore for industries.
iv. Over 10,000 people in the region are expected to get direct and indirect employment opportunities through the ultra-mega steel plant project.
Here is a list of the MoUs that were signed:
MoU between Government of Chhattisgarh, NMDC, IRCON and SAIL for 140 km rail line between Rowghat and Jagdalpur. Estimated project cost: Rs 2,000 crore.
MoU between Ministry of Steel, Government of Chhattisgarh, SAIL and NMDC for 3 million ton Ultra Mega Steel Plant with an investment of approximately Rs 18,000 crore.
MoU between Government of Chhattisgarh and NMDC for Slurry Pipeline and 2MTPA Pellet Plant at Nagarnar in Bastar District with an investment of Rs 4,000 crore.
MoU between Government of Chhattisgarh and SAIL for setting up 1MTPA Pellet Plant at Dalli-Rajhara, Balod District with an investment of Rs 826 crore.
8. Govt to print 150 million one rupee notes per annum
i. The Centre has decided to print 150 million one rupee notes per annum, Parliament was informed on Friday. There is however no proposal to introduce fifteen rupee note, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
ii. He was replying to a query on whether the Government intends to re-introduce one rupee note in the country.
iii. Sinha said that the Centre had in mid-December decided to print one rupee currency notes with effect from January 1 this year under the provision of the Coinage law.
iv. There is also no proposal before the Government to replace small currency notes with coins, Sinha added.
9. PM Modi Unveils 3 Social Schemes, says Development Incomplete if Poor do Not Share its Fruits
i. Three key social security schemes had a nationwide launch this evening, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the process in West Bengal, where he is on a two-day visit.
ii. The schemes – which include accident insurance, life insurance and a pension plan — target the people from the economically deprived and the unorganised sections, who are neither covered by any form of insurance nor get any pension.
iii. The Prime Minister, who reached Kolkata after a quick visit to Dantewada, shared stage with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Centre’s junior minister for Finance Jayant Sinha.
iv. The accident insurance (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana) will offer a renewable accidental death-cum-disability cover of Rs. 2 lakh for a premium of Rs. 12 per annum.
v. The life insurance (Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana) will offer a renewable one year life cover of Rs. 2 lakh for a premium of Rs. 330.
10. India, Russia signed 11 MoIs for Higher Academic Cooperation
i. Indian and Russian institutions of higher learning inked 11 Memorandum of Intent (MoI) to establish the Network of Institutions of Higher Education.
Among those that signed the memorandum were IIT Bombay, Madras and Delhi and also University of Delhi, Indian Statistical Institute and Institution of Engineers.
ii. The MoIs were inked in Moscow in presence of President Pranab Mukherjee, who is on a four day visit to Russia to witness the Victory Day parade on 9 May 2015, which is marking the 70th anniversary of Alliedforces victory in the Second World War.
iii. During this visit, Mukherjee was conferred with honorary Doctorate by the Russian Diplomatic Academy.
iv. The leading Academic Institutes of Russia and India will combine efforts to train highly qualified staff for innovative economy and expand scientific, technical and technological cooperation.
v. Cooperation agreement signed between the Department of Science & Technology in India and Russian Science Foundation will offer another platform for supporting joint research projects.
11. India Posts’s e-commerce centre set to start operations
i. To cash in on growing online shopping trend, India Post Delhi circle will start its e-commerce centre from early next week.
ii. “Considering the rapid growth of e-commerce business in the country in the recent past, the Department of Posts, through Delhi Postal Circle has taken up a project to establish the e-commerce centre at Safdarjang, New Delhi,” an official statement said today.
iii. The centre is capable of handling 30,000 parcels or articles per day and parcels collected from the e-commerce customers, processed and dispatched within 24 hours to respective destination through quickest available flight or train, as the case may be.
iv. “The leading e-commerce customers, Amazon, Paytm, Yepme, Snapdeal, etc are already availing the benefits of fast, reliable and safe processing of their e-commerce parcels at the newly established e-commerce Centre at Safdarjang in New Delhi,” the statement said.
v. India Post will also launch a mobile application for android phones that will help people in real-time tracking of accountable articles, post office search, postage calculator, etc through mobile phone.
12. Book titled Unbelievable – Delhi to Islamabad written by Prof Bhim Singh released
i. The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari released a book entitled “Unbelievable – Delhi to Islamabad’ written by senior Advocate Prof. Bhim Singh at a function here today.
ii. Addressing on the occasion, the Vice President said that this travelogue by Prof. Bhim Singh is unique and should be read by all. He congratulated the author for bringing out such a valuable Book.
iii. The book is an effort initiated by the lawyers of India and Pakistan to work jointly to ensure that the Pakistani prisoners languishing in Indian jails are treated in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution of India. Similarly, ensures that Indian prisoners in Pakistan are not denied fair trials.
13. Haryana Government included Deaflympics in its sports policy
i. State Government of Haryana included Deaflympics in its Sports Policy. It was included to enable Deaflympian medalists to get cash rewards, jobs and other benefits.
ii. Decision to this effect to include Deaflympics in sports policy was taken during a state cabinet meet chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal at Chandigarh.
iii. Deaflympics, previously known as World Games for the Deaf and International Games for the Deaf, is an event sanctioned by International Olympic Committee (IOC). Its participants are deaf athletes and they compete at an elite level.
iv. It is the longest multi-sports event excluding the Olympics and is held once in every four years.
v. The first games were held in Paris in 1924, and were also the first ever international sporting event for athletes with a disability. Since first event, the games is organised by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (Comite International des Sports des Sourds (CISS)).
14. Now Whatsapp the money to your friends
i. Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private lender, will now allow its customers to send money through several platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, email and SMS, through mobile-based application Ping Pay.
ii. The lender has seen 250 per cent growth in mobile banking transactions in 2014-15.
iii. “The government wants to move into a less-cash society and there have been talks regarding this. This is our contribution towards that. As long as your contact is either on Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, email or SMS, you could send money to that person,” said Rajiv Anand, group executive and head (retail banking), Axis Bank.
iv. Currently, the bank has 1.76 million customers on mobile apps and is adding 75,000-90,000 customers on this platform every month. In FY15, transactions worth Rs 12,636 crore were recorded on its mobile banking platform, compared with Rs 3,000 crore in FY14. A total of 12-13 per cent of its customer base is on this platform.
15. North Korea successfully test-fired underwater ballistic missile
i. North Korea successfully test-fired a newly developed Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM). The nation described the missile as a world level strategic weapon.
ii. The underwater ballistic missile that will meet the latest military science and technology requirements of the country was test-fired after Leader Kim Jong-Un gave the order to test-fire the missile. He also watched its launch from attack submarine.
iii. This underwater ballistic missile is capable of striking and wiping out hostile forces in any waters.
iv. This missile programme has violated the UN resolution that prohibits Pyongyang from conducting ballistic missile tests.
16. Sakshi, Lalita win bronze in Asian Wrestling Championship
i. Sakshi Malik and Lalita bagged bronze medal in Women’s Freestyle 60kg and 55kg categories, respectively, even as Babita Kumari lost out on a third-place finish in 53kg division of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship in Doha.
ii. Lalita was defeated by North Korea’s Han Kum-ok 3-9 in the semifinal but she managed to settle for a bronze medal in the end in her category.
iii. In a total of five rounds in the 60kg category, Sakshi won two of her bouts to claim the third position.
iv. After going down to Luo Xiaojuan of China 4-5 by Fall Verdict in the first round, she came back strongly in the second to beat Munkhtuya Tungalag of Mongolia 13-0, but only to go down again, this time to Japan’s Yoshimi Kayama.
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