GK Updates - 22 Jan | Banking Quiz

1.Japanese PM to be chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations
i. The Japanese Prime Minister will be paying a three-day official visit to India beginning on January 25 at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.
ii. During his visit, Abe will meet Manmohan Singh for the annual summit between India and Japan. The discussions between the two leaders will add substance and content to the India-Japan strategic and global partnership.
iii. The visiting dignitary, who will be accompanied by his wife Akie Abe during the visit, will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee.
iv. The country will celebrate its 65th Republic Day on January 26 when President Pranab Mukherjee will take salute from the contingents of the armed forces and paramilitary forces alongside a rich display of its culture and heritage.

2.Urjit panel suggests 4 % CPI inflation target
i. An expert committee appointed to examine the current monetary policy framework of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suggested that the apex bank should adopt the new CPI (consumer price index) as the measure of the nominal anchor for policy communication.
ii. The expert committee was headed by Urjit R. Patel, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
iii. The nominal anchor or the target for inflation should be set at 4 per cent with a band of +/- 2 per cent around it.
iv. “The nominal anchor should be defined in terms of headline CPI inflation, which closely reflects the cost of living and influences inflation expectations relative to other available metrics,’’ the committee felt.
v. “This target should be set in the frame of a two-year horizon that is consistent with the need to balance the output costs of disinflation against the speed of entrenchment of credibility in policy commitment,’’ the report said.

3.Sharif approves MoU with India on electricity trade
i. Energy-starved Pakistan is looking at buying electricity from India, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approving such a deal.
ii. A senior Pakistani official said the Cabinet approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during its meeting on Monday.
iii. The issue of electricity trade had come up for discussion during the meeting between Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif during his visit to India last month
iv. India has expressed its intent to export electricity to the tune of 500 MW to Pakistan immediately if infrastructure for transmission of power is made available.

4.Akkineni Nageswara Rao passed away
i. Padma Vibhushan and Dada Saheb Phalke awardee Akkineni Nageswara Rao passed away in Hyderabad at the age of 91, around 2:10 a.m. on Wednesday. He was ailing with cancer.
ii. ANR is fondly called the Tragedy King of Telugu cinema, through he gave milestone performances in romantic dramas such as Laila Majnu, Anarkali, Batasari, Prem Nagar, Premabhishekam, and Meghasandesham.
iii. Born on September 20, 1923, he strode like a colossus in Telugu Cinema and acted in 256 Telugu films.

5.T. Nanda Kumar to be appointed NDDB Chairman
i. T. Nanda Kumar will be the new Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), replacing Amrita Patel who has been holding the post since 1998.
ii. Nanda Kumar, currently Member of the National Disaster Management Authority, is slated to take over from March 1.
iii. “His name has been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister. Patel is currently on extension and will remain as Chairman till February 28.

6.Kailash Meghwal elected as Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly
i. Kailash Meghwal has been elected unanimously as the Speaker of Rajasthan Assembly.
ii. Today, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje proposed his name and leader of Opposition, Rameshwar Dudi seconded this proposal. Kailash Meghwal was earlier Mines Minister and had resigned on Monday.

7.Chilika lagoon gets coveted UN status
i. Odisha's Chilika lagoon, hotspot for biodiversity, has been named 'destination flyways' by United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) following its inclusion in a list of eight such sites worldwide.
ii. Official sources said the lagoon was so named for its sustainable and resilient destination for migratory birds.
iii. The UN body’s arm on tourism and biodiversity would assist in development and implementation of strategies and projects linking sustainable tourism and livelihood resources.
iv. This season, around 7.19 lakh migratory birds have been sighted in the 1100-sq km lagoon , which is less than the previous years.
v. Last winter, around 8.77 lakh birds of 180 species had visited the lake and 8.83 lakh birds of 167 species had visited the blue lagoon in 2012.
Note: i. Chilika is the only site to be selected from Asia by the UNWTO and was recommended by six international agencies such as Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity, Convention of Migratory Species, Ramsar Convention Secretariat, World Heritage and Man and the Biosphere Programmes of UNESCO.

8.First Climate Change theatre opened in Punjab
i. First Climate Change theatre was opened at Pushpa Gujral Science City in Kapurthala, Punjab.. The theatre will educate people on climate change. This is the second theatre in the world to be opened after Canada.
ii. The theatre is 18 metre in diameter and it is set up in a dome-shaped building with a seating capacity of 125 persons. The 25-minute film shows what worst can happen if humans do not take action on current or impending problems which could threaten civilization.

9.India-born Stanford professor awarded Marconi Society Prize
i. Coimbatore-born scientist and Stanford University Emeritus Professor Arogya Swami Joseph Paulraj has been awarded the prestigious 2014 Marconi Society Prize.
ii. Paulraj is the only India-born scientist to receive both the Marconi Prize and the Bell Medal, two top global IT technology awards.
iii. Further, he was awarded $100,000 prize, for his invention and advancement of MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology, which is at the heart of WiFi and 4G technologies that millions worldwide use.
iv. The Marconi Prize comes three years after Paulraj was honoured with the other major telecom technology award – the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal for his work on theoretical foundations of MIMO.

10.Mahesh Bhupathi launched IPTL in Melbourne
i. Tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi launched the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) in Melbourne, Australia on 21 January 2014. He also announced the name of the teams during the launch of IPTL.
ii. The host cities or the teams which will participate in the IPTL are Mumbai, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. The fifth host city will be from the Middle East.
iii. Mahesh Bhupati linked arms with German tennis legend Boris Becker, and American Justin Gimelstob, a former pro and member of the ATP board to launch the IPL styles IPTL.
iv. The IPTL is expected to start in Asia from 1 December 2014 to 20 December 2014 for which the auction of players will be held in UAE on 2 March 2014. Each team is expected to field 10 players.
ii. The salary which each team will pay to its players is estimated to be between 4 million dollars and 10 million dollars.

11.New Zealand defeat India by 15 runs take 2-0 lead. India lose No. 1 spot
i. New Zealand defeated India by 15 runs take 2-0 lead in 5-match series.
ii. Chasing a victory target of 293 runs in 42 overs, India managed 277/9 in 41.3 overs before rain stopped play and the umpires declared the match over.
iii. MS Dhoni won the toss and put the Kiwis in to bat. The hosts made 271 for 7 in the stipulated overs, and because of the Duckworth-Lewis method, the visitors were given an upscale target of 297.
iv. Kane Williamson top scored for the Kiwis with 77, while Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson and Martin Guptill also made valuable contributions.
v. Mohammed Shami bagged the maximum of 3 wickets for Team India. Virat Kohli made 78 runs while captain Dhoni contributed 56.

12.Victoria Azarenka crashes out of Australian Open
i. In yet another shocker at the Australian Open Tennis tournament, World Number Two Victoria Azarenka of Belarus today crashed out of the first Grand Slam of the season at Melbourne.
ii. In the Women's Singles quarterfinals, Azarenka lost to Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, 1-6, 7-5, 0-6. Slovakia's Dominica Cibukova today made it to semifinal, beating Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-0 in the other quarterfinal.
iii. For a place in the final, Radwanska will take on Cibulkova, while China's Li Na will meet Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.
iv. Top players like World Number One Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer have already bowed out of the tournament.
v. In the Men's Singles, World Number One Rafael Nadal today stormed into the semi-finals beating Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-2.

13.Australian Open: Federer to face Nadal after beating Murray
i. Roger Federer has reached an 11th straight semi-final at the Australian Open through a 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 defeat of Andy Murray which took more than three hours.
ii. The Swiss will take on Rafael Nadal, who dealt with hand blisters in beating Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.

14.Karnataka through to Ranji finals after day 5 washout
i. Karnataka, who entered the final by the virtue of first innings lead, will take on Maharashtra at Hyderabad from January 29.
ii. The semi-final match was called off by the umpires without a ball being bowled on the fifth day due to persistent rain. The first day of the encounter was also wiped out.
iii. Karnataka, who were at 447 for five in reply to Punjab's first innings total of 270, went through to their first Ranji final in four seasons.