GK Updates - 24 April | Banking Quiz

Point Wise G.K

Union Ministry of External Affairs (MoEA) on 23 April 2014 appointed Suresh Kumar Reddy as India's first Ambassador to the separate Indian Mission to Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) & East Asia Summit.

Y chromosome appeared 180 million years ago. The Y chromosome, which distinguishes males from females at the genetic level, appeared some 180 million years ago, according to a new study.In humans and other mammals, the difference between sexes depends on one single element of the genome: the Y chromosome.It is present only in males, where the two sexual chromosomes are X and Y, whereas women have two X chromosomes. Thus, the Y is ultimately responsible for all the morphological and physiological differences between males and females.However, a very long time ago, the X and Y were identical, until the Y started to differentiate from X in males.

Asteroids hit Earth with force of nuclear blasts.Findings released for the first time by the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization — which operates a network of sensors that monitors Earth around the clock, listening for the infrasound signature of nuclear detonations — confirmed that between 2000 and 2013, 26 explosions on Earth's atmosphere were detected, ranging in energy from 1,600 kilotons — all caused by asteroid impacts.To put it in perspective, the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, exploded with an energy impact of 15 kilotons. While most of these asteroids exploded too high in the atmosphere to do any serious damage on the ground, the evidence is important in estimating the frequency of a potential "city-killer-size" asteroid. The Earth is continuously colliding with fragments of asteroids, the largest in recent times exploding over Tunguska, Siberia in 1908 with an energy impact of 5-15 megatons.

Boston Dynamics of US developed a life-sized Atlas Anthropomorphic robot called Atlas. The robot was developed as a part of a challenge to create a robot that could go at the places, which are dangerous to humans. The Atlas robot has been designed not as a warrior but it is a humanitarian machine and will be used for the rescue purposes at the time of natural disasters.

Japanese foods firm/Company Nissin Foods on 23 April 2014 appointed Gautam Sharma as the Managing Director (MD) of its Indian arm Indo Nissin. He succeeds Yuji Tabeta. Yuji Tabeta was promoted to a senior role.

Vodafone launches M-Pesa mobile wallet service in AP. Telecom operator Vodafone, in collaboration with ICICI Bank, completed the pan-India rollout of M-Pesa, its mobile money transfer and payment platform, with the launch of the service in the Andhra Pradesh market.

India's leading construction equipment company Universal Construction Machinery and Equipment Ltd today expanded its product portfolio in Odisha with the launch of Self Loading Concrete Mixer . "The self-loading mixture (SLM) is developed indigenously keeping in mind the needs of Indian consumer and it is developed by in-house research and development team," said Ranjit More, vice chairman, Universal Construction Machinery and Equipment. The product is ideal for projects that require constant shifting of machines like canal lining, road projects, windmill and irrigation projects.

Meritnation launches 4 advanced study centres in Jaipur.The Jaipur launch is the first step in an aggressive roll-out all over the country over the next few months. Meritnation plans to introduce a highly lucrative franchise model to aid this expansion programme.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prescribed uniform accounting standards for asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) for acquiring non-performing loans, recognising revenue and management fees to ensure common treatment for firms.The new norms will be effective from accounting year 2014-15. These recommendations are based on the views of the Key Advisory Group (KAG) constituted by the Centre on ARCs, the RBI said on Wednesday.The expenses for diligence before acquiring financial assets should be charged immediately by recognising these in the profit and loss statement for the period in which such costs are incurred, the RBI said.

Baroda Pioneer Asset Management Company Limited (Baroda Pioneer AMC) has announced the appointment of Mahmood Basha as Head of Sales.

Jeremy Pearson has been appointed Managing Director, Tenant Advisory Group (TAG), Asia-Pacific, of global real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.

Corporation Bank opened an SME loan centre in Ludhiana. SME clusters, such as auto components, hosiery, machine tools, hand-tools, forging, and bicycle parts in and around Ludhiana would benefit from this initiative.

SEBI revises norms for liquidity enhancement schemes. Capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has revised norms governing the incentive schemes that stock exchanges can provide members for trading on their platforms.The new norms allow exchanges to provide incentives for a maximum of three years, according to a circular on the regulator’s website"The stock exchanges shall introduce liquidity enhancement schemes on any security for a maximum period of three years. Once the scheme is discontinued, the scheme can be re-introduced on the same security provided it is less than the three year period since the introduction of scheme on that security," said the Sebi circular.The norms are applicable for equity cash and equity derivatives. The circular also says exchanges will have to review the effectiveness of the scheme every six months and file half-yearly reports to Sebi. They will also have to disclose information on incentives granted and volume achieved, market-makerwise and securitywise.

The Reserve Bank of India has come up with some uniform accounting rules for asset reconstruction companies or ARCs probably to stop them inflating short-term profits.In the wake of deteriorating credit quality, banks have of late started selling bad loans to ARCs, which acquire them from lenders and try recovering pending dues from defaulting borrowers. In between companies earn commissions. Such transactions can take place in a combination of security receipts or SRs and cash.The central bank has mandated certain regulations in terms of revenue recognition, valuation of SRs, acquisition costs and others.RBI has asked all ARCs to show expenses incurred at the time of acquiring bad loans on account of due diligence, immediately in the statement of profit and loss.

Bengaluru FC Club on 21 April 2014 won the I-League Football title in their debut season. Bengaluru FC Club defeated Dempo Sports Club 4-2 in the league match held at Shillong.