GK Updates - 26 April | Banking Quiz

World Malaria Day Observed across the world

World Malaria Day (WMD) was observed on 25 April 2014 across the world. The day was observed to highlight the need for continued investment and sustained political commitment for malaria prevention and control.

President confers Padma awards
i. President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday presented Padma awards to 56 distinguished personalities including actor Paresh Rawal, ace tennis player Leander Paes and author Ruskin Bond.
ii. Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, eminent writer Anita Desai and noted painter Sunil Das could not make it to the ceremony
iii. The President presented one Padma Vibhushan, eleven Padma Bhushan and forty-four Padma Shri awards today at the ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, President's Secretariat said.
iv. Renowned yoga guru Bellur Krishnamachar Sundaraja Iyenger, who took the ancient Indian exercises to modern world making them a global phenomenon, was conferred the Padma Vibhushan which is the highest honour in the Padma awards.

Time Magazine released The 100 Most Influential People in the World list

i. Beyoncé has beaten off competition from President Obama, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Pope Francis and Miley Cyrus to land the cover of Time magazine's annual '100 Most Influential People in the World'.

ii. The annual list includes US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Grammy-winning artist Beyonce, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Pope Francis, Russian President Vladimir Putin, whistleblower Edward Snowden, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Pakistani girl’s educational activist Malala Yousafzai among others.

iii. The Four Indians who made in to the list are

• BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi

• Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal

• Author Arundhati Roy

• Coimbatore-based health activist Arunachalam Muruganantham

RBI appoints three new Eds

i. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed three new executive directors (EDs) to fill up the posts that were vacated earlier.

ii. N S Vishwanathan, who was a principal chief general manager looking after the department of non-banking supervision and the senior-most among the 14 candidates who were interviewed, has been promoted to the post of ED. The other two EDs are Chandan Sinha, principal chief general manager of banking operations & development and U S Paliwal, principal chief general manager of human resources.

iii.The central bank has nine executive directors, and one of them — S Karuppasamy — retired recently. R Gandhi, who was executive director, has now been promoted to the post of deputy governor. Also, G Gopalakrishna, one of the executive directors will now become the director of Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (Cafral). Cafral is a research institution promoted by RBI.

G7 to impose new sanctions against Russia

i.The United States and other nations in the Group of Seven agreed Friday to “move swiftly” to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine.

ii.In a joint statement released Friday night by the White House, the G—7 nations said they will act urgently to intensify “targeted sanctions.” The statement said the G—7 will also continue to prepare broader sanctions on key Russian economic sectors if Moscow takes more aggressive action.

RBI's forex reserves fall after seven straight weeks of rise

i. After seven straight weeks of rising, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) foreign exchange reserves fell for the first time by $31.6 million for the week ending April 18 to $309.41 billion, shows RBI data released on Friday.

ii. Foreign currency assets, a key component of reserves fell by $1.84 billion to $281.54 million. Gold reserves remained unchanged during the week.

iii. For the week under review, the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) fell by $ 10.9 million to $ 4.47 billion, while India's reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was down $ 4.5 million to $ 1.83 billion.

iv. Meanwhile, the rupee ended at Rs 60.63 compared with previous close of Rs 61.09 per dollar. The rupee had opened at Rs 61.07 and during intra-day trades it touched a high of Rs 60.54 and a low of Rs 61.15 per dollar.

v. The Indian rupee posted its biggest single-day gain in a month and a half due to dollar sale by foreign banks.

Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag's name forwarded for new Army chief

Notwithstanding objections by BJP, the Defence Ministry is going ahead with the process of appointing the new Army Chief and has recommended the name of Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag to the Prime Minister's Office

NTT DOCOMO hangs up on joint venture with Tatas

Japanese telecom major NTT DOCOMO Inc, on Friday, decided to exit from its joint venture with the Tatas. In March 2009, NTT DOCOMO had entered the Indian market by acquiring 26.5 per cent stake in Tata Tele Services for $2.7 billion (Rs.12,700 crore as per the then exchange rate). But the joint venture never made profit in the last five years, forcing the Japanese firm to exercise the sale option to pull back its investment.

Wheat procurement may slip below last year’s 25 mn ton level: Food Secretary

i.Food Secretary minister -Sudhir Kumar

ii.The government’s wheat procurement target for the ongoing 2014-15 marketing year is likely to be missed and slip below the last year’s level of 25 million tonnes, Food Secretary Sudhir Kumar said on Tuesday.

iii.State-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) undertakes grain procurement on behalf of the government to ensure that farmers get the minimum support price (MSP).

iv.According to Food Ministry data, FCI and State government-owned agencies have procured 7.5 million tonnes of wheat so far this year, significantly lower than 11.96 million tonnes purchased in the year-ago period.

Walmart names Greg Foran Asia CEO, moves Scott Price to US

i. Walmart Stores Inc announced Friday that it is promoting its Asia head Scott Price to an international role to be based in Bentonville headquarters and Walmart China head Greg Foran will replace Price as the new chief executive for Asia.
ii. Price is named as executive vice president for international strategy and will handle a wide range of global operations including development, real estate and mergers and acquisition. Walmart also promoted China COO Sean Clarke as the new chief executive officer of China replacing Foran.

Manmohan Singh’s stepbrother Daljit Kohli joins BJP

Daljeet Singh Kohli, the stepbrother of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, joined the BJP on Friday at a public rally in the presence of Narendra Modi and Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal here.

Search for MH370 Malaysian Plane enters 50th Day

The hunt for the crashed Malaysian jet on Saturday entered its 50th day with a robotic mini-submarine having scoured about 95 per cent of the search area so far with still no sign of any wreckage.

India's forex reserves down by $31 million

i. India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell by $31.6 million to $309.41 billion for the week ended April 18, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed.

ii. There was a sharp decline in foreign currency assets component of forex in the week under review.

iii.For the week ended April 11, the forex reserves had risen by $2.79 billion to $309.44 billion.

Indian Squash Player Saurav Ghosal won Dato Alex Lee Award 2013

Indian Squash Player Saurav Ghosal won Dato Alex Lee Award 2013 on 24 April 2014. He was selected for the award by the Asian Squash Federation (ASF) for being the Outstanding Asian Men's Player of the Year 2013.