GK Updates - 6 April | Banking Quiz

First phase of Lok Sabha elections begins tomorrow

1.The high-stakes battle in the virtual Presidential-style contest between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi with a few other regional satraps also in the fray, begins tomorrow with six constituencies in two States going to the polls in the first phase of the nine-phased Lok Sabha elections.

2.Five constituencies in Assam — Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur — and Tripura (West) in Tripura will go to the polls on Monday.

3.Campaigning has already ended in these constituencies and the candidates have mounted door-to-door contact with the electorate, seeking their votes.

4.Unlike in the past, neither faction of the ULFA, pro or anti-talks, have issued diktats to the voters for boycott of the elections or made any statement against any political party.

5.The Congress, BJP, Trinamool Congress, AIUDF, AGP, AAP, SUCI, CPI (M), AIFB and SP are contesting five seats in Tezpur, Koliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur in the Congress-ruled State.

6.Among the 51 candidates are Union Ministers Ranee Narah and Paban Singh Ghatowar, former Union Minister and sitting MLA Bijoy Krishna Handique, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s son Gourav Gogoi and Bhupen Kumar Bora for the Congress.

7.Congress rebel and Independent candidate Moni Kumar Subba is also contesting.

Writer-environmentalist Peter Matthiessen dies

1.Peter Matthiessen, a rich man’s son who rejected a life of ease in favour of physical and spiritual challenges and produced such acclaimed works as The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, died Saturday. He was 86.

2.Matthiessen helped found The Paris Review, one of the most influential literary magazines, and won National Book Awards for The Snow Leopard, his spiritual account of the Himalayas, and for Shadow Country. His new novel, In Paradise, is scheduled for publication Tuesday.

3.A leading environmentalist and wilderness writer, he embraced the best and worst that nature could bring him, whether trekking across the Himalayas, parrying sharks in Australia or enduring a hurricane in Antarctica.

4.Matthiessen became a Zen Buddhist in the 1960s, and was later a Zen priest who met daily with a fellow group of practitioners in a meditation hut that he converted from an old stable. The granite-faced author, rugged and athletic into his 80s, tried to live out a modern version of the Buddhist legend, a child of privilege transformed by the discovery of suffering.

Hungary’s PM set for landslide win in elections

1.Hungarians vote Sunday in parliamentary elections that are expected to produce a landslide victory for conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban party.

2.Since the last elections in 2010, Orban and his Fidesz party have governed with a more than two-thirds majority in parliament.

3.According to opinion polls, the only uncertainty is whether Orban will again have the same strong backing in parliament.

4.Surveys have tipped Fidesz to win 47 per cent of the votes, the opposition Socialist Party 23 per cent and the far—right Jobbik party 21 per cent.

5.All other parties will struggle to overcome the 5—per—cent hurdle and win seats in parliament, with the ecological party LMP having the best chance, pollsters predicted.

6.With votes of parties that fail to qualify distributed according to the electoral result, experts estimated that Fidesz may win a two—thirds majority by claiming 45 per cent of the ballots cast.

7.Some 8 million people are registered to cast ballots for 199 seats.

BJP Junagadh unit’s web site hacked

1.BJP Junagadh unit’s web site was allegedly hacked by unknown persons who uploaded “morphed” photographs of party’s PM nominee Narendra Modi and posted comments against RSS, a party functionary said today.

2.The party unit has lodged an FIR with police in this regard.

3.Incharge of BJP’s Junagadh office Raju Jivani said he came to know about the incident this morning.

4.“As soon as I reached office, our IT cell employees told me that someone has hacked our web site www.bjpjunagadh.org and uploaded photographs and comments to malign reputation of BJP, RSS and Narendra Modi,” said Jivani, adding that he informed the IT cell head Sanjay Manvar about the issue.

5.Jivani said in one morphed photograph, Modi and other BJP leaders can be seen burning the tricolour. “In another photograph, they are standing on the tricolour,” he said.

6.Jivani said he had saved these images as a proof and informed party high command about the hacking.

7.“In total, there were seven such pages having morphed photographs depicting Modi and BJP in bad light. The hacker had also written derogatory remarks about BJP, Modi and RSS on our website,” said Jivani.

8.He said he lodged a complaint against unknown hacker(s) for trying to malign reputation of BJP and the party leaders.

9.“After discussing the issue with party leaders, I lodged a complaint with ‘B’ division police against the hacker for trying to malign the reputation of our leaders and party,” Jivani said.

IDBI Bank collects Rs 1.95 lakh cr in central taxes

1.IDBI Bank collected 23 per cent more by way of Direct and Indirect taxes on behalf of the Government in the financial year ended March 31, 2014.

2.In the reporting financial year, the bank mobilised central taxes aggregating Rs 1.95 lakh crore against Rs 1.59 lakh crore in the year ago period.

3.The Government-owned bank, in a statement, said its technology platform allows internet banking facility for pan-India payment of direct taxes, excise duty, service tax and customs duty.

4.At present all the public sector banks and three private sector banks, that is, ICICI Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd and Axis Bank Ltd act as RBI's agents. Only authorised branches of Agency banks can conduct Government business.

5.RBI pays agency commission (also called turnover commission) to the Agency Banks for the Government business handled by them.

Doubles win gives India the lead in Davis Cup

1.India stood one win away from securing a berth in the World Group play-offs after Rohan Bopanna and Saketh Myneni defeated Hyung-Taik Lee and Lim Yong-Kyu in the crucial doubles match of their second round Asia/Oceania Group I tie against Korea, on Saturday.

2.Bopanna and Myneni prevailed 7-6 (4), 5-7, 7-6 (2), 6-3 to give India a 2-1 lead after day one had ended 1-1.

3.“Great effort and win by @rohanbopanna and saketh to get the doubles point and give us a 2 1 lead. way to go boys. #DavisCup #TeamIndia,” tweeted Sanam Singh, who had lost in the opening singles on Friday, after the match.

4.Pairing up for only the second time in their career, Bopanna and Myneni staved off the challenge posed by Hyung-Taik and Lim in a see-saw battle which became lop-sided by the fourth set.

5.India are now on the verge of beating Korea for the first time in an away tie. They also have a chance to improve on the overall head-to-head record which stands at 3-6.

6.The last time the two teams played was in 2013 when the Koreans beat India 4-1 in New Delhi in the absence of top players, who boycotted the tie.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anja Niedringhaus shot dead in Afghanistan

1.Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anja Niedringhaus on 4 April 2014 shot dead by a policeman in Afghanistan. She was 48. She was killed while covering the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan.

2.An Afghan policeman opened fire in their car as they waited to pass through a checkpoint near Khost as they were covering the electioneering for the upcoming presidential vote. In the open fire, her long-time colleague, and the respected Canadian reporter Kathy Gannon also got wounded.

3.Anja Niedringhaus was a German photojournalist working for the Associated Press. She was the only woman on a team of 11 AP photographers that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for coverage of the Iraq War. That same year she was awarded the International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism prize.

4.Presidential elections will be held in Afghanistan on 5 April 2014.

Australian eves complete hat-trick of World T20 titles

1.Australian eves once again proved their supremacy in women’s cricket as they completed a hat-trick of ICC World T20 titles with a comprehensive six-wicket win over England in the final in Mirpur on Sunday.

2.Australian captain Meg Lanning smashed her way to 44 off 30 balls, helping her team surpass a paltry target of 106 with as many as 29 balls to spare.

3.Lanning’s innings had four boundaries and two sixes. The first six -- a lofted shot over long-off ropes off seamer Anya Shrubsole -- was a treat to watch. It was a copybook backlift and one can’t take away anything from that shot although the boundary ropes have been brought in by at least 10 yards for the women’s final.

4.The second six that Lanning hit was off a full toss by another seamer Jenny Gunn which she dispatched over mid-wicket ropes.

5.She was finally dismissed trying to hit the winning runs off medium pacer Natalie Sciver as Heather Knight held on to a smart catch at mid-off.

6.Lanning along with the most celebrated women’s cricketer and also a women’s World Cup footballer, Elysse Perry (31 no) added 60 runs for the third wicket. Perry, on her part, hit three fours and a six.

7.Earlier, Australian bowlers led by medium pacer Sarah Coyte (3/16 in 4 overs) restricted England to a paltry 105 for eight in 20 overs. Save Heather Knight, who scored 29 off 24 balls with three boundaries, none of the other English batswoman were able to cross 20-run mark. The next highest score was Sarah Taylor’s 18.