GK Updates - 2 May | Banking Quiz

Four Indians win awards at Harvard competition for startups

i.Four Indians are among the winners of a Harvard Business School competition that awards prizes worth over $3,00,000 to new and innovative business and social impact startups conceptualized by the US institution's students and alumni.

ii.Harvard MBA student Amrita Siagal won the grand prize in the 'Social Enterprise' category at the 18th Harvard Business School New Venture Competition for her venture 'Saathi', which she cofounded with Oracle engineer Kristin Kagetsu.

Oldest Olympian, US sharpshooter, dies at 106

i.Walter R Walsh, an FBI sharpshooter who was the world’s oldest living Olympian, has died. He was 106.
ii.Walsh died yesterday, six days before his 107th birthday at his home in Arlington, USA Shooting announced.
iii. Walsh, who first honed his shooting skills by picking off clothespins on a clothesline with a BB gun as a child, finished 12th in the men’s 50-metre free pistol at the 1948 London Olympics. He was 41 by then, and had already demonstrated his marksmanship with the FBI and the Marine Corps.

40 students fall ill after eating midday meal in Bihar

i.At least 40 children fell ill on Friday after having their midday meal at a government school in Bihar's Rohtas district, officials said. The students are now out of danger.

ii.The children complained of uneasiness after the meals at Katar Middle School, and were admitted at a hospital, a district official said.

iii."All the children are now safe," he said. "All of them, except two, were discharged after preliminary treatment at the hospital," he added.

Japan’s jobless rate unchanged at 3.6 per cent

i.Japan’s unemployment rate was flat at 3.6 per cent in March, the government said on Friday.

ii.The number of jobless declined in March for the 46th consecutive month, falling by 340,000 from a year earlier to 2.46 million people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

iii.Manufacturers added 190,000 jobs to reach 10.61 million on payrolls, and medical and welfare services saw an increase of 210,000 employees to 7.48 million, while transport and mailing industries eliminated 110,000 positions to 3.32 million

India became third largest economy in 2011: World Bank

i.In a matter of six years, India emerged as the world’s third-largest economy in 2011 from being the tenth largest in 2005, moving ahead of Japan, while the US remained the largest economy closely followed by China, latest figures have revealed.

ii.The economies of Japan and the UK became smaller relative to the US, while Germany increased slightly and France and Italy remained the same,” according to data released today by the International Comparison Program (ICP), hosted by the Development Data Group at the World Bank Group.

Q1 M&A deal down 23%

i.The merger and acquisition value in the first quarter of 2014 declined by a significant 23 per cent to USD 4 billion over the corresponding period a year ago, a Grant Thornton report said.

ii.In the first three months of 2014, M&A deals worth USD 4.07 billion took place, while the value in the same period in the previous year was USD 5.3 billion. The number of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals was 128 against 131 transactions in the comparable period, according to the latest issue of Grant Thornton Deal Tracker.

Internet Explorer: Microsoft rescues XP users with emergency browser fix

i.Microsoft is helping the estimated hundreds of millions of customers still running Windows XP, which it stopped supporting earlier this month, by providing an emergency update to fix a critical bug in its Internet Explorer browser.

ii.Microsoft Corp rushed to create the fix after learning of the bug in the operating system over the weekend when cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc warned that a sophisticated group of hackers had exploited the bug to launch attacks in a campaign dubbed “Operation Clandestine Fox.”

India ranked No. 3 in US Green Building Council list

i.The US Green Building Council (USGBC) has ranked India as No 3 among the list of top 10 countries for LEED outside of the United States.
ii.Canada tops the list followed by China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Brazil, among others.

P. Chidambaram steps up pressure on Switzerland to share HSBC bank info on black money

i.In a strongly-worded letter to his Swiss counterpart, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has also warned that an effective exchange of tax-related information was "extremely important" for economic co-operation between the two countries and Switzerland must honour its "rights and duties" agreed to in their bilateral Direct Tax Avoidance Convention (DTAC).

ii.This is Chidambaram's third letter to Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer Schlumpf within four months on this matter and he again reiterated that India would continue to take a position at the Global Forum about Switzerland lacking legal and regulatory framework for an effective exchange of information.

Seoul: Over 100 injured as subway trains collide

i.Two subway trains collided in Seoul on Friday, injuring more than 100 people but with no immediate report of any fatalities, the emergency services said.

"There are 117 injured, but none of them appear to be serious," a spokesman for the Seoul emergency services told AFP.

ii.News of the accident broke as the country was still reeling from a ferry disaster on April 16 that left around 300 dead or missing -- most of them schoolchildren -- after the boat capsized and sank.

The ferry tragedy triggered widespread public anger and a bout of national soul-searching as to whether the country -- now Asia's fourth-largest economy -- had sacrificed safety standards in its rush for development.

iii.The details of Friday's subway accident were not immediately clear, but it appeared that one train was stopped in Sangwangsimni station in eastern Seoul when the second train ran into its rear around 3:30 pm (0630 GMT).

Mark Fields to replace Alan Mulally as Ford's CEO

i.Alan Mulally, the man who transformed Ford Motor Co. from a dysfunctional money-loser to a thriving company, will retire on July 1 and be replaced by Mark Fields, the current chief operating officer.
During his eight-year tenure at Ford, Mulally gambled all of the company's assets on a credit line that kept Ford out of bankruptcy, then used a simple "One Ford" plan to change the company's culture. He was hired away from aircraft maker Boeing Co. in 2006 by Bill Ford, who at the time was running the company.
ii.Fields, 53, has been in charge of Ford's daily operations since December of 2012 and was widely expected to one day ascend to the top job. The change in leadership is taking place about six months ahead of schedule, but Ford said that was based on Mulally's recommendation that the new leaders were ready.

China’s 2014 growth may slow down to 7%: Report

i.The new government that takes charge in the country next month will not only have its hands full with issues concerning the country but must also contend with the slump in growth in China and the US. Slowing growth and unemployment have emerged as key election issues, with the opposition slamming the UPA for mismanaging the economy.
ii.A higher probability of El Nino, a weather phenomenon which hurts the southwest June-September monsoon, has already stoked concerns about the impact on overall growth and prices.
iii.Economists say this is a huge challenge for the new government which is expected to hit the ground running to revive growth and sentiment.

British actor Bob Hoskins died at 71

i. British actor Bob Hoskins died of pneumonia at the age of 71 in London on 29 April 2014. He is best known for roles in The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
ii.His most memorable performance was as the Cockney cabbie in Mona Lisa film for which he was nominated for Oscar and won best actor awards at Cannes, the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes.
ii.He also worked in the US film likes The Cotton Club, Maid in Manhattan and Nixon.

Deadline ended for non-CTS cheques

i. The deadline for switching to new format bank cheques under the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) ended on 30 April 2014.
ii.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) started the process of migration to CTS cheques in New Delhi and Chennai from 24 September 2011.
iii. Transactions with cheques that have Magnetic Ink Character Regnition (MICR) and not CTS technology will be delayed from 1 May 2014.
iv.Now, the non- CTS cheques will be likely to take four days or more from the date of deposit to credit the amount. Banks will now clear non-CTS cheques on Mondays and Fridays only.

Elango steps down as Cairn India CEO

i.P Elango, interim CEO & Wholetime Director, announced his decision to step down to the employees of the company.
ii.Ending an 18-year stint and less than two-year tenure as the chief of the company, Elango has decided to step down on ‘personal grounds’. However, whispers in corridors were that the management’s indecisiveness on confirming him as a full-fledged CEO was the cause.
iii. Elango’s resignation has come just when Cairn has delivered 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent (oil plus gas) a day from the Rajasthan block. A similarity can be drawn with what happened in August 2012.