GK Updates - 23 May | Banking Quiz

International Day for Biological Diversity 2014 observed across the world

I.International Day for Biological Diversity was observed across the world on 22 May 2014. The theme of International Day for Biological Diversity 2014 is Island Biodiversity.

II.The theme coincided with the International Year of Small Island Developing States which was designated by the United Nations General Assembly.

III.The day was celebrated with the aim of spreading awareness on biodiversity and the importance of preserving it in villages and islands.

TR Zeliang appointed new Nagaland CM

I.T R Zeliang of Naga People's Front was today appointed as the new Chief Minister of Nagaland following the resignation of Neiphiu Rio from the post.

II.Nagaland Governor, Ashwani Kumar, appointed Zeliang as the new Chief Minister and would administer the oath of office and secrecy to him and the new Council of Ministers tomorrow.

III.Zeliang had staked claim to form the new government consequent upon the resignation of incumbent Chief Minister Rio, who won the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland on an NPF ticket with a margin of over 4 lakh votes.

Forex reserves rise to $314.93 billion as of May 16: RBI

I.Foreign exchange reserves rose to $314.93 billion as of May 16 compared with $313.83 billion in the week earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said on Friday.

II.Changes in foreign currency assets, expressed in dollar terms, include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of other currencies held in its reserves, the RBI said in its weekly statistical supplement.

III.Foreign exchange reserves include India's Reserve Tranche position in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ex-IB chief Rajiv Mathur is new CIC

I.Former Intelligence Bureau chief Rajiv Mathur was appointed the new chief information commissioner by President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday.

II.The 64-year-old Mathur succeeds Sushma Singh, who demitted office on Wednesday, as the sixth chief of the transparency watchdog. His name was recommended by a three-member selection panel headed by outgoing PM Manmohan Singh. Mathur's term will be a short three months.

III.Speaking after taking oath, Mathur said, "My priority will be to ensure greater transparency by government departments and reducing pendency ... there are some appeals that have been pending for over eight months. We need to address this." There are 18,000-20,000 cases pending at the commission.

Anuradha Chowdhury quits SP

I.Days after she was stripped of the Minister of State status by the Akhilesh Yadav government, SP general secretary Anuradha Chowdhury today quit claiming the party did not take timely action to stop Muzaffarnagar riots which led to its electoral defeat.

II."I have resigned from the party national general secretary post. The party has performed badly and Muzaffarnagar riots and ignorance of problems faced by common man led to it", she told reporters after submitting her resignation to SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

III.Chowdhury was among 36 leaders having status of minister of state in the SP government who were sacked by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on May 20 after the party suffered drubbing in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls.

K Rajendra Kumar appointed as new Director General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir

I.K Rajendra Kumar on 21 May 2014 was appointed as new Director General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir. He succeeded Ashok Prasad.

II.K Rajendra Kumar belongs to Andhra Pradesh. He is a 1984 batch IPS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre.

SEBI raises cash transaction limit in MFs to Rs. 50,000

I.Capital market regulator SEBI has allowed mutual fund houses to accept investments up to Rs. 50,000 in cash from under-banked regions. The earlier limit was Rs. 20,000.

II.However, repayment in the form of redemptions and dividend with respect to investments from these regions shall continue to be only through the banking channel, SEBI said in a circular on Thursday.

III.“It has been decided to increase the limit of cash transactions in mutual funds from the existing limit of Rs 20,000 per investor, per mutual fund, per financial year to Rs 50,000,” the notification said.

IV.However, the new limit is subject to compliance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. In September 2012, SEBI had allowed investors to invest up to Rs. 20,000 in cash per fund house in a financial year, to help mutual fund houses enhance their reach and attract fresh investors.

RBI eased gold import norms under 20:80 Scheme

I.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 21 May 2014 eased the gold import norms under the 20: 80 Scheme.

II.Under the 20:80 Scheme, Star trading houses and premier trading houses, which are registered as nominated agencies by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) now can import gold.

III.With this move the number of institutions which imports gold will go up and will increase supply of gold. Besides, it will also lead to fall in the prices of gold.

IV.The RBI had imposed severe restrictions on gold imports to combat the Current Account Deficit (CAD) and sliding rupee in July 2014. RBI prescribed a 20:80 formula, which tied imports with exports of gold.

Gold could drop to ₹24,000/10 gms, says Indian jewellers’ body

I.The Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association (IBJA) expects gold prices to drop to ₹23,000-24,000 levels for 10 grams by Diwali, with the new National Democratic Alliance Government taking a series of business-friendly measures. Gold prices on Thursday fell by ₹825 to ₹27,950 on the RBI directive of easing norms.

II.On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India allowed Star Trading Houses and Premier Trading Houses to import gold diluting the 80:20 scheme, which allowed importers to place new order only after ensuring export of 20 per cent of the earlier imported consignment.

III.This development is expected to immediately improve the supply of gold. The spot premium of ₹1-1.5 lakh charged for a kg of gold could get diluted soon with the RBI relaxing import norms, said traders.

IV.Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Mohit Kamboj, President, IBJA, said that the industry expects import duty to come down to four per cent from 10 per cent after the new Government takes charge.

V.“There are possibilities that the import duty may be reduced in the next 15-20 days, even before the Budget is presented. The reduction in duty and strong rupee are expected to drag gold prices in the next two months.

Snooker Champion Chitra nominated for Arjuna Awards 2014

I.Snooker champion Chitra Magimairaj was nominated for Arjuna awards 2014 announced by the Billiards and Snooker Association of India (BSFI) on 21 May 2014. Contemporary player Vidhya Pillai and upcoming player Brijesh Damani were also nominated for the Arjuna awards 2014.

II.The BSFI nominated the players and coach based on the last four years performance of the players and coach.

III.Chitra was born in Bangalore in 1973. She has bagged three gold, three silver and three bronze medals in the World Ladies Billiards and Snooker Association event. She won Gold medal in the World Women's Senior Snooker Championship 2014 held in Leeds.

Kathleen Stephens Named Interim US Ambassador to India

I.In the wake of Nancy Powell`s retirement, Kathleen Stephens has been named the new interim US Ambassador to India as President Barack Obama is yet to nominate a diplomat for this important post.

II.Stephens will serve as the charge until a new permanent ambassador is nominated and confirmed by the US Senate

III.Powell, 67, who assumed charge as US Ambassador here in April, 2012, had announced ending of her tenure in India in March this year.

NASA releases ‘global selfie’ of Earth

I.For the first time, NASA has released a ‘global selfie’ created by combining over 36,000 pictures clicked by individual people from more than 113 countries and regions.

II.For Earth Day this year, NASA invited people around the world to step outside to take a “selfie” and share it with the world on social media.

III.NASA then released a new view of our home planet created entirely from those photos.

IV.The “Global Selfie” mosaic was built using over 36,000 individual photographs drawn from the more than 50,000 images tagged #GlobalSelfie and posted on or around Earth Day on several social media sites.

V.The project was designed to encourage environmental awareness and recognise the agency’s ongoing work to protect our home planet.

VI.Selfies was posted by people from every continent and 113 countries and regions.

VII.The resulting global mosaic is a zoomable 3.2-gigapixel image that users can scan and explore to look at individual photos. The Global Selfie was assembled after several weeks of collecting and curating the submitted images.

VIII.“With the Global Selfie, NASA used crowd-sourced digital imagery to illustrate a different aspect of Earth than has been measured from satellites for decades: a mosaic of faces from around the globe,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

FDI up 8% in FY14 at $24.3 billion

I.Foreign direct investment into India grew 8% year-on-year to $24.3 billion in 2013-14, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) data.

II.In 2012-13, FDI aggregated at $22.4 billion. In March, the foreign investment inflows more than doubled to $3.53 billion from $1.52 billion in the same month last year.

III.The highest FDI came in services ($2.22 billion), followed by automobiles ($1.51 billion), telecommunications ($1.3 billion), pharmaceuticals ($1.27 billion) and construction development ($1.22 billion) in 2013-14.

IV.Singapore led the FDI inflows into India with $5.98 billion, followed by Mauritius ($4.85 billion), the UK ($3.21 billion) and the Netherlands ($2.27 billion).

V.India’s economic growth slowed to a decade’s low of 4.5%in 2012-13.

Indian firms win Ashden award

I.Two Indian firms won the Ashden award (the green energy award) in 2014. About 14 Ashden awards were presented at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday.

II.Infosys received the International Ashden Award for Sustainable Buildings.

III.Another Indian firm Greenway Grameen won the Ashden Clean Energy for Women and Girls award.

IV.Infosys has cut more than $80 million of its electricity bills and reduced electricity consumption per staff member by 44 per cent since 2008. Its success lies in seizing every opportunity to reduce energy consumption in its existing buildings – from reducing the size of chiller plants for air-conditioning, to painting roofs white so they reflect the heat.

India creates history; reach Uber Cup semis for 1st time

I.The Indian women's badminton team created history on Thursday by ensuring a bronze medal finish at the World Women's Team Championship for the Uber Cup being played at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi.

II.Led by World No.8 Saina Nehwal, India drubbed badminton powerhouse Indonesia 3-0 in the quarter-finals to set up a semi-final clash against Japan Friday.

III.Saina gave India the start they needed by beating World No.23 Lindaweni Fanetri 21-17, 21-10 in the first singles to gain a 2-1 advantage in career meetings.

IV.World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu followed it with her 21-16, 10-21, 25-23 thrilling victory over Bellaetrix Manuputty to give India a 2-0 lead.

Madhav Mantri, a cricketing doyen, passes away

I.India’s wicket-keeper-batsman in the 1950s, Madhav Mantri passed away on Friday morning at the Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai. He was 92.

II.“He suffered his first attack on May 1 (Maharashtra Day). He recovered and was recuperating at the Lilavati. He suffered a massive heart attack today morning and died.

III.Mantri played 95 first class matches, scored 4403 runs and as a wicket-keeper, had 192 victims, 136 caught and 56 stumped. After retirement from first class cricket, he became coach, selector, manager and was also president of the Mumbai Cricket Association.

KKR beat RCB by 30 runs

Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 30 runs in an Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.

Brief scores:

I.Kolkata Knight Riders: 195 for four in 20 overs (Robin Uthappa 83 not out, Shakib Al Hasan 60, Yusuf Pathan 22; Mitchell Starc 1/32, Abu Nechim 1/33, Ashok Dinda 1/38).

II.Royal Challengers Bangalore: 165 for five in 20 overs (Yogesh Takawale 45, Virat Kohli 38; Sunil Narine 4/20).