GK Updates - 13 June | Banking Quiz

PM's first foreign visit will be to Bhutan

I.Bhutan will be the first foreign country that Narendra Modi will visit as Prime Minister.

II.Briefing newspersons, Sujatha Singh, Foreign Secretary, said will be on a good will visit on June 15 and 16. The Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj, National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval and senior officials will accompany the PM.

III.The PM will meet the King, PM of Bhutan and address Parliament.

IV.The foreign secretary added that the moment is ripe for better relations between India and Pakistan.

Sachin Aggarwal receives 'Student Honour' in the Home of Adelaide Oval

I.Sachin Aggarwal has been named as one of seven International Student Ambassadors for South Australia.

II.Sachin, who is originally from Hoshiarpur (Punjab) is studying 'Master of Professional Accounting and Finance' at the University of South Australia in Adelaide.

III.Sachin was chosen for the student ambassador role by StudyAdelaide, a statutory authority of the South Australian Government. The ambassadors are leaders in the international student community who spread the word about Adelaide, the South Australian capital and premier student city.

IV.Sachin is using his extensive social media networks to share StudyAdelaide’s first Destination Adelaide film. The short film, which premieres in Adelaide this week, is an authentic look at an international students’ life in the city.

India becomes permanent Signatory to Washington Accord

I.India has become a permanent Signatory to Washington Accord which will enable global recognition of Indian degrees in engineering and technical education. With this, India has joined a select group of 17 countries that are permanent signatories to the Accord.

II.It is an international agreement amongst prominent nations with the charter of promoting mobility and quality assurance of engineers across international boundaries.

III.New Delhi was given a signatory status at a meeting of the International Engineering Alliance of Washington Accord member countries in New Zealand today.

IV.Human Resource Development Minister, Smriti Irani said in a statement issued in New Delhi, that the status will ensure that highest quality assurance standards are implemented in technical and engineering programmes to provide global mobility to India's engineering graduates.

Malnutrition kills over 3 million child a year: UN

I.More than three million children under the age of five die annually of malnutrition, the UN food agency and World Health Organisation said on Thursday, urging governments to tackle the problem.

II.Malnutrition is responsible for about half of all child deaths under five years of age, causing over three million deaths every year," the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

III.Some 162 million children are left stunted by chronic malnutrition and 99 million children are underweight across the world, it added. Since the first international conference on nutrition in 1992, "important advances in the fight against hunger and malnutrition have been made, but this progress has been insufficient and uneven," FAO head Jose Graziano da Silva said.

IV.Around 160 million children under five are stunted or chronically malnourished, while over two billion people suffer one or more micronutrient deficiencies," they said in a statement.

6th International Nuclear Energy Forum ATOMEXPO-2014 held in Moscow

I.6th International Nuclear Energy Forum ATOMEXPO-2014 was held from 9 to 11 June 2014 in Moscow.

II.The ATOMEXPO-2014 forum saw signing of international agreements and memorandums by the nuclear sector companies.

Telenor to invest Rs 780 cr to take Uninor stake to 100%

I.Norway's Telenor Group said that it plans to invest an additional Rs 780 crore to acquire 100 per cent stake in its Indian mobile services company Uninor.

II.Telenor has sought the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

III."Continuing its long term commitment to India, Telenor Group has filed to take complete ownership of its Indian business unit. An application has been filed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) of the Government of India, seeking approval for an additional investment of INR 780 crores to raise ownership in Uninor to 100%," said a company statement.

IV.At present, Telenor Group owns 74% in its Indian business unit. The remaining stake is held by Lakshdeep Investments as a financial investor.

V.Other telecom companies including AT&T, Vodafone and MTS India have also sought to increase their holdings in their respective Indian venture after the Government allowed 100% FDI in telecom.

Commemorative postage stamps on 2014 FIFA World Cup released by PM Narendra Modi

I.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 June 2014 released commemorative postage stamps on the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup is being played in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014 with the slogan All In One Rhytm.

II.The Prime Minister also urged the Department of Posts to develop a website on the history of Indian football in lieu of India hosting the U-17 FIFA World Cup in 2017. During the occasion he underscored the need to inculcate the love of sports among children of the country.

III.He also urged that the art of commentary especially should also be developed in other sports as it has happened in cricket.

Jitu Rai won Silver medal in 10m air pistol at Munich Shooting World Cup

I.Jitu Rai of India on 11 June 2014 won Silver Medal in men’s 10-meter air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup Shooting in Munich. In the finals, Jitu scored 199.4 after aggregating 583 in the qualification stage.

II.The Gold was clinched by Pablo Carrera of Spain and Bronze was bagged by Pavlo Korostylov of Ukraine.

III.Another Indian shooter Prakash Nanjappa finished at Seventh position scoring 97.1 in the finals. While, Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang was placed Eighth in the qualifying stage in the 50-meter rifle 3 position men’s event.

Postal dept to launch logistics service

Department of Posts is set to launch regular logistics post service in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on four routes from June 16. The routes are Hyderabad to Chennai via Vijaywada, Hyderabad to Bangalore via Anantapur, Hyderabad to Adilabad and Visakhapatnam to Vijaywada. The services include point-to-point pricing, free pickup, door delivery and credit facility, according to an official press release.

DHL eCommerce names Malcolm Monteiro as CEO, Asia-Pacific

I.DHL eCommerce, part of the newly re-named global division Post - eCommerce - Parcel (PeP), formerly known as Deutsche Post MAIL division, has named Malcolm Monteiro as CEO, Asia-Pacific.

II.The company said Malcolm succeeds Patrick Martin, who had led Global Mail Asia Pacific since 2009.

III.Malcolm, formerly Managing Director of Blue Dart Express and CEO of DHL Express South Asia since 2006, will join the DHL eCommerce management board and be responsible for overseeing and steering the development of DHL eCommerce as the global e-commerce enabler in Asia-Pacific.

NASA laser beams ‘Hello, World!’ video from space

I.NASA has successfully beamed a high-definition video with the message “Hello, World! from the International Space Station to Earth using a new laser communications instrument.

II.The US space agency’s Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) instrument transmitted a new 37-second, 175-megabit video called “Hello, World!” to a ground station in California on June 5.

III.It took OPALS 3.5 seconds to transmit each copy of the “Hello World!” video message, which would have taken more than 10 minutes using traditional downlink methods, NASA said.

20,000 African elephants killed for ivory in 2013

I.International conservation measures were not able to significantly reduce poaching of African elephants last year, when more than 20,000 animals were killed to harvest their ivory, according to the international endangered species watchdog Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

II.Last year’s figures were similar to 2012, the secretariat of the CITES said in a report in Geneva.

III.Africa’s elephants continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from high levels of poaching for their ivory,” CITES secretary general John Scanlon said, noting that illegal killings exceed natural growth rates.

IV.The report noted, however, that an upward trend in illegal elephant killings was stopped in 2011.

V.For the first time last year, more ivory was seized in Africa than in Asian destination countries.

VI.A majority of the seizures were made in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

ISRO planning to launch French satellite SPOT 7 on June 26

I.ISRO is planning to launch its next rocket PSLV C23 carrying a French remote sensing satellite SPOT 7, along with four others from Sriharikota spaceport on June 26, a senior official said on Friday.

II.“As of now, we have scheduled the launch of PSLV C23 at 9.50 a.m. on June 26. A 52-hour countdown has been planned, which would commence at 6 a.m. on June 24,” the ISRO official told PTI.

III.SPOT 7 is an Earth observing satellite, similar to Indian Remote Satellite System (IRSS), he said, adding four other satellites would also be launched on the same day.

IV.This time around, ISRO would use the core-only edition of the launch vehicle PSLV, he said.

V.Asked if there would be any change in the date of launch, he said the date and time also depend on the availability of VIPs, if any, witnessing the launch.

VI.The satellites would be integrated with the launch vehicle on June 16 and heat shield check would be performed on June 18.

World Cup: 13,000 Indians will feature on field before kick-off

I.Nearly 13,000 Indian fans’ images will feature in a digitally produced photo mosaic called the ‘Happiness Flag’, slated to be unveiled on the pitch before the kick-off of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Sao Paulo on Thursday night.

II.Despite cricket being the big sport in the country, Coca-Cola, which crowd-sourced images from 207 countries for the Happiness Flag, said that it received the second highest number of contributions from India. This was almost double the number of entries sent by nations such as Germany, Argentina and Italy, where football is the craze.

III.With only 32 countries represented by their national football team at the FIFA World Cup, the company’s five-month-long exercise was aimed at making the FIFA World Cup inclusive, engaging with consumers across the globe. Designed by Brazilian street artist Speto and Argentinian artist Tec, The Happiness Flag will be available on Coca-Cola’s digital platform, allowing fans to pinpoint their photo on the flag.

IV.The company, which is one of the official sponsors, has also rolled out over 10 million limited-edition Brazil cans in India besides a host of other initiatives. Coca-Cola, in partnership with FIFA and the All India Football Association got the FIFA World Cup Trophy to Kolkata in December, as part of its global tour.

V.Debabrata Mukherjee, Vice-President, Marketing and Commercial, Coca-Cola India, said viewership of football has increased significantly in India and established a connect with the youth and schoolchildren, both in urban and non-urban regions.