GK Updates - 6 June | Banking Quiz

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won Presidential election for third time

I.President Bashar al-Assad of Syria won the Presidential election for the third time. The Presidential Election result was announced by the Parliament Speaker Jihad Laham on 4 June 2014.

II.Basher winning the elections means that he will stay as the President of Syria for seven more years.

III.Bashar belonging to Ba’ath Party won the election with 88.7 percent of the vote casted in favour of him. The other two contesting candidates Hassan al-Nouri (National Initiative for Administration and Change in Syria Party) and Maher Hajjar (People's Will Party) won 4.3 percent and won 3.2 percent of casted votes respectively.

Former PMK MP joins AIADMK

I.Former PMK MP M Ramadoss today joined the AIADMK in the presence of party General Secretary and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

II.Ramadoss called on Jayalalithaa and joined the party by receiving the primary membership card from her, a party release said here.

III.He emerged victorious in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and lost to V Narayanasamy of the Congress in 2009. He resigned from the PMK then and took up an academician’s post in Puducherry.

IV.Ramadoss had contested the April 24 LS polls this year as an independent, but lost.

Rajiv Gandhi International Airport won Roll of Excellence award of ACI

I.Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad won the Roll of Excellence award. The award was given by Airport Council International (ACI) in Seoul, South Korea on 27 May 2014.

II.RGIA won the award in the recognition of the airport being in the top three of the five airports in the world for five consecutive years in certain categories.

III.Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) won the second best service quality award among airports that handles 5 to 15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category for the year 2013. It scored 4.80 out of 5 point and improved the score 4.71 for 2012.

Private schools come under the provision of RTI Act: CIC

I.Central Information Commission on 4 June 2014 ruled that the private schools which were governed by a law such as the Delhi Education Act come under the provisions of Right to Information (RTI) Act.

II.It ruled that aided or unaided, the school is duty bound under Sections 4 and 8 of Delhi Education Act 1973 to abide by the regulatory conditions of service, payment of salaries as prescribed for which school has to maintain records which provide an inherent and implied right to information to their employees.

III.Under Right to Education Act 2009 also, the recognised school is under an obligation to appoint eligible teachers and provide them with prescribed wages. This also reveals that it has given inherent right to information to the teachers from their employers.

Pakistan hiked defence budget by 11 percent

I.Pakistan on 4 June 2014 hiked its defence budget by 11 percent from 627.2 billion rupees to 700.2 billion rupees for the fiscal year 2014-15 that starts on 1 July 2014. The defence budget was hiked amid surge in Taliban insurgency in the country and volatile security environment of the country.

II.The hike in the defence budget was announced while Ishaq Dar, the Finance Minister of Pakistan was presenting 3.9 trillion rupees budget in the National Assembly. Although, Dar doesn’t gave a break up of allocated defence spending among the three forces.

III.In previous five years, the defence budget of the country has been doubled as in 2009-10 it was 350 billion and the budget for the 2014-15 has been raised to 700.2 billion rupees. The defence budget for the running fiscal year 2013-14 it was raised by 15 percent from 545.3 billion rupees to 627.2 billion rupees.

India slipped to 3rd position in ICC ODI rankings

I.India slipped to third position in the ICC ODI team rankings released on 4 June 2014 in Dubai. India is ranked after Australia (No. 1) and Sri Lanka (No. 2). Sri Lankan cricket team eclipsed India with its 3-2 win over England in the latest ODI series.

II.On the other hand, Indian batsman Virat kohli retained his position as number one ODI batsman, while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan were ranked at sixth and eighth position, respectively. Kohli is followed by South Africa’s AB Devilliers and Australia’s George Bailey.

US President Barack Obama announced new rules to cut carbon pollution by 30% by 2030

I.US President Barack Obama on 2 June 2014 announced new rules to cut carbon pollution from existing Power plants by 30% till 2030.

II.The announcement involved to cut carbon dioxide emission 30 percent from 2005 level. The new rule was announced by The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It also announced to cut by 2030 particle pollution, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide by more than 25 per cent as a co-benefit.

III.The new rules could transform the power sector. Currently, US Government relied on coal for nearly 38 percent of electricity.

Axis Bank launches teaser ad campaign

I.Axis Bank has launched a teaser advertising campaign featuring its recently signed brand ambassador Deepika Padukone.

II.Created by Lowe Lintas, the campaign looks to extend the brand philosophy of 'Badhti ka naam zindagi' (progress is on).

III.Rajiv Anand, President, Retail Banking, Axis Bank, said: "The new film takes our brand positioning ahead. The campaign is based on the insight that progress means different things to different people, and can also be defined differently for the same individual at different times. This insight is captured in our new communication which brings to life the ubiquitous and multi-dimensional nature of progress.''

IV.Axis Bank’s previous campaigns have showed the brand philosophy through different television commercials. The new one highlights the holistic nature of progress and highlights Axis Bank’s journey as a customer centric bank.

Infosys shares end lower as top executive quits

I.Shares of Infosys today ended over 1 per cent lower following the exit of its global head of strategic sales, marketing and alliances Prasad Thrikutam.

II.After falling 2.69 per cent to ₹2,956.15 in intra-day trade, the stock of India’s second largest software services firm ended at ₹2,999.80, down 1.26 per cent on the BSE.

III.At the NSE, the IT major’s scrip settled 1.35 per cent lower at ₹3,000.

IV.The exit of Thrikutam, who was also the head of Infosys Americas, comes within a fortnight of the resignation of President and Board Member B G Srinivas as the company searches for a CEO to succeed S D Shibulal who is due to retire by January next year.

V.Interestingly, both Srinivas and Thrikutam worked with Infosys for 19 years.

VI.This is the 11th top-level exit from the Bangalore-based company since the return of co-founder N R Narayana Murthy at the helm of affairs in June last year.

Nitin Gadkari got additional charge of Union Ministry Rural Development

I.Union Transport Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari was given additional charge of the Ministries of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation on 4 June 2014.

II.The additional charges were given to him by the President of India on the advice of Prime Minister of India. The additional charges given to Gadkari were with Gopinath Munde, who died on 3 June 2014 due to a car accident in New Delhi.