GK Updates - 14 July | Banking Quiz

Germany lift FIFA World Cup 2014 title
I. Germany's Mario Götze kicks in second half of extra time to win 1-0 against Argentina in final of the FIFA World Cup 2014.
II. Germany is the first side from Europe to win a World Cup in the Americas, determined that a golden generation will finally get its reward after a string of near-misses.
III. Messi was declared as the Player of the tournament and awarded Golden Ball.
IV. Germany won their fourth World Cup after a 24-year wait. Incidentally, this is the first World Cup for unified Germany, the previous three having been won by West Germany in 1954, 1974 and 1990.
V. Lionel Messi, arguably the best player on the planet, was denied a fairytale end to his third World Cup campaign and a chance to match the heroics of countryman Diego Maradona.
VI. Argentina in 1986, had gone home from Mexico with the World Cup and the legend of Maradona's hand of god. On Sunday evening they went back just with the aching pain of letting the Cup slip away from their grasp and the tragic tale of Higuain's feet of clay.

Shankar Aggarwal is new Urban Development Secretary
I. The Government appointed 1980 batch IAS officer Shankar Aggarwal Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development on Monday.
II. The Uttar Pradesh cadre officer, Aggarwal was previously the Secretary, Union Ministry of Women & Child Development.
III. In his 35 years of service, he has held several positions in the Governments of Uttar Pradesh and India, dealing with housing and urban development, IT, finance, energy, technical education, small-scale industries, transport and defence.
IV. Aggarwal has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from IIT Roorkie and a Masters in Technology (Computer Technology) from IIT Delhi.

New governors appointed for five states
New governors have been appointed in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Gujarat and Nagaland.

1. Ram Naik will be the new Governor of Uttar Pradesh
2. Balramji Dass Tandon, the Governor of Chhattisgarh.
3. Keshari Nath Tripathi, former UP Assembly speaker, has been appointed as the Governor of West Bengal
4. Om Prakash Kohli, former Delhi BJP chief, will be the new Governor of Gujarat.
5. Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya has been appointed as Nagaland Governor.

Note: The President has accepted the resignation of Vakkom Purushothaman, as Governor of Tripura and given additional charge to Mr. Acharya.

Electric bus pilot project to be launched in Gujarat
I. As part of efforts to ensure a cleaner and greener environment, the Gujarat Government will soon introduce a pilot project to run ‘electric buses’ for public transport between the state capital Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad.
II. Moving ahead, the state-run Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL) has invited expression of interest from the potential companies interested in the project which has been flashed on its official Web site.
III. “GPCL is all set to introduce an ‘e-vehicle’ project on pilot basis for the public transportation purpose, under which 15-20 E-buses will be included in the initial phase,” said a state government official associated with the project.
IV. The project is to be launched to reduce the carbon emission and to create an ecological equilibrium by using non-traditional fuel like electricity,” the officer said.

India, Sri Lanka sign MoU to set up Engg, Agri faculty for University of Jaffna
I. India today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sri Lanka for setting up of a Faculty of Agriculture and a Faculty of Engineering for the University of Jaffna at Kilinochchi.
II. The MoU was signed by High Commissioner of India, Mr. Y.K. Sinha, and the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne, in the presence of Sri Lanka’s Minister of Higher Education, S.B. Dissanayake in Colombo.
III. India will set up the physical infrastructure for the two Faculties, including construction of the buildings and setting up of lecture halls, conference hall, computer laboratory, library, administrative office, staff room and sports complex.
IV. India will also train the teaching staff of the two faculties at prestigious Indian colleges. The estimated cost of 30 crore rupees for the project will be given by India through grant assistance.
V. The project will directly benefit the students in the war torn northern region of Sri Lanka and help develop the region as a whole through capacity building.

Govt slaps USD 579 mn additional penalty on RIL
I. The government has slapped an additional penalty of USD 579 million on Reliance Industries for producing less than targeted natural gas from its KG-D6 block, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
II. With this, the total penalty on RIL for missing the target in four fiscal years beginning 1st April 2010 now stands at a cumulative USD 2.376 billion, the Minister informed the Lok Sabha on Monday.
III. The penalty is in the form of disallowing costs incurred. The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) allows RIL and its partners BP Plc and Niko Resources to deduct all capital and operating expenses from the sale of gas before sharing profit with the government.
IV. Disallowing costs will result in government's profit share rising by USD 195 million from 2010-11 to 2013-14, he said.
V. The government had previously issued a notice to RIL disallowing a total of USD 1.797 billion in costs for falling short of production during 2010-11 (USD 457 million), 2011-12 (USD 548 million) and 2012-13 (USD 792 million).
VI. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has also raised a claim of additional profit petroleum to the tune of USD 115 million to be paid by the contractor, on account of disallowance of cumulative contract costs of USD 1.797 billion, till 2012-13," he said.

Coimbatore to host farm trade fair Agri Intex 2014
I. The 14th edition of Agri Intex 2014, an agricultural trade fair, is scheduled between July 18 and 21 at the Codissia Trade Fair complex here.
II. The event, which is aimed at transforming Indian agriculture, is being jointly organised by the small industries association Codissia and the State farm university.
III. Over 235 exhibitors have registered for participation, including exhibitors from Italy, Israel, Japan, China and Germany.

Jayawardene announces retirement from Test Cricket
I. Former Sri Lanka Skipper Mahela Jayawardene has announced his retirement from Test Cricket following the home series against South Africa and Pakistan this year.
II. Sri Lanka Cricket Board said that Jayawardene, 37, has written a letter to the Chief Executive Officer Ashley De Silva, announcing his wish to retire from the longest version of the game.
III. The veteran batsman will play two Tests against South Africa on 16th and 24th of this month, followed by a two-match series against Pakistan next month.
IV. Jayawardene, who made his Test debut against India in 1997, played 145 Tests scoring 11,493 runs with 33 centuries and 48 fifties.

Inflation falls to 5.43% in June
I. Inflation dipped to 5.43 per cent in June mainly on account of decline in prices of food items and vegetables with the exception of potato and onion after rising to a five-month high in May. It was at 5.16 per cent a year ago in June 2013.
II. As per the Wholesale Price Index, WPI, inflation, prices of vegetables as a category declined by 5.89 per cent during the month, while that of potato and onion soared by 42.51 per cent and 10.70 per cent respectively in the wholesale market.
III. Inflation had soared to a five-month high of 6.01 per cent in May 2014. Among other important items, prices of sugar and edible oils fell by 2.09 per cent and 0.75 per cent respectively during June.

Indo-Russian joint venture working on BrahMos-Mini missile
I. Indo-Russian joint venture firm BrahMos Aerospace today said it is developing a smaller version of the 290-km supersonic cruise missile for enabling its deployment on submarines and smaller fighter aircraft such as MiG 29K.
II. Addressing a gathering while launching his book The Path Unexplored, BrahMos Aerospace chief A Sivathanu Pillai said the firm was preparing for the test-firing of the air-launched version of the missile by the end of this year.
III. “The BrahMos-Mini would be developed by reducing the size of the booster and the engine and reducing its weight. The missile would then be ready for deployment on submarines and smaller fighter aircraft,” he said.

The Netherlands blank Brazil 3-0 in play-off
I. Brazil lost its face, its pride one more time in the space of four days after the Netherlands embarrassed the hosts 3-0 in the third-place play-off match of the World Cup, as boos and jeers from the fans dressed in canary yellow reverberated across the Estadio Nacional in Brasilia.
II. Coming off the devastating 7-1 hammering to Germany in the semifinals, the humiliation for the hosts was complete on the eve of the grand finale.
III. Captain Robin van Persie (3rd minute), Daley Blind (17th) and Georginio Wijnaldum (90+1) found the target for the Netherlands, the result only adding to the already gloomy mood of thousands of home fans as they left the stadium deeply dejected.
IV. Van Persie started the scoring for the Netherlands after he converted from the spot barely few minutes into the game.
V. Arjen Robben was the one credited with getting the Netherlands the penalty after he was pulled by host skipper Thiago Silva, who returned after missing the German massacre due to double bookings.

Dilip Kumar's ancestral home in Pak declared national heritage
I. Legendary actor Dilip Kumar's ancestral home has been declared as a national heritage and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered authorities to acquire the dilapidated property, a move he hopes would bring Pakistan and India closer.
II. Sharif has already approved an order in this regard and sent it to Information Ministry, which has forwarded it to director general Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) for implementation, an official statement said.
III. After acquiring Kumar's home the government is planning to convert it into a museum. Kumar's 130 square metre home is located in Peshawar's famous Qisa Khawani Bazaar area and is in a shabby condition.
IV. Acting Director General PNCA Mashood Mirza confirmed that the council has received the order from Information Ministry with the instruction to implement it as soon as possible.