BestGuru Daily News 24July 31July 2014

8/11/2019 BestGuru Daily News 24July 31July 2014

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GK News Analysis Updates for Competition Exams 24th to 31stJuly, 2014

(Edited by Rajesh Goyal)*

July2014

Heading Detailed News

24 th CONCOR public-sector became17th Navratnastatus company.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries and PublicEnterprises, Department of PublicEnterprises, Government of India grantedNavratna status to Container Corporation ofIndia Limited (CONCOR) in July 2014.CONCOR is a PSU engaged in providingcomprehensive logistics solutions. It has thelargest network of 62 inland container depots

(ICDs)/container freight stations in India. Inaddition to providing inland transport by railfor containers, it has also expanded to covermanagement of ports, air cargo complexesand establishing cold-chain.

The Government of India (GoI) holds 61.80%stake in CONCOR (in terms of shareholdingpattern as on 30 June 2014).

24 th India at third

place on PPP bases

The IMF has updates its the World Economic

Outlook estimates of Purchasing Power Parity(PPP) weights and GDP after theInternational Comparison Programme (ICP)released new benchmarks for 2001.

India is now the third biggest economy on thePPP basis. In terms of market exchange rates,India has only a 2.5% share.

24 th Worlds largestaquatic insectdiscovered in

China Sichuan

Scientist in China Sichuan province havediscovered the worlds largest aquatic insect

which has pincer-liked mandible cover a

mans face.24 th Cabinet clears

49% FDI inInsurance,pension reformnext

The Union cabinet approved a proposal toease foreign direct investment (FDI) limit inthe domestic insurance sector to 49% from26%, signaling NDA governments intent todraw capital and investment into an economythat is struggling to claw out of a crippling


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slowdown.25 th Ukraine's PM

resigns,complicatingMH17 probe

Ukraines Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyukhas resigned after his governing coalitioncollapsed. The shock announcement added toan already chaotic situation in the rebel-

controlled east parts of the country.International experts are at present carryingout investigation into downing of Malaysia

Airlines flight MH17 that left 298 dead.

25 th B D Tandon is newChhattisgarhGovernor

Balram Das Tandon, another Senior BJPleader, has been appointed as the fifthGovernor of Chhattisgarh.

25 th Salman Khan is brand

ambassador for Astral

Salman Khan, popular Bollywood star, has been appointed as the brand ambassador by

plumbing pipe major Astral Poly Technik Ltdfor two years.

25 th Twelve banksfined by the RBIfor violating RBIrules in the case ofDeccan ChronicleHoldings

In late 2013, Reserve Bank of India carried outa scrutiny of the loan and current accounts ofDeccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd., in certain

branches of banks which have given loan toDeccan Chronicle Holdings. After thisscrutiny, RBI concluded that some of the

violations were substantiated and thusimposed monetary penalties.

These 12 banks are Andhra Bank (Rs 10lakh), Axis Bank (Rs 15 lakh), Canara Bank(Rs 10 lakh), Corporation Bank (Rs 10 lakh),HDFC Bank (Rs 5 lakh), ICICI Bank (Rs 40lakh), IDBI Bank (Rs 15 lakh), IndusInd Bank(Rs 10 lakh), Kotak Mahindra Bank (Rs 10lakh), Ratnakar Bank (Rs 5 lakh), State Bankof Hyderabad (Rs 10 lakh) and Yes Bank (Rs10 lakh).

25 th July

Government hasno proposal tointegrate Aadhaarproject & NPR

Government has informed that it is notconsidering any proposal to integrate the UID(Aadhaar) project with National PopulationRegister (NPR).

The new government will continue Aadhaarregistrations as Rs 2,039.64 crore has beenprovided in the budget 2014-15 for Aadhaar,as against Rs 1,550 crore allocated in 2013-14.


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Around 73.71 crore Aadhaar enrolments have been done till mid-July.

26 th Typhoon Matmokilled thirteen

people in Chinaand affected about2.5 million people

Typhoon Matmo (a tropical cyclone and wasknown as Typhoon Henry in the Philippines)

struck Taiwan and China. More than 2.5million people were affected as the impact ofthe typhoon was wide spread. Matmo was the10 th typhoon to affect China this year anddestroyed homes and crops and caused directeconomic losses worth 3.37 billion Yuan ( orequal to $547 million).

26 th 15th anniversaryof Kargil VijayDiwas beingobservedthroughout thecountry

The 15th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas was observed throughout India to rememberthe sacrifices of Indian Jawans who laid downtheir lives in Kargil war in 1999.

[The armed conflict had broken out in Kargilin 1999, when Pakistani soldiers infiltratedinto India. The Indian Army fought bravely inthe high altitude mountains of Kargil hills andforced Pakistani troops to beat a retreat]

26 th CWG 2014 Indian sportspersons have continued their winning streak at Glosgow Games. [Thedetails of these are covered in a separatearticle, which all candidates must read.

26 th

Kaptan SinghSolanki appointedHaryanaGovernor

Kaptan Singh Solanki, a BJP veteran andRajya Sabha member was appointed as theGovernor of Haryana [in place of JagannathPahadia]

26 th Woodland,UNICEF to launch

water, sanitationcampaign in

Assam

A well known grand, Woodland (Footwearand apparel maker) has tied up with UNICEFto promote a water, sanitation and hygienecampaign (WASH) in Assam.

This is the third year of their tie-up. The ideaof the partnership is to support UNICEFsefforts to advocate the importance of safedrinking water, sanitation and hygiene. Overthe last two years, Woodland has contributedapproximately Rs 1.25 crore towards theprogramme, the company said in a release.


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26 th Prime MinisterNarendra Modilaunched aninteractive

website

mygov.nic.in

In a major initiative , PM, Narendra Modi, oncompletion of 60 days in Government,launched an interactive website named

www.mygov.nic.in that aims to engage all the youth of the country in the nations

development and ideas from all the volunteers . Various people as well as experts will be now able to discuss and sharethoughts on different topics relating to Indiasdevelopment. This will also empower thepeople to contribute towards good governancethrough various tasks and discussions.

The platform is not intended to be a grievanceredressal mechanism, but an initiative that

will help government to engage all the peopleand get their ideas.

27 th RBI, Monetary Authority of HongKong ink MoU forinfo exchange

The Reserve Bank of India has inked amemorandum of understanding (MoU) withthe Monetary Authority of Hong Kong forexchange of supervisory information.The RBI signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) for supervisorycooperation and exchange of supervisoryinformation with the Monetary Authority,Hong Kong," RBI said in a notification.

With this, RBI has signed MoUs with 21supervisors for supervisory co-operation.

27 th RBI allows NBFCsto use e-KYCservice to verifyidentity

Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)have been allowed to accept e-KYC service as a

valid process to verify identity and addressproof of customers to reduce risk of fraud andforgery."In order to reduce the risk of identity fraud,document forgery and have paperless KYC

verification, UIDAI has launched its e-KYCservice.

27 th Internationalconference on

womenentrepreneurshipin October

An international conference on womenentrepreneurship would be held here startingOctober 18.

27 th Amitabh Amitabh Bachchan, was appointed as the
http://www.mygov.nic.in/http://www.mygov.nic.in/


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Bachchan namedas Maharashtra'shorticultureambassador

horticulture ambassador of Maharashtra. With this appointment, he will startpromoting the horticulture sector inMaharashtra.Maharashtra, the western Indian state is

India's largest fruit producing state witharound two million hectares area covered infruit orchards. The 71-year-old actor is alsothe face of Gujarat tourism as well as the polioeradication campaign.

27 th One in every 3 Apple engineers isIndian

India has become a majority ingredient in Apples success story. It is estimated that athird of the $ 171-billion companysengineering staff is Indian, and that a largeand increasing proportion of its enterprisesoftware, service and support work is done byIndian IT vendors.

28 th World HepatitisDay beingobserved

World Hepatitis Day is an annual event on the28 th July that provides international focus forpatient groups and people living with viralhepatitis. It is an opportunity to raiseawareness and influence real change indisease prevention and access to testing andtreatment. It is observed all over the worldto generate mass awareness about the deadlydisease.

[INTERESTING FACTS : The theme ofthis year's World Hepatitis Day was 'It'scloser than you think.' With about one millionpeople worldwide dying due to hepatitis - andmillions suffering immediate sickness ordeveloping chronic illness - the theme reflectsthe lurking dangers of the disease.

India has over 40 million Hepatitis B infectedpatients, second only to China, and mostpeople are infected with chronic Hepatitis Bor C]

28 th Bharti Airteltelecom companyrecently becamethe first in Indiato have a

Bharti Airtels subscriber base across mobile,fixed line and DTH services crossed 300million recently. Companys latest 100 million


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combinedsubscriber base ofover 300 million

subscribers were added in less than 2 years.Bharti Airtel has been ranked as the fourth-largest mobile service provider globally andsecond-largest globally outside of China.

29 th InternationalTiger Day 2014observed acrossthe world

International Tiger Day is held annually onJuly 29 to give worldwide attention to thereservation of tigers. The day is celebrated asan awareness day. The goal of the Tiger Day isto promote protection and expansion of the

wild tiger habitats and also to gain supportawareness for tiger conservation.

At present the number of wild tigers is at itslowest. In last 100 years, around 97 percent ofthe total tigers population have been lost. In

1913, the world has about 1 lakh wild tigers, which has dropped to 3000 in 2014.

As per estimates, India in 2010 had 1706 wildtigers that increased from 1411 in 2006.

Among the 13 tiger-range countries, India hasthe highest number of tiger population.

29 th Govt launchesRashtriya GokulMission

Government has launched the RashtriyaGokul Mission to promote conservation anddevelopment of indigenous breeds in a

focused and scientific manner. The missionaims at enhancing milk production, upgradingnon-desrcipt cattle using elite indegenious

breeds and distributes disease free highgenetic bulls. The purpose of the Mission isfor bovine breeding and dairy development

with an outlay of 500 crore rupees during the12th five year programme.

29 th Flipkart raises $1bn in fund -highest in Indian

e-commerce

Flipkart announced that it has raised $1 billion (Rs 6,000 crore), the largest ever fund-raising by an Indian internet company. As

per market estimates, the Bangalore-basedcompany is now valued at about $7 billion."This is a great milestone for Flipkart and forinternet companies in India

29 th Textile policy aimsto create 35 mn

jobs, $300 bn

The draft National Textile policy, aims atachieving 300 billion dollars exports by 2024-25 and creation of additional 35 million jobs


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exports by attracting investments.The draft Vision, Strategy and Action Plan forIndian Textiles and Apparels was presented tothe Textiles Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar

yesterday. Expert Committee Chairman Ajay

Shankar presented the blueprint to theMinister.

29 th IAF receives 6thC-17 Globe masterIII aircraft

The Indian Air Force received its sixth C-17Globe master heavy lift transport aircraft

which also carried a World War II vintage'Harvard' aircraft in its belly. The C-17 is the

biggest aircraft in IAF's inventory and thegovernment had accorded approval to buy 10C-17 Globe master III along with associatedequipment for the IAF.

29 th Moeen Ali bannedfrom wearing 'Save Gaza'

wristbands forEngland

Moeen Ali, all-rounder in England team, cameto highlight after he was found wearing

wristbands with Save Gaza and FreePalestine in the third Test of the Test series.ICC clothing rules do not allow displays ofmessages relating to political, religious orracial activities during internationals. Thus,he was banned from wearing such a band infuture tests.

29 th Hundred die dueto hunger in fiveclosed Tea-estatessince January

It is reported that nearly 100 people have dieddue to malnutrition and hunger in tea-estatesin Jalpaiguri / Alipurduar.

29 th WTO: India firmon food security

India said it is unwilling to compromise on WTO demand for any dilution in its policyrelated to the minimum support price forfarm goods. Top government sources toldthat India is not going to settle for anythingthat does not address its concerns and havinga subsidy cap based on 1986-88 prices doesnot make sense. Since then prices haveincreased by up to six times, making thesubsidy ceiling of 19% of the value ofproduction virtually redundant for severaldeveloping countries, including China andThailand.

29 th RBI calls for Sebiaction against

willful defaulters

Tightening the regulatory noose around willful defaulters of bank loans, RBI hassuggested to market watchdog SEBI that such


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entities should be prevented from raisingfunds through capital markets.

30 th Fuad Masumelected as the 7th

President of Iraq

Muhammad Fuad Masum of Patriotic Unionof Kurdistan (PUK) party was elected as the

seventh President of Iraq. He was elected with overwhelming majority by the Council ofRepresentatives of Iraq (Iraqi Parliament) inBaghdad.

30 th WB loan to WestBengal for GramPanchayatimprovement

World Bank will give around Rs. 1200 crorerupees loan to the West Bengal Governmentfor improvement of a thousand GramPanchayats in the State. These funds will beutilized in 9 districts to bring a thousandPanchayat bodies under the Nirmal GramPanchayat scheme in the next five years. Mr.Mukherjee said that another 2400 GramPanchayats will be brought under the schemein the next phase.

30 th Law Commissionrecommends fixedtenure for CJI

Law Commission Chairperson A.P. Shah hasrecommended (a) same retirement age of 65for Supreme Court and High Court judges, (b)a cooling-off period for judges afterretirement and (c) a fixed tenure for ChiefJustice of India. These three changes areintertwined with the overhaul required inthe process of judicial appointments. JusticeShah's note titled A Judicial AppointmentsCommission for India: A Proposal became thecentral point of debate between the LawMinistry and eminent jurists.

30 th Arup Raha takesover as Chairman,CoSC

IAF chief, Arup Raha, took over as theChairman, Chiefs of Staffs Committee, fromincumbent Gen Bikram Singh who retired on31 st July 2014. The Chairman, Chiefs of StaffsCommittee is the senior-most military officerin the country.Raha, will hold the office for a period of 29months and would probably be the longest-serving officer in the chair.

30 th Sushilarani Patel,a Classical singerdied at 96

Sushilarani Patel, the renowned classicalsinger of India died at her Bandra home on 24July 2014 due to heart attack. She in 2002


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became a Sangeet Natak Academy laureate.

30 th The Vijay MallyaStory written by KGiriprakash

published

The Vijay Mallya Story written by KGiriprakash was published by Penguin BooksLimited in 2014. K. Giriprakash is the Chief of

Bureau, The Hindu Business Line.30 th Malin village near

Pune has majorlandslide

Malin village situated about 70 km from Punenear the famous Bhimashankar Jyotirlingtemple saw a major landslide due to heavyrains. Huge boulders from a hillock camecrashing down on a village and destroyed afull village and killed over 50 people. Thelandslide is believed to be due to uncheckedcutting of trees and leveling of the hills

without caring for environmental issues

30 th Amazon to bring$2 billion in toIndia

As a counter to Flipkarts decision to raise $1 billion, Amazon has announced that they willspend $2 billion (Rs. 12,000 crores) to grow

Amazons online retail business in India.30 th SC tells Supertech

to refund flatowner

In a major landmark decision Supreme Courtasked Supertech builder to refund theamount of the flats along with 14% interest.In April 2014 Allahabad High Court haddirected that the Emerald Court twin towers(40 story buildings under construction) inNoida should be demolished as these wereillegally built.

30 th ITC Ready to LightUp e-Cigarettes

Indias largest Cigarettes maker ITC hasdeveloped an electronic Cigarettes. These E-Cigarettes are battery operated designed todeliver nicotine, flavor and other chemicals byturning chemicals, including highly addictivenicotine, into an aerosol that is inhaled by theuser. It is claimed that it is less harmful themnormal Cigarettes. [INTERESTING FACTS :Nicotine is named after the tobacco plantNicotiana tabacum, which in turn is namedafter the French ambassador in Portugal, JeanNicot de Villemain, who sent tobacco andseeds to Paris in 1560, and who promotedtheir medicinal use. Nicotine was firstisolated from the tobacco plant in 1828 and it

was considered as a poison]


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30 th Eating chickencould make youimmune toantibiotics

A labs study release by Centers for Scienceand Environment (CSE) found antibioticresidues in 40% of chicken samples in NCRarea. Experts are of the view that regularconsumer of such meat could be in danger of

developing antibiotic resistance. Poultryowners pump antibiotic into chickens topromote the growth of chickens so that they

become bigger and fetch more money.30 th UPSC aspirant

protest in Delhi A number of students have gone on hungerstrikes in Delhi demanding change in CSAT(Civil Services Aptitude Test) format.

Civil services aspirants are protesting againstthe pattern of the Civil Services Aptitude Test(CSAT) which they believe gives an unfairadvantage to English-speaking students whileleaving candidates from Hindi or regionallanguages background at a disadvantage. They

want CSAT to be scrapped. 30 th No bug found at

GadakariResidence

Finally government put to rest thespeculations about bugging devices beingfound at Union Minister Nitin Gadakari sResidence. It has been clarified in Lok Sabhathat these are baseless news.

31 st Ebola outbreak:Sierra Leonedeclares healthemergency

The President of Sierra Leone has declared apublic health emergency as the Ebolaoutbreak has spread. The announcementcame from President Ernest Bai Koroma lateon Wednesday as neighbouring Liberia alsoramped up efforts to slow the virulentdiseases spread.

Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of SierraLeone, is a country in West Africa that is

bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberiato the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to thesouthwest. [ Capital: Freetown ; Currency:Sierra Leonean leone ]

Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebolahemorrhagic fever (EHF) is the humandisease caused by the ebola virus. Symptomstypically start two days to three weeks aftercontracting the virus, with a fever, throat andmuscle pains, and headaches. There is thentypically nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea,


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along with decreased functioning of the liverand kidneys. At this point, some people beginto have problems with bleeding

31 st This 'strange-looking visitor'

sent Parliamentsecurity staff intoa tizzy

The appearance of a "strange-looking"mammal inside the Parliament complex

sparked panic and threw the security staff intoa tizzy. The Palm Civet , an endangeredmammal which looks like a cross between amongoose and a wild cat, was spotted in theParliament library building, [ The Asian palmcivet, also called toddy cat, is a small memberof the Viverridae family native to the IndianSubcontinent and Southeast Asia. ]

31 st S S Mundraassumes office asReserve Bank ofIndia DeputyGovernor

S S Mundra has joined RBI as the DeputyGovernor. He has been appointed as DG for aterm of three years. Mr Mundra, wasChairman and Managing Director (CMD) ofBank, and will be taking the place K CChakrabarty who had taken VRS a fewmonths back. Mundra, a career banker,started his career as probationary officers

with Bank of Baroda.

31 st Saudi Arabia bansimport ofpepper fromIndia

Saudi authorities have decided to imposetemporary ban on import of pepper fromIndia with effect from May 30, According toreports, presence of high levels of pesticidesin the Indian consignment was the reason toput the import restriction.

31 st John Kerry,Sushma Swarajco-chair fifthStrategic Dialogue

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj andU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry co-chairedfifth Indo-US Strategic Dialogue during whichthe two sides discussed transformativeinitiatives in key areas of security andenergy.

31 st New Delhi to host3rd India-AfricaSummit this year

New Delhi will host the Third India-AfricaForum Summit, IAFS-III, on the 4th ofDecember this year. This follows the decisiontaken at its Second Summit in the Ethiopiancapital Addis Ababa in 2011. External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj said preparations forthe IAFS-III have begun in consultation withthe African Union. Ms. Swaraj said theDeclaration and Framework of Cooperation


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will be finalized in consultation with the African Union.

31 st General DalbirSingh Suhag is

new Army Chief

Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag hastaken over as the new Army chief. He

succeeded the incumbent General BikramSingh. General Singh handed over the baton ofcharge to him. 59-year-old Lieutenant GeneralSuhag, a Gurkha officer who had participatedin the 1987 Indian Peace Keeping Forceoperation in Sri Lanka, will have 30-monthtenure.

*The above news items have been edited by Rajesh Goyal so as to make these competition exam friendly. Ms Arpita Srivastava has assisted in the compilation of the news items from various sources such as newspapers / magazines / TV News with additional inputs by the team of BestGuru.com

BestGuru Daily News 24July 31July 2014

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