DAILY GK UPDATE 28TH JANUARY

1.    Mumbai thrash Saurashtra to clinch Ranji crown:

i. A dominant Mumbai lifted their 40th Ranji Trophy title after skipper Ajit Agarkar and Dhawal Kulkarni combined to wreck Saurshtra for an innings and 125-run victory in the five-day final that ended inside three days at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.

      ii. Saurashtra, trailing the home team by 207 runs in the first innings, were shot out for a pathetic 82 in less than three hours and 36.3 overs, 41 minutes after tea.

iii. Mumbai, thus, clinched their 40th national title in 44 appearances in the summit contest and their first after two blank seasons.

NOTE: Mumbai also earned the right to take on the Rest of India in the Irani Cup tie which is to be held at the same venue here from February 6-10. The home team also won Rs 2 crore as the prize money while Saurashtra got Rs 1 crore.

2.    Postal Dept to launch on-line banking facilities by May 2014:

i. The Postal Department will launch on-line banking facilities in all departmental Post offices in the country by May next year.

ii. Commissioning the Automatic Mail Processing Centre in Kolkata yesterday, Minister of State for Communication & Information Technology Killi Kruparani said, the department has decided to install 1,000 ATMs in the main Post Offices.

NOTE: Referring the government's commitment to provide efficient postal services to the people, she informed that government has sanctioned 4,700 crore rupees for computerisation and modernisation of India Post and every Post Offices in urban and rural areas will provide on-line-services to the citizens from next year.

3.    India Successfully Test Fired K-15 Ballistic Missile in Bay of Bengal:

i. India successfully test fired an underwater ballistic missile, K-15(code-named Bo5), with a strike range of around700 kilometres, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal.

The major features of K-15 are as following:

i. K-15 is the 10-metre tall Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM).

ii. India is only the fifth nation to have SLBM. The other four nations are Russia, China, France and USA.

iii. The process of integrating K-15 missile with INS Arihant, the indigenously built nuclear submarine will start now.

NOTE: i. Besides Arihant, three other nuclear-powered submarines were being constructed -- one at Visakhapatnam and two at Vadodara.

 ii. India is also in the process of developing K-4 missile with a range of 3000 km.

iii. India also successfully test fired Medium range K-5 ballistic missile with a strike range of around 1500 kilometres.

4.    China Successfully Carried Out Interceptor Missile Test:

i. China on 27 January 2013 successfully performed the second interceptor missile test. The test was -said to be of the defensive nature without targeting any other country.

NOTE: This is for the second time that China announced testing such a missile.

Likewise, the anti-missile interception test was conducted successfully on 11 January 2010 earlier. 

5.    Corporation Bank to migrate to new core banking solution:

i. Mangalore based Corporation Bank will be the first public sector bank to migrate from an existing core banking solution (CBS) platform to a new one in 12-15 months time, said a senior official.

ii. A bank executive said "We were the first public sector bank to have a CBS in 2003.

iii. Now we will again be the first government bank to migrate from an existing CBS to a new solution. In 12-15 months' time, the first branch will go live.

iv. According to him, initially around 10 branches will go live and then the new CBS will be implemented in batches of around 50 branches.

NOTE: i. "The advantage of a new CBS will be that it will be faster, efficient and would support newer applications like mobile banking. With a new CBS design and launch of new products will be faster.

ii. Further the new solution is expected to offer better business analytics for the bank to decide is strategies. There will be also consistency in data.

6.    Ashwani Kumar takes over as CMD of Dena Bank

i. Veteran banker Ashwani Kumar has taken over as chairman & managing director (CMD) of Public sector lender Dena Bank, for a term of five years.

ii. Mr. Kumar owns a rich banking experience of more than three decades serving. Before joining Dena Bank, he was serving the Corporation Bank as its executive director. Prior to that, he served Allahabad Bank.

NOTE: Mr. Kumar started his banking career as a probationary officer (PO) in Allahabad Bank in the year 1981. With the passage of time, he held several key positions in the bank.

7.    Shah Rukh Khan Ranked First in Forbes India Celebrity 100 List:

i. Shah Rukh Khan, the Bollywood superstar topped the inaugural Forbes India Celebrity 100 list.

ii. The ranking was given based on the popularity as well as income of the biggest entertainers of India.

iii. Second on the list was Salman Khan and MS Dhoni followed in the third position.

iv. In the list of top 10 celebrities were Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, Kareena Kapoor, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli and Katrina Kaif.

NOTE: The list prepared by Forbes India is meant to rank most powerful Indians in media as well as entertainment sector. After collecting data, the ranking was given based on income of the celebrities which came from business of the entertainment sector as well as the fame which was measured in terms of online presence, media mentions and social media follower.

8.    MP starts new scheme Sampark Setu on occasion of ASHA day today:

i. Madhya Pradesh government today began a new scheme Sampark Setu on the occasion of ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) day today.

ii. The objective of the scheme is to establish better communication between field units of health department and the district and state headquarters.

iii. Under the scheme closed user group (CUG) SIM cards of BSNL would be provided to all the ASHA workers, auxiliary nurse-cum-midwives, multipurpose workers, supervisors and doctors and officials.

iv. These closed user group sims will be helpful in keeping an eye on the health schemes in rural areas through live dialogue between health workers and Health Department employees and officers.

9.    Anand Sharma launches eBiz portal:

i. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma launched an eBiz portal at the CII Partnership Summit in Agra today.

ii. The portal is India''s Government-to-Business (G2B) portal developed by Infosys in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model.

iii. "This mission mode project will mark a paradigm shift in the Government''s approach to providing Government-to-Business (G2B) services for India''s investor and business communities,"

NOTE:  eBiz will create a 24x7 facility for information and services and will also offer joined-up services where a single application submitted by a customer, for a number of permissions, clearances, approvals and registrations, will be routed automatically across multiple governmental agencies in a logical manner.

10.  `Argo` and Jennifer Lawrence `big winners at SAG Awards:

i. Ben Affleck's `Argo' won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Ensemble Cast and Motion Picture

ii. Daniel Day-Lewis scored the award for the Best Actor for his role in Steven Spielberg's `Lincoln'.

iii. Jennifer Lawrence won the SAG award for Best Actress for her performance in `Silver Linings Playbook'.

iv. Tommy Lee Jones of `Lincoln' and Anne Hathaway of `Les Miserables' claimed the first prizes of the night and won honours for supporting actors.

11.  Sreeramamurthy Janaki Refused to Accept Padma Bhushan on R-Day:

Sreeramamurthy Janaki, the renowned playback singer, refused to accept the Padma Bhushan award.

She refused on the grounds that only some people from the Southern states were awarded and that honour given to her was too late.

NOTE: The singer had won four national awards and was selected for Padma Bhushan in the art category, among 24 other padma bhushan awardees who were from different fields.

12.  Toyota becomes largest selling automaker in 2012:

i. Japanese Auto maker, Toyota Motor Corp has once again emerged as the largest auto seller in the world in 2012 with total sales of 9.75 million vehicles around the world.

ii. Toyota reported records sales during the year and surpassed rivals like General Motors and Volkswagen to regain its position as the top selling automaker in the world.

iii. The company said that its total group-wide sales increased 22.6 per cent to 9.75 million, which is a new record in the company's 75 years of history.