Latest Banking jobs   »   Daily GK Update : 18th May,...

Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams

Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_2.1


1. World’s largest Single Rooftop Solar Power Plant inaugurated in Amritsar
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_3.1
i. In Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal inaugurated the World’s largest Single Rooftop Solar Power Plant with capacity of 11.5 MegaWatt (MW) at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh at Beas, in Amritsar district. 
ii. This is the largest Solar Power Plant spread over 82 acres of rooftop in single campus on multiple roofs with installed capacity of 19.5 MW. 
iii. The plant has been set up with the cost of 139 crore rupees .

2. Union Government opened Tatkal Window to expedite examination of patent applications
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_4.1
i. The Union Government has opened up a Tatkal Window to expedite examination of patent applications by start-ups as well as entities choosing India for the first filing of patent. 
ii. The move came in the backdrop of 2.37 lakh patent applications pending in the country.
iii. The government is aiming to bring down the time period for initial examination of patent applications from the present 5-7 years to 18 months by March 2018. The move will popularise India as a patent filing hub so that more companies file applications in India.

3. CCEA gives approval to proposal for offering improved VRS package
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_5.1
i. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its approval to the proposal for offering an improved Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) package based on 2007 notional pay scales for the employees of Hindustan Vegetable Oils Corporation, HVOC. 
ii. The Government assistance will be in the form of non-plan grant of approximately 27.56 crore rupees to the company.
iii. The employees of HVOC have been adversely impacted due to sickness of the company. They are in very old pay scales of 1992. The improved VRS package will give fair amounts of compensation to the employees and help them in their post retirement rehabilitation.

4. Draft National Policy for Women, 2016 unveiled
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_6.1
i. Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has unveiled 2016 Draft National Policy for Women for comments and consultation.
ii. It will replace National Policy for Empowerment of Women, 2001. It will also guide Government action on Women’s issues over the next 15-20 years.
iii. The drafted policy shifts the focus from entitlements to rights and from empowerment to creating an enabling environment. It seeks to create a society in which women attain their full potential and participate as equal partners in all spheres of life. It also emphasises the role of an effective framework to enable the process of developing policies, programmes and practices which will ensure equal rights and opportunities for women.

5. Five Member Committee to give recommendations on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_7.1
i. The Centre has constituted a five Member Committee to comprehensively review and give recommendations on the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management, FRBM, roadmap for the future. 
ii. The Committee will be headed by former Revenue and Expenditure Secretary N.K. Singh. Other members of the Committee are Sumit Bose, former Finance and Revenue Secretary, Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, Urijit Patel, Deputy Governor,RBI and Rathin Roy, Director, National Institute Public Finance and Policy, NIPFP.
iii. The Committee will examine the need and feasibility of having a ‘fiscal deficit range’ as the target in place of the existing fixed percentage of GDP and make specific recommendations. It will also examine the need and feasibility of aligning the fiscal expansion or contraction with credit contraction or expansion respectively in the economy and submit its report by 31st of October this year. 

6. India successfully test fires its indigenously developed Prithvi-II missile
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_8.1
i. India today successfully test fired its indigenously developed Prithvi-II missile from the Chandipur, off Odisha coast. 
ii. The medium range missile is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1000 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines. 
iii. As part of a user trial, the 4,600 kilogram missile with a strike range of 350 kilometer, the surface-to-surface Prithvi-II test was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range at around 09:40 hrs. 

7. Odisha to launch Green Passage Scheme for Orphan Students
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_9.1
i. The Odisha government has decided to launch Green Passage scheme for orphan students to ensure that they get free of cost higher education in the state. 
ii. A proposal of the higher education department in this regard, was approved by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. As per the scheme, orphan students pursuing higher education from Plus-II level to post-graduation level, will no longer have to bear the education expenses. 
iii. As many as 16,382 orphan students lodged in 272 institutions across the state, will be exempted of admission fee, tuition fees and laboratory fees for higher studies. 

8. Trial run of Delhi Metro’s new driverless trains flagged off
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_10.1
i. Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged off the trial run of Delhi Metro’s new driverless trains. 
ii. This train equipped to travel on Unattended Train Operations mode. 
iii. The new trains will undergo rigorous trials to ensure that they are ready for smooth operations after the commissioning of the 58-km-long Mukundpur- Shiv Vihar and the 34-km-long Janakpuri (West)- Botanical Garden corridors , by the end of this year, although initially, train operators will run them.
9. World’s first robot lawyer ROSS hired by US law firm BakerHostetler
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_11.1
i. US-based law firm BakerHostetler in May 2016 hired the world’s first robot lawyer ROSS to assist the company and its various teams in legal research.
ii. The law firm will licence artificial lawyer ROSS for use in its Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights team.
iii. ROSS has been built by ROSS Intelligence and is built upon IBM cognitive computer Watson. With the support of Watson’s, lawyers can ask ROSS their research question. The ROSS reads through the law, gathers evidence, draws inferences and returns highly relevant, evidence-based answers.

10. 15-year old Indian-American student wins prestigious Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_12.1
i. Syamantak Payra, a 15-year old Indian-American student has won the prestigious Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award for developing a low cost electronic device for people who can not walk well through disease or injury. He tested his prototype on two people partially disabled by polio. His device is both inexpensive and easy to use.
ii. Syamantak Payra, a student at Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, Texas, won the $50,000 award along with 17-year-old Kathy Liu. 
iii. The award was given by Intel Corporation and the Society for Science and the Public (SSP) at the 2016 ‘Intel International Science and Engineering Fair’ in Arizona.

11. Barco Appoints Rajiv Bhalla as MD for India
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_13.1
i. The Belgium based company Barco, a  global leader in visualization technology like laser projectors, digital cinema projection, video projectors, DLP projectors, Image Processing, LED displays, flat panel displays, LCD and LED video walls etc has announced the appointment of Rajiv Bhalla as managing director for India.
ii. Rajiv is a BE (Electronics) and MBA degree holder with more than 22 years of senior leadership experience in technology organizations like Thomson Consumer Electronics, Microsoft etc and has a deep understanding of the B2B and B2C aspects of the business. 
iii. He will take care of formulation and execution of business strategy with the goal of tapping into India’s enormous potential and expand Barco’s local business presence. He will also be the legal representative of Barco India, fulfilling all legal, regulatory and statutory obligations.

12. Manzil Saini Becomes First Woman SSP Of Lucknow
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_14.1
i. Uttar Pradesh government, appointed Manzil Saini as the new Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of state capital Lucknow. 
ii. The police officer was earlier posted in Badayun, Muzaffarnagar and Mathura. Since started her career as the police force, the 2005 batch IPS officer has hit headlines. She’s popularly known as Lady Singham. 
iii. She launched a crackdown against unauthorized usage of party flags by Samajwadi Party workers in four-wheelers and also penalizing them for bearing tinted windows during her tenure as an SSP in Etawah.

13. IndiGo names Rohit Philip as its new CFO
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_15.1
i. The country’s biggest airline by market share, IndiGo has appointed Rohit Philip as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 
ii. He is former senior vice-president of United Airlines. The appointment will be effective July 18. He will replace Pankaj Madan.
iii. Rohit will be joining IndiGo from Xerox Corporation based in Norwalk, USA. Xerox corporation is a leading global document management and business services company where he served as Corporate Vice President & Treasurer. He has also worked as President and Group CFO of Anand Automotive Limited, an auto components supplier in India.

14. Shell India Announces New Head
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_16.1
i. Shell India has announced Nitin Prasad as its new India head from 1st October. 
ii. Yasmine Hilton, currently chairman of Shell Companies in India and vice-president for information technology project excellence at parent Royal Dutch Shell, will end her assignment after 37 years of service on September 30.
iii. Prasad is the cluster general manager for lubricants sales and marketing for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He is an electrical engineer from Georgia Institute of Technology, US, and a management graduate from INSEAD. He took up his current appointment in 2011 as general manager. He has been instrumental in turning around lubricants business in India.

15. England cricketer Joe Root bags top three England cricket awards
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_17.1
i. Joe Root, a England cricketer has bagged a hat-trick of awards, as he was named Test Player of the Year, Limited Overs Player of the Year and Fans’ Player of the Year at the England’s annual awards ceremony. 
ii. The 25 year old Root, who has been in an outstanding form in the last 12 months has posted 2,228 in 2015, which is the most by an English batsman in a calendar year. 
iii. Medium pacer Anya Shrubsole bagged the England women’s cricketer of the year and Callum Flynn was named the best cricketer with a disability. David Lloyd was given the ECB’s special achievement award, for his 50-year stint as a player, umpire, commentator and coach.

16. IOC to ban 31 athletes from competing in Rio after their sample from Beijing Olympics found tainted
Daily GK Update : 18th May, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams |_18.1
i. Olympic chief Thomas Bach has announced that up to 31 athletes from six sporting event could be banned from competing at the Rio Games. 
ii. The announcement comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) retested 454 selected samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which 31 athletes samples have been caught in doping. 
iii. The IOC said the retests were conducted using the latest scientific analysis methods. Mr. Bach also said, IOC is awaiting the results of 250 retests from the 2012 London Olympics as well. The IOC said these retests were focused on athletes who could potentially take part in Rio. It added 12 affected national Olympic associations would be informed in the coming days.



Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *