Daily GK Update: 24th November, 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams

Bank deposits with RBI hit record high after demonetisation

i. In the wake of demonetisation, bank deposits with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have reached a record high of Rs. 4.3 trillion, beating the earlier record of Rs. 1.7 trillion in May 2009.

ii. The RBI accepts money from various banks by offering government securities as collateral. The Indian banking system had collected deposits worth Rs. 5.12 trillion as of 18 November.


IIT Kharagpur named top university in India for jobs
i. For the second time in a row, IIT Kharagpur has been named the top university in India in terms of jobs and placements, by QS Employability Ranking of top 200 universities across the world.

ii. IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi and Delhi University also feature on the list. Stanford University in the US has topped the list globally.

Turkey to chair 2017 Energy Club of Shanghai Cooperation Organization

i. Turkey will chair the Energy Club of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in 2017. With this, it became the first non full member country to be the chairman of a club in the organisation.

ii. Ankara's proposal for non-SCO member countries to host the term presidency of the Energy Club was accepted in a meeting on 22 November 2016.

iii. The nomination came after officials from Russia and China gave green signal to Ankara after the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to the SCO as Turkey's alternative to the European Union.

China launches Tianlian I-04 satellite

i. China has successfully launched the Tianlian I-04 satellite from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province of Southwest China.

ii. This data satellite was launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket. 

iii. The launch of the Tianlian I-04 marks the 241st mission of China's Long March series of rockets. 

iv. It was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Donald Trump picks Indian-American Nikki Haley as UN envoy

i. US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen South Carolina's Indian-American Governor Nikki Haley as US ambassador to the United Nations. 

ii. Haley will be the first woman to join Trump's administration. She would replace Samantha Power as the next US Ambassador to the UN.

iii. Besides Nikki Haley, President-elect Trump also named Betsy DeVos as education secretary of the country. DeVos is a billionaire education philanthropist and activist.

ITU International Telecommunication Union released Measuring the Information Society Report 2016

i. UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) released the 2016 edition of the Measuring the Information Society Report. The report was launched on 22 November 2016 during the World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS). 

ii. WTIS was held in Botswana, South Africa from 21 November to 23 November 2016.

iii. The ITU index prepared after surveying 175 economies of the world was topped by the Republic of Korea with IDI of 8.84. The Sub-Saharan Africa’s Niger with an IDI of 1.07 ranked lowest.

iv. India was placed at 138th rank with IDI score of 2.69. In 2015, it stood at 135th position with IDI score of 2.50.

Government appoints new NHAI Chairman

i. The government has appointed Yudhvir Singh Malik as the Chairman of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). Malik, an 83 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer, was earlier posted as special secretary in Niti Aayog. 

ii. The outgoing chairman Raghav Chandra, an 82 batch Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer, has been moved to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes as secretary.

BHEL commissions 93 MW unit at RIL's Hazira power plant

i. State-run power equipment maker BHEL has commissioned a 93 MW steam turbine-based captive power plant (CPP) at Hazira in Gujarat for Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL).