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Daily GK Update : 12th April 2016 For All The Upcoming Exams

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1. President Presents Padma Awards To 56 Eminent Personalities
i. Today, President Pranab Mukherjee has presented the Padma awards to the remaining 56 eminent personalities from various fields in a civil investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.
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ii. The name of the recipients, who were honored with Padma Vibhushan- Superstar Rajnikant, classical singer Dr Girija Devi, journalist Ramoji Rao. Singer Udit Narayan, and tennis player Sania Mirza have been honoured with the Padma Bhushan. Actor Priyanka Chopra, writer Dhirendra Nath Bezbaruah, among others have been honoured with the Padmashree. 
iii. Earlier in March, 56 eminent personalities were honoured with the Padma awards at Rashtrapati Bhavan. 
iv. The government had announced Padma awards, one of the highest civilian awards in the country, for 112 eminent persons on the eve of Republic Day.

2. PM To Inaugurate 3rd Asia Ministerial Conference On Tiger Conservation
i. The three day 3rd Asia Ministerial Conference on the Tiger Conservation is going to inaugurate by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on 12th April, 2016 which will continue till 14th of April, 2016.
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ii. In this conference, more than 700 tiger experts, scientists, managers, donors and other stakeholders are gathering to discuss issues related to tiger conservation. 
iii. Apart from this, Ministers and government officials from all Tiger Range Countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, India, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand, Vietnam, besides Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan, having ranges of Snow Leopard are participating in the conference. 
iv. Tiger population has decimated to non-viable level in some range countries, which is a cause for concern. While several Tiger Range Countries like India, Nepal, Russia and Bhutan have registered an increase in tiger population, the status of Tiger remains “endangered”. 
v. Currently, more than 70 per cent of the global wild tiger population is in India because of concerted efforts of the government and other stakeholders. Recently GOI has also allotted 380 crore rupees to the Project Tiger in the current fiscal year, which is the all time highest investment in this type of project. This conference is being co-organized by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, National Tiger Conservation Authority, Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiative Council, Wildlife Institute of India, WWF and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

3. Panama Papers : India To Attend OECD Meet In Paris
i. India will take part in a special meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris tomorrow to firm up cooperation between countries in the wake of the ‘Panama Papers’ leak. The GOI has decided to participate after it has received the invite last week from the Paris-based body. 
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ii. To know about the leak report which has mentioned that 500 Indians are holding offshore assets in the tax haven, GOI  has been decided that a Director- rank officer of Central Board Of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will represent the country at the day- long special session.
iii. The government had also set up a Multi-Agency Group to investigate the Indian names and entities holding offshore assets in the tax haven as reported in the leaks . The officials said that a preliminary report has been sought by this week from the Finance Ministry, which is expected to be forwarded to the Prime Minister’s Office. 
iv. Yesterday Finance Ministry officials stated that they are looking forward to the meet as the country adheres to a number of OECD mandated norms aimed at strengthening overseas tax cooperation and exchange of information. 
v. They also said that India also follows fiscal guidelines endorsed by the OECD. 

4. India, Maldives Sign Six Agreements To Boost Ties
i. India and Maldives have signed six agreements in different sectors to boost bilateral relations between both maritime neighbouring countries. 
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ii. The agreements were signed after comprehensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Maldives President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom at the Hyderabad House.
iii. In the talks it was agreed that India will set up a police academy, build the Defence Ministry building of Maldives besides speeding up infrastructure projects relating to security. India will also extend all possible assistance to the island nation, including in maritime sphere and capacity building of armed forces.
iv. Here the list of signed Agreements: 1. Double Taxation, 2. Exchange of Information, 3. Defence Cooperation, 4. Space Research, 5. Tourism Cooperation, 6. Conservation and Restoration.
v.  The two nations signed an action plan for defence cooperation. Action plan is in the context of defence cooperation being an important component of the India-Maldives bilateral relationship and the shared strategic and security interests of the two countries in the Indian Ocean region. 

5. G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meet Held In Hiroshima
i. The G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is one of the ministerial meetings that held in advance of the G7 Summit in Hiroshima on 10th & 11th April, 2016. 
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ii. It is the first of ten related ministerial meetings held leading up to the Ise-Shima Summit. 
iii. The Ise-Shima Summit will be held on May 26 and 27, 2016 in Ise City, Mie Prefecture. Outcome of this G7 FM’s meeting will be the base for the discussion for G7 summit.
iv. The G7 Fm’s meet is a meeting attended by the leaders of the seven countries of Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, along with the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission. 
v. At the Summit, leaders discuss issues of a global magnitude that face international society and with a call to end nuclear weapons. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who has attended the two day annual meeting said that ministers has discussed anti-terrorism steps, maritime security and issues related to North Korea, Ukraine and the Middle East. 

6. Shan-e-Punjab Express becomes India’s first train fitted with CCTV cameras
i. Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated the fitment of CCTV in Train Shan-e-Punjab Express through video-conferencing from Rail Bhawan premises, New Delhi.
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ii. CCTV surveillance cameras in the Shaan-e-Punjab Express is one more step towards improving security in Indian trains. 
iii. The CCTV system on the Shaan-e-Punjab Express includes 4 to 6 cameras per coach strategically located so that the entire area can be covered.  
iv. The system will facilitate facial recognition of the target person by giving high resolution images. 
v. It would enable facial recognition even in low light conditions especially in the aisles at night. The storage capacity is for one month. The recorder has safety storage/emergency recording function. In case of HDD failure, the data will store on additional storage device with in-built diagnostics to log internal function or hardware failure.

7. Tata starts U.K. steel sale
i. Tata Steel, the country’s largest steel producer, has signed an agreement to sell the loss-making 4.5-million tonne (mt) long-product Scunthorpe steel plant in Britain to UK-based investment firm Greybull Capital for a nominal consideration, with the latter taking assets and relevant liabilities.
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ii. The crenelated steelmaker appointed KPMG LLC as process advisor for the “thorough, but expedited sale” of its entire shareholding in its subsidiary Tata Steel UK, which includes Britain’s largest steel plant at Port Talbot. 
iii. The agreement with Greybull, an investor in distressed companies, will save thousands of jobs. 
iv. The Long Products Europe business employs 4,800 people, 4,400 in the U.K. and 400 in France.
v. The steel industry in the U.K. and Europe has been on a downturn owing to the global oversupply of steel, high production costs and cheap imports. The sale includes the Scunthorpe works, two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington, a design consultancy in York, a mill in Hayange, France, and sales and distribution facilities.

8. Fairfax India To Invest $300 million in Sanmar Chemicals
i. Sanmar Chemicals, India’s private sector petrochemical firm, will receive Rs.1,996 crore equity investment from Fairfax India Holdings, reported Reuters. 
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ii. A 30 percent minority stake in the company will be offered through a combination of equity and fixed income instruments to Fairfax.
iii. Fairfax India Holdings said on Friday it has agreed to acquire a minority stake in privately held Indian petrochemical company Sanmar Chemicals via a roughly $300 million investment. 
iv. The Sanmar investment is the latest in a string of bets Fairfax India and its sister concern Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd have made in the country within the last year. The two entities are chaired by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa.
v. Headquartered in Chennai, Sanmar Group is a family-owned enterprise headed by N.Sundar. The $1 billion conglomerate has business concerns in engineering technologies and shipping, apart from chemicals.

9. Bharti Airtel First Entity To Get Payments Bank Licence From RBI
i. India leading telecom company Bharti Airtel received its payment bank license that is had applied for in partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank, a move that will help the companies take Indian government’s financial inclusion plans to the next level.
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ii. Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra had applied for the payment bank licence through AMSL, which launched Airtel Money in 2011.
iii. Airtel Money was the first mobile based pre-paid payment instrument service in the country and it empowers millions across India to leverage their mobile phones as a secure way for making payments and transferring money. 
iv. The payment banks will cater to the needs of small savings accounts, remittance services, low income households, small businesses and other unorganised sector entities.

10. LAVA International Announces MS Dhoni As Its Brand Ambassador
i. A Noida based handset manufacturer Lava International has announced the Indian’s limited over captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni as it’s new brand ambassador. This step has been taken to strengthen its brand in India.
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ii. The contract value was not disclosed by company. The company has set up its first manufacturing plant in Noida (UP) and plans to invest Rs.2,615 crore to raise its annual production capacity to 216 million phone sets. 
iii. The present plant of the company in Noida is aligning itself with the Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
iv. According to VP of the Lava International Mr. Solomon Wheeler, to bringing him on board strengthens our resolve to offer trusted and reliable products and services to all our consumers at all times. 
v. Lava International was established in the year 2003 as Pacetelation Communications. In 2009, the company was renamed Lava International. The company had launched the world’s first Intel chip-based smartphone and achieved the revenues of $1.2 billion in fiscal 2014-15. 

11. Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk To Resign
i. The Ukrainian Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his resignation two months after he survived a no-confidence vote in parliament. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, 15th Prime Minister of Ukraine is a lawyer and economist.
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ii.  Yatsenyuk’s government has been besieged by war, corruption and economic struggles. His cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in February, but two parties left the governing coalition in protest that the prime minister wasn’t ousted, a move that deprived the coalition of a majority in parliament.
iii. Yatsenyuk was an opposition leader in 2014 when massive protests helped drive pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych from power. 
iv. Yanukovych had been viewed as slowing Ukraine’s economic march toward the West. 
v. But his resignation sparked an outcry from Moscow, and within weeks Russia annexed Crimea.

12. Varanasi Kathak Dancer Breaks World Record
i. A Kathak dancer from Varanasi has broken the world record of longest dance performance by continuously dancing for 123 hours and 30 minutes. It was previously held by Kerala’s Hemlatha.
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ii. Soni Chaurasiya, 31, daughter of a pan vendor, broke the record on Saturday at 9.21 pm at Mount Litera Zee School, Varanasi. 
iii. With her performance, she broke the previous record of Hemlata Kundalu of Trichur, Kerala, who performed Mohiniattam (a classical dance) continuously for 123 hours and 20 mins.
iv. Soni began her performance on April 4 at 6 pm on a school campus in Varanasi. While no official from the Guinness World Records attended the performance, two cameras had been installed to record Soni’s each move.  
v. Her trainer Rajesh Dogra allowed Soni to take hourly breaks lasting five minutes.  The dancer, however, decided to take a 20-minute break every four hours.

13. Virat Kohli Named As Brand Ambassador Of Premier Futsal Football League
i. Premier Futsal is the newer and shorter five-a-side variant of soccer ( football) named the Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador. 
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ii. This is the world’s first multinational Futsal league which is all set to take place across eight Indian cities from July 15 to 24, 2016.
iii. His announcement as brand ambassador follows the unveiling of soccer legend Luis Figo as Premier Futsal’s president last week which marked another major coup for the league as it heads into its inaugural season.
iv. The league is governed by the Futsal Association of India (FAI) with accreditation from the international governing body, Asociacion Mundial de Futsal (AMF). 
v. Around 50 international futsalers, from 4 continents and 21 countries are expected to participate in the game. 

14. Indian Teams Clinch Asian Kho Kho Championship Title
i. India’s men’s and women’s teams have won both the category’s championship titles at the third Asian Kho-Kho championship organised in Indore. 
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ii. In both the finals, the hosts scored victory against Bangladesh teams. The women’s side won 26-16 while the men won 26-17.
iii. The Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar along with Asian Kho Kho Association secretary Qazi Rau-uddin Ahmed Choupal, Indian Olympic Association secretary Rajiv Mehta have felicitated winners at the event. 
iv. Sarika Kale won the women’s match-winner title, while counterpart Aniket Pote won the men’s prize. 
v. Each player was awarded with Rs. 51,000. The three-day championship was organised at a newly-constructed state-of-the-art indoor kho-kho stadium in Indore.

15. Serena Williams Maintains Top Spot: WTA Rankings
i. American tennis star Serena Williams kept her lead in the women’s rankings, while Polish Agnieszka Radwanska returned to the second place.
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ii. The Polish player is ahead of German Angelique Kerber, who dropped to the third place with 5.740 points. 
iii. In the women’s doubles, India’s Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis retained their top status in the rankings with 11,825 points.


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