DAILY GK UPDATE 5 OCTOBER

1.    India begins electricity export to Bangladesh

i. Indo-Bangla cooperation in the power sector entered a new phase, with the two countries breaking ground for a 1,320-MW coal-fired power plant and inaugurating a joint transmission line that will export 500 MW from India.

ii.   The Bangladesh National Grid is now getting 175 MW power from India, and finally it will get 500 MW. The inauguration ceremony was attended by Minister for Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah from India.

iii. A memorandum of understanding had been signed during Ms Hasina's 2010 Delhi visit for import of power from India.

iv.  It is believed that the power shortage of Bangladesh would be addressed to a great extent once 500 MW is added to the country's national grind from India.

v. The 'Maitri' thermal power project is being developed by the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, a joint venture between NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board. Inaugurating the projects, Singh said it was a "historic moment when we embark on a new partnership for prosperity between our two countries."

2.    Nabard santions Rs 40 cr to Puducherry

i. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned Rs 40.35 crore for rural water supply scheme in the Union Territory of Puducherry under Nabard’s Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF).

ii. The fund has been earmarked to the territorial administration to utilise surface water from the Oussudu lake, one of the three major water bodies in Puducherry, to supply safe drinking water to an estimated 2.21 lakh rural and semi-urban population spread over 32 villages.

iii. The project would also help reduce dependence and pressure on exploitation of ground water and would prevent seawater ingress into farm lands, the release said.

3.    SEBI board approves new Foreign Portfolio Investor norms

i. Ushering in a new regime for overseas investments in Indian capital markets, SEBI today announced new Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) regulations to put in place easier registration process and operating framework for such entities.

ii. The new class of investors, FPIs, would encompass all FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors), their sub-accounts and Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs), and would be divided in three categories as per their risk profile.

iii. The KYC (Know Your Client) requirements and other registration procedures would be much simpler for FPIs compared to current practices.

iv. The SEBI has also decided to grant them a permanent registration, as against the current practice of granting approvals for one year or five years to the overseas entities seeking to invest in Indian markets.

Under the new norms

i. all existing FIIs, Sub Accounts and QFIs will be eventually merged into this new investor class to be known as FPIs.

ii. SEBI also approved setting up ‘Designated Depository Participants (DDPs)’, which would register FPIs on behalf of the market regulator subject to compliance with KYC norms.

iii. The Category I FPIs, which would be the lowest risk entities, would include foreign governments and government related foreign investors, “Category II’ FPIs would include “appropriately regulated broad based funds, appropriately regulated entities, broad-based funds whose investment manager is appropriately regulated, university funds, university related endowments, pension funds etc“.

iv. The Category III FPIs would include all others not eligible under the first two categories.

v. SEBI said that all existing FIIs and Sub Accounts may continue to buy, sell or otherwise deal in securities under the FPI regime.

vi. All existing QFIs can also continue to buy, sell or otherwise deal in securities till the period of one year from the date of notification of this regulation. In the meantime, they may obtain FPI registration through DDPs.

4.    Ratan Tata to be inducted into National Academy of Engineering 

i. India's leading industrialist Ratan Tata will be formally inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Engineering in the US on Sunday for his "outstanding contributions" to industrial development in India and the world over. 

ii. Tata, chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, one of India's largest and oldest conglomerate, will be inducted as a Foreign Associate, the National Academy of Engineering said in a statement.

iii. Founded in 1964, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership in service to the nation.

iv. Eight Indian-Americans also had been elected to the body earlier, considered among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.

v. University of Southern California President C L Max Nikias congratulated Tata on his induction.

5.    Joint venture to tackle heart attacks in India, US launched

i. Seeking to reduce the incidence of mortality from growing number of heart attacks in India and the US, a prominent body of Indian-American physicians has joined hands with a leading NGO fostering cardiac care in US.

ii. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI)-The American Heart Association (AHA) Liaison Committee, chaired by Vemuri S Murthy, has announced that a Letter of Intent (LOI) between the two organisations has been signed. 

iii. The collaboration will consider programmes such as: introducing the AHA curriculum of resuscitation science in all Indian Medical Colleges; and working together to help community programmes in India and US enhancing the awareness of heart attacks and strokes. 

iv. "The committee chaired by Dr Murthy will function closely with AHA in India and US helping realise the mission, especially in working towards building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

v. The aim of this collaboration is to work closely with Indian Physicians to address the lack of adequate training of Emergency Room Physicians and to provide a uniform curriculum for Emergency Care Education in the Medical Colleges. 

Note: i. India, with more than 1.2 billion people, is estimated to account for 60 per cent of heart disease patients worldwide. 

ii. According to the World Health Organisation, heart related disorders will kill almost 20 million people by 2015, and they are exceptionally prevalent in the Indian sub-continent, the statement said. 

6.    India Re-elected in the New Council of ICAO

i. India was re-elected in the new Council of International Civil  Aviation Organization (ICAO) as one of the states making the largest contribution to the provision of facilities for international civil air navigation.

ii. The 38th session of the Assembly of ICAO completed the election of the Council in Montreal on 1October 2013.

iii. The 36- member Council is the governing body of the Organization and is elected for a three-year term.

Note: A specialized agency of the United Nations, ICAO was created in 1944 to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation throughout the world. It sets standards and regulations necessary for aviation safety, security, efficiency, capacity and environmental protection, amongst many other priorities. The Organization serves as the forum for cooperation in all fields of civil aviation among its 191 Member States.

7.    Janalakshmi inks 5-yr pact with Accenture to scale up

i. Janalakshmi Financial Services , a microfinance institution, has signed a five-year agreement with Accenture to scale-up operations and expand services to the urban poor.

ii. “The partnership with Accenture is to get business outsourcing solutions and IT services to facilitate our expansion,” said Ramesh Ramanathan, Chairman, Janalakshmi.

iii. Under the agreement, Accenture will manage the microfinance body’s customer and account master data, provide processing, reconciliation and reporting services 

iv . It will also manage Janalakshmi’s core banking system, customer relationship management software, employee portal and Web site.

v. “This partnership is outcome-based and not social service. A strong commercial basis is built into this five-year agreement,” said Piyush Narain Singh, Managing Director-Financial Services, Accenture India. “

vi. Accenture will also provide application maintenance services to support third-party technologies and work proactively with JFS to help identify new technology opportunities,” he added.

vii. V. S. Radhakrishnan, MD and CEO, Janalakshmi, said the microfinance institution’s business had touched Rs 1,500 crore till June this year, up from Rs 1,000 crore last year.

8.    S.R. Bansal is Corporation Bank CMD

i. Corporation Bank has a new Chairman and Managing Director in S.R. Bansal. Prior to this elevation, Bansal was an Executive Director at Punjab National Bank.

ii.Bansal is a postgraduate in English, a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB) and an Associate of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (AIIBF).

iii. Bansal has over 32 years of experience in various administrative and functional capacities at the branch, regional office, zonal office and also at the head office level.

iv. He started his banking career as a direct officer recruit at Dena Bank in 1981 and went on to hold the office of the Field General Manager (North India) covering eight States. He was appointed as the Executive Director of Punjab National Bank in June 2012.

9.    All-women Sharia Court starts functioning in Pune

i. A Sharia Court conducted solely by women with an aim to redress the grievances of Muslim women has started functioning in the city.

ii. Set up here by Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), the first all-women Sharia Court will deal with various family issues, including marital discord, divorce as well as property related disputes.

iii. “In reality, however, women are often discriminated against by the all-men Sharia Courts traditionally run by All India Muslim Personal Law Board,” said Saeeda Jamadar, President of the Court’s Pune branch, which opened on Wednesday.

iv. Saeeda, along with Zubeda Khatoon, BMMA’s Maharashtra Convenor, will be on the two-Judge Bench of the new court, seen as part of the alternative dispute resolution mechanism in the judicial system.

v. The BMMA courts would aim at delivering justice to Muslim women without harbouring any bias against men who, too, are welcome to approach its forum, she said.

vi. Besides this new initiative, BMMA is also working to create awareness among Muslim women about their property rights, Saeeda, a city based teacher, said.

10.  Indian-American nominated as county prosecutor

i. An Indian-American Sikh lawyer has been nominated as a county prosecutor in New Jersey.

ii. Gurbir Grewal was formally nominated by Governor Chris Christie to be the next Bergen county prosecutor, a local media report said.

iii. Grewal, a Glen Rock resident, has worked since 2010 as the deputy chief of the Economic Crimes and Computer Hacking and IP Crimes Unit at the US Attorney’s Office in Newark. 

iv. He previously worked as assistant US Attorney at the Business and Securities Fraud Unit in the Eastern District here.

v. Grewal earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and holds a Juris doctorate from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law from the College of William & Mary.

vi. He is a past president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York, and a member of the New Jersey Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association.

11.  India student bags British enterprise prize

i. An Indian engineering student from the University of Nottingham fought off stiff worldwide competition to be awarded the overall prize at a British government-backed entrepreneurial contest.

ii. Ashutosh Pathak is working on developing a much cheaper, more efficient pipe inspection and leakage detection system. 

iii. His impressive skills secured his Brobotics team, which boasted participants from seven countries and five continents, USD 7,500 in Amazon web credits and a working space to help them develop their ideas further. 

iv. The international enterprise competition was held to mark the launch of UK Trade and Investment's (UKTI) Sirius Programme, a pioneering scheme to bring the world's best entrepreneurial talent to the UK. 

v. UKTI had announced the launch of Sirius at the annual Entrepreneurs' Festival in Manchester last month, which attracted a diverse range of business ideas from across 40 countries including as many as 14 from India. Nick Baird, chief executive of UKTI, said, 

vi. The Sirius Programme is part of UKTI's commitment to supporting global graduate talent by helping young people from around the world develop and make their business ideas a reality in Britain. 

12.  Shyam Benegal to head APSA jury

i. Veteran director Shyam Benegal will head the accomplished jury for the Seventh Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) to be held in Brisbane on December 12. 

ii. The announcement was made by the APSA executive chairman Michael Hawkins in Busan on Friday

iii. Benegal, most famous for his parallel classics like 'Ankur', 'Mandi', 'Bhumika' and 'Manthan', has been appointed as the Presidentof the jury whichincludes Korean screenwriter and director Kim Tae-yong, "Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema" actress Malini Fonseka, Turkish actor Tamer Levent, Swiss director Christoph Schaub and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee.

iv.  "As India celebrates 100 years of cinema, it is fitting that the International Jury be led by a filmmaker of such gravitas as Shyam Benegal. 

v. The APSA International Jury will meet in Brisbane in the lead-up to the ceremony to view nominees and determine the winners of six award categories. 

vi. The Asia Pacific Screen Awards are managed by economic development board Brisbane Marketing in a unique collaboration with Paris-based UNESCO and FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations. 

13.  Bopanna, Roger-Vasselin in Japan Open final

i. Rohan Bopanna reached his third final of the season when he combined Edourad Roger-Vasselin to get past Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot in straight sets in the ATP Japan Open in Japan on Friday.

ii. Bopanna and his French partner, seeded fourth, beat the Austrian-Briton combination 6-4 7-6(6) in the semifinals of the USD 1,297,000 hard court event. 

iii. Bopanna had won Marseille event in France with Briton Colin Fleming and ended finalist with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi at Rome Masters.