Daily GK : 12 Dec 2016

National

1. Punjab Government launches India’s first amphibious bus project

• The Indian state of Punjab has got its first amphibious bus, which was launched on Monday at the Harike wetland near Amritsar. The amphibious bus was launched by Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Deputy Chief Minister.
• The amphibious bus was launched after almost two years since the announcement was made, and the project has cost the state government a whopping Rs 11 crore.

2. India’s biggest and first ever crop insurance claim distribution programme in MP

• Biggest and first ever crop insurance claim distribution programme of Indian history took place on December 10. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inaugurated the programme to distribute crop insurance claim worth Rs. 4416 crore to 20 lakh 46 thousand farmers of the state from Ujjain district.
• Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country where such a big crop insurance claim will be distributed among the farmers.
• Minister for Farmers Welfare and Agriculture Development Gourishankar Bisen informed that farmers who lost Kharif Crop in the year 2015 due to natural calamities are being benefited under the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme first in the country. He further informed that the Chief Minister Chouhan had distributed Rs. 4600 crore relief amount against the loss to Kharif Crop 2015 earlier from the disaster fund. Therefore farmers will receive over Rs. 9 thousand crore compensation amount against their losses. Beside this, Madhya Pradesh was the second state of the country which had distributed huge amount of Rs. 2187 crore to 14 lakh farmers against the damage to Kharif Crop-2013.

3. Cyclone Vardah: 15 NDRF teams deployed in TN, Andhra Pradesh

• Over 15 teams of NDRF have been deployed in various coastal regions of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for relief and rescue efforts as cyclonic storm 'Vardah' is expected to make landfall this afternoon.
• National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) chief R K Pachnanda said while eight teams are ready in various areas of Tamil Nadu, seven are in Andhra Pradesh, apart from few others in nearby locations.

4. PM inaugurates India’s largest cheese plant in Banaskantha district

• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, attended a programme organized by the Banaskantha Cooperative Milk Producers Union (Banas Dairy) at Deesa in Gujarat.
• The event marked the launch of the celebration of the Golden Jubilee year of Banas Dairy.

5. ISRO signs deals with a private firm for first privately built satellite

• India’s space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), plans to launch a navigation satellite that it would build jointly with a private firm, by March next year, beginning a process to outsource satellite manufacturing and free its resources to focus on research and deep space missions.
• Isro has received over 40 responses to a tender floated to invite private firms to jointly build a satellite and eventually transfer satellite-making technology for local and global needs.

6. Motera’s Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium set to become largest in the world

• The Sardar Patel Cricket Stadium in Motera, Ahmedabad is set to become the biggest cricket stadium in the world, as far as seating capacity is concerned. The Gujarat Cricket Association has handed the stadium's renovation project to Larsen and Turbo (L&T)
• Presently the stadium can house 54,000 people, but with the new plans, it is projected to seat about 1,10,000 people. This will almost double its seating capacity, surpassing the Melbourne Cricket Ground which seats 1,0,024 as the stadium with the largest seating capacity.

7. Nitin Gadkari lays foundation stones for Rs 1152 Cr projects in Manipur

• Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari on Sunday laid the foundation stones for 17 road projects at a cost of Rs 1152 cr in two functions held at Jiribam and Imphal.
• He announced the government has decided to hand over responsibility of Imphal Jiribam highway to National highways and infrastructure development corporation Limited (NHIDCL) by taking it over from Border Roads Organisation of Indian Army.

8. Narmada Seva Yatra launched in Madhya Pradesh

• Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched Narmada Seva Yatra at Amarkantak. The five months long Yatra aims at turning the Narmada river pollution free and unceasing river.
• The Narmada Sewa Yatra will create awareness about the conservation of the river. It will cover more than 1,900 kilometres in 16 districts.

International

9. Three agreements signed between India, Indonesia to enhance strategic partnership

• India and Indonesia have signed three agreements in various areas including youth affairs and sports, fishing and standardization to enhance strategic partnership.
• Note: Indian-Indonesian relations refer to the bilateral relations of India and Indonesia. India and Indonesia are neighbours. India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Indonesia along the Andaman Sea.

10. Antonio Guterres sworn in as UN Secretary General

• Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese Prime Minister, was today sworn in as the ninth UN Secretary-General, succeeding Ban Ki-moon as the chief of the 71-year old world body.

11. Naveed Mukhtar as new ISI chief – Pakistan

• Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar has been appointed chief of Pakistan's powerful spy agency ISI as part of the first major reshuffle in the military's top brass after new army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa took over the reins last month.

12. China provides Rs 15.80 billion to Nepal for reconstruction

• China has provided Rs 15.80 billion to Nepal for post-quake reconstruction activities, a senior minister has said. The Cabinet meeting decided to accept the grants worth Nepalese Rupees 15.80 billion provided by China

13. Italy’s new Prime Minister - Paolo Gentiloni

• Italy's new Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has taken office and announced his new cabinet.
• Mr Gentiloni, 62, succeeds Matteo Renzi, who resigned after losing a referendum eight days ago.

14. Bill English sworn in as New Zealand Prime Minister

• New Zealand's ruling National Party appointed Bill English as the country's new prime minister on Monday following last week's shock resignation of his predecessor John Key.
• Mr English, 54, has held several ministerial posts across education, health and finance since he joined Parliament in 1990.

15. Viola Desmond becomes first Canadian woman to appear on banknote

• A black civil rights leader who led a struggle against anti-black segregation and racism in Canada in the 1940s will be the first Canadian woman to figure on a banknote.
• Viola Desmond will appear on the Canadian $10 bill - replacing the nation's first prime minister John A Macdonald who will be moved to a higher bill - when new banknotes go into circulation in 2018
• A successful businesswoman from a middle-class family, Desmond is best known for refusing to give up her seat in the "whites only" section of a cinema in Canada's eastern province of Nova Scotia in 1946.

16. China launches Fengyun-4 satellite

• China has launched a new weather satellite marking an upgrade of its meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit.
• The Fengyun-4 satellite, the first of China's second-generation weather satellites in geostationary orbit to have been launched, is also the country's first quantitative remote-sensing satellite in highest orbit.

17. Priyanka Chopra appointed UNICEF Global Goodwill Ambassador

• Actress Priyanka Chopra, who has created waves with her stint in the American drama series "Quantico", says she is honoured to serve as UNICEF's Global Goodwill Ambassador.

18. World’s longest tunnel opened for commercial service

• Regular rail service through the world's longest tunnel began on Sunday, carrying passengers deep under the Swiss Alps from Zurich to Lugano.
• The Swiss national rail service (SBB) had announced that Sunday would mark the start of normal commercial traffic through the 57-kilometre (35-mile) GBT, which took 17 years to build, at a cost of over 12 billion Swiss francs ($11.8 billion, 11.2 billion euros).

Sports

19. Iqbal Sayed becomes first Indian to win medal at Mr. Olympia Amateur Event

• Mumbai's Iqbal Sayed has successfully won the silver medal at the Mr Olympia amateur event held in Hong Kong. The 2015 Mr Mumbai runner up defeated as many as 20 countries in the Classic Bodybuilding category to finish second. A civil engineer with Reliance Infrastructure and Mumbai Metro, the 27-year old's secures international glory for India in his very first competition.

20. Virat Kohli is the fifth cricketer to score three double test centuries in a calendar year

• Virat Kohli fifth batsman to hit three double centuries in calendar year.
• Virat Kohli took his batting average to 50-plus in Tests to become the first batsman to register fifty-plus average in all three formats simultaneously.

21. Cristiano Ronaldo wins 2016 FIFA Ballon d’Or Award

 

• Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo beat rival Lionel Messi to win the prestigious Ballon d'Or award for a fourth time.
• The 31-year-old is now one behind Barcelona's Messi, who took the honour for a fifth time last year.