Daily GK : 20 Dec 2016

Sports

1. India wins five-match test series against England

• Today, India has won the five-match test series against England (4-0) at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
• England wrapped up the second innings at 207 in 88 overs.ndia also end 2016 as the number one ranked team in the world.
• India's first innings total was its highest score in Tests and was the most runs made against England by any team.
• Karun Nair’s triple century in the first innings was the key factor in the enormous win of India.

Note:

• India First Innings: 759/7 dec. (190.4)
• England : 477 (157.2) &  207 (88.0).

Series Report Card:

• 1st Match (Rajkot): The match was declared drawn [Player of the Match - Moeen Ali(England)].
• 2nd Match (Visakhapatnam): India won the match by 246 runs [Player of the Match - Virat Kohli (India)]
• 3rd Match (Mohali): Indian won by 8 wickets [Player of the Match - Ravindra Jadeja (India)]
• 4th Match (Mumbai): India won by an innings and 36 runs [Player of the Match - Virat Kohli (India)]
• 5th Match (Chennai): India won by an innings and 75 runs [Player of the Match - Karun Nair (India)].
• Virat Kohli is the man of the series for his 655 runs in this series

Honours & Awards

2. Corporation Bank bags SKOCH silver award

• The Corporation Bank has received the SKOCH silver award for attaining the position of number one channel partner of LIC of India for the past three financial years.
• General Manager of Corporation bank CK Gopal has received the award in the presence of Nilesh Sathe (IRDAI) and Sameer Kochhar (Chairman of SKOCH Foundation) in New Delhi.

Obituaries

3. Environmentalist Anupam Mishra passes away 

• Noted Gandhian, journalist, environmentalist and water conservationist Anupam Mishra (68-year) has passed away in Delhi.
• Mishra's seminal work on water conservation "Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talab" fired the imagination of common people and ecology warriors and gave wings to India's indigenous wisdom on this subject.
• He was the recipient of various awards like Jamnalal Bajaj Award, Amar Shaheed Chandrashekhar Azad National Award.

Important Dates

4. 20th December: International Human Solidarity Day 

• The United Nation (UN) International Human Solidarity Day is annually held on  20th December to celebrate unity in diversity.
• It also aims to remind people on the importance of solidarity in working towards eradicating poverty.

Banking & Finance

5. Less tax for small traders if they accept digital payments: Jaitley

• According to the union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, small traders and businesses with a turnover of up to 2 crore rupees will pay less tax if they accept payments through banking and digital means.
• Small traders and businessmen, with the turnover of up to 2 crore rupees who did not maintain proper accounts were presumed to have earned 8% income or profit for tax purposes.
• Now, if they use digital modes of payments their income will now be presumed to be 6% of the turnover and not 8%.

Note: 

• The existing rate of deemed profit of 8 per cent referred to in section 44AD of the Act, shall continue to apply in respect of total turnover or gross receipts received in cash.

6. EPFO lowers interest rate on EPF to 8.65% for FY17 

• The Employees Provident Fund Organisation( EPFO) has lowered the interest rate on Employee's Provident Fund (EPF) deposits for the current fiscal to 8.65%  from 8.8% for FY17.
• Around  17 crore subscriber accounts will be updated with this interest rate upon acceptance by the Government.

Note: 

• Employee's Provident Fund (EPF) is a retirement benefit scheme that's available to all salaried employees.
• This fund is maintained and overseen by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation of India (EPFO) and any company with over 20 employees is required by law to register with the EPFO.

7. RBI to issue new Rs. 500 note with inset letter in new series 

• The Reserve Bank of India( RBI)  will shortly issue Rs. 500 banknotes in Mahatma Gandhi New series with the inset letter E having star mark in the number panel.
• The banknote will bear the signature of RBI Governor Dr Urjit R. Patel and Swachh Bahrat Logo.
• Packets containing these notes will have 100 pieces as usual but not in serial order.
• Star bank notes in 500 rupees denomination are being issued for the first time.

Note:

• Star banknotes in the denomination of 10, 20, 50 and 100 are already in circulation.

National Affairs

8. I-T to share data of taxpayer who earn over Rs 10 lakh 

• The Income Tax (IT) department will soon begin sharing with the Petroleum and Oil Ministry details of all individual taxpayers whose annual income exceeds 10 lakh rupees to check pilferage of subsidy on cooking gas by the higher income groups.
• The tax department will also share personal details of a taxpayer like Permanent Account Number (PAN), date of birth, gender, all available addresses in the I-T database, email id and the residential phone and mobile numbers.
• The move has been approved by the policy-making body the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

9. Chhattisgarh CM dedicates country's first cashless bazaar to people in Raipur 

• Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has dedicated country's first cashless bazaar in Raipur to the people.
• Over 900 shops of this 'Smart' bazaar are now providing the customer the facilities of cashless payments using Point of sale (POS), Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and other digital systems.
• According to recently published data, Chhattisgarh has trained over 5 lac 33 thousand people in cashless payments in first 10 days of training.

10. Govt revises North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy 

• The Union government has revised the North East Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIP) -2007, stipulating that all the subsidies to industrial units will be disbursed through the DBT mechanism.
• It has been decided that henceforth subsidies payable to all industrial units will be disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism by Chief Controller of Accounts (Industry).
• Now, the units need to get themselves registered on the e-payment portal by providing required bank details.