Shankara Competitive World : Daily Gk : 31st Dec 2016

International Affairs

The world's highest bridge has opened in south-west China.
The Beipanjiang Bridge is raised 564 metres (1,854 feet) above the Beipan River in mountainous south-west China.
It connecting two provinces in the mountainous south-west and reducing travel times by as much as three-quarters.

Romania's president Klaus Iohannis has appointed Sorin Grindeanu (43-years) as the country's new prime minister.
He was proposed for the position by a government coalition comprising election winners Social Democrat Party (PSD) and junior partner Liberal-Democrat Alliance (ALDE)
Earlier, he served as minister of telecommunications and information society in Victor Ponta's cabinet.

India and Singapore have signed the 3rd protocol for amending Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) in New Delhi.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the revisiting of this treaty is important as it will help in government's efforts to eliminate black money.
Earlier, India had amended the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Mauritius and Cyprus.

China's State Council has announced a ban on all ivory trade and processing activities by the end of 2017.
The move follows a resolution at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in South Africa in October.
China has the biggest ivory market in the world and estimates suggest 70% of the world's trade ends up there.
The commercial processing and sale of ivory will stop by 31 Marc, and all registered traders will then be phased out by the end of the year.

Today, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Mehbooba Mufti has launched several e-learning modules developed by the State Education Department in collaboration with several agencies and organisations at the winter capital city of Jammu.
A School Management Information System having a complete database of schools including staff strength, student-teacher ratio and other components.
A Unified Data Information System for Education (U-DISE) which details the enrolments and pupil-teacher ratios from school-to-school.
The GIS mapping of schools and launched an online portal--Vocational Monitoring Details’ for monitoring the implementation of various vocational courses in the State.

The union Government has extended the cut-off date for insuring 2016-17 rabi crops till 10th January next year to provide relief to farmers hit by demonetization.
The deadline to take insurance policy for both loanee and non-loanee farmers from banks for "Rabi crops" under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) expires today.
The decision has been taken keeping in view the difficulties faced by the farmers in obtaining crop insurance due to demonetization of old currency notes.
The State governments have been asked to take appropriate action regarding extension of cut-off date and inform all stakeholders.
Around 167.47 lakh farmers had taken crop insurance in the rabi season of 2015-16.
The government hopes that more farmers will enrol under the new PMFBY launched early this year with better features.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the daily limit of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) withdrawal to Rs. 4500 from current Rs. 2500 from 1st January,2017.
In a major relief for the common man,
There has been no change in the weekly withdrawal limit (Rs 24,000) including from ATM for individuals and Rs 50,000 in the case of small traders.
The RBI had also permitted White Label ATM Operators (WLAOs) to source cash from retail outlets.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the period of enhanced Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) limit of Rs 20,000 as part of efforts to promote digital payments to meet the transactional needs of the public through digital means.
It has been also decided to extend the measures till the completion of the review of the PPI guidelines.
The merchants can transfer funds from such PPIs to their own linked bank accounts up to Rs 50,000 per month, without any limit per transaction.
Now, 47 non-bank entities and 45 banks are operating payment systems for PPI.

Narinder Batra has resigned as the associate vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
Earlier, he has protested against the IOA for not taking back its decision to appoint Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Singh Chautala as honorary life presidents.
Recently, he has become the International Hockey Federation (FIH) president.

Kush Bhagat (7-year) has won all three gold medals in three categories (Rapid, Blitz and Standard) on offer in the 1st Western Asia Youth Chess Championships at Al Ain Chess Club in UAE (United Arab Emirates).
Bhagat is the second standard student of the NSS Hill Spring International School, Mumbai.
He achieved the feat of being the only Indian to bag all the crowns in the competition.
Kush overcame the challenges from 158 participants of 20 countries across the world.