Daily Current Affairs Update of 8 April 2015 | General Knowledge

Daily Current Affairs Update of 8 April 2015 | General Knowledge

1. Reserve Bank left interest rates unchanged in its annual monetary policy due to increased food prices after unseasonable rains in various parts of the country. The repo rate, at which the Reserve Bank of India lends to banks, has been retained at 7.50 percent. The cash reserve ratio for banks has also been kept unchanged at 4 percent.

2. Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has bagged the prestigious Golden Peacock National Quality Award for the year 2015. The award highlights the best in class quality process that have been build up at DIAL over the years, which have brought significant results and many awards and accolades.

3. Sri Lanka and Pakistan signed six Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs). The six agreements signed will intensify cooperation in the fields of disaster management, sports, shipping, cooperation in atomic energy for socio-economic development, anti-narcotics and academic cooperation.

4. India Post, the postal department of Govt. of India closed its 135-year old Money Order (MO) service. The Money Order service, which provided pan-India door-delivery of funds to a payee from over 155,000 post offices, was an integral part of the department since 1880. India Post is now focusing on 2 postal remittance services Electronic Money Order (eMO) and Instant Money Order (iMO).

5. Nepal's government appointed senior leader of Nepali Congress and former minister Deep Kumar Upadhyay as its next ambassador to India, ending a three-year period without an envoy in New Delhi. President Ram Baran Yadav appointed Upadhyay on the recommendations of the cabinet, along with Arjun Kumar Karki as ambassador to the US.

6. Rajeev Shukla was appointed the new chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Governing Council. Former Union minister and Congress leader Shukla was the IPL chairman till 2013 when he resigned from the post in the aftermath of the IPL 'spot-fixing' scandal.

7. The Union Govt. has asked banks and insurers to develop a common infotech module by 30 June 2015 to facilitate rolling out of three new social security schemes announced in the Union Budget of 2015-16. These three schemes are Atal Pension Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Jeeven Jyoti Bima Yojana. Atal Pension Yojana is the pension scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jeeven Jyoti Bima Yojana is the life insurance scheme while Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is non-life insurance scheme.

8. Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar launched the first indigenously-built Scorpene submarine at the Mazagaon Dockyard Ltd. The Scorpene is part of the ambitious ‘Project-75’ of Indian Navy's submarine programme, undertaken with French collaboration, which will include six such vessels joining the fleet over the next few years.

9. In a concerted effort to tackle the menace of air pollution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India's first Air Quality Index. The index will be operational in 10 Indian cities to start with. The air quality index will inform the public about the level of pollution in the air on a daily basis in real-time.

10. Online fashion retailer Myntra is now moving to an app-only strategy by shutting down its desktop website. It will shut down its website on 1st of May. Myntra was acquired by Flipkart last year for a sum of Rs. 2,000 crores.