Daily GK Capsule of 10th July 2015 Download | Current Affair Updates

1. 7th BRICS Summit commenced in Ufa, Russia on 9th July with the theme, "BRICS partnership: A powerful factor for global development". The summit is being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In a significant step in economic cooperation, Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) signed an MoU with India's Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) for funding of hydro-generation projects.

2. Russian oil firm Rosneft announced to buy 49 percent stake in Essar Oil, the firm that owns India's second biggest oil refinery. Both the firms signed a non-binding Term Sheet in this regard. Also, a Long Term Crude Oil Supply Agreement by the two firms was signed in Ufa, Russia for import of 10 million tonnes a year of crude oil for a period of 10 years. This contract has been signed in pursuance to the Key Terms executed between the two companies in December 2014 at New Delhi.

3. Sunil Bharti led Bharti Enterprises appointed Rahul Bhatnagar as its new Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer. Bhatnagar takes over from Manoj Kohli, who has assumed the role of Executive Chairman, SBG Cleantech -- a JV between SoftBank, Bharti and Foxconn for renewable energy.

4. India's Shot putter Inderjeet Singh created history by winning the first ever gold medal for India in the shot put event at the World University Games 2015 in Gwangju, South Korea. His sixth and final throw covering a distance of 20.27 was good enough to win him the coveted yellow metal. This helped India to register its first ever win in the World University Games.

5. The Film Society of Jodhpur was conferred with the Pritiman Sarkar Award 2014-15 for the fourth time for being the best film society in Northern Region in raising awareness and film appreciation. The award was presented by the Federation of Film Societies of India (North Region). The award was given in recognition of screening of a series of films by the society in 2014-15 in Jodhpur to mark 100 glorious years of Indian cinema under the Incredible Journey of Indian Cinema. 

6. Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav appointed Justice Kalyan Shrestha as the new chief justice of the country. The president appointed Shrestha, 64, as the new chief justice on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council. He has been appointed to the post after the retirement of Ram Kumar Prasad Saha.

7. The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) — the government company tasked to promote renewable energy — has launched a new loan scheme in order to promote rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) power projects. The scheme will provide loans at the interest rate of 9.9 to 10.75 percent to the system aggregators and the developers. The scheme was launched by Union Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal.

8. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka entered Guinness World Records for spending most number of days in the space. He achieved the feat by spending 804 days on the International Space Station (ISS). He surpassed cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, also a Russian, record of 803 days, 9 hours and 41 minutes in the space which Sergei achieved across six missions from 1998 to 2005. Padalka, who is the commander of the crew on the ISS, is scheduled to return to earth in September 2015. It means he would have spent a total of 877 days in space by then.

Daily GK Capsule of 10th July 2015 Download | Current Affair Updates

9. Noted Urdu poet, critic and orator Bashar Nawaz, who had penned the immensely popular song 'Karoge yaad' in Hindi film 'Bazaar', passed away at Aurangabad after a brief illness. Born on August 18, 1935 at Aurangabad, Nawaz's writings were regularly published in various Urdu literary journals magazines in India and abroad. He was also honoured with prestigious "Pulotsav Samman" for his contribution to Urdu literature. 

10. Telangana government and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to improve profitability of farmers. The MoU was signed by C. Parthasarathi, Secretary and Agri-Production Commissioner; Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary, IT, Electronics & Communications; and ICRISAT Director General David Bergvinson. Under this MoU, the organisation will provide Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based knowledge sharing platforms and other agricultural innovation initiatives to farmers in order to improve their productivity.