5 September 2015 Current Affair Updates | Daily GK Download

1. Vinod Dasari has been appointed as President of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), an automobile industry body. Dasari is the Managing Director of Ashok Leyland. Arvind Saxena, President of General Motors India, has been elected as the Vice-President of the organisation. SIAM is the apex Industry body representing leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India.

2. Alejandro Maldonado Aguirre was sworn in as new president of Guatemala following the resignation of Otto Perez Molina. Otto Perez Molina resigned from the Presidential post as he involved in a corruption case. Aguirre will complete Perez's remaining term of office till January 14, 2016 and hand over power to the winning candidate after elections.

3. Vijay Laxmi Joshi, in-charge of the Prime Minister's ambitious Clean India Mission, has sought voluntary retirement from service. She has quit the Swachh Bharat campaign as head even before one year of its completion. A 1980-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre, was associated with Swachh Bharat campaign as Secretary of Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation. 57-year-old Joshi still has three years of service left.

4. The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea signed an agreement to hold a three-nation summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met in Beijing where they agreed to hold a summit with Japan in late October or early November in South Korea. The first ever talks between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of the trilateral summit will also be held.

5. South Africa’s Durban city has been confirmed as the host of the Commonwealth Games 2022. It has became the first-ever city from Africa to get the hosting rights of the Commonwealth Games. This announcement was made at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) general assembly in Auckland (New Zealand). The Games will be held from 18 to 30 July 2022. It will be the 22nd staging of the event, which is held every four years. Athletes from more than 50 countries, most of which are former British colonies, compete in these Games. The Commonwealth Games was last held in 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland with Australia’s Gold Coast hosting the 2018 event.

6. Bengaluru has for the first time overtaken Mumbai in unsold housing units and thus become the city with the second-highest residential real estate inventory overhang after the National Capital Region. This was disclosed by JLL India, a private entity with interests in real estate. With more than 84,000 unsold housing units by the end of the second quarter (April-June) of 2015 Bengaluru has surpassed Mumbai for the first time.

7. Dinesh Kumar Likhi took charge as the Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI). Prior to this appointment, he was Director (Production & Marketing) of MIDHANI itself. Likhi succeeded M. Narayana Rao.

8. India has emerged as the 8th largest tourism market for Australia with over 2 lakh Indians visiting the country last year. India was one of the fastest growing markets with expenditure reaching a record of 1 billion Australian dollars for the first time, an increase of 39 per cent. The total number of Indian visiting Australia this year stood at 2,07,000.

9. Girish Shankar took charge of Secretary, Department of Official Language under the Ministry of Home Affairs. A 1982 batch IAS officer of Bihar Cadre, Shankar was working as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism. He replaces Sanjay Kumar Srivastava who has joined as Secretary, Coordination and Public Grievances in the Cabinet Secretariat.

10. West Indies cricket team's all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has been presented with the Hummingbird Medal, Trinidad and Tobago's third highest award. The medal was presented to Bravo for his service to sport. Bravo has played 40 Tests and 164 One-Day Internationals (ODI) for the West Indies as well as 11 first-class matches and over 300 Twenty20 games till now.

11. Legendary Ghanaian former footballer and coach Charles Kumi Gyamfi has died aged 85. Gyamfi was the first African player to play in Germany, when he joined Fortuna Dusseldorf in 1960.