9 September 2015 Current Affair Updates | Daily GK Download

1. Agriculture expert Ramesh Chand has been appointed as new member of the Niti Aayog. Chand is the third member to join the government's think tank which has replaced the erstwhile planning commission. The Aayog, which is headed by eminent economist Arvind Panagariya (Vice Chairman), has two other members—economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat.

2. India gave the first tranche of $500,000 for Syrians in distress and displaced from their homes. The Indian ambassador to Jordan Anil Trigunayat gave the money to the Jordanian government which is coordinating relief for the Syrian refugees. India had promised $2 million for humanitarian assistance to Syrians in March. This was the first portion of that commitment.

3. Seven Indians feature in Forbes Asia's ninth Heroes of Philanthropy list, highlighting most noteworthy contributions to philanthropy from 13 countries across Asia Pacific. Of them, four are co-founders of Infosys, one of India's largest information technology (IT) services company. These are Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and S.D. Shibulal and N.R. Narayana. Kerala-born Dubai entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, tops the list of philanthropists in the region. The other two Indian philanthropists are brothers Suresh Ramakrishnan and Mahesh Ramakrishnan.

4. India has been ranked very low, mostly in the bottom half, globally on most of the parameters for inclusive growth and development. India's overall place in the Global Competitiveness Index 2014–2015 rankings is 71 out of 144 countries. In areas like corruption and rent India comes at 8th. For business and political ethics, India ranks 12th, while it ranks 11th on the Financial intermediation of real economy investment pillar. India has mostly been ranked in the bottom half of the 38 countries that make up our lower middle income bracket. Particularly disappointing is its position in terms of Fiscal Transfers, where it ranks 37th out of 38. It also ranks very low at 32nd for Tax Code and 36th for social protection.

5. G20 formed a new group named 'W20' with the objective to empower women and to boost the role of women in global economic growth. W20 was formed as a grouping of female leaders to work towards empowering women and ensuring their participation in economic growth. It would work as an outreach group and seek to promote gender inclusiveness in economic growth process by empowering women. Gulden Turktan of Turkey was appointed as the first President of W20. All G20 countries are now expected nominate their members for the grouping.

6. Indian boxer Vikas Krishan (75kg) won the silver medal in the Asian Boxing Championships 2015. In the summit clash at Bangkok, Thailand, Vikas was defeated 0-2by reigning Youth Olympic champion Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan. With Vikas's silver, India finished their campaign with one silver and three bronze medals. L. Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) won the bronze medals.

7. The Jammu and Kashmir government appointed Brij Raj Sharma as the new chief secretary, ending the administrative inertia that hit the state after Muhammad Iqbal Khandey chose to seek voluntary retirement (VRS) three months prior to his superannuation. Sharma, a 1984 batch IAS officer, would remain the chief secretary till 2020.

8. India opened its account with a gold medal through weightlifter Jamjang Deru who won the boys 56kg category event at the 5th Commonwealth Youth Games organised in Apia, Samoa. The 17-year-old Deru lifted a total of 237kg with 102kg in snatch and 135kg in clean and jerk to bag the gold. India is being represented by 25 athletes in eight disciplines out of the nine being competed in the CYG.

 

9. ICICI Lombard GIC announced the appointment of Sanjeev Mantri as executive director for its retail business division. Mantri has more than 20 years of experience in the banking, finance services and insurance sector and has held key leadership positions in his earlier assignments with BNP Paribas and ICICI Bank.

10. Doha Bank has tied up with the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group to generate business opportunities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations and India. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Doha Bank and Reliance ADA Group have entered into an alliance to create new opportunities for cooperation and innovation in terms of business development across the GCC and India.

11. Acclaimed short story writer T. Padmanabhan has been selected for Mathrubhumi Literary Award 2015. The award carries a purse of Rs. two lakh, sculpture and a citation. Padmanabhan's stories have been translated to various Indian languages and also to English, French, German and Russian.