Saturday, August 9, 2014

Daily Current Affairs Updates: 06 August 2014



1) Cartoonist Pran, creator of iconic Chacha Chaudhary, dead: Creator of the lovable comic character Chacha Chaudhary, cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma breathed his last on Wednesday. He passed away after a prolonged battle with cancer at a hospital in Gurgaon. He was 75 years old. With a career spanning over five decades, Mr. Sharma employed a simple style of art and sense of humour to create a family of characters like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman and Channi Chachi, which are regularly published in Indian magazines. He began his career in 1960 as a cartoonist for the Delhi-based newspaper ‘Milap’ with comic strip ‘Daabu’ and in 1969, he sketched Chacha Chaudhary for the Hindi magazine ‘Lotpot’ which made him famous. He was born in Kasur, near Lahore in Pakistan in 1938.

2) Kamla Beniwal, governor of Mizoram, sacked: Kamla Beniwal, who had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister, was sacked as governor of Mizoram on Wednesday just two months before her tenure comes to an end. "The President has directed that Dr. (Smt.) Kamla shall cease to hold the office of the governor of Mizoram," a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said, exactly a month after she was shifted to Aizwal from Ahmedabad. Governor of Manipur V K Duggal has been asked to discharge the functions of the governor of Mizoram until regular arrangements are made, the communique said.

3) Cabinet cleared amendments to Juvenile Justice Act paving way for harsher punishment: A proposal which will empower the Juvenile Justice Board to decide whether a juvenile above 16 years involved in heinous crimes such as rape is to be sent to a observation home or tried in a regular court is learnt have been cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. With all central ministries giving their approval to the amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, the proposal was placed on the agenda for cabinet meeting.

4) FDI cap raised to 100% for Railways, 49% for defence projects:  The Union Cabinet on Wednesday allowed foreign investment in the Railways for the first time and raised limit for such investment in the defence sector, steps intended to raise funds for expansion of the Railways and encourage domestic manufacture of arms. 100 per cent foreign investment in railway infrastructure projects will be allowed while in the case of defence the limit has been raised to 49 per cent from the current 26 per cent, subject to the Indian owners exercising management control.

5) Micromax replaces Samsung as largest mobile phone vendor in India: According to a recent report by a market research firm, Micromax has replaced Samsung to become the leading mobile phone vendor in the country in terms of market share. It has also become the second largest smartphone vendor in India behind Samsung. Counterpoint, a technology market research firm, finds that Micromax with a 16.6 percent market share has overtaken Samsung (14.4 percent) as the largest mobile phone supplier in Q2 2014. Micromax and Samsung were closely followed by Nokia (10.9 percent), Karbonn (9.5 percent), and Lava (5.6 percent).


6) ICICI Bank launched travel card for students going abroad for studies:ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank, has announced the launch of the ‘ICICI Bank Student Travel Card’, which enables students going abroad for higher studies to take care of their expenses.

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