Daily GK Updates: 10th Sept 2014

1. Global business leaders gather at WEF, China

i. Global business leaders and politicians have gathered in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for a meeting of the World Economic Forum.

ii. The Chinese Premier Li Kequiang will open the event. He is likely to downplay slowing growth and instead emphasise the importance of innovation to support a better quality of growth for the world's second largest economy.



2. India signs 2 MoUs in WHO regional Health Ministers Meet
i. India has signed 2 MoUs during the WHO South East Asia Health Ministers Meet in Dhaka yesterday.
ii. A multilateral MoU among India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Thailand on prevention, control and eradication of Kalazar, a vector borne disease affecting millions of people in the region, was signed with the aim to eradicate the disease by 2020.
iii. Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, India has already put into effect interventions to aggressively tackle the disease in 56 affected districts of the country in Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkand.
iv. A bilateral MoU between India and Bangladesh was also signed for cooperation in the field of traditional systems of medicine and homeopathy.


3. ICICI Bank offers Card less Cash Withdrawal at ATMs
i. Now, withdraw without a debit card at an ICICI Bank ATM, as the bank facilitates cardless cash withdrawal service with the help of a mobile number.
ii. ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, announced its ‘Cardless Cash Withdrawal’ service that allows its customers to transfer money from their account to anyone in India with a mobile number, the bank said in a statement.
iii. The recipient can withdraw money round the clock without using a debit card from over 10,000 ATMs of ICICI Bank across the country. One can do this even without having a bank account of any bank, the bank further said.
iv. However, the sender needs to be an ICICI Bank savings account holder.


4. First kisan mandi outside APMC coming up in Delhi
i. The country's first wholesale centre (mandi) for trading in fruit and vegetables outside the jurisdiction of an Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) is coming up at Alipur in north Delhi. The aim is to begin operations by the end of November.
ii. The Delhi government had earlier notified the removal of fruit and vegetables from the list of APMC products. This allows legal trade in these outside an APMC, under the law.
iii. This first such mandi, termed a 'kisan mandi', is being set up by the Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC), a body under the Union ministry of agriculture.


5. Fiat’s Marchionne to take over as Ferrari chairman
i. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo will step down as chairman of Ferrari as of October 13 and will be replaced by Sergio Marchionne, who also serves as the chief executive of parent group Fiat.
ii. The departure of Montezemolo, announced by Fiat on Wednesday, was widely expected after escalating clashes between the two executives over strategy and the role of the luxury sports car business within the Fiat group.
iii. Under Montezemolo's more than two decade-long tenure, Ferrari raced to the top of the Formula One grid, increased revenues tenfold and tripled sales volumes as the Italian family business grew into one of the world's most powerful brands.


6. Union Health Minister Launched First National Anti-TB Drug Resistance Survey of India
i. Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on 6 September 2014 launched the first anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Survey of India for the year 2014-15.
ii. This is the first of its kind of survey in India and is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
iii. Describing the TB as national emergency, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan called for an email repository of doctors for better disease management.


7. H Devaraj Committee reported most deemed universities not fit for being a university
i. H Devaraj Committee on 8 September 2014 reported that most of the deemed universities are not fit for being a university.
ii. It said that out of 41 C category deemed universities only 10 universities are found to be fit for being a university. Rest of the university does not fulfil the criteria to become the university.


Main findings of the Committee
i. Many institutions were accorded deemed university status on certain conditions, against the Union Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956 which does not allow conditional notification.
ii. The UGC or Union Human Resource Development Ministry failed to check whether the institutions with conditional notification have fulfilled the specified criteria after a certain time period or not.
iii. Serious discrepancies were noted in upgradation of 8 B category institutions to A category institutions.


8. IOC and Interpol meet to combat match fixing & illegal betting
i. International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Interpol (International Police agency) have increased their collaboration to combat match-fixing and illegal betting.
ii. To enhance the cooperation between the two bodies, the IOC President Thomas Bach met with secretary general of the international police agency Ronald Noble and discussed the issue.
iii. The meet was based on the basis of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed between Interpol and IOC.
iv. Apart from this in the recent past, IOC to monitor any suspicious betting patterns during the Olympic or other sports events, set up an Integrity Betting Intelligence System.