Daily GK Updates: 27th Sept 2014

1.    Jayalalithaa convicted to 4 years imprisonment in DA case

i. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was on Saturday convicted under prevention of corruption act by a special court in Bangalore. She has been given a jail term of 4 years by the bangalore special court and slapped a fine of 100 crores.

ii. Special Judge John Michael D'Cunha convicted the 66-year-old AIADMK Chief in a case of owning assets to the tune Rs 66,65 crores disproportionate to her known sources of income during 1991-96 when she was chief minister for the first time.

iii. Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala Natarajan, her niece Ilavarasi and her nephew and the chief minister's disowned foster son Sudhakaran were also convicted. 
iv. The verdict was delivered at a makeshift court in the Parappana Agrahara prison complex in the presence of Jayalalithaa and the other accused.
v. Jayalalithaa, 66, will now lose MLA's post and has to step down as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, while she stands disqualified from public office for next 6 years.

2.    Justice Handyala Dattu to be sworn-in as new CJI

i. Justice Handyala Lakshminarayanaswamy Dattu will be sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of India tomorrow.

ii. He will succeed Chief Justice R M Lodha who is retiring today. Justice Dattu will be administered oath of office by the President Mr Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan. 
iii. He will have a tenure of 14 months as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Dattu, who is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after Chief Justice Lodha has been heading the bench monitoring investigations into the 2G spectrum scam.

iv. Justice Dattu joined the Supreme Court as a judge in December 2008. Born on December 13, 1950, he began his practice as an advocate in Bangalore in 1975 and dealt with all type of cases including civil, criminal, tax and Constitutional matters. 

3.    K.V. Kamath-led panel to examine financial architecture for MSME sector

i. The Finance Ministry has appointed a 15-member committee under the Chairmanship of ICICI Bank Chairman K V Kamath to examine the financial architecture for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

ii. The committee will, among other things, come up with concrete suggestions to improve the share of institutional finance to MSME from the low levels seen currently.

iii. Besides looking at innovative financial products for MSMEs, the committee will suggest measures to increase the flow of equity support to MSMEs by targeting incubator-based funds, angel/ seed funds, impact funds and venture capital/ private equity funds.

iv. It will also look at regional disparities in credit flow to MSMEs.

v. The Department of Financial Services move to set up this committee comes two-and-a-half months after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in his maiden Budget speech that a committee will be set up to examine the financial architecture for the MSME sector.

4.    BCCI extends tenure of Ravi Shastri as team India director till 2015 WC

i. The working committee of the BCCI today retained former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri as the Director of the Indian cricket team till the ICC World Cup next year. 
ii. The Committee also decided to hold its Annual General Meeting in Chennai on November 20. 
iii. The working committee also decided to continue with the services of coach Duncan Fletcher till the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in February-March next year. 
iv. The Indian support staff trio of Sanjay Bangar, Bharath Arun and R Sridhar were also rewarded with contracts till the end of the World Cup. 

5.    SBI signed 500 million dollar Line of Credit with Korea Eximbank

i. State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender announced that it has signed a Line of Credit (LoC) of 500 million dollar with Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank).  
ii. The LoC will be utilised to provide finance to SBI’s clients in India and neighbouring countries that have business relationships either by way of equity participation or regular trade with Korean companies globally, as well as joint ventures or subsidiaries of Korean companies.

iii. SBI’s regional head (East Asia), C Venkat Nageswar and Korea Eximbank’s member of Board of Directors, Young Whan Sul signed the agreement at Seoul. The entire process was facilitated by SBI’s subsidiary, SBI Capital Markets and the signing of the pact for LoC is being seen as a step towards further strengthening of Korea-India strategic partnership. 

6.    Pakistan test fired short range nuclear capable missile Hatf IX

i. Pakistan on 26 September 2014 test fired the Hatf IX -short range surface-to-surface missile. The nuclear capable missile also called as Nasr was tested with successive launches of four missiles from a Multi Tube Launcher with Salvo Mode.

ii. It is a nuclear capable ballistic missile with a maximum range of 60 kilometers can cover western parts of India. With in-flight manoeuvre capability Hatf IX is a quick response system with shoot and scoot capability.

7.    Sri Lanka wins backing of 22 nations against UN rights probe

i. Sri Lanka has won the backing of 22 nations in its battle against the UN's war crimes probe into the country's human rights record during its brutal civil war.

ii. A government statement said the countries in a joint statement had termed the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution passed last March as an intrusive mandate and unwarranted in the context of Sri Lanka's own local investigation.

iii. The like minded group chaired by Egypt included Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan,Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

iv. This support was in addition to the concerns raised by India as Sri Lanka's all important giant neighbour had questioned the methodology of the investigation.

v. This is in view of Sri Lanka's decision not to cooperate with the investigation.

vi. India backed the US-sponsored 2012 and 2013 UNHRC resolutions which pinned Colombo to a credible process of reconciliation with the Tamil minority.

vii. However, India much to the delight of Sri Lanka abstained at the crucial vote last March which mandated an international investigation.

8.    10 scientists get Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 

i. Ten scientists were on Friday felicitated with prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for their outstanding contributions to field of science and technology.

ii. P S Ahuja, Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) awarded the scientists for their notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in the field of biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and Physics. 
iii. Roop Mallik and Pratap Raychaudhuri, both scientists from Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), were awarded for their contribution in the field of Biological and Physical science respectively. 
iv. Sadiqali Abbas Rangwala from Raman Research Institute in Bengaluru was given the award for Physical Science.
v. Anurag Agrawal of New Delhi-based Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) was awarded for his contribution in the field of Medical Science.
vi. S Venkata Mohan from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad and Soumen Chakrabarti from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai were given the award in the field of Engineering science while Kaushal Kumar Verma from Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru was awarded for his work in Mathematical Sciences. 

9.    Asian Games: Indian men's team wins compound archery gold

i. Creating a landmark in the history of Indian sports, India beat hosts and World champions South Korea in the men's compound archery team final at the Gyeyang Asiad Archery Field on Saturday for the country's second gold of 17th Asian Games.

ii. Indian team of Rajat Chauhan, Sandeep Kumar and Abhishek Verma, came all guns blazing and beat the hosts 227-225 for the gold medal -- country's first from archery in the 17th Asiad.

iii. India won their first medal from the discipline earlier in the day as the women's compound team beat Iran to win bronze.

10.  Asiad: Men’s team gets historic Squash gold

i. Indian Men's Squash team scripts history as they won the first ever Gold medal in the Asiad. 
ii. They defeated Malayasin Team 2-Nil to fetch the gold. This was fourth medal from squash in this Asian Games. 
Earlier, today Indian Women's team settled for a silver after loosing to Malaysia Nil-2. Squash has given 1 Gold 2 Silver and a bronze.
iii. In the morning, Archery bagged Gold their first ever yellow metal. In the Men's Compound team event, the trio of Abhishek Verma, Sandeep Kumar and Rajat Chauhan defeated champions South Korea, 227-225. 
iv. Shooter Jitu Rai had won the first Gold on the opening day. Earlier today, in the Women's section, the team of Trisha Deb, Purvasha Shende and Jyothi Vennam defeated Iran, 224-217 to win a Bronze.