Daily GK Update - 9th June 2015

1. NCR gets bigger; Jind, Karnal and Muzaffarnagar districts added 

i. The sprawl of the National Capital Region (NCR) just got bigger as the nod has been given for the inclusion of Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh and the Jind and Karnal districts of Haryana as part of the conurbation. 

ii. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu announced the decision for including the three districts in NCR after chairing a meeting today of the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) here. 

iii. Naidu said that a committee has been appointed to look into the demands for the inclusion of more areas in NCR. 

iv. The Union minister said that before including any area, the view of the particular state government will also have to be taken. 

v. Haryana Chief Minister Khattar said that with the inclusion of Jind and Karnal in NCR, 57 per cent of the state's area had become part of the entity. 

2. India’s first State-of-the-Art Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre inagurated by Gadkari

i. Tackling pollution and oil spills in and around Mumbai will now become much easier, as Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the India’s first of its kind State-of-the-Art Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre for Mumbai & JNPT Harbour

ii. The OSRC which is equipped with State-of-the-Art equipment in operational readiness for combating Tier-I oil spill upto 700 tones, ensures adequate protection to the public health and welfare and to the marine environment.

iii. The facility which is funded by Participating Oil Companies (POCs) and MbPT has taken the responsibility of tendering and monitoring of Tier -I OSR facility.

iv. The area of operation includes the water limits of the Mumbai Port Trust MbPT, JNPT and ONGC’s facilities at Nhava and Uran.

v. The OSRC will be monitored on 24/7 basis and is also equipped with skilled and trained personnel and wireless communication facilities for immediately responding to any oil spill.

3. 7th International junior shotgun: Anantjeet wins skeet gold

i. Anantjeet Singh Naruka beat Lari Pesonen of Finland 12-11 in the skeet match for gold in the 7th International junior shotgun cup that concluded in Orimattila, Finland

ii. After having qualified at the bottom with a modest score of 110, following rounds of 21, 22, 21, 25 and 21, Anantjeet kept getting better, as he wriggled his way through to the gold medal match by winning a three-way tie in the shoot-off to challenge the Finn.

iii. Compatriot Angadvir Singh Bajwa, who had topped the qualification with 119 following a series of 23, 24, 24, 24 and 24, won the shoot-off for the bronze medal 6-5 against Matteo Chiti of Italy.

iv. Angadvir and the Italian had shot three each in losing the shoot-off for the gold medal match with Anantjeet who shot 4, after the three were tied on 13 in the semifinals.

4. Government extends Bank of Baroda interim chief Ranjan Dhawan's term for 3 months 

i. The government has further extended the term of Bank of Baroda's (BoB) interim MD & CEO Ranjan Dhawan for three months while Bank of India will be headed by its Executive Director B P Sharma for the same duration. 

ii. Dhawan, the senior-most Executive Director of BoB, was given this additional charge in February.

iii. The post of a full-time MD & CEO at BoB has been lying vacant since July 2014 when the then Chairman and Managing Director S S Mundra was appointed RBI Deputy Governor.

iv. Sharma's appointment comes into force from June 8, 2015, and will be till the appointment of a regular MD & CEO or further orders, whichever is earlier, it added.

5. R C Tayal appointed as new Director General of National Security Guard 

i. Senior IPS officer R C Tayal has been appointed as the new chief of the elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG). 

ii. The 1980-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre officer is at present serving as the Special Director General in paramilitary CRPF and is heading its formation in Jammu and Kashmir. 

iii. He is expected to serve as NSG DG till August next year when he is scheduled for superannuation. 

iv. NSG was raised in 1984 as a federal contingency force with a specific aim to undertake counter-terror and counter-hijack operations and it was later tasked to protect high-risk VVIPs. 

6. EPFO to invest 5% of funds in equity market

i. In a major policy shift, the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has decided to park 5 per cent of its funds in the equity market.

ii. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said the decision was in line with the suggestions made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely that the EPFO invest up to 15 per cent of its funds in the equity market.

iii. In another major announcement, the Minister said the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees State Insurance Corporation, at its latest meeting, decided to invest funds available with it from the contribution of employees through portfolio managers on the lines of the EPFO.

iv. Employees’ interests would be the priority of the EPFO and care would be taken in the equity investments, the Labour Minister added.

7. Isro Bags Space Pioneer Award for Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter Mission

i. The country's low-cost Mangalyaan Mars orbiter mission which is in rendezvous with the Red Planet for an extended period has been presented with the Space Pioneer award for the year 2015 by

the US' National Space Society.

ii. Space Pioneer award for the year 2015 was presented to Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in the Science and Engineering category during the 34th Annual International Space Development Conference held at Toronto in Canada during May 20-24, 2015, Bengaluru-headquartered Isro said on its website.

iii. The Isro spacecraft was launched on its nine-month-long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 and had escaped the earth's gravitational field on December 1.

iv. The spacecraft is under 'solar conjunction' at Mars, which means the spacecraft, which is orbiting Mars, is behind the sun as viewed from the Earth.

8. RBI debt recast norms: Banks will be left holding the bag if no buyers for firms turn up

i. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has permitted banks to take control of 51 percent of stake in a company that has failed to recover financial health even after a period of financial restructuring, typically due to management inefficiency or other factors.

ii. This provision, part of the strategic debt restructuring exercise (SDR), is aimed at ensuring promoters of defaulted companies have more ‘skin in the game’.

iii. The RBI’s move is part of a coordinated action plan with markets regulator, Securities and exchange board of India (Sebi), which in March had allowed banks to convert part or full debt of listed defaulter companies into equity.

iv. Both the RBI and Sebi have made the process easier for banks and become aggressive in taking control of defaulter companies.

v. For companies too, this will offer relief since they will be free from interest payments once the debt is converted into equity. However, such a relief might come at the cost of losing management control.

9. ICICI Bank Appoints MK Sharma As Non-Executive Chairman

i. ICICI Bank on Tuesday said that its board has approved the appointment of MK Sharma as non-executive chairman for a period of five years.

ii. Mr Sharma will replace KV Kamath who would shortly step down from the board consequent to his nomination as the first president of the BRICS New Development Bank.

iii. Mr Sharma was formerly the vice chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL).

iv. e is an independent director of several companies and has been a member of government committees relating to corporate law and corporate governance, ICICI Bank said in a statement.

v. He is currently an independent director of two subsidiaries of the Bank, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company and ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company.