Daily GK Update: 2nd & 3rd October, 2015

1) Google Inc has morphed into Alphabet Inc.

i. After US markets closed on 2nd October, Alphabet replaced Google as the publicly traded company that will house Google's search and Web advertising businesses, maps, YouTube and its "moonshot" ventures such as driverless cars.

ii. Google's class A shares and class C shares will automatically convert into the same number of Alphabet class A shares and class C shares and start trading on the Nasdaq from Monday. The ticker symbols will not change.

2) Gold zooms Rs 660, biggest one day gain this year

i. Snapping its five-day falling streak, gold rebounded by Rs 660, its biggest one-day surge this year, to trade at Rs 26,810 per ten grams at the bullion MARKET . 
ii. The precious metal, after five sessions of losses, recovered 2.1% to $1,136.60 an ounce in New York as the US payrolls rose less than expected in September and wages stagnated, weakening the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year. Bullion traders said sentiments got a boost after gold rebounded in global markets and revival of buying by jewellers and retailers at domestic markets at current levels. 

3) ICICI brings in card-less mVisa

i. ICICI Bank has become the first institution worldwide to launch m-Visa, a card-less and device-less solution to make the payments. 
ii. ICICI Bank has incorporated the m-Visa application in its Pockets app, which allows payments to be made by scanning a static QR code and entering the amount. 
iii. "The biggest incentive for merchants to accept mVisa payments is that there is zero investment. The merchant merely has to retain a printed QR code, which can be scanned by the customer using the Pockets app," said Rajiv Sabharwal, executive director, ICICI Bank. 

4) India's foreign reserves plunge by over $2 billion

i. India's foreign exchange (FOREX) reserves declined by $2.04 billion to $349.97 billion in the week ended September 25, official data showed on 2nd October. 
ii. The reserves had risen by $631.5 million to $352.02 billion in the previous week ended September 18. The reserves had augmented by $2.35 billion to $351.38 billion in the week ended September 11.

iii. The FCA constitutes the largest component of INDIA'S FOREX reserves. It consists of US dollars, major non-dollar currencies, securities and bonds bought abroad. "

5) Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis win Wuhan Open title

i. Ace Indian tennis star Sania Mirza continued her superb run with Swiss partner Martina Hingis as the duo clinched its seventh title together by winning the Wuhan Open women's doubles trophy on Saturday. 
ii. Ti.he top-seeded pair eased past the Romanian team of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in the title clash.

6) Venus Williams wins Wuhan Open

i. Venus Williams won her second title of the season at the Wuhan Open in central China after Garbine Muguruza retired in the second set.  
ii. Williams took the first set and was then handed the title by the Spaniard after 53 minutes, three points into the second set. 

7) Jordan Spieth voted PGA Tour Player of the Year

i. American world number one Jordan Spieth was named as the PGA Tour's Player of the Year after a stellar 2014-15 campaign highlighted by two major victories among his five wins.  
ii. The 22-year-old landed the coveted honour after clinching the first two majors of the season -the Masters and US Open -before finishing one shot out of a British Open play-off in July and being runner-up at the PGA Championship in August.

8) E-FIR system launched in Odisha

i. Nearly fifteen months after dry run, the Odisha police launched its ambitious 'e-FIR' system under the Centre-sponsored Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) project.

ii. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the system, which enables tech-savvy people to send their complaints to police in all districts through online. 
iii. All the 531 police stations in the state have been computerized to receive complaints through online. 
iv. "By browsing www.citizenportal-op.gov.in, people can avail services like lodging of complaints, request for FIR copy, verification of tenants, applying for procession licence, permission for protest/strike, character certificate request, employee verification, request for lost property and complain about missing persons," ADG and director of state crime records bureau B Radhika said. 

9) INS Sahyadri entered Da Nang port in Vietnam

i. INS Sahyadri entered Da Nang port in Vietnam as part of its operational deployment in the South China Sea.  
ii. Around the time Navy Chief Admiral R.K Dhowan began his official tour of Australia, an Indian naval ship entered Vietnam waters on its way to Japan. 
iii. In the backdrop of both the developments, hangs the shadow of China’s growing naval assertiveness in the region, and India’s new-found aggression to build partnerships both as a response to China as well as part of its role as a major maritime force of the Indian Ocean. 

10) Dr Anup K Pujari has been given additional charge of CMD of SAIL

i. Dr Anup K Pujari assumed additional charge as the Chairman and Managing Director of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). 
ii. At present, he is the Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME). Besides as the CMD of SAIL, he was also given additional charge of the post of Secretary in Ministry of Steel

11) India submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)

i. India on 2 October 2015 submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 
ii. These INDCs are for the period between 2015 and 2030. 
iii. With the presentation of its INDCs, India set its tone for the Conference of Parties-21 (COP-21) in Paris that is scheduled to meet in December 2015 to adopt an environmental new protocol for post-2020 (post Kyoto Protocol) scenario. So far, 119 parties to the UNFCCC, out of 192 member countries, have formally submitted their INDCs. 

Some of the important points of the INDCs are 

a) To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level 

b) To achieve about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030, with the help of transfer of technology and low cost international finance, including from Green Climate Fund 

c) To create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030 that will translate into increase of about 680 - 817 million tonne of carbon stock 

12) October 2: International Day of Non-Violence 

i. The International Day of Non-Violence was observed on 2 October 2015 across the world. It was celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. 
ii. The International Day of Non-Violence was created by the United Nations by a resolution of the General Assembly on 15 June 2007. 

13) PM Narendra Modi inaugurated county's first solar powered district court

i. Narendra Modi inaugurated county's first solar powered district court in Khunti, Jharkhand.
ii. Making an appeal to stop wastage of electricity, the Prime Minister said that like solar energy, we also need to focus on energy conservation. 
iii. He added that India will be successful in achieving the target of 175 Gigawatt of clean energy by 2022.

14) Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help to finance the increased transmission capacity of electricity link between India and Bangladesh. 

i. "ADB is to help finance increased transmission capacity of a cross-border electricity link between India and Bangladesh which will allow Bangladesh to better meet sharply rising power demand and support increased power exchanges across South Asia."  

ii. ADB's loan of $120 million to Bangladesh will double the capacity of the existing interconnection system which links the power grid of western Bangladesh at Bheramara and the grid of eastern India at Bharampur. 
iii. The two networks were first interconnected in 2013, under a previous project financed by ADB. New transmission capacity will rise from 500 megawatts (MW) to 1,000 MW.