Daily GK Update : 29th April 2017

Honors & Awards

1. Shah Rukh Khan becomes first Indian actor to deliver Ted Talk in Canada

• Bollywood Superstar ‘Shah Rukh Khan’ has become the first Indian actor to deliver TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) speech in Vancouver, Canada.
• He also collaborated with TED to host the Hindi version of the famous talk show.
• Earlier, Shah Rukh has also delivered some motivational and inspirational speeches, when he was conferred with an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburg and Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.

Note:

• TED talk is a prestigious platform which has been earlier graced by the likes of remarkable people like Bill Clinton (former U.S. President), Bill Gates (Microsoft founder), Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder), Mae Jemison(astronaut), Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Google founders) to name a few.

International Affairs

2. India and Cyprus sign 4 agreements

• India and Cyprus have signed four agreements after delegation-level talks between PM Narendra Modi and President of Cyprus 'Nicos Anastasiades' in New Delhi.
• The areas in which the MoUs have been exchanged are Air Services, Agriculture, Merchant Shipping and Culture Education.
• Earlier, Mr. Anastasiades arrived in New Delhi on the second leg of his five-day visit to India.

Obituaries

3. Oscar-Winning Director Jonathan Demme passes away

• The Oscar-winning American film director-producer and screenwriter Jonathan Demme (73-year) passed away in New York.
• He became best known for directing The Silence of the Lambs (1991), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director.
• Demme made a name for himself as a filmmaker who voraciously tackled a variety of genres, easily switching from horror to drama to documentary.

National Affairs

4. India's first book village to come up in Maharashtra's Bhilar

• A hamlet in Satara district of Maharashtra is all set to embrace the tag of India's first 'village of books'.
• The Chief Minister of Maharashtra ‘Devendra Fadnavis’ will inaugurate the initiative pustakanche gaon on 4th May 2017.
• The concept is inspired by Britain's Hay-on-Wye a Welsh town known for its bookstore and literature festivals.
• Around 15,000 books (in Marathi) would be made available in the village premises.

5. BSNL to provide broadband services to rural post offices

• Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Department of Post have signed a tripartite Memorandum of understanding(MoU) in New Delhi for providing of ‘BharatNet’ broadband connectivity to Post Offices in rural areas.
• About 1.3 lakh post offices in rural areas and 25 thousand sub-post offices will be connected through broadband for high-speed Internet connectivity in rural masses.
• The cost of infrastructure and the operational expenses will be paid by the Department of Posts.
• BharatNet is one of the 9 pillars of realizing the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India.

6. Uttarakhand: Portals of Gangotri, Yamunotri opened for pilgrims

• Today, the sacred portals of the famous Himalayan shrine ‘Gangotri’ and ‘Yamunotri’ have been opened for the pilgrims after six-month winter break in UUttarakhand
• With this, the Chardham Yatra has commenced in the State.
• Today the festive doli of the idol of Goddess Yamuna with devotees reached Yamunotri from kharshali, while doli of Goddess Ganga was carried from Mukhwa for Gangotri with traditional drums and trumpets.
• The Portals of remaining Kedarnath shrine will open on 3^rd May while Badrinath on 6^th

 7. IIT Council decides to increase female representation in institutes

• According to union human resource development minister Prakash Javdekar, the council of IITs (51^st meeting) has decided to increase female representation in IITs from eight to twenty percent.
• An amount of Rs. 75,000 will be released per month from Prime Minister’s Scholarship scheme to promote research and innovation in IITs.
• The Wellness Centres will be created for students which will help them to deal with mental stress and peer pressure.

 8. Govt launches Test & Treat policy for HIV patients

• The Union Health Minister ‘JP Nadda’ has launched ‘the Test and Treat policy’ for providing treatment to patients suffering from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in New Delhi.
• The union government will provide Anti- Retroviral Therapy (ART) treatment to the patients free of cost.
• It is a centrally sponsored scheme and people suffering from HIV will benefit from it.

 9. RBI says, banks cannot refuse to accept faded or scribbled notes

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said, banks cannot refuse to accept faded notes or those with scribbles.
• Such banknotes have to be treated as ‘soiled notes’ and dealt with according to the RBI's ‘clean note policy’.
• The central bank also clarified that its instructions on scribbling on notes were a directive for staffers not to write on banknotes.

Sports

10. Mann Kaur becomes world’s oldest person to complete Auckland Sky Walk

• Athlete Mann Kaur (101-year) has become the oldest person to sky walk around Auckland’s famous landmark Sky Tower and set a new world record on the field.
• Kaur stepped out 192 meters above 'Auckland city' to achieve the feat.
• Earlier, Kaur broke the Guinness World Record for javelin with a throw of 5 m 12 in her final competition at the Trusts Stadium in Waitakere, Auckland.

11. Pankaj Advani loses summit clash of Asian Snooker Championship

• India's top cueist Pankaj Advani lost to Lv Haotian (China) 3-6 in the summit clash of Asian Snooker Championship in Doha.
• Now, he could not become the first player to win both Asian titles in Billiards and Snooker in same calendar year.
• Earlier, He won all the major events (Nationals, Asian and World Championships in both Billiards and Snooker) and in both the long and short formats.

12. Sultan Azlan Shah Cup Men's Hockey tournament begins in Ipoh

• Today, the Sultan of Azlan Shah Cup Men's Hockey tournament has begun in Ipoh, Malaysia.
• Six nations (India, Malaysia, Australia, Great Britain, Japan, and New Zealand) are taking part in the 8-day tournament which will be held in a round-robin format.
• This year, Pakistan is not playing in the competition.
• Australia is the defending champions, while India had finished runners-up last year.

Note:

• The ‘Sultan Azlan Shah Cup’ is an annual international men's field hockey tournament held in Malaysia.
• The tournament became an annual event after 1998.
• The tournament is named after the ninth Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) of Malaysia, Sultan Azlan Shah.

 "Thought of the Day"

 “A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to the world that we cannot enter in any other way.”

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