Daily GK Update : 15th June 2017

Economic / Financial Awareness

1. IOC, BPCL and HPCL signed an agreement to jointly set up worlds's biggest refinery

• State-owned oil firms IOC, BPCL and HPCL on signed an agreement to jointly set up world's biggest refinery at Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.
• Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will be the lead partner with 50 percent stake while Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will take 25 percent stake each.
• The new complex will have a 60 million tonnes refining capacity.

2. Verizon completes Yahoo acquisition

• The completion of the acquisition marked the end of Yahoo as a stand-alone internet company.
• Verizon, the No.1 US wireless operator, is combining Yahoo with AOL, which it bought two years ago, to form a venture called Oath.
• The remainder of Yahoo not acquired by Verizon will be renamed Altaba.

International Appointments

3. Indian-origin Leo Varadkar elected as Ireland's youngest PM

• Leo Varadkar, a 38-year-old Indian-origin scripted history by becoming Ireland's youngest and the first openly gay Prime Minister of the Catholic-majority country.
• Mr. Varadkar, 38, will officially take over as Taoiseach, as the Irish prime ministerial title is known in Ireland.
• Varadkar came out as a gay man in 2015, when Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through popular vote.

Summits and Conferences

4. LS Speaker to inaugurate 16th NERCPA Conference at Imphal

• Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will inaugurate the 16th North East Region Commonwealth Parliamentary Association(NERCPA) Conference at Imphal in Manipur.
• The Conference will deliberate on three significant themes - North East and Look East Policy, special plan for development of railways, airways, surface road and inland waterways connectivity for speedy economic development of North East Region and setting up of a chapter of Speaker’s Research Initiative in the North Eastern Region for capacity building of the legislators.
• The Speaker’s Research Initiative was institutionalized on July 23, 2015, to generate high-quality research inputs on strategic and topical issues.

Science & Defence

5. India-Australia naval exercise 'AUSINDEX' begins

• Indian warships started a week-long naval exercise off the coast of western Australia.
• The second AUSINDEX exercises are aimed at increasing interoperability between Australian and Indian naval forces.
• The first AUSINDEX was held in the Bay of Bengal in 2015.

Schemes

6. NITI Aayog offers support for Keralas Nava Kerala Mission

• NITI Aayog has offered support for implementation of Kerala government’s ambitious ‘Nava Kerala Mission’ which focusses on education, health, agriculture and housing.
• Nava Kerala Mission is an initiative of Kerala government launched in November 2016.
• The initiative seeks to address problems faced in four key social sectors, namely, health, education, agriculture and housing, with the help and involvement of local self-governments.

International Affairs

7. India to be Co-Partner Country in ANUGA 2017

• India has signed the Memorandum of Understanding for Participation in the ANUGA Exhibition.
• ANUGA – an acronym for Allgemeine Nahrungs Und Genußmittel Ausstellung (General Food and Non- essential Provisions Exhibition) is the world’s biggest and most important trade fair for Food and beverage trade.
• It takes place biennially (every 2 years).

National Affairs

8. Telangana government launches website for online sale of cattle

• The Telangana government launched the website 'PashuBazar' to facilitate online sale or purchase of cattle.
• New cattle rules issued by the Central government were under study and the rules would be applicable to online sale too.
• Farmer can keep maximum five registrations for sale at any time.

9. India's first canal top solar PV system at NTPC Mouda

• NTPC Mouda (Nagpur) has energised India's first canal top solar PV System on cooling water (CW) channel inside power station.
• This novel Solar PV system makes use of side walls of CW channels as load bearing structure thereby significantly decreasing cost of civil and mounting structure.
• It also has several other unique advantages such as land and water conservation due to reduced evaporation, increased PV generation due to cooling and reduction in dirt, leaves thereby reducing chemicals for water treatment.

 Books & Authors

10. Ex-Uttarakhand CM Ramesh Pokhriyal authors book on Vajpayee

• Former Uttarakhand CM R Pokhriyal launched the book on Vajpayee which is titled as 'Yug Purush, Bharat Ratna, Atal ji'.
• First copy of the book on the social and political life of Vajpayee was presented to President Mukherjee.
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the 10th Prime Minister of India.

  "Thought of the Day"

  “Within our dreams and aspirations we find our opportunities.”

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