Daily GK Update - 2nd July 2015

Nicholas Winton, ‘Britain’s Schindler’ dies at 106

(i) The man to whom the second statue is dedicated died at the age of 106 in Slough (Berkshire) on July 1 — coincidently the anniversary of the day when in 1939 a train carrying 241 children — the largest number to be transported out of Europe — chugged into Liverpool Station.

(ii) A modest man, Nicholas Winton never talked of his experiences. Till 1988, when his wife Grete found his scrapbook with detailed lists of the children he had rescued. 

(iii) She contacted the BBC for help in tracing them.

(iv) Nicholas Winton was knighted by the British government in 2003, and received the Order of the White Lion, the highest award by the Czech government in 2014.

Amazon leads Rs. 375 cr investment in BankBazaar

(i) US-based online retailer Amazon has invested Rs. 375 crore in online financial services portal BankBazaar.com.

(ii) Fidelity Growth Partners and Mousse Partners and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Walden International also participated in this third round of funding.

(iii) The company said, 40 per cent of the users connect to BankBazaar through smartphones. 

(iv) Additionally, online loan applications across home, personal and auto loans are growing by 90 per cent, compared to 15 per cent growth in offline.

(v) "We are delighted to welcome Amazon to the BankBazaar partnership,” said Gautam Mago, managing director at Sequoia.

(vi)  “BankBazaar plans to innovate even more to provide the best and fastest experience for consumers."

Govt allocates Rs. 200 crore for national agriculture market

(i) Government has allocated Rs. 200 crore for three years to set up an online national agriculture market by integrating 585 wholesale markets across India — a move that would help farmers realise better prices.

(ii) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had on Wednesday approved a Central Sector Scheme for Promotion of National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund.

(iii) “An amount of Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for the scheme from 2015-16 to 2017-18,” an official statement said.

(iv) Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain informed that Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Gujarat have already agreed to join the Scheme, while Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are “very keen” to participate. Besides, the Centre is also in discussions with Uttar Pradesh.

Indian-American named World Agriculture Prize laureate

(i) Indian-American professor R. Paul Singh has been named as the 2015 Global Confederation for Higher Education Associations for Agriculture and Life Sciences World Agriculture Prize laureate.

(ii) The award was announced at the annual GCHERA conference, held last week at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh, Lebanon. 

(iii) The award will be formally presented on September 20, during a ceremony at Nanjing Agricultural University, Jiangsu Province, China.

(iv) Under a NASA contract, his research group created food-processing equipment for a manned mission to Mars, the university said.

(v) He has helped establish and evaluate food-engineering programs at institutions throughout the world, including in Brazil, India, Peru, Portugal and Thailand.

Cost of printing a one-rupee note is Rs 1.14

(i) The cost of printing one rupee note, which was recently re-introduced after a gap of 20 years, is Rs. 1.14, more than its value, an RTI query has revealed.

(ii) The Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), under the central government, said in the RTI response that the cost is subject to audit, which is in progress, for financial year 2014-15.

(iii) “The cost of one rupee note is Rs 1.14 (provisionally and unaudited) as determined in accordance with the principle of costing and costing module,” it said replying to the application filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal.

(iv) Unlike other currency notes which the bear signature of RBI Governor, the one rupee note has signature of the Finance Secretary, and Mr. Agrawal demanded an enquiry into the “retrogressive” step.

SBH launches NPA resolution quarter

(i) The State Bank of Hyderabad launched on Wednesday a three-month-long campaign to settle certain category of NPA (non-performing asset) loans through compromise.

(ii) The NPA Resolution Quarter, a release from SBH said, is to “facilitate the defaulting borrowers [NPA accounts] in agriculture, small value SME and retail loan segments” who could not repay due to unavoidable circumstances and natural calamities. Home, car, education and personal loans come under the loan segment.

(iii) In the campaign period, up to September 30, such loans will be settled under compromise settlements. 

(iv) All suit filed cases can also be settled and resolved. Defaulting borrowers need to approach their respective branches, the release said.

India to become world’s second largest smartphone market

(i) Buoyed by growing sales, India will overtake the U.S. to become world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017, says a report.

(ii) According to international research firm Strategy Analytics, global smartphone sales are forecast to grow from 1.5 billion units in 2015 to a record 1.7 billion by 2017.

(iii) “India will soon overtake the U.S. to become the world’s second largest smartphone market by 2017 behind China, selling an impressive 174 million units,” the report said.