Daily GK Updates: 6 July 2014

1.     Cartoonist Pran, creator of iconic Chacha Chowdhury, dead

i. Eminent cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, popularly known as Pran, who gave life to lovable comic characters Chacha Chaudhury and his friend Sabu, is no more

ii. Pran succumbed to cancer early this morning at a hospital in Gurgaon, according to his publisher Diamond Comics. He was 75. "Pran passed away at 9 AM at the Medanta hospital. He had been suffering from cancer of the intestine for the past eight months.
iii. He is survived by a son and a daughter," Gulshan Rai, Publisher, Diamond Comics, told reporters.
iv. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to twitter to express his grief over the passing away of the cartoonist. Modi described Pran "as a versatile cartoonist who brought smiles on the faces of people through his rich work". 
v. Born in Kasur, near Lahore in Pakistan in 1938, Pran began his career in 1960 as a cartoonist for the Delhi-based newspaper 'Milap' with comic strip 'Daabu'. In 1969, Pran sketched Chacha Chaudhary for the Hindi magazine 'Lotpot', which made him famous. "Pran was making small cartoons for newspapers when I first contacted him in 1981. 
vi. At that time there were no Indian comics, it was all reproductions of foreign titles. For the last 35 years we have been the sole publisher of his cartoons," said Rai. 
vii. With a career spanning over five decades, Pran employed a simple style of art and sense of humour to create a family of characters like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman and Channi Chachi, which are regularly published in Indian magazines. 

2.     Doordarshan signs pact with German channel

i. In an effort to distribute its content to international markets, DD India has signed an agreement with German public service broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

ii. This agreement will help India’s public broadcaster get a global footprint with its programmes becoming part of the Free-to-Air basic pack on a DTH platform.

iii. Under this agreement, DD’s overseas channel will be available on the DTH platform of Hotbird-13 B satellite and DW-TV will be distributed on DD Freedish. This will be the first time in the history of Prasar Bharati that DD programmes will be available on an international DTH platfo    rm.

iv. DD’s international channel will be beamed across 120 million households in Europe, Northern Africa, Central Asia as well as West Asia. Prasar Bharati has paid about ₹90 lakhs to DW under this agreement

3.     Lok Sabha passes Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill

i. A Bill to enhance the powers of market regulator SEBI to curb the menace of Ponzi schemes and protect investors from fraudulent diversion of monies raised from them was passed by Lok Sabha here on Wednesday.

ii. The Securities Laws (amendment) Bill was passed by the Lower House through a voice vote after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley replied to the issues raised by various members on the functioning of SEBI and its ability to curb collective investment schemes that thrive at the expense of gullible investors.

iii. Replying to the discussions on the Bill, Jaitley said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi will in the next few days announce a financial inclusion project that would seek to open two bank accounts in each of the 7.5 crore families identified for the exercise, which will be undertaken on a mission mode.

4.     Fifth India-US Energy Summit to focus on renewable energy

i. Renewable energy and energy security would be the focus of the two-day annual India-US Energy Summit to be held here next month.

ii. Noting that energy security is critical for both the US and India, Dr R.K Pachauri, president of The Energy and Resources Institute North America (TERI NA), said the two countries must work together, both in energy security as well as on policy fronts, so as to bring in some positive changes.

iii. The two-day event from September 30 being organised by TERI and Yale University is likely to be attended by top officials and energy experts from both the countries.

iv. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to be in the city to meet President Barack Obama, has been invited to address the meeting in energy, a subject close to his heart.

v. According to a TERI statement, the focus of the Summit will be on bilateral cooperation in the energy sector and related areas.

5.     Banks’ Tier-I capital need for 5 years surges to Rs.20,000 cr: ICRA

i. With the capital requirement of Indian banks likely to go up gradually till 2018-19 (FY2019), Tier I issuances are likely to increase significantly till that year, according to an ICRA report

ii. Tier I issuances include common Equity and additional Tier I or AT1.

iii. While the AT1 requirement for this fiscal year 2015 would be around Rs. 20,000 crore, in subsequent years, the annual requirement could be as high as Rs. 40,000 crore – 50,000 crore, the rating agency said in a statement.

iv. However, these instruments come with significant risk. The guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Basel III introduce stringent loss absorption clauses for hybrid instruments so that loss absorption kicks in before the “public injection of funds”.

v.  While both Tier I and Tier II instruments have significant loss absorption features, Tier I instruments are meant to absorb losses on a going concern basis, and therefore, the loss absorption trigger kicks in fairly early.

6.     ICICI Bank launches travel card for students going abroad for studies

i. ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private sector bank, has announced the launch of the ‘ICICI Bank Student Travel Card’, which enables students going abroad for higher studies to take care of their expenses.

ii. “The card offers both students and parents a convenient, safe and hassle-free way to manage their education-related expenses abroad. While it helps the students pay for expenses such as application fee, university admission and other course-related fees, hostel fee and day-to-day living expenses, their parents can reload the card from India. Also, the card allows withdrawal from ATMs across the globe in local currency,” the bank said in a statement.

iii. The unique feature of the card is that it is bundled with membership of the International Student Identity Card (ISIC). ISIC is the only internationally accepted proof of full-time student status and offers 40,000 benefits and discounts at 120,000 merchant outlets across 130 countries.

iv. ICICI Bank Student Travel Card is available in the dollar, pound, euro, Australian dollar and Canadian dollar. It is valid for three years and can be applied for from any foreign exchange-enabled ICICI Bank branch. Anyone, including non-customers, can apply for this card.


You may also like Daily GK for August 2014