Daily GK Updates,Current Affairs 18th December 2016
1. State Bank MobiCash Mobile Wallet launched
* Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley and Minister of State for Communications (Independent charge) and Minster of State for Railways Manoj Sinha has jointly launched State Bank MobiCash Mobile Wallet, a product by SBI and BSNL.
* While introducing the service, Finance Minister appreciated the broader vision of SBI and BSNL to bring a Wallet both for smart and feature phones.
2. RBI lowers charges on debit card payments to promote digital transactions
* In order to incentivise greater adoption of digital payment methods, the Reserve Bank has announced special measures to be adopted between 1st January 2017 and 31st March 2017.
* In another notification, RBI has asked banks and prepaid payment instrument issuing entities not to levy any charges for transactions upto 1000 rupees that are settled using Immediate Payment Service, USSD based *99# and Unified Payment Interface systems.
* In a notification issued from Mumbai, RBI has advised banks to cap the Merchant Discount Rates for debit card transactions upto 1000 rupees at 0.25 percent of the transaction value. For transactions between 1000 and 2000 rupees, the merchant charges shall be capped at 0.5 percent of the transaction value.
3. Lt Gen Bipin Rawat to be next Indian Army chief; B.S Dhanoa to be IAF chief
* The Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Bipin Rawat will be the new Chief of Army Staff, while Air Marshal BS Dhanoa, the next Chief of Air Staff. They will take charge in the afternoon of 31st of this month.
* Lt. Gen Rawat will replace General Dalbir Singh. Lt. Gen has tremendous hands on experience of serving in combat areas, and at various functional levels in the Indian Army over the last three decades. He has handled various operational responsibilities in many areas, including along the LoC with Pakistan, the LAC with China, and in the North-East.
* Air Marshal Dhanoa, who will replace Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Air Force in June 1978. He has served in various squadrons, and also in the Intelligence Directorate of Air Headquarters.
4. India, Tajikistan decide to strengthen cooperation to address issue of terrorism; Sign four agreements
* India and Tajikistan have signed four agreements in areas including on double taxation avoidance, money laundering and counter-terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon witnessed the exchange of MoUs in New Delhi following delegation level talks.
5. Rajiv Jain named next Director of IB, AK Dhasmana to head RAW
* Jharkhand cadre IPS officer Rajiv Jain was appointed as the new chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB) while Anil Dhasmana will head external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Both the officers will have a tenure of two years. Jain, who is at present serving as the Special Director in the IB, will take over on January 1 after the incumbent Dineshwar Sharma completes his two-year tenure on December 31, 2016.
* In another appointment, Anil Dhasmana will take over the reins of the Research and Analysis Wing, an organisation which looks after the external intelligence of the country. He succeeds Rajinder Khanna who completes his tenure this year end.
6. Paris opens ‘world’s largest non-permanent indoor ice rink’
* A 2,700-square-meter skating space, which is being considered the world’s largest non-permanent indoor ice rink, recently opened at the Grand Palais in Paris. Over 100 workers constructed the ice rink, which will remain open until January 2. The rink was inaugurated by a show featuring skating stunts and acrobatics as part of the ‘Grand Palais des Glaces’ festival.
7. Priyanka Chopra beats DiCaprio, JLaw on IMDb’s most popular celebs list
* Here’s another achievement in Priyanka Chopra’s kitty. She has now made it up to the list of IMDb’s most popular celebrities’ list. Standing at number 55, Priyanka is ahead of Hollywood’s big names like Jennifer Aniston, Emma Watson, Leonardo Di Caprio, Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson and others.
* Priyanka is also the only Indian who’s on the list. Number one on the list is Sofia Boutella, the badass assassin from Kingsman: The Secret Service and will now be seen in The Mummy with Tom Cruise.
8. Odisha Govt sets target for construction of 1000 km concrete road
* Odisha government has decided to construct more 2,000 kilometre of cement concrete roads under the Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana in rural areas by March 2017. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik issued this direction while chairing a review meeting on the progress of concrete road construction works in rural areas at the State Secretariat in Bhubaneswar.
* The State government has allocated 1,000 crore rupees for the Gopabandhu Gramin Yojana in the current year’s Budget. The sanctioned funds will be utilised in 30 districts of the State for for road construction and drinking water facilities in rural areas.
9. Himachal Pradesh becomes sixth in India to attain 100% Aadhaar saturation
* The Himachal Pradesh has achieved 100 percent Aadhar saturation on the basis of population of year 2015. With this, Himachal Pradesh has become the sixth State/UT in the Country.
* Earlier, Delhi, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh have achieved this milestone.
10.Himachal First Cyber crime police station opens in Shimla
* In Himachal Pradesh, the first Cyber Crime Police Station has been opened at state police headquarter in Shimla. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh inaugurated this Police Station through video conferencing from his office.
* According to Deputy Inspector General CID and Cyber Crime Vinod Kumar Dhawan, the main objective of this police station is to deal with increasing crime based on misuse of information technology by the High tech criminals.
