Daily GK Potion – 15th October 2014

  1. Full mobile number portability by March 31, 2015
    • The department of telecom has set the date March 31, 2015 to completely implement the mobile number portability.
    • At present subscriber can portable number within same service area only. For example, a subscriber in Delhi NCR can switch operator within Delhi NCR only.
  2. Indigo to buy 250 Airbus A-320 neo bus planes
    • Indigo places order for 250 Airbus A-320 neo bus planes worth $ 25.5 billion.
    • This is biggest ever contract ever for European manufacturer in terms of number of planes.
  3. Japanese air conditioner maker Daikin planning to set up second manufacturing plant in India
  4. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan conferred Best Central Bank Governor for 2014 by Euromoney magazine.
  5. A.K. Srinivasan will be the next director (Finance) of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC)
    • Srinivasan is the current Executive Director in ONGC, he will replace will replace A.K. Banerjee who is going to retire on April 30, 2015.
    • Public Enterprise Selection Board recommended his name. The recommendation will now go to the Oil Ministry which after processing will move a proposal to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) after taking no-objection from anti-corruption watchdogs CVC and CBI.
    • He will have tenure of 2 years.
  6. India banned the import of animal-tested beauty products
    • With this move, India becomes the first cruelty free cosmetics zone in South Asia.
    • The ban comes in the form of Rule 135-B that states that no cosmetic that has been tested on animals after the commencement of Drugs and Cosmetics (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2014 shall be imported into the country.
    • This will be implemented from November 13, 2014.
  7. RBI soon will issue guidelines for small finance banks
  8. Pension system of India ranked last in 25 markets
    • India scored 43.5 score out of 100.
    • Denmark is ranked number one with score of 82.4 on Mercer’s Global Pension Index.
  9. SBI links free ATM withdrawal limit with balance
    • SBI will limit the number for transactions to 4 per month for those maintaining the balance of Rs 25000.
    • For customers with monthly average balance of Rs. 25000 or above, the bank will allow unlimited usage of its ATM, but third party atm usage limit is restricted to 3.
    • For customer with monthly average balance of Rs. 1 lakh will be provided unlimited access to all ATM across country.
    • Those who exceed the limit will be charged Rs. 5 per transaction at SBI ATM and Rs. 20 on other bank ATM.
  10. Australian author Richard Flanagan won 2014 Man Booker prize for ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’. The prize money for the award is £50,000.
  11. “Final Test: Exit Sachin Tendulkar”  by writer-journalist Dilip D’Souza released
  12. Global hand washing day observed on October 15
    • To celebrate Global Handwashing Day 2014, the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, FHI 360, Devex, and WASH Advocates co-hosted an event exploring new ideas in hygiene integration, innovations in handwashing and insights into behavioral drivers.