Daily GK Potion – 21st and 22nd February 2016

‘Swachh Himachal – Padhai bhi, Safai bhi’ campaign launched

Anurag Thakur, announced the launch for ‘Swachh Himachal – Padhai bhi, Safai bhi’ campaign
HPCA becomes the first cricket association in India to promote Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan
Anurag Thakur explained the foremost intent of Swachh Himachal initiative. The campaign aims at creating awareness and understanding among youth about the current sanitation situation of the State and thereby seeking their participation to work towards betterment of the society.

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan set up Special Purpose Vehicles for Smart Cities

Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have set up Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for the development of Smart Cities.
These cities are among the first 20 to bag Smart City challenge competition announced on January 28 this year.
The Ministry of Urban Development will release Rs 200 crore for each of the 20 selected cities only after the SPVs are set up.
SPVs are required to be set up under Smart City Mission Guidelines to ensure timely and efficient execution of plans.
Besides mobilising resources from various sources, SPVs will approve, sanction and execute the projects.

Noted singer Bhubaneswari Mishra passes away

Renowned singer Bhubaneswari Mishra passed away on Friday at her residence in New Delhi following a cardiac arrest
She was 67 and is survived by two sons and a daughter.
The classical singer began her career with the song ‘Tiki Mora Naa Ti’ for the mythological Odia movie Krushna Sudama in the 1970s.
Apart from many awards, Ms Mishra was also conferred with the Odisha State Film Award for best playback singer (female) for two consecutive terms in 1979 and 1980 for the movies Srikrushna Rasalila and Jay Ma Mangala respectively.

Jayant Misra appointed DG DRI

Senior IRS officer Jayant Misra was today appointed as Director General of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), ending eight months of vacancy of the post.
The move comes two days after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) asked the DRI to verify if USD 505 billion was transacted out of the country between 2004-2013 as part of trade-based money laundering.
Misra is currently DG (Systems) at the Directorate General of Systems and Data Management

Hockey India League 2016: Punjab Warriors beat Kalinga Lancers to clinch maiden title

Having lost the final in the last two seasons, the Jaypee Punjab Warriors finally struck gold to become third-time lucky as they clinched their Hockey India League (HIL) title in the fourth edition of the six-team tournament at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium
The Chandigarh-based outfit beat Kalinga Lancers 6-1 in the summit clash where Armaan Qureshi, Matt Gohdes and Satbir Singh scored a field goal each for the Warriors.
The unique feature of the tournament was that each field goal counted for two.

PM Modi launches Rurban Mission from Chhattisgarh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched the ambitious Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban (rural-urban) Mission from Chhattisgarh’s Dongargarh block,
It aims to draw an investment of over Rs 5,000 crore in three years to “transform rural areas to economically, socially and physically sustainable spaces.”
The Rurban mission would replace the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (Pura) initiative.
Rurban would create village clusters to minimise rural migration to cities through skill development programmes.
Rural migration was increasing but could be contained by providing quality of life in villages, he said. Development should ensure that the soul of a village remained intact but amenities were like those in cities.
Under the scheme, 300 clusters would be developed with an investment of Rs 5,100 crore in three years. Four clusters would be developed in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon, Dhamtari, Kawardha and Bastar districts. This year, 100 clusters would be taken up under the project.

Railway officer Vinay Kumar Singh to head NCRTC

Railway officer Vinay Kumar Singh is learnt to have been chosen for appointment as Managing Director of the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC)
NCRTC is the implementing agency for the three corridors of the Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) in the NCR zone.
Currently Singh is with the RVNL, a railway PSU, and is involved in the study of high speed rail corridors.
NCRTC will execute three rapid rail corridors to Panipat, Meerut and Alwar from the capital at an estimated cost of Rs 72,170 crore. The corridors are expected to considerably reduce the travel time.

Malayalam film ‘Ottal’ wins Best Children’s Film award at Berlin Film Festival

Malayalam film ‘Ottal’ has been named the best children’s film at the Berlin International Film Festival and honoured with the Crystal Bear award in the ‘Generation KPlus’ section.
The film, directed by Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair, is about the story of an old fisherman and his grandson.
The movie is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s short story ‘Vanaka’.
This is the third year in a row that Indian films have triumphed. Earlier winners were “Killa” 2014 and “Dhanak” 2015. “Ottal” bagged the National Award for best film on Environment Conservation/Preservation and it set a record at 20th International Film Festival Of Kerala by sweeping all the top awards.

42nd Khajuraho Dance Festival begins in Madhya Pradesh

The 42nd Khajuraho Dance Festival began in the temple town of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh.
The world famous dance festival began with Odissi group dance of Ranjna Gauher and others.
Madhumita Roy and Madhuri Majumdar gave presentation of Kathak-Kuchipudi and Purvadhanashree presented Bharatnatyam. State Fine Arts Awards were given away to ten artists on this occasion.

PIB clears India Post’s Rs 800 crore proposal for payments bank

The Public Investment Board has approved the Rs 800-crore proposal from India Post for setting up a payments bank and it will be placed before the Cabinet within a month for final approval
The department is also in the process of finalising selection of a consultant for setting up of the India Post payments bank.
The India Post payments bank will primarily target unbanked and under-banked customers in rural, semi-rural and remote areas, with a focus on providing simple deposit products and money remittance services.
The pilot for the payments bank is set to start from January 2017 and the full-fledged operations may start by March.
As per the RBI guidelines, a payments bank can offer limited services such as demand deposits and remittances
They will not be allowed to undertake lending activities and will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.
They will be allowed to issue ATM or debit cards as other prepaid payment instruments but not credit cards.