Daily GK Potion – 8th January 2015
- Charlie Hebdo: Gun attack on French magazine kills 12
- Gunmen have shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack.
- The killed persons include Editor-in-Chief Stephane Charbonnie (known as Charb) and cartoonists Jean ‘Cabu’ Cabut (known as Cabu), Tignous and Wolinski, as well as Charlie Hebdo contributor and French economist Bernard Maris.
- The organization was attacked for its satire edition of 2011 in which it listed the Prophet Mohammed as editor-in-chief and featured cartoons. In retaliation
- India to host World Bridge championships for first time
- India will host top Bridge players of the world for the first time at the 42nd World Bridge Team Championship, to be held in Chennai from September 26 to October 10.
- “This championship is being held in Asia for the first time ever and it is indeed a matter of great pride that World Bridge Federation (WBF) allotted the event to India,” said Bridge Federation of India (BFI) president N R Kirubakaramoorthy.
- Atul Khare Appointed UN Under Secretary-General for Field Support
- UN chief Ban Ki-moon has appointed senior Indian diplomat Atul Khare as the Under Secretary-General for Field Support. He will head the department that provides dedicated support to peacekeeping missions around the world.
- Khare, 55 will succeed Bangladesh’s Ameerah Haq as the Under Secretary-General for Field Support, Department of Field Support (DFS).
- DFS provides dedicated support to peacekeeping field missions and political field missions around the world.
- ICC announces 2015 associate and affiliate panel of umpires
- The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the 11-member associate and affiliate panel of umpires for this year.
- ICICI Bank launches contactless debit & credit cards
- ICICI Bank launched the country’s first contactless debit and credit cards that use the near-field communication technology.
- It enables one to make payments by just waving the card near merchant terminals instead of swiping the same.
- The bank has launched two cards with the new technology — the Coral contactless credit cards and the Expressions wave debit cards — and both can also be used as regular cards at all merchant terminals (in other cities).
- The bank has introduced these two cards in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon to begin with and it has installed over 1,200 PoS machines capable of accepting contactless payments in these cities.
- The near field communication (NFC) technology provides customers improved convenience of speed and security over traditional cards as these cards can complete a transaction faster and be more secured as they remain with customer.
- Hike acquires Zip Phone, to launch free app-based voice calling soon
- Instant messaging application Hike messenger Thursday acquired a free voice-calling company – Zip Phone – as it gears up to launch a free app-based voice-calling services.
- Australian airline Qantas named world’s safest
- Australian flag carrier Qantas has been named the world’s safest airline in a report published by AirlineRatings.com.
- Quikr launches instant messaging for users
- In a move to enable seamless transactions between its users, online classifieds company Quikr has launched a new product, Quikr Nxt.
- Quickr Nxt is the world’s first instant messenger by a classifieds company, and allows users to chat using the website or mobile app.
- The messenger has been integrated into Quikr’s mobile app, mobile site and website.
- PM inaugurates 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the 13th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
- He inaugurated the Dandi Kutir museum, which is exhibiting various stages of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and work.
- Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is the world’s largest annual gathering of people of Indian origin.
- More than 4,000 delegates have arrived for the 13th PBD, aimed at enhancing networking and reinforcing commercial linkages.There are 25 million people of Indian origin residing outside India.