Daily updates 24 and 25 November 2019

International News

1. Ocean Dance Festival 2019 starts in Cox Bazar

• The  Ocean Dance Festival 2019 kicked off in Cox Bazar of Bangladesh. Ocean Dance Festival is the largest international dance festival of Bangladesh in which more than 200 dancers, choreographers and scholars from 15 countries are participating.
• The theme of this year's festival is 'Bridging the distance' or Durotter Shetubandhan.
• The dances performed at the event will show the idea of bridging cultural and economic distances.
• The festival is being organised by the Nrityajog which is the Bangladesh wing of World Dance Alliance (WDA). The festival aims to expand cultural tourism in Bangladesh.
• It also features seminars and discussion apart from the dance performances by the artists.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For RRB NTPC/SSC CGL:

• Bangladesh Capital: Dhaka; Currency: Taka; PM: Sheikh Hasina.

State News

2. Sangai Festival 2019 begins in Manipur

• Every year the State of Manipur celebrates the “Manipur Sangai Festival” from 21st to 30th November.
• The ‘Festival’ is named after the State animal, Sangai, the brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur.
• It started in the year 2010 and has grown over the years into a big platform for Manipur to showcase its rich tradition and culture to the world.
• The festival is organized by the State Tourism Department and biggest festival held annually to promote tourism.
• The formal inaugural function of the festival was held at Hapta Kangjeibung at Imphal.
• During the festival, cultural programmes, traditional games, folk dance and classical music will be performed by different communities of the State as well as from other States.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For IBPS SO 2019:

• Capital of Manipur: Imphal.
• Governor of Manipur: Najma Heptulla.
• Chief Minister of Manipur: N. Biren Singh.

Awards

3. Marathon man Kipchoge, hurdle heroine Muhammad win Athlete of the Year

• Eliud Kipchoge, the first man to run a marathon in less than two hours, and 400 metres hurdles world champion Dalilah Muhammad won the World Athlete of the Year awards.
• Kipchoge, claimed governing body World Athletics' year-ending prize in Monaco after making history last month when he ran the marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres (26.219 miles) in 1hr 59min 40.2sec.
• American Muhammad won her award after a magnificent year that saw her set a world record of 52.20 seconds at the US Trials in Iowa in July breaking a record that had stood since 2003.

Banking

4. RBI enhances scope of Non-Resident Rupee Accounts

• The RBI expanded the scope of Special Non-Resident Rupee Accounts (SNRR account) by permitting non-residents to open such accounts for rupee-denominated overseas borrowings, trade credit and trade invoicing for popularising cross-border transactions in the domestic currency.
• Any person resident outside India, having a business interest in India, can open a non-interest bearing Special Non-Resident Rupee Account (SNRR account) with a bank for bona fide transactions in rupees.
• The restriction on the tenure of SNRR account, which is currently 7 years, has also been removed.
• RBI has also modified norms regarding re-export of unsold rough diamonds from the special notified zone of Customs without export declaration form (EDF) formality.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For RRB NTPC/SSC CGL:

• The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935, in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• Governor of RBI: Shaktikanta Das; Headquarters: Mumbai.

Business

5. Muthoot Finance to acquire IDBI Mutual Fund for Rs 215 crore

• Muthoot Finance Ltd, the largest gold loan non-banking finance company in the country, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire IDBI Asset Management Ltd and IDBI Mutual Fund Trustee Company Ltd.
• Muthoot Finance will purchase 100 per cent equity shares of IDBI Asset Management and IDBI MF Trustee for a total consideration of Rs 215 crore.
• The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of February 2020.
• The deal is subject to receipt of approval from regulators including the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Static/Current Takeaways Important For IBPS SO 2019:

• Managing Director(MD) of Muthoot Finance Ltd: George Alexander Muthoot.
• Founded: 1939; Headquarters: Kochi, Kerala.

Summits and Conferences

6. India to host SCO forum of Young Scientists and Innovators 2020

• India will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Forum of Young Scientists and Innovators in 2020.
• The 5th Meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Member States Heads of Ministries and Departments of Science and Technology and Permanent Working Group on S&T Cooperation concluded in Moscow, Russia.
• Eight SCO member states' heads of delegation signed the Protocol of the 5th Meeting of Ministries and Departments of Science and Technology at the end of the three-day meeting.
• The meeting agreed with India & proposal to host the SCO Forum of Young Scientists and Innovators in 2020.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For RRB NTPC/SSC CGL:

• Secretary-General of SCO: Vladimir Norov.
• Founded: 19 September 2003; Headquarters: Beijing, China.

Sports

7. Lakshya Sen wins Scottish Open title

• India's Lakshya Sen has won the Scottish Open badminton men's singles title, defeating Brazilian Ygor Coelho to seal his fourth title in 3 months.
• Entering the tournament as the top seed, the world number 41 registered an 18-21, 21-18, 21-19 win in 56 minutes to claim the title in Glasgow, Scotland.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For IBPS SO 2019:

• Capital of Scotland: Edinburgh; Currency: Pound sterling.

8. Rafael Nadal wins Davis Cup title 2019

• Rafael Nadal has clinched 6th Davis Cup title for Spain after beating Denis Shapovalov of Canada in front of a jubilant home crowd in Madrid.
• Nadal defeated Shapovalov 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) to clinch Spain’s 2-0 win against Canada.

Science and Technology

9. Microsoft rolls out the K12 Education Transformation Framework in India

• Microsoft rolled out its K12 Education Transformation Framework more widely to schools across India at the second edition of the Microsoft Education Days in Gurgaon.
• Microsoft Education Days 2019 brought together more than 700 school leaders, educators, students and Microsoft partners to deliberate on the future of learning.
• It featured sessions moderated by Microsoft leaders and Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Experts on using technologies like AI, Teams, Minecraft and Flipgrid to collaborate and create unique learning experiences.
• Teachers and students from schools across India also demonstrated the innovative ways in which they are digitally transforming education by bringing in AI, gamification, personalization and simplifying STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning for students.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For RRB NTPC/SSC CGL:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Microsoft: Satya Nadella.
• Founded: April 4, 1975; Headquarters: Washington, United States(US).

10. NVIDIA announces world's largest GPU-accelerated cloud-based supercomputer

• NVIDIA has announced a new kind of GPU-accelerated supercomputer in the cloud on Microsoft Azure.
• NDv2 supercomputer is designed to handle demanding AI and high-performance computing applications, using up to 800 NVIDIA V100 Tensor Core GPUs interconnected on a single.
• Mellanox InfiniBand backend network, making it the world's largest GPU-accelerated cloud-based supercomputer.
• It enables customers to rent an AI supercomputer on-demand from their desk, and match the capabilities of large-scale on-premises supercomputers.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For RRB NTPC/SSC CGL:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) NVIDIA: Jensen Huang.
• Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States (US).

Obituaries

11. Former Madhya Pradesh CM Kailash Joshi passes away

• Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kailash Joshi has passed away.
• He was called as the 'saint of politics', served as the state's chief minister from 1977 to 1978.
• He was MLA for eight terms and also served as a member of both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

12. Former WB minister Kshiti Goswami passes away

• The General Secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and former West Bengal Minister Kshiti Goswami passed away.
• Goswami was PWD Minister in Jyoti Basu and Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's cabinet in the Left Front Government in the State.

Important Days

13. NCC celebrates its 71st Raising Day

• The National Cadet Corps (NCC), the world's largest uniformed youth organization, is celebrating its 71st Raising Day on 24 November.
• The celebrations began, with Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and DG NCC Lt Gen Rajeev Chopra paying homage to the martyrs, who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation, at the National War Memorial in New Delhi.
• The NCC Raising Day was also celebrated all over the country with the cadets participating in marches, cultural activities and social development programs.
• NCC continues its relentless efforts towards moulding the youth into responsible citizens of the country.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For IBPS SO 2019:

• Director-General of NCC: Lt Gen Rajeev Chopra.
• Founder: Government of the United Kingdom.
• Founded: 16 April 1948.
• Headquarters location: New Delhi.

14. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: 25 November

• The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed across the world on 25 November annually.
• The theme for this year is "Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape".
• This is a efforts to prevent and end violence against women at the global, regional and national levels show that there is widespread impunity on sexual violence and rape.
• The colour orange in the theme symbolizes a better future without the pervasive human rights violation that affects 1 in 3 women and girls all over the globe.

Miscellaneous

15. Amaravati included in India map as the capital of Andhra Pradesh

• The Survey of India, India’s central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying has released an updated map of India with Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh (AP).
• Amaravati had been missing from the previous map released by the Centre On November 2, 2019, which showed Hyderabad as the common capital of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh.
• The state of AP was bifurcated in the year 2014 and while it was initially decided that Hyderabad would serve as the common administrative capital for a period of 10 years.

Static/Current Takeaways Important For IBPS SO 2019:

• Governor of Andhra Pradesh: Biswabhusan Harichandan.
• Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh: Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy.