GK and Current Affairs Updates

Ministry of Railways has decided to undertake a week long RAIL HAMSAFAR SAPTAAH' from 26th May to 1st June, 2016. 
•    Each day of the week will focus on a particular theme and hence the days have been named as 
•    26th May-Swachchta Diwas, 
•    27th May-Satkar Diwas, 
•    28th May-Sewa Diwas, 
•    29th May-Satarkata Diwas, 
•    30th May-Saamanjasya Diwas, 
•    31st May-Sanyojan Diwas and 
•    1st June-Sanchaar Diwas. 
•    Shri Mohd. Jamshed shall be the Nodal Member. 
•    CRB and Board Members may also be visiting and participating in these activities as per their programmes. 
•    Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has directed that all the General Managers should personally supervise various activities.
•    This practice is being done after a long time of regular complaint regarding features and qualities of railway services.

India on 27th May successfully test fired the over 290-km range BrahMos land-attack supersonic cruise missile.

•    The system was put to check by the Indian Air Force, which has acquired a squadron of it consisting of over 50 missiles, at about 1200 hours in the Pokharan firing range.
•    The unique BrahMos weapon system on numerous occasions has established its supremacy in the world of supersonic cruise missile.
•    The flight conducted has met its mission parameters in a copybook manner.
•    The missile met all flight parameters the formidable weapon successfully hit and annihilated the designated target.
•    Present DRDO chief is S Christopher.
•    The accuracy was recently re-established in a campaign conducted by the Indian Army in the eastern sector last year.
•    This formidable missile system has empowered all three wings of the armed forces with impeccable anti-ship and land attack capability.

Snapdeal-owned digital payments platform Freecharge, has recently announced a top level rejig at the company with the appointment of Govind Rajan as the Chief Executive Officer. 
Freecharge had teamed up with Yes Bank to launch a digital wallet that will allow consumers make payments for transactions on both Freecharge and Snapdeal.
•    Prior to Snapdeal, Rajan was overseeing Airtel's revenue and      market share growth, customer life cycle management and building marketing capabilities across the organisation.
•    The deal is said to be 30% in cash and 70% in stock. The          transaction was done at a $5 billion valuation   for Snapdeal.
•    Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said here on Wednesday that the joint entity would create the    country's largest mobile   commerce platform with over 40 million customers. About half of that comes from FreeCharge.
•    Flipkart, with which Snapdeal is in fierce competition, has 30 million registered users. Flipkart had acquired online clothing firm Myntra for over $330 million last year.

Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Pinarayi Vijayan took oath as the Chief Minister of Kerala with 19 ministers at the central stadium in capital Thiruvananthapuram in a ceremony that drew over 30,000 people.
•    Pinarayi Vijayan served for 17 years as the CPM's Kerala state secretary, the longest tenure ever. 
•    He has been elected to the state assembly five times and won this year's election from Dharmadam constituency by a margin of 36,000 votes.
•    In his cabinet, Mr Vijayan will have 12 ministers from the CPM or Communist Party of India-Marxist, four from the Communist Party of India or CPI and one each from LDF constituents the Janata Dal-S, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress-S.
•    Govt. major promises are safety for women and minorities, welfare of students and the elderly and a promise of new jobs and control of inflation.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) on Wednesday launched a multilingual knowledge portal www.bharatavani.in that has more than 130 dictionaries, glossaries and terminology books in text and PDF formats.
•    The content in print and other formats will be completely digitized and put onto the portal in the form of searchable text. 
•    The portal has been launched in 22 scheduled languages, which eventually   will be extended to 100 more languages,
•    The App has 35 multilingual Dictionaries and HRD aims to extend it to 250 dictionaries in a year’s time
•    Bharatavani aims to foster national integration by emphasizing on            multilingual and cross-lingual learning tools and technologies.
•    The Bharatavani Portal would publish the content in the following main      sections:
Paa Thyapustaka Kosha : Textbooks by various authorities
Jnana Kosha : Encyclopedic Knowledge base in all languages
Shabda Kosha: Dictionaries, Glossaries, Terminologies,
Bhasha Kosha: Language learning books
Suchanaa Praudyogikii Kosha : It tools ( right now linked to TDIL)
Bahumaadhyama Kosha: Multimedia content
•    More than 130 Dictionaries, Glossaries and Terminology books have been   posted on the web portal. These dictionaries are available in text and PDF   formats.

Sanjay Bangar has been appointed as the head coach of the Indian team for the upcoming limited-overs series in Zimbabwe.
•    Bangar, the ex-India and Railways all rounder, had been part of the Indian team as assistant coach till the World T20. 
•    The BCCI, however, didn’t appoint a bowling coach for the short series during which India will  play three ODIs and as many T20 internationals, starting June 11. 
•    Bangar had been witnessing a fine season as a coach, taking Kings XI Punjab to the IPL 7 final and winning many accolades. 
•    His job in the Indian team became more hands-on as Fletcher left after the 2015 World Cup. 
•    Sanjay Bapusaheb Bangar About this sound pronunciation.
•    He is a former Indian cricketer. 
•    He was an all-rounder and had represented India in Tests and One Day Internationals. 
•    He is current batting coach of Indian cricket team since August 2014

Intel India announced a series of initiatives that strengthen its support for the Digital India programme launched by the Government of India. Intel detailed three projects designed to accelerate digital literacy at the grassroots level by reaching out to the population in non-urban India, up-skill citizens in tier II cities and beyond, and encourage innovation from the local level
•    Building on the momentum of its 'Ek Kadam Unnati Ki Aur' initiative, the company aims to accelerate access to technology in non-urban India, Intel India e-launched its latest 'Unnati Kendra at Common Service Centre' (UK at CSC) in Karnal.
•    Intel India also announced the Digital Unnati website, being set up in collaboration with the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. 
•    It will enable Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) to learn how to assemble a PC online and up-skill their technology know-how.
•    Trained personnel at these centers are also conducting in-depth sessions on digital literacy, computer skills and internet facilities, along with dedicated guidance sessions in entrepreneurship, language and vocational training, with the goal of creating opportunities for non-urban education, employment and empowerment.

India managed to win a silver medal in the Asian Snooker team championship in Abu Dhabi after they lost to Iran 2-3 yesterday.
•    Mehta, India’s lone professional snooker player gave the country a good start after he beat Iran’s Amir Sarkosh 65-53 in the opening game, according to information provided by the team coach Derek Sippy.
•    Thereafter, Advani, recently crowned the continent’s 6-Red champion, lost to Soheil Vahedi 7-54. Amir and Soheil then joined hands to trounce the Indian pair of Advani and Mehta 1-77.
•    Pankaj then came back to win against Amir 69-64 to make it 2-2.  In the do-or-die clash, Aditya lost to Soheil 40-74.  In the semi-finals, India thrashed Pakistan 3-0.
•    The World Snooker Championship is the leading snooker tournament both in terms of prestige and prize money. 
•    The first championship was held in 1927 and was won by Joe Davis. Davis won the first 15 championships before retiring from the event, undefeated, after his 1946 success. 
•    In the 1950s snooker went into a period of decline and the championship was not held after 1952, although an unofficial championship was held until 1957. 
•    In 1964 the championship was revived on a challenge basis and in 1969 the championship became a knock-out event again. 

The Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi released the Draft Model Rules under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 in New Delhi today. The draft rules have been released for stakeholder comments and suggestions.
 The Act is a comprehensive law with strengthened provisions for children in conflict with law and those in need of care and protection. 
•    The Draft Model Rules, 2016 that repeal the Model Rules, 2007, are based on the philosophy that children need to be reformed and reintegrated into society. 
•    The Rules are appreciative of the development needs of children and therefore best interest of the child along with child friendly procedures is incorporated across the provisions and is the primary consideration.
•    One of the key features of the JJ Act, 2015 is special treatment of children in the age group of 16-18 years who commit heinous offences. 
•    The Draft rules prescribe detailed child friendly procedures for police, Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and Children’s Court. 
•    A principle of JJ Act, 2015 is that keeping children in institutional care should be a measure of last resort. The Act therefore provides for various de-institutionalization measures for children such as adoption, foster care and sponsorship. 

US-based Rockefeller Foundation has selected Jaipur and Pune in its third and final tranche of the world's 100 most resilient cities list. 
•    Rockefeller helps cities become more resilient to social and economic challenges by providing them with technical assistance and $200 million in funding. 
•    The first two tranches of the list included the Indian cities of Surat, Bengaluru and Chennai
•    The selection has made the city eligible to receive funding to hire a Chief Resilience Officer, who will lead the city’s resilience-building process and engage stakeholders from across different government agencies, public and private sectors and various communities to incorporate diverse perspective and knowledge. 
•    The city will also receive technical support to develop a resilience strategy that reflects the city’s distinct needs and support and services needed towards implementing that strategy.
•    In 2009, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had made efforts to join hands with the United Nation International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) to upgrade its disaster management efforts and become a part of the UN mission to make 1,000 cities world over as “disaster-safe city”.