GK and Current Affairs Updates

India's Durga Thakur was on 19 April 2016 promoted as International Outdoor Umpire by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The decision was taken after watching her performance at the Hawkes Bay Cup that was held in April 2016 in Hastings, New Zealand.
With this, Thakur became an addition to a crop of young Indian umpires currently officiating at the international level. FIH’s list currently has 14 Indians in the elite league of international umpires (10 men, 4 women).
• Thakur started her career as an umpire from the third Hockey India Sub-Junior Men & Women National Championship (Finals) in Bhopal in 2013.
• A graduate of NSNIS in 2011, her first international assignment came in 2015 at the double six-Nation Cup in Breda, Netherlands.
• She has also represented her state Himachal Pradesh in the National Championships in three sporting disciplines- Handball, Basketball and Hockey.
 PM Modi inaugurates superspeciality hospital in KatraThe Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, visited Katra, in Jammu and Kashmir on 19-April-2016. 
•    He inaugurated the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Super Speciality Hospital, and delivered the Convocation Address at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. 
•    The Prime Minister exhorted the students to always remember that one of the sources of funding for this University, was the donation made by poor pilgrims at the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. He said that the students should also take a pledge to do something for the poor. 
•    He said that the nation is scaling new heights, and with a youthful population, there is a lot that can be achieved. He said the 21st century is the century of knowledge, and whenever there has been an era of knowledge, India has shown the way. 
•    The Prime Minister appreciated the girl students for performing exceedingly well academically. He also recalled the feat of Dipa Karmakar, who has become the first Indian woman to qualify for an Olympics gymnastics competition. 
•    The Prime Minister later inaugurated the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Sports Complex, and addressed a public meeting. He appreciated the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, for her energetic leadership, and for the enthusiasm with which she spoke of the future of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. He also recalled the former Chief Minister of the State, Shri Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. 
•    Referring to the Sports Complex, he said that sports is extremely important to build sportsman spirit in society. He also mentioned the FIFA Under-17 World Cup that will be hosted by India in 2017, and said this should be an opportunity for us to celebrate sports. 
•    The Prime Minister recalled Shri Atal Bihari’s vision for Jammu and Kashmir – Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat, and Kashmiriyat. He said that every effort would be made to work towards the development of the State, keeping in mind this vision.

The RBL Bank on 19 April 2016 became the first private sector bank in India to open dedicated branch for start-ups. The dedicated branch was inaugurated at Koramangala, Bengaluru by Nandan Nilekani, noted entrepreneur and former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
The move came following the launch of first branch dedicated of the State Bank of India in January 2016 to serve the needs of start-ups in Bengaluru. 
• The first exclusive bank branch for start-ups will offer a bouquet of banking products to service the end-to-end needs of the emerging entrepreneurial eco-system.
• The branch will assist entrepreneurs in setting up new enterprises or companies. 
• It will offer them host of banking products including, foreign exchange services, remittances and cash management. 
• It will also provide a range of value added services including legal and tax formalities, registration etc. through its affiliates and partners. 
•    The RBL Bank is a scheduled commercial bank headquartered in the Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Founded in August 1943, RBL is one of the oldest private sector banks in India. 
•    The Bank currently services approximately 1 million customers and has a total business size of over 20000 Crore rupees.
•    Startup India campaign is a flagship program of indian prime minister shri narendra modi. It is based on an action plan aimed at promoting bank financing for start-up ventures so as to boost entrepreneurship and encourage young Indians towards start ups with a boom in jobs.

Campaign was previously announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 August at Red Fort.  This whole campaign is focused on getting rid of "license raj" and other obstacles like land acquisition, foreign investment proposal, environmental clearances etc

The 2016 Pulitzer Prizes winners were announced on 18 April 2016.
•    The Marshall Project and Pro Publica won the Explanatory Reporting Prize for their 12000-word article, An Unbelievable Story of Rape, about a failed police investigation into a young woman’s allegations of rape.
•    The Associated Press won the Public Service Award for its investigation into the use of slave labour across the seafood industry in Southeast Asia. Through the investigation, the A.P. traced how that very seafood was then sold across supermarkets and restaurants in the United States.
•    List of winners:
•    Public Service - Associated Press for an investigation of severe labour abuses tied to the supply of seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants
•    Breaking News Reporting - Los Angeles Times Staff for exceptional reporting, including both local and global perspectives, on the shooting in San Bernardino and the terror investigation that followed
•    Investigative Reporting - Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for a stellar example of collaborative reporting by two news organizations that revealed escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals and laid the blame at the door of state official
•    Explanatory Reporting - T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project for a startling examination and exposé of law enforcement's enduring failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims
•    Local Reporting - Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner of Tampa Bay Times for exposing a local school board's culpability in turning some county schools into failure factories, with tragic consequences for the community
•    National Reporting - The Washington Post Staff for its revelatory initiative in creating and using a national database to illustrate how often and why the police shoot to kill and who the victims are most likely to be
•    International Reporting - Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times for thoroughly reported and movingly written accounts giving voice to Afghan women who were forced to endure unspeakable cruelties
•    Feature Writing - Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker for an elegant scientific narrative of the rupturing of the Cascadia fault line, a masterwork of environmental reporting and writing
•    Commentary - Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe for extensively reported columns that probe the legacy of busing in Boston and its effect on education in the city with a clear eye on ongoing racial contradictions
•    Criticism - Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker for television reviews written with an affection that never blunts the shrewdness of her analysis or the easy authority of her writing
•    Editorial Writing - John Hackworth and Brian Gleason of Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, FL for fierce, indignant editorials that demanded truth and change after the deadly assault of an inmate by corrections officers
•    Editorial Cartooning - Jack Ohman of The Sacramento Bee for cartoons that convey wry, rueful perspectives through sophisticated style that combines bold line work with subtle colours and textures
•    Breaking News Photography - Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev, Tyler Hicks and Daniel Etter of The New York Times for photographs that captured the resolve of refugees, the perils of their journeys and the struggle of host countries to take them in
•    Photography Staff of Thomson Reuters for gripping photographs, each with its own voice, that follow migrant refugees hundreds of miles across uncertain boundaries to unknown destinations
•    Feature Photography - Jessica Rinaldi of The Boston Globe for the raw and revealing photographic story of a boy who strives to find his footing after abuse by those he trusted
 • The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
• It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University in New York City.
• Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of the categories, each winner receives a certificate and a 10000 US dollars cash award.
• The winner in the public service category of the journalism competition is awarded a gold medal.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 20 April 2016 appointed Rahul Johri as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
•    Rahul Johri, who was last serving as Discovery Networks Asia Pacific’s Executive Vice-President and General Manager for South Asia, will take on his new role starting 1 June 2016 onwards. He will be reporting to the BCCI Secretary.
•    The creation of the post of the CEO was a change recommended by the three-member Lodha panel in its report in January 2016. The panel had stressed the need for the BCCI to separate its governance and management duties, with the CEO taking charge of the management side.
•    Rahul who carries 20-plus-year experience in the media industry was last associated with Discovery Network for 15 years and for the past eight years was leading South Asia operations.
•    The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act.
•    It is a consortium of state cricket associations and the state associations select their representatives who in turn elect the BCCI officials.

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 19 April 2016 presented the Hindi Sevi Samman Awards for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014. The awards were presented at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
•    The Hindi Sevi Samman Awards were instituted by Central Hindi Institute, Agra in 1989.  Fourteen scholars receive this award in seven different categories every year for their contribution in the field of Hindi language and literature.
•    The awardees i

n different categories include:
•    Ganga Sharan Singh Award - For work in the field of promotion and training of Hindi - 
•    For year 2012 - B Satyanarayan, Radhakant Mishra, R. Surendran
•    For year 2013 - Shirda Kumar Saikia, T.S.K Kannan, Rabindranath Mishra, D.M. Savitri 
•    For year 2014 - M. Venkateshwar, V.D. Hegde - Deven Chand Das ‘Sudama’Beena Budki
•    Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Award - For work in the field of journalism and creative literature
•    For year 2012 - Mahesh Darpan, Vishwanath Sachdev
•    For year 2013 - Rajeev Katara, B V Lalitamba
•    For year 2014 - Devendra Kumar, Shatrughan Prasad
•    Atmaram Award - For work in the field of Science and Technology  literature  and Machinery growth
•    For year 2012- Devendra Kumar, Shatrughan Prasad
•    For year 2013 - Balendu Sharma Dadhich, Dinesh Mani
•    For year 2014 - Suresh Kumar Jindal, Suresh Tiwari

Hollywood actress Doris Roberts died on 17 April 2016 in Los Angeles in her sleep. She was 90.
•    She was renowned for playing meddling mother Marie Barone in US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
•    She won five Emmy Awards over the course of her career, four of which are for her role in Raymond, which ran from 1996 - 2005. The other was her first Emmy in 1983, for her supporting role on the series St. Elsewhere’
•    She acted in several Hollywood films which include The Rose, Madea's Witness Protection and the original version of The Taking of Pelham 123.
•    She was born on 4 November 1925 in St. Louis, and grew up in New York.
•    Doris Roberts was an American actress. She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1951. 
•    She was perhaps best known for her role as Raymond Barone's mother, Marie Barone, on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which ran from 1996–2005.

Hollywood actress Doris Roberts died on 17 April 2016 in Los Angeles in her sleep. She was 90.
•    She was renowned for playing meddling mother Marie Barone in US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
•    She won five Emmy Awards over the course of her career, four of which are for her role in Raymond, which ran from 1996 - 2005. The other was her first Emmy in 1983, for her supporting role on the series St. Elsewhere’
•    She acted in several Hollywood films which include The Rose, Madea's Witness Protection and the original version of The Taking of Pelham 123.
•    She was born on 4 November 1925 in St. Louis, and grew up in New York.
•    Doris Roberts was an American actress. She received five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild award during her acting career, which began in 1951. 
•    She was perhaps best known for her role as Raymond Barone's mother, Marie Barone, on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which ran from 1996–2005.

India on 19 April 206 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mauritius on cooperation in the field of traditional system of medicine and Homoeopathy.
The MoU was signed during the Union Minster of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) and Health and Family Welfare, Shripad Yesso Naik’s visit to Mauritius.
• The MoU envisages exchange of experts, supply of traditional medicinal substances, joint research and development and recognition of the traditional systems of health and medicine in both countries.
• It also aims at promotion and popularization of the various Indian traditional systems which fall under AYUSH.
• The MoU with Mauritius is part of the Ministry AYUSH’s mandate to propagate Indian systems of medicine globally. It has entered into similar MoUs with China, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Hungary, Bangladesh and Nepal.
India and Mauritius share several cultural, historical, linguistic and literary similarities, traditional medicine including medicinal plants are promising areas which need to be further explored and can prove to be mutually beneficial to the people of the two countries.
The government of Mauritius also has a long history of traditional medicine in common with India and both countries share a common culture with respect to the ayurvedic system of medicine.
Moreover, there are a large number of medicinal plants, particularly those found in the tropical region and are common to the two countries given similar geo-climatic factors.

Technology giant Google today launched the new version of its Internet streaming device Chromecast in India for Rs 3,399.
•    The company has also introduced Chromecast Audio in India at the same price, which was launched in the US last year.
•    "With a sleek design, fresh content and an updated app, the new Chromecast will make streaming faster and easier," Chromecast Partnerships Head Asia Pacific Mickey Kim told reporters here.
•    Chromecast Audio is a new device that plugs into speakers to stream and control radio, podcasts and music over WiFi.
•    Using Chromecast, users can add smart TV functionality to their television to stream content from video services like YouTube and Netflix.
•    Chromecast is available in 31 countries and about 20 million users globally.
•    However, the company did not disclose any country-specific data.
•    The devices will be available through marketplaces like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm as well as retailers like Reliance and Croma.
•    The previous version of Chromecast was unveiled in India early last year.
•    Kim said the company has partners like Hooq, Saavn, YuppTV, Ditto and Hungama in India.
•    Other Internet streaming devices selling in India include Teewe and those from firms like Amkette.
•    Sales of Internet streaming devices are expected to pick up as on-demand video services like Netflix become more popular.
•    The devices will come bundled with six months of free subscription for Hooq and Saavn.
•    These also let users play games like Angry Birds on their television using their smartphones as a controller.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on 18 April 2016 appointed former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq as the new chief selector of the team.
•    Inzamam, a veteran of 120 tests and 398 one-day internationals, replaced Haroon Rasheed as chief selector. The PCB has not set a fixed term for Inzamam's tenure.
•    The members of the new selection committee are former test off-spinner Tauseef Ahmed, former international fast bowler WasimHaider and batsman WajahatullahWasti.
•    At the time of appointment, Inzamam was the head coach of Afghanistan cricket team. He was appointed as the head coach of Afghanistan in October 2015, and was contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board until December 2016.
•    The PCB, however, requested the ACB to release Inzamam from his contract early.
•    This will be Inzamam's first time as a selector; earlier, he had worked as Pakistan's batting consultant briefly in 2012-13. 
•    Inzamam, widely regarded as one of the greatest Pakistani batsmen ever, had scored 8830 runs in 120 test matches and 11739 runs in 378 ODIs. He retired from international cricket in 2007. 
•    The previous selection committee was dissolved by PCB after Pakistan fared badly in the Asia Cup and World T20.
•    Soon after the World Twenty20, Coach WaqarYounis quit and wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed replaced Shahid Afridi as Twenty20 captain.