GK and Current Affairs Updates

 Zinedine Zidane replaced Rafael Benitez from the post of coach of Real Madrid.
- Zidane is the 11th coach to be appointed.
- Decision to sack Benitez is still unknown as his winning rate is 68%.
- Zidane has been coach of the club's B team - who are second in the Spanish third tier - since 2014.
About Real Madrid C.F.
- It is commonly known as Real Madrid.
- It is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain.
- It is the world's highest-earning football club for 2013–14.
- The club won five consecutive European Cups, and reached the final seven times. 

Abidali Z Neemuchwala was annoucned as the new CEO of Wipro. He is currently working as a chief operating officer (COO) at Wipro. He succeeded T K Kurien, who would now become executive vice-chairman.He has a deep understanding of technology, business vision, sound judgment, and an innate ability to bring people together. In his nine months as group president and COO, Abid has effortlessly assimilatedinto the culture and ethos of Wipro. All these abilities of his made him the choice of Directors.
About Abid Ali Neemuchwala
graduate in Electronics & Communication engineering from NIT, Raipur, and a PG in Industrial Management from IIT, Mumbai.
-Was instrumental in making TCS's BPO operations as multi-billion biz.
 

Bio-CNG plant was inaugurated in Mahindra, near Chennai. The CNG generated from this plant will help in running of vehicles of Mahindra World City.
Output/Day of the plant-This will convert 8 tons of food and kitchen waste generated every day at the MWC into 1,000 cubic meter of raw biogas. Further, the raw bio gas can yield 400 kg per day of purified CNG-grade fuel which is equivalent to a 200 kW power plant. As a by-product, four tons of organic fertilizer will be produced per day.
Developers:Mahindra Research Valley (MRV) and Mahindra World City Developers Limited (MWCDL).
Consumption of the gas:
1. the biogas will be used for generating power and fuelling CNG buses and tractors of the city.
2. the power generated will be used for street lighting, buses for free shuttle service and tractor for cultivation.
Benefits of BioCNG™ vehicle fuel:
1. Approximately half the cost of gasoline and diesel – and less than other types of CNG fuel.
2. Vehicle performance is similar to that of gasoline, diesel and NG fuels.
3. The “greenest” vehicle fuel, resulting in significant carbon footprint reduction.
4. Replacing a typical older vehicle with a new NGV vehicle reduces exhaust emissions:
- Carbon monoxide (CO) reduced by 70-90 percent
- Non-methane organic gas (NMOG) reduced by 50-75 percent
- Nitrogen oxides (NOx) reduced by 75-95 percent
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) reduced by 20-30 percent
5. Replacing petroleum – a national priority

Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has launched the scheme ‘Amma Seeds’.
Motive:  to encourage farmers to use certified seeds.
Aim: to provide quality seeds.
Nodal Agency: Tamil Nadu State Seeds Development Agency
Outlet: Amma Service Centres
Earlier Welfare Schemes
1.  Amma Canteens -It provides subsidised food.
2. Amma Mineral Water
3.  Scheme implemented in Chennai and Coimbatore 
Under this scheme kits have been provided with necessary ingredients to people to try out vegetable farming in urban environment.
4. Under agriculture department initiatives, a series of buildings have been inaugurated including dry and cold storage facilities.

Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan, a Veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI) passed away. He was CPI’s general secretary for 16 years from 1996.
History of AB Bardhan
1. Born on September 25, 1925, in Sylhet, now in Bangladesh.
2. He joined All India Students’ Federation (AISF) at Nagpur University in 1940. 
3. He became a member of the then banned CPI and became its full-time member next year. 
4. He was elected president of Nagpur University Students’ Union and later joined the trade union movement.
5. He held a postgraduate degree in economics and a law degree. 
6. He became general secretary of CPI’s trade union arm AITUC in 1994 and became deputy general secretary of CPI a year later.

MP government has put a ban on commercial vehicles which are older than 15years.They will not issue new permits and fitness certificates to these vehicles. Search Operation will soon be started by the traffic department.

Aim: to reduce the air pollution.Programmes of the MoEF related to prevention and control of pollution are :1. Environmental Statement (as part of Environmental Audit) 2. Environmental Statistics and Mapping 3. Development and Promotion of Cleaner Technologies 4. Adoption of Cleaner Technologies in Small Scale Industries 5. Waste Minimizing 6. Programme for improvement of Quality of Automotive Fuels (Motor Gasoline and Diesel) for reducing Vehicular Pollution. 7. Mission on Control of Vehicular Pollution from On-Road Vehicles 8. Noise Pollution 9. Environmental Epidemiological Studies 10. Development of Standards 11. Eco Labelling.

In the top-30 list of the world’s most powerful, productive and connected cities, Delhi and Mumbai find a place.As per a survey conducted by international real estate consultancy JLL,Delhi has secured the 24th place while Mumbai is 2 places higher at the 22nd position.

Top 4 cities (Super Cities):

1. Tokyo 2. New York 3. London 4. Paris

Along with the super cities rank, Mumbai is also the holder of a rank in the Top 10 improvers.Top10 improvers are cities whose scores in the index of commercial attraction have improved the most over the past year.These Top-30 global cities account for 64% of the total cross-border investment into the ‘Global300’. Global 300 is an expanded index of the cities in terms of their “commercial attraction” or economic and real estate power and status.

India is close to start its Satellite monitoring station in Vietnam. The city is Ho Chi Minh. Station is for Data Reception and Tracking and Telemetry.

Benefits: 1. It will help India to keep an eye on the already launched satellites. 2. It will provide India a toe in Soth China Sea. 3. It will enhance India's role in south-east Asia and help both India and the countries of the region.Satellite in India is launched by ISRO (Indian Space Rsearch Organization)

About ISRO (Indian Space Rsearch Organization) -Indian Space Research Organisation, formed in 1969, superseded the erstwhile INCOSPAR. It comes under Department of Space.Its applications and operations are in the varied fields. Those are:

a. Disaster management b. Earth Observation. c. Satellite Communication d. Navigation e. Climate and Environment

The first reactor of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in Guangxi Zhuang,a ethnic minority and autonomous region.The main aim of China behind this is to reduce the carbon emission.China currently has operating capacity of 25.5 million kilowatts and aims to raise installed nuclear power to 58 million kilowatts by 2020.

Nuclear Power in China

- Mainland China has 30 nuclear power reactors in operation, 22 under construction, and more about to start construction.- Additional reactors are planned, including some of the world's most advanced, to give more than a three-fold increase in nuclear capacity to at least 58 GWe by 2020-21, then some 150 GWe by 2030, and much more by 2050.- The impetus for increasing nuclear power share in China is increasingly due to air pollution from coal-fired plants.- China’s policy is for closed fuel cycle.- China has become largely self-sufficient in reactor design and construction, as well as other aspects of the fuel cycle, but is making full use of western technology while adapting and improving it.- China’s policy is to ‘go global’ with exporting nuclear technology including heavy components in the supply chain.

India beat Afghanistan and won the SAFF Cup for the seventh time. SAFF is the South Asian Football Fedretion Cup. Afghanistan lost the game by the score 2-1.

About SAFF (South Asian Football Federation Cup)

Biannual tournament for the nations surrounding the Indian Peninsula. In 1993 the tournament was called "South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation" Gold Cup, in 1995 simply "South Asian Gold Cup 95"; since 1997 onwards it is known as the "South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup" or "South Asian Football Federation Championship".

Winners of last few years ,2013- Afghanistan,2011- India,2009- India,2008- Maldives