1St Sept GK

1) Which franchisee team became the winner of the 1st edition of Indian Badminton League (IBL), final of which was played on 31 August, 2013? – Hyderabad Hotshots (Hotshots defeated Awadhe warriors 3-1 to lift the crown. In the first match K Srikanth gave the Warriors an unexpected 1-0 lead by stunning top-20 rival S Tanongsak of Thailand in straight games, 21-12, 21-20. But in the highlight match of the finals, Saina Nehwal defeated her young challenger P V Sindhu in straight games 21-15, 21-7 to bring back parity at 1-1. Then Hyderabad Hotshots’ Malaysian men’s doubles team of Goh V Shem and Wah Lim Khim defeated Awadhe Warriors’ Danish-Indonesian pair of Mathias Boe and Markis Kido in three games 21-14, 13-21, 11-4 to take 2-1 lead. Later Ajay Jayaram defeated R M V Gurusaidutt by 10-21, 21-17, 11-7 to give the title to Hyderabad Hotshots. Hotshots won the top prize of Rs. 3.5 crore while Warriors took home Rs 1.75 crore)

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2) In the first conviction in the infamous Delhi gang-rape case of 16 December, 2012, what sentence was pronounced on the juvenile accused by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) on 31 August, 2013? – Detention of 3 years at a correction home (The 8 months already spent by the juvenile in custody so far will be considered as term already served. This judgment was vehemently opposed by the 23-year old paramedic victim girl’s family members who said that they were let down by the system and are now planning appeal against this JJB order)

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3) Which media group on 1 September, 2013 launched the first Indian television channel, which has been made available on mobile and internet platforms simultaneously? – Zee Entertainment Enterprises – ZEE (ZEE launched a new free-to-air channel called “Zee Anmol” which will showcase hand-picked content including popular shows from Zee TV’s repository, as well as current popular fiction and non-fiction properties of Zee TV and movies and kids’ content. Apart from satellite TV viewers, Viewers even with 2G connections and non-smartphones, will be able to keep up with this new channel through its WAP site)

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4) From 1 September, 2013 a new radiation norm put in place by Telecom Ministry came into effect for companies manufacturing or importing mobile phones for sale in India. According to this norm what is the maximum prescribed SAR (specific absorption rate) for mobile phones in India? – 1.6 watt over a gram of human tissue, if a consumer uses it for six minutes (With the new SAR norm, India would become one of few countries that are following the most stringent norm of 1.6 watt a kg average over six minutes period on 1 gram of human tissue. Old stock of handsets available in Indian market can be sold but no fresh stock of non-compliant mobile phones will be allowed to be sold from 1 September)

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5) How much loan amount was written-off by the public sector banks of India during the January-March quarter of 2012-13 as announced by the Union Govt. in Parliament on 30 August, 2013? – Rs. 14,549 crore (The public sector banks made recovery of bad assets to the tune of Rs 16,464 crore during this period. Banks resort to write off bad loans only after exhausting all other possible avenues for recovery or when the asset coverage is not enough)

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6) What was the growth rate of GDP (gross domestic product) for Indian economy for the first quarter of the final year (April-June 2013)? – 4.4% (This growth rate of GDP was slowest since the 2008 global financial crisis. It is lower than the 5.4% growth logged in April-June last year and 4.8% in January-March this year. Main reason for slow growth rate has been attributed to poor performance registered by country’s manufacturing and mining sector. While manufacturing output fell 1.2 per cent, mining declined 2.8 per cent during this period)

Daily Gk 8 Aug

RBI imposes Rs 5.6 lakh fine on SBI for violation of norms

i. The Reserve Bank on Wednesday said it imposed a fine of about Rs 5.6 lakh on State Bank of India (SBI) for violation of currency chest norms.

ii. "The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a penalty of Rs 5,62,555 on 12th July, 2013 on SBI for violation of the terms of agreement with RBI for opening and maintaining currency chests," the central bank said in a statement.

iii. The penalty was levied in connection with deficiencies and lapses in the operation and maintenance of the currency chest at the Secunderabad branch of SBI, it said.

NOTE: i. Last month, the RBI had imposed a penalty of Rs 3 crore on SBI for violating know your customer (KYC)/anti-money laundering norms.

ii. The penal action by RBI was taken after an online portal alleged violation of KYC norms and money laundering by banks and financial institutions.

iii. "After considering the facts of each case...Reserve Bank came to conclusion that some of the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty..." the central bank had said in a statement.

iv. Cobrapost alleged that the financial sector entities had offered to open bank accounts and lockers for customers without following KYC norms, convert their black money into white and obtain fictitious PAN cards.

v. Those named in the expose include SBI, LIC, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Reliance Life, Tata AIA, Yes Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Dena Bank, Corporation Bank, Allahabad Bank, Central Bank of India, Dhanlaxmi Bank, Federal Bank, DCB Bank and Birla Sun Life.