GK Update 30 April 2015

1. RBI, the apex bank of India has fined 1.5 crores each on Dena Bank, Bank of Maharastra and Oriental Bank of Commerce after investigation into last years fraud. The Bank also cautioned eight other banks for the same.
2. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has withdrawn the the proposal for setting up Public Debt Management Agency(PMDA) and amendments to RBI Act.

GK Update 29 April 2015

1. Death toll in Nepal Quake has crossed 6000 mark but rescue and relief operations are continuing in full swing.The number of injured has increased to 11000 with millions stranded in the open fighting for survival without basic amenities.
2. Enforcement Directorate(ED) has freezes properties worth 9003 crores in a major action against black money hoarders and money launderers. 173 charge sheets have also been filed in the financial year 2014-2015.
3. Government has decided to hike the import duty tax on sugar to 40 percent from 25 percent. The cabinet committee has also decided to remove the excise duty on the ethanol to help mills clear dues from farmers.
4. South Korean giant Samsung has reported its profit to have shrunk by 39% due to less mobile profits. The present income is 4.63 million Won against 7.49 million Won last year.
5. Online retailer Flipkart has acquired mobile marketing firm Appiterate. The retailer is planning to strengthen its mobile platform and hence acquired it.
6. The Rajya Sabha has passed the Regional Rural Bans(Amendments) Bill, 2014 which allows them to raise capital to 2000 crores from the present 5 crores. By these government is trying to strengthen the banks which will helpful for financial inclusion at the grass root level.
7. Compensation programme in name of Gajendra Singh has been approved by the Delhi government. Gajendra Singh was a farmer who committed suicide during a rally conducted by AAP.
8. India finished at fourth place in the World Chess Championship held at Chengdu, China after some fine performances by D Harika and Koneru Humpy. D Harika won a silver while Humpy bagged bronze.
9. Sunil Narine has been banned from bowling off spinners from upcoming IPL and ICC events after a suspected action was reported.
10. IOC chief Thomas Bach has confirmed that India is not in the race for bidding for Olympics 2024, stating it is not ready for such event.

GK Update 28 April 2015

1. Chennai born Raja Rajeshwari has been sworn in as New York criminal court judge by Mayor Bill de Blasio becoming the first Indian woman to be appointed. 
2. Idi Srinivas Murthy joins Snapdeal as the Senior VP of Marketing division. Previously he had a successful tenure in Coca Cola and Glaxo Smithkline.
3. Trinamool Congress swept the civic polls in West Bengal by getting over 115 seats out of total 144 seats.

GK Update 27 April 2015

1. Nepal Earthquake: Number of deaths has risen to 3700 as rescue work has been stepped up. According to the sources of Nepalese Home Ministry, more than 6800 people have been injured. However aftershocks were felt in Nepal and parts of India with a peak magnitude of 5.5 in the Richter scale. In India the number of deaths has risen up to 72.
2. Yes Bank has opened up its first overseas office in UAE to facilitating better services for its customers.
3. Capegemini acquires iGATE for $4billion which happened in a merger agreement between the two companies.
4. Bank of Baroda has tied up with UAE exchange for providing instant money transfer to its customers living abroad. This is a major boost for the the bank which has many abroad branches.
5. Sangeeta Bhatia, an Indian origin professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology has bagged the prestigious $250,000 Heinz Award for significant work in tissue engineering and disease detection.
6. Bharatiya Mahila Bank, India's first women centric bank has received The Asian Banker Achievement Award for the year 2015 for the category of best outsourcing(New Bank). The award was received by the CMD of the bank, Usha Ananthasubramaniam.
7.President Omar-al-Bashir has won the Sudan presidential election by about 94% of vote share. By this he is set to extend his 25 year rule in the African nation.
8. Muthoot Group has tied up with Wiki Tech for using its platform to open a US-India payment corridor.
9. Shamjetshabam Sarjubala(48kg) and Pinki Jangra(51 kg) have won Gold in the presidential cup open International Boxing tournament held in Palembang, Indonesia.
10. BCCI in its meeting in Kolkata has given the name of cricketer Rohit Sharma for the prestigious Arjuna Award due to his excellent performance last year.

GK Update 26 April 2015

1. Earthquake in Nepal has caused severe devastation in the mountain bound nation. Already 2300 people are dead by now and rescue work is going on in full swing. Today aftershocks occurred with 6.9 being the highest of them all. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has assured to give all support to Nepal in dealing with this humanitarian crisis. India, being the first to respond has already given support. 

• Telecom operators BSNL, AirTel have reduced call rates to Nepal. 
• Indian Railways has dispatched 1 lakh bottles to crisis struck nation.
• NDRF has send seven teams for assisting in relief and rescue operations. 
• India has sent 5 MI 17 helicopters.

2. Earthquake causes Avalanche in the Everest: Recent earthquake and aftershock has triggered avalanche in the Mount Everest resulting in death of 22 mountaineers and leaving 217 missing.
3. Aftershocks felt in various parts of India resulting in fear among people.In Bihar the death toll rises to 50 due to the earthquake. Centre has announced 2 lakh compensation to the families of the dead in the quake.
4. Axis Bank launched Suvidha Prepaid Card in association with Suvidha Infoserve. Under the scheme , customer gets the card at any business correspondent outlet through eKYC which enables them to load funds and use it at any POS terminal.
5. Foodpanda has launched its own delivery services in Delhi, Mumabi, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad. This number is expected to grow up to 12 in the recent months.
6. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated in LS that Fiscal deficit would come to 3% from the current 4.1%.
7. Home Minister has flagged off double Decker train from New Delhi to Lucknow.
8. Major fire broke out today in Kolkata's New Market resulting 27 fire tenders to be pressed for the work.
9.Ratan Tata has bought unspecified stake in Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi.
10. Google has pulled out Nexus 7 Tablet from its online store however Nexus 9 continues.

GK Update 25 April 2015

1. A massive earthquake strike in the east of Pokhara (Nepal) has created havoc in the area. This has caused huge loss to infrastructure and as many as 1500 people are believed to be dead. The toll is constantly rising after each passing minute. The toll for Indian people is now at 35. 
The magnitude of the earthquake was recorded to be 7.9 on Richter Scale which hit at 11.56am local time at shallow depth of 15km. Due to this severe earthquake, about 18 other tremors also occurred. 

Various parts of India felt the tremors ranging from Delhi to Gujarat to North East States and Odisha. India has taken quick action for the relief and rescue for the people of Nepal and Indian tourists. NDRF team and Relief materials are being sent to Nepal.
2. Avantha group is set to sell its entire stakes of Compton Greaves' consumer business to Advent International and Temasek for 2000 crores.
3. Google launched today person finder for helping find people of Nepal who are missing.
4.Delhi Govt. to launch Labour Development Mission to ensure payment of wages in a proper notified manner.
5. World Malaria Day is observed today for gaining more control in combating the disease. The theme for the year 2013-2015 is Invest in Future, Defeat Malaria.
6. Japan to host FIFA Club World Cup for the year 2015 and 2016.
7. Paul Radcliffe to receive London Marathon lifetime achievement.
8. SEBI has approached to the Supreme Court For its direction for the three year ban on DLF and its top six officials.

Payment Codes in India

Now a days every sector is evolving and growing at a constant pace with technology and banking sector in India is not lagging behind. The payment system has changed from paper based system to electronic systems, however both co exist. Today banks and customers find it easy to do banking via electronic method to save more time and effort. To do the same various coding facilities are available which include:
1.Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) Code: Introduced in 1986, it is helpful for clearing cheques. This requires allotting codes to each and every branch, which is encoded on the cheques issued by that particular branch. The code structure is 9 digit code as xxx(City Code)xxx(Bank Code)xxx(Branch Code).
2.Indian Financial System Code(IFSC): It is 11 digit alphanumeric code which is used by all the banks . The first 4 digits identify the banks, fifth one is numeric, last six characters identify the bank branch. RTGS and NEFT work according to the IFSC.
3.SWIFT Branch Code: It is a standard format of Bank Identifier Code and is unique for each bank. It consists of 8-11 characters but primarily 8 characters are used for office purposes. the first 4 letters is the bank code comprising only letters. The next 2 characters gives the country code.The next two characters give the location code and last 3 characters gives the branch code. In India, SWIFT does not operate because it doesn't include transactions domestically.
4.International Bank Account Number(IBAN): It is an international standard for identifying account across borders and facilitates cross border transactions. It has two parts, first being country code, check digit, bank ID and second part is the basic bank account number.

GK Update 24 April 2015

1. In a major change in policy norms for the weaker sections of the society, RBI has redefined priority sector lending norms. All the Banks are bound to give 40% of their loans to the priority sector with a 18% sub target for the farmers.
2. According to the World Happiness Report which is published Sustainable Development Solution Network, India lies at 117 out of 158 countries which indicates a drop of 6 places. 

• Switzerland is the happiest place in the world. Bangladesh and Pakistan are ranked higher than India.
• GDP, Life expectancy, freedom of choice and social support are the parameters for this report. 

GK Update 23rd April 2015

1. Railways launched CRIS developed mobile app for paperless booking of unreserved category tickets. This was inaugurated by Railway minister Suresh Prabhu.
2.Shalini Mishra has been appointed commissioner of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).
3. Cabinet approved the  amendments to the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection of Children bill 2014. This amendment will bring up special provisions to tackle heinous offenses like murder and rape committed by juveniles in the age group of 16-18 years. The Bill replaces the Juvenile Justice (Care and protection of children) Act, 2000.

Permanent Account Number

Now a days it is mandatory to quote the PAN number in each and every Income tax return. So in this post, PAN is easily explained.

WHAT IS PAN??
A PAN is a 10 digit character alphanumeric number allotted by the income tax department to a tax payer who has eligibility to file income tax return. In a PAN number, the first 3 characters are alphabetic series, the 4th is the status of the PAN holder, the 5th is the 1st character of the PAN holder's name, 6-10th are the special sequential numbers and 11th one is alphabetic check.

WHO CAN HAVE IT??
PAN is compulsory for every person, taxpayers who file the income tax return and for the person who who enters into a financial transaction where quoting PAN is mandatory.
The quoting of PAN became mandatory from 1st November 1998. From 1 January 2005, it is mandatory to quote PAN on challans on any payments which is due to the Income Tax dept.

Various National Officials

In our country, there are many national offices and this post lists the head of such organizations:

1. Chairman, ISRO: AS Kiran Kumar
2. Chairperson, UGC: Ved Prakash
3.Solicitor General: Ranjit Kumar
4. Attorney General: Mukul Rohatgi
5.Chairperson, National Green Tribunal: Justice Swatantra Kumar
6.Director, NCERT: BK Tripathi
7. Director, CSIR: MO Garg
8. Chairperson, 14th Finance Commission: YV Reddy
9. Director, BARC: Shekhar Basu
10. President, PTI: KN Sant Kumar

Various schemes and programmes initiated by NDA government

It is nearing to be one year completion for Mr. Narendra Modi as the Honorable Prime Minister of the country. And in this time NDA government have launched many schemes for the betterment of lives of people of India. This post lists them:

1.Van Bandhu Kalyan Yojana:   This scheme launched on July 26, 2014 is meant for the development of the tribals of the country. The scheme provides financial assistance for documentation and preservation of the heritage, extra co curricular activities etc.

    2.Deendayal Upadhaya Antodaya Yojana: The scheme was launched for the upliftment of the urban and rural poor by creating skill development for better livelihood. At present about 4000+ cities and towns have been included in this program. And 1000 crores have been alooted for the same.

    3.Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana:  Popularly known as PMJDY, this program was kicked off by Prime minister on August 28 2014 which allows people to open basic saving bank account to be included in the financial inclusion. This program holds the world record for most account opening within a single week with 18096130 accounts. It also provides a platform for directly giving the money in various government schemes to the person.

    4. Swacch Bharat Abhiyan: It is national program started on October 2, 2014 to clean the road, street and ensure cleanliness everywhere. It has a tagline of ‘EK KADAM SWACHHATA KE AUR'.

     5.National Ayush Mission: Launched on September15, 2014 NAM focuses on removing gap in health services for far off areas of the country.

    6.Make In India: This program launched in Vigyan Bhawan on September 26 has tried to attract many investors from all over the world. This program promises a healthy environment for the investors and focuses largely on manufacturing sector which can create a lot of job opportunities.

   7.Deendayal Grameen Kaushalya Yojana: It is basically a rural skill program which has reduction in age of 15 years from 18 years. The aim is to train 10 lakh youth by end of this five year plan.

   8.BanBandhu Kalyan Yojana: Launched by Tribal Welfare minister Mr. Jual Oram for improving infrastructure and human development of tribal living in various parts of the country. Tribal research Institute in Bhubaneswar also gets approval to be set up.

   9.Kisan Vias Patra Scheme: The government relaunched the small saving instrument to encourage people to invest in it and not to get trapped by various chit fund scams. The money will get doubled up in about 10 years of time.

   10.Jeevan Praman:  Launched by Prime Minister on November 10 , Jeevan Praman is an Aadhar based Digital Life Certificate for the pensioners which erases the necessity of the pensioners to come every year in physical for continuity of their pension.

  11.Deendayal Upadhaya Gram Jyoti Yojana: It is  the replacement of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutiaran Yojana. It was launched on November 20 for supply of electricity to all the villages of the country. An amount of 43033 crores have been allocate for the same.

  12.Swacch Bharat Kosh: It is a fund set up by the Ministry of Finance and managed by Expenditure Secretary for setting up toilets in schools, urban and rural areas. 

  13. Mission Indradhanush: This program was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 25 for providing immunity to children from preventable diseases like, tetanus, diptheria, polio, TB, Hepatitis B etc.

  14. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana: This is a scheme launched to address the serious issue of dipping sex ratio in the country. 100 crores of rupees have been allocated for the same. Bollywood Actress Madhuri Dixit is the brand ambassador for this program.

  15. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: It is a subprogram under the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Scheme where a girl of below 10 years can open an account and she can operate the account after she attains 18 years of age.

  16.Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana: This program aims for giving skill trianing to the youths who have dropped class 10 or 12. Started with allocation of 1000 crores of rupees it aims for covering 24 lakh youth under the scheme.

  17.Soil Health Card Scheme: This program is meant for providing solutions in improving the soil growth and in turn better productivity.

  18. The Pharma Jan Samadhan Scheme: It is a web based system meant for addressing the customer grievances relating to price and availability.

  

   That's it. Hope you like it.

   If you know any more schemes and programs then please write in the comment section.