Daily GK Update [10th January 2015]

1. AAP deflates BJP

i. The AAP stunned everyone on Tuesday with an overwhelming victory in the Delhi assembly polls, setting up a second stint for Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister.

ii. The AAP bagged as many as 67 seats of the 70-member House, going far beyond the most optimistic exit polls.

iii. The BJP was left bruised in a distant second place with wins projected for it in just three seats. The Congress drew a blank. BJP's CM candidate, Kiran Bedi, lost the elections.

iv. Kiran Bedi lost Krishna Nagar seat which was considered as BJP's pet by a narrow margin, While Arvind Kejriwal won New Delhi seat comfortably.

v. AAP got 54.3% of the total polled votes, while BJP came a distant second with 32.2% of the votes polled.

vi. Arvind Kejriwal will sworn as the Chief Minister of Delhi for second successive term on 14th February.

2. PNB raises Rs. 1,000 crore via private placement

i. State-owned Punjab National Bank has raised Rs. 1,000 crore through bonds to fund business growth and meet global capital adequacy norms.

ii. The bank has raised Rs. 1,000 crore long term bonds at an annual coupon of 8.23 per cent on Private Placement basis.

iii. The government has decided to provide Rs. 870 crore to the bank as part of capital infusion plan.

iv. Public sector banks require equity capital of Rs. 2.4 lakh crore by 2018 to meet the global, Basel III norms on capital adequacy. For the current fiscal, the government has allocated Rs. 11,200 crore for bank capitalisation.

3. Govt gives Gauri Shankar additional charge of MD of PNB

i. Government gave additional charge of Managing Director and CEO of Punjab National Bank to Gauri Shankar, senior most executive director at the bank. 

ii. The post of full time Managing Director and CEO has been vacant since November, when the then Chairman and Managing Director K R Kamath failed to get extension from the government. 

iii. As per the government rules, the CMD and Directors are appointed in public sector entities for a period of five years or up to the age of 60, whichever is earlier. 

4. Amartya Sen wins John Maynard Keynes Prize

i. Economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has won the newly instituted Charleston-EFG John Maynard Keynes Prize.

ii. In the spirit of John Maynard Keynes’ work, life and legacy, this new global prize recognises Professor Sen’s outstanding contribution to society.

iii. Currently a Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, he has been a Professor at the London School of Economics and until 2004 was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

5. Facebook rings Reliance Communications for free data access

i. Anil Ambani led Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM) has partnered with Facebook to offer free data access to select popular websites for all its customers, existing and new ones.

ii. Thirty three popular websites can be accessed free of cost through internet.org and all the subscriber needs to have is an internet enabled hand set. 

iii. In the first phase this service has gone live in seven circles of RCOM which include Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai and Kerala.

6. India pegs 2014-15 GDP growth at 7.4 per cent

i. Economy is likely to grow at a faster pace of 7.4 per cent in the current fiscal as against 6.9 per cent in 2013-14.

ii. The data further said economy grew by 7.5 per cent in the September-December quarter of the current fiscal after a growth rate of 8.2 per cent in the preceding quarter.

iii. The government had recently updated the base year to calculate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 2011-12 from 2004-05.

iv. The sectors which registered a growth rate of over 7 per cent are financial, real estate and professional service; trade, hotels, transport, communication and services related to broadcasting; public administration, defence and other services; and electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services.