Daily GK Update [14th February 2015]

1. Arvind Kejriwal sworn in as Delhi Chief Minister

i. AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal took oath as the eighth Chief Minister of Delhi, promising to make Delhi the first corruption-free state and act against communal elements.

ii. Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung administered the oath of office and secrecy to Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and five other ministers at the historic Ramlila Ground.

iii. Asim Ahmed Khan, Sandeep Kumar, Satyendar Jain, Gopal Rai and Jitender Singh Tomar also took oath of office and secrecy at the ceremony.

iv. The AAP had won 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi decimating Congress and leaving only three seats for the BJP.

2. Modi’s ‘Make in India’ gets GE boost

i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated American multinational General Electric's (GE) first manufacturing plant in India.

ii. The plant will manufacture a range of diversified products for sectors such as energy, aviation, oil & gas transportation.

iii. To support Mr. Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, GE Vice-Chairman John Rice announced the second phase expansion of this unit by saying that it was a testimony of GE's commitment for the Indian market.

iv. In the first phase of the operation, the facility is focused on products and solutions for the power generation, oil & gas and transportation industries. 

v. In the phase II, the site will include manufacturing capability for new generation aviation engine components and sub assembly for the latest rail locomotives and diesel engines.

3. ADP session ends, draft to fight climate change adopted

i. The six-day session of ADP, United Nation’s subsidiary body on climate change, has concluded here with nearly 200 member countries adopting the 86-page text as the basis for negotiation on reaching a climate agreement in Paris scheduled to be held in December.

ii. During the session, India’s demand for funds from the Green Climate Fund (GEF) to meet the full cost of IPR of environmentally-sound technologies to address climate change was supported by many other groups including the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) and the Africa Group.

iii. Apart from technology transfer and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), finance and loss and damage issues were strongly contested during the week.

4.Coal block auction begins

i. Auction of coal blocks began for the first time with corporate honchos Ambanis, Adanis and Birlas queuing up for the two mines being offered on day one.

ii. After clearing the technical bidding stage, entities from Reliance, Adani, Essar, GMR, Vedanta and Aditya Birla groups became eligible to bid for these blocks — one in Odisha and the other one in Madhya Pradesh.

iii. Around 134 bidders have cleared the initial stages of eligibility for coal auction for 21 blocks put up by the government.

iv. Hindalco, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. (JSPL), Bharat Aluminium Co. Ltd. (Balco), GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd., GVK Power, JSW Energy, Ambuja Cement and Hindustan Zinc are other major companies which have technically qualified for bidding.

5. India successfully test-fires BrahMos supersonic cruise missile

i. India on Saturday successfully test-fired the supersonic BrahMos cruise missile from INS Kolkata, the navy's most powerful and newest warship, in Arabian sea.

ii. The Indian Navy commissioned INS Kolkata on August 16, 2014. This is the first ship of this class, with two more in the pipeline. 

iii. The Universal Vertical Launcher Module (UVLM) being used in these has a unique design, developed and patented by BrahMos Aerospace. 

iv. The BrahMos has a range of 290km and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kg. It has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.

6. New Zealand beats Sri Lanka in the world cup opener

i. New Zealand recorded an authoritative 98-run win over Sri Lanka in the World Cup’s opening game Saturday.

ii. Brendon McCullum and Corey Anderson producing the destructive batting the co—hosts hope will carry them to the title.

iii. While Australia beat England by 111 runs in the second match of the day.

iv. Aaron Finch scored a brilliant ton and was ably supported with a quick fire half century by Glen Maxwell at the end. 

7. Chhetri is player of the year

i. National men’s team captain Sunil Chhetri was on Friday presented with All India Football Federation’s 2014 Player of the Year award.

ii. Chhetri was voted the winner by I-League coaches and this was the fourth time he received the award having earlier won it in 2007, 2011 and 2013. 

iii. In the process he surpassed the legendary IM Vijayan who won the award thrice.