Daily GK Updates 17th April 2014

1.    RK Dhowan takes over as new Navy chief

i. Robin K Dhowan on Thursday took over as chief of the Indian Navy nearly two months after D K Joshi quit the post in the wake of a series of mishaps.

ii. Admiral Dhowan, 59, who has been the acting Navy chief since Joshi's exit, has been appointed the Chief of Navy Staff superseding Western Naval Commander Shekhar Sinha. 

iii. He will have a tenure of 25 months, retiring in May 2016. Sinha was the senior-most Vice Admiral but he has been edged out of the race, apparently because majority of the 14 mishaps, including two major submarine accidents, took place under his command during the last 10 months. 

iv. Defence Minister A K Antony had recommended the name of Dhowan, who was in contention for the top job along with Western Naval Commander Sinha and Eastern Commander Anil Chopra. 

v. A navigation and direction specialist, Dhowan is an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and Naval War College, Rhode Island, USA. 

About Admiral Dhowan 
• As per a Defence Ministry release, Dhowan is a navigation and direction specialist and he has commanded frontline warships INS Khurki, INS Ranjit and INS Delhi.
• He has also served as Chief Staff Officer (Operations) Headquarters Western Naval Command.
• As a Flag Officer, he had commanded the Eastern Fleet
• He has served as the Chief of Staff at Headquarters Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam
• He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy

As per the rule of National Defence College, Admiral Dhowan will be succeeded by Commandant Vice Admiral Sunil Lamba in May 2016 as the Navy Chief.

2.    SBI launched Tab banking to facilitate opening of Saving Accounts

i. State Bank of India on 15 April 2014 launched digital banking facilities for the convenience of SBI customers. 

ii. SBI has launched the facility of TAB banking for customers opening of Savings Bank accounts and another for Housing Loan applicants.

iii. SBI will offer its valued customers the facility of opening accounts at their door step through Tab Banking. The sales staff of SBI will visit the customers at their home and with the use of the tablets they will get the formalities completed.

iv. These will be loaded on the CBS and the account number will be sent to the customer through SMS/e-mail. This will provide convenience and time saving to the customer for opening accounts with SBI. 

v. SBI will also offer TAB banking facility at the place of the Housing Loan applicant, for in-principle approval of home loan. 

3.    Inflation based on WPI reached 3-month high of 5.7% in March 2014

i. Inflation based on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) reached a 3-month high of 5.7% in March 2014. This hike was driven up by increases in prices of food items and fuel costs. 

ii. The inflation in the food items based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) shot up by 9.9% in the same month against 8.12 percent of February 2014. The overall WPI-based inflation dropped to a nine-month low of 4.68% in February 2014. The WPI-based inflation is on decline since December 2013.

iii. On the other hand, the retail inflation measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI) in March 2014 was recorded at 8.31% from 8.03% in February 2014. This rise was caused mainly on account of a rise in fruit and vegetable prices.

iv. The latest data released by the government said that the January 2014 inflation number has been revised to 5.17% as against earlier estimate of 5.05 percent.

4.    Cherrapunji regained the World record for highest rainfall in 48 hours

i. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) panel on 4 April 2014 announced that Cherrapunji in India regained the world record for highest rainfall in 48 hours with 2493 millimeters. The previous highest rainfall in Cherrapunji was recorded on 15–16 June 1995.

ii. The previous world record for 48-hour rainfall was held by La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. La Reunion Island holds the record with 2467 millimeters from April 1958.  L Reunion is a French island with a population of 840974 inhabitants located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Mauritius

iii. La Reunion is frequently hit by tropic cyclones and received large amounts of rainfall over its mountains. It continued to hold the record for the most rainfall over periods of 12-hours and 24-hours from 1966. The record of highest 72 hours and 96 hours was made in 2007. 

iv. Cherrapunji is situated on a plateau in the state of Meghalaya at an average elevation of 1484 metres (4 869 ft), facing the plains of Bangladesh.

5.     ING Vyasa launches m-banking application

i. ING Vyasa on Wednesday officially announced the launch of its mobile banking application, which is believes will help drive higher user engagement.

ii. Besides features such as checking balance, funds transfer and bill payments, the application offers ability to scan and store cheques issued, lets users buy and send gift vouchers from various brands and ATM branch locater.

iii. Customer will require a single channel to access all digital platforms, including mobile and internet banking.

iv. The app has been developed in partnership with technology giant IMB, using latter’s Worklight Platform.

6.     Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor plan by March next

i. The comprehensive integrated master plan for development of Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC) will be ready by March 2015, according to Masanori Nakano, Japanese Consul-General.

ii. Venu Srinivasan, IJCCI past president, said that Tamil Nadu would be the greater beneficiary of Indo-Japan co-operation. Japanese firms such as Nissan, Yamaha and Toshiba are likely to set up their units along the proposed Chennai-Bangalore corridor.

iii. Toyota also has some investment plans for Hosur. IJCCI would set up a knowledge bank on Japan to disseminate information about Japan, said its president, N. Krishnaswami.

iv. Japanese firms are also interested in developing infrastructure projects such as Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and CBIC, among others. We are interested in increasing co-operation between the two countries.”

7.    Shahnaz Shaikh to coach Pak hockey team

i. Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has appointed Olympian Shahnaz Shaikh as the senior teams' coach.

ii. Pakistan failed to qualify for the World Cup to be held in the Netherlands in June -- a humiliating first for the four-time former champions. 
iii. Pakistan have also won three Olympic gold medals but fell to seventh position in the 2012 London Olympics. 
iv. They were 12th and last in the 2010 World Cup in India. 
v. Shaikh, who has had two unsuccessful stints as coach, said his first target would be to defend the Asian Games title which Pakistan won in China in 2010. 

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