Daily GK Update - 12th Dec 2014 ```````````````````````````````````````````` 1. Anurag Jain appointed as joint Secretary. i. Senior IAS officer Anurag Jain was appointed as the Joint Secretary in Prime Ministers Office (PMO) of India. ii.A 1989 batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is presently working as Joint Secretary in Department of Financial Services under the Finance Ministry. 2. Essar gets $1-bn loans, $8-bn crude. i. Russian President Vladimir Putin, offered the Ruias-promoted Essar Group a $1-billion credit line and an $8-billion crude supply contract. ii. The steel-to-oil Indian conglomerate signed two separate agreements with St Petersburg-based Vneshtorgbank (VTB) and Moscow-based Rosneft. iii. Andrey Kostin, President and chairman of VTB Bank Management Board, signed a memorandum of understanding with Shashi Ruia, co-founder of Essar Group, to provide a credit facility of up to $1 billion. iv. The financing follows the $1.2-billion successful transaction arranged in the first half of 2014 by VTB Capital. 3.CBI arrests West Bengal Minister Madan Mitra in Saradha scam. i. Central Bureau of Investigation arrested West Bengal Transport Minster and senior Trinamool Congress leader Madan Mitra. ii. CBI has arrested Madan Mitra, a Cabinet Minister in the Government of West Bengal on prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy, cheating and misappropriation as well as deriving undue financial benefits from the Saradha Scam. 4.Delhi HC banned Xiaomi to sell phones in India over patent issue with Ericcson. i. Delhi High Court on 10 December 2014 banned Xiaomi to sell phones in India over patent issue with Ericsson. ii. The High Court ordered Xiaomi to not bring any new phones into India nor sell or advertise them here unless it resolves the legal issues surrounding its operations. 5. LS passes bill on coal block allocations. i. Lok Sabha passed a bill which provides for fresh auction of 204 coal blocks de-allocated by the Supreme Court in September with the government allaying apprehensions of some parties that the legislation would lead to privatisation of the sector. 6. 22 states, UTs support bill to prevent honour killings. i. As many as 22 states and Union Territories have supported a Law Commission recommendation to bring a bill to prevent honour killings, but govt on refused to fix a timeline to put in place a legal framework, saying a decision will be taken after due consultations. 7. Tata Power acquired 540 MW thermal power plant for 3000 crore rupees. i. Tata Power on acquired 540-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in Maharashtra for 3000 crore rupees. ii. The thermal plant was acquired from the promoters of IRB Infrastructure. With this deal, Tata Power aimed to increase its total capacity to 8885 MW. iii. Tata Power used to be the nations biggest private sector electricity producer but overtook by Adani power recently. 8. India to face Pak in CT semifinal. i. A cracker of a contest is on the cards when a confident India takes on a resurgent Pakistan in what promises to be a battle of attrition between the two traditional rivals at the Hero Champions Trophy hockey tournament.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 19:08:59 +0000
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