DAILY GK UPDATE - 13th March !

1.    Death upheld for four in Delhi gangrape case

i. The Delhi High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentences awarded to four convicts in the December 16, 2012 gangrape case.

ii. A division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani also dismissed the appeals of four convicts challenging the trial court verdict awarding them the death penalty.

iii. The trial court had on September 13, 2013 awarded death sentences to Mukesh (26), Akshay Thakur (28), Pawan Gupta (19) and Vinay Sharma (20).

Note: i. A 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gangraped and brutally assaulted by six men, including a juvenile, in a moving bus.

ii. The convicts then threw her and her male companion out of the vehicle, stripped of clothing, to die by the roadside on the cold December night.

iii. The woman died of grave intestinal injuries on December 29, 2012 at Singapore�s Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where she was airlifted for specialised treatment.

iv. One of the six accused was found dead in a cell in Delhi�s Tihar Jail. A juvenile involved in the crime was on August 31, 2013 sent by the Juvenile Justice Board to a reform home for three years, the maximum term under the juvenile law.

2.    Soma Mondal appointed first Women director of NALCO

i. Soma Mondal appointed as the first woman director (commercial) of Navratna Public Sector Unit (PSU) National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO). Mondal joined Nalco in 1984 as a Graduate Engineer Trainee.

ii. Earlier, she was working with the company as executive director (marketing) at Nalco�s corporate office.

About NALCO
i. National Aluminium Company Ltd. (Nalco) is a public sector enterprise of the Government of India. It was incorporated in 1981 to exploit a part of the large deposits of bauxite discovered in the East Coast.

ii. NALCO is Asia's largest integrated aluminium complex, encompassing bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting and casting, power generation, rail and port operations

3.    India and United States Energy Dialogue held in New Delhi

i. India and United States Energy dialogue was held in New Delhi from 5 March 2014 to 11 March 2014.

ii. The Dialogue was co-chaired by Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, and Dr. Ernest Moniz, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy.

iii. At the India-US Energy Dialogue India and United States agreed to promote scientific cooperation, research & development for greater technological innovation and for deployment of environmentally friendly technologies and products.

iv. The dialogue will lead to business-to-business collaboration of both the countries. The expected expanding trade and sound regulatory frameworks will emerge to deliver energy solutions for sustainable growth of economies of both the countries for benefit of their people.

About PACE
In 2009, the India and US agreed to significantly increase collaboration on energy security and clean energy and launched the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) for the purpose.

4.    Amitabh Kant new DIPP Secretary

i. Amitabh Kant, CEO and Managing Director of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, will take charge as Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

ii. Kant, a 1980 batch Kerala cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, is filling up a vacancy created after Saurabh Chandra moved to the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas Petroleum as Secretary this month.

5.    Canara Bank names cricketer Shikhar Dhawan as its brand ambassador

i. Canara Bank, which has long been reeling under piling non-performing assets or bad loans, on Wednesday appointed cricketer Shikhar Dhawan as its brand ambassador.

ii. The state-run lender named the young cricketer as its brand ambassador as it is gearing up for the next phase of banking with a special focus on the country's youth.

iii. RK Dubey, Chairman & Managing Director of Canara Bank said that the bank and Dhawan had a lot in common.

Note: i. Canara Bank is not the first public sector lender to name a cricketer as its brand ambassador. Cricketer Rahul Dravid has been Bank of Baroda's brand ambassador since 2005.

ii. ICICI Bank, which once had Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador, later appointed Shah Rukh Khan. Sachin Tendulkar promoted Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2008.

6.    Tendulkar emerges leading contender for cricketer of generation award

i. Sachin Tendulkar is among the three greats to have emerged as the leading contenders for ESPNcricinfo�s Cricketer of the Generation award; even as the Indian�s long-time fierce rival from the West Indies Brian Lara missed out on a place in the final three.

ii. Australian spin legend Shane Warne and the recently-retired South African great Jacques Kallis are the other two cricketers to feature in the final list.

iii. The award, to be presented in Mumbai on Friday, will honour the most outstanding cricketer between the years 1993 and 2013.

iv. The occasion will also mark the 20th anniversary celebrations for the cricket website.

v. While Tendulkar has been the most successful batsman of his generation, having set innumerable records in both Tests and ODIs, no other bowler mesmerised world cricket the way Warne did, besides playing a role in reviving the art of leg spin bowling.

vi. As far as all-rounder are concerned, Kallis, for his exploits over the past two decades, often drew comparison with the greatest of them all, Gary Sobers.

7.    Over five million kids affected by Syria crisis: UNICEF

i. Some 5.5 million Syrian children fell victims to the three-year-old crisis in the war-torn country, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday while releasing a new report on the prevailing situation in the country.

ii. UN agency stressed the immense damage caused to children by the ongoing armed conflicts, said reports.
iii. It warned that the future of 5.5 million Syria children, with some 4.3 million children inside Syria and around 1.2 million having fled to neighbouring countries as refugees, was threatened.

iv. It was due to violence, the collapse of health and education services, severe psychological distress and the worsening economic impact on families combined to devastate a generation, it added.
v. UN agency called for international community to halt the violence in Syria, and granting of immediate access to under-reached children living in the country.

vi. It also urged for boosting the education and healthcare system, providing support to host communities and governments to improve the conditions for Syria refugee children and families.

8.    Hockey India Disciplinary panel imposes ban on players, coaches for code of conduct violation

i. The Committee recommended a ban of six months on Sarvanjit Singh and Karamjit Singh, players for Punjab & Sind Bank and Gurpreet Singh, player Air India with effect from April 1, 2014 from all Hockey India and Hockey India sanctioned tournaments.

ii. Each of the players will also be on probation for a period of one year from October 1, 2014 and any repeat incident of such nature will immediately result in another ban of one year from the date of that incident.

iii. The incident took place during the 48th All India Bombay Gold Cup Tournament, when an altercation between the three players resulted in issuance of red cards to each player.

9.    Gurgaon has the highest first time voters in Haryana

i. The maximum number of voters in Haryana who will cast their vote first time in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections fall in Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency.

ii. The number of first time voters in the age group of 18-19 years in Gurgaon is 47161 according to the data released by Haryana State Government.

iii. Out of a total of 339452 first-time voters in the 18-19 age group 98756 voters are females and 250696 are males.

iv. The maximum number of first time women voters 14144 in the 18-19 age group also fall in Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency even as the maximum number of 33017 first-time men voters too come from the same constituency.

v. While on the national level, the Election Commission�s data show that the proportion of 18-19 year-olds registered to vote is the highest in Jharkhand (9 per cent of total electors), Chhattisgarh (4.9 per cent) and Rajasthan (4.8 per cent) and the lowest in Himachal Pradesh (1.3 per cent), Maharashtra (1.4 per cent) and Kerala and Karnataka (1.8 per cent).

10.  Indian Army chief on two-day visit to Nepal

i. The Indian Army chief, Gen. Bikram Singh, arrived Nepal on Thursday morning on a two-day official visit at the invitation of his Nepalese counterpart, Gen. Gurav Sumsher Rana.

ii. This is his third visit to Nepal after assuming office in May 2012.

iii. Gen. Bikram Singh will hold talks with President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Gen. Rana and other senior defence officials in Kathmandu Thursday before observing the Surya Kiran VI joint military exercise in southern Nepal on Friday, Nepalese Army spokesperson Brig. Jagadish Chandra Pokhrel said.

iv. Gen. Bikram Singh first visited Nepal in July 2012, when he was conferred the honorary title of Nepalese Army chief, a tradition between the two armies. He again visited here in June 2013 to jointly flag-in the Indo-Nepal Joint Military Everest Clean-up Expedition and to celebrate the successful ascent of Mt. Everest by climbers of the two armies.