DAILY GK UPDATE - 28th March

1.    Gavaskar to be interim BCCI chief

i. The Supreme Court today handed over the reins of BCCI to former player Sunil Gavaskar during IPL 7 and did not bar Srinivasan-promoted Chennai Superkings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) from participating in the tournament.

ii. Taking the cricket board out of incumbent Srinivasan�s hands, the Court directed that the senior most Vice-President of the Board, Shivlal Yadav, will be looking after the affairs of BCCI.

iii A bench of justices A K Patnaik and F M Ibrahim Kalifulla, which had yesterday proposed barring CSK and RR in the tournament, however, refused to pass order in this regard allowing them to play the matches along with six other teams in the tournament beginning April 16 in Dubai.

iv. The bench also said that Gavaskar will have to get out of the contract with BCCI for commentary in order to discharge the duty assigned by the court. It also directed BCCI to adequately compensate the veteran cricketer.

v. The order was given during hearing on the Mudgal Committee report that went into betting and spot-fixing allegations against those involved in CSK and RR during IPL 6.

2.    RBI eases primary dealers' exposure norms to QCCP

i.  To promote centralised clearing of OTC derivative products, the Reserve Bank on Thursday eased stand-alone primary dealers' exposure ceiling to a qualified central counter party by keeping the limit outside the existing 25 percent of net-owned funds.

ii. The new norms would be effective Tuesday next, the central bank said in a notification. Clearing exposure to a qualified central counter party will be kept outside of the exposure ceiling of 25 percent of its NOF applicable to a single counter party, the RBI said.

iii. The ceilings on single or group exposure limit would not be applicable where principal and interest are fully guaranteed by the government, it added. 

iv. The ceilings on single or group exposure limit would not be applicable where principal and interest are fully guaranteed by the government, it added. 

v. At present, there are four CCPs - Clearing Corporation of India, National Securities Clearing Corporation, Indian Clearing Corporation, and MCX-SX Clearing Corporation. While the CCIL has been granted the status of a QCCP by RBI, the other three CCPs have been granted the status of QCCP by Sebi.
 vi. The RBI also reviewed the existing guidelines on capital charge for credit risk of standalone PD's exposure to interest rate derivative contracts, rep/reverse rep transactions and central counter parties have been reviewed.

3.    Walmart sues Visa for $5 billion for fixing & inflating card fees

i. Walmart Stores Inc has filed a lawsuit against Visa Inc, accusing the credit & debit card giant of conspiring with banks to fix fees that merchants pay for accepting payments through Visa cards.

ii. In the suit filed earlier this week in the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, the world's leading retailer accused Visa of conspiring with some of the largest U. S. banks to illegally fix and inflate fees that merchants pay on Visa charge card transactions.

iii. The retailer said Visa used the price-fixing schemes to maintain its dominance in the market

iv. In addition, Walmart accused the credit card company of issuing its cards with insecure magnetic stripe that allowed many criminals to conduct thefts and fraud. It added that Visa used its market power to shift costs of losses from such frauds to merchants.

v. The retail giant seeks more than $5 billion in damages from Visa.

4.    Canara Bank opens its 6,000th ATM

i. Canara Bank has opened its 6000th ATM at Vikasa Soudha (Secretariat Building), Bangalore.

ii. The new ATM was inaugurated by R.K. Dubey, Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, along with Sanjiv Kumar, Karnataka Principal Secretary, DPAR.

iii. V.S Krishnakumar, Executive Director, and Ravindra Bhandary, General Manager, were present on the occasion.

5.    Malayalam director P Ramdas passes away

i. Yesteryear veteran director P Ramdas, who introduced the neo-realistic wave in Malayalam cinema during the 1950s through his path breaking movie Newspaper Boy, has passed away at a hospital in kerala.

ii. Breaking the traditional notions and techniques of cinema, he stepped into tinsel town withNewspaper Boy, a social drama on the lives of a printing worker and his family, at the age of 22.

iii. Though the movie, released on May 13, 1955, bombed at the box office, it won wide critical acclaim.

iv. Ramdas also produced two more feature films � Nirapara in 1976 and Vadakaveettile Adithiin 1981

6.    West Zone won cricket's Deodhar Trophy 2014

i. West Zone on 27 March 2014 won the cricket's Deodhar Trophy 2014. They lifted the trophy after defeating North Zone in the Day-Night final at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam by a margin of 133 runs. 
ii. North Zone, while chasing a score of 282 runs to win, was all out on 148 in 37.1 over. 

About Prof. D B Deodhar Trophy 
Deodhar Trophy is a 50-over over inter zonal knockout Indian domestic cricket tournament. The one-day zonal championship, established in 1980s has been named after Prof. D. B. Deodhar (Dinkar Balwant Deodhar born on 14 January 1892 in Poona (now Pune), Maharashtra), who is known as the Grand Old Man of Indian cricket. The tournament is annually played among five zonal teams namely North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone. 

7.    Darren Sammy storm buries Australia at World Twenty20

i. Sammy came on to score 34* in 13 balls, including two sixes in the final over, to help West Indies edge Australia by 6 wickets at Mirpur.

ii. After a loss and a win, West Indies are placed second in Group 2 of the ICC World Twenty20.

iii. Australia on the other hand failed to win their opener and are currently just above bottom-placed Bangladesh - a place that this team is unaccustomed to. In a match that promises to have a repercussion on each of the four teams in the group, both West Indies and Australia will fight tooth and nail for full points. 

iv. Bravo scored 27 not out while Sammy stayed unbeaten on 34 off 13 balls.
v. Gayle got West Indies off to a flying start and scored 53 off 35 balls, guiding West Indies past 100 in the 12th over.
vi. Earlier, Australia survived a West Indies spin assault to post a commanding 178/8.