DAILY GK UPDATE - 8th July ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 1. Union Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda Presented Rail Budget 2014-15: Union Rail Budget 2014-15 was presented by the Union Railway Minister Sadanand Gowda on 8 July 2014. This is the first rail budget presented by any Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister and it is also Gowda’s first rail budget. Union Rail Budget 2014-15: Highlights Railways to build FOB and escalators, toilets on all stations • Railways also proposes to set up Food Courts at major stations • RO drinking water facilities to be installed at stations • Separate housekeeping wing at 50 major stations • CCTV to monitor cleanliness activities • Mechanized laundry will be introduced • Dedicated freight corridor on Eastern and Western corridors • Tourist trains to be introduced to link all major places of tourist interests across the country • 4000 women constables to be recruited to ensure safety of women • 17000 Railway Protection Force (RPF) constables to provide safety to passengers • Setting up of Railway University for technical and non-technical study • Ultrasonic Broken Rail Detection System (UBRD) to detect problem in track • Proposal to start Bullet trains in Mumbai—Ahmedabad route • Diamond Quadrilateral project of high speed trains to connect all major metros • Efforts will be made to increase speed of trains to 160-200km/h on select sectors. The identified sectors are: Delhi-Agra; Delhi-Chandigarh; Delhi-Kanpur; Nagpur-Bilaspur; Mysore-Bengaluru-Chennai; Mumbai-Goa; Mumbai-Ahmedabad; Chennai-Hyderabad and Nagpur-Secunderabad. • E-ticketing system to be improved. Future e-ticketing to support 7200 tickets per minute & to allow 120000 simultaneous users • Wi-fi in A1 and A category stations and in select trains. Internet-based platform and unreserved tickets • Will develop 10 metro stations with state-of-the-art facilities • Outsourcing at 50 major stations; on board housekeeping to be extended to more trains; launching feedback service through IVRS on the quality • Hospital Management Information System to integrate all railway health units and hospitals • Special milk tanker trains to be introduced • Temperature-controlled storage for fruits and vegetable • setting up of Railway University for technical and non-technical subjects, tie-up with technical institutions • Paperless office of Indian railways in 5 years. Digital reservation charts at stations • Ready-to-eat meals to be introduced in phased manners • New trains in Rail Budget: 5 Jansadharan, 5 Premium, 6 AC, 27 express trains, 8 passenger, 5 DEMU & 2 MEMU services; 11 train extensions • Office-on-wheels: Internet and workstation facilities on select trains • Temperature-controlled storage for fruits and vegetable 2. ADB approves $180 mn loan to help Nepal overcome power shortages i. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 180 million dollars loan to help Nepal overcome its crippling power shortages and export surplus power to neighboring India. ii. The loan will help Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) finance a substantial upgrade and expansion of transmission and distribution lines and sub-stations, allowing the transfer of up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of power to main load centers in the Kathmandu Valley. iii. According to ADB, besides meeting domestic needs, this network expansion will give Nepal the ability to export at least 1,200 MW of electricity to India, once a second 400 kilovolt cross-border transmission line from Bardaghat to Gorakhpur in India is complete. iv. With six new hydropower plants due to come on stream over the next three to six years, the country expects to have a substantial wet season supply surplus for export by 2018 3. India successfully test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile i. India successfully test-fired an advanced version of the 290-km range BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from Chandipur-on-Sea off Odisha coast. It was test-fired from a mobile launcher from launch complex number three of the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Balasore. About the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile • BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kilogram and operates on ‘Fire and Forget Principle’, adopting varieties of flights on its way to the target • BrahMos is the first supersonic cruise missile known to be in service • BrahMos with a top speed of Mach 2.8 is about three times faster than the US subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile 4. Amritraj announces launch of Champions Tennis League i. Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj on Monday announced the launch of Champions Tennis League (CTL) in India with an aim of taking the sport to new levels of awareness and popularity in the country. ii. The CTL will feature six city based teams, who will play 13 matches over a 10-day period from November 17 to 26. iii. The teams will be structured into two groups, each having three sides each, where they would play each other in a home and away format. The teams topping their respective group will play each other in the grand finale for the prize money of Rs. 1 crore. The runner-up will receive Rs. 50 lakhs. iv. CTL teams will feature male and female players with international rankings between No. 5 and No. 25. v. Each of the six teams will also have an international legend as their playing captain, apart from a noted Indian male tennis player, plus a top ranked junior Indian girl and boy from each city. 5. Granville Austin, the scholar of Indian constitution died i. Granville Austin, the eminent scholar of the Indian Constitution died in Washington DC. ii. He died at the age of 87. He described Indian Constitution as first and foremost a social document that embodied the objectives of a social revolution. About Granville Austin • He authored two books on Indian Constitution. These are a) The Indian Constitution – The Indian Constitution: A Cornerstone of a Nation b) Working a Democratic Republic: The Indian Experience • In 2011, he was awarded with fourth highest civilian award in India, Padma Shri. He was awarded in recognition of his writings on the framing and working of the Indian Constitution. • He worked as a journalist and photographer • He was born in 1927 at Norwich, Vermont 6. Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid FC legend died i. Alfredo Di Stefano, the legend of Real Madrid Football Club, died on 7 July 2014 at the General Universatario Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid. He was 88. He died after suffering a heart attack. ii. Stefano was a football player, who played for three different nations at international level but never appeared at the world cup. He played for Argentina, Colombia and Spain. 7. Eduard Shevardnadze, the ex-President of Georgia died at 86 i. Eduard Shevardnadze, the former President of Georgia died on 7 July 2014. He died after prolong illness at the age of 86. ii. He became the second President of Georgia in 1992 after disintegration of Georgia from the erstwhile Soviet Union. He had succeeded Zviad Gamsakhurdia. He was toppled in November 2003 after the Rose Revolution led by Mikheil Saakashvili. 8. Australia leads ICC test rankings; India in fourth place i. Australia leads the latest ICC test rankings followed by South Africa, England with India in the fourth place. ii. Men in Blue played test cricket after a long gap in Bangladesh last month and the tour of England will provide them yet another opportunity to improve their ranking. 9. Sania Mirza achieves career-best fifth rank in WTA doubles ranking i. Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has achieved a career-best rank of number five in the world as the new WTA Doubles chart was released yesterday. ii. Sania has entered the top-five for the first time in her career. Sania and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black could not go deep in the just concluded Wimbledon championships, but a second round appearance fetched her crucial 130 ranking points which was enough to push her in the top-5. 10. SFs of FIFA World Cup begins tonight; hosts Brazil vs Germany i. The semi-final stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup begins tonight, with hosts Brazil clashing with Germany at Belo Horizonte. The match will kick off at 1:30 AM Indian Time. ii. The title clash of the World Cup will take place at Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, with the match for the third place scheduled for the day before at Brasília. ☻☻☻☻☻
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 02:56:15 +0000
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