Daily GK Update 14th January 2015

DRDO chief was removed to bring in younger generation: Parrikar

(i) Avinash Chander as chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said that he had recommended that the top position should be held by someone from a "slightly younger generation" and not by someone who was on contract.

(ii) Such senior positions should not be on contract. There are so many eligible persons, we will find someone good from the DRDO, senior most person of a cluster head will head the organisation," Mr. Parrikar told journalists here.

Sanskrit scholar Prabhu Nath Dwivedi wins Sahitya Akademi Award

(i) Eminent Sanskrit scholar Prabhu Nath Dwivedi has been conferred the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for 2014 for his “Kanakalochanaha” collection of short stories, a statement said on Wednesday.

(ii) The collection comprises of 16 short-stories that touch upon various social issues eroding the system.

(iii) Other winners, announced in December 2014 include poet and critic Adil Jussawalla, who won the award for his poetry book “Trying to Say Goodbye”.

(iv) The winners will be given the award in March during the Festival of Letters being organised here by the Sahitya Akademi.

Infosys CEO meets Modi; dedicates $250 million to innovate in India

(i) Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and disclosed that his company will spend USD 250 million (over Rs 1,500 crore) to fund innovations in software and services in India.

(ii) The chief of India’s second largest IT services firm also discussed with Mr. Modi ways in which the company can participate in the Prime Minister’s vision of smart and digitally empowered India.

(iii) Infosys will develop software for managing the kumbh mela scheduled in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) in 2016, he told PTI in an interview.

WPI inflation almost flat at 0.11 per cent in December MoM

(i) Reversing a six month declining trend, inflation moved up marginally to 0.11 per cent in December mainly due to increase in prices of food items.

(ii) Inflation measured on wholesale price index (WPI) was at zero in November.

(iii) The food inflation in December moved to a five month high of 5.2 per cent, as per the government data released on Wednesday.

(iv) Inflation in pulses, vegetables and fruits was higher in December over the previous month.

Italy's President Napolitano resigns

(i) Italian President Giorgio Napolitano handed in his resignation as head of state on Wednesday, leaving Prime Minister Matteo Renzi with the politically delicate task of finding a successor.

(ii) The 89-year-old Napolitano, widely respected outside Italy as a guarantor of stability during the euro zone crisis, had always been expected to step down before the end of his second term in office because of his advanced age.

India will catch up with China’s growth rate in 2016-17: World Bank

(i) India will catch up with China's growth at 7% in the year 2016-17, the World Bank has forecast, saying India's economy has recovered in the wake of the economic reform measures taken by the new Indian government, falling oil prices and lower interest rates.

(ii) "India will catch up with China's growth in the year 2016 and 2017," World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice-President Kaushik Basu told reporters here.

(iii) "China's growth will remain high, but will begin to taper very gently, reaching 6.9 per cent in 2017," he said as the world Bank released the 'Global Outlook: Disappointments, Divergences, and Expectations Global Economic Prospects'.