Daily GK Update 8th Feb 2015

Salman Rushdie hits back at Jnanpith winner Bhalchandra Nemade

(i) Writer Salman Rushdie has lashed out at Jnanpith award-winning Marathi writer Bhalchandra Nemade for his comment that Rushdie’s works lacked literary merit.

(ii) Shortly after being chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith award on Friday, Mr. Nemade made the remarks at a felicitation programme organised by the Matrubhasha Samvardhan Sabha in Mumbai. 

(iii) He dismissed the works of Mr. Rushdie and V.S. Naipaul as “pandering to the West.” Mr. Rushdie’s works after Midnight’s Children lacked literary merit, he said.

Australian PM survives vote of confidence

(i) Australia’s ruling Liberal Party voted on Monday morning to defeat a leadership spill motion, thereby retaining Tony Abbott in his role as the party leader and the country’s prime minister.

(ii) But the margin of the party-room vote — 61-39 — was not emphatic enough to ensure Mr. Abbott’s long-term future as prime minister.

(iii) Given that none of Mr. Abbott’s colleagues had put their name forward as a leadership candidate, the vote effectively meant 39 Liberal Party MPs voted for no particular individual, just as a protest against the prime minister’s embattled leadership.

China president plans to make first state visit to US

(i) Chinese state media are reporting that a top diplomat said President Xi Jinping plans to make his first state visit to the U.S. later this year.

(ii) On Monday, the official China Daily newspaper quoted China’s ambassador to the U.S. Ciu Tiankai as saying Chinese and U.S. officials are discussing the visit. 

(iii) Mr. Ciu said no date had been determined yet.

(iv) U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice said on Friday that the U.S. has invited both Mr. Xi and Japanese President Shinzo Abe for state visits.

‘Boyhood’, ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ big winners at BAFTA

(i) Coming-of-age drama Boyhood won three of the biggest awards at the BAFTA 2015 but it was Wes Anderson’s whimsical drama The Grand Budapest Hotel that dominated the ceremony by taking home five trophies.

• BEST FILM: Boyhood
• BEST BRITISH FILM: The Theory Of Everything
• BEST DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson
• BEST LEAD ACTOR: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory Of Everything
• BEST LEAD ACTRESS: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
• BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• BEST ANIMATED FILM: The Lego Movie, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
• BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Alexandre Desplat

Black money in stock markets: SEBI to suspend shell companies

(i) Cracking its whip on entities using stock markets for evading taxes and laundering black money, watchdog SEBI has decided to suspend trading in listed companies that are found to be used by such manipulators.

(ii) The capital markets regulator has identified three parameters for taking action against such companies and the trading would be suspended in the shares of those entities that satisfy more than one of the criteria.

(iii) “These parameters include these companies being non-existent on their mentioned address, misuse of preferential allotment and weak fundamentals not supporting price rise,” a senior official said.

Child labour bill will be test of Modi government: Kailash Satyarthi

(i) A bill currently in the Indian Parliament on child labour totally will be a “test” of the new government on how they take the issues of the most exploited children in their political priority, says child rights campaigner and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi.

(ii) Mr. Satyarthi, 61, was referring to an amendment to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act that will lead to a total ban on all forms of child labour up to the age of 14 and ban on worst forms of child labour involving hazardous work up to the age of 18.

NITI Aayog: States for greater devolution of funds

(i) Now that the NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog is a reality, the non-BJP-ruled States on Sunday rephrased their opposition to it by demanding that the new institution continue with the functions of the erstwhile Planning Commission, particularly the determination of annual plans and transfer of Plan funds to States.

(ii) After the scrapping of the Planning Commission, this role is currently being undertaken by the Finance Ministry. 

(iii) Apart from demanding that the NITI Aayog take on this responsibility, several State governments called for greater devolution of funds and spoke out against the arbitrary cuts in Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) at the first meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

Bihar Assembly Speaker recognises Nitish as new JD(U) LP leader

(i) In fast paced development, Bihar Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary on Sunday recognised Nitish Kumar as the new leader of JD(U) Legislature Party and Jitan Ram Manjhi as a former head.

(ii) A letter issued by secretary in-charge of Bihar Assembly Hareram Mukhiya said Mr. Chaudhary has recognised Mr. Kumar as new leader of JD(U) Legislature Party of the House, highly placed sources in Assembly secretariat said.

(iii) A letter to this effect has been sent to the Raj Bhawan, the Chief Minister’s office and the Nitish Kumar’s office, the sources said.

BCCI AGM to be held on March 2 in Chennai

(i) The BCCI will hold its much-awaited Annual General Meeting (AGM) here on March 2. The date was announced after the Board’s working committee met at a city hotel on Sunday. 

(ii) The Supreme Court had set March 5 as the deadline for conducting the AGM.

(iii) The Board said in a release: “The working committee discussed the implications of the Supreme Court’s judgment and decided to act per legal advice.”

(iv) The meeting, attended by all 24 members of the working committee, lasted nearly 70 minutes. N. Srinivasan took part in the deliberations.