Daily GK Update 15th April 2015

Modi reaches Canada; to focus on energy, investments

(i) Marking the first standalone bilateral visit in 42 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived on Wednesday in Canada where the focus will be on setting a “trajectory” in ties through cooperation in energy, including civil nuclear, and attracting trade and technology for India’s development.

(ii) With his focus on the programme, Mr. Modi is expected to invite Canada to partner in this endeavour by sharing technology and pumping in investments.

(iii) Mr. Modi will hold talks with his counterpart Stephen Harper to discuss how the relationship could be taken forward. He will also address Canadian business leaders.

(iv) The Prime Minister will also be meeting officials of the Pension Fund of Canada which has the corpus of 200 million dollars and discuss how to ease the investment opportunities for it.

Kerry joins G7 foreign ministers after US compromise on Iran

(i) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has joined a meeting of the Group of Seven foreign ministers, arriving on the gathering’s second day after President Barack Obama agreed to sign legislation giving Congress the right to reject any nuclear deal with Iran.

(ii) Kerry arrived early on Wednesday in the northern German city of Luebeck, where Iran is a major issue at the G-7 meeting. 

(iii) Steinmeier says they also will discuss “various possibilities” of calming the conflict in Yemen. He welcomed the U.N. Security Council’s move on Tuesday to impose an arms embargo on Houthi rebel leaders.

India remain No.2 in ODI rankings

(i) Team India has retained its second position in the ODI rankings list after finishing as semifinalists in the recently-concluded ICC Cricket World Cup.

(ii) With 116 points, India is placed just six points behind world champions Australia, who have garnered 122 rating points to their credit. 

(iii) India is followed by South Africa (112), Sri Lanka (108), New Zealand (107, England (101), Pakistan (95).

(iv) Meanwhile, three Indian batsmen — Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni — figure in the top-10 table for ODI batsmen.

(v) While Kohli continues to be the highest ranked Indian batsmen at number four position, Dhawan is at No.6 followed by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the eighth spot in the chart, which is still headed by South Africa’s A B de Villiers.

(vi) Unfortunately, none of the Indians could earn a place in the top-10 bowlers’ list, which has Australia’s Mitchell Starc at the top.

Sania seals historic world no. 1 rank with Charleston title

(i) Sania Mirza on Sunday created history by becoming the first female tennis player from India to achieve the world number one rank in doubles, following her stupendous title win at the WTA Family Circle Cup with partner Martina Hingis, in Charleston.

(ii) The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair blew away the challenge of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0 6-4 in just 57 minutes in the lop-sided final of the $731,000 clay court event.

(iii) Sania took 470 points from the win to take her tally to 7965 as she jumped past Italy’s Sara Errani (7640) and Roberta Vinci (7640) to sit atop the ranking table. 

Nokia buys Alcatel-Lucent for €15.6 billion

(i) Finnish network equipment maker Nokia said on Wednesday it has agreed to buy Alcatel-Lucent in an all-share transaction that values the smaller French rival at €15.6 billion ($16.58 billion).

(ii) Nokia will give Alcatel-Lucent shareholders 0.55 shares in the combined company for each of their old shares, resulting in 33.5 per cent of the entity being in Alcatel's hands and Nokia having 66.5 per cent if the public exchange offer is fully taken up.

(iii) The deal will be finalised in the first half of 2016, the companies said.

(iv) The combined company will have about 114,000 employees and combined sales of around €26 billion.

Congress wins Bhagwanpur Assembly bypoll

(i) Ruling Congress won the by-election to the Bhagwanpur Vidhan Sabha seat, on Wednesday.

(ii) With 59,205 votes Congress candidate Mamata Rakesh won the by-election defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rajpal Singh by 36,909 votes.

(iii) The by-election to Bhagwanpur seat, which comes under Haridwar district, was necessitated due to the demise of the Surendra Rakesh. 

(iv) Rakesh held the post of Minister of Transport and Social Welfare in the Harish Rawat Cabinet. 

(v) He was a member of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) that supports the Congress government in Uttarakhand.

Wholesale inflation dips to record low

(i) Deflation persisted for the fifth consecutive month as wholesale price index based inflation fell to a record low of (-) 2.33 per cent in March on account of cheaper food and fuel products as well as manufactured items.

(ii) Inflation measured on wholesale price index (WPI) was at (-) 2.06 per cent in February, (-) 0.39 per cent in January, (-) 0.50 per cent in December and (-) 0.17 per cent in November. It was 6 per cent in March 2014.

(iii) Deflation was also visible in the manufactured products category where the rate of price rise dropped to a record low of (-) 0.19 per cent.

Tech Mahindra teams up with Comverse, to take on Israeli engineers

(i) Information technology group Tech Mahindra is partnering with U.S.-Israeli Comverse Inc to set up a research and development centre in Israel.

(ii) Manish Vyas, president of Tech Mahindra's communications group, told Reuters the deal -- which would bring the Indian company hundreds of engineers -- will help the firm more than double its engineering business revenue within a few years. 

(iii) The company does about $400 million annually in engineering, about half of that is in telecoms.

(iv) Tech Mahindra Executive Vice Chairman Vineet Nayyar said the company's global activities will be concentrated in three countries - India, the United States and Israel.

(v) Tech Mahindra owns Israel's Leadcom, a provider of network services for telecom companies, after it bought Leadcom's parent Lightbridge Communications in February.

Online hotel booking in India to hit $1.8 bn by 2016: Google

(i) Online hotel bookings in the country will touch USD 1.8 billion by 2016, as more and more Indians turn to the Internet for finalising travel plans, according to Google.

(ii) “Consumer confidence to do online hotel bookings is on the rise in India, with an estimated 8.4 million Indians likely to book hotels online by 2016.

(iii) The online hotel booking Industry will be worth USD 1.8 billion from the current USD 0.8 billion,” a report by Google India stated.

(iv) One of the biggest factors for this sizzling growth is the convenience the Internet offers while carrying out the transaction.

India beat S. Korea to clinch bronze in Azlan Shah hockey

(i) India defeated South Korea 4-1 (6-3) on penalties to win the bronze medal in the 24th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here on Sunday.

(ii) The bronze-medal playoff match ended 2-2 after regulation time at the Azlan Shah Stadium. 

(iii) Goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh was India’s hero effecting three saves in the penalty shoot-out.

(iv) For India, Akashdeep Singh, Sardar Singh, Rupinderpal Singh and Birender Lakra scored in the shootout.

(v) Striker Nikkin Thimmaiah, scorer of a fine hat-trick against Australia on Saturday, gave India the lead in the 10th minute.