GK Update - 4th May 2015

National Film Award for Best Children's film 'Kaakka Muttai' to co-producer Dhanush

(i) Accepting the diminishing trend of children’s movies in the entertainment industry, actor-producer Dhanush, whose co-production Tamil drama “Kaaka Muttai” grabbed the National Film Award, says he will focus on producing more children-based films. 

(ii) “I would focus on producing more children-based films. And this is just the beginning. I hope some good scripts come my way then I can do something about it,” Dhanush said.

(iii) Dhanush accepted the award for the film at the 62nd National Film Awards ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan here. Talking about the movie, he said: “I got really curious about the script when it came to me. The story about two boys and their urge to eat pizza captivated my interest”.

Surveymonkey CEO David Goldberg dies

(i) David Goldberg, a popular Silicon Valley executive and husband of Facebook second-in-command Sheryl Sandberg, has died suddenly at age 47, his company and family members said on Saturday.

(ii) Goldberg was CEO of online survey questionnaire provider SurveyMonkey. He died on Friday night, the company said in a statement on its website. Family members also reported the death, via posts on Facebook.

(iii) Sandberg launched an international conversation about the dearth of women in positions of power with her 2011 book “Lean In- Women, Work and the Will to Lead.”

Future Group's retail business to merge with Bharti Retail

(i) Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Retail Ltd.’s board has approved the consolidation and realignment of its retail operations with Bharti Retail Ltd., a statement by the company said on Monday.

(iu) “The board of directors of Future Retail Limited, the flagship company of Future Group, and the board of directors of Bharti Retail Limited at their respective meetings held today (Monday) have approved a partnership between the companies,” the statement by Future retail said.

(iii) The combined entity will have over 570 retail stores in 243 cities with operational retail space of over 18.5 million square feet.

Net Neutrality: Internet.org opens platform for developers

(i) Finding itself on the wrong side of Net Neutrality debate, Facebook on Monday made its Internet.org platform open to all content and application developers who meet “certain guidelines”.

However, Reliance Communications remains the only Indian telecom partner as of now on this platform, which has seen entities like Cleartrip and NDTV walking out.

(ii) “The platform will be open to all developers who meet certain guidelines, including content that can be browsed on both feature and smartphones and on limited bandwidth,” Internet.org Vice President Product Chris Daniels told PTI.

(iii) The move comes amid raging debate in the country on Net Neutrality, which stands for equal treatment to be accorded to all Internet traffic.

Mass resignations of AAP workers in Maharashtra

(i) In what is reminiscent of Stalinist witch-hunts of the Trotskyists on a smaller political scale, more than 370 dissenters within the Maharashtra unit of the Aam Aadmi Party who sided with expelled members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, resigned on Monday citing pressure of excommunication by the Arwind Kejriwal ‘faction’ of the party.

(ii) Following a dramatic ad-hoc meeting of the dissenters on Monday afternoon at Pune’s S.M. Joshi hall, 375 members of the State unit submitted their resignations, splitting the AAP State unit wide open.

(iii) While lamenting the effect of party schism on the AAP’s progressive campaigns like the ‘Swaraj Abhiyan’, Mr. Bhapkar said he soon planned to kickstart the same in Maharashtra on behalf of the Swaraj Samwad. 

(iv) The ‘Swaraj Abhiyan’, a platform meant to address a broad complex of issues from farmer suicides to special economic zones (SEZs) in order to enhance their rural voter connect, was mooted following the AAP thumping victory in the Delhi election.