Daily GK Update: 19th June 2020

National & International Appointments

Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir has been elected as the President of 75th UN General Assembly through secret ballot voting.
He received 178 votes and stood unopposed for the post.
His term will begin from September 2020.
He is presently serving as a Justice and Development Party lawmaker from Istanbul and head of the Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
Bozkir is the 1^st Turkish national to head the General Assembly.
Current President: Muhammad-Bande

Banking & Finance

ICICI Home Finance (ICICI HFC) has launched scheme for Affordable Housing Loan ‘SARAL’ in urban as well as rural areas.
The scheme is developed for women, lower-middle-income customers and economically weaker section who have a maximum annual household income up to Rs 6 lakhs.
The interest rate will be around 7.98% onwards.
Loan amount can be upto Rs 35 lakh for a tenure of 20 years.
Pre-existing loans can also be transferred in this scheme.
MD & CEO: Anirudh Kamani

National Affairs

EPFO payroll data revealed the growth of formal employment in India by 28.6% in 2019-20.
The reason behind the growth is govt reforms like GST, fixed-term contracts and lower exits by EPFO subscribers due to better PF returns.
Tops sectors of increased employment: Hospitality and financial institutions, followed by textile sector.
As per the EPFO data, net additions to EPFO is 78.58 lakh in 2019-20 compared to 61.12 lakh in 2018-19.
PF Commissioner: Sunil Barthwal

Sports

Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has announced the upgradation of Aizawl’s Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Mizoram as Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE) under Khelo India Scheme.
It will enhance the existing talent in the region towards India’s dream of excellence in Olympics.
KISCE is a new initiative in which Ministry will establish or upgrade stadium as Centre of excellence in each state and UT for robust sport ecosystem
Governor: P. S. Sreedharan Pillai

Banking & Finance

Karnataka Bank ties up with Universal Sompo General Insurance to launch COVID-19 health insurance policy
It will cover in-patient hospital expenses up to Rs 3 lakh, outpatient treatment expenses of Rs 3,000, and will also provide a sum of Rs 1,000 per day towards 14 days expenses of quarantine at a government or military hospital.
Tenure of the policy: 120 days
Premium: Rs 399 inclusive of all taxes.
It will be available for all the customers of age group 18-65 years.

Banking & Finance

Tata AIA Life Insurance (Tata AIA Life) ties up with East Consultancy Services for Aadhaar-based paperless offline e-KYC service amid COVID-19.
E-KYC will provide seamless customer on-boarding during online application process for life insurance solutions facilitating remote purchase of insurance from end-to-end digital sales system.
It will also extend the service for verification of agents as part of Know Your Agent (KYA) requirement.
CEO & MD: Rishi Srivastava

National & International Appointments

Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its outlook supplement forecasted Indian Economy to contract by 4% during the current financial year (2020-21)
As per ADB, countries in Developing Asia (40 members of ADB) will barely grow in 2020 with overall growth rate of 0.1% which is the lowest growth since 1961.
China as an exception will grow by 1.8% in 2020.
India’s economy will recover in 2021 by 5% growth rate.
ADB HQ: Manila, Philippines
President: Masatsugu Asakawa.

Defense

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has agreed to send Tri-Service contingent of 75 members to participated in the 75^th Victory Day Parade of World War II in Moscow.
The parade will be held on June 24, 2020.
It will be held to honour the heroism and sacrifices made by the Russian and other countries in WW II.
India’s participation in the parade will mark tribute and solidarity to Russia during the remembrance of Great Patriotic War heroes.
WW II took place from 1939 to 1945

State Affairs

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has launched mobile app ‘Air-Venti’.
It will help residents to know about the availability of ICU beds and Ventilators in both government and private hospitals around them.
The app is developed by Octaware Technologies Ltd in partnership with Probity Soft Pvt Ltd.
Besides location map, ability to contact hospital through telephonic call and email is also available.
It can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

Obituaries

Malayalam screenwriter and director K R Sachidanandan (48 years) passes away in Thrissur, Kerela due to cardiac arrest.
He made his debut as a screenwriter with film Chocolate in 2007 along with Sethu and wrote for films like Robin Hood, Makeup Man, Seniors and Doubles along with Sethu.
He went solo writer for Run Baby Run, Chettayees, Ramaleela, Sherlock Toms and Driving Licence.
He made his debut as director with Anarkali in 2015.
His last film: Ayyappanum Koshiyum

Summits & Conferences

Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh has inaugurated 2-days International Workshop on 'Good Governance Practices in a Pandemic for International Civil Servants'.
It was organized by Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), MEA and NCGG, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
81 International Civil Servants from 16 Countries including Sri Lanka, Myanmar, etc will participate in this.

National Affairs

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved acquisition of Metso minerals business by Outotec Oyj (“Outotec”) under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.
All assets, rights, debts and liabilities of Metso that serve its minerals business would be acquired by Outotec.
They both are public limited liability companies incorporated and registered under the laws of Finland.
The new name of the entity after acquisition will be 'Metso Outotec'.