Daily Current Affairs : 11th May 2020 | Daily GK update Quiz

Exp. American multinational financial services company Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has predicted India’s GDP (Gross domestic product) growth for 2020-21 (FY21) at -0.4% following the expansion of the lockdown.

In April 2020, it had expected GDP growth to slip to 1.6 % in FY21. However, it was earlier 2.7 % in the general opinion.

Note: India GDP projected F21

World Bank:1.5% to 2.8%

ADB– 4%

UN- 4.8

IMF- 1.9%

Exp. India has announced the appointment of Ajinkya Rahane, the Vice-Captain of the Indian Cricket Test Team, as its brand ambassador for India, Middle East, ANZ, and SAARC.

The comapny’s product ELSA Speak is a mobile app which uses speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to help language learners improve their English pronunciation.

Exp. The US based private equity firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire 74% stake in SeQuent Scientific Limited, the largest pure-play animal healthcare company in India, for $210 million (Rs.1587 crore).

Carlyle will buy 56.15% (94 million shares) stake held by promters including founders Arun Kumar and KR Ravishankar, and 26% stake (64 million) from public through open offer.

Exp. Every year, May 11 is observed as National Technology Day. This day marks the anniversary of Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998 and India’s technological advancements in space. Pokhran nuclear tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by the Indian Army at the Pokhran Test Range. It is also celebrated to honour technological advancements and their successful commercialisation which takes the fruits of research to reach people at large.

Exp. The number of tigers in the Sunderbans reserve forest in West Bengal has increased to 96 from the previous estimate of 88, an official said on 7th May. The state forest department arrived at the current figure on the basis of a census conducted between November 2019 and January 2020.

Exp. Top-seed and favourite China were crowned champions at the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup on 10th May by virtue of superior points tally despite their final match against the USA ending in 2-2 draw.

Exp. India which had Viswanathan Anand, Vidit S Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, B Adhiban, Koneru Humpy and D Harika in its ranks, finished a poor fifth in the six-team event FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup.

Exp. The Indian government has raised its gross borrowing programme for the current financial year sharply as it seeks more funds to deal with the economic fallout of Covid-19.

In a circular issued on 8th May, the government said that the gross borrowing target for the year has been raised to Rs 12 lakh crore from the budgeted Rs 7.8 lakh crore.

The increase in borrowings has been done in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India and has been necessitated on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Exp. Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi (IAS) on 11th May assumed charge as new Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.   Shri Chaturvedi is a 1987 Batch IAS officer and belongs to Jharkhand cadre and succeeded Shri Anand Kumar in the Ministry who earlier took charge Secretary, Ministry of Culture.

After formally taking over, Shri Chaturvedi met senior officers of the Ministry and took stock of the work and issues before the Ministry.

Prior to this appointment, Shri. Chaturvedi was serving as Additional Chief Secretary and Additional Secretary (Climate Change Department) of the Ministry of Climate Change Department, Environment & Forest, Government of Jharkhand.

Exp. The first biopic on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s life, titled ‘Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family’ has been topping the pre-order charts. The book would be published on August 11, 2020.

‘Finding Freedom’ is a biopic, written by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand. The book promises to dismantle the rumours revolving around Harry, the Duke of Sussex and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. It promises to bring the true story of Harry and Meghan forward.

Exp. India launched Mission Sagar on 10th may as part of the government’s outreach initiative towards five Island nations in the Indian Ocean amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a statement said, “Indian Naval Ship Kesari has departed for Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, to provide Food Items, COVID related Medicines including HCQ Tablets and Special Ayurvedic Medicines with Medical Assistance Teams embarked.”

Exp. Deepa Malik, India’s lone woman Paralympics silver medallist, announced on 11th May that she will be hanging her boots from active sports in order to serve as the president of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) in accordance with the National Sports Code.

The 49-year-old took to Twitter and clarified that she was declaring her retirement from the sport for her affiliation with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS).

Exp. IIM-Bangalore only Indian institute in top 50 of FT Executive Education Ranking

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore is the only Indian institute to secure rank in the top 50 of Financial Times’ Executive Education Ranking.

Exp. The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore is the only Indian institute to secure rank in the top 50 of Financial Times’ Executive Education Ranking. The institute is at 45th spot globally. The FT Rankings have released two indexes in executive education — open programmes and custom programmes. IESE Business School, University of Navarra has secured the number one rank in overall category (including both open and custom courses).

IIM-B has been ranked at 55th spot in the executive education open programme and 52nd in the custom category. While IIM-B has improved its performance in the customised category from 57th spot last year to 52nd this year.