DAILY GK UPDATE 15 May

DAILY GK UPDATE 15 May

Marcos clan wins big in Philippine elections

i. The family of dead dictator Ferdinand Marcos enjoyed easy wins in Philippine elections, official data showed on Tuesday, with his unrepentant 83-year-old wife leading the clan's political charge.

ii. Imelda Marcos captured more than 88 percent of the votes cast yesterday to win a second consecutive term in the nation's lower house representing the family's northern provincial stronghold, according to the official tally.

Imelda Marcos's main rival, local lawyer Ferdinand Ignacio, conceded the race after capturing about 10 percent of the vote.

Britain launched Super Priority Visa Service for Travellers from India

i. Britain on 12 May 2013 launched super priority same-day visa service for urgent travellers from India.

ii. Britain has launched this kind of service anywhere in the world. The super priority visa service was

announced by British Prime Minister David Cameron during his visit to India in February 2013.

The Main points of new Visa Service are as following:

i. For the first time, Indian visitors will get the option of a same-day visa to the UK.  This new service can be particularly useful for business.

ii. The Super Priority Visa is an optional service, which costs an additional fee of 600 pounds in addition to the standard fee for the type of visa which was applied for.

As per an estimate, India is considered as the UK’s biggest visa operation in the world. It processes around 400000 applications each year and most of the applications are approved (97 percent of UK Business visit visas and 86 percent of visit visas).

Harvansh Singh, the Deputy Speaker of Madhya Pradesh Assembly died

i. Harvansh Singh, the Deputy Speaker of Madhya Pradesh Assembly died on 14 May 2013 due to cardiac arrest in Barra of Seoni District.

ii. Harvansh Singh, 65, is now survived by his wife Pawan Bai, a daughter and two sons.  

i. He was born on 11 November 1949 in Bindari Village of Chhindwara

ii. He was a senior congress leader and a former Minister and held many portfolios in Madhya Pradesh like Public Health Engineering, Transport and Home departments

iii. He was elected from Keolari Assembly seat of Madhya Pradesh in 2008, for the first time he was elected as member of Madhya Pradesh State Legislative Assembly from the same seat in 1993

iv. He served as a Cabinet Minister during the Digvijay Singh Government in Madhya Pradesh

Sharif's PML-N emerges as single largest party in Pak polls

i. Nawaz Sharif's PML-N has emerged the single largest party in Pakistan's landmark general elections by bagging 122 of the 272 parliamentary seats that went to the polls on 11th May, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday.

ii. The PML-N's two closest rivals the Pakistan People's Party and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf lagged far behind with 31 and 26 seats, respectively.

iii. Earlier, trends emerging from the counting of votes had shown that the PML-N led by former premier Sharif was set to bag about 125 seats.

 India unveils first indigenous rotavirus vaccine

i. Indian scientists on Tuesday unveiled the first completely indigenous and affordable vaccine to prevent severe rotavirus diarrhoea, which kills more than 1 lakh children under five in India every year.

ii. The results of the Phase III clinical trials of the Rotavac vaccine, a culmination of efforts spanning 28 years, released at an international conference pegged its efficacy at 56 per cent in the first year of life.

iii. However, commercial production of the vaccine would take some time as it is yet to get clearance from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)

iv. “The results indicate that the vaccine, if licensed, could save the lives of thousands of children each year in India,” K. Vijay Raghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, said.

v. Rotavac is a oral vaccine administered to infants in a three-dose course at the ages of six, 10 and 14 weeks alongside routine immunisations recommended at these ages.