Today Gk Update 25 June 2013

Today Gk Update 25 June 2013 International General Knowledge 25 June 2013

Microsoft unveils ad-free Bing search for schools

Microsoft said Monday it would offer an advertising-free version of its Bing search engine for schools, which also includes extra privacy and filtering of adult content.

"Bing For Schools will offer schools in the US the option to tailor the Bing experience for (elementary and secondary) students by removing all advertisements from search results, enhancing privacy protections and the filtering of adult content, and adding specialized learning features to enhance digital literacy," Microsoft's Matt Wallaer

Italy Became 5th Country To Ratify Istanbul Convention

 Italy has ratified Istanbul Convention which aims to combat violence against women.

The Italian Senate unanimously approved the 2011 Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating iiiolence against women and domestic violence on Wednesday.

The Istanbul Convention describes violence against women as a form of discrimination and as a violation of human rights.

It also defines crimes against women that are punishable, including psychological violence, stalking, physical violence, sexual violence and rape, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced abortion, forced sterilization and sexual harassment.

Thus approval makes Italy the fifth country to actually ratify the Council of Europe convention.

vi. So far, only four other countries have ratified the treaty, and only one of those, Portugal, is a member of the European Union.

The Istanbul Convention gained political momentum in Italy after House Speaker Laura Boldrini revealed that since she had been elected to lead the Chamber earlier this year, she had become the target of a widespread threats and grotesque photomontages on the Internet.

For the treaty enter into force, it must be approved by the governments of at least 10 countries, and at least eight European Council member countries.

ii. The other countries that have ratified the Istanbul Convention are EU candidate countries Turkey and Montenegro, and EU potential candidate country Albania.

 South African Naspers' iBibo buys Redbus

E-commerce firm Ibibo Group on Friday acquired Bangalore-based online bus ticketing firm RedBus for an undisclosed sum. Market sources pegged the deal at Rs. 600 crore.

Ibibo Group's holding company MIH Ltd is owned by South Africa's media house Naspers. RedBus was started by Phanindra Sama in 2006 as an an online bus-ticketing platform that aggregates inventory from bus operators and makes it available to end consumers. 

The portal sells more than a million tickets a month and has over 600 full-time employees. 

The core business model of RedBus is commission revenues on successful transactions.

Government constituted a Committee to revise Newspaper Advertisement Rates

The Union ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 23 June 2013 constituted a committee headed by JS Mathur to review the rate revision of the newspaper advertisements.

The committee will also look into different parameters on the basis of which advertisements are issued.

JS Mathur is the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Vodafone agrees $10 bn Kabel Deutschland deal

Vodafone has agreed to buy Germany's largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland for 7.7 billion euros ($10 billion), adding TV and fixed-line services to help defend against mounting competition in its most important market.

In Vodafone's largest deal in six years and its second major buy of a European fixed-line network in 12 months, the group is offering a near 40% premium to Kabel's share price before its interest first emerged in snapping up the target's 8.5 million connected homes.

बाड़मेर: पचपदरा में ही लगेगी पेट्रोलियम रिफाइनरी

जयपुर. राजस्थान में प्रस्तावित रिफाइनरी बाड़मेर के पचपदरा में ही लगेगी। इसके लिए वहां उपलब्ध 28000 बीघा में से दो गांवों की 11000 बीघा जमीन ली जाएगी।

 इसमें एक कोने में आ रही 5 काश्तकारों की 100 बीघा जमीन को भी छोडऩे का फैसला किया गया है।जबकि एक काश्तकार को उसकी 8 बीघा जमीन के बदले दूसरी जगह जमीन दी जाएगी।इस तरह रिफाइनरी के लिए एक इंच भी निजी खातेदारी की भूमि नहीं ली जाएगी।

UIDAI won 21st Century Achievement Award 2013

The International Data Group (IDG) Computerworld Honours Program, Computerworld Honors Laureate has honored Government of India initiative UIDAI with 21st Century Achievement Award 2013 under the category ‘Economic Development’.  

The award has been conferred in recognition to the pivotal role played by UIDAI in leveraging technology to change people lives, streamline delivery of welfare services and provide opportunity to people to participate more fully in society.

The Computerworld Honors Program, recognizes and honours visionary application of Information Technology promoting positive social, economic and social change.

Computerworld is honored to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of 2013 class of Laureates and to share their work.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization committee session also listed twelve monuments -- including tombs, fortress walls and a 700-year-old school -- at Kaesong as World Heritage sites.

The monuments "embody" the Koryo dynasty which unified the Korean peninsula for the first time, and its "political, cultural, philosophical and spiritual values" of the kingdom, UNESCO said.

The Kaesong monuments -- including sections of defensive walls -- have survived repeated assaults on the city, which served as the seat of the Koryo kings who ruled from 918-1392.

Kaesong was established in 919 as the capital of the Koryo dynasty, which gave its name to the modern state of Korea.

UNESCO has this week granted World Heritage status to more than a dozen of natural wonders and cultural gems, including two volcanoes -- Japan's Mount Fuji, known for its perfect cone-shape, and Italy's Mount Etna -- as well as the Hill Forts of Rajasthan and the Namib Sand Sea.

एयरटेल ने सस्ता किया 4जी डाटा प्लान

एयरटेल के उपभोक्ताओं के लिए बंगलूरू, कोलकाता, पुणे और चंडीगढ़ सर्किलों में 4जी डाटा प्लान अब न्यूनतम 450 रुपये से शुरू होंगे, जो पहले 650 रुपये में उपलब्ध थे।

कंपनी 4जी सेवाओं के तहत 999 रुपये से अधिक के पैकेज पर 1,000 फिल्म और 100 गेम निशुल्क एक्सेस करा रही है।

IIFCL MF launches infrastructure debt fund

IIFCL Mutual Fund launched its maiden infrastructure debt fund (IDF) scheme with the support of investors viz. Canara Bank and HUDCO being the strategic investors and Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce & IIFCL being the other investors.

The maiden IDF scheme will mainly undertake investment in debt securities or securitised debt instruments of infrastructure companies, infrastructure capital companies or infrastructure projects, SPV, bank loans etc with the investment objective of capital appreciation and trade on the stock exchange, aimed at development of bond market in the country. 

IIFCL is targeting an initial corpus of $1 billion by attracting both domestic and international investors.

The regulations for infrastructure debt fund, through mutual fund and NBFC route, were issued by the financial regulators, SEBI and RBI, following the announcement made by Government of India in financial year 2011-12. 

After launching the new scheme here, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the fund would help mobilise long-term financing for infrastructure projects.

IIFCL chairman S.K. Goel said the IDF will complement commercial banks in providing the required long-term funding to infrastructure sector and help in addressing their asset liability mismatch.

Indians to pay £3,000 cash bond deposit for U.K. visa

Asian and African countries whose citizens would be required to deposit £3,000 cash bond when they apply for a British visa.

According to The Sunday Times, the scheme — aimed at preventing abuse of immigration rules — will initially cover India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana.

“They have been designated ‘high-risk’ countries, from which visitors aged over 18 on six-month visit visas will be forced to pay the £3,000 from November. 

The countries are being targeted by the Home Office because of the high volume of visitor visa applications and relatively high levels of fraud and abuse,” it said.

China, Britain set up currency swap line

China has expanded its currency convertibility to Britain as the central banks of the two countries signed a three-year sterling-yuan currency swap lineto boost bilateral trade and financial stability.

China's first such agreement with a G7 country was signed between Bank of England (BoE) governor Mervyn King, who steps down at the end of the month, and his counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan of the People's Bank of China.

The maximum value of the reciprocal 3-year yuan/sterling currency swap will be 200 billion yuan (USD 32.6 billion or 20 billion pounds), according to China's central bank.

The currency swap line will facilitate yuan liquidity in London and overseas markets, as well as benefit bilateral trade and investment.

China has signed currency swap agreements with more than 20 countries and region to promote use of the yuan in trade and investment.

Kochi firms win Nasscom award 

 Two smartphone applications developed by firms at Kochi's Startup Village have been named by IT industry body Nasscom among the ten best apps designed for the security of women.

Sentinel, developed by MindHelix Technosol Pvt. Ltd., and iFollow, from Aucupa Innovative Solutions, were among the winners of Nasscom's first all-India App Fame Contest to search for mobile tools to aid personal safety of women and to help deal with emergencies.

Sentinel is a GPS-based application developed by MindHelix for Android devices and iPhone. It can make SOS calls and send text alerts and emails with location information to pre-saved emergency numbers and IDs at the touch of a button.

The application works even in situations where the user is unable to trigger the alert manually or the phone is destroyed. It works also if there is no internet access. It can be downloaded for free from Google Play and the App store.

It is activated if the phone is shaken continuously for five seconds, and on standby mode it works silently in the background to reduce power consumption. iFollow is also a free application that can be downloaded from Google Play.

MindHelix and Aucupa are both fledgling companies incubating at Startup Village.

 Airlines spread wings again; may hire 5,000 staff this year

Air carriers have embarked on an aggressive hiring strategy with plans to add over 5,000 jobs this year

These carriers may together see a net addition of over 5,000 employees in the remaining months of 2013, he added.

Currently, there are an estimated 60,000 employees with various domestic air carriers, about half of which are with various private airlines and state-run Air India has close to 27,000 staff members.

According to recruitment agencies, liberalisation in aviation policies is also leading to greater job opportunities with the private players.

Increasing liberalisation in aviation policies is leading to greater private sector participation and this is leading towards more job opportunities in India.