Daily GK Updates: 08th November 2016

India and Britain sign two agreements
i. India and the United Kingdom have signed two pacts to boost cordial relations between the two nations.
ii. The pacts were inked during the 3 days visit of Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to India. 
iii. PM Theresa May was on a three Day visit to India. one on intellectual property (IP) and another for bilateral cooperation on raising ease of doing business.

Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan starts

i. The Union Government launched Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan to provide free health check-ups to pregnant women at government health centres and hospitals. 

ii. The Scheme was launched by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda in New Delhi. 

Demchok mission of Indian Army successfully completed

i. The Indian army has successfully completed its task of laying an irrigation pipeline in the Demchok region of Eastern Ladakh.

ii. The project was being conducted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to link the villages in the region with a hot spring.

Vinod Rai to head advisory commission

i. Vinod Rai has been appointed as the Chairman of Fund Trustee and Advisory Commission of Kerala.

ii. He will be entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that the funds of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) are properly utilised and the interest of investors is protected. 

iii. Moreover, the board of the reconstituted KIIFB under Chairman Pinarayi Vijayan also decided to appoint Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor of RBI and Prakash Bakshi, former Chairman of NABARD, as the other members of the FTAC.

RBI issues clarifications on hedging for ECBs

i. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued the Clarifications on hedging for External Commercial Borrowings (ECB). 

ii. The Clarifications were issued under section 10(4) and 11(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999.

Tunisian leader among four conferred Jamnalal Bajaj Awards
i. Well-known Gandhian and President of Tunisia's Ennahdha Party, Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi was among four prominent personalities conferred with the prestigious 39th Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards for 2016.
ii. Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, founder and convenor of Vrikshamitra was honoured for outstanding contribution in the field of Constructive Work.
iii. BonBehari Vishnu Nimbkar, founder of Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute was presented the award for application of science and technology for rural development.

iv. Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi, founder secretary of Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer and Chetana Charitable Trust was honoured with the award for development and welfare of women and children.

Ratnesh Kumar appointed MD and CEO of BoB Capital Markets 

i. Bank of Baroda has appointed Ratnesh Kumar as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of its wholly-owned investment banking subsidiary, BoB Capital Markets Ltd.

ii. The public sector bank stated that Kumar started his career in the Indian capital markets and financial services sector in 1993.

600 million pounds of masala bonds to be listed in London: UK

i. The British government has announced that, 4 rupee-denominated bonds worth of 600 million pounds are expected to be listed in London in the next three months. 

ii. Announcement was made by Prime Minister Theresa May.  Bonds will provide financing to expand India's highway and rail networks.

RBI appoints M Rajeshwar Rao as Executive Director

i. The Reserve Bank has appointed M Rajeshwar Rao as Executive Director (ED) following G Mahalingam’s voluntary retirement from the central bank. 

ii. As Executive Director, Rao will look after Department of Statistics and Information Management, Financial markets Operations Department and International Department. 

iii. Prior to taking over as the Executive Director, he was the Chief General Manager, Financial Markets Operations Department.

NASA’s MMS creates new Guinness World Record
i. NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission on 5 November 2016 set the Guinness world record for highest altitude fix of a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal at 70000 kilometers above the surface of the Earth.

ii. Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission successfully completed commissioning activities on 1 September 2015 and is now in full science mode.