Daily GK Updates: 18th Oct 2014

1.    Karur Vysya Bank gets IDRBT award

i. Karur Vysya Bank has bagged the Best Bank Award for Business Intelligence Initiatives among small banks.

ii. The bank's Managing Director and Chief Executive, K Venkataraman, received the award from the Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram G Rajan.

iii. The IDRBT Banking Technology Excellence award is for 2013-14.

iv. IDRBT has recognised KVB for this award for the sixth year in a row.

2.    Corporation Bank launches ‘e-Mandate’ service

i. To provide robust platform for large volume of repetitive payments, Corporation Bank has launched the ‘e-Mandate’ (digital mandate) service.

ii.  The ‘e-Mandate’ service will be beneficial to the utility companies for monthly subscriptions/bill payments; insurance companies for premium payment by policy holders; NBFCs and other finance companies for instalment payments; education institutions for school fee payment; and manufacturing companies.

iii. Now most of these transactions are done either through post-dated blank cheques or through Electronic Clearing Services (ECS). Both the above payment modes involve physical handling and movement of paper-based instruments such as cheques and mandate (in ECS).

e-Mandate' activities

The activities under ‘e-Mandate’ include collection of mandate, and scanning and uploading of scanned image to NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India).

3.    Maggie Smith receives royal honour from Queen Elizabeth

i. Veteran actress Maggie Smith was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth.

ii. The 79-year-old ‘Downton Abbey’ star was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, one of Britian’s highest honours, at a special ceremony at Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England in recognition of her services to drama over the past six decades, reported BBC online.

iii. The actress joins an elite group of just 65 other Companions of Honour, including Professor Stephen Hawking, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen, but the prestigious accolade carries no title.

iv. The ‘Harry Potter’ star enjoyed a private conversation with the Queen upon being presented with her gold badge, but declined to speak after the ceremony.

v. The Order of the Companions of Honor — sometimes regarded as a junior class of the Order of Merit — was instituted in 1917 by George V at the same time as the Order of the British Empire was founded.

vi. The two-time Oscar winner, who is currently filming ‘The Lady In The Van,’ received her formal Dame title, which is the highest honour bestowed upon a citizen of the British Empire, in 1990.

4.    Britain to host today first regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas

i. India’s efforts to encourage greater investment from its diaspora in the UK kicked off on Thursday, as Ministry officials pitched the “Make in India” programme in London ahead of Britain’s first regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

ii. The Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which is set to kick off on Friday, is the first regional one to be held in the UK. Last year a regional Diaspora day was held in Sydney.

iii. The meet aims to identify more specific opportunities for Britain’s 1.5 million-strong Indian community (with its not insignificant share of high net worth individuals, as well as NRIs and Persons of Indian origin) to better engage with India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is set to inaugurate the event.

iv.  “The Overseas Indians must become a part of India’s new development agenda.” said Prem Narain, secretary at the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, and Chair of the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre, at an event organised by the OIFC and the CII. “We have a huge Diaspora from this country who had somehow been left out.”

5.    India enter final of Sultan of Johor Cup hockey

i. Defending champions India have stormed into the final of the Sultan of Johor Cup hockey tournament. 

ii. At Johor Bahru, Malaysia, today the junior Indian team hammered Australia 6-2, which was their fourth win from five matches. India will now take on Great Britain in the title clash tomorrow.
iii. The highlight of the match was Harmanpreet Singh's second hat-trick of the tournament. He had scored his first hat-trick against Malaysia in the previous match.
iv. The other scorers for India were Parvinder Singh, Simranjeet Singh and Pawan Kumar.

6.    Hurricane Gonzalo struck Bermuda

i. Hurricane Gonzalo of Category 2 struck Bermuda with winds of about 185 kilometers per hour on 18 October 2014. The hurricane lashed the tiny Atlantic island chain with torrential rain and howling wind. 
ii. Eighty percent of the island chain lost power because of the hurricane. The island also witnessed flooding in some areas and many banana trees had been knocked over.
iii. Earlier, the US National Hurricane Center warned of high winds and life threatening storm surge after the hurricane passed the British Atlantic territory.