DAILY GK UPDATE: 14TH JANUARY

1. India-Pak flag meeting fails to ease border tension:

Brigade-level meeting lasts only 15 minutes…

India conveys outrage over the killing of two soldiers, no discussion on restoration of cross-LOC trade and travel.

i. The Brigade-level flag meeting between Indian and Pakistani authorities at Chakan Da Bagh near the Line of Control in Poonch on Monday afternoon ended without any breakthrough.

ii. Official sources revealed the meeting on the Zero Line between Commander of the 10^th Brigade, Brig. T.S. Sandhu and his Pakistani counterpart, lasted just 15 minutes. The two were joined by over a dozen of the field commanders from the two sides.    

iii. Brig. Sandhu made it clear to the other side that India reserved the “right to retaliate” until there was publicly an apology besides returning of the severed head of Lance Naik Hemraj and the weapons looted from the two slain soldiers.

iv. He also demanded an assurance that there would be no repeat of such an “unprecedented and unprofessional heinous act”.

v.  He also made it clear that the Indian Army would respond to such a violation of the November 2003 ceasefire with “appropriate and quick response”.

vi. It was not immediately clear as to what was the response from the Paksitan side.

2.Govt. postpones GAAR implementation by 2 years to 2016:

Giving a big relief to overseas investors, the government has postponed implementation of controversial GAAR provisions by two years to April 1, 2016.

Finance Minister P Chidambaramsaid in New Delhi on Monday that:

"Having considered all the circumstances and relevant factors, the government has ...decided that provisions of Chapter 10A of the Income Tax Act (dealing with GAAR) will come into force from April 1, 2016 as against April 1, 2014,"

NOTE: i.The proposal, however, generated controversy, with investors expressing apprehensions that it would result in unnecessary harassment by tax authorities.

ii. The General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) provisions, introduced by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Budget 2012-13, were aimed at checking tax avoidance by overseas investors.

iii. Shome Committee which was set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July last year to look into investor concerns.

3.Vice President leaves for 4-day visit to Vietnam:

i. Vice President Mohd. Hamid Ansari has left on a four-day visit to Vietnam today.

ii. His visit marks the 40th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic ties and 5th anniversary of strategic partnership between the two countries.

iii. The objective of the visit is to give further impetus to ties between the two countries and is expected to sign some strategic, trade and other bilateral agreements.

iv. The two countries are also working on increasing cooperation in fields of defence and security.India has been providing training to Vietnamese forces.

v. India considers Vietnam as an important part of its Look East Policy.

4. International Paralympic Committee Decided to Launch International GP Circuit for Disabled:

This international grand prix circuit is scheduled to be launched in April 2013…

i. International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decided to launch the international grand prix circuit especially for the elite athletes who are disabled.

ii. The version of IPC of the strong Diamond League shall comprise of eight meetings in all, at various venues across the world. Two of these venues which also include the final one shall be held in Britain.

5. World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) Held in Dubai:

International telecommunication Union (ITU) summoned the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which was held from 3 to14 December 2012.

i.  In the landmark conference, it was decided that the current International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) shall be reviewed.

ii. The delegates from the length and breadth of the world agreed to a fresh international treaty called New Global Telecoms Treaty, which will welcome the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to everyone in the world.

iii. More than 2000 delegates from across the world were registered for this conference.

The main points of the treaty were as follows:

i. The treaty basically embarks general principles for making sure that there is free flow of the information across the world.

ii. There was special emphasis on the future efforts for helping the developing countries, on promotion of accessibility to the disabled as well as on emphasising the right to freedom of expression of people over all the ICT networks.

About WCIT-12:

i. WCIT-12 was among the most open treaty-making conferences of the world which had live as well as archived webcasting. There was English-language captioning of the meetings of substantive working committee (Committee 5 – Review) as well as the conference Plenary sessions.

ii. There were in all, 1275 proposals to this conference from the member States. WCIT-12 included around 1600 delegates onsite from 151 Member States. This also included around 70 Ministers, Ambassadors and Deputy Ministers.

6. Sri Lankan President Kicked Out First Woman Chief Justice of the Country over Graft:

i. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, on 13 January 2013 kicked out the first woman chief justice of the country, Shirani Bandarnayake after endorsing her impeachment by the Parliament that caught her guilty on the corruption charges.

ii. It is worth noticing that Bandarnayake was fired despite widespread protests by the lawyers as well as others.

iii. Bandarnayake, 54, was given the notice in which the President ordered her to move down from the post.

iv. Impeaching Bandarnayake was initially declared unconstitutional by the courts.

v. The parliamentary committee had declared on 8 December 2012, that Bandarnayake was guilty of 3 charges out of 14.

vi. The three charges in which she was held guilty were those of financial impropriety which were based on non-declaration of the assets.

7.New Shatabadi Train flagged off between Chandigarh and New Delhi:

i. Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal today flagged off a new Shatabadi Train between Chandigarh and New Delhi from Chandigarh railway station.

ii. This train will leave Chandigarh at 11.40 in the forenoon and reach at new Delhi at 3.00 p.m. in the afternoon.

iii. In its return journey train will leave New Delhi at 7.15 p.m. and will reach at Chandigarh at 10.35p.m.

NOTE:  It is first Shatabadi from which will originate from Chandigah while two other shatabadi trains are running between Kalka and New Delhi via Chandigarh. New train will run from Monday to Saturday and it will not run on Sunday.

8. Argo Won Best Picture and Best Director Awards : Golden Globe Awards 2013

In the prestigious Golden Globe Awards 2013, the hostage-crisis movie Argothrashed Lincolnto bag best picture as well as best director awards on 13 January 2013.

NOTE: The award-winning movie Argois actually inspired by 1979 crisis US diplomats in Iran. In the category of Best Drama, other nominees were Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty as well as Life of Pi.

9.Aus Open: Somdev makes a winning start:

i. Somdev Devvarman, started his Australian Open campaign in style as he cruised past Germany's Bjorn Phau in the opening round of the men's singles event, in Melbourne.

ii. Somdev, whose ranking has plummeted to 551, defeated Phau, who is ranked 78, 6-3 6-2 6-3 in close to a two-hour match in Melbourne.

iii. The 27-year-old Indian will next take on the winner of another first round match between Simone Bolelli of Italy and Polish Jerzy Janowicz.

10. Rusi Framroze Surti, Former Test Cricketer Died At 76:

Rusi Framroze Surti, the former all-rounder of India from Surat died on 13 January 2013 in Mumbai.

Surti was often also called poor man's Garry Sobers and played 26 Test matches for India from the time period of 1960 to 1969. He played for Rajasthan as well as Gujarat in Ranji Trophy.

11.Second India- England ODI at Kochi “tomorrow”:

The second One Day International Cricket match between India and England will be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Tuesday.

The visitors are leading the five-match series One-Nil, by winning the first encounter played at Rajkot by nine runs.