DAILY GK UPDATE 23RD JUNE

1.    India lift Champions Trophy 2013

i. India clinched the ICC Champions Trophy, in its last edition, with a nerve-wracking five-run victory over hosts England in a rain-hit final in Birmingham.

ii. India's five-run win over England on Sunday has given their leader MS Dhoni a rare triple, that of becoming the first captain in world cricket to have won all major ICC trophies.

iii. After frustrating showers reduced the contest to a T20 affair, India first scored 129 for seven and then restricted England to 124 for eight in a topsy-turvy game that went down to the wire.

iv. Ravindra Jadeja (33 no and 2/24), declared man of the match, made another all-round contribution which proved to be telling in the context of the match.

v. Shikhar Dhawan declared man of the tournament for having brilliant series including three centuries and golden bat award.

vi. The sizeable Indian crowd erupted in joy when Ravichandran Ashwin (2/15) finished the final over with James Tredwell unable to hit the required six off the last delivery.

vii. This was India's second Champions Trophy title having won the first one jointly with Sri Lanka back in 2002.

viii. That India won the championship two days before the 30th anniversary of maiden World Cup triumph back on June 25, 1983.

2.    Shikhar Dhawan voted Player of the Champions Trophy

i. India opener Shikhar Dhawan was on Sunday named the Player of the Series in the ICC Champions Trophy, which India lifted after beating hosts England by five runs in Birmingham. 

ii. Dhawan, in his first ODI series since the summer of 2011, finished as the leading run-scorer with 363 from five matches, including consecutive hundreds and one half-century, at a staggering average of 90.75 and strike-rate of 101.39.

iii. The 27-year-old left-hand batsman began the tournament with a 94-ball 114 in India's 23-run win over South Africa at Cardiff and in his next innings scored a match-winning 102 not out off 107 balls against West Indies at The Oval.

iv. A brisk 48 followed in the eight-win win over Pakistan, followed by a 92-bak 68 against Sri Lanka in the semi-final.

v. In Sunday's final, Dhawan scored 31 off 24 balls. Along the way, he forged two century and two half-century opening wicket partnerships with Rohit Sharma as India tried out a new opening combination.

3.    Italy Became 5th Country To Ratify Istanbul Convention

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

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

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

vi. 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.

v. 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.

vii. 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.

NOTE: i. 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.

4.    Government constituted a Committee to revise Newspaper Advertisement Rates

i. 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.

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

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

5.    UIDAI won 21st Century Achievement Award 2013

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

ii. 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.

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

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

6.    IIFCL MF launches infrastructure debt fund

i. 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.

ii. 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. 

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

iv. 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. 

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

vi. 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.

7.    Committee on indecent depiction of women in media

i. The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) has set up a committee to finalize modalities for a media campaign against indecent portrayal of women in mass media.

ii. The committee will be headed by WCD Additional Secretary K. Ratna Prabha and will comprise senior members from the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting among others.

iii. “The committee will work towards finalising modalities of a media campaign, through print and electronic media, to instil a sense of respect for women in all spheres of life

iv. The aim of the campaign is to instill respect for women in all spheres of life. 

v. The committee looking to draw up a national campaign to sensitise families regarding the values of girls, through depicting women achievers, abhor civil practices like female foeticide, dowry, child marriages, etc.

8.    John Kerry arrives in India on three-day visit

i. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in New Delhi on Sunday onto participate in the fourth round of Indo-US strategic dialogue even as US announced to invest $100 million in India's burgeoning clean energy sector.

ii. Kerry, 69, accompanied by a high-level delegation arrived in New Delhi on a three-day visit, the first one after assuming the charge of the State Department earlier this year.

iii. He will co-chair the India-US strategic dialogue with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid during which key issues like bilateral trade, defence and security cooperation besides energy and higher education would be discussed.

iv. This investment, through the Agency's Development Credit Authority, is expected to create hundreds of additional megawatts of sustainable energy capacity and will help to advance India's clean energy industry.

v. During the talks, India will seek from the US information on the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar besides putting across its concerns about the H1B and L category visas  that has raised concerns among the Indian industry, especially the IT sector.

vi. The issue of market access, nuclear liability bill and American National Security Agency's Internet snooping programme are also likely to be discussed.

9.    Silver Medal for boxer Manjeet Singh at China Open

i.The Indian challenge at the third China Open boxing tournament in Guiyang came to an end with super heavyweight boxer Manjeet Singh losing out in the title.

ii. The 21-year-old, making his international debut, did well to go all the way to the final, in the end coming short in the ultimate hurdle. But the burly police boxer put up a sterling show in what was a fight to the finish.

iii. Manjeet, who beat Wang Zhi Bao from China in the semis, was up against another local lad Akepeer Yusuf of the China B team in the fight for the yellow metal.

iv. Yusuf made an aggressive start making full use of his long reach. But Singh, a two time Youth National Championship bronze medallist, displayed some good ring movement and in-fighting to land a few telling blows on Yusuf in the second round

v. However in the final round, the Chinese boxer was more dominant with his precise attacks which kept the Indian on the back-foot. Manjeet lost on a split decision.

vi. The Indian men's team returns from the event with one silver medal and three bronze medals. Sunil Kumar (52 kg), Ajay Kumar (56 kg) and Jaideep (75 kg) had to be content with a bronze after losing out in the Round of 4.

10.  MS Dhoni becomes first captain to win all ICC trophies

i. India's five-run win over England on Sunday has given their leader MS Dhoni a rare triple, that of becoming the first captain in world cricket to have won all major ICC trophies.

ii. The ICC Champions Trophy followed Dhoni leading India to glory in the 2007 World Twenty20 and the 50-over World Cup in 2011.

iii. His team entered the tournament on the back of the IPL 6 spot-fixing controversy which threatened o seriously unravel the credibility of Indian cricket.

iv. In the end, they remained unbeaten in England and Wales, opening the tournament with victory of South Africa at Cardiff and wrapping it up with a narrow win over the hosts in Birmingham. India won all six matches in the Champions Trophy.

v. In addition to laying his hands on all three ICC trophies, Dhoni led India to the top of the ICC Test rankings in December 2009.