DAILY GK UPDATE 11-12TH AUGUST

1.    International Youth Day today

i. International Youth Day is being observed today across the globe.

ii. The theme this year is-- Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward.

iii. The United Nations has designated the awareness day to be observed on 12th August every year.

iv. To optimally tap youth's constructive and creative energies,the government is implementing a large number of schemes and programmes in the area of education, skill development, labour and employment and sports. 

v. The Youth and Sports Ministry through its popular programme, the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan is developing a vast network of youth clubs and volunteers who undertake a number of activities for rural youth at the grassroot levels.

vi. The Ministry also endeavors to facilitate youth with a conducive environment and tools that will enable them to make the most of their natural potential to realize their aspirations.

2.    Janata Party merged with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)

i. Janata Party was merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 11 August 2013 following a meeting of Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy and BJP President Rajnath Singh.

ii. Subramanian Swamy had served as member of the Planning Commission of India. He was also former Cabinet Minister at the Centre and has been a five-time MP.

iii. He has been an ardent proponent of Hindutva philosophy outside and was active in exposing the 2G Spectrum scam. He was a former member of the Janshangha.

History of Janta Party:

i. The Janata Party was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the State of Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by the government of India under the Prime Ministership of late Indira Gandhi and her party, the Indian National Congress. In the general election held after the state of emergency ended in 1977, the Janata party defeated Congress to form the first non-Congress government in the history of the Republic of India.

ii. The Janata party was officially launched on 23 January 1977 when the Janata Morcha, Charan Singh's Bharatiya Lok Dal, Swatantra Party, the Socialist Party of India of Raj Narain and George Fernandes, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) came together, merging their separate identities.

iii. Morarji Desai was elected the first party chairman. Ramakrishna Hegde was appointed the party general secretary, and Jana Sangh politician Lal Krishna Advani became the party spokesperson.

iv. Janta party won the 1977 parliamentary elections but started disintegrating after coming to power and lost the 1980 mid-term election. Slowly and gradually it faded away from the limelight and continued its small existence in the politics of the state of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, Delhi and at the national stage under the chairmanship of Subramanian Swamy.

3.    India launches its first indigenous aircraft carrier  

i. India on Monday launched its first indigenous aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, joining the elite club of nations with the capability of designing and building a warship of this size and capability.

ii. Defence Minister A K Antony's wife Elizabeth launched the 37,500-tonne carrier at Kochi shipyard almost four-and-a-half years after its keel was laid by the minister.

iii. "It is a red-letter day for the entire nation and a proud moment for the country which has achieved self-reliance in the field of warship design and construction. Only a few advanced countries have capability to design and build such aircraft carriers,

iv. Other nations capable of designing and building a ship of equivalent size are the US, the UK, Russia and France.

v. The launch of warship, which has a length of 260 metres and is 60 metres wide, is behind schedule by three years. It is set to go for extensive trials in 2016 before being inducted into the Navy by 2018 end.

vi. Fighter aircraft--Mig-29K, Light Combat Aircraft and Kamov-31 helicopters--will deployed on board the carrier which will also carry an array of other weapons systems.

4.    Govt introduces Bill in Lok Sabha to amend SEBI laws

i. Government on Monday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to replace the ordinance which

sought to provide more powers to capital market regulator SEBI.

ii. The Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013, was introduced by Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena.s

iii. The Bill is to amend the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and the Depositories Act, 1996.

iv. With the amendments, SEBI would have more powers to crack down on ponzi schemes, seek phone call records to check insider trading and carry out search and seizure operations.

NOTE: i.  As per the amended law, SEBI can regulate any money pooling scheme worth Rs 100 crore or more and attach assets in cases of non-compliance, it said, adding the SEBI Chairman would have the authority to order "search and seizure operations".

ii. The market watchdog would also have powers to seek information, such as telephone call data records, from any person or entity in respect to any securities transaction being investigated by it.

iii. The amendments would clear the air over regulatory gaps and overlaps with regard to types of instruments used in raising funds.

5.    India successfully Test-Fired Surface-to-Surface Prithvi-II Missile

i. India on 12 August 2013 successfully test-fired indigenously-developed nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile from a military base in Odisha.

ii. The ballistic missile with a range of 350 km was fired from launch complex number three of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district off Odisha coast.

iii. Prithvi-II missile was launched by the personnel of the Strategic Force Command (SFC) from ITR’s Launch Complex-III as part of routine user training.

iv. The missile scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) monitored the launch operations.

v. The Prithvi-II missile is already inducted into the Indian Armed forces. It has been developed by the DRDO.

Fact-sheet on Prithvi-II Missile
• Prithvi is the first missile to be developed under India's prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP).
• It is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1000 kg of warheads.
• It is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines, uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory. The last users trial of Prithvi-II was successfully carried out from the same base on 20 December 2012.

6.    Sowjanya Bavisetti wins ITF Women's Tennis Tournament

i. Sowjanya Bavisetti of India has emerged winner in the 10,000 dollar Internalional Tennis Federation (ITF) Women's Tennis Tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

ii. The unseeded Indian yesterday defeated Anastasia Kharchenko of Ukraine, who was seeded third, in straight sets. Little known Sowjanya had an easy going in the first set which she won by dropping just one game (6-1) in the singles final. 

iii. The Ukrainian player raised her game made Sowjanya to fight for every point. With six-all the deadlock was resolved in tie-breaker and the Indian player managed to win at 7-6 (1).

7.    Serena wins women's Rogers Cup

i. Serena Williams crushed Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-0 in the final of the women's Rogers Cup to capture her 54th WTA singles title.

ii. Williams completely overwhelmed her unseeded opponent to cruise to victory in less than an hour and claim the Rogers Cup for the third time. 

iii. It was the world number one's eighth title this year

8.    Sardar Singh Named as the Captain of the Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 2013

i. India, on 11 August 2013 named Sardar Singh as the captain of the 18-member squad in the Asia Cup hockey tournament, which is scheduled to take place from 24 August 2013 to 1 September 2013 in Ipoh, Malaysia.

ii. The forwardline of the team does not include Danish Mujtaba, S V Sunil,Gurwinder Singh Chandi and Akashdeep Singh because of their injuries.

iii. The inexperienced players have been included instead in the 5-member forwardline, which also has two new players-  Ramandeep Singh and Nikin Thimmaiah.

iv. The three-day selection trials of the team were held at the SAI Centre in Bangalore from 25 July 2013 to 27 July 2013.

v. The Asia Cup hockey tournament Indian team will leave for Ipoh on 16 August 2013. India will play in the tournament in Pool B.

9.    Bolt regains world 100m title in emphatic style  

i. Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt lifted track and field out of the doping doldrums as he reclaimed his world 100m title in emphatic style on Sunday.

ii. Bolt clocked a season's best 9.77 seconds in heavy rain at the Luzhniki Stadium, with American Justin Gatlin claiming silver in 9.85sec and Nesta Carter, also of Jamaica, taking bronze in 9.95sec.

iii. Athletics' credibility had again been called to account in recent weeks, notably after American sprint rival Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell tested positive for drugs.

iv. Once again it was Bolt, the powerfully-built 26-year-old world record holder in both the 100 and 200m, who came to the rescue, at least in the short term.

10.  Sagarika Ghosh won the Cadet Girls Singles Title 2013

i. Sagarika Ghosh on 11 August 2013 won the Cadet Girls singles title while Birdie Boro had to be satisfied with a silver in the Cadet Boys singles at the Guatemala Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis championships.

ii. Birdie Boro lost 9-11, 8-11, 5-11 to Cuban Livan Martinez in the final of the boys singles event. Earlier, Boro had beaten teammate Anirban Ghosh 3-0 to enter the final

iii. Sagarika, the winner of South Asian Junior title recently, defeated Sreeja 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 in the final to take gold. She had won the South Asian Junior title recently.