DAILY GK UPDATE 1st August

1.    Bhim Sain Bassi Took Charge as the 20th Delhi Police Commissioner

i. Bhim Sain Bassi, the 1977-batch IPS officer of AGMU (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) cadre took over the charge as the next Delhi Police Commissioner on 31 July 2013. He succeeded Neeraj Kumar. 

ii. Bhim Sain Bassi is 57 years of age. As of now, he was serving as the Special Commissioner of Police (Administration). 

iii. Bhim Sain Bassi is the 20th Commissioner of Delhi Police. He will remain in the office till February 2016.

iv. He was awarded with the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in the year 1996.

v. He also received President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in the year 2002.

NOTE: Apart from him, Tihar Director General Vimla Mehra and Director General (Investigation) at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Kanwaljit Deol were in contention for this post. 

2.    Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar Retired from His Office

i. The Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar retired from his office on 31 July 2013. He served to the police force for 37 years. His tenure as the Delhi Police commissioner was 13 months. He will be succeeded by Bhim Sain Bassi. 

ii. Neeraj Kumar is a 1976 batch IPS officer of the AGMU cadre.

iii. He succeeded BK Gupta as the Deli Police Commissioner on 1 July 2012.

iv. He was the Director General (Prisons) and in charge of Tihar Jail. 

v. He had served almost all the branches of police, such as the Prisons, CBI, Traffic, districts, Special Cell as well as Crime Branch. 

vi. He is originally from the state of Bihar. 

vii.  He received the MSc degree from St Stephen's College in the year 1975.

viii.  However, Neeraj Kumar and his police force were praised for exposing the scam of spot fixing in Indian Premier League (IPL).

3.    HDFC Bank, Axis Bank raise fixed deposit rates by up to 4%

i. Faced with a tight liquidity condition, two leading private sector banks -- HDFC Bank and Axis Bank -- have raised fixed deposit rates by up to 4 per cent, a move which may be followed by others.

ii. Country's second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has raised fixed deposit rates by 1 per cent for maturities between 15 days to 6 months one day effective July 27, as per information available on its website.

iii. The bank has increased the interest rate by 0.75 per cent for maturity buckets less than 1 year but over 6 months one day.

iv. Axis Bank has raised interest rate on term deposits with maturity between 14-29 days by 4 per cent to 8 per cent, while in case of 7-14 days the increase is by 3.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent on bulk deposits above Rs 1 crore, effective today.

4.    Sujatha Singh is New Foreign Secretary

i. Sujatha Singh today assumed charge as India’s new foreign secretary.

ii. The 1976 batch Indian Foreign Service officer will have a fixed tenure of two years.

iii. 59 year old Mrs. Singh was earlier ambassador to Germany.

iv. She succeeds Ranjan Mathai who retired yesterday.

v. Sujatha Singh is the third woman to head the Forreign services after Chokila Iyer and Nirupama Rao.

5.    National Teeka Express Launched

i. The National Teeka Express was launched by Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare at Alwar, Rajasthan today.

ii. It has been launched to protect children from life-threatening childhood diseases. 

iii. It may be mentioned that under Routine Immunization Programme, ANMs collect vaccines from storage point (cold chain point) and transport them to session sites, i.e. either Sub-centre or Anganwari centre for carrying out vaccination.

iv. Govt. of India is providing support for distribution of vaccine from last storage point to outreach immunization session sites at Sub-centres/Anganwaris, known as Alternate Vaccine Delivery (AVD) under NRHM.

v. Designated vehicles under the brand name of ‘National Teeka Express’ will help not only in distribution of the vaccines and complementary logistics from lastcold chain point to immunization session sites but will also ensure holding of sessions at the mobile vaccination centre now.

vi. Teeka Express will also collect the coverage and immunization performancereports of the session for compilation and preparation of report at PHC. 

vii. In the first phase the 120 vehicles of ‘Teeka Express’’ are planned in 6 districts of 5 states namely Rajasthan – Alwar (64 vehicles); Uttar Pradesh – Sharaswati (11 vehicles); Haryana – Mewat (9); Jammu and Kashmir – Doda (8) and Poonch (10) and Madhya Pradesh – Tikamgarh (18).

6.    Kumar Iyer appointed UKTI India head

i. The British government Thursday appointed Kumar Iyer, an Indian origin official, as director general for UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in India.

ii. This is a new top level post and has been created to reflect the increasing importance of business ties between the two countries. As UKTI director general, India, Iyer will have overall responsibility for the bilateral commercial and trade relationship.

iii. Iyer will also be British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India. He will take up both positions, based in Mumbai, Aug 5.

iv. Iyer has an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University where he was a Bank of England scholar and an undergraduate tutor in Microeconomics.

V. He was also a Kennedy Scholar and Teaching Fellow in International Capital Markets at Harvard University.

vi. Since 2008, Iyer has been a high-ranking official at the British Treasury and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit.

7.    L'Oreal appoints Jean-Christophe Letellier as India MD

i. French cosmetics giant L'Oreal said on Wednesday that it has appointed Jean-Christophe Letellier as its Managing Director in India.

ii. Letellier succeeds Pierre-Yves Arzel, who has been promoted as Managing Director of South Asia Pacific region, L'Oreal said in a statement issued.

iii. "I am very excited to take up this role which I hope will take L'Oreal India to its next phase of growth. India has immense potential and I hope to play a key role in achieving L'Oreal's objective of reaching one billion new consumers," Letellier, who was earlier the general manager for consumer products division for India and South East Asia, said.

8.    Siddaramaiah launches Ksheera Bhagya scheme

i. Over 65 lakh school children in 51,000 Government schools and 39 lakh children in anganwadi centres across the State will now receive 150 ml of milk three times a week under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme, which was launched by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at Hoskote near here on Thursday.

ii. After launching the scheme by giving a glass of milk each to a group of students, he said the programme would help tackle malnutrition among children and at the same time benefit milk farmers in the State.

iii. Meanwhile, T.B. Jayachandra, Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, said that milk powder would be supplied to schools until the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) works out logistics to provide safe and fresh milk.

9.    India lift SAFF U-16 football title

i. India beat Nepal 1-0 to lift the South Asian Football Federation Under-16 Championships title on Tuesday.

ii. India, represented by All India Football Federation's Regional Academy, surged ahead in the 18th minute with Lalrinzuala unleashing a powerful left-footed 35-yard strike to beat the Nepalese goalie in the final match at the Dasharath Stadium.

iii. The early goal, which stunned the partisan home crowd to silence, turned out to be the match-winner. India returned unbeaten in the biennial tournament.

10.  India thrash Zimbabwe by 9 wickets

i. India continued their dominance over Zimbabwe as they thrashed the hosts by 9 wickets in the fourth ODI of the five-match series at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo on Thursday.

ii. Chasing a meagre target of 145, openers Rohit Sharma (64*) and Suresh Raina (65*) both slammed half-century each to secure another massive win for India.

iii. Earlier, India continued their dominance in the series as they dismissed Zimbabwe for a paltry total.

iv. With the series already in their pocket after having won the first three games quite comfortably, India made two changes in their playing eleven today, handing out debuts to Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohit in place of Shikhar Dhawan and R Vinay Kumar.

11.  Aditya Mehta clinched the Snooker Gold Medal

i. India's number one snooker player, Aditya Mehta on 31 July 2013 clinched the gold medal in the World Games, beating China's Liang Wenbo, 3-0, in the final of the quadrennial event at Cali, Columbia.

ii. Mehta had earlier defeated Thailand`s Dechawat Poomjaeng 3-1 in the semifinal. Poomjaeng defeated another Indian and eight-time world champion Pankaj Advani 3-1 in the quarterfinals.

iii. Poomjaeng won the bronze medal after securing a 3-2 win over Brazil`s Igor Figueiredo in his third-place play-off match.