15/07/2012
CURRENT GK UPDATES..
Morsy elected Egypt president
Islamist Mohamed Morsy of the
Muslim Brotherhood has been
elected president of Egypt. He
succeeds Hosni Mubarak . Mr Morsy, a
60-year-old, US-educated engineer
who spent time in jail under Mr
Mubarak . He defeated former general
Ahmed Shafik.
Alonso wins European Grand Prix
Fernando Alonso of Ferrari won
European Grand Prix .He become the
first Formula One driver to win two
races this season . Kimi Raikkonen of
Lotus finished second, while
Schumacher completed the podium
after Lewis Hamilton and Pastor
Maldonado collided on the
penultimate lap as they fought for
third place.
India hikes foreign investment cap
on govt bonds
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed
the External Commercial Borrowing
(ECB) norms, increased the overall
cap of foreign investment into
government securities (G-Sec) and
permitted more categories of long-
term institutional investors to invest in
such securities. The new norms allow
companies in the manufacturing and
infrastructure sector to borrow more
from overseas to pay back their
outstanding domestic loans , which
were borrowed at a higher cost.
Indian companies in manufacturing
and infrastructure sector having
foreign exchange earnings can now
access ECB for repayment of their
outstanding rupee loans towards
capital expenditure and fresh rupee
capital expenditure under the
approval route. The overall ceiling for
such ECBs has been capped at $10
billion. RBI announced hiking of the
foreign investment cap on
government bonds by USD 5 billion
and hike of limit on overseas
commercial borrowings by USD 10
billion.
First Class and AC railway
passengers to pay service tax from
July 1
The Railways have decided to impose
service tax on First Class, AC Classes
and freight rates from July 1. The
Railway Board is preparing to levy a 12
per cent service tax that was
proposed in the General Budget for
2012-13, but was deferred for three
months till June 30. With freight and
passenger fares enjoying a 70 per
cent subsidy, the impact on the
increase in freight charges and fares
of First Class and AC I, AC II and AC III
will be 3.6 per cent. The Union
government is likely to net about Rs.
3,500 crore from this exercise
annually.
Chinese central bank cuts
benchmark rates
China’s central bank cut interest rates
for the second time in two months in
the latest attempt to bolster slowing
growth in the world’s second-largest
economy. Benchmark lending rates
will be cut by 31 basis points to 6
percent, and deposit rates by 25 basis
points to 3 percent.
Sunil Chettri joins Portuguese club
India captain Sunil Chhetri has signed
for Sporting Lisbon and will play with
the B team for two seasons. The
signing is part of an agreement with
Indian football authorities to develop
the game.
Wimbledon 2012 — June 25-July 8
2012 champions
Women’s singles: Serena Williams
Men’s singles: Roger Federer
Women’s doubles:Serena and Venus
Williams
Men’s doubles: Jonathan Marray and
Frederik Nielsen
Mixed doubles: Lisa Raymond and
Mike Bryan
Federer won seventh Wimbledon
title
ROGER Federer has won a record-
equalling seventh Wimbledon title and
17th Grand Slam crown .He has
defeated Andy Murray, Swiss Player
has also regained the world number
one ranking.
Serena won fifth Wimbledon title
Serena claimed her 5th Wimbledon
singles crown and 14th Grand Slam
trophy after defeating Agnieszka
Radwanska, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. Sisters
Venus and Serena Williams captured
their fifth Wimbledon doubles crown
after beating the partnership of
Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie
Hradecka of the Czech Republic, 7-5,
6-4. The Williams sisters have now
won 13 major doubles title since
forging a partnership in 1999.
Mark Webber wins British Grand
Prix
Mark Webber claimed the ninth win of
his career in British Grand Prix. Pole
sitter Alonso’s second place,world
champion Sebastian Vettel came
third ,Felipe Massa finished fourth in
the second Ferrari ahead of his
former Ferrari team-mate Kimi
Raikkonen and his Lotus team-mate
Romain Grosjean. Seven-time world
champion Michael Schumacher of
Mercedes finished seventh ahead of
Lewis Hamilton. Bruno Senna finished
ninth for Williams and Jenson Button
was 10th in the second McLaren. It
was Webber’s second win this year,
after triumphing at Monaco, and his
second at Silverstone in three years.
2012 UEFA European Football
Championship
The 2012 UEFA European Football
Championship, referred to as Euro
2012, was the 14th European
Championship for national football
teams organised by UEFA. The final
tournament was hosted for the first
time by Poland and Ukraine, between
8 June and 1 July 2012.
The final tournament featured 16
nations.
Host countries Poland
Ukraine
Dates 8 June – 1 July
Teams 16
Venue(s) 8 (in 8 host cities)
Final positions
Champions Spain (3rd title)
Runners-up Italy
Tournament statistics
Matches played 31
Goals scored 76 (2.45 per match)
Attendance 1,440,896 (46,481 per
match)
Top scorer(s) Croatia Mario
Mandžukić
Germany Mario Gómez
Italy Mario Balotelli
Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo
Russia Alan Dzagoev
Spain Fernando Torres
(3 goals each)
Best player Spain Andrés Iniesta
Tournament’s Golden Boot Fernando
Torres,
Assamese poet Hiren Bhattacharyya
passes away
Popular and celebrated Assamese
poet and winner of the Sahitya
Akademi Award and several honours
Hiren Bhattacharyya passed
away .Bhattacharyya popularly Known
as the “Poet of Love and Sunshine”,
was honoured with the Sahitya
Akademi Award in 1992 and Assam
Valley Literary Award in 2000.He
penned at least 11 collections of
poetry and books on nursery rhymes.
Many of his poems have been turned
into songs by renowned Assamese
singers. His most popular collection,
“Sugandhi Pokhila” (“Fragrant
Butterflies”), has been translated into
English.
S&P, Moody’s cut Barclays outlook
rating to negative
LONDON Ratings agencies Standard
and Poor’s and Moody’s downgraded
Barclays’ long-term rating outlook to
negative from stable.Moody’s stated
that shareholder and political
pressure was creating uncertainty
about the bank’s future. S&P stated
that the emergence of “weak business
practices” had hit the company’s
prospects.
Aditya Birla buys Canadian pulp co
Aditya Birla Group has signed an
agreement to buy the Terrace Bay
Pulp Mill in North Western Ontario,
Canada.The group will invest more
than $250 million in a phased manner
to convert the mill to produce
dissolving grade pulp. The acquisition
will be made through a special
purpose vehicle (SPV), AV Terrace Bay
Inc. (Canada).
Pawar quits telecom as EgoM
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar quit
as the head of EGoM on Telecom.
Panwar quits because of the
allegations against him in the 2G case.
E-filing of returns must for income
over Rs10 lakh
The Central Board of Direct Taxes
(CBDT) has made it mandatory for all
individuals and Hindu undivided
family (HUF) having annual income of
more than Rs 10 lakh to file their
returns electronically for which digital
signatures are not necessary.
Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius
quits
Barclays Plc chairman Marcus Agius
quits over rate-fixing scandal . Agius is
chairman of Britain’s third biggest
bank for 5-1/2 years, is the first major
scalp from the scandal
