Daily GK Update 6 June 2014

1.    ANZ India gets RBI nod to open two branches

i. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) on Thursday said that it has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank to open two new branches.

ii. The new branches will come up Gurgaon, NCR, and outer Bangalore, the bank said in a statement. 

iii. The in-principle approval is for 12 months and the bank will finalise its plans within that time and seek final approval then and decided on the branch openings, ANZ India spokesperson said when sought the opening date.

iv. Commenting on the development, ANZ chief executive for international and institutional banking Andrew G'czy said, "the approval to open two branches will strengthen our super-regional strategy, expand our ability to support clients and build on our position as a leading bank in Asia.

2.    India in world's top five nations in solar power capacity

i. India is among the world's top five nations in concentrated solar power (CSP) technology capacity rankings topped by the US, according to a new report.

ii. India is placed fourth, ahead of China, in the rankings recently released in a report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21 Century (Ren21), an international multi-policy stakeholder network that promotes rapid global transition to renewable energy.

iii. The report said although the US and Spain were the market leaders in CSP, investment in the technology was growing most rapidly in regions that receive high amounts of daily sunshine.

iv. Global CSP capacity has increased 10-fold World-wide since 2004 and surged 36 per cent last year to a total of 3.4 gigawatts generated.

v. The number of emerging economy nations with policies in place to support expansion of renewable energy has surged more than six-fold in just eight years, from 15 developing countries in 2005 to 95 earlier this year, report said.

vi. The 100 megawatt CSP plant in Abu Dhabi, ranked third in the list, is one reason why CSP's growth in emerging markets almost tripled during 2013, it said.

3.    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won Presidential election for third time

i. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria won the Presidential election for the third time. The Presidential Election result was announced by the Parliament Speaker Jihad Laham on 4 June 2014.

ii. Basher winning the elections means that he will stay as the President of Syria for seven more years.

iii. Bashar belonging to Ba’ath Party won the election with 88.7 percent of the vote casted in favour of him. The other two contesting candidates Hassan al-Nouri (National Initiative for Administration and Change in Syria Party) and Maher Hajjar (People's Will Party) won 4.3 percent and won 3.2 percent of casted votes respectively.

4.    Russia lifted arm embargo on Pakistan

i. Russia lifted arm embargo on Pakistan. Sergey Chemezov, head of Russian state-run technologies corporation Rostec announced that Russia has lifted an embargo on supplying weapons and military hardware to Pakistan.

ii. Meanwhile,Moscow's Ambassador Alexander M Kadakin said that Russia had never imposed any arms embargo on Pakistan and that its technical and military cooperation with the country dates back to 1960s.

iii. Further, Kadakin said that Russia was supplying Mi35 helicopters as its contribution to the anti-terrorist and anti-narcotics endeavour. Russia, as a member of international coalition, treats is as a contribution to Pakistan's participation in anti-drugs and anti-terrorist operation.

5.    PM to begin foreign tour with visit to Bhutan by June end

i. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin his foreign tour with visit to Bhutan by the end of this month.

ii. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi the spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin said India gives top priority to the neighboring countries that is why the Prime Minister choose Bhutan for his first trip abroad.

iii. The Prime Minister has a very tight schedule ahead as he has to attend a number of bilateral and multilateral summits during coming months.

iv. He said immediately after Bhutan visit Mr. Modi will leave for United States and followed by a trip to Japan. Regarding visit to United States the spokesperson said that discussion is going on with Washington to have mutually convenient dates but it is not yet decided.

6.    Nitin Gadkari got additional charge of Union Ministry Rural Development

i. Union Transport Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari was given additional charge of the Ministries of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation on 4 June 2014. 

ii. The additional charges were given to him by the President of India on the advice of Prime Minister of India. The additional charges given to Gadkari were with Gopinath Munde, who died on 3 June 2014 due to a car accident in New Delhi.

7.    US President Barack Obama announced new rules to cut carbon pollution by 30% by 2030

i. US President Barack Obama on 2 June 2014 announced new rules to cut carbon pollution from existing Power plants by 30% till 2030. 
ii. The announcement involved to cut carbon dioxide emission 30 percent from 2005 level. The new rule was announced by The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  It also announced to cut by 2030 particle pollution, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide by more than 25 per cent as a co-benefit. 
iii. The new rules could transform the power sector. Currently, US Government relied on coal for nearly 38 percent of electricity.  

iv. Moreover, new rules provide multiple options for states to achieve their emission targets. States could improve power plant heat rates, can use more natural gas plants to replace coal plants, ramped up zero-carbon energy, such as solar or nuclear; and increasing energy efficiency.