Current Affairs for Bank PO - 17 April 2014
- Robin K Dhowan took over as chief of the Indian Navy nearly two months after D K Joshi quit the post in the wake of a series of mishaps. Dhowan is a navigation and direction specialist and he has commanded frontline warships INS Khurki, INS Ranjit and INS Delhi. He has also served as Chief Staff Officer (Operations) Headquarters Western Naval Command. As a Flag Officer, he had commanded the Eastern Fleet. He has served as the Chief of Staff at Headquarters Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy. As per the rule of National Defence College, Admiral Dhowan will be succeeded by Commandant Vice Admiral Sunil Lamba in May 2016 as the Navy Chief.
- Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has appointed Olympian Shahnaz Shaikh as the senior hockey team coach.
- 20% Stake in Shriram Capital to be acquired by Piramal Enterprises. Company will be acquired for 20.14 billion rupees.
- SBI has launched the facility of TAB banking for customers opening of Savings Bank accounts and another for Housing Loan applicants. SBI will offer its valued customers the facility of opening accounts at their door step through Tab Banking. The sales staff of SBI will visit the customers at their home and with the use of the tablets they will get the formalities completed. These will be loaded on the CBS and the account number will be sent to the customer through SMS/e-mail. This will provide convenience and time saving to the customer for opening accounts with SBI. SBI will also offer TAB banking facility at the place of the Housing Loan applicant, for in-principle approval of home loan.
- ING Vysya Bank officially announced the launch of its mobile banking application, which is believes will help drive higher user engagement. Besides features such as checking balance, funds transfer and bill payments, the application offers ability to scan and store cheques issued, lets users buy and send gift vouchers from various brands and ATM branch locater.
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO) panel on 4th April 2014 announced that Cherrapunji in India regained the world record for highest rainfall in 48 hours with 2493 millimeters. The previous highest rainfall in Cherrapunji was recorded on 15-16 June 1995. The previous world record for 48-hour rainfall was held by La Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. La Reunion Island holds the record with 2467 millimeters from April 1958. L Reunion is a French island with a population of 840974 inhabitants located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Mauritius. La Reunion is frequently hit by tropic cyclones and received large amounts of rainfall over its mountains. It continued to hold the record for the most rainfall over periods of 12-hours and 24-hours from 1966. The record of highest 72 hours and 96 hours was made in 2007. Cherrapunji is situated on a plateau in the state of Meghalaya at an average elevation of 1484 metres (4,869 ft), facing the plains of Bangladesh.
- A new robot called Borewell Robot was developed by M.Manigandan to rescue kids who fall into borewells. M.Manigandan is a Madurai based social worker. Some of the features of this Robot are iron framework, Detachable arms, 5kg Weight, 2 feet high, pictures viewable on a computer.
- A giant torch was unveiled on 17 April 2014 in honour of Indian spiritual leader Chinmoy Kumar Ghose in New York, USA.
- Archie Comics has declared that the famous comic character Archie will die in the July 2014 issue after ruling the comics market for 73 year.
- Scientists from University of California, Riverside created a 3D model of the human malaria parasite genome for the first time. The 3D model was created at three different stages in the life cycle of parasite. The creation of 3D model will help in identifying new anti-malaria drugs. The study was published in the journal Genome Research on 16 April 2014.