Daily GK Update 17th September 2017

1. PV Sindhu beats World Championship winner to win Korea Open:

• Indian shuttler PV Sindhu defeated World Championships gold winner, Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, to become the first Indian to lift the Korea Open Superseries title .
• She secured a 22-20, 11-21, 21-18 win against Okuhara.
• Sindhu has now won three international titles this year, after claiming the Syed Modi International and India Open titles. This was world number four Sindhu’s fourth win over Okuhara in eight encounters.

2. Chris Gayle becomes first batsman to hit 100 sixes in T20Is:

• Windies’ cricketer Chris Gayle became the first batsman to hit 100 sixes in T20I cricket on Saturday.
• Gayle achieved the feat in his 49th T20I innings during the one-off T20I against England at Chester-le-Street. The 37-year-old West Indian has hit 439 sixes in international cricket and is only behind former Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi, who has hit 476 sixes.

3. PM Modi inaugurates country’s biggest dam, Sardar Sarovar Dam, Called ‘Gujarat’s Lifeline’:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the Sardar Sarovar Dam – the world’s second-biggest – on the river Narmada in Gujarat.
• The 1.2-km-long dam, which is 163 metres deep, will irrigate over 18 lakh hectares in the state, according to officials; the water from Narmada will flow into over 9,000 villages through a canal network, Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited (SSNL).
• After inaugurating the dam, PM Modi will head to Sadhu Bet, an island in the river Narmada where a 182-metre-tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – called the ‘Statue of Unity’.

4. India, Japan sign Open Sky Agreement:

• India and Japan today signed an agreement that will allow their airlines to operateunlimited number of flights between the two countries.
• It opens skies between India and Japan ie. Indian and Japanese carriers can mount now unlimited number of flights to the selected cities of each other’s countries.
• The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016, allows the government to enter into an ‘open sky’ air services agreement on a reciprocal basis with SAARC nations as well as countries beyond a 5,000 kilometre radius from New Delhi.

5. Advertising Club appoints Vikram Sakhuja as president:

• The Advertising Club has elected Vikram Sakhuja, group CEO – Media and OOH, Madison Communications, as its new president.
• Sakhuja will take over from Raj Nayak, who led the Advertising Club for two consecutive terms.

6. Only Marshal of IAF, the hero of 1965, Arjan Singh Passed Away:

• The sole Marshal of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh, passed away at the Army’s Research and Referral Hospital on Saturday. He was 98 years old.
• Arjan Singh had the honour of leading the fly-past of more than a hundred IAF aircraft over the Red Fort on India’s first Independence Day, August 15, 1947.
• In 2002, on the occasion of Republic Day, he was granted the honorary rank of Marshal, the highest military rank attainable, which before him only two Army chiefs, K M Carriappa and Sam Manekshaw, had achieved.

7. Amazon Ties up With Bank of Baroda To Offer Micro-Loans To Sellers:

• Amazon has tied up with Bank of Baroda for the loans, which can go up to Rs. 25 lakh.
• The Indian arm of the US e-commerce giant, Amazon plans to provide unsecured micro-loans, as low as 1 lakh, at interest rates as low as 10.45-11 per cent at a short span of 3-5 days. With the Bank of Baroda tie-up, the company wants to cater to every strata of sellers.

8. Shabana Azmi to be honoured as ‘Icon of Indian Cinema’ at Jagran Film Festival:

• Actres Shaban Azmi will be honoured at the closing ceremony of the Mumbai edition of the eighth Jagran Film Festival next week.
• She will honored as an ‘Icon of Indian Cinema’.The ceremony will take place on September 24.

9. SLC bans Chamara Silva for 2 yrs on fixing charges:

• Former Sri Lanka batsman Chamara Silva has been handed a two-year ban from cricket-related activities for breaching the spirit of the game.
• The announcement came after a seven-month inquiry into events of the third day of the Panadura Cricket Club v Kalutara Physical Culture Club match played from January 23 to 25.