Daily Updates 26th June

1. Satnam Singh Bhamara scripted history by becoming the first Indian basketball player to be drafted in America's prestigious National Basketball Association (NBA) after being picked by Dallas Mavericks. Earlier teams like Sacramento Kings and Boston Celtics had chosen him for practice. The 19-year-old, who hails from Punjab and stands 7 feet 2 inches tall, was the 52nd pick in the NBA Draft.

2. India and the United States of America (USA) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) on cooperation on Cancer Research, prevention, control and management in Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury Prevention and Control, and a Letter of Intent (LoI) on Antimicrobial Resistance Research.

3. The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, gave its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan. The purpose of MoC is to establish a framework for bilateral cooperation in the field of Industrial Property (IP), with emphasis on capacity building, human resource development and awareness generation. 

4. Veteran singer Asha Bhosle has been declared the greatest Bollywood playback artist of all times by the U.K. based Eastern Eye newspaper. The 81-year-old singer beat off her elder sister Lata Mangeshkar in a first of its kind list that takes into account factors including number of songs, honours, international impact, versatility, fan base and popularity amongst fellow music industry professionals. Whilst Lata Mangeshkar came second in the list of talented singers, Mohd Rafi came third and Kishore Kumar was fourth.

5. State Bank of India announced the appointment of Anshula Kant as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Kant has been designated as the Deputy Managing Director and CFO of the bank. She joined SBI as a Probationary Officer in 1983 worked under various departments of the bank. Prior to her appointment, P.K. Gupta was the CFO. Gupta moved to SBI Capital as Chief Executive Officer. 

6. Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been conferred with Colombia's highest civilian award for his contribution to peace issues around the world, particularly in the Latin American country. Dr. Fabio Raul Amin Saleme, President of the House of Representatives, Congress of Colombia presented 'Orden de la Democracia Simon Bolivar' award to Sri while highlighting his achievements in peace matters through his foundation, The Art of Living. 

7. Private sector lender Axis Bank has launched an EMV-chip-based debit card called ‘Secure+’ that offers multiple security features, including fraud protection and wallet protection. The Secure+ debit card has a feature called ‘Total Control’ through which customers can switch off/on their cards through various channels like mobile application, internet banking, SMS or phone banking. Customer can switch off the debit card for a fixed time period when it is not in use. 

8. India's legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar has been voted the 'Best Test player' of the 21st century in an online poll conducted by Cricket Australia's website. The former India skipper got the highest number of votes to emerge on top of the list of the 100 best Test players since 2000, in a poll conducted by cricket.com.au.Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara received the second highest votes, followed by Adam Gilchrist of Australia in the third position. 

9. As many as 11 Indian companies including Avanti Feeds Ltd and Borosil Glass Works are ranked among top 200 Asia Pacific corporations in Forbes Asia's 'Best Under A Billion' list. The list covers public companies with annual revenue of $5 million to $1 billion and they should also have positive net income and should be publicly traded for at least a year. Companies from China & Hong Kong (84) as well as Taiwan (36) dominated this year's list. India was ranked fourth on the list after South Korea which has (17).