Current Affairs April 5, 2018 S.No Topic Page Number 1 Important Days 2 2 World News 3 3 National News 4-5 4 State News 6 5 Banking & Economy 7-8 6 Sports 9 7 Appointments & Resignations 10 8 Science & Technology 11 9 Obituaries 12 1
Important Days National Maritime Day The National Maritime Day in India is observed on April 5 every year. The National Maritime Day is observed annually to commemorate the maiden voyage of the first Indian owned ship SS Loyalty which sailed from Bombay to London in 1919. In 2018, the theme of the National Maritime Day is Indian Shipping An Ocean of opportunity. 2
World News Agreement between India and Afghanistan Cabinet approved the agreement between Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (MAIL), Afghanistan for cooperation in the field of food safety. FSSAI and MAIL would establish a mechanism of information exchange and communication. Areas of cooperation also include facilitating technical exchange on identified topics of interest. India, Azerbaijan ink two documents India and Azerbaijan have inked two documents for the visa waiver for diplomatic, official and service passports holders and cooperation between diplomatic training institutes. The agreements were signed during the ongoing visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to that country. Mrs Swaraj is there to be part of 18th NAM Ministerial Conference in Baku. India pips Japan to become second largest crude steel-maker In a major achievement, India has overtaken Japan to become the world s second largest producer of crude steel in February, according to the Steel Users Federation of India (Sufi). At present, China is the largest producer of crude steel in the world, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the production. 3
National News Cabinet approves Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018 The Union Cabinet approved the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018 for better protection and promotion of human rights in the country. The Amendment will strengthen the Human Rights Institutions of India for the effective discharge of their mandates, roles and responsibilities. It proposes to add a woman member in the composition of the human rights commission. Cigarette packs to show addiction helpline number from Sept All tobacco products and cigarette packs will have the national toll-free number 1800-11- 2356 printed on them starting September 1 to help users quit smoking. Further, enhanced pictorial images and the text messages "tobacco causes painful death" and "tobacco causes cancer" will cover 85% of the packet area. As per government data, 62% smokers thought of quitting because of pictorial warnings. Government commissions mechanism to address taxpayers' grievances The government will put in place an IT-Grievance Redressal Mechanism to address the difficulties faced by a section of taxpayers owing to technical glitches on the GST portal. The IT Grievance Redressal committee will examine and approve the solutions for an identified issue. If a taxpayer faces problem due to failure of power supply, this mechanism shall not be available. Piyush Goyal Launches UTTAM APP for Coal Quality Monitoring The Union Minister for Railways and Coal Shri Piyush Goyal launched UTTAM App for Coal Quality Monitoring. UTTAM stands for Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal (uttam.coalindia.in). The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL) developed UTTAM,aims to provide an App for all citizens and coal consumers to monitor the process of Third Party Sampling of coal across CIL subsidiaries. 4
UTTAM App ensures accountability, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency in coal ecosystem. It provides a platform for monitoring of sampling and coal dispatches. The App is designed with an aim to make the citizens a stakeholder in the coal ecosystem. UIDAI launches Virtual ID to address privacy concerns related to Aadhaar Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched the much-awaited Virtual ID which will be a random 16-digit number mapped to a person s Aadhaar number. The concept of Virtual ID was announced earlier this year to address privacy concerns. The new feature will allow Aadhaar holders to quote their Virtual ID (VID) number without actually disclosing the 12-digit Aadhaar number for authentication or verification purposes. UIDAI had stated that it will be compulsory for all agencies that undertake authentication to accept the VID from their users from June 1, 2018. 5
State News MAA programme launched by Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Vipin Parmar On March 4, 2018, Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Vipin Parmar launched Mother s Absolute Affection (MAA) programme with an aim to promote breastfeeding. Objective of MAA programme is to create awareness among masses about the importance of breastfeeding. Besides community awareness generation, other components of MAA programme are strengthening inter-personal communication through ASHA workers, skilled support for breastfeeding at delivery points in public health facilities and work places. Breastfeeding helps in reducing the incidence of infant mortality and early childhood mortality and provides complete nutrition to a child. 6
Banking & Economy Doha Bank sets up first branch in Chennai Qatar-based Doha Bank has set up the first branch in the Chennai taking the total number of branches in the country to three, a top official said. Doha Bank currently has a branch in Mumbai, Kochi and Chennai, respectively. The Chennai branch will assist the bank's growing customer base in India offering a host of services including corporate, retail, treasury, trade, finance and foreign exchange services. Flipkart signed a pact with MakeMyTrip Flipkart and MakeMyTrip (MMT) have struck a partnership wherein the online retailer will start to sell travel services on its platform. MakeMyTrip s multiple brands, including MMT, Goibibo and redbus, will leverage the large customer base of Flipkart platform to drive online bookings in travel services. The new partnership will start with domestic flight, hotels, bus and holidays bookings. ICICI facilitates money transfer for NRIs ICICI Bank launched a service which enables Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to send money to a beneficiary in India using social media platforms like WhatsApp and e-mail. This first-of-its-kind service known as Social Pay is available on Money2India (M2I), the bank s app for remittances. Social Pay embraces the medium as a way to simplify money transfers, adding to customer convenience. India Ratings ups India s FY19 GDP growth to 7.4% India Ratings and Research has revised its FY19 GDP growth forecast to 7.4% from 7.1% earlier. As per the report, FY19 growth will continue to be driven by consumption and associated sectors such as automobiles, cargo handled at major ports. 7
IndusInd Bank gets RBI nod to acquire IL&FS arm Private sector lender IndusInd Bank said it has received RBI's approval to buy the securities services arm of IL&FS. In March 2017, the bank entered an agreement with Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, the promoter shareholder of IL&FS Securities Services Ltd (ISSL), to acquire 100 per cent stake in ISSL. IndusInd Bank to use WhatsApp for customer service On April 4, 2018, IndusInd Bank announced that it has launched a pilot WhatsApp enterprise solution to communicate with its customers. IndusInd Bank s message service on WhatsApp is being rolled out to customers in phases, wherein customers can save the official WhatsApp number of the bank and initiate conversation. There will be a two-way communication with replies to customer messages seeking basic banking services. The customers of IndusInd Bank will now be able to check balance, obtain mini statement, check reward points as well as update of Aadhaar through WhatsApp. RBI holds repo rate at 6% in first policy review of fiscal The RBI maintained the status quo on its key short-term lending rate at 6 per cent, along with its neutral stance, at the first bi-monthly monetary policy review of the new fiscal, in line with what was being widely expected. This is the fourth policy review in succession that the Reserve Bank of India s (RBI) sixmember Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has kept the repo, or short-term interest rate for commercial banks, unchanged. The RBI also revised downwards inflation in Q4 of FY18 from 5.1 per cent to 4.5 per cent. RBI estimated that the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for FY20 will range from 7.4 to 7.9 percent. 8
Sports Weightlifter Gururaja wins silver which becomes India s 1st medal at CWG Indian weightlifter P Gururaja bagged the country s first medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games after lifting a total of 249 kg (111 kg snatch, 138 kg clean and jerk) to win silver in men s 56 kg on Thursday. Earlier at the 2016 Commonwealth Championships, the 26-year-old, who is participating in CWG for the first time, had grabbed a gold medal. 9
Appointments & Resignations High Powered Committee to examine the system of conducting Class X and Class XII exam The Ministry of Human Resource Development has constituted a High Powered Committee to examine the entire system of conducting Class X and Class XII examination conducted by the CBSE with a view to prevent leakages. Shri Vinay Sheel Oberoi, Retd. Secretary (Higher Education), MHRD will be the Chairperson of the 7 member High Power Committee. The other members of the committee include Shri Pavnesh Kumar, Prof. J.S. Rajput, Prof. Vasudha Kamat, Prof. Krishna Mohan Tripathy, Senior representative of DG, NIC and Joint Secretary (SE-II) The High-Powered Committee will submit its report by on or before 31.05.2018. Sanjeev Nautiyal is appointmented as SBI Life gets new MD & CEO SBI Life Insurance has appointed Sanjeev Nautiyal as its new Managing Director and CEO. He replaces Arijit Basu, who takes over a key role in the State Bank of India Group. Nautiyal started his career with State Bank of India in 1985 as a probationary officer in the bank s Lucknow Circle. Subrata Bhattacharjee appointed as next ambassador of India to Serbia Subrata Bhattacharjee has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Serbia. He is an IFS poffice of 1989 batch. He is currently Joint Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs. 10
Science & Technology Nasa s Hubble telescope captures image of Icarus, farthest star ever seen Nasa s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the farthest individual star ever seen an enormous blue stellar body nicknamed Icarus located over halfway across the universe. The star, harboured in a very distant spiral galaxy, is so far away that its light has taken nine billion years to reach Earth. 11
Obituaries Malayalam actor Ajith passes away Malayalam film star Ajith, known for portraying negative roles, has passed away at the age of 56. Ajith in a career spread over three decades, has acted in around 500 films, mostly in Malayalam besides a few in Tamil and Hindi. He started his career with the 1984 hit Paranu Paranu Paranu by ace Malayali director Padmarajan. 12