April 12 – Current Affairs Quick Gyan

In Current Affairs 2017
April 12, 2016

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Quick Gyan (QG) Section of D2G. QG is just a glimpse of what happened today all over the world.

Only For Serious Candidates : We strongly recommend you to read the Current Affairs in detail. For your convenience, we have provided quick links under the updates. Make use of it.

Always Keep Yourself Updated!!!

AWARDS AND HONORS

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Padma Awards 2016

President Pranab Mukherjee honoured several eminent personalities with the prestigious Padma awards at a simple ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Tamil film star Rajinikanth, Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn, Priyanka Chopra, playback singer Udit Narayan, ace tennis star Sania Mirza were among those who were conferred with the Padma awards.

The President had earlier conferred five Padma Vibhushan, eight Padma Bhushan and 43 Padma Shri awards at a function held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Quick Link – Padma Awards 2016

Ex-Army Chief Gen JJ Singh conferred highest French civilian honour

Former army chief Gen (retd) JJ Singh has been conferred with the highest French civilian distinction, Officer of the Legion of Honour. Singh was chosen for the honour in recognition of his “stellar role” in modernising the Indian Army and initiating robust exchanges between the Indian and French armies.

‘Officier de l’Ordre national de la Legion d’Honneur‘ is the highest civilian award given by the French Republic for outstanding service to France, regardless of the nationality of the recipients.
Singh was conferred the honour by French Ambassador to India, Francois Richier.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy and holder of a master’s degree in Defence Science, Singh was commissioned into the 9th Maratha Light Infantry on August 2, 1964.
In January, 2003, he was appointed as the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) and took over as Army Commander – Western Command in January, 2004.

Quick Link – French civilian honour

APPOINTMENTS

GOI appoints Meeran Borwankar as DG of BPR&D

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has appointed Meeran Borwankar, IPS as Director General in the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D). It is a consultancy organisation under the Centre for modernisation of police forces. Meeran Borwankar is presently working in her cadre state Maharashtra. In her long career, Borwankar has also worked in Maharashtra’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS).

In another order, Yellapantula Mallikarjun- a non- government official- has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty to Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.

Quick Link – Meeran Borwankar as DG of BPR&D

BANKING AAND FINANCE

Federal Bank launches campus wallet for students

Federal Bank ties up with Chillar Payment Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a technology driven start-up company to promote the start-up’s technology product – ‘Campus Wallet‘. This is a student Identity Card integrated with banking technology.

Campus Wallet is a futuristic ID card that facilitates students to make petty payments within their school/college campus without opening a bank account.
Parents can pre-load the desired amount to these cards using their debit/credit cards or through net banking by using Federal Bank’s payment gateway.
Students can make payments in stores, canteen, library etc within the respective campuses by flashing the Campus Wallet cards at the special swiping machines installed at these locations.
Since students can use campus wallet only in their respective campuses, parents can ensure control over spends using this card.

Quick Link – Campus wallet for students

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Govt activates Aadhaar based IT appeal e-filing

Income Tax department has activated the Aadhaar and net banking-based e-filing verification system for taxpayers to file the first appeal before a tax officer, on similar lines of online ITR filing. In order to reduce the interface between taxman and the taxpayer, the department has recently operationalised the maiden facility on its official e-filing portal.

The Electronic Verification Code (EVC) works by way of generating a personalised OTP by using the Aadhaar database or the net banking identity of a filer or entity. The OTP is subsequently sent to the personal email id or mobile phone of the filer for validation and subsequent process of filing.

The IT department has four stages of appeal mechanism for the assessees to put forth their grievance beginning with the Commissioner of IT (Appeals), the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), the High Court and finally the Supreme Court.

Quick Link – Aadhaar based IT appeal e-filing

World bamboo conference: GOI to promote bamboo cultivation

The Union government is taking necessary actions to fill up the gap between supply and demand for bamboo in view of “tremendous demand” for it in the national and international markets, said Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Singh at the World Bamboo Conference in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The Government has planned to encourage bamboo cultivation in the country through various measures, including plantation of its saplings along the national highways and using it in the construction of toilets.

In India, bamboo is being cultivated in 130 lakh hectares area, while in China it is three times less, which is 42 lakh hectares. Despite that, bamboo production in China is 45 tonnes per hectare, while in India it is just two-three tonnes.
The Centre is running Bamboo Mission in 28 states of the country under which saplings were planted in 3,50,000 hectares land.

Quick Link – World Bamboo Conference

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Polio can be eradicated in 12 months: WHO

Despite challenges in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the polio virus is still endemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is confident that polio could be eradicated within 12 months.

If wiped out, the polio virus will become the only second human-hosted virus to be eradicated since smallpox ended in 1980.
Just nine cases of the virus have been recorded this year so far, two in Afghanistan and seven in Pakistan.
Ever since the global polio eradication initiative started in 1988, thousands of children from across the world were saved from wild polio virus that paralysed them.
The WHO has been concentrating in key areas known to be reservoirs for the virus, Karachi city in Pakistan and two cross-border corridors, around Quetta Block and in the Peshawar district.

Quick Link – Polio can be eradicated

G7 Hiroshima Declaration calls for world without nuclear weapons

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries at a meeting in Japan have called for a world without nukes. US Secretary of State John Kerry and G7 foreign ministers called for a “world without nuclear weapons”, citing North Korea’s sabre-rattling as a key challenge to achieving that goal. The top diplomats cited deteriorating security conditions in Syria, Ukraine and particularly the Korean Peninsula as key challenges to achieving the goal.

The declaration comes as some of the G7 member states including the US and Britain possess huge nuclear stockpiles.
Nuclear weapons states have refused to destroy or reduce their stocks of nuclear weapons despite repeated promises to do so.
Some of the advanced economies are spending billions of dollars to upgrade their deadly weapons.

Quick Link – World without nuclear weapons

International Day of Human Space Flight – April 12

The General Assembly on 7 April 2011, declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight “to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind, reaffirming the important contribution of space science and technology in achieving sustainable development goals and increasing the well-being of States and peoples, as well as ensuring the realization of their aspiration to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.”

Quick Link – International Day of Human Space Flight

FOREIGN RELATIONS

India, US agree for logistics exchange to enhance military cooperation

India and the US have agreed “in principle” to a logistics exchange agreement to enable both militaries to use each other’s assets and bases for repair and replenishment of supplies, an issue which did not find favour with the previous UPA government. Ramping up bilateral defence ties, both sides agreed to set up a new bilateral Maritime Security Dialogue between officials from their respective defence and foreign affairs ministries.

This came as India and the US emphasised on freedom of navigation and need for international based order, in an apparent reference to China’s assertiveness in South China Sea.

Quick Link – India and US

SPORTS

Anthony Joshua Wins International Boxing Federation Title

Anthony Joshua won the International Boxing Federation heavyweight title in London with a second-round knockout of Charles Martin. Joshua put Martin on the canvas twice in the second round to record his 16th knockout in all 16 professional fights he has contested. Joshua, the 2012 Olympic gold medallist, captured his first world title in only his 16th professional fight.

Anthony Joshua is a British professional boxer.
He holds the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles.
As an amateur, he won a gold medal in the super heavyweight division at the 2012 Olympics, and silver at the 2011 World Championships.
As of March 2016, he is ranked the world’s eighth best heavyweight boxer by The Ring magazine, and currently holds a 100% knockout ratio.

Quick Link – Boxing Federation Title

Danny Willett won 2016 US Masters golf championship

Danny Willett claimed a shock Masters win with a superb five-under-par 67 as 2015 champion Jordan Spieth crumbled during a thrilling final round. The Englishman, 28, won his first major by three shots on five under to become the first British victor in 20 years. Overnight leader Spieth, 22, led by five shots as he approached the 10th at Augusta, but the American dramatically dropped six shots in three holes. He ended with a one-over 73, tying for second with England’s Lee Westwood. Despite being born and raised as a Yorkshireman, Willett left Sheffield to play two seasons of golf in America.

Heading into this week’s tournament Willett had accumulated US$677,265 in PGA Tour prize money, which is dwarfed by the $1.8m cheque he’ll receive for his efforts at Augusta.

Quick Link – US Masters golf championship

OBITUARY

Woman biker Veenu Paliwal dies in road accident

One of India’s top women bikers, Veenu Paliwal, died in a road accident in Vidisha district in Madhya Pradesh. Paliwal, 44, was on a nationwide tour on her Harley Davidson when the accident took place. She was undertaking the Kashmir to Kanyakumari trip with fellow biker and companion Dipesh Tanwar. The two started their journey from Lucknow early in the morning for Bhopal on separate Harley Davidson bikes.

Paliwal died after her bike went out of control on a turn and she skid off a road near Gyaraspur about 100 km from Bhopal. She was rushed to a primary health centre and later to the Vidisha district hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

Quick Link – Veenu Paliwal Passed away

Thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂