AWARDS AND HONOURS
1. GNFC wins Golden Globe Tigers award
The award recognises “Tigers” in marketing, branding CSR and social innovation, education and academic across leadership levels in an individual and organisation. This is the second award for GNFC in this category. A week ago, it had won the Golden Peacock Award in the category of Innovative Product/Service for its cashless innovation.
2. Aamir Khan receives Dinanath Mangeshkar Award 2017
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan was honoured with Vishesh Puraskar at the 75th Master Dinanath Mangeshkar Awards by RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat for his outstanding performance in film Dangal.
Kapil Dev was given the award for his outstanding contribution to the Indian cricket.
Legendary actress Vyjayanthimala Bali was honoured with Master Dinanath Vishesh Puraskar for her achievements in Hindi cinema.
APPOINTMENTS
3. Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar is the new CRPF chief
Senior IPS officer Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar was appointed as the new Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). His appointment comes two days after the CRPF lost 25 jawans in the deadly Sukma attack. Bhatnagar will be replacing acting DG Sudeep Lakhtakia. Bhatnagar belongs to the 1983 batch of the Indian Police Service (IPS).
In another key appointment, R K Pachnanda was appointed as DG of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). He’ll be taking over from Krishna Chaudhary, who is set to retire in June this year.
INDIAN AFFAIRS
4. Cows to have Aadhaar like ID
A government committee has recommended unique identification numbers for cows as one way to prevent their trafficking, according to documents filed by the central government with the Supreme Court.
The unique ID will contain details of the cattle’s age, breed, sex, height, body colour, horn type, tail switch and special marks, according to the panel set up by the home ministry. In the case of milch cattle, it will also have the lactation profile. This ID will take the form of a polyurethane tag.
5. Northeast India’s largest IT hub opens in Tripura
Northeast India’s sixth and largest Information Technology (IT) hub was inaugurated to boost employment and e-governance besides to export software technology. The hub is set up at a cost of Rs 50 crore. It would help the state to bring famous IT companies of India to set off their business and services taking the facilities of this newly set-up IT hub.
6. India to host 18th World Road Meeting
India is set to host the 18th World Road Meeting (WRM 2017) on November 13, the International Road Federation (IRF) announced recently. The WRM, the biggest global platform for road engineers, safety and transport experts and companies engaged in road safety products, will be attended by over 4,000 delegates from across the world.
The theme of this year’s edition is ‘Safe Roads and Smart Mobility: The Engines of Economic Growth’.
7. Haryana’s Ballabgarh renamed as Balramgarh
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced the renaming of Ballabgarh town in Faridabad as Balramgarh. Situated around 30 km from Delhi on National Highway-2, Ballabgarh is a town and a tehsil (sub-division). The princely State was founded by Balram Singh in 1739. Ballabgarh means ‘the fort of Balram’.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
8. India and Sri Lanka sign MoU on economic co-operation
India and Sri Lanka signed an MoU on economic co-operation. The agreement was exchanged in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi. The MoU proposes Indian investment in development of port and oil tank farms in Trincomalee, setting up of a LNG power plant and terminal, piped gas supply in capital Colombo, highway and railway projects in north and east of the country.
9. Indo-French naval exercise Varuna commences
The Indian Navy has began a joint maritime exercise Varuna with the French Navy at the Mediterranean Sea. The exercise will conclude on 30 April 2017. The joint maritime exercise aims at deepening combat coordination between the two navies.
Guided missile destroyer INS Mumbai, stealth frigate INS Trishul and fleet tanker INS Aditya are taking part in the Varuna exercise. The Varuna series of exercises began in 2000 and have evolved into an institutionalized form of interaction between the two navies.
10. Belgium opens honorary consulate in GIFT City
Belgium has become the first country to open an honorary consulate office in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City). The consulate was inaugurated by Belgian Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Pieter De Crem, at an event where Ajay Pandey, Managing Director and Group CEO, GIFT City, and members of a high-level delegation from Belgium were also present.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
11. International Conference on Dara Shikoh to be held
The International conference on “Dara Shikoh: Reclaiming Spiritual Legacy of India“, organised by the Indian Council Of Cultural Relations (ICCR), will be held on April 27 and 28 at ICCR’s Azad Bhavan, New Delhi. The objective of the conference is to present Dara Shikoh’s contribution and initiatives in bringing about spiritual homogenisation of Hinduism and Islam and thereby building a cohesive social and cultural edifice of India.
12. Nepal-China military exercise ‘Sagarmatha Friendship-2017’ concludes
The first Nepal-China joint military exercise ‘Sagarmatha Friendship-2017’ concluded in Kathmandu. On the last day of exercise participants from Nepal and China demonstrated Hostage Rescue, Bus Break In, Sniper Firing and House Clearing Drill.
13. Wikipedia founder to launch new site to tackle fake news
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is launching a crowd-funded news service to help combat fake news. The internet entrepreneur has created Wikitribune, a news initiative which says it will see professional journalists and community contributors produce “fact-checked, global news stories”.
The new site will be free to use, but also accept donations from monthly “supporters” who will then be able to suggest topics to be covered – while the site also says it will publish full transcripts of interviews where possible as part of transparency plans.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
14. NASA launches football stadium-sized Super Pressure Balloon
NASA successfully launched its football-stadium-sized, heavy-lift super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka, New Zealand, on a mission designed to run 100 or more days floating at 110,000 feet (33.5 km) about the globe in the southern hemisphere’s mid-latitude band.
The objective is to detect ultra-high energy cosmic rays from beyond our galaxy as they penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere. As these high-energy particles enter the atmosphere, they interact with nitrogen molecules in the air and create a UV fluorescence light.
15. NASA sends 1st man-made object between Saturn and its rings
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997, became the first man-made object to go beyond Saturn’s innermost rings towards the planet. Cassini will perform 22 orbits between the 2,400-km-gap, sampling ring particles while ending its mission on September 15, 2017. On the final orbit, Cassini will plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere, sending back detailed images of the planet’s surface to Earth.
********************
[mks_button size=”medium” title=”Read Current Affairs Daily Digest For April 2017″ style=”squared” url=”https://www.daytodaygk.com/current-affairs-april-2017/” target=”_self” bg_color=”#dd0f0f” txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”” icon_type=”” nofollow=”0″]
