Current Affairs Weekly Updates

AWARDS AND HONOURS

APPOINTMENTS

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

• Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have signed a Reciprocal Transport Agreement..
• The Budget for 2018-19 has provided for making PAN mandatory for any entity entering into a financial transaction of Rs 2.5 lakh or more with effect from April 1.
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a few path-breaking healthcare initiatives and gave healthcare a significant push by giving major allocations to the sector.
• Students now will be able to refer to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s advice on how to tackle exam challenges in his book, ‘Exam Warriors’.
• Dr Harsh Vardhan has appealed to the teaching community to join the “Green Good Deeds” campaign, launched by the Ministry to sensitise the peopleand students.
• Rechristening of the apex indirect tax policy making body CBEC to Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is likely to happen by April after the budgetary exercise gets Parliament nod.
• The National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) is a Central Sector Scheme which was set up in the year 2015-16.
• Union minister Nitin Gadkari has launched a campaign to connect people with the “Rashtra Raksha Mahayagya” to be held at the Red Fort Grounds next month.
• 14 Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) covering all the Maritime States and Union Territories have been identified as part of the National Perspective Plan under the Sagarmala Programme.

NEWS IN STATES

• The state archaeology department has planned a major revamp of Mehrauli Archaeological Park (MAP) to put it on the tourist map.
• Three new tools for States and Union Territories for ranking of startups in the country was launched by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry at a function in New Delhi.
• Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is set to launch 20 bike ambulances to deal with casualties in the tourism belt and other hot-spots.
• Telangana would set up a body to address issues of environment and it would function on the lines of a similar agency in Tokyo.
• On the occasion of World Wetland Day, city-based NGO Dhruvansh has introduced biggest floating island of India at Neknampur Lake.
• Indo-UK Institute of Health will pump in Rs 1,600 crore to set up a medicity with a 1,000-bedded hospital in Assam, taking the total investment in India to Rs 19,200 crore.
• Assam will host its first global investors summit beginning on 03 February 2018 to showcase its manufacturing opportunities and geostrategic advantages to foreign and domestic investors.
• The Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati will be the centre for project UDAN in the North East region and ASEAN.
• Taxi aggregator Ola has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Assam to pilot a one-of-its-kind app-based river taxi service in Guwahati.
• The Assam Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding worth Rs 300 crore with the AISECT Group of Universities for setting up a university in the state.
• Kerala will soon launch an e-network of ambulances on the lines of app-based global taxi operator Uber.
• Nearly 2,000 professionals, entrepreneurs, academicians, key influencers and other stakeholders from across the globe will attend Kerala’s first ever global IT summit to be held in Kochi by the third week of next month.
• The Uttar Pradesh government has inaugurated the state’s first ever butterfly park in Kanpur to preserve the ecosystem.
• The National Green Tribunal has imposed an environment compensation of Rs 10 lakh on the Uttar Pradesh government for failing to take action on disposing e- waste from the banks of the Ramganga river in Moradabad.
• The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival is one of the most significant cultural events of Mumbai, organised by the Kala Ghoda Association.
• Maharashtra will be the first such state to have Transgender Welfare Board (TWB).
• The state government has organised its first wine festival — ‘India Grape Harvest, Wine Festival 2018’.
• The government of Maharashtra is throwing its collective virtual weight behind autorickshaw drivers in Pune by committing to start a mobile app for them.
• Jharkhand state government would organise Global Agriculture Summit this year on the pattern of Momentum Jharkhand Investors Summit.
• The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind to inaugurate the Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav 2018 of Gommateshwara Bhagwan Sri Bahubali Swami at Shravanabelagola on February 7, 2018.
• The Madhya Pradesh government has launched a mobile application to spread awareness against pollution in the western part of the state. The mobile app “pollution metre” was available on ‘Google Play Store’.

BANKING AND FINANCE

• The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley launched CriSidEx , India’s first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises ( MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL & SIDBI.
• Paytm Payments Bank, a digital bank which provides zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions, partnered with the Mumbai Dabbawala Association, the pioneers of home-cooked food delivery.
• The Reserve Bank of India’s projections indicate inflation for 2018/19 to be at around 4.5 percent stated by Governor Urjit Patel that meant there was no need to change the monetary policy stance based on the existing data.
• Bank of Baroda has launched ‘Baroda DigiNext’, a product for digitising cash management of corporate and government customers.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

• Australia’s Brisbane Airport has announced that that it will soon allow travelers to pay with crypto coins at its terminal shopping areas.
• Guinness World Records officials certified the zip line in Ras al-Khaimah.
• Dubai has revealed the Aqua Pod concept, the world’s first sustainable floating drive-thru, serving a range of burgers.
• World Food Programme has signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement committing an unprecedented $370 million dollars to WFP over the next four years, hailing the Scandinavian nation as a global leader in aid.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

• India has joined the Ashgabat agreement, which envisages setting up of an international transport and transit corridor linking central Asia with the Persian Gulf to significantly ramp up trade and investment.
• An agreement between the Government of India and the Government of Canada for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy was signed on 27.06.2010.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal has launched a startup incubator EduMentum. The incubator will work for early-stage startups in offline education transformation space.
• SpaceX has launched a Falcon 9 rocket loaded with a geocommunications satellite commissioned by the Government of Luxembourg.
• Japan has set a new spaceflight record the country’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully launched the smallest-ever rocket.
• Researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin have developed new algorithms for robots to learn to perform tasks effectively by interacting with a human instructor.
• SpaceX is set to launch “World’s most powerful rocket” called Falcon Heavy from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
• An Indian Institute of Technology Madras alumnus has launched a non-profit ccelerator at the Bay Area in San Francisco, America.
• ISRO established Village Resource Centres (VRCs) on a pilot scale, in association with selected NGOs, Trusts and State Government Departments.

INDEX AND RANKING

• Dubai airport was the world’s busiest for international passengers in 2017.
• Indian cricketers Jasprit Bumrah and Harmanpreet Kaur as well India women’s hockey team goalkeeper Savita Punia and shooter Heena Sidhu are among Forbes India 30 Under 30, a list that celebrates ‘twenty-somethings who are shaping the new India’.
• Forbes, known for its “World’s Billionaires List”, published a lAist of the richest people in cryptocurrency for the first time. Many business people invest in crypto currencies to make profits. And Forbes for first time released rich people in crypto currency list.

DEFENCE NEWS

• India successfully test-fired indigenously developed short-range nuclear-capable Agni-I ballistic missile from Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.
• India has successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a test range in Odisha.

SPORTS

• India’s leading squash player, Saurav Ghosal jumped five places to No 14 to become the highest ranked Indian in the latest Professional Squash Association (PSA) rankings released.
• Not just Mary Kom, six other Indian boxers’ cliched gold medals in the India Open International Boxing Tournament.
• India registered three consecutive ODI victories against South Africa in South Africa for the first time after beating them by 124 runs in the third ODI.
• India’s veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami has added another feather to her illustrious cap by becoming the first female cricketer to take 200 ODI wickets.
• Reliance Jio’s live television app Jio TV has bagged digital rights to broadcast the Winter Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018 across India.

OBITUARY

IMPORTANT DAYS

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