Current Affairs - September 28, 2017 Current Affairs

Twitter announced a test project allowing tweets to be expanded to 280 characters double the existing limit in the latest effort to boost flagging growth at the social network. The main aim to address a major cause of frustration for many users. It became a public company in 2013 and reported a profit even though it has built a loyal base of celebrities, journalist and political figures.

World Rabies Day is celebrated annually to raise awareness about rabies prevention. The 2017 World Rabies Day theme is 'Rabies: Zero by 30'. This day also marks the anniversary of Louis Pasteur's death, the French chemist, and microbiologist, who developed the first rabies vaccine.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the 13th Formation Day of the National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi. Schools are lifeline structures of a community and their safety is important for effective learning and teaching. Around tens of thousands of children in the world have been badly affected simply because their schools were not safe.

Standard Chartered and Citibank become the first foreign lenders to invest in the platform. Both Standard Chartered Bank as well as Citi linked the investment to their respective efforts to promote digitization. This is its second round of capital raising. It will help clients to automate and digitise flows and gain efficiency through standardisation and process automation. Other lender shareholders in the company include Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Union Bank of India.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi given its approval for implementation of umbrella scheme of "Modernisation of Police Forces (MPF)" for years 2017-18 to 2019-20. The financial outlay for the scheme over the three year's period is Rs.25,060 crore, out of which the Central Government share will be Rs.18,636 crore and the States' share will be Rs.6,424 crore. It provides for setting up of State-of-Art forensic science laboratory in Amravati, Andhra Pradesh and up gradation of Sardar Patel Global Centre for Security, Counter-Terrorism and Anti-Insurgency in Jaipur and Gujarat Forensic Science University in Gandhi Nagar.

The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) launched monthly Jan Sampark program to enable public to interact with its officials to obtain information related to child adoption. Nearly 150 Prospective Adoptive Parents (PAPs), adoptive parents and representatives of agencies participated in the session.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has constituted a steering committee to monitor and coordinate the states drug de-addiction and rehabilitation programme. The decision to set up the committee, headed by the state chief secretary, was taken by the chief minister at a meeting of the State Board of Drug De-addiction and Rehabilitation.

Apple became the world's most valuable brand in Interbrand's 2017 best Global Brands ranking. Apple's brand value was measured as $184,15 billion, which was grew 3 percent from the year 2016. Google is in second place with $141.7B which grew 6 percent in brand value over the past year and followed by Microsoft ($80B), Coca-Cola ($69.7B), Amazon ($64.8B), and Samsung ($59.3B).

Mr.Uri Ariel, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Israel, announced that Israel will provide increased support to Haryana's White Revolution, in Israel. Israel is already working on five centres of excellence in Haryana. Haryana would adopt techniques and experience of Israel to increase average milk production.

Vice President, Mr.M.Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 'Shouchalayakkagi Samara' (A Crusade for Toilets) Programme, in Karnataka. The Vice President honoured 13 Village Panchayat Presidents and the Naragund Taluka Panchayat President as the achievers of 'Shouchalayakkagi Samar'.

The Cabinet approved the signing of Interbank Local Currency Credit Line Agreement and Cooperation Memorandum relating to Credit Ratings by Exim Bank with member banks under BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism. It has authorized Board of Directors of Exim Bank to negotiate and conclude any individual contracts and commitments within their framework as both agreements are non-binding in nature.

According to the world's highest-paid TV actresses 2017 list Priyanka Chopra ranks 8th position. Colombian actress Sofia Vergara tops the list again.

Maharashtra secured the 1st position in manufacturing emergence in India, according to a study conducted by the non-governmental industry body ASSOCHAM. Gujarat has obtained the second position, with good performance on change in capacity utilisation, operational ratio, value addition and input cost. ASSOCHAM considered the following factors to prepare the ranking: number of factories, output value, working capital, net fixed capital formation, fixed capital, finished goods, capital invested and total inputs.

The security cover provided by the CISF at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport has bagged the best airport security award from the World Quality Congress (WQC). The awards are considered as recognition of excellence demonstrated by agencies in the commerce and industry space of the country and based on the independent evaluation by the WQC Jury. The award will be given to CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) at an event to be held in Dubai next month.

The World Maritime Day is celebrated across the world on 28 September across the world. The theme for 2017 World Maritime Day is 'Connecting Ships, Ports and People'. The main aim is to do so by focusing on helping International Maritime Organization (IMO) member states to develop and implement maritime strategies to invest in a joined-up, interagency approach.