Current Affairs - November 24, 2017 Current Affairs

Union Government will soon initiate a comprehensive 'safe city' plan for women in eight cities for women in eight metropolitan cities of the country. The Safe city plan will serve as robust emergency response system and provides police-verified public transport will come into place. The plan will be forwarded by respective State Level Committee headed by Chief Secretary of the state.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has become the first Canadian bank to be added to the Financial Stability Board's (FSB's) list of global systemically important banks (G-SIB) deemed 'too big to fail'. On being added in this list, Royal Bank of Canada will now have to set aside larger capital buffers and will be subjected to more stringent supervision and compliance.

Cabinet approves agreement between India and Philippines on co-operation in customs matters. Cabinet approves India's Membership for European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. Cabinet approves signing of India - Russia Agreement on cooperation in combating terrorism.

The 5th edition of Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) has inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on November 23, 2017. The theme of the conference is "Cyber for All: A Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development". The main objective of the conference is to have mutual understanding of latest practices in cyberspace, more coordination and security measures. For the first time, the event is being organized in India. The representatives from 124 countries and 33 Ministerial delegates from 31 countries including Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremasinghe will attend the conference. nternational leaders, policymakers, industry experts, think tanks and cyber experts will deliberate on issues and challenges for optimally using cyber space.

The (CMFRI) Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has joined hands with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) to identify Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ), an area in sea where fishes are seen in abundance. In the first phase, CMFRI and the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of ISRO have jointly launched a research project for identifying, forecasting and monitoring PFZ in coastal and offshore waters of Tamil Nadu.

Indian railways has installed Asia's largest Solid State Interlocking (SSI) system at Kharagpur in West Bengal, which will enable station masters to set 800 different routes for trains in a matter of minutes. Interlocking is a railway signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements of trains through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The cutting-edge technology is installed at a cost of Rs 39 crore, which replaces the pre-1989 route relay system that only allowed operators to set maximum 423 routes, ensures that no cross-movement takes place. The SSI software will also detect the routes a particular train can take and inform the station masters working at the panel, bringing down the operation time and the possibility of human error. It will reduce the possibility of accidents.

Odisha government decided to launch "Nabakrushna Choudhury Seccha Unnayan Yojana" to provide irrigation facility to about 55,000 hectare of agricultural land across Odisha. The scheme would be implemented with an outlay of Rs 635 crore over a period of three years. Under the scheme, 46,296 hectare command area of 14 major and medium irrigations and 284 minor irrigation projects will be revived.

ashish Kamat has resigned as the Chief Executive Officer of Swiss banking giant UBS's India operations. Aashish Kamat will be replaced by Harald Egger, who is currently head of group corporate services and sourcing at UBS. Aashish Kamat took over as UBS India head in 2011. He was previously the chairman of UBS' financial institutions group in Asia.

State Bank of India, the country's largest public sector bank, has launched a unified integrated app called YONO (You Need Only One) that would offer all kinds of financial and lifestyle products. YONO will also allow customers to meet their lifestyle needs across 14 categories including booking and renting cabs, entertainment, dining experience, travel and stay, medical needs.

The Centre sanctioned Rs 1 Lakh Crore infrastructure projects for Tamil Nadu including three elevated corridors for Chennai and bus ports at Madurai, Coimbatore, and Salem that will be on par with airports. Union Road Transport, Highways, and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari announced a slew of programmes for Tamil Nadu. Speaking to media after reviewing various projects along with Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Gadkari announced Rs 40,000 Crore worth of road and highway projects.

Swedish home furnishing major IKEA launched its first experiential center 'IKEA Hej HOME' in Hyderabad, ahead of opening its first store in the country at the same state in spring 2018. The designed for a six-month duration, IKEA Hej HOME will familiarise customers with IKEA home furnishing solutions and offer a first-hand experience of an IKEA store.

Samsung India announced a partnership with Uttar Pradesh State Government for 'Smart Healthcare Programme'. This aims to offer affordable and quality healthcare to patients from the economically and socially weaker sections of society. Samsung India will also provide advanced equipments such as ultrasound and digital radiology (x-ray) machines to selected government hospitals across the state.

As per a report presented by UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Latin America and the Caribbean is the most violent region in the world for women. Issue of violence against women in Latin America is so critical, that the region has been referred to as most violent region in the world for women outside of conflict zones.This region also has the highest rate of sexual violence against women outside of relationships.

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) nominated nine movies for this year's International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT) UNESCO Gandhi Medal. Out of nine films, five are from India. They are Kshitij - A Horizon, Manusangada, Poorna, Railway Children and Take-Off from India. The foreign films in the fray are Amok from Poland, Khibula - a co-production of Germany, France and Georgia, The Last Painting from Taiwan and Women of The Weeping River - a joint production of the US and UK.

Basel will become the first city to jointly host the Badminton and Para Badminton World Championships in 2019. Basel beat off competition from Tokyo to land the 2019 Para Badminton World Championships in a vote which was delayed by the BWF Council to allow further discussions.