Current Affairs - January 5, 2018 Current Affairs

3, ie Ministries of railways, human resource development (HRD), and science and technology have tied up to accomplish the Technology Mission for Indian Railways. A MoU on Technology Mission for Indian Railways (TMIR) was signed on 4th January 2018 by the ministries of railways, human resource development (HRD), and science and technology. This Technology Mission will conduct research and development projects in the fields of heavy haul, safety, energy, environment and urban railways. The funding contribution in the Technology Mission is 30% by the railways ministry, 25 % by the HRD ministry and 25% by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Tata Motors has appointed Hanne Birgitte Sorensen as an additional and independent director for a period of five years, effective from 3 January 2018. Hanne Birgitte Sorensen is former CEO of Damco, a supply chain firm. She is currently a member of board of Ferrovial SA and Lafarge Holcim Ltd. Hanne Birgitte Sorensen is a Danish national. Earlier she was also the CEO of Maersk Tankers, Copenhagen.

The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to offer relevant training to the employees on issues pertaining payment banking. Under the agreement, IICA has been entrusted with the key responsibility of capacity building of IPPB through training of its officials/employees besides providing research support by instituting Research Chairs in the emerging area of payment banking. This joint venture is expected to enable the massive network of post offices with the ability to effectively deal with Financial Inclusion.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched 'Chah Bagichar Dhan Puraskar Mela 2017-18' at a function held at Sarbananda Singha auditorium in Tinsukia, Assam. Under this scheme people belonging to tea community who opened bank accounts during demonetisation will be credited Rs 2500 in their accounts. In the demonetisation period, 6,58,250 tea community members opened bank accounts. Assam government will spend Rs. 182 crore for giving financial incentives to all the account holders. In the next phase, another 2500 rupees will be credited to accounts which are continuously operated for 6 months from now.

Abhay, the 1986-batch police officer of Odisha cadre, has taken charge as the new chief of the of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at the NCB headquarters in Delhi on January 2, 2018. He will hold the post the post till 18th of November 2019. Prior to this appointment, he was Additional DG (Training) in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The post of the NCB DG was lying vacant since April 2017 when the incumbent R R Bhatnagar was appointed as the CRPF DG. Special Secretary in the home ministry Rina Mitra was handling the additional charge of NCB DG since then. The NCB, under the command of the Union Home Ministry, is the apex coordinating and enforcement agency in the country against drug crimes and for countering drugs abuse.

National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) approved five projects worth Rs. 295.01 crore. Three projects pertain to sewage management in West Bengal at an estimated cost of Rs 278.6 crore, one relates to sewage management in Uttarakhand at an estimated cost of Rs 4.68 crore and one project worth Rs 11.73 crore is related to that improvement works in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.

Emami Group announced actor Salman Khan as the brand ambassador for its edible oil brands. Salman Khan will work with Amitabh Bachchan in promoting Emami's edible oil brands. Emami Healthy & Tasty, Himani Best Choice and Rasoi are Emami's edible oil brands. Other actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kangana Ranaut, Shahid Kapoor and Sania Mirza promote Emami products.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) announced that, it has commissioned and achieved design throughput of the world's largest refinery off the gas cracker at Jamnagar. RIL stated that, this refinery will have a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum along with downstream plants and utilities. The facility uses off-gases from two refineries of RIL at Jamnagar as feedstock. This will enable sustainable cost reduction.

Meghalaya has signed the Host City Contract with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to host the 39th National Games in 2022. IOA, Meghalaya State Olympic Association and Meghalaya state government have signed the tripartite contract. A working group under Sports Minister Zenith Sangma has been commissioned. Also, a Land Bank Committee and Team Preparation Committee have been formed. Rs 4.5 crore cheque was submitted to IOA as bid money for the National Games. Around 14,450 athletes and officials are expected to participate in the games.

Tamil Nadu Government launched an e-governance policy to help public, government and commercial establishments avail all services through digital medium. The e-Governance policy 2017 booklet was released by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswamy. It was received by Tamil Nadu IT Minister M Manikandan. The e-Governance policy contains guidelines for developing IT infrastructure for the digital initiatives of the government. This policy lets the government allocate 0.5 % of the total funds in a financial year for digital initiatives and further increase it to 3 % in the next five years.

The central government appointed AB Mathur as interlocutor on its behalf to hold talks with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). AB Mathur is an IPS officer of the 1975 batch. He is the former special secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

The central bank of Pakistan approved the usage of Chinese currency, Yuan, for bilateral trade with China. This decision has been taken one day after US President Donald Trump announced stopping of all aid to Islamabad. This also indicates the growing bond between Pakistan and China. Now Pakistan and China might replace US dollar for transactions in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. Pakistan clarified that the Pakistani rupee will be continued for domestic usage.

B Rajendran, the former Madras High Court judge, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (REAT) for Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The monthly salary of the chairperson would be Rs 80,000. As per Section 43 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the State government has to establish the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal for Tamil Nadu. Under Section 45 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the tribunal should consist of a chairperson and not less than two whole-time members, of which one shall be a judicial member and another has to be a technical or administrative member appointed by the government.

Third edition of the Science Film Festival of India will be held between 16th - 19th January, 2018 in Goa. This festival has been titled SCI-FFI Goa. This festival is being jointly organised by the Goa-based Vidnyan Parishad, Entertainment Society of Goa, Goa's Department of Science and Technology and the Goa College of Art. A Science Film Making Competition will be the highlight of this festival. The competition will include films of duration of five minutes and those above five minutes. Winners will be selected for various categories viz. best film, Direction/Research Presentation, Design, Cinematography and Design. The winners will be awarded cash prizes from the total prize pool of Rs. 1 lakh.

Smt Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) launched the country's first digital Online Oncology Tutorial Series designed by the Tata Memorial Center in collaboration with the Health Ministry. The oncology tutorial series aims to train the doctors across the country to educate them in early detection, prevention, palliation, rehabilitation and treatment of various cancers.