Current Affairs - January 11, 2018 Current Affairs

The World Hindi Day (WHD) is observed every year on January 10 to mark the first anniversary of World Hindi Conference (WHC) which was held in 1975. The first WHC was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Apart from India, the language is also spoken in Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji and Mauritius. Apart from this, the National Hindi Divas (NHD) is celebrated every year in India on September 14 to mark the day on which the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the Official Language of the Union.

All-rounder Yusuf Pathan has been suspended by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a doping violation. The BCCI stated that a urine sample provided by Pathan on March 16, 2017 was tested and found to contain 'Terbutaline'. However, Yusuf's suspension has been backdated and he will be eligible to play from January 14 onwards.

Professional player Aditya Mehta won the Kolkata Open 2018 International Invitation Snooker Championship in the capital city of West Bengal Kolkata. This is his third Kolkata Open title since it's inception. In the thrilling final he defeated Englishman Professional Player Alfie Burden.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has tied up with National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation(NSFDC). The agreement is to provide financial assistance for economic empowerment of persons belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) families living below Double Poverty Line (DPL). They will be setting up self-employment projects and skill-training grants to unemployed SC persons living below Double the Poverty Line. Under this tie-up, PNB would also act as a channelising agent for the loan schemes of NSFDC.

Paytm set up a new entity called Paytm Money Ltd that will offer investment and wealth management products and will invest close to $10 million upfront in the new entity. Paytm Money is the fourth product from One97's stable after Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm wallet. It will be available as a separate mobile application to users.

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro has commissioned the 360 MW Bheramara power plant in Bangladesh. The Bheramara Combined Cycle Power Plant Development project was handed over to North West Power Generation Company Ltd (NWPGCL), a fully-owned subsidiary of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). The power plant is based in Bheramara of Kushtia district in Bangladesh.

The Union Home Ministry has appointed a 12-member inter-ministerial committee, which would take a final call on the playing of the national anthem in cinema halls and public places. The committee will have representations from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Defence, External Affairs, Women and Child Development, Human Resource Development, Culture, Parliamentary Affairs, Law, Minority Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has signed an MoU with Transport for London. The MoU is aimed at using the expertise of TFL to revamp the public transport architecture in the country. The proposed MoU will help to revamp the public transport and augment passenger capacity by way of creating a sustainable public transport system. It will help in adopting best practices for policy reforms in the transport sector. It will also enable improved customer services, harness from scientific data analysis and implement effective IT systems in the transport sector.

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated a three-day International Dharma-Dhamma conference at Rajgir in Bihar. The conference has been jointly organized by India Foundation, Nalanda University, Ministry of External Affairs, Asean-India and Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha. The inaugural session was chaired by our President. The conference was attended by Sri Lanka's foreign Minister Tilak Marapana.

South Korea and the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) signed a MoU for co-operation between industries in Gujarat and the East Asian country, with a focus on automobile, defense and textiles sectors. The main objective of the MoU is to help Gujarat-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to explore opportunities through joint ventures with South Korean firms, especially in areas of automobile, defense, and textiles.

The Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum shall be held from 23-26 January 2018 at Davos in Switzerland with the theme of 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

Karnataka topped all states with investment intentions of Rs. 1.49 lakh crore till October 2017, according to R V Deshpande, Karnataka Minister for Large, Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development The investment was 43 percent of the country's total investment intentions. Karnataka topped in FDI inflows and has performed well in exports, contributing about 40 percent in electronics and software services.

National Youth Festival is being celebrated on 12th January, that is, on the occasion of birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the youth icon of India. The Theme of the Festival is 'Sankalp Se Siddhi', to capitalize on the demographic dividend of young India, to capture the vibrancy and fresh perspective of youth and to pledge to accomplish the Goal of New India.

Noted rocket scientist Sivan K was appointed as the 9th chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He has replaced A.S. Kiran Kumar. The appointment has been made for the tenure of three years. He was the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Kerala. Sivan joined the ISRO in 1982 in Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) project.

The Matunga suburban station on the Central Railway (CR) of Mumbai division has figured in the Limca Book of Records 2018 for having an all-woman staff. The achievement comes six months after Matunga became the first railway station in the country to be run by an all-woman staff. A team of 41 women staffers at the station includes personnel from the RPF, commercial and operating departments. These staffers work under the supervision of station manager Mamta Kulkarni. The staff has been handling all operations of the station round-the-clock for the last six months and results are positive and encouraging. The aim of the initiative is to create an environment where women are encouraged to take a decision about their own personal and professional well-being.