Current Affairs - January 19, 2018 Current Affairs

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced Tamil Nadu will host its first-ever bi-annual defence exhibition in April. The exhibition will take place from April 11 to 14 and nearly 80 countries are expected to take part in it.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has celebrated its 13th Raising Day on January 19, 2018 in New Delhi. The NDRF raised on January 19, 2006, is a specialised force capable of responding to any type of disaster in the country and abroad. It is strategically deployed across the nation as per the vulnerability profile of the country.

Thomson Reuters Corp has published its debut "Top 100 Global Technology Leaders" list with Microsoft Corp in the no. 1 spot. Microsoft was followed by chipmaker Intel Corp and network gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. According to the list, 45 percent of these 100 tech companies are headquartered in the United States.

Thaawarchand Gehlot, the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, has launched 100 accessible websites for Divyangs on January 19, 2018. These 100 government websites are now divyang friendly. The Accessible Websites are those websites into which Persons with Disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. The divyang-friendly websites, especially for visually impaired, use features such as screen readers and screen magnifiers, which can relay website content to the user in audio format. Approx, 900 such websites will be launched in a phased manner.

Facebook appointed outgoing American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault to its board, making him the first African-American to be on the board. Chenault serves on the Boards of IBM and Procter & Gamble and is also a Harvard Law School graduate.

The 10th edition of Global Forum for Food & Agriculture was held in Berlin, Germany from 18th -20th January 2018. The theme of this year's event is "Shaping the future of livestock - sustainably, responsibly, efficiently". The Indian delegation to the event is led by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Amplus Energy Solutions announced entering into a pact with private sector lender Yes Bank for a strategic tie-up to co-finance projects in the solar energy space in India. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed at International Solar Alliance pavilion at the World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi.

The 15th edition of BioAsia, the annual flagship event of the Government of Telangana, will start in Hyderabad. The Theme of the conference is 'Right Time, Right Now'. Ireland, the Netherlands and South Africa will be the international partners while Gujarat, Assam and Rajasthan are State partners.

Google awarded nearly 72 lakh to researcher Guang Gong for finding bugs in its Pixel devices. The exploit chain consisted of two bugs which together could inject arbitrary code into system server by accessing a malicious URL in Chrome. Around 67 lakh of the reward was given from Google's Android Security Rewards program, the highest in the program's history.

India's most-valued lender HDFC Bank Limited crossed Rs5 trillion capitalization action for the first time, making it only the third Indian company to achieve this milestone. In intraday trade, the stock touched a fresh record high of Rs1,53.75 on the BSE, up 3.31% from its previous close. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) are the other two companies which crossed market capitalisation of Rs5 trillion.

The 2018 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military cooperation meeting was held in Beijing, China on January 15. An Indian delegation led by Major General Ajay Seth participated in the meeting, which discussed issues of practical cooperation among SCO nations. This is the first meeting attended by India in the field of defense cooperation under the SCO framework. India and Pakistan were admitted in 2017 into the grouping in which China plays an influential role. The SCO is comprised of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

S Selvakumar, the senior IAS officer, has been appointed as new Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) with effect from January 16, 2018. Selvakumar succeeded Anurag Agarwal. The state-owned SPMCIL produces bank notes, coins, postage stamps, non-judicial stamps and other official documents.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Government of India and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in the presence of Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu to enhance import and export performance. The Centre has entrusted the task of integrated development of the logistics sector to the Department of Commerce.