Current Affairs - January 21, 2018 Current Affairs

Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology. KJ Alphons launched Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative. Objective of this initiative is to spread awareness about cybercrime and to train and prepare Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT staff of all government departments to effectively deal and neutralise cyber threats. This initiative has been launched in association with National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and leading companies of Information Technology Industry. Microsoft, Intel, Redhat, Wipro and Dimension Data are the founding partners while Organisations such as Cert-In, NIC, CISCO, NASSCOM and the FIDO Alliance, and consultancy firms Deloitte and EY are knowledge partners for this initiative.

The fourth edition of India International Science Festival (IISF) will be held in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The exact dates and other details will be decided later. The 1st IISF was held at IIT New Delhi in December, 2015. The mega S&T expo attracted more than 3 lakh people. India had also set a Guinness Book of World Records, when 2000 school students performed two experiments at the Festival. The 2nd Festival at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi in December 2016 showcased Indian achievements in various fields of science and technology. The third in the series was held in October 2017 in Chennai.

Technology giant Apple topped Fortune magazine's list of the 'World's Most Admired Companies' for 2018. E-commerce giant Amazon has retained its second spot, followed by Google's parent Alphabet. Social media giant Facebook lost its place in the top ten most admired companies this year and was ranked 12th on the list.

The Ramayana Festival of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries has started in New Delhi at the Kamani Auditorium from January 20. The 5-day fest is organised by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and is marking 25 years of the Indo-ASEAN ties. Cultural groups from the 10 member-nations of the ASEAN will stage musicals and plays based on the epic at the festival celebrating the India-ASEAN dialogue. Troupes from ASEAN countries will display the shared heritage also at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Ayodhya and Kolkata. The festival seeks to underline the common cultural heritage and India's friendship with ASEAN nations.

Uttarakhand introduced for the first time in the country, ultrasound will be performed on wild animals to detect pregnancy before administering reproduction control method on them. The state government has granted the certification to use ultrasound machines for detection of pregnancy in wild animals. The Dynamics of using ultrasound machines are different for humans and wild animals. In case of humans, it is used to determine the gender and safety whereas, in wild animals, the test is done to confirm pregnancy and then the animal is released into the wild undisturbed.

Union Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj inaugurated Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) at Karaikal in the Union Territory (UT) of Puducherry. This POPSK is expected to benefit people of Karaikal, as now they can avail passport related services without having to travel to Puducherry. POPSK is a joint initiative by the Ministry of External Affairs (India) (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DoP), where the Head Post Offices (HPO) and post offices across India will be utilized as Post Office Passport Seva Kendra for delivering passport related services to the citizens.

Jammu and Kashmir will host its first maiden international martial arts games event in the in the summer capital Srinagar. Rameez Khan, general secretary of J-K State KiAiDo Association, the organisers of the event stated that more than 15 countries were expected to participate. Asian Martial Arts Games' will provide a platform to the young martial art players of the state toperform and gaining experience from different countries' players.

25th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council was held in New Delhi on January 18, 2018. The meeting was chaired by Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. Various approaches to ease the return filing compliance burden and the need for the implementation of anti-evasion measures were also discussed during this meeting. However no decision has been taken in this regard. Highlight of the 25th GST Council meet was the reduction of tax rates on 29 goods and 53 categories of service.

NASA successfully applied a new technology that allows aircraft to fold their wings between zero and 70 degrees while inflight. Built from a shape memory alloy, the system operates without a hydraulic system, reducing the wing weight by up to 80%. The technology's potential aerodynamic benefit includes increased controllability, which may result in a more fuel-efficient aircraft.

Indian cricket team has won the 5th edition of Blind Cricket World Cup 2018 by defeating Pakistan in the final by two wickets at Sharjah in United Arab Emirates (UAE). With this, India has retained the World Cup for the Blind. In the final, Pakistan batted first and managed to score 308/8 after being put into bat by India. India chased down the target of 309 with 16 balls to spare to clinch the title. Thus, India maintained their unbeaten record in the tournament.

During the occasion of 'National Conference on Improving Accessibility', Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot launched 100 accessible websites for Divyangs to empower the disabled persons in all over the country. Divyang-friendly websites were launched especially for visually impaired, use features such as screen readers and screen magnifiers, which can relay website content to the user in audio format. Now 100 accessible websites are made accessible under the project. Minister also stated that another 900 such websites will be launched in a phased manner.

Arun Jaitley, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, has launched the National CSR Data Portal & Corporate Data Portal in New Delhi on January 19, 2018. The National CSR Data Portal will capture information on CSR activities carried out by eligible companies, filed on the MCA21 registry in their financial statements. The filed information provides a snap shot of CSR activities carried out by companies. The CSR portal contains all filed information, which can generate pre-defined reports with respect to expenditure across states, districts, development sectors, etc. The Portal also provides for feedback on projects to be given by registered users. The open access to data is expected to help researchers, improve quality of data filed by companies, as well as involve intended beneficiaries in giving valuable feedback to companies.

Telangana State government announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Clean Authority of Tokyo for municipal solid waste incineration facilities. Clean Authority of Tokyo runs incineration plant for burning up combustible waste taken out from home and office in 23 wards of Tokyo, Japan. The MoU was signed between Yoshimi Sato, Vice-President of Clean Authority of Tokyo and Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce (I&C), Telangana State Government.