Current Affairs - January 30, 2018 Current Affairs

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur launched Zero Budget Natural Farming project, at Chaudhary Sarvan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalay in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat and Agriculture Minister Dr Ram Lal Markanda were also present on the occasion.

Vijay Keshav Gokhale, the 1981-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has taken charge as the new Foreign Secretary of India on January 29, 2018. Prior to this post, Gokhale was serving as the Secretary (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He succeeded S Jaishankar and will have a two-year tenure. Gokhale had played a key role in negotiations to resolve the Doklam standoff between Indian and Chinese armies in 2017. He also served as India's Ambassador to China, Germany and worked in Indian missions in Hong Kong, Hanoi and in New York. Beside this, he is the only IFS to have served as India's Representative both in Taiwan and China.

Assam Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi released a postage stamp in memory of eminent football player Dr. Talimeren Ao at Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex playground in Paltan Bazar, Guwahati, Assam. The postage stamp was released in memory of Dr. Talimeren Ao to mark his birth centenary year. Dr. Talimeren Ao was born on 28 January 1918. He played a key role in familiarizing football in Assam. He headed the Indian Football Team during the 1948 London Olympics.

The Parliamentary Group decided to confer Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards to five Members of Parliament. Dr. Najma Heptulla: She is former Rajya Sabha MP and was selected for this award for the year 2013. Hukumdev Narayan Yadav: He is Lok Sabha MP and was selected for this award for the year for 2014. Ghulam Nabi Azad: He is Rajya Sabha and was selected for this award for the year for 2015. The Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was established in 1992 by Shivraj Patil who was then the Speaker of Lok Sabha. The Indian Parliamentary Group selects an outstanding sitting Member of Parliament after considering his/her overall contribution to Parliament.

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry has planned to set up a 'Social Media Communication Hub' that would help it keep a tab on trending news in districts and gather feedback on the Centre's flagship schemes. Under the project, media persons would be employed on contractual basis in each district to be the eyes and ears of the government and provide real-time updates from the ground. They would also take the people's feedback on the government's policies and follow the news trending in their areas. Experts would also be employed at the central level to analyse the feedback. Recently, the Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL), a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the ministry, had floated a tender to supply a software for the project. The tender document stated the platform is expected to provide automated reports, tactical insights and comprehensive work-flows to initiate engagement across digital channels.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez has been sworn-in for a second term in capital Tegucigalpa with high security after a disputed presidential election 2017. President Hernandez, has been in power since 2013, and is the first president in Honduran running for a second term after the country's Supreme Court lifted a ban on re-election. It must be noted that, the country's 1982 constitution bars presidents from seeking a new term and conservative politicians deposed a leftist president in 2009 for allegedly even considering re-election. But, Hernandez won a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 to get around that prohibition.

Journalists and social activists celebrated 238th anniversary of India's first newspaper the Hicky's Bengal Gazette. 29 January is also celebrated Hicky's Day to pay tributes to the fighter-journalist James Augustus Hicky who is considered as founder of journalism in India. Hicky's Bengal Gazette (Original Calcutta General Advertiser) was an English language weekly newspaper published in Kolkata (then Calcutta), the then capital of British India. It was founded by James Augustus Hicky. It began publication on January 29, 1780 and was published for two years. It was the first newspaper printed in Asia. The newspaper in its time was strong critic of administration of Governor General Warren Hastings. It was important for its provocative journalism well before its time and its fight for free expression in India.

According to recent report published by World Steel Association (WSA), India has overtaken US to become the world's third largest steel producer in 2017. India's crude steel production has grown by 6.2% to 101.4 million tonnes (MT) in 2017 compared to 95.5 MT in the previous year. China has remained world leader by producing 831.7 MT in 2017, up 5.7% from 786.9 MT in the year-ago period. Japan is second largest global steel producer and had witnessed negative growth in steel output declined by 0.1% to 104.7 MT in 2017 from 104.8 MT in 2016. The Global steel production had reached 1,691.2 MT in 2017, up by 5.3% compared to 2016 when output was 1,606.3 MT. Crude steel production increased in all regions in 2017 except in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), which has remained stable.

The Assam Assembly is to introduce digital budget in its upcoming session, instead of the conventional printed booklet. Assam budget will be presented in a digital form by Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on 12th March 2018. Other new elements to be introduced in the Assam Assembly are: 'Members Hour', a year-long calendar, 'Best Legislator Award', formation of Pay Commission for MLAs' salary and fellowships for research work on history of the Assembly. During the 'Member Hour' on every Tuesday, the legislators can put forth important problems in their constituencies, and Ministers of respective departments would answer the queries.

Mobile payments company Paytm and Alibaba Group-owned AGTech Holdings Ltd have formed a joint venture to launch 'Gamepad' a gaming platform aimed at mobile users in India. The joint venture between Alibaba's AGTech Holdings and Paytm was originally signed in July 2017. AGTech Media currently holds 45% in the joint venture, and Paytm owns the rest. At the time of the signing of the agreement, Paytm's parent company One97 invested $8.8 million in the venture for its 55% stake, and AGTech Holdings put in $7.2 million for its 45% stake.

Union Minister Babul Supriyo and Madhya Pradesh Industrial minister Rajendra Shukla inaugurated Asia's biggest auto testing track in Pithampur of Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh. The country's research and development activities in the sector of automobile engineering and technology will get a boost, due to the construction of the auto testing track in Pithampur. Pithampur will emerge as a hub of the automobile industry in future. Union Minister further mentioned that the state government has provided 4 thousand acre land to NATRiP and the National Auto Testing Track has been developed on 3 thousand acre land. Automobile units can be established by the industrialists on the remaining one thousand acre land.

Football Delhi announced that, Indian football Captain Sunil Chhetri's birthday will be celebrated as Delhi's Football Day. Sunil Chhetri's birthday is 3rd August. The decision to make his birthday as Delhi's Football Day was taken at a meeting of Football Delhi. The meeting was headed by President Shaji Prabhakaran. Sunil Chhetri is 33 years old. He has represented India in 97 International matches He also leads Bengaluru FC team currently. Football Delhi has also declared former International and Pro License Coach Santosh Kashyap's birthday (June 12) as Football Delhi's Coach Education Day.

World Leprosy Day was observed all over the world on Jan 28. The World Leprosy Day is celebrated every year on the last Sunday of January month. World Leprosy Day 2018 aims to attain Zero Disabilities and Zero Leprosy in the world. Leprosy is a disease that gradually damages the skin and nervous system. Early detection of leprosy will help healing the disease. This day was selected to commemorate the death of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was a person who had realised the importance of leprosy.

President Ram Nath Kovind has launched the countrywide Pulse Polio programme for 2018 by administering polio drops to children below five years at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. The programme will cover around 17 crore children to maintain the country's polio-free status. The president administered the drops on the eve of 2018 National Immunisation Day (NID), which is observed on January 28.

The India-Vietnam Bilateral Army Exercise (VINBAX-2018) was conducted at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. It is the first military exercise between the two countries. The six-day-long military exercise (from January 29 to February 3, 2018) was conducted as part of joint training undertaken with friendly foreign countries by Indian Army. VINBAX-2018 was Table Top Exercise to carry out training for Peace Keeping Operations under United Nations (UN) mandate. The Defence ties between India and Vietnam have been on an upswing with the primary focus being cooperation in the maritime domain.