Current Affairs - February 25, 2018 Current Affairs

The International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels (ICSB-2018) is jointly being organized by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India on behalf of Mission Innovation and Biofuture Platform in New Delhi from February 26-27, 2018. The 2-day event will bring together experts from Biofuels sector to take stock of current knowledge, share information and best practices, and build consensus on the actions most needed to move forward. Senior Government Officers, Technical Experts, Academicians, Researchers and Representatives from various Countries, Industry and Investors will participate in the event. The Sustainable Biofuel is one of the Seven Mission Innovation Challenges and India Co-leads this along with other countries Brazil, Canada and China. The conference will seek to a clear understanding of the development in bio-economy made by participating countries, increase awareness of policy makers about the challenges faced by the industry-investor for commercial scale up of advanced biofuels.

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has launched India's first locally developed 4G/LTE telecom system. The system has been designed and developed by VNL Ltd., keeping in mind requirement for high speed connectivity, particularly in rural areas. These systems offer compact and versatile radio applications and can operate flawlessly even in harsh environment.

Commerce & industry ministry has appointed 4 institutes to interact with stakeholders and suggest measures to push India's ranking in ease of doing business index. NICMAR, IIFT, ICSI and ICAI are the four institutes that have been roped in for the exercise. As per the latest World bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking, India's position improved by 30 places to 100th.

Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap has won men's singles title at the 2018 Austrian Open International Challenge badminton tournament. He defeated Malaysia's June Wei Cheam in straight games late last night to clinch his first international title in over three years. Kashyap looked in good touch throughout the tournament as he didn't drop a single game en route to his title win.

7th meeting of Eminent Persons Group on Nepal-India relations has begun in Kathmandu. Representatives from Nepal & India will deliberate up on various bilateral issues including Peace & Friendship treaty, trade, transit & border. EPG is a joint mechanism consisting experts & intellectuals from India & Nepal to provide suggestions for updating existing bilateral treaties b/w the two countries.

Canada's own first franchise-based Twenty20 league "Global T20 Canada", was announced in New Delhi. The Global T20 Canada League will begin functioning from July 2018 at three venues in Toronto. It is conceptualized, designed, developed and managed by Mercuri Group with Cricket Canada. Global T20 Canada League has received official sanction of the International Cricket Council (ICC). Cricket Canada become the first Associate member of the ICC to start a Twenty20 franchise league in the North America market.

Andhra Pradesh woke up welcoming over more than 2000 delegates in its Partnership Summit 2018. The 3rd edition of Partnership Summit 2018 aims to facilitate investments, foster innovations in creating business models. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu expressed his keenness towards Partnership Summit 2018 eager to establish partnerships aimed at collective development and hoping for great engagements with global investors at the Partnership Summit 2018, Vizag. I invite you all to be a part of Andhra Pradesh's incredible growth story.

SBI is set for a major restructuring of its business in UK from April. SBI's UK operations will transform into a subsidiary named State Bank of India UK Limited from April 1. It means that all retail branches of SBI in UK will fall under a new UK-incorporated banking entity instead of their previous status as overseas branches of the Indian entity. SBI operates 7 branches in London.

The Government of India (GoI) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a $84 million loan for improvement and expansion of water supply in Bhagalpur and Gaya towns in Bihar. This is the second tranche of ADB's $200 million Multi-tranche Financing Facility (MFF) for Bihar Urban Development Investment Programme, which was approved in 2012. The Project 2 will improve access to better quality and sustainable water supply, for the people of Bhagalpur and Gaya towns. It will also promote better water management practices that will result in a citywide coverage with 24-hour uninterrupted supply of treated water of 135 litres per capita per day in both cities. The loan will have a 25-year term, including a grace period of 5 years, an annual interest rate determined in accordance with ADB's lending facility based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), and a commitment charge of 0.15% per year.

The 4th edition of Economic Times - Global Business Summit (ET-GBS 2018) was held in New Delhi with theme "New Economy - New Rules" on February 23-24. The GBS is a flagship initiative of the Times Group that envisions to bring together visionaries, thought leaders, heads of state, policy makers, academicians and corporate heads cohesively driving a singular agenda for Scripting Economic Change, by connecting the building blocks of Economics for India and the Globe. It is a platform with multitude of policy makers and industry leaders under one roof.

In Boxing, MC Mary Kom stormed into the Finals of the Strandja Memorial Tournament at Sofia in Bulgaria while Vikas Krishan and two other male boxers entered the semifinals. In the Women's 48 kg category, five-time world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom, targetting her third successive international gold medal, defeated China's Ye Jiali to make the summit clash. However, former world and Asian champion L Sarita Devi bowed out in the 60 kg section with a bronze medal. Meena Kumari Devi in 54 kg also settled for a Bronze. In the Men's draw, former Asian Games gold-medallist Vikas Krishan in 75 kg, Asian Games bronze medallist Satish Kumar in +91 kg and Gaurav Solanki in 52 kg advanced to the semi-finals to assure themselves of medals. Earlier, Amit Panghal in 49 kgs had also made it to the last-4.

Airtel & Huawei have conducted India's 1st 5G network trial which took place at Airtel's Network Experience Centre. User throughput speed of 3Gbps was achieved during the trial, which companies claim is the highest for 3.5GHz band. 5G services based on 3rd generation partnership project, are expected to offer enhanced mobile broadband. India plans to roll out 5G services for consumers by 2020.

The Assam government announced to observe September 22 as 'Rhino Day' to generate public awareness on the protection of the one-horned pachyderm. A State Rhino Project in line with National Rhino Project will be launched in Assam soon for protecting the pachyderms from threats of poaching.