Current Affairs - March 7, 2018 Current Affairs

Himachal Pradesh State Government approved the setting up of a regional-cum-facilitation centre of the National Medicinal Plants Board of the Ministry of Ayush. This centre will be set up in Jogindernagar town in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Rs. 748.30 lakh has been allocated for setting up this centre, wherein the central government would provide a grant of Rs 149.60 lakh. The centre will provide inputs for conservation, cultivation and sale of medicinal plants and will also facilitate training, research and development of region-specific planting material.

Justice D Sreedevi, former judge of the Kerala high court, died while she was undergoing treatment for some ailment in Kaloor, Kerala. Justice D Sreedevi was 79 years old. She was a social activist. She was born in 1939 at Chirayinkeezhu in Thiruvananthapuram. From 1997 to 2001 she was high court judge in Kerala. She was appointed the chairperson of the Kerala Women's Commission in 2001 and 2007. She had penned down an autobiography named 'Aa Niyogathaal'.

A new malware named Saposhi has been detected, which can take over electronic devices and make them as 'bots' that can be exploited for any purpose. Saposhi has been detected recently by cyber security agencies. It is being monitored and studied currently. So far, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has not released any alert about Saposhi. It has been said that, alerts and guidelines about protecting devices from Saposhi will be launched soon. Saposhi can take over electronic devices and can create a Distributed Denial Of Service attack.

Biplab Kumar Deb was named the new chief minister of Tripura. Biplab Deb was elected leader of the BJP legislature party in Tripura. He will take charge as Chief Minister of Tripura before Governor Tathagata Roy. He will take charge on 9th March 2018. Jishnu Deb Burman will be the deputy Chief Minister of Tripura. The Tripura Assembly election results were announced on 3rd March 2018. BJP won over CPM.

India's Manu Bhaker has won gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol and Ravi Kumar has won bronze medal in the men's 10m air pistol in the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico. Manu Bhaker defeated Mexico's Alejandra Zavala with 10.8 in the last shot of the 24 shot final of the women's 10m air pistol. She topped with 237.5 and won gold medal in the women's 10m air pistol. She is just 16 years old. Alejandra Zavala finished at the second position with 237.1 and France's Celine Goberville came third with 217.0 in the women's 10m air pistol.

India's first helicopter taxi service (heli taxi) was launched in Bengaluru. The first trip of the heli taxi was between Electronic City and Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and was completed in 15 minutes. This service has been launched by Kerala-based Thumby Aviation Private Limited, using a Bell 407 helicopter with a capacity of six passengers. Currently, the heli taxi will operate between Electronic City and Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru only. However, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) airport will also be added in the next few weeks. Seats can be booked online by downloading the Thumby mobile app (Heli Taxii). The fare for this route is fixed at Rs 3500 per seat plus Goods and Services Tax (GST) at 18%.

Paytm has launched 'Paytm for Business' app in Tamil Nadu to enable merchants to track payments, view past collections and make settlements instantly. The 'Paytm for Business' app is available in Android Play Store. This app is available in 10 regional languages. It can be used by merchants and business partners who use Paytm as payment mode at their offline stores in Tamil Nadu. Using this app, merchants can accept payments digitally and immediately view their transactions without waiting for a confirmation SMS or e-mail. Merchants can check the details of every transaction and download it daily or weekly. They can also check estimated time of bank settlement through the app.

Officials from India and the United States were at the Pokhran firing range (Rajasthan) to test-fire M777 ultra-light howitzers. In May 2017, Indian Army took delivery of two M777 ultralight howitzers from BAE Systems, US under a contract signed between Indian and US Government in 2016. However, in September 2017, during trial firing, a projectile had burst in the barrel. The test conducted on March 5, 2018, was the first one after that accident. The results of this test will be examined by a joint team of experts. Built with titanium and aluminium alloys, M777 weighs around 4200 kg. It has a modular design; due to which it can be can be easily towed through narrow and treacherous mountain roads prevalent along India-China border and India-Pakistan Border in Jammu & Kashmir.

Conrad Sangma took charge as Chief Minister of Meghalaya. Conrad Sangma took oath as the 12th chief minister of Meghalaya in Shillong. He is the President of National People's Party (NPP). The oath was administered by Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad. 11 Cabinet Ministers also took oath during the ceremony. In the election, National People's Party (NPP) won 19 seats. It has support from 6 United Democratic Party (UDP) MLAs, 4 People's Democratic Front (PDF) MLAs, 3 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, 2 Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP) MLAs and an independent MLA.

The Union government has set up a steering committee to consider various issues relating to the development of Fintech space in India with a view to make Fintech related regulations more flexible and generate enhanced entrepreneurship. The move is a follow up to the announcement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech of 2018-19. The 8-member committee headed by Economic Affairs Secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg will also focus on how Fintech can be leveraged to enhance financial inclusion of MSMEs. According to the terms and reference, the committee will take stock of the developments in the fintech sector globally, and in India. It will also work with Government agencies like UIDAI to explore creation and use of unique enterprise identification number.

90th Academy Awards ceremony, popularly referred to as Oscars 2018, honouring the best films of 2017 was held in Los Angeles, California, United States. The ceremony was hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel. Fantasy drama film, 'The Shape of Water' got the most awards (in 4 categories) including the Best Picture Award. 'The Shape of Water' was also credited with most nominations (in 13 categories).

Reserve Bank of India imposed a penalty of Rs. 3 crore on Axis Bank for non-compliance of Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms and a penalty of Rs. 2 crore on Indian Overseas Bank for non-compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) norms. In the case of IOB, RBI detected a fraud in one of IOB's branches, which was traced to non-compliance with KYC norms. The penalty was imposed after evaluating banks' reply and oral submissions in context of above matters.

Ryoko Azuma was appointed the commander of a unit that consists of Japan's biggest warship, becoming Japan's first female chief of warship unit. Ryoko Azuma is 44 years old. She will command four warships. The unit consists of 1,000 crew members in total. Helicopter carrier Izumo, which is Japan navy's biggest ship, is also included in the unit.

Microsoft announced that it has inked its first renewable energy deal in India for powering its new facility in Bengaluru. As per the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will purchase 3 megawatts of solar-powered electricity from Atria Power for its new office building in Bengaluru. 3 megawatts of solar-powered electricity will fulfill 80 % of the projected electricity needs at this building. This building will be operational from June 2018, and with the purchase agreement coming in force, Microsoft's total global direct procurement in renewable energy projects will reach nearly 900 megawatts. Microsoft has set a target that at least 50 % of its energy usage worldwide should come from wind, solar and hydropower electricity by the end of 2018.

Washington became the 1st state in US to pass its own net-neutrality law after US regulator, Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) repealed rules set during Obama administration that banned internet providers from blocking content or interfering with online traffic. Washington's bill for its own net-neutrality laws was signed by Goernor Jay Inslee. The bill forbids internet service providers from blocking or slowing the flow of web content, or from charging websites for higher delivery speeds. Provisions of this bill may technically be in contravention to FCC's order of repealing net neutrality rules which forbid states from filling the void with their own rules.