Current Affairs - March 31, 2018 Current Affairs

India received its first shipment of Liquefied natural gas (LNG) from US under a 20-year deal. Indian government-owned Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL) has contracted 3.5 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass liquefaction facility in Louisiana, US. GAIL's first shipment of LNG arrived at its Dabhol terminal (in Maharashtra) in a charter ship, MV Meridian Spirit that commenced voyage from Louisiana, US, nearly 25 days ago. Cheniere Energy, Inc is the leading exporter of LNG from US while GAIL is India's biggest natural gas transportation and marketing company.

Vineet Joshi, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Manipur cadre, has been appointed as the new Director-General of the National Testing Agency (NTA) for a period of 5 years. The NTA under the Department of Higher Education is an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation, which will conduct entrance examinations for higher educational institutions organised by the CBSE, AICTE and other bodies. The NTA will take over majority of the examinations conducted by the CBSE from 2019 in phased manner. NTA will start its operations with the Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE) and National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET UG) for admissions to medical/ dental programmes from 2019. The Union Cabinet had approved the setting up of the NTA in November 2017.

The 17th Sub-junior National Wushu Championship started in Jammu. It is conducted for 4 days. It is organised by the the Wushu Association of India jointly with J&K State Sports Council at MA Stadium. The championship was inaugurated by J&K Youth Services and Sports Minister Imran Raza Ansari at a ceremony at Police auditorium, Jammu. Around 37 teams are taking part in the championship. It includes more than 1000 boys and girls from all over India and 12 boys from Army.

Rosemary DiCarlo was named UN Political Chief, becoming the first female UN Political Chief. eplaces Jeffrey Feltman. Rosemary DiCarlo is a former deputy US ambassador to the United Nations. She was also deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and director for United Nations affairs at the national security council in Washington. She has been the president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy since 2015. Her areas of expertise are Russia, former Soviet Union and the Middle East. She speaks Russian and French.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched '181-Sakhi', a toll-free helpline number for women. This helpline has been launched in wake of increasing crimes against women in Assam. Initially, the toll free helpline will work from 9 am to 5.30 pm, but will soon be a 24x7 service. It is a part of Union Ministry of Women and Child Development's scheme to provide 24 hours response to women affected by violence.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected for a second term with a sweeping majority in the 2018 Egyptian presidential election. Sisi got nearly 92% of the total votes. The President of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government.

China successfully sent pair of twin Beidou-3MEO satellites - Beidou-30 and Beidou-31 -into space as part of its third and final stage of launching its domestic Beidou (Compass) satellite navigation system. They were launched on board Long March-3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in south-west China's Sichuan Province. It was a 269th mission for the Long March rocket family.

The Union Ministry of Power has partnered with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to train the manpower in six states - Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh - for speedy implementation of its household electrification scheme 'SAUBHAGYA' on March 27, 2018. The scheme is undertaken as a special project under the government's Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). Around 47,000 Distribution Lineman-Multi Skills and 8,500 Technical Helpers will be trained to meet the requirement of power sector. The purpose of the SAUBHAGYA (Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna) scheme is to achieve universal household electrification in all parts of the country in a time bound manner. Around 4 crore households are expected to get electricity connections under the scheme.

With an aim to provide a comprehensive synthesis of research, service provision, and clinical practice in addressing psychological trauma and subsequent mental illnesses in Indian children and adolescents, First, ever National conclave was held in New Delhi by the Ministry of Women & Child Development, in collaboration with the Dept. of Psychiatry. The Conclave was inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Dr. Virendra Kumar.

Ravi Kota, the 1993 batch IAS officer of Assam- Meghalaya, has been appointed Joint Secretary of 15th Finance Commission under the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA). Presently, he is posted as Principal Secretary in Government of Assam-Meghalaya. The Finance Commission, set up in 1951 under Article 280 of the Constitution, basically decides how revenue has to be distributed between the Centre and the States. In addition, the Commission also decides the principles on which grants-in-aid will be given to the States. The 15th Finance Commission was constituted on November 27, 2017 and is headed by former Revenue Secretary Rajya Sabha MP N.K. Singh. The panel also includes Shaktikanta Das, former Economic Affairs Secretary and Anoop Singh, adjunct professor at Georgetown University. This Commission is slated to submit its recommendations by October 31, 2019.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched India's latest communication satellite GSAT-6A on board Geosynchronous rocket GSLV-F08 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. GSAT-6A weighs 2140 kg and has mission life of 10 years. The major change was High-thrust Vikas engine, which enhanced the performance capacity of the second stage by around six per cent as compared to previous version. The rocket weighed about 415.6 tonnes and measured 49.1 metre tall. It has a six-metre wide antenna that would unfurl once it is in space. It is a high power S-band communication satellite built on I-2K satellite bus. It will provide mobile communication to India through, multi-beam coverage facility.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is all set to send the first-ever mission dedicated to exploring the deep interior of Mars. Scheduled to launch on 5 May, InSight-a stationary lander-will also be the first Nasa mission since the Apollo moon landings to place a seismometer, a device that measures quakes, on the soil of another planet. InSight or the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission, carries a suite of sensitive instruments to gather data.

Justice Jawad Rahim was appointed as the acting chairperson of National Green Tribunal (NGT) by the Supreme Court. Justice Jawad Rahim is a judicial member of National Green Tribunal (NGT). He will perform his duties as acting chairperson of NGT until a regular appointment is made. He will also participate in the selection process of other members of the NGT. However, it has been made clear that his appointment is an interim arrangement and a regular appointment will be made soon for the post of the Chairman of NGT.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attended the 9th India-Japan Strategic Dialogue in Tokyo. Japanese FDI in India during 2016-17 was USD 4.7 billion, an increase of 80% over the last year. India's import from Japan for 2016-17 was USD 9.76 billion. India and Japan concluded a Special Strategic and Global Partnership during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in 2014.

The Madhya Pradesh government has raised the retirement age of state government employees to 62 years from the current age of retirement is 60 years. The announcement was made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The MP Chief Minister cited promotion of general category employees as a reason to raise the age limit of these employees. The state already has bigger retirement age limit in case of teachers and doctors. The retirement age is 65 years for university/ college teachers and doctors (specialists), while for the school teachers it is 62.