Current Affairs - April 3, 2018 Current Affairs

A Multi Modal Logistics Park was inaugurated at Balli Station on Konkan Railway route, near Madgaon in Goa. The Multi Modal Logistic Park was inaugurated by CMD Konkan Railway Sanjay Gupta and P K Agarwal, Director, Container Corporation. This park has been constructed at a cost of Rs 43 crore. It has been constructed as per the MoU between Konkan Railway & Container Corporation of India Ltd.(CONCOR). It has been set up on an area of 81,300 square meters. It has the capacity to handle both Domestic and Exim Container Traffic. It can also handle commodities transported by both open and covered wagons. Custom Bonded Warehousing space is also being set up on an area of 5000 square meters. It will also provide value added services like stuffing, repackaging etc. After Container Depot set up is completed at Balli, containers from Goa can reach JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust) within 16 to 18 hours against the 30-40 hours through road currently.

SIDBI celebrated its foundation day as the day of Sampark (connect), Samwad (interaction), Suraksha (security) and Sampreshan (disseminate) on 2nd April. On this occasion, SIDBI launched a series of initiatives. SIDBI launched 'Samridhhi-the virtual assistant' on banks revamped universal loan portal 'www.udyamimitra.in'. It will answer standard queries of aspirants 24*7.

Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani have been ranked 19th on Bloomberg Billionaires Top 100 Index as he becomes the third richest Asian on the list. With a net worth of approximately $38.3 billion, Ambani's wealth is pegged at about over 1.5 percent of India's GDP. While Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has added $21.8 billion to his fortunes this year and takes the top spot, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was ranked 2nd. From Asia, Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma (ranked 13th) is the richest with a net worth of $47.2 billion and is followed by Tencent co-founder and CEO Pony Ma (17) with a $41.1 billion net worth.

Kerala won its sixth Santosh Trophy title in Kolkata on 1st April. Kerala had beaten Bengal in the tie-breaker to claim its sixth Santosh Trophy title. The Santosh Trophy is an association football knock-out competition contested by the regional state associations and government institutions under the All India Football Federation.

Nepal has launched its first "accessible" trekking trail in Pokhara city for the differently-abled and the elderly. The trail was inaugurated as a part of 3 day international conference on 'Accessible Tourism' held for the first time in the Himalayan nation. 'Accessible tourism' is an emerging concept to ensure that tourist destinations, products and services are accessible to all people.

On 30th March 2018, Chandra Bhushan Kumar was appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle by the government. Chandra Bhushan Kumar is an IAS officer of 1995 batch of union territories cadre. He has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner for a term of 5 years. On the whole, 13 officers were appointed as joint secretaries in various central government departments.

ISRO has lost contact with the GSAT-6A, India's most powerful communication satellite, in less than 48 hours after it was launched. The GSAT-6A, the 2nd in the series of GSAT-6 satellites to provide high-speed broadband on mobile phones was designed for a life of 10 years. This is the second mission failure for Isro in six months, with the previous one being the PSLV-C39.

The Mangalore International Airport has been adjudged the cleanest airport in the country. Airport director VV Rao received the award during the 23rd annual day celebrations of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in New Delhi. In the survey conducted across 53 airports in the country by AAI, Mangaluru airport was adjudged the cleanest.

Hyderabad has been ranked the top city in the short-term Momentum Ranking of JLL's annual 'Global City Momentum Index'. The report identifies urban economies and real estate markets which are currently undergoing the most rapid growth. The report ranked Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata and Delhi in top 10 cities.

China will unveil the world's longest cross-sea bridge, connecting Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.This cross-sea bridge will be 55km-long and six lanes wide, comprising of four tunnels and four artificial islands. The brigde will reduce the commute time between mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong to half. It is estimated that nearly 40000 vehicles will be passing over this bridge on daily basis, including shuttle buses running at 10-minute intervals. It is reported that quantity of steel used in building this bridge is more than 60 Eiffel Towers in Paris, France and experts from 14 countries have been involved in its construction.

Debjani Ghosh, former managing director of Intel South Asia, is the new president of Nasscom. She has replaced R.Chandrashekhar upon completion of his term. A big propagator of gender diversity and equal representation in corporate India, Ms Ghosh was the first woman to lead Intel India and MAIT (Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology).

Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy R. K. Singh laid the foundation stone of the 60 MW Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project (NMHEP) in Uttarkashi. NMHEP is located on the river Tons - a tributary of the Yamuna, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. The project was allocated to SJVN Ltd by the Government of Uttarakhand.

India has now become the largest importer of almonds in the world. India, the second largest almond importer in the world in 2017, has already imported 154 million pounds till February this crop year (August 2017 to July 2018), overtaking Spain and China. Spain was the biggest almond importer in 2016-17 with 210 million pounds, while China had 150 million pound import.

To prevent the possibility of manipulation in the prices of securities, especially government securities, the RBI has changed the methodology used by debt market players for their valuation. Security/bond valuation will be based on the weighted average price of the last half-an-hour of trading. The methodology as to how the bonds are valued is crucial for mark-to-market purposes.

World Autism Awareness Day is an internationally recognized day on 2 April every year. It is designated by United Nations to raise awareness about people with autism throughout the world. The 2018 World Autism Awareness Day observance will focus on the importance of 'empowering women and girls with autism'. Autism is a lifelong neurological condition that manifests during early childhood.