Current Affairs - April 4, 2018 Current Affairs

In Tennis, John Isner has lifted the Men's Singles trophy of the Miami Open. John Isner defeated German's Alexander Zverev. Following the win, 32-year old Isner, the world number 17, will now move back into the top 10 next week.

Senapati district of Manipur has been declared as the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) district of the state. Manipur has become the third state in the North East, after Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, to get the ODF tag. Till 27th March, Manipur was among the only three states not to have a single ODF district, the other two being Bihar and Goa.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was once again appointed as the Leader of the Rajya Sabha (RS) following his re-election to the House. In June 2014, Mr Jaitley was appointed the leader of the House in Rajya Sabha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha. The Leader of the House is a Rajya Sabha member who is either a cabinet minister or another nominated minister.

SoftBank signed a $930-million deal with China's energy conglomerate Golden Concord (GCL) to produce and sell solar equipment in India. GCL will invest for a 40% stake in the joint venture, with SoftBank taking the rest. The project will have a 4 gigawatt-capacity and will produce solar ingots, silicon wafers, batteries, and components.

The 5th Indo-Kyrgyzstan joint training exercise 'Khanjar V' culminated on March 29 with a 'Joint Tactical Validation Exercise' in Mizoram. Kyrgyzstan in the exercise is represented by the military contingent of the military unit of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic. The exercise which started on March 16, included understanding tactics of platoon level, developing interoperability.

Ride-hailer Ola has acquired Mumbai-based Ridlr, a public transport ticketing app. The acquisition will complement Ola's efforts to integrate its mobility platform with public transportation infrastructure. Ridlr's team of 64 employees will join Ola. Ridlr currently serves users in Mumbai and Delhi with partnerships with BEST, Delhi Metro, and Mumbai metro. Brijraj Vaghani, founder of Ridlr, will continue to head its operations. Ridlr enables users to search and book public transport options on their mobile phones. Combining Ridlr's innovations in mass transit with Ola's mobility products will enable true multi-modal mobility solutions for users.

The Reserve Bank of India dropped Axis Bank from a list of banks it has cleared to import gold and silver in the current financial year that began April 1. Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia were among the 16 banks allowed to import bullion. Two other small banks Karur Vyasa and South Indian Bank were also dropped from the RBI list.

The 7th Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS - 2018) will be held in Moscow, Russia from April 4. The 2-day conference will be focused on the defeat of terrorists in Syria. The Indian delegation will be led by Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. This will be her first visit to Russia in her capacity as the Defence Minister. During her 3-day tour, she will meet her Russian counterpart Army General Sergei Shoigu and other senior leaders. The visit will provide an opportunity to reinforce the traditional warm and friendly relations that exist between the two countries with particular reference to military technical cooperation.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide a concessional loan of Rs.500 crore for smarter mobility project in Chennai to develop Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). ITS will make traffic management system more efficient to ease the city's congestion. The project will optimise the way traffic lights work and reduce long vehicle queues at city's main intersections.

With the beginning of the financial year 2018-19, the e-way Bill System for Inter-State movement of goods comes into force. Under this system businesses and transporters have to produce before a GST inspector e-way bill for moving goods worth over Rs 50,000 from one state to another.

Chennai based Geographical Indication Registry and Intellectual Property India has awarded Geographical Indication (GI) Tag to Madhya Pradesh's Kadaknath chicken. The GI tag will ensure that no one else can use name Kadaknath Chicken while selling any other black chicken. Kadaknath chicken breed is unique for its black colour due to its black-feathers. Its black colour stems from the deposition of melanin pigment.

Sloane Stephens, a US professional tennis player, has won the 2018 women's singles Miami Open tennis tournament by defeating Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the final by 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 on April 1, 2018. It is her first Miami Open tennis title.

The West Bengal government has rolled out Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dream project 'Rupashree' which provides one-time financial support to the marriages of poor women. 'Rupashree' scheme follows the chief minister's ambitious 'Kanyashree' project which has drawn global applause. Under the scheme, an amount of Rs 25,000 will be credited to her bank account before her marriage.

Dr. Asha, a neurophysical therapist from Andhra Pradesh has won the 'National Geographic Chasing Genius Challenge' in the U.S. for designing Therax, a web/mobile application. 'Therax' helps patients with home exercise programmes in their native language. The NatGeo challenge is part of a marketing strategy to popularise a television series.

A world-class interpretation center and other tourist facilities for visitors were inaugurated at the Konark Sun Temple, Odisha. It coincided with Utkal Diwas, Odisha's foundation day. The facilities were inaugurated by the Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.