Current Affairs - April 5, 2018 Current Affairs

Subrata Bhattacharjee was appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Serbia. Subrata Bhattacharjee is an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer of 1989 batch. He is Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs at present. He has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Serbia. He will take up this assignment soon.

Indian Army and HDFC Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Defence Salary Package. The first MoU between HDFC Bank and the Indian Army for Defence Salary Package was signed in 2011 and was renewed in March 2015. The current MoU is tailor made to suit the requirements of serving soldiers, pensioners and families. As per the terms of the current MoU, in addition to other benefits, the Army personnel having accounts in HDFC Bank will get free personal accident death cover and free permanent disability cover of Rs 30 lakhs, free educational cover of upto Rs 1 Lakh per year for four years for education of dependent child in case of accidental death of defence personnel and 100% processing fees waived for Car Loans and Personal Loans.

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched its Dragon spacecraft - SpaceX's 14th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft carries 2,630 kg of research, crew supplies and hardware. It took off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 2nd April 2018. Ten minutes after the take-off, the second stage engine burned out completely and Dragon separated from its Falcon 9 second-stage rocket. Later, the solar arrays were deployed. It is expected to reach the International Space Station on 4th April 2018. It will return to Earth in May 2018 with results of a few completed experiments. Flight Engineers Norishege Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA astronaut Scoot Tingle will overlook the operation of the Canadarm2 robotic arm for Dragon's capture. This mission will focus on scientific investigations such as a study on severe thunderstorms on Earth, effects of microgravity on production of high-performance products from metal powders, and food growth in space.

The 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games started at Carrara Stadium in Gold Coast, Australia. The Commonwealth Games 2018 will see participation from more than 4,500 athletes from 71 countries. 275 gold medals in 23 events are in store for the competitors. The Commonwealth Games 2018 will be held till 15 April 2018. For the first time in the Commonwealth Games there will be equal number of men's and women's medal events. The Indian contingent consists of 227 athletes. PV Sindhu is the flag-bearer for India at the opening ceremony. The Indian team consists of star players like Sushil Kumar, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal and Gagan Narang.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Suresh Prabhu launched digital initiatives by Export Inspection Council (EIC) for ease of export at New Delhi. EIC is the official export certification body of Government of India. Three online portals have been developed in line with Digital India initiative to make it easier to export farm products from India and reduce transaction costs. Entire export food chain has been integrated with these platforms by linking primary production, aquaculture pond, dairy farms and apiaries. The One lab one assessment portal brings together all stakeholders like accreditation bodies, regulators and laboratories on a single platforms and thus provides simplified procedures for granting joint certification and joint decisions which will help in reducing cost, time and multiplicity of assessment.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 'Icarus'. The star has been named Icarus after the Greek mythological character who flew very close to the Sun with wings of feathers and wax that melted. Official name of Icarus is MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1. It is a huge blue stellar body. Its light has taken nine billion years to reach Earth. Astronomers found Icarus through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing amplifies the glow of the star to a great extent. Generally gravitational lensing occurs when gravitational forces from cluster of galaxies act as natural lens in space, which bends and amplifies light.

Central Government appointed former chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Vineet Joshi as the Director General (D-G) of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which will conduct various entrance examinations across India. Currently, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts Joint Engineering Entrance (JEE) Exam, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Central Teacher Eligibility Test (twice a year) UGC's National Eligibility Test (twice a year) and the entrance test for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. These exams/tests are in addition to CBSE's own board exams. With the creation of National Testing Agency (NTA), CBSE and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will be relieved from conducting the above stated exams/tests. Setting up of NTA was announced by Finance Ministry Arun Jaitley while presenting Union Budget 2017-18. Subsequently, on November 10, 2017, Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared a proposal for creation of NTA. Structrue of NTA: An eminent educationist appointed by Union Human Resources Development Ministry will be the Chairperson of NTA. The CEO of NTA will be the Director General, and will be appointed by the government. Director General will be assisted by nine verticals headed by academicians and experts. NTA will also have a Board of Governors comprising members from user institutions.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Mid-Term Ministerial Conference 2018 will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan on April 5-6 under the theme "Promoting International Peace and Security for Sustainable Development". NAM participating states, representatives of observer states and international organizations, countries and institutions, invited as special guests, will take part in the Mid-Term Ministerial Conference. The Indian delegation will be led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The Non-Aligned Movement includes 120 states. Seventeen states and 10 international organizations hold observer status of NAM. In 2019, the Republic of Azerbaijan will host the 18th Summit of the NAM and will chair NAM in 2019-2022.

SBI Life Insurance Company Limited appointed Sanjeev Nautiyal as its new MD and CEO. Nautiyal started his career with State Bank of India (SBI) in 1985 as a probationary officer. During the course of this career with SBI, Nautiyal held various important roles and responsibilities in areas of credit, human resources, and international banking. Immediately before being appointed as MD & CEO of SBI Life Insurance, he was chief general manager at SBI's Ahmedabad circle. Sanjeev Nautiyal replaces Arijit Basu as MD & CEO of SBI Life Insurance. Arijit Basu will be taking over a key role in the State Bank of India Group.

The World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) is observed every year on April 2 to recognize and support all children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The day is to highlight the need to help improve the quality of life of those with autism so they can lead full and meaningful lives as an integral part of society. The 2018 theme is "Empowering women and girls with autism".

Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister of Human Resource Development (HRD), has recently released INDIA RANKINGS 2018 for Higher Educational Institutions and presented awards to the institutions under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF-2018). In it, the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in Bengaluru has been adjudged the overall best institution in the country. Apart from this, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) - has been adjudged the best engineering college and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM - A) the best management institution. Delhi University's Miranda House was the best college and National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (NLSIU - B) the best law school in the country. In the medical college category, AIIMS New Delhi stood first, followed by PGIMER Chandigarh and CMC Vellore. The idea behind these rankings is to promote quality in education. The aim is also encourage competition to perform better and set up new benchmarks of performance in higher education space.

The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has set up a high-powered committee to examine the process by which the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts examinations. The panel, headed by former HRD Secretary VS Oberoi, will suggest measures to make the process secure and foolproof through use of technology. The committee will submit a report by May 31 to the Ministry. The move comes following the alleged leak of the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers. The Ministry recently announced re-examination of the Class 12 Economics paper on April 25. It, however, decided against conducting the Class 10 Maths re-test.

Microsoft enabled digital payments services on its enterprise social network app "Kaizala" in India. Microsoft has integrated payment services of YES BANK and MobiKwik. Payment integration with Microsoft Kaizala will enable users to quickly send or receive money without having to leave the Kaizala application.

IndusInd Bank announced that it has launched a pilot WhatsApp enterprise solution to communicate with its customers. IndusInd Bank's message service on WhatsApp is being rolled out to customers in phases, wherein customers can save the official WhatsApp number of the bank and initiate conversation. There will be a two-way communication with replies to customer messages seeking basic banking services. The customers of IndusInd Bank will now be able to check balance, obtain mini statement, check reward points as well as update of Aadhaar through WhatsApp.

Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected as the President of the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for the next 4 years. He is a Cabinet Minister in Assam. He took charge as the interim President of BAI in 2017 following the death of former BAI president Akhilesh Das Gupta. Former Tamil Nadu Badminton Association president and Lok Sabha MP from Dharmapuri constituency, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss was elected as the treasurer uncontested. Ajay Singhania of Haryana Badminton Association was elected as General Secretary of BAI.