Current Affairs - April 9, 2018 Current Affairs

Government of India, Government of Maharashtra and the World Bank signed a US$ 420 million project to benefit Small and Marginal farmers in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra. This project will help to increase climate resilient practices in agriculture and to make farming a profitable activity. This project will benefit more than 7 million people over an area of 3.0 million ha. It will cover 5,142 villages in the 15 most climate vulnerable districts of the region. The $420 million loan provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has a grace period of 6 years. Its maturity period is 24 years. The Agreements for the Maharashtra Project for Climate Resilient Agriculture were signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Indian government. Bijay Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture Department signed on behalf of Maharashtra government. Junaid Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank, India, signed on behalf of the World Bank. This project will be implemented in rural areas that are mainly dependent on rain-fed agriculture.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) will carry out one of its biggest combat exercises named 'Gaganshakti 2018' from 8th April to check its operational preparedness with a focus on dealing with any possible security challenges from China and Pakistan. The two-week long exercise will involve almost the entire assets of the IAF including its fighter squadrons and the main objective of the day and night drill will be to check war waging capability of the force. The first phase of the exercise will focus on northern borders and second phase will be carried out to check preparedness in case of a war-like situation along the western borders. It will also focus on flexible use of airspace, joint maritime air operations with the Indian Navy, joint operations with the Indian Army, simulated combat search and rescue for effective extraction of downed aircrew behind enemy lines, mass casualty evacuation from highway among others.

IndusInd Bank announced a collaboration with Samsung Electronics to enable its MasterCard and Visa credit card customers to use 'Samsung Pay'. The Samsung Pay allows customers to simply tap and 'pay on the go' using their registered IndusInd Bank credit cards. The platform works with patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology as well as Near Field Communication (NFC).

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Malaysia concluded joint military exercise "Desert Tiger 5" aimed at sharing expertise and enhancing joint military actions in Dubai, UAE. The military exercise was aimed at raising the level of performance and combat efficiency and working together between both countries based on the strategy to improve the overall ability and combat readiness of ground forces.

Chhattisgarh bagged the 'State of the Year' Award under the 'business leader" category as part of the India Business Leadership for the increase in business and services activities. Union Information Technology and Electronics Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad gave the award at India Business Leader Awards. Chhattisgarh has been ranked 4th in World Bank's list of 'Ease of Doing Business'.

Kerala has become the first state to adopt a standard operating procedure (SOP) for determining brain death cases. According to the SOP, a medical board comprising four doctors-at least one should be from the government service-will be authorised to declare a patient brain dead. To check any misuse, the SOP defines brain dead and state of coma in detail.

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has launched the state component of Pradhanmantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) in Agartala. He has assured that the target to give training to more than 1 lakh 16,000 youths by 2020 will be achieved. Tripura is the first state in the country to implement pilot project for accreditation for skilled candidates.

Weightlifter Venkat Rahul Ragala claimed India's fourth Gold medal in 85-kg category at 21st Commonwealth Games with a total lift of 338 Kg in Gold Coast on April 7, 2018. Earlier, Weightlifter Sathish Sivalingam won India's third gold medal. Apart from this, Mirabai Chanu (48kg) and Sanjita Chanu (53kg) won gold medals in the women's competition and P Gururaja claimed a silver in the men's 56kg category. Teenager Deepak Lather became the youngest Indian weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth Games medal by clinching a bronze in the men's 69kg weightlifting category. India have so far won 4 Gold, One Silver and one bronze, and all the medals have come from the weightlifting arena.

Minister of State for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (Independent Charge), Giriraj Singh launched a mobile phone application for locating Khadi stores in the country. The app was launched during 9th meeting of National Board of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) in New Delhi. The app will help in locating 4000 Khadi stores across India. Currently, there are more than 8000 Khadi stores in India. Location for the remaining 4000 stores will also be available on the Khadi store locater app by the end of April 2018. It is to be noted that nearly 7 lakh privately owned household units are engaged in manufacturing Khadi and Village Industries products in India.

Santosh Kumar Mohanty has been appointed a whole-time member of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a period of three years. At present Executive Director in SEBI. Prior to this assignment, he was serving as Director in the erstwhile commodity market regulator Forward Markets Commission. An officer from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Mohanty has earlier served in the Income Tax Department in various capacities in Kolkata, Nagpur and Mumbai.

Anushka Sharma will be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award 2018 for being a path-breaking producer. The 29-year-old actress has been appreciated for breaking new grounds as a film producer, along with her brother Karnesh Sharma. Three movies produced by Anushka, NH 10, Phillauri and Pari belonged to three different genres, thriller, romance and horror.

Patna tops in 4G connectivity among 20 of India's largest cities. It has emerged ahead of the likes of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, according to the report of OpenSignal, a wireless coverage mapping company. Four cities from India's central and eastern regions namely Patna, Kanpur, Allahabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, and Lucknow made it to the top 10 while popular tech hubs like Bengaluru are at 10, followed by Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has launched the Ganga Hariteema Yojana (also known as Ganga Greenery scheme) on 7th April 2018 in 27 districts of the state located on the bank of river Ganga. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has launched the scheme at Allahabad in a function organised on the bank of Sangam the confluence of rivers of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati. The purpose of the scheme includes enhancing green cover in the catchment areas of the river Ganga and to control the land erosion. Plantation will be carried out in 1 Km areas from the banks of river under the scheme. General people will also be encouraged for plantation on their private lands under 'One Person One Tree' slogan. A high power committee under chairmanship of Chief Minister has been set up to monitor the implementation of the scheme. The scheme will be carried out by September 16 Ozone Day of this year. Uttar Pradesh's Department of Forest has been nominated as nodal department for this scheme, while total seven state government departments will be engaged in implementation.

Indian shooter Ravi Kumar won the bronze medal in the men's 10m air rifle event at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Ravi acquired the third spot with a score of 224.1 after 22 shots. Australia's Dane Sampson won the gold while Bangladesh's Abdullah Hel Baki claimed silver. India are now third in the Games' medal tally with 10 medals including 6 gold, 2 silver & 2 bronze.

India and Nepal have agreed to further strengthen bilateral relations in key areas of border security, connectivity, trade and agriculture. The two countries agreed to develop inland waterways for overall economic development of the region. Aiming to expand cross-border rail linkages, the two sides have also decided to construct a new electrified rail line, with India's financial support. The rail line will connect the border city of Raxaul in India to Kathmandu in Nepal.

Indian Government banned imports of the hormone oxytocin to stop its misuse in the livestock industry. Oxytocin is referred to as "love hormone". It is released naturally during human bonding activities such as sex, childbirth and breastfeeding. Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has stated that abuse of 'oxytocin' in animals, especially milch animals, causes hormonal imbalances and makes them barren sooner. 'oxytocin' is a prescription-only drug and Indian Government had halted its retail sales in 2014. However, attempt to curb its illegal sales has met with limited success and the volume of imports is unclear. Ban on import of 'oxytocin' has been imposed based on recommendations of a panel of top drug experts. Ban on import of 'oxytocin', for human or animal use has been imposed with immediate effect and Central Board of Excise and Customs has stepped up vigilance against those likely to try and smuggle 'oxytocin' into India.