Current Affairs - April 11, 2018 Current Affairs

The Maharashtra state government will introduce free chemotherapy facility in 10 districts from June. This facility will be made available at district hospitals of Nagpur, Gadchiroli, Pune, Amravati, Jalgaon, Nashik, Wardha, Satara, Bhandara and Akola in the first phase. The initiative would help patients save in lodging and travelling expenses.

The Goa government has decided to launch its own app-based taxi service to some key tourist destinations in the coastal state. The state-run Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) invited the taxi operators to register with the new mobile application-based transport service. Currently, the tourist taxi operators run their businesses individually in Goa.

The tenth edition of a biennial exhibition of weapons and military hardware - DefExpo India- 2018 begun at Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. The four-day long defense expo was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indigenously developed military helicopters, aircraft, missiles and rockets, capabilities to manufacture submarines, frigates and corvettes would be showcased at the event. Over 700 exhibitors from over 50 countries are participating in the Defence Expo.

India will build a strategic railway link between Raxaul in Bihar and Kathmandu in Nepal to enhance people-to-people linkages and promote economic growth and development. Announcement in this regard was made on April 7, 2018, after delegation-level talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli. Thus, a new electrified rail line connecting Raxaul to Nepal's Capital Kathmandu will be constructed and will be entirely financed by India. This railway line holds strategic significance as in March 2016, China had agreed to construct a railway link with Nepal through Tibet, aimed at reducing Kathmandu's dependence on India.

India's first high-speed electric locomotive has been flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Madhepura Electric Locomotive Factory in Bihar on April 10, 2018. It has a 12000 horsepower (HP) engine with a maximum speed of 110 km per hour. The first big Make-in-India project is developed & completed in collaboration with French firm Alstome. As per Indian Railways & Alstome pact, 800 such trains will be manufactured in the country over a period of 11 years. The Rs 20,000-crore project includes the Rs 1,300 crore cost for setting up the factory at Madhepura and two loco maintenance depots at Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra), beside building 800 locos. The average cost of each locomotive is estimated to be Rs 25 crore. With this induction, India will join an elite list of countries, including Russia, China, Germany and Sweden, that have 12,000 HP and above capacity electric locomotives.

The Maharashtra government has tied up with Tata Trusts to finance the state's first poultry company to be run and owned by tribal women. As part of the project, 300 women have been given poultry sheds and each of them would be given 400 chicks every day. After rearing them for 40 days, the poultry will be sold and the project envisages an income between Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 for each woman over a 40-day period. The state government has contributed Rs 12 crore while Tata Trusts has given Rs 3 crore to finance the project and an agreement had been signed with an NGO, Pradhan, to operate the project. This initiative would be implemented in other tribal talukas under the state's Human Development Programme.

The State Bank of India SBI announced the launch of its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited, with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity. India's largest state-owned bank, which celebrated the new subsidiary with a special event in London, becomes the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division from its wholesale business.

Rajesh Ranjan, a 1984 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Bihar cadre, has been appointed as Director General of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). He has been appointed as the chief of the CISF till November 30, 2020, i.e. the date of his superannuation. At present, he is Special Director General of Border Security Force (BSF). The post was lying vacant after incumbent O P Singh took over as Director General of the Uttar Pradesh Police in January 2018. The CISF is tasked with providing security to various government installations including the country's airports.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli launched the Rs 3.24 billion India-Nepal petroleum products pipeline from Motihari, Bihar to Amlekhgunj, Nepal on 7th April. This is the first international cross-country pipeline project in India. The Motihari-Amlekhgunj Pipeline project was approved by IndianOil in September 2015.

India defeated Nigeria to clinch gold in the men's table tennis team event at the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 2006. With this, India joined England to bag second-most table tennis gold medals (5) at CWG. This is the first time that India have won both men's and women's TT team events at a single CWG edition.

E-way bill system for the intra-state movement of goods is scheduled to be implemented from April 15 in five states. The new system is being implemented from the aforementioned date in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. E-way bill system for all inter-state movement of goods was rolled out from April 1.

Indian shooter Heena Sidhu set Commonwealth Games record to win gold in women's 25m pistol shooting event. This is Sidhu's second medal at CWG 2018, after winning silver in women's 10m air pistol. Another Indian shooter Annu Singh came sixth in the same event. With this result, India has won three golds and overall eight medals in shooting.

Singapore and China signed a MoU in Beijing, China to promote greater collaboration between Singapore and Chinese companies in third-party markets along the Belt and Road. Under the MOU, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), NDRC (China's lead agency for BRI) and Enterprise Singapore will form a working group to identify sectors and markets of mutual interest, and organise business matching activities and forums to facilitate third-party market cooperation between Singapore and Chinese companies along the Belt and Road.

Indian shooter Shreyasi Singh won the women's double trap gold in a shoot-off after scoring 96 points to take India's gold medal tally at the 21st Commonwealth Games 2018 to 12. This was her second CWG medal after having claimed a silver at the 2014 Glasgow Games. Another Indian shooter Varsha Varman finished fourth in the event, scoring 86 points.

Deutsche Bank AG named Christian Sewing as the Chief Executive officer of the Bank. He has replaced John Cryan. The Sewing will take over with immediate effect. Garth Ritchie was promoted to sole head of the securities unit and will become a deputy CEO, along with chief administrative officer Karl von Rohr.

The National Safe Motherhood is celebrated on April 11th every year to create awareness on proper healthcare and maternity celebrities to pregnant and lactating women, It also seeks to create awareness about the institutional delivery, reducing anemia among women and better pre and postal natal health care and necessary for mothers. The theme of 2018 NSMD was "Respectful Maternity Care".

Indian shooter Om Prakash Mitharval settled for the bronze medal in the men's 50m pistol event at the 21st Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia. In the same event, Jitu Rai finished a disappointing 8th. Young Mitharwal, who has also a bronze in the 10m air pistol event two days ago, shot 201.1 to finish third in the eight-man finals at Belmont Shooting Centre. Host nation Australia's Daniel Repacholi bagged the gold medal in the event with a Games record 227.2 while Shakil Ahmed of Bangladesh won the silver.