Current Affairs - April 21, 2018 Current Affairs

The 2018 Global Malaria Summit was held alongside the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, United Kingdom on April 18 to make game-changing commitments towards beating malaria at a time when efforts to end the preventable disease had stalled. The summit expected the world leaders to renew their financial and political commitments to continue the fight against malaria, which is showing signs of fighting back. Malaria cases rose to 216 million globally in 2016, five million more than a year ago. The summit featured collective commitments worth over $4.1 billion dollars from governments, private sector, philanthropists and international organisations. There was no India representative to participate in the summit because there is no India commitment.

India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) organized a Consultative Workshop in New Delhi for the Delegation from the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Kazakhstan. The delegation comprised six members including Vice-Chairman of CEC, Kazakhstan and other Senior Officials. Interactive discussions on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) & Role of Information Technology (IT) and a Training Programme were conducted during the course of this workshop.

In India, Bangalore emerged as the most preferred city for office expansion, according to a survey by the real estate consulting firm, CBRE South Asia. MNCs are focusing on expanding in Bangalore and smaller cities across the country but have limited growth plans in the Delhi NCR and Mumbai according to the CBRE Asia Pacific Occupier Survey 2018.

Uttar Pradesh State Government ordered all government hospitals and orphanages to establish SHISHU SWAGAT KENDRA - PALNA and put up cradles in front of their buildings so that any person, lady or couple can leave their unwanted child without disclosing their identity. Objective of this setup is to tackle the problem of abandoning the infants at the roadside or other places which may pose a risk of life for the baby. All these centres will have arrangements for taking proper care of such infants. All these centres will have arrangements for taking proper care of such infants. This setup is expected to bridge the gap between the number of children available for adoption and the increasing list of adoptive parents.

In a bid to reduce the digital divide, from May 2018, Chhattisgarh State Government will start distributing free smartphones to over 50 lakh people across the state under the Sanchar Kranti Yojana (SKY). Distribution of smartphones will start during the 'Vikas Yatra' campaign of Chief Minister Raman Singh. The Yatra has been organised to create awareness about developmental activities undertaken by the incumbent BJP Government under Mr. Raman Singh. Distribution of smartphones would be taken up in two phases - 30 lakh in first phase and remaining in the second phase. Women heads of households will be the priority recipients of the smartphones as out of 50 lakh smartphones, 40 lakh will be given to women heads of households in villages having population of more than 1000, 5 lakh phones will be given to women heads belonging to poor families living in urban areas and 5 lakh phones will be given to college students. Proving smartphones will facilitate reach of citizen-centric services to the people in remote area through 11000 common service centres (CSCs) of Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS), will apprise people of government's welfare schemes and will also help in cashless payments through digital transactions.

According to a Reuters poll of economists, India will reach the top position among the world's fastest-growing major economies in 2018, but increasing trade tensions between the United States and China might hinder that growth. The recent tit-for-tat import tariffs introduced by the US and China have created concerns about a global trade war. Otherwise a strong world economy could be developed. The recent poll was taken on 11th to 18th April 2018. It has predicted that India's economy will expand 7.4 % in the fiscal year that began in April 2018. Increased government spending prior to national elections next year is expected to be inflationary. Inflation is forecast to average 4.7 % in the fiscal year ending in March 2019, and 4.9 % the following year, according to the poll. The Reserve Bank of India has been forecast to keep rates on hold until the second half of next year, according to the poll. But economists expect a repo rate increase to the quarter ending September next year from a move in the first three months of 2019.

Minister of State of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Giriraj Singh has stated that four technology centres are being established in North Eastern India for supporting Micro industries in the region. Mr. Singh shared this information on April 18, 2018 at UdyamSamvad Workshop organised by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in New Delhi. The workshop had eleven session with different entities like Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), financial organisations and industry bodies. Discussions at this workshop focused on various issues faced by entrepreneurs and Startups in North East States of India. Mr. Singh stated that technology centres are being established in Imphal (Manipur), Dimapur (Nagaland), Tinsukia (Assam) and Agartala (Tripura).

As per a report of OpenSignal (a London-based company that specialises in wireless coverage mapping), Bharti Airtel has the highest 4G download speed among all Indian telecom operators. Airtel is followed by Idea Cellular (7.27 mbps), Vodafone (6.98 mbps) and Jio (5.13mbps). Based on the tests conducted by OpenSignal between December 2017 to February 2018, Bharti Airtel has topped the chart of 4G service providers with 9.31 mbps download speed. However, Jio topped the list in terms of 4G network coverage. OpenSignals's 4G network coverage refers to how often users can access a 4G network during the test period. For test period from December 2017 to February 2018, testers were able to access Jio 4G network signal 96.4 per cent of the time.

India was ranked 10th on a new Commonwealth Innovation Index. First three rankers are UK, Singapore and Canada. The index was launched as part of a new Commonwealth Innovation Hub on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in partnership with the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII). The sixty percent of Commonwealth 2018 participants were under 30 with a lot of talent and innovation and with this new digital platform. The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) will work as the delivery partner to host a new Commonwealth Innovation Fund (CIF). The GIF will manage the fund and its investments, which will be targeted at innovative projects across Commonwealth countries that "save and improve lives".

In a bid to ease the cash crunch, the State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to allow depositors to withdraw cash from its Point of Sale (PoS) devices available with merchants. This "Cash@POS" facility will be available for customers of all banks and can be used in about 80% of SBI's PoS devices across the country. According to guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, Customer can use SBI & any other bank debit card to withdraw cash up to Rs 2,000 in Tier 3 to 6 & up to Rs 1,000 in Tier 1 & 2 cities per card per day. Presently, the bank will not be charging any fees for these withdrawals.

The 16th Federation Cup Junior National athletics championship begun in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Over 800 athletes from 32 states across the country will take part in this tournament. The meet will serve as the selections trials for the 18th Asian Junior Athletic Meet to be held at Gifu, Japan, in June. The three-day event will see 440 boys and 352 girls in the age group of 16 to 20 years take part in 44 events.

Swaziland's King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch, officially changed the name of his country to the 'Kingdom of eSwatini'. Accordingly, the country, a member of the Commonwealth, will now be known by its historic name of eSwatini. The announcement was made during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the King's 50th birthday as well as the 50th anniversary of Swazi's independence from British colonial rule.

The first meeting of the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C on 19th April, 2018. The Government of India (GoI) was represented in the meeting by Subhash Chandra Garg , Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs (EA). The main issues discussed were related to increasing of the project pipelines of New Development Bank (NDB) evenly across member countries, expansion of NDB's membership, the proposal of the South African Presidency for setting up a working group on illicit financial flows and a BRICS Task Force on Public Private Partnership. Issues related to BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) as well as BRICS Bond Fund were also discussed.

Tata Sons has appointed long-time group employee Nupur Mallick as its new Group Chief Human Resource Officer. Currently, Mallick is director, Human Resources for Tata Consultancy Services in the UK and Ireland. She will take over from S. Padmanabhan who will continue to be executive chairman of Tata Business Excellence Group and head, Sustainability Group.

The 2018 Chinese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo won the race ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. The race was the third round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship and marked the fifteenth time that the Chinese Grand Prix has been run as a round of the Formula One World Championship.