Current Affairs - May 1, 2018 Current Affairs

The Punjab government has decided to extend the free dengue tests in 33 centers across the state. Notably, the step was taken in a bid to eradicate dengue from the state. Punjab's Health Minister Brahm Mohindra announced to extend the free dengue tests in 33 centers across the state while chairing the meeting of the state task force on dengue held at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh. Chief Minister Brahm Mohindra the other major initiative taken to fight the menace of dengue is that all the Medical Officers and Rural Medical Officers would be trained on the preventive measures required to check the outbreak and spread of Dengue. He said that earlier free dengue testing was available at only 26 centers which has now been extended at 33 centers.

Singing legend Asha Bhosle has been honoured with the Lifetime 26th P C Chandra Puraskaar 2018at the Science City auditorium in Mumbai, Maharashtra on April 29, 2018. The award is a tribute to the founding father of the P. C. Chandra Group, the late Shri Purna Chandra Chandra. It carries an honorarium of Rs 10 lakh which is tax exempted.

HDFC Bank has announced the launch of IRA 2.0, its interactive humanoid in Bengaluru. IRA will interact with customers, answer bank-related queries, frequently asked questions, and guide them inside the branch with voice-based navigation. HDFC Bank also launched its virtual assistant 'EVA' on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The first version of IRA is currently stationed in Kochi.

The 2018 International Buddhist Conference was held in Lumbini, the birth place of Gautama Buddha. It was organised as part of 2562nd Buddha Jayanti celebrations. The basic purpose of the conference was to disseminate teachings of Gautam Buddha and spread the messages of nonviolence, brotherhood, co-existence, love and peace to the international community. Representatives from more than 20 nations, including India, reputed archaeologists, historians, Buddhist gurus and scholars, participated in the conference. The 2-day conference, organised with the theme 'Lumbini Nepal: The birthplace of Lord Buddha and the fountain of Buddhism and world peace', concluded with a 10-point Lumbini Declaration 2018, which includes issues such as interfaith dialogue, infrastructure development, connecting Buddhist attractions in Nepal and India, and implementing the Greater Lumbini Area Master Plan.

Women's doubles shuttler N Sikki Reddy has been recommended for Arjuna Award by the Badminton Association of India. G Sudhakar Reddy, who coached Kidambi Srikanth in his early days, has been recommended for Dronacharya Award. The 24-year-old Sikki had won the mixed team gold medal and the women's doubles bronze at the recent Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast.

National Highways Authority of India has entered into a pact with Macquarie for road projects under highway monetisation drive. Funds generated from monetisation of highways will be used for infrastructure programmes like Bharatmala, a 7 lakh crore road building imitative. Agreement worth $1.5 billion signed with Macquarie for 1st set of highway projects is one of the highest FDI in Highways.

As part of Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, Ayushman Bharat Diwas has celebrated across the country on April 30, 2018. During the event, information regarding Ayushman Bharat Scheme is being provided to people during health camps organised in rural areas. The Ayushman Bharat programme seeks to provide easily available and affordable medical facilities in the remote parts of the country. The Scheme has the benefits cover of 5 lakh rupees per family per year. Through the scheme, the families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on Socio-Economic Caste Census database will be benefited. A beneficiary will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public and private empanelled hospitals across the country. The Ayushman Bharat has twin missions. The first is to create a network of Health and Wellness Centres to deliver comprehensive primary health care close to the community. Secondly, it aims to provide insurance coverage to 40% of India's population for secondary and tertiary care, including hospitalization costs.

Odisha government has inaugurated 'Odisha Skills 2018', the state-level chapter of India Skill competition organised by National Skill Development Corporation. The competition would give a platform to the students of Odisha to show their talents. A skill-cum-common facility centre for filigree craftsman of the city was also inaugurated.

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly speaker Kavinder Gupta appointed as the Deputy- CM of the state. Seven others ministers were also sworn in the state's PDP-BJP government led by Mehbooba Mufti. Gupta will be the new deputy chief minister in place of Nirmal Singh.

The Surat railway station will be the third in the country and the second in Gujarat after Gandhinagar to be developed as a world-class facility under a Railway Ministry station redevelopment programme. The station will be equipped with several "airport-like" amenities under the ministry's 'Rs 1 lakh crore station redevelopment' programme,. ITCO, a joint venture between the IRSDC, the Surat Municipal Corporation, and the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation invited request for qualification (RFQ) and request for proposal (RFP) for the development of a multi-modal transportation hub at the station.

The multi-nation counter-terrorism exercise "Peace Mission" will be held at the Ural mountains of Russia in September 2018, which will take place under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The purpose of the exercise will be to enhance counter-terror cooperation among the 8 SCO member countries. It will be for the first time since Independence that India and Pakistan will both be part of a military exercise, though the armies of the two nations have worked together in UN peace keeping missions. The drill will also see the resumption of bilateral military exercise between India and China, which was suspended in 2017 following the 73-day Doklam standoff. The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became full members of the bloc last year. With expansion of the grouping, SCO now represents over 40% of humanity and nearly 20% of the global GDP.

World number one Rafael Nadal lifted his 11th Barcelona Open tennis title with a win over Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas. Nadal, who won his 400th match on clay in the semifinal, needed the victory in Barcelona to secure his No. 1 ranking. It was the 77th title overall for Nadal tying him with John McEnroe for fourth best in the Open Era.

West Bengal chalked out development plans so as to promote cultural tourism in the hilly chilled region of Darjeeling. The state tourism department will be showcasing the customs, food habits and rituals of the tribal groups residing there. West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board (WBKVIB), which comes under the aegis of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Department, will be executing the project. Exhibiting cultural variability, West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Board (WBKVIB) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 15 of the culture and development boards set up by the government. Taking cognizance of each of these boards, the WBKVIB will set up folk art centers, where the tribal people will be able to display their traditional dress, weapons, musical instruments and other specialties.

India's CA Bhavani Devi won a silver medal in the sabre event of the Tournoi World Cup Satellite Fencing Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. Bhavani Devi had won a gold medal at the Reykjavik tournament last year to become the first Indian to do so in an international fencing event. The Tamil Nadu fencer defeated USA's Alexis Browne in the final.

Indian athletes have proved that competing against them is not an easy task. Grabbing the maiden title, Prajnesh Gunneswaran clinched his first ever singles title on the ATP Challenger circuit when he downed Egypt's Mohammed Safwat in the final of the Kunming Open in Anning. Ranking at the 260th position, the 28-year-old Chennai lad earned 125 points which are likely to help him jump more than 80 places when the new ranking chart. India will now have three players inside top-200 as Prajnesh is expected to be around 175. Yuki Bhambri leads the chart for the country at number 83 and is followed by Ramkumar Ramanathan (115).