Current Affairs - May 24, 2018 Current Affairs

Minister for Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi presented the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar 2017 to the members of the INSV Tarini team in New Delhi. The Six-member all-women team led by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi have received the Puraskar from the Minister. The crew of the Indian Navy Sailing Vessel 'Tarini' is a part of the Indian Navy's unique project 'Navika SagarParikrama', an all-women team circumnavigating the globe, promoting ocean sailing activities in the Navy and depicting Government of India'scommitment towards women empowerment.

India rose one place to 44th this year in the global competitive rankings out of 63 countries that were ranked by the IMD World Competitiveness Center. India started from the 40th position in 2013 and dropped to the 44th rank in 2014. India's rank remained at 44 in 2015 and jumped four places to 41 in 2016, dropping to 45 in 2017, and rising to 44 in 2018. In contrast, China bagged the 13th rank in 2018 as compared to the 18th rank in 2016.

The California based giant software company Adobe announced its acquisition of Magento for USD 1.68 billion. Magentowas founded in 2008 and had been earlier acquired by eBay in 2011 first and then went private in 2015. it works in B2B and B2C context and will help Adobe to compete with salesforce and provide functionality in e-commerce space. It works in B2B and B2C context and will help Adobe to compete with salesforce and provide functionality in e-commerce space.

Gobind Singh Deo, an Indian-origin lawyer and politician in Malaysia has become the first Sikh in Malaysia to be appointed as a Cabinet minister. Gobind Singh Deo is 44 years old. He has been allotted the communications and multimedia portfolio. Another Indian-origin lawmaker M Kulasegaran from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) has been made the human resource minister in the Cabinet by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

The United Kingdom's National Crime Agency (NCA) has placed Pakistan among the top three sources for money laundering in the United Kingdom. Nigeria and Russia are the other two countries in the top 3 sources of money laundering in UK. The NCA report states that the UK is a major destination for foreign corrupt and politically exposed people to launder money. It has identified trade misinvoicing as one of the major mechanisms used for such operations. NCA had produced a report named "National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organized Crime 2018".

BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) plans to launch Americas Regional Office in Brazil. It is done to increase the operational capabilities of NDB in Brazil. This will help in identification and preparation of bankable projects in Brazil.

Joint Military Exercise SURYA KIRAN-XIII between India and Nepal will be conducted at Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. The exercise will comprise of nearly 300 soldiers from both Indian and Nepal Army who would be sharing their experiences gained during the conduct of various counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in the past. Exercise SURYA KIRAN is a biannual event which is conducted alternatively in Nepal and India. The aim of this exercise is to conduct battalion level joint training with emphasis on counter-terrorism operations in mountainous terrain.

Leading digital financial services platform, MobiKwik, announced the launch of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on its platform via its own Virtual payment address (VPA) handle @ikwik. MobiKwik's users can, by default, use their mobile number as their own VPA which will be '@ikwik'. MobiKwik is the first in the industry to offer UPI access to a huge base of three million merchants on its app. It also be able to link multiple bank accounts with just one VPA and users can change primary account as per their requirements.

Tripura state Government announced that 10% of all police force will be reserved for women. This decision was taken with close observation to Supreme Court's decision with the Nirbhaya gang rape case of 2012 and will be subjected to increase in future if necessary. In the state at present out of 26,000 police personnel there are 1,200 women. Seven all-women police stations across the state, including two in Agartala has been set up. Apart from this a PRAYAAS committeein every police station consisting of former policemen, veterans and politicians has been formed to deal with policing.

NITI Aayog and Sushant Singh Rajput have decided to collaborate towards promoting two major initiatives of NITI Aayog, promotion of BHIM and the Women Entrepreneurship Platform. Mr Rajput had entered into an agreement with NITI Aayog. The agreement would be signed by Shri Rajput with Ms Anna Roy, Adviser, NITI Aayog in the presence of Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog.

Harry Kane was announced as England's captain at the World Cup in Russia. Harry Kane is 24 years old. He has scored 12 goals in 23 international appearances. He first captained England in the last summer's 2-2 World Cup qualifier in Scotland.

The Prime Minister of India Shri. Narendra Modi met the President of Russia Mr. Vladmir Putin for the first informal summit in the city of Sochi, Russia. Talks ofcounter terrorism, strategic partnership for global peace and stability, to continue working though the multilateral organizations like UN, SCO, BRICS and G-20. Agreement for strategic economic dialogue between NITI Aaoygand Russia's Ministry of Economic Development for better trade and investment. Agreement on the first consignment of LNG under a long-term agreement between Gazprom and GAIL.

IOS will now manage their endorsements, appearances, brand profiling, patents, licensing and digital rights, images, and visibility on social networking sites, the company stated in a media release. It will be managing their brand portfolio and commercial activities in a professional way. With this deal, Manika and Mirabai join the likes of boxing stars MC Mary Kom, Vijender Singh and Saina Nehwal on the IOS roster.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will begin its operations in Nagayalanka block in Krishna District of Andra Pradesh. This will be inaugurated by ONGC CMD Mr. Shashi Shankerin the site near the Bhavadevarapalli Village. This Early production System (EPS)will cost Rs. 6804 crore. For environmental protection an amount of Rs. 340 crore has been spent. The ONGC initially targeted developing of three wells and one EPS, whose handling capacity is drilling of 379 cum/per dayof crude oil and 0.145 Million Standard cubic feet of gas per day.

Swraj Paul is the founder of Caparo Group of industries. The Awards ceremony was organised by World Consulting and Research Corporation (WCRC). Swraj Paul was presented the award by the Deputy High Commissioner of India to the UK, Dinesh K Patnaik. Dinesh K Patnaik was also honoured as an "iconic leader". Business Leader of the Decade honour was presented to Indian-origin, Lord Karan Bilimoria, who is the founder of Cobra Beer.

Bank Of Baroda has signed agreement with CDSL Commodity Repository (CCRL). This agreement is for pledge financeunder the repository ecosystem for registered/accredited warehouses. The new ecosystem will boost confidence among bankers and other stakeholders like depositors and warehouse service providers. BOB becomes the firstpublic sector bank to become the repository participant.