Current Affairs - August 5, 2018 Current Affairs

India's economy is expected to clock GDP growth of 7.5% in this financial year according to a Morgan Stanley report. The growth recovery will remain robust, supported initially by consumption and exports. In the January-March quarter, India's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at the fastest pace in seven quarters at 7.7% on robust performance by manufacturing and service sectors as well as good farm output. India's economy is expected to clock GDP growth of 7.5% in this financial year according to a Morgan Stanley report. The growth recovery will remain robust, supported initially by consumption and exports. In the January-March quarter, India's gross domestic product (GDP) grew at the fastest pace in seven quarters at 7.7% on robust performance by manufacturing and service sectors as well as good farm output.

Researchers from China have claimed to have created the world's first single-chromosome yeast while not affecting the majority of its functions. The researchers involved in the creation are molecular biologists from the Centre for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences in China.

Ten-year-old swimmer Clark Kent Apuada of California placed first in all seven events at the Far West International Swimming Championship and broke Olympian Michael Phelps record. In the 100 meter butterfly, he broke a record set by Olympian Michael Phelps at the same meet back in 1995. He broke the records by 1.1 seconds.

Bharti Airtel plans to provide optical fibre network in Tamil Nadu. Being the telecommunications provider, it aims to improve network connectivity in the State. Currently, Tamil Nadu has a fibre network for 14,000 km. With Bharti Airtel's plan for a rollout of 3,000 km of fresh optic fibre, it would touch 17,000 km in 2021. The company has planned to invest Rs. 24,000 crore to Rs. 26,000 crore pan-India in mobile network sites, capacities, fibre rollout and digitalisation among others.

World Health Organization (WHO) warned Yemen may be on the verge of another cholera epidemic, which could be deadlier than previous ones because of widespread malnutrition in the war-torn country. Since April 2017 to February 2018, more than 1,060,000 suspected cases of cholera and 2300 deaths have been reported in Yemen.

Mauritius-based SBM Group has received Reserve Bank of India's approval to operate in the country through a wholly-owned subsidiary route. It is the first foreign lender to receive such a licence after local incorporation was introduced in 2013.

Hindi Academy Delhi has given its highest Shalaka Samman for 2017-18 to bollywood lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar. He is a father of Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar. The scriptwriter, lyricist and poet has five National Awards for Best Lyricist to his name for works such as Border, Refugee and Lagaan. The lyricist has also been honoured with the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007. The lyricist has also been honoured with the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007.

The Supreme Court will have three serving women judges for the first time, after the Centre cleared the elevation of Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee. The other two judges are R Banumathi, appointed in August 2014, and Indu Malhotra, appointed in April 2018. Notably, SC will have a total of 22 male judges including two new male appointees.

Nepalese cricketer Rohit Kumar Paudel, aged 15 years and 335 days, has become the fourth youngest debutant in men's ODI cricket. Rohit made his debut against the Netherlands in the second ODI at the VRA Ground in Amstelveen.

Ranchi-based software developer Ranjit Srivastava is developing the world's first Hindi-speaking humanoid robot, claimed to cost just Rs50,000 so far. Named Rashmi, the AI-powered robot can also speak Bhojpuri, Marathi, and English, and is equipped with facial expressions and recognition systems. He was inspired to create Rashmi after seeing Hong Kong-made humanoid 'Sophia' in 2016.

Reserve Bank of India observed that a few Fino Payments Bank accounts had deposits in excess of the stipulated amount of ₹1 lakh. According to RBI's operating guidelines for payments banks, a customer can make deposits of up to ₹1 lakh per account in a year. Such banks cannot accept deposits beyond this limit. RBI has imposed similar restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank (on June 20) and Airtel Payments Bank (in January) which are also not able to on-bard new customers.

The commerce and industry ministry joined hands with Invest India to offer its three-month programme 'Integrate to Innovate' for startups in the sector. This programme would be carried out by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP). The selected start-ups will receive a cash prize grant of up to Rs 5 lakh along with an opportunity to pilot their product with corporates. The corporates would offer them access to technology, technical and commercial mentorship and access to customers through networks. Innovators across various stages of energy life-cycle : generation, transmission and distribution, storage and consumption and in multiple sectors such as households, farm, industry, infrastructure, building, utility and transport are invited.

Gautam Adani's group won the gas distribution network auctions. It gained rights to sell Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in 11 cities, including Allahabad. In the country's biggest City Gas Distribution (CGD) Adani won 6 cities on its own and another 5 in joint ventures with state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC).

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu launched a logo and tagline for Geographical Indications (GI) to increase awareness about intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the country. The slogan for the GI tag is- 'Invaluable Treasures of Incredible India'. A GI product is primarily an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicraft and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory.

Seven Indian companies have been listed in Fortune's 500 list 2018 of world biggest corporations. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is the highest ranked company from India followed by RIL which jumped 55 places. The US-based retail company, Walmart has topped the list. IOC ranked 137th in 2018 with a significant jump from 168th position from 2017. RIL is the top private sector company in India. It ranked 148th in 2018 from 203rd from 2017. ONGC ranked 197th in 2018 which not even featured in 2017. SBI got 216th rank 1 place higher than 217th in 2017.