Current Affairs - September 8, 2018 Current Affairs

The Union Government has appointed former Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan as the head of the panel that has been tasked with selecting India's next chief economic advisor (CEA). The panel will screen the applications received and conduct interviews. The move comes two months after the government sought applications for the post after previous CEA Arvind Subramanian resigned from office.

Google announced launch of a new artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to curb online spreading of contents involving child sexual abuse. The advanced AI technology uses deep neural networks for image processing that will enable identification of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. The new tool will be made available for free to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other industry partners through a new Content Safety API service.

International Literacy Day, celebrated annually on 8 September, is an opportunity for Governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the world's remaining literacy challenges. This year's theme is 'Literacy and skills development'.

The three-day World Hindu Congress has begun in Chicago, the USA. Over 2000 delegates from across the globe are participating in this mega event. The theme of World Hindu Congress is 'think collectively, achieve valiantly'.

Union Ministry of Human Resource Development launched the National Clean School Award 2018 prepared by National Institute of Cleanliness Education and Research (NICER). Puducherry tops the list of the rankings by having 7 schools in the award list for cleanliness.

Indian shooter Hriday Hazarika notched up a gold medal in the 10 m air rifle junior men's event of the ISSF World Championships in South Korea. Hazarika, the lone Indian to qualify for the final with a score of 627.3, was tied with Iran's Mohammed Amir Nekounam on 250.1 once the field was pruned to the regulation top eight.

Norway has built the world's tallest timber tower named Mjos Tower. It is environmentally friendly and fire resistant. It is situated near and named after a lake located about 100km north of Oslo. It has a height of 85.4 m and 18 floors.

A book named "Experiential Learning - Gandhiji's Nai Talim" (basic education) was released by Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar, on the occasion of National Teachers' Day. It is Developed by: Universities in the state, state SCERT (State Council of Educational Research and Training) and Mahatma Gandhi National Council of Rural Education (MGNCRE) and Launched in 13 languages: Assamese, Tamil, Bengali, Odiya, Kannada, Malyalam, Punjabi, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Urdu, Hindi and English.

Indian Air Force for the first time successfully conducted mid-air refuelling of Tejas MK I fighter jet by Indian Air Force's Russian built Il-78 tanker. Dry link up means no fuel was transferred between the 2 aircrafts. The tanker was launched from IAF's base in Agra while LCA Tejas fighter was launched from Gwalior. Nine more tests will be held including the wet tests where the actual transfer of fuel will take place.

Asia Index Pvt Ltd launched S&P BSE Private Banks Index to measure the performance of private banks. It is drawn from the constituents of the S&P BSE Finance Index, the Asia's oldest exchange. This index would measures the performance of private banks listed in India. The index is calculated in Indian Rupees and US Dollar and is calculated real-time by BSE.

Actor Akshay Kumar was made the first honorary ambassador of Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Foundation. Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Foundation was founded by the family of India's second Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. His grandson Vinamra Shastri, is the current president of the foundation. Akshay Kumar will support the 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' motto for the welfare of the soldier (jawan) and the farmer (kisan).

The Indian Navy has won the coveted KAKADU Cup 2018 in Australia while taking part in the KAKADU multilateral maritime exercise. It was held in the coast of Darwin with 3000 personnel from 27 countries. From the Indian side INS Sahyadri took part on the exercise.

State Bank of India (SBI) has appointed Anshula Kant as Managing Director of the Bank. She has been appointed to the post for 2 years. Prior this appointment, Kant was the bank's Deputy Managing Director. With this appointment, SBI now has four MDs - PK Gupta, DK Khara and Arijit Basu.

The Ministry of Defence announced the commencement of the Indo-Kazakhstan Joint Army Exercise 'KAZIND' between the Indian and Kazakhstan Army from 10 to 23 Sep 2018 in Otar region, Kazakhstan. This is the third joint military exercise between the two countries. The second edition was held in India in 2017.

According to the biennial Nuclear Security Index released by US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), India ranks 19th in the 'Theft Ranking' for countries with weapons usable nuclear materials. India has improved its ranking by one spot from 2016. Australia ( that topped in 2012, 2014, 2016) shares the top spot with Switzerland in 2018. They are followed by Canada, Germany and Japan. Finland, New Zealand, and Sweden tied for the top ranking among countries with less than one kilogram of or no weapons-usable nuclear materials.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched its first Trade Finance Scorecard, a new tool to address market and boost trade finance. It aims to prevent money-laundering and terrorism. It will open a channel of dialogue among stakeholders to prevent terror financing.