Current Affairs - September 26, 2018 Current Affairs

Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal inaugurated the two-day National Orientation workshop on National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA). This workshop was organized by Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. It is a part of the e-Vishan mission on 'One Nation One Application' and the project cost is : Rs.739 Crore (approx.). The mNeVA (NeVA-mobile app) is a user friendly app that provides information on conduct of business in Legislatures accessible anytime, anywhere to everyone. The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, being the Nodal Ministry for the project of e-Vidhan aims to roll out NeVA in 40 Houses including two Houses of Parliament.

ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India's maiden interplanetary mission, has completed four years orbiting around the red planet. MOM was launched on November 5, 2013, and it placed itself into the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014. The designed mission life of MOM was six months. But it has been sending scientific data for four years. The Mars colour camera has acquired over 980 images so far. With the information collected by MOM, the scientists can now prepare a global atlas of Mars successfully.

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha in New Delhi. This emphasized India's diversity and multiculturalism. Its main goal is to improve Hindi literacy among the non-Hindi speaking people of South India.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved procurement of 1,000 engines for fitment in T-72 tanks of the Army at an approximate cost of over 2,300 crore rupees. According to the Defence Ministry, the engines will enhance mobility, agility and acceleration of T-72 tanks making them more versatile and effective in the battlefield. Post-transfer of technology, most of these engines will be manufactured by Ordnance Factories Board. The DAC has also approved several amendments to Defence Procurement Procedure 2016, the manual governing the defence procurements.

Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance and National Informatics Centre (NIC) have jointly developed a mobile app called Jan Dhan Darshak as a part of financial inclusion (FI) initiative. This app will act as a guide for the common people in locating a financial service touch point at a given location in the country. While over 5 lakh FI touch points (Bank branches, ATMs, Post Offices) have been mapped on this App, approx. 1.35 lakh Bank Mitras would be on-boarded by 01.12.2018. Phone number of bank branches are available in the app, with the facility of call button for integrated dialling.

Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest and Climate change, Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurated air pollution control device WAYU(Wind Augmentation PurifYing Unit) for traffic junctions at ITO intersection and Mukarba Chowk in Delhi. WAYU is developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) as a part of Technology Development Project being funded by Department of Science and Technology. This device can purify the air in an area of 500 square meters. 54 more such devices will be installed by 15th October in Delhi.

International Day of Sign Languages was celebrated by Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on 23 September 2018. International Day of Sign Languages is celebrated annually across the world on 23 September every year. The theme of International Day of Sign Languages is "With Sign Language, Everyone is Included!".

Human Capital rank the countries for their levels of spending on education and health care. The study, conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the request of the World Bank, is the first of its kind to measure and compare the strength of countries' "human capital". The study places Finland at the top followed by Iceland and Denmark. India ranks 158th in the world for its investments in education and health care, according to the first-ever scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital. The nation is placed behind Sudan (ranked 157th) and ahead of Namibia (ranked 159th) in the list.

Technology giant Google has appointed its privacy lawyer, Keith Enright, as Chief Privacy Officer as the company proposed policies for potential federal regulation of data. In his new role, Enright will be in charge of crafting Google's strategy on privacy issues. Before Google, Enright worked as the Chief Privacy Officer at Macy's and was also a senior consultant at IBM.

India has recently celebrated the 100 years of Battle of Haifa with a grand function in New Delhi on September 23, 2018. It is being commemorated in Israel, Delhi and Jaipur. On this day, in 1918, the Indian soldiers from the Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur Lancers liberated the strategically important city of Haifa, known for its deep water bay in the eastern Mediterranean. The sacrifice made by the Indian soldiers is honoured and memorialized in 7 cemeteries across Israel, from Jerusalem to Haifa. Close to 900 Indian soldiers are buried in these cemeteries, which act as an immortal testimonial for their heroism. The Indian Army commemorates September 23 every year as Haifa Day to pay its respects to the two brave Indian Cavalry Regiments "Mysore and Jodhpur Lancers" that helped liberate the city following a dashing cavalry action by the 15th Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade.

B. S. Mubarak was appointed as next Ambassador of India to Republic of Guatemala. Presently he is the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He would be replacing Mr. Rajeev Babu Kurup who has been the ambassador of India to Guatemala since 2015.

Reserve Bank shortlisted five IT firms for implementation of a centralised information and management system (CIMS) for data collection. The 5 IT firms are: Infosys, TCS, Capgemini, IBM, Larsen & Turbo Infotech. The CIMS would consist of System driven data validation and data review, Overhauling the Data Warehouse (DW) of RBI, Data safekeeping and storage, Providing data dissemination platform and Centralised analytics platform to facilitate creation of RBI Data Sciences Lab.

ICICI Prudential Life inked a pact with Saraswat Bank to offer insurance products. This includes 280 branches of Saraswat Bank in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. ICICI Pru iProtect Smart, ICICI Pru Heart / Cancer Protect, ICICI Pru Future Perfect, ICICI Pru Savings Suraksha and ICICI Pru Cash Advantage.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) landed a pair of rovers on an asteroid, marking the world's first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface. The two rovers Hayabusa2 managed to land on the asteroid are expected to take advantage of the low gravity and jump around the surface, reaching heights of up to 15 meters. The small compact MINERVA-II1(MIcro Nano Experimental Robot Vehicle for Asteroid, the second generation) rovers separated from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The MINERVA-II 1 consists of two rovers, Rover-1A and Rover-1B. The Hayabusa2 probe was launched in December 2014 to explore the surface of the asteroid known as Ryugu. If all goes well, the Hayabusa2 will return to earth with soil and rock samples in 2020.

Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) has now become second largest metro rail network in India. It is also the world's largest metro project under the public-private-partnership (PPP) model. The Hyderabad metro now has an operational network of 45 km. Delhi Metro Rail with an operational network of over 350kms is the largest metro rail network in India.