Current Affairs - April 1, 2019 Current Affairs

Rajasthan Day is celebrated on 30th March every year on which the state Rajasthan came into existence as it was previously known as Rajputana. On 30th March 1949, the state was formed.

The Election Commission of India appointed Additional Director-General of Police Kumar Viswajeet as Intelligence Chief for Andhra Pradesh. A 1994 batch IPS officer, Mr. Viswajeet, is presently Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Level Police Recruitment Board (APSLPRB). He will take charge immediately. The top post fell vacant with the Election Commission transferring former Intelligence DG, A.B. Venkateswara Rao. The Intelligence wing plays a key role in guiding the police and the election authorities on mobilisation of forces in critical and cut-off villages.

China's Shanghai claimed to have the world's first district with 5G coverage and a broadband gigabit network. It has conducted trial runs of the 5G network. The trial runs of the 5G network started in Shanghai's Hongkou district. 5G base stations had been deployed over the last three months to ensure full coverage in Hongkou.

Lawyer Zuzana Caputova(45) won Slovakia's presidential election and become Slovakia's first female president. She will succeed Andrej Kiska. She was honoured with the Goldman Environmental Award in 2016 for her strong and resolute leadership regarding the Pezinok landfill affair, Caputova.

For the first time in Meghalaya, braille-enabled ballot papers will be made available at all polling booths. The ballot paper pasted on the EVMs will have the names and symbol of candidates in braille alphabets. The move will facilitate more than 800 visually impaired electorates to vote by a secret ballot.

Rear Admiral Suraj Berry has been appointed as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet. He will succeed Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, who will be the next (24th) chief of naval staff. He was commissioned on 1st January 1987 and is a specialist in Gunnery and Missile Warfare. He has experience as a Commanding officer in the missile vessel INS Nirbhik, missile corvette INS Karmuk, stealth frigate INS Talwar, and the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. Also, He is a recipient of the Vishisht Seva Medal in 2006 for the Tsunami Relief operations in Sri Lanka/ Maldives and the Nau Sena Medal in 2015. Under his supervision, Eastern Fleet participated in various bilateral exercises, like INDRA-18 with the Russian Navy, the 25th edition of SIMBEX with the Singapore Navy and JIMEX-18 with the Japanese Navy.

Fighter pilot Air Marshal Navkaranjit Singh Dhillon has been appointed as the new Strategic Forces Command Chief. He will succeed Jasbir Walia. He was born in 1961 in Amritsar. He has experience as a Commanding officer in MiG-21 Sqn and as a Chief Operational Officer of a premier flying base. The Strategic Forces Command (SFC) was created on 4th January 2003, by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government to look after the strategic nuclear arsenal of the country and it is a part of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) which is headed by PM Narendra Modi.

In a first, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) opened a visitors' gallery with 5,000 capacity at Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota island. The gallery has a clear line of sight to two launch pads and large screens to explain launcher and satellite features. This comes as ISRO is launching defence satellite EMISAT along with 28 foreign satellites on April 1, 2019.

Viktor Axelsen of Denmark defeated India's Srikanth Kidambi to win in men's singles category. The 2019 India Open, officially the YONEX-SUNRISE India Open 2019, was a badminton tournament which took place at K. D. Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi, India and had a total purse of $350,000.

Switzerland's Roger Federer defeats USA's John Isner in straight sets to lift his 101st career title at the Miami Open 2019. Federer is now behind only America's Jimmy Connors with 109 career singles titles. Roger Federer has lifted his fourth title at the Miami Open. It is Swiss player's 28th Masters' title and the 101st overall for a player who has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles. Winners of Miami Open 2019: Men's singles: Switzerland Roger Federer Women's singles: Australia Ashleigh Barty Men's doubles: United States Bob Bryan, United States Mike Bryan Women's doubles: Belgium Elise Mertens, Belarus Aryna Sabalen.

An alumnus of National Defence Academy, Rear Admiral Mahesh Singh takes charge as the Flag Officer Commanding Karnataka Naval Area. Mahesh Singh is a post graduate from Defence Services Staff College and he had headed Navigation and Direction School at Kochi and the Maritime Warfare Centre at Vishakhapatnam. He was a commissioned into the Indian Navy in January 1987 and he is a recipient of the Nao Sena Medal.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched a Defence Intelligence Satellite, EMISAT in its 47th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission, along with 28 other customer satellites, onboard the advanced PSLV-C45 Rocket. The PSLV C45 was launched from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. It is the first time ISRO is launching satellites in three different orbits. Along with that, the PSLV-C45 launch vehicle is also the first PSLV rocket to use four strap-on motors.

Assam filmmaker Rima Das has been appointed as the official ambassador of Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)'s 'Share Her Journey' campaign. TIFF launched the five years 'Share Her Journey' campaign in 2017 with an aim to increase participation, skills, and opportunities for women behind and in front of the camera. She has won several national and international awards for her film 'Village Rockstars', which is India's official entry to Oscars 2019 and Dublin Film Critics Circle Jury Award for Best Director of her film 'Bulbul Can Sing'.Recently Rima Das was honoured with ICC NE Excellence Award by Indian Chamber of Commerce at North East Business Summit at Hotel Le Meridien in New Delhi.

The Reserve Bank set the average base rate to be charged from borrowers by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) at 9.21% for the first quarter of the next fiscal (April-June). The regulator in February 2014 had issued directions to NBFC-MFIs regarding pricing of credit.

84th Establishment Day of RBI is 1st April 2019. The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935, in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. The bank was established on the recommendation of the Hilton Young Commission. The Central Office of the Reserve Bank was initially established in Calcutta but was permanently moved to Mumbai in 1937. The Central Office is where the Governor sits and where policies are formulated. Though originally privately owned, since nationalisation in 1949, the Reserve Bank is fully owned by the Government of India. The Reserve Bank's affairs are governed by a central board of directors. The board is appointed by the Government of India in keeping with the Reserve Bank of India Act.

Reserve Bank of India received a huge response for introducing a $5-billion swap facility for the banks to facilitate permanent liquidity support.To ease the liquidity crunch, Reserve Bank of India will buy dollars from banks for three years and offer them rupees in return, which will bulk up the central bank's foreign-exchange reserves while injecting cash into the banking system.Banks offered $16.31 billion at the auction against the notified amount of $5 billion for the rupee-dollar swaps and out of this $16.31 billion received via 240 offers by market participants, the RBI accepted $5.02 billion via 89 offers.

Executive Director of ICICI Bank, Vijay Chandok has been appointed as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities, a subsidiary of ICICI bank. He will succeed Shilpa Naval Kumar. At present, he is on the boards of ICICI Bank UK PLC and ICICI Bank Canada and is the Chairman of ICICI Investment Management Company. Under his leadership, ICICI Bank has won several awards including 'India's Best Bank in SME Financing' (private sector) in 2008 by Dun & Bradstreet and 'Excellence in SME Banking in Asia Pacific, Central Asia and Gulf Region' in 2009 by the Asian Banker Award.

India was defeated by the South Korea in the penalty shootout of the final of Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2019. 17th Ranked South Korea defeated World number 5, India to won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup which was held at Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia.

A multi-disciplinary terror monitoring group (MDTMG) has been set up by the Government to ensure synergized and collective action against terror financing and terror-related activities in Jammu and Kashmir. his group will have representatives from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Intelligence Bureau, CBI, NIA, and Income Tax Department. Also, It will take action against hardcore sympathizers among government employees, including teachers, who are providing support to terror activities and investigate the network of various channels being used to fund terror and terror-related activities and take coordinated action to stop the flow of such funds.

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited has delivered its 100th Warship which is a Landing Craft Utility, L-56, to the Indian Navy today. This has made GRSE the first Indian Shipyard to make and deliver 100 warships to the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Mauritius Coast Guard. The 100th Warship, IN LCU L-56 was handed over by Rear Admiral V. K. Saxena, Chairman & Managing Director, GRSE to Lt. Cdr. Gopinath Narayanan, Commanding Officer of the Ship.