Current Affairs - April 20, 2019 Current Affairs

Bank of Baroda and city-based Srei Equipment Finance Ltd will collaborate to offer joint loans for infrastructure equipment under a new agreement.This collaboration will allow both Srei and Bank of Baroda to cooperate and widen their respective markets and customer base.Sourcing of loans will be facilitated through iQuippo, which is a Kanoria Foundation initiative.

Padma Bhushan awardee Yusuf Hamied (8B) who is the chairman of Cipla pharmaceutical company was honoured in the 2019 list of new fellows of the UK's Royal Society. It is an independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth, for promoting excellence in science. He was born on 25th July 1936 in Vilnius, Lithuania, raised in Mumbai and known for his effort to produce low-cost drugs to treat diabetes, cancer and other diseases. The UK Royal Society elected 51 eminent scientists as Fellows of the Royal Society.

Recently, The Union External Affairs Ministry also appointed Suhel Ajaz Khan as the Ambassador to Lebanon. Khan is presently serving as India's Deputy Chief of Mission in Saudi Arabia.

WHO has released New Guidelines on 10 Ways to Use Digital Health Technology to Boost People's Health. The guidelines were based on a 2-year-long research study by WHO on digital technologies which was inclusive of consultations with global experts. It demonstrates that health systems need to provide response for the increasing availability of information. People should be assured of their own data being secure and not be put at risk because of their access to information on sensitive health issues such as sexual and reproductive health issues, thus in turn protecting individual's privacy.

NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Cassini spacecraft has made an incredible observation about the extraordinary deep lakes filled with methane in the Saturn's moon, Titan. This new study has been published in the scientific journal Astronomy.Titan, Saturn's largest moon has methane rain that can fill lakes as much as 330 feet deep.Titan has become only planetary body known to have stable liquid on its surface, apart from Earth.

NASA's first female astronaut candidate, pilot Jerrie Cobb, has recently died. Cobb died in Florida at age 88 last month. News of her death came on April 18, 2019 from journalist Miles O'Brien, serving as a family spokesman. In year 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all jet test pilots and all military men. None of the Mercury 13 ever reached space, despite Cobb's testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel.

Ajay V Nayak, The Election Commission has appointed Ajay V Nayak, ex-Bihar chief electoral officer, as the Special Observer for West Bengal.The first phase polls held in April 11 in Cooch Behar and Alipurpur constituencies. Polls in the remaining 40 constituencies will be held in six phases.

INS Kolkata and Shakti are scheduled to participate in the International Fleet Review in Qingdao, China as part of 70th Anniversary celebrations of People's Liberation Army Navy (PLA Navy). International Fleet Review (IFR) is a parade of naval ships, aircraft and submarines, and is organised by nations to promote goodwill, strengthen cooperation and showcase their organisational capabilities.

Union cabinet approved the sanction of Rs 4315.15 crore for the 158 Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) for implementation of reservation in admission to students belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS). The Rajya Sabha on January 9 approved amending the Constitution to provide 10% reservation to general category poor in jobs and education, with the government terming the landmark move as "slog over sixes". The quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). With the approval of the Cabinet, over 2 lakh additional seats will be created in 158 Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) across the country to implement 10% reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). while 1,19,983 additional seats will be created during 2019-20 academic session, 95,783 seats will be added in 2020-21.

Former Cricketer Ravi Shastri appointed as Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) exclusive Corporate Ambassador to the Indian Business Community. Brand Ambassador may attract more Indian business leaders to set up or expand their operations in UAE through RAKEZ. This first-of-its-kind approach is one of the many other initiatives that RAKEZ will be launching in the future to attract more investors from all over the world and boost the economic growth of Ras Al Khaimah.

Deutsche Bank appointed Kaushik Shaparia as the chief executive officer for India to succeed Ravneet Gill. Gill left the bank to head private lender YES Bank. Shaparia's appointment will be effective from May 2019. Shaparia served as Asia Pacific Head of Corporate Banking Coverage within Institutional and Treasury Coverage, as well as Global Head of Subsidiary Coverage and has a 30-year experience at the bank.

Professor Gagandeep Kang has become the first Indian female scientist to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in the UK fellowship's 358-year-history. The 56-year-old is the Executive Director of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute at Faridabad. Other notable FRS inducted in 2019 include Fields Medal-winning mathematicians Akshay Venkatesh and Manjul Bhargava.

CRISIL Ltd, a diversified global analytics company, will transfer its rating business to its proposed new wholly-owned subsidiary. The board of CRISIL gave the nod for the transfer, which is being done to comply with SEBI norms of 2018. Earlier, SEBI had modified its regulations for credit rating agencies and mandated the segregation of rating and non-ratings businesses of credit-rating agencies. CRISIL proposes to undertake the transfer of its ratings business through a scheme of arrangement in terms of Section 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013, to be approved by the stock exchanges and the National Company Law Tribunal.

The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has imposed a fine of 170,000 Euros on Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) for not honouring the Pro League commitments and has given PHF a time-limit till 20th June, on failure of which PHF would have to pay double of penalty.The PHF was fined because it did not send the national team for the Pro League matches in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand.Shahbaz notified that since PHF lacks funds, the FIH has been requested to reduce the fine and allow it to be paid in instalments. PHF Secretary General Shahbaz Ahmed is a former Olympian and captain of Pakistan National Hockey Team and is a member of the FIH Executive Board, chaired by India's Narinder Batra.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the test-firing of a new type of "tactical guided weapon", as per a report by the country's state media on April 17, 2019. The report stated that the advantages of the weapon include the peculiar mode of guiding flight and the load of a powerful warhead.

India and France are all set to hold their largest-ever naval exercise with aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines and fighters early May as part of their expanding strategic partnership. The exercise has been christened 'Varuna' and will take place off Goa and Karwar from 1 May 2019. The conduct of Varuna exercise was reiterated in the Joint Statement made by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France, on the 10th of March 2018. The two countries will be deploying their aircraft carriers INS Vikramaditya and FNS Charles de gaulle with their Mig-29K and Rafale-M naval fighter jets. The Indian participation will also include the destroyer INS Mumbai, frigate INS Trikand with their integral helicopters, IN submarine Kalvari, P8-I aircrafts and Dornier Maritime Patrol aircraft.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that astronaut Christina Koch is going to have her mission on the International Space Station (ISS) extended to 328 days. She would set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, breaking the old one of 288 days set by retired astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17.

Jaideep Sarkar has been appointed as India's next High Commissioner to South Africa. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly. Sarkar, a 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently serving as India's ambassador in Bhutan. He served in Indian Missions in Tokyo, Seoul and Bangladesh as well.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notified that Exim Bank has proffered soft loans worth 266.6$ million to Rwanda for various projects. The funding for the projects has been done in 3 distinct tranches. The projects are for supporting agricultural projects; for the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs); for financing road projects in Rwanda. Exim Bank, according to the agreement will provide $100 million to finance the development of 2 SEZs, as well as for the expansion of the Kigali SEZ in Rwanda.

India's Bajrang Punia has regained the world number one spot in the men's 65-kilogram freestyle category rankings. The rankings were released by United World Wrestling. Punia, who won Gold in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games as well as a silver in the World Championships in 2018, secured 58 points ahead of Akhmed Chakaev of Russia.