Current Affairs - April 25, 2019 Current Affairs

Gomathi Marimuthu from Tamil Nadu has clinched India's first Gold in the women's 800m race at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. Gomathi clocked a personal best time of 2 minute 02.70 seconds in the half mile event to win a surprise gold for India. Then, Asian Games champion Tajinder Pal Toor added the 2nd gold medal to India's tally by clinching the top spot in the podium in men's shot put with a season's best throw of 20.22 metres. While Shivpal Singh added a silver in men's javelin throw by sending the spear to a distance of 86.23m, his personal best. In the process, Shivpal also booked a berth for the World Championships to be held at the same venue in September-October as he crossed the qualifying mark of 83m.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its in-principle approval to Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd for acquiring 9.9 per cent stake in Bandhan Bank following the Gruh Finance deal. Gruh Finance, the affordable housing finance arm of HDFC Ltd, was taken over by Bandhan Bank in a share-swap deal in January. After the deal was announced, HDFC made an application to the RBI for holding shares in Bandhan Bank. Recently RBI gave its approval to HDFC to acquire the shareholding of up to 9.9 per cent of the paid-up capital of Bandhan Bank upon the effective date of the scheme of amalgamation.

Indian School of Business (ISB) signed a MoU with Moscow School of Management, Skolkovo, on 22 April 2019. As per of the MoU signed, the two schools agreed to conduct joint educational modules, exchange faculty and research staff, organise joint events, academic research and other initiatives. Both schools have agreed to work on areas related to executive education and family business.

Pakistan Navy on April 23, 2019 successfully test-fired an indigenous cruise missile in the Arabian Sea, the navy said. The indigenously developed cruise missile has anti-ship missile and land attack capability. The missile reportedly hit its target accurately on land signifying the impressive capabilities of the indigenous missile system.

A team led by an Indian American student has been chosen by NASA to have their CubeSat a mini research satellite to detect cosmic rays flown into space on future missions of the US space agency. The researchers from the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association (YUAA), led by 21-year-old Keshav Raghavan, are among the 16 teams across the country whose CubeSats will be flown into space on missions planned to launch in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

The Madras high court on April 24, 2019 lifted the ban on Chinese short-video app 'TikTok'. ikTok, a platform for short-form mobile videos, allows users to create and share short videos with special effects. The app became hugely popular in India but was criticised by some politicians who say its content is inappropriate.

Russia has successfully tested the world's first floating nuclear power plant (NPP), Akademik Lomonosov. Reactors of the floating atomic block were launched in November 2018. The tests confirmed the operational stability of the main and auxiliary equipment for the plant will be the world's first fully commercial operational floating nuclear power plant. All automatic process and control systems were tested successfully.Akademik Lomonosov was built at a shipyard in St.Petersburg since 2008 and was last summer towed around Scandinavia to Murmansk where the uranium fuel elements were loaded into the two reactors and testing now has been going on for nearly a year.

The UN English Language Day is observed every year on 23rd of April to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. For the English language, 23 April was chosen because it is the date traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare.

National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved merger of private sector lender IndusInd Bank with Bharat Financial Inclusion (BFIL), a microfinance company. Last year, IndusInd Bank received 'No Objection' from Reserve Bank of India, National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange As per the report, the merger is expected to complete within 2-4 weeks. IndusInd Bank Ltd's share price is currently at Rs1,686.85, up by Rs32.25 or 1.95%, from its previous close of Rs1,654.60 on the BSE. The current market cap of the company is Rs 99,750.17crores.

The 'Utkarsh Bangla' scheme of the West Bengal government has won the prestigious 2019 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award of the United Nations. The scheme aims to create a pool of skilled candidates industry ready. Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories from all over the world, Utkarsh Bangla emerged No 1 in the Capacity Building category to win this prestigious award of WSIS. Earlier, in 2017, the West Bengal government had received another UN award for its 'Kanyashree' project, a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls. WSIS Prizes is an international contest to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.

Kotak Mahindra Bank is the first debit card based authentication solution on NPCI's (National Payments Corporation of India) e-Mandate (electronic mandate) API (Application Program Interface) platform first ever Destination Bank to go live with both Net Banking and Debit Card-based e-mandate authentication. The main objective of this initiative is to enable Kotak customers to create electronic mandates (similar to the former eNACH with Aadhaar + OTP) (eNACH- Electronic National Automated Clearing House; OTP- One Time Password) via both debit card and net banking provision. As API based e-mandates are customer-friendly, fast, frictionless and paperless, the initiative would help in making its customers' lives hassle free for handling recurring payments.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs distributed over 3,100 special kits Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kits (SAECKs) to carry out immediate investigations into sexual assault cases among states and Union Territories. It is expected that SAECKs can be used for collecting blood and semen samples, besides other evidence which can be used for investigation purpose. SAECKs are specially designed kits to carry out the immediate medico-legal investigation. The kit comprises of a set of test tubes and bottles, which mention contents and specifications together with instructions on collection of evidence from the crime scene.

The Government of Malawi has launched the pilot tests for the world's first malaria vaccine - RTS,S (or Mosquirix) -to give partial protection to children up to 2 years of age. The other two African countries - Ghana and Kenya - will introduce the vaccine in the coming weeks. This move is part of World Health Organization (WHO)-coordinated three country pilot programme where the risk of malaria is high and there has been previous success with other childhood vaccines. It aims to reach 360,000 children per year across the three countries. The vaccine has been developed by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in partnership with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative. According to WHO, Malaria kills some 435,000 people around the world each year, the majority of them children. Most of these deaths are in Africa, where more than 250,000 children die from the disease every year.

The UAE Space Agency and Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) have announced that 85 percent of the Hope Probe project has been completed. Hope Probe is an ambitious dream project of UAE to send a mission to Mars.

After being ranked number one in the NIRF Rankings 2019 under the management category, IIM Bangalore has added another feather to its cap. Its Post Graduate Programme in Enterprise Management (PGPEM) has been ranked 12th in APAC and 61st globally in the QS Executive MBA Rankings 2019. IIM-B has become the only B-school in India to be a part of top 100 B-Schools globally and ranks 12th in APAC.

In a first, the Indian Army on April 25, 2019 began online registration of women for recruitment as soldiers into the military police. The recruitment for 'Soldier General Duty (Women Military Police)' was mooted by the Army Chief General Bipin Rawat soon after he took over the post. The approval for the creation of the post came recently by the Defence Ministry.

UNICEF is launching a new global campaign on 24 April, called #Vaccineswork. The objective of the campaign is to emphasize the power and safety of vaccines among parents and wider social media users. The campaign will be running alongside World Immunization Week from 24 to 30 April to spread the message that together communities, including parents, can protect everyone through vaccines. #VaccinesWork has long been used to bring together immunization advocates online. This year, UNICEF is partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organization (WHO), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to encourage even greater reach.

World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines for children under five years of age, recently. As per WHO guidelines, children under five must spend less time sitting watching screens, or restrained in prams and seats, get better quality sleep and have more time for active play if they are to grow up healthy. The new guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age were developed by a WHO panel of experts. They assessed the effects on young children of inadequate sleep, and time spent sitting watching screens or restrained in chairs and prams. They also reviewed evidence around the benefits of increased activity levels.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he would name a new community in the Golan Heights after US President Donald Trump, who officially recognised the disputed area as Israeli territory. Israel has also stated that in appreciation of the U.S. president, it intends to name a proposed train station near Jerusalem's Western Wall after him.