Current Affairs - September 11, 2019 Current Affairs

Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has launched Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS) Services at the first anniversary of its business operations. With this, IPPB became the single largest platform in the country for providing interoperable banking services to the customers of any bank including the 34 crore Jan Dhan account holders. With the help of AEPS services anyone with a bank account linked to Aadhaar can carry out basic banking services like cash withdrawals and balance enquiry irrespective of the bank they hold their account with. Thus, it will benefit the unbanked and underbanked customers and help in doorstep banking access to millions of underbanked customers. In August 2019, the transaction value of AePS stood at Rs. 10,034.12 crores.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana on the 12th of September at Ranchi, Jharkhand.The Scheme shall secure the lives of 5 Crore Small and Marginal Farmers by providing a minimum pension of Rs 3000 per month to attain 60 years of age.The scheme has an outlay of Rs 10,774 Crores for the next three years.The small and marginal farmers who are currently between the ages of 18 to 40 years can apply for the scheme.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman constituted a task force headed by Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Mr Atanu Chakraborty for drawing up National Infrastructure Pipeline of Rs 100 lakh crore ($1.4 trillion) from the fiscal year 2019-20 to 2024-25.

The Union government recently constituted a 3-member committee chaired by former defence secretary Sanjay Mitra to oversee the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) into two Union Territories. The other Members of the Committee are Arun Goyal, retired IAS officer and Giriraj Prasad Gupta, retired Indian Civil Accounts Service officer. The Committee will look into distribution of assets and liabilities of J&K between two UTs.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the National Animal Disease Control Programme in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura. The programme aims at vaccinating over 500 Million livestock including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs against foot and mouth disease. The programme also aims at vaccinating 36 million female bovine calves annually in its fight against Brucellosis disease. The government will fund the programme for Rs 12,652 crore for a period of 5 years till 2024. The programme has two components: to control the diseases by 2025 and eradication by 2030.

Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge), Shri Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the exhibition PRA-KASHI in New Delhi. The National Museum, New Delhi in collaboration with Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi organized this exhibition. The exhibition will remain open for general public till 8th October 2019 between 10 am to 6 pm Weavers The talent of the weavers in the exhibition is really impressive.

Tamil Nadu State government has announced penalty and imprisonment on defacing trees on the roadside. The state mentioned it as anti-nature to hit nails on trees. Defacing the tree including putting up many metal rods and electric wires on trees for decoration. This reduces the lifetime of a tree. To avoid this the State has introduced this move.

Himalaya Day 2019 was observed on September 9. It was celebrated in the Biotech Auditorium of the Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. It was first celebrated in the year 2010.

In a bid to strengthen the Indian Air Force (IAF), the central government has approved the procurement of 6 squadrons of indigenous Akash Air Defense missile for the Air Force at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore. They will be deployed along the borders with Pakistan and China.

Sanjay Gandhi National Park is an 87 square km protected area near Mumbai in Maharashtra State in India. It was formerly known as Borivali National Park.

The theme of this year's Swachhta hi Sewa is Plastic Waste Management. Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry is playing a critical two-fold role for the success of the campaign as mandated by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti. DPIIT will ensure recycling of plastic waste collected on 2nd October 2019 in cement kilns and second, collect plastic waste through nationwide shramdaan on 2nd October 2019. DPIIT requested all the State Governments and Union Territories to mobilise the Industrial Parks in States and Union Territories for collection of plastic waste across all Industrial Estates, Parks, Corridors, Nodes and Industrial Areas for the Swachata hi Sewa 2019 campaign beginning from 11th September, 2019.

Kalraj Mishra took oath as the Rajasthan Governor on September 9, 2019. He was administered the oath by the Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court, Justice Ravindra Bhatt. Mishra succeeds Kalyan Singh.

World Suicide Prevention Day 2019 is observed on 10 September every year. The day aims to raise awareness of the risks of suicide and to fund suicide prevention activities. It also aims to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides. Theme: The theme for the World Suicide Prevention Day 2019 is Working Together to Prevent Suicide. A survey said that every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for people of all ages.

The Union Government has set up a three-member panel to oversee the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories. The committee headed by Former Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra will have Retired IAS officer Arun Goyal and Retired Indian Civil Accounts Service officer Giriraj Prasad Gupta as members.

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Zagreb is the youngest capital in Europe with a population of more than one million people.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) defeated Punjab National Bank (PNB) by 3-1 and clinched the 93rd All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament title for the year 2019 held at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Gurjinder Singh (2) & Deepak Thakur scored the goals for IOC and Vishal Antil scored the goal for PNB. The trophy was handed over to the IOC by Murugappa Group Chairman M M Murugappan. Winners received Rs 6 lakhs, runner-ups received Rs 3.5 lakhs and best forward, best midfielder, best goalkeeper, most promising player of the tournament & man of the match of finals received Rs 10,000 & a high end bicycle, each.

Managing Director and Chairman of Hero MotoCorp, Pawan Munjal will be inducted into the 2019 Asia Pacific Golf Hall of Fame. He will be inducted for his support to "Golf" in India and around the world. The induction ceremony will be held at the 2019 Asian Golf Awards Gala Banquet. With the honour, he will join the legendary players such as Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and other leading personalities such as David Chu who were bestowed with the highest honour in the Asia Pacific golf industry.

The 24th World Energy Congress commence in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates. World Energy Congress aims to bring together international energy stakeholders, including governments, private and state corporations, academia and media. The theme of this World Energy Congress is "Energy for Prosperity".

Anupriya Lakra, aged 27, a tribal woman from Odisha's Maoist-hit Malkangiri district (tribal area) has become the first female pilot from the backward region. She will join a private airline as a co-pilot.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed his most trusted bureaucratic aide P.K. Mishra as his Principal Secretary in place of Nripendra Misra, who recently stepped down from the top job at the Prime Minister's Office.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepal counterpart KP Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated South Asia's first cross-border petroleum products pipeline from Bihar to Amlekhgunj.

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday launched its broadband offering, 'Airtel Xstream Fibre' promising 1Gbps speed for Rs.3,999 a month, raising the competitive heat in a market that has recently seen commercial roll-out of Jio's fibre based services.

Ahmedabad is all set to host the playoffs and final of Pro Kabaddi League this season. The EKA Arena which hosted the home leg of the Gujarat Fortune Giants earlier in the tournament will also play host to the eliminators, semifinals and final of the seventh season of the Pro Kabaddi League.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon be launching India's second Multi-Modal Terminal (MMT) at Sahibganj in Jharkhand. This is the second of the planned three Multi-Modal Terminals being built over River Ganga under the Jal Marg Vikas Project. The first Terminal was inaugurated at Varanasi in November 2018.

Sri Lanka cricket captain Lasith Malinga became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in the T20I (twenty-twenty International) format during a 3rd T20I match against New Zealand at Pallekele, Sri Lanka after which he also became the first-ever bowler to take a double hat-trick. Currently, Malinga is the only player with 5 limited-overs International hat-tricks. Malinga surpassed Wasim Akram(Pakistan) for most hat-tricks in international cricket where his first T20I hat-trick was taken in April 2017 against Bangladesh in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has 3 hat-tricks in One Day Internationals(ODI). He is the only bowler in international cricket to have picked up 4 wickets in 4 balls twice. As after hat-trick in Pallekele he went on to pick up 4 wickets. He first achieved the feat in 2007 in an ODI against South Africa.

The Gurugram traffic police have tied up with Google maps for real time traffic updates. The traffic related information will be shared in real time for public use. The information such as planned road closures, diversions, traffic alerts regarding road crash etc. will be shared by Gurugram traffic police with Google maps. Responding to the situation, Google maps will immediately update the information on its public maps. The basic idea behind this arrangement is to prompt commuters to make intelligent choices in order to make their commuting experience hassle-free.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has secured a residential project from the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (CIDCO) to construct 23,432 dwelling units at various locations in Navi Mumbai.