Current Affairs - September 17, 2019 Current Affairs

Treasury bills; generally shortened as T-bills, have a maximum maturity of a 364 days. Hence, they are categorized as money market instruments (money market deals with funds with a maturity of less than one year).

Defence PSU BEML Ltd and Wipro Infrastructure Engineering signed an MoU to work together in the areas of aerospace, industrial automation, 3-D printing artificial intelligence and hydraulic system engineering. The MoU entails the two firms working together on projects, products, systems, services and projects for DRDO Labs and other government entities in India as well as overseas. The key focus areas include aerospace components and parts through SEZ, metal additive manufacturing and design optimization for new critical aggregates, legacy components & spares, and process automation.

The Maharashtra state government has launched a portal which will help the users to detect their lost or stolen mobile phones. If your mobile is stolen or lost, you have to lodge an FIR and inform Department of Telecom (DoT) via helpline number 14422. DoT will block the reported lost/stolen phone across the network which will prevent the reuse of the phone.

Ajay Kumar Singh appointed as Press Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind. He is currently associated with the Firstpost as a contributor. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the appointment of Singh as Press Secretary to the President on contract basis initially for a period of one year He succeeds Ashok Malik.He worked in Times of India in 1985 , Economic Times and the Telegraph. He later joined the Pioneer in Delhi.

India has formally launched an initiative to fund 1000 scholars from South East Asian countries to pursue PhD at its 23 Indian Institutes of Technology. It is a joint initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Human Resource Development. The scheme has an initial budget of Rs. 300 crore. The funding will cover the entire cost of study and living expenses for up to 5 years of a PhD programme. The admission portal for the programme would be executed by IIT Delhi.

Microsoft Bill Gates honor India Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 which gave the state its special status. A dozen people, some wearing Free Kashmir T-shirts, with the Justice For All coalition delivered 100,000 petition signatures to the Gates Foundation's Seattle headquarters. It is the world's largest private nonprofit not to honor Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission, a sanitation initiative that improved access to toilets.

The Kerala government and the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) have jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maldives (GoM) to strengthen cancer care in the island nation. The aim of the pact is to bolster cancer care programmes in the Maldives through the expertise of RCC. As part of the agreement, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and laboratory staff with the health care centres in the Maldives are to be provided with special training at RCC.

Scheme for Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Product (RoDTEP) will replace Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS). It will come into effect from January 1, 2020.Existing dispensation in textiles of MEIS + old Rebate of State Levies (RoSL) will continue up to 31.12.2019. Textiles and all other sectors which currently enjoy incentives upto 2% over MEIS will transit into RODTEP from January 1, 2020.In effect, RODTEP will more than adequately incentivize exporters than existing schemes put together.

The 52nd Engineers Day was celebrated in India on September 15, 2019 under the theme "Engineering for change". It was also celebrated in SriLanka and Tanzania while others countries celebrate this day on other dates. It was 1st observed on 1967.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot launched a "Jan Soochna Portal" aimed at easing the access to information for the beneficiaries of welfare schemes. The portal has been created by the Department of Information Technology and Communication (DoIT&C) in collaboration with civil society.

The Uttarakhand government has recently launched Mukhyamantri Dal Poshit Yojana (MDPY) to provide low-priced pulses for poor in the State. As per scheme, two kg of pulses at subsidised rates would be made available to 23.32 lakh ration card holders every month. The Chana dal (chick peas split) is being made available at a rate of Rs 44 per kg / month. The current market rate of this pulse is Rs 65 to 70 per kg.

India's Sumit Nagal jumped 15 places to achieve a career-high ranking of 159 in the latest Association of Tennis Professionals ATP rankings. The 22-year-old from Haryana ended runners up in the Banja Luka ATP Challenger following a first-round appearance at the US Open. He had leapfrogged 16 places after his first-round exit in the US Open.

The Mumbai Interbank Offer Rate (MIBOR) is one iteration of India's interbank rate, which is the rate of interest charged by a bank on a short-term loan to another bank. This is the interest rate at which banks can borrow funds from other banks in the Indian interbank market. Interbank rates are made available only to the largest and most creditworthy financial institutions.

Arcadia Education Project which involves construction of floating school for marginalised children in South Kanarchor of Bangladesh, has been awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Architecture Award 2019. The award ceremony was held in Kazan, republic of Tatarastan. The architect of the project Saif Ul Haque designed a school which remains on the ground during dry season and floats when the area is submerged in water during monsoon. He utilised only the local material-bamboo, used tyres and steel drums for constructing the amphibious structure for school.

In the International Billiards Snooker Federation's (IBSF) World Under-16 Snooker Championship 2019 held in Tyumen, Russia, Ranveer Duggal, aged 15 from Chandigarh, clinched bronze medal. He is a student of IX standard at St Stephen's School, Sector 45, Chandigarh.He was the youngest player at the age of 6 to play in national pool championship in Ludhiana, Punjab in 2011.

Ministry of Commerce & Industry through Export Credit Guarantee Corporation has introduced a new Export Credit Insurance Scheme called NIRVIK. The Niryat Rin Vikash Yojana has been launched to enhance loan availability to exporters and to ease the lending process. Under the new scheme NIRVIK, up to 90 per cent of the principal amount and interest will be covered through insurance.

The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu has inaugurated the 24 kW(Kilowatt ) Dikshi Hydroelectric Project on the Phudungto river at Dikshi village in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. The project was developed by a Hyderabad (Telangana) based firm Devi Energies Private Limited. It is State's first community-managed mini-hydro electric project and also the first independent power project of its kind in the Northeast. The power plant is expected to generate 112.40 gigawatt-hours of electricity for addressing the power requirements of East and West Kameng districts besides major defence establishments. The plant consists 3 Francis type turbo-generators having capacity of 8.0 MW each, was completed in a record time of 4 years since commencement in 2016 with an investment amount of about 430 crore rupees.

According to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), India has become the 4th country after the US, UK and Germany to have its own national standard on bulletproof jacket which provides 360-degree protection. Now, India has also begun exporting bulletproof jackets as per its own standards to over 100 countries including European nations. As per the BIS norms, two PSUs Medani and Ordnance factory at Avadi, Chennai and private firms SNPP (Palwal), Starwire (Faridabad) in Haryana and MKU (Kanpur) in Uttar Pradesh are manufacturing bulletproof jackets. The BIS is a national body that sets quality standards for various products and services.

Bollywood actor Neena Gupta has won 2 awards at Indian International Film Festival of Boston. The actress won the Best Actress award for 'Badhaai Ho' and her film 'The Last Color' emerged victorious in Best Feature Film category. 'The Last Color' was directed by chef Vikas Khnana. The film deals with taboo surrounding widows in Vrindavan and Varanasi in India.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has framed an 8-membered high-level panel headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan to study issues related to non-personal data and suggest the ways to regulate non-personal data.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who launched the App at the Birla auditorium on Friday, said "The next chapter of Rajasthan Innovation Vision (RAJIV) will begin in the form of Jan Soochna portal.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has decided to translate and publish an anthology of the writings of Guru Nanak Dev in world languages to mark his 550th birth anniversary.

The Engineering Community across India celebrates Engineers Day on 15 September every year as a tribute to the greatest Indian Engineer Bharat Ratna Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received the Dr Kalam Smriti International Excellence Award 2019 in Dhaka. The award citation lauded Prime Minister Hasina for her vision of a peaceful and prosperous South Asia, free of tension, conflicts and terrorism. The award has been instituted in the memory of former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The award is given every year to honour statesmen or leaders who have shown excellence in respective fields to achieve the best for their countries.

A maiden trilateral exercise SITMEX, involving Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Royal Thailand Navy (RTN) and Indian Navy (IN) started at Port Blair. The exercise aims to bolster the maritime inter-relationships among the Singapore Thailand and India, and contribute significantly to enhance the overall maritime security in the region. This would also strengthen the mutual confidence amongst three navies in terms of interoperability and development of a common understanding of procedures.

In 1994, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 16 September the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorating the date of the signing, in 1987, of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

RBI conducts auctions to issue Government Securities. These auctions are done online through an electronic platform called the E-Kuber.

Mayank Vaid has become first Indian to complete Enduroman triathlon in a record time. Mayank took 16 hours 35 minutes for running, 12 hours 48 minutes for swimming and 13 hours 29 minutes for cycling, total 463 kms.