Current affairs : November 18, 2016 for all competitive exams
Govt to set up national gas hub
The government is planning to come up with a national gas hub, which would
be a trading platform for gas at market-determined price. A final form of this
Indian benchmark will be ready within a year.
- A gas hub is a physical point where several gas
pipelines come together or intersect. It is a trading place for gas at
market determined prices.
Student Startup Policy
President Pranab Mukherjee recently launched the National Student Startup
Policy.
- The National Student Startup Policy, formulated by AICTE, aims to create 100,000 technology based student start-ups and a million employment opportunities within the next 10 years.
International Conference on Brucellosis 2016
International Research Conference on Brucellosis was recently inaugurated
in New Delhi.
- On the sidelines, the centre also launched programme
of “Brucella Free Villages” for implementation on pilot scale in 50
villages covering 10 states.
- This programme will be supported by guidelines and standard operating practices along with an IT enabled application.
India is ‘non-committal’ on market economy tag for China
Indian government has indicated that it is not inclined to automatically
grant the coveted ‘Market Economy Status’ (MES) to China this December under
World Trade Organisation (WTO) norm.
- According to India, granting MES to China will
severely curb the ability of nations including India to impose
anti-dumping duties on “unfairly priced” Chinese imports.
Women commandos by CRPF:
For the first time, CRPF has deployed a team of women commandos in
anti-Naxal operations in Jharkhand.
- The 135 women belonging to the 232 battalion’s Delta
company are currently undertaking operations under the close supervision
of CRPF’s 133 battalion in Naxal-infested forests on the outskirts of
Ranchi near Khoonti area.
Sachin Tendulkar to adopt
another village in Andhra Pradesh
Indian Cricketer Sachin
Tendulkar inaugurated projects worth Rs 6 crore at his adopted village of
Puttamrajuvari Kandriga in Andhra Pradesh (AP).
- ii. On this occasion he was
adopted Gollapalli village in the same state under Sansad Adarsh Gram
Yojna .
- It would be developed with an amount of Rs 3.05
crore.
Preterm babies create a new record
On World Prematurity Day,
445 preterm babies with their parents gathered at Rainbow Hospitals to
celebrate and send a signal that preterm babies can survive and lead a normal
life if good medical facilities were extended to them.
- It’s a new record of so many preterm babies coming
together breaking the earlier record of 386 babies who assembled in
Argentina in 2012. Preterm babies are those born before 37 weeks of
pregnancy.
Bihar to organise world’s longest human chain
Bihar govt. decided
to hold the world’s longest human chain in support of prohibition in the State
on January 21.
- Nearly two crore people are expected to participate in the human chain, beginning from Patna’s historical Gandhi Maidan.
Bhutan blocks India’s ambitious sub-regional road connectivity
plan
An ambitious road connectivity plan involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and
Nepal (BBIN) has hit a roadblock with the upper house of Bhutan parliament
deciding against ratifying the motor vehicle pact.
- The BBIN agreement – signed in Bhutan’s capital Thimpu in July – will become operational only when all the four countries ratify it. India, Bangladesh and Nepal have already ratified the pact.
Fastest supercomputer:
For the eighth consecutive year, China has retained the top spot in the
list of the world’s fastest supercomputers for its ‘Sunway TaihuLight’ which
can perform 93 million billion calculations per second.
- This was announced in the latest edition of the
semiannual Top 500 list of supercomputers released recently.
India-China joint military
exercise 'Hand-In-Hand' begins in Pune
The 6th Indo-China joint
training exercise Hand- in- Hand 2016 commenced at the parade ground in Aundh
Military Camp, Pune.
- The exercise will finish on 27 November 2016.
- The joint exercise intends to acquaint both the
Armies with each other’s operating procedures in the backdrop of
counter-terrorism environment.
BBC World Service announces
biggest expansion 'since the 1940s'
BBC World Service will
launch 11 new language services as part of its biggest expansion “since the
1940s”, due to the funding boost.
- The new languages will be Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu, Tigrinya, and Yoruba.
Patel most common Indian
surname in UK: dictionary
Patel has emerged as the
most common Indian surname in the UK, according to a new Oxford
dictionary.
- The ‘Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
and Ireland’ has put together the origins of nearly 50,000.
US intelligence chief James Clapper resigns
US Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper said on Thursday that he had submitted his
resignation, stepping down as President-elect Donald Trump begins to assemble
his new administration.
- Clapper, whose job is to coordinate the work of 17
disparate agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency and the National
Security Agency, said resigning "felt pretty good" after six
years in the job.
NASA astronaut to become oldest woman in space
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson
is on the verge of becoming the oldest woman in space, adding to her long list
of barrier-breaking records.
- Ms. Whitson, who is all set to rocket off the planet, will celebrate her 57th birthday in February on the International Space Station.
Oxigen Partners Federal
Bank for Cash Management Services
Federal Bank has tied up
with Oxigen to expand the bank’s e-collection facility to the about 3 lakh-
retail outlets of Oxigen.
- The agreement was exchanged between Chief Operating
Officer, Federal Bank, Shalini Warrier, and Pramod Saxena, Founder
and Chairman of Oxigen, in the New Delhi on November 17, 2016.
Airtel
announces merger with Axiata in Bangladesh
Telecom operator Bharti
Airtel has announced the completion of the merger of its subsidiary unit in
Bangladesh with Robi Axiata.This entity will now be the second-largest mobile
operator in Bangladesh.
- Bharti Airtel is an Indian global telecommunications services company based in New Delhi, India. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia, Africa, and the Channel Islands.
TCS awarded Digital Innovator
of the Year
India's IT majorTata
Consultancy Services has been awarded 'Digital Innovator of the Year' in the
Ecosystem Excellence category at GE's Minds + Machines event.
- The '2016 Digital Innovator of the Year' award
recognises TCS innovation and excellence in developing the TCS Digital
StoreTM, an expanding suite of ready-to-use digital solutions that deliver
superior customer experience, real time data analytics and
organisational agility across multiple industry segments. The award was
given at an event held in San Francisco, California.
Rishi Jaitly named CEO of
Times Global Partners
Times Internet, the digital
arm of The Times of India group appointed former Twitter India head Rishi
Jaitly as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Times Global Partners, a group
initiative that supports the launch and expansion of emerging global digital
companies in India.
Sprinter Dharambir handed
eight-year ban
Haryana sprinter Dharambir
Singh, who was barred from representing the country in the Rio Olympics at the
last minute for failing a dope test, has been slapped an eight-year ban by the
National Anti-Doping Agency.
Former J&K Governor Lt Gen
S K Sinha passes away
Former Jammu and Kashmir
Governor Lt Gen S K Sinha passed away at a hospital this morning after brief
illness.
- Lt Gen Sinha had joined the army in 1943 and has also served as India's Ambassador to Nepal and as the Governor of Assam.
