Current affairs : April 15th, 2017 for all competitive exams
Descendants of
16 families associated with a little-known but bloody rebellion against British
colonialism, called the Paika rebellion of 1817 will be felicitated by the
Prime Minister.
- Two-hundred
years ago in 1817, a valiant uprising of soldiers led by Buxi Jagabandhu
(Bidyadhar Mohapatra) took place in Khurda of Odisha. This is known as
Paika rebellion.
Regulatory
body issues new ad norms for celebrities
Advertising
Standards Council of India (ASCI), the ad industry’s self-regulatory body, has
released a set of guidelines for celebrity endorsements that bring
personalities, including doctors, authors, activists and educationists, into
the celebrity category.
- The
guidelines aim to clamp down on random or exaggerated claims made by
celebrity advertising.
- The
objective of this move is to protect consumer interest while encouraging celebrities and advertisers to refrain from
endorsing misleading advertisements, especially of products or services
which can cause serious financial loss or physical harm.
- From
now on, celebrities will be held responsible for the claims made in ads in
which they appear.
- Celebrities
must do due diligence and ensure that the claims made in their
endorsements are not misleading.
MoU
Signed Between NSFDC & Development Commissioner (Handlooms)
National
Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
and Development Commissioner (Handlooms) under Ministry of Textiles have signed
a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
- The
objective of signing this MoU is to help Scheduled Caste weavers and their
families by promoting production and marketing of high value quality
Handlooms products at Block level Cluster in various States like Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha etc.
- Asper
the MoU, signing parties shall popularize the schemes of DC (Handlooms)
amongst the SC weavers through Awareness Programmes and advertisements in
electronic/print media in SC weavers concentrated areas.
- They
shall collaborate for capacity building including skill upgradation and
economic development of SC weavers and their families for achieving the
desired outcome.
Keep out non-serious parties: MPs’ panel
There is a need to keep non-serious parties out
of the political system, and to ensure they do not misuse facilities like tax
exemption. Their registration should be regulated by law, a parliamentary panel
has said.
- The
recommendation of the committee comes days after the Election Commission
wrote to the Income-Tax department asking it to look into the finances of
255 political parties it has ‘delisted’ for not contesting elections.
- The
Commission has, over a period of time, identified various parties which
have not contested polls since 2005 and has ‘delisted’ 255 of them.
Allahabad
HC becomes ‘pilot project’ for case backlog study
The Supreme
Court has decided to put the Allahabad HC under the microscope as a “pilot
project” to investigate how High Courts deal with pendency.
- This
is a “target-specific” exercise to study how criminal appeals face years
of delay as appellants face “inhuman compulsions” inside jails.
- The
court has called for real-time statistics from the Allahabad HC and has
also roped in some senior advocates to assist the Supreme Court.
Andhra
Pradesh CM launched “CM Connect app”
Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu has launched a new mobile app CM Connect. The app Andhra
Pradesh runs on Microsoft’s Kaizala platform.
- The
app will be useful in receiving feedback from the public directly on any
given issue.
- With
this App, people can share the confidential information with the Chief
Minister directly.
UP
Signs ‘Power For All’ Agreement With Centre
The Uttar
Pradesh government has signed an agreement with the Centre for “Power for All”.
With this, Uttar Pradesh, which was the only state in the country which had not
signed the agreement, has finally come on board the central government scheme.
- 24×7
Power for All scheme is a joint initiative of the central and state
governments, with the objective of providing round-the-clock electricity
to all households, industry, commercial businesses and any other electricity
consuming entities within four years.
No holiday for schools on birth anniversaries
There should be no holiday in schools on birth
anniversaries of great personalities instead students should be taught about
them on these days, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
- His
remarks came as he addressed a gathering on the occasion of Dr B. R.
Ambedkar’s 126th birth anniversary here.
NASA
Finds Evidence of Hydrothermal Vents on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
NASA has made
the next big announcement about Saturn: The Cassini team found evidence of
hydrothermal vents on Enceladus’s ocean floor.
- Hydrothermal
vents were detected by the Cassini spacecraft when it flew through the
water geysers that erupt from Enceladus’s surface. Microbes, algae, tube
worms, crabs, and even fish swim around hydrothermal vents in Earth’s
oceans. Maybe a similar alien ecosystem exists on the seafloor of
Enceladus.
- Cassini–Huygens
is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn. Cassini is the fourth
space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit.
Nepal,
China hold first ever military exercise:
Nepal and
China are planning to hold the first-ever joint military exercise- Sagarmatha Friendship-2017, with a special focus on combating terror and
disaster management.
- The
military exercise will also focus on common interests like disaster
management.
Sagarmatha is
the Nepali name of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, that is bordering
between Nepal and China.
Dubai gurdwara sets world record with meal for people from 101 nations
A gurdwara in Dubai has set a world record for
serving free breakfast to the maximum number of people from diverse
nationalities. About 600 people from 101 countries were present at the meal on
Thursday.
- People
from different parts of the city flocked to the Jebel Ali Gardens and
filled a temporary tent made for the marathon breakfast event.
- Officials
from Guinness World Records confirmed that the gurdwara broke the previous
record of people from 55 nationalities having a continental breakfast in
Italy in 2015.
- Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Navdeep Singh Suri, was the chief guest.
E-waybill must for goods worth Rs. 50,000’
Moving goods worth more than Rs. 50,000 under GST
will require prior online registration of the consignment and securing an
‘e-waybill’ that tax officials can inspect any time during transit to check tax
evasion.
- The
Central Board of Excise and Customs has issued draft rules on the
Electronic Waybill that requires registered entities to furnish
information to the GST-Network (GSTN) website, relating to goods worth
more than Rs. 50,000 they intend to move within a state or outside.
- GSTN
will generate e-waybills valid for 1-15 days, depending on the distance to
be travelled — one day for 100 km and 15 days for more than 1,000 km
transit. “On generation of the e-waybill on the portal, a unique e-waybill
number shall be made available.
SpiceJet offers mobile payment solution
SpiceJet has partnered with HSBC India to provide
a platform for passengers to make payments through mobile phones.
- The
no-frills airline has launched a Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a
payment option on its website.
- The
integration will allow SpiceJet passengers to use their unique UPI
identities i.e. virtual payment address to pay for all bookings made on
the SpiceJet website
Two hat-tricks in a day:
Tye, Badree make IPL history
Gujarat Lions pacer Andrew Tye and Royal Challengers Bangalore's
leg-spinner Samuel Badree made a special day for
bowlers at the ongoing Indian Premier League as they claimed a hat-trick
each in their respective matches.
- Badree
claimed the first hat-trick of the season
- While
Tye took a hat-tick on IPL debut
Advani reclaims Asian billiards crown
Sixteen-time World Champion Pankaj Advani won his
sixth Asian billiards title, defeating Sourav Kothari 6-3 in an entertaining
final.
- The
first session saw Kothari run away with a 3-1 lead. Advani, taking full
advantage of the break, regrouped and came out all guns blazing to win the
next five frames to take his seventh Asian crown overall.
Sculptor S Nandagopal dies
Renowned sculptor S. Nandagopal died of a massive
heart attack at his home at the Cholamandalal Artists' Village.
- A
sculptor and a painter, whose finely crafted works are internationally
recognised, Mr. Nandagopal was born in 1946 in Bangalore, Karnataka.
- Mr.
Nandagopal was the recipient of the National Award, Lalit Kala Academy,
New Delhi in 1970 and 1978 and the Jindal Stainless Steel Award for
Sculpture, 2002.
- In 1998 and 2000, he was nominated by the Government of India to serve as an adviser to the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.
