Daily Current affairs - April 22nd, 2017 for all competitive exams
The World Earth Day is being observed all over the world on 22 April with the message to protect the environment.
- The campaign theme for 2017 is 'Environmental and Climate Literacy'. The first Earth Day celebrations took place in 1970.
Indian Navy test-fires land attack version of BrahMos missile
Indian Navy recently successfully test fired BrahMos Land Attack Supersonic Cruise Missile from a ship. This variant of Long Range BrahMos Missile was fired from Indian Naval Ship Teg, a Guided Missile Frigate, on a target on land.
BrahMos Missile has been jointly developed by India and Russia, and its Anti Ship variant has already been inducted into Indian Navy.
Land Attack variant of BrahMos Missile provides Indian Naval Ships the capability to precisely neutralise selected targets deep inland, far away from coast, from stand-off ranges at sea.
The missile has a range of 400km.
India and Republic of Korea sign Inter-Governmental MOU for Defence Industry Co-Operation in Shipbuilding
India and the Republic of Korea (RoK) have signed an Inter-governmental Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Defence Industry Co-operation in Shipbuilding.
- The Inter-Governmental MoU, was conceived under the overall umbrella of the ‘Special Strategic Partnership’ between both sides as declared in the Joint Statement of the Prime Minister of India and the President of RoK in May 2015.
One Crore MGNREGA assets geotagged
Mahatma Gandhi NREGS has reached a new milestone today by geotagging one Crore assets and putting them in public domain.
- The geotagging exercise started from 1st September, 2016. One Crore assets have been geotagged and put in public domain in the last seven months. It is expected that the exercise will lead to greater transparency and ensure accountability at field level.
“Quality Mark” Award Scheme for Dairy Cooperatives initiated by NDDB
As part of the innovative initiatives under the “White Revolution” umbrella Schemes, the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries has supported the National Dairy Development Board(NDDB) developed initiative of “Quality Mark” Award Scheme for dairy Cooperatives to promote and encourage enhancement of safety, quality and hygiene of milk and milk products manufactured by dairy cooperatives.
- Aim of the scheme: It is aimed at bringing about process improvement in the entire value chain from producer to the consumer to ensure availability of safe and quality of milk and products both for the domestic and foreign market.
Loan for Developing National Waterway-1
In a major boost towards realising country’s ambitious inland waterways project, the World Bank has approved a $375 million loan for capacity augmentation of National Waterway-1(River Ganga) under Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP).
- The government is developing NW-1 (River Ganga) under JMVP from Haldia to Varanasi (1390 Km) with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank at an estimated cost of Rs 5369 crore. The project would enable commercial navigation of vessels with capacity of 1500-2,000 DWT.
‘Public data office’ (PDO) technology
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) has developed a ‘public data office’ (PDO) technology solution to deliver low-cost Wi-Fi solutions. The mass PDO solution is priced at Rs 50,000.
- The concept of PDO will enable vendors to sell low-cost Wi-Fi-based broadband services anywhere.
- The vendor will get a tech solution pack including both software and hardware elements. It will include a Wi-Fi access point with e-KYC, one-time password authentication and a mechanism to manage service vouchers. A billing system will also accompany the package.
Inter-Ministerial Delegation to Participate in Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm Conventions in Geneva
An inter-ministerial Indian delegation headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Ajay Narayan Jha, has left to participate in the 2017 Conference of Parties (COPs) to the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm (BRS) Conventions.
The theme of the meetings and the high-level segment will be – “A future detoxified: sound management of chemicals and waste“.
- Meetings of the COPs of BRS Conventions are generally held every alternate year. India has participated in the earlier meetings of the COPs of the BRS Conventions. Previously, COP 12 of Basel Convention and COP 7 meetings of Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions were held in Geneva, Switzerland in May 2015.
NDMA conducted first mock exercise on forest fire in Uttarakhand
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) conducted its first-ever mock exercise on forest fire in Uttarakhand to help improve the preparedness and response mechanism in the event of a forest fire.
- The mock exercise was conducted on the principle of Incident Response System (IRS).
1st ‘India Indonesia Energy Forum’ held in Jakarta
Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal and Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Ignasius Jonan met for the 1st ‘India Indonesia Energy Forum’, held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
- The Energy Forum was preceded by 2nd Joint Working Group (JWG) on Oil and Gas, 4th Joint Working Group on Coal and 1st Joint Working Group on New and Renewable Energy. The reports of three Joint Working Groups were presented to two Ministers during the Energy Forum.
RBI signs MoU with the Bank of Guyana
The Reserve Bank of India signed an MoU)on “Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information” with Bank of Guyana.
- Earlier, RBI has signed 40 such MoUs, one Letter for Supervisory Co-operation and one Statement of Co-operation.
AU Financiers converts to small finance bank
AU Financiers India, a non-banking finance company (NBFC), has converted itself into a small finance bank by the name AU Small Finance Bank.
- As an NBFC, AU had a network of 300 branches spread across 10 States namely Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Goa.
GNFC wins Golden Peacock Award
The Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd (GNFC) won the prestigious Golden Peacock Award 2017 in the category of Innovative Product/Service for pioneering a cashless township transformation model.
- The Golden Peacock Awards were established by the Institute of Directors (IOD) in India in 1991.
- Rajiv Kumar Gupta, the managing director of the GNFC, was given the award at a ceremony at the 27th World Congress at the Dubai Global Convention.
Veteran Journalist Nora Chopra passes away
Veteran Journalist Nora Chopra passed away at 64 due to multi-organ failure.
- A senior journalist and columnist, Smt. Chopra was widely admired and respected for her journalistic skills.
