Daily Current affairs - September 24th and 25th, 2017 for all competitive exams
World Rivers Day is a
celebration of the world’s waterways. World Rivers Day celebrated last sunday
of september every year.
- It highlights the
many values of our rivers, strives to increase public awareness, and
encourages the improved stewardship of all rivers around the world.
- In 2005, the
United Nations launched the Water for Life Decade to help create a greater
awareness of the need to better care for our water resources. Following
this, the establishment of World Rivers Day was in response to a proposal
initiated by internationally renowned river advocate, Mark Angelo.
- The proposal for
a global event to celebrate rivers was based on the success of BC
Rivers Day, which Mark Angelo had founded and led in western Canada since
1980.
Govt launches ‘Pradhan Mantri LPG Panchayat’ to boost
PMUY
The Central government has launched a country-wide LPG Panchayat as a backup to the Pradhan
Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to distribute LPG connections among the
rural areas where conventional fuel is used for domestic purposes.
- The LPG Panchayat
is an interactive communication platform aimed at educating rural LPG
users about proper safety precautions to be taken while using LPG, its benefit to the environment, its effect on women
empowerment and health.
- With this, the
government aims to reach the doorsteps of poor and under-privileged women
to educate them about the safety and efficiency, health benefits, positive
impact on environment, economic development and empowerment on usage of
LPG connections.
Govt. plans Made-in-India body
armour for soldiers
The Prime Minister’s Office
has asked the NITI Aayog to set up an inter-ministerial committee to prepare a
road map to encourage domestic manufacturing of lightweight body armour for the
Army and paramilitary forces.
- The committee,
will be headed by NITI Aayog member V.K. Saraswat and will have
representatives from the Defence Research and Development Organisation,
the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, the Ministries of
Defence and Home.
- Earlier this
year, the PMO asked NITI Aayog to prepare a draft note on the possibility
of encouraging production of home-made lightweight body armour.
- Though India is a
major producer and exporter of body armour, its own security forces are
often deprived of such equipment, particularly the lightweight ones.
- As per an
estimate, there is a requirement of over 50,000 bulletproof kits for the
police force in the country.
Bharat ke Kaushalzaade event organized on the eve of
Antyodaya Diwas
Rural Skills Division, Ministry of Rural Development has organized ‘Bharat ke Kaushalzaade’, an event honouring beneficiaries of its key skilling programmes,
on the eve of Antyodaya Diwas 2017.
- The
event aims to celebrate and honour
beneficiaries from both of MoRD’s flagship skill development programmes
i.e. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and Rural
Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI).
- The Ministry of
Rural Development (MoRD) announced the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen
Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) Antyodaya Diwas, on 25th September 2014.
- The event also
witnessed the mobilization platform launch, branded ‘Kaushal Panjee’ (Skill Register).
Japan to fund mass rapid
transit systems in Gujarat, Haryana
Funds from a Japanese
government loan will soon be utilised for the first time in the $100 billion,
Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project. So far, the mega-project was
being developed only with the Indian government’s financial assistance.
- The DMIC spans
six States (Uttar Pradesh, Delhi National Capital Region, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra).
- It uses ‘the
1,500-km-long, high-capacity western Dedicated Railway Freight Corridor
(DFC) as the backbone’ and aims to be ‘a global manufacturing and
investment destination’.
- A soft loan (with
concessional conditions) to the tune of $4.5 billion to be extended by the
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will shortly be utilised to
develop two Mass Rapid Transit Systems (MRTS) — one each in Gujarat and
Haryana — that will be part of the DMIC.
Colour blind get a shot at
medical education
The Supreme Court has opened
the doors for colour-blind students to pursue medical education by ordering the
admission of two such candidates, who have scored high marks in the entrance
examination in Tripura, for the next academic year.
- Terming its
action “transcendental importance of justice”, the court said peculiar
facts and circumstances of the case required it to invoke special powers
under Article 142 of the Constitution.
- Though there are
no statutory provisions barring such students from pursuing the MBBS
course, various colleges and the Medical Council of India were arbitrarily
denying admissions to candidates suffering from Colour Vision Deficiency,
popularly called colour blindness.
Multi-Agency Exercise ‘Pralay Sahayam’
A multi-agency exercise was recently conducted on the banks of Hussain
Sagar Lake as the final event of ‘Pralay Sahayam’ in Hyderabad.
- The event
demonstrated efforts of all central and state agencies, National Disaster
Relief Force (NDRF) and the Armed Forces towards jointly tackling an urban
flooding scenario in Hyderabad.
- The exercise
brought out the role and function of the State Emergency Operations in
coordinating conduct of the joint operations.
The lowdown on the petrol pricing policy
Amid protests against the recent spike in petrol and diesel prices, the
government has ruled out the possibility of an end to the recently introduced
policy of revising fuel prices daily.
- Since June 16
this year, petrol and diesel prices across the country have been revised
on a daily basis, against the previous policy of revising prices every
fortnight. By opting for daily pricing, India has joined advanced
countries like the United States and others which follow the practice.
- The daily pricing
policy is in line with the government’s efforts over the years to
deregulate the pricing of essential fuels. The prices of petrol and diesel
were first deregulated in 2010 and 2014 respectively, bringing in the
practice of fortnightly revision of prices.
India planning to buy Uzbek
uranium
India is holding talks with
Uzbekistan and other countries to procure nuclear fuel as part of its plan to
create a strategic uranium reserve to ensure long-term security.
- The delegation
came just two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral
talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the sidelines of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in June.
- Apart from
domestic production, India currently imports uranium from Kazakhstan and
Canada.
- This is used to
provide fuel to the indigenously built pressurised heavy water reactors.
Zia-ul-Haq pressed China for
joint n-test
Pakistan under Zia-ul-Haq
pressed China in 1980 for a “joint nuclear explosion” to be carried
out at a Chinese site, given the “new technical problems” Rawalpindi was facing
in going for its own nuclear test.
- This was the
assessment of the ambassadors of socialist countries based in Islamabad
ahead of General Zia’s visit to China and North Korea in May 1980.
- The analysis is
contained in a ciphered telegram sent by the Hungarian Embassy to its
headquarters on April 30, 1980, now available at the Wilson Centre digital
archive in Washington.
Merkel wins fourth term
Chancellor Angela Merkel
clinched a fourth term in Germany’s election, but her victory was clouded by
the hard-right AfD party winning its first seats in parliament.
- Merkel, who after
12 years in power held a double-digit lead for most of the campaign, scored
around 33% vote with her conservative Christian Union bloc.
Russia firm unveils
‘surveillance-proof’ phone
Russian firm Infowatch
group has launched “TaigaPhone”, a brand new smartphone, costing around 15,000
rubles ($260).
- The ‘TaigaPhone’
helps you track the device location and protect information
- The TaigaPhone is
entirely green to represent the Russian northern forest after which it is
named, and has a five-inch touch screen. The phone has been created for
the corporate market.
ISRO working on substitute
spacecraft
ISRO started work in
Bengaluru to assemble the alternative substitute navigation spacecraft, which
became essential after the main back-up was lost in a failed launch on August
31.
- IRNSS-1I was
earlier approved as a ground spare, to be sent to space in an emergency.
- The Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) has been training a team from an industry
consortium to assemble this spacecraft and its lost fellow satellite, 1H.
Defiant Iran test-fires
missile
Iran had successfully
tested a new medium-range missile in defiance of warnings from Washington that
such activities were grounds for abandoning their landmark nuclear deal.
- It also carried
in-flight video from the nose cone of the missile, which has a range of
2,000 km and can carry multiple warheads.
- The test comes at
the end of a heated week of diplomacy at the UN General Assembly in New
York, where U.S. President Donald Trump again accused Iran of
destabilising the Middle East, calling it a “rogue state whose chief
exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos”.
India third in nuclear power
installations: study
The World Nuclear Industry
Status Report 2017 has released. It shows, India is third in the world in the
number of nuclear reactors being installed, at six, while China is leading at 20.
- The number of
nuclear reactor units under construction is, however, declining globally
for the fourth year in a row, from 68 reactors at the end of 2013 to 53 by
mid-2017.
- Data gathered by
the authors shows that global nuclear power generation increased by 1.4%
in 2016 due to a 23% increase in China, though the share of nuclear energy
in electricity generation stagnated at 10.5%. By comparison, globally,
wind power output grew by 16% and solar power by 30%.
NASA asteroid mission receives
a gravitational kick from earth
The U.S. space agency
said, An unmanned NASA spacecraft travelling to a distant asteroid, veered
towards Earth on Friday, for a gravitational slingshot manoeuvre that will
better aim it towards the sun-orbiting space rock, Bennu.
- The gravity boost
took place about halfway through the two-year journey of the spacecraft,
known as OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource
Identification, and Security — Regolith Explorer).
Companies under Graded Surveillance Measure by SEBI
More than 900 companies are being monitored under the Graded Surveillance
Measure, designed by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI).
- SEBI introduced
the measure to keep a tab on securities that witness an abnormal
price rise that is not commensurate with financial health and fundamentals
of the company such as earnings, book value, price to earnings ratio among
others.
- The underlying
principle behind the graded surveillance framework is to alert and protect
investors trading in a security, which is seeing abnormal price
movements.
Arvind Subramanian to stay on
as CEA
Chief Economic Adviser
(CEA) Arvind Subramanian, who had planned to return to the U.S. after his
three-year tenure ended on October 16, has been persuaded by the government to
stay back for another year.
- Official orders
to this effect will be issued soon.
Banaj Devi to receive Sarala
award for Kathapua
Noted Odia poet and short
story writer Banaj Devi will be honoured with the 38th edition of the
prestigious Sarala award for her short story compilation Kathapua .
- The annual Sarala
Puraskar, recognised as one of the foremost literary awards of the Odisha
State, comprises a cash award of Rs. 5 lakh along with a citation.
- This award given
by the Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT) for an every year
Mary Kom to be AIBA
representative at IOC athletes' forum
Five-time world champion and
Olympic bronze-medallist M C Mary Kom has become the first Indian to be picked
as the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) representative for the IOC
Athletes' Forum scheduled in November.
- She is also an
active parliamentarian, has been invited to attend the 8th International
Olympic Committee's (IOC) Athletes' Forum in Lausanne from November 11 to
13.
- This bi-annual
forum brings together athlete representatives from across the Olympic
Movement and provides an in-person community where athletes can exchange
and discuss their viewpoint.
Wozniacki wins her third Pan Pacific title
Defending champion Caroline
Wozniacki romped to a 6-0, 7-5 victory over Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
to win her third Pan Pacific Open.
- Wozniacki joined former greats Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini with three Pan Pacific Open crowns. Martina Hingis holds the record with five.
