Daily Current affairs - November 25th, 2017 for all competitive exams
Every year November 25 celebrated as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Women's activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).
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The National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) is observing the Communal Harmony Campaign and Fund Raising Week from November 19-25, 2017.
- The National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) is an autonomous organisation with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- It organises the Communal Harmony Campaign coinciding with the Qaumi Ekta Week and also observes the Communal Harmony Flag Day. The Foundation promotes Communal Harmony and strengthens National Integration.
- Under its Project ‘Assist’, the NFCH also provides financial assistance for relief and rehabilitation of children rendered orphan or destitute in communal, caste, ethnic or terrorist violence.
In a significant step towards realisation of the Prime Minister’s vision for creation of a New India by 2022, Government has identified 115 backward districts for rapid transformation by 2022. For each of the Districts, a senior official in the rank of Additional secretary and Joint secretary has been nominated as Prabhari officer. The First meeting of the Prabhari Officers was recently held under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary. The meeting was attended by Secretaries of the important central Ministries.
- Prabhari officers would take it up as a challenge and succeed in their mission by making a difference in the lives of millions of citizens in these districts. Prabhari officers would form a team with State representatives and bring convergence in their effort.
A high level delegation of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) recently visited India to discuss the preparatory aspects of the 36th International Geological Congress (IGC) to be held in Delhi, India in the year 2020.
- Described as the Olympics of Geosciences, the IGCs are held quadrennially under the aegis of the IUGS through a process of global bidding. India won the bid in 2012 at Brisbane, Australia to host the Congress in 2020. The win is a remarkable achievement as the event makes a come back to the Indian soil after nearly 6 decades much to the excitement of the entire geoscientific community.
- The event is being jointly funded by the Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Earth Sciences with the active support of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and the Science Academies of the other neighbouring co-host countries, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The IUGS was founded in 1961 and is a Scientific Union member of the International Council for Science (ICSU), which it recognizes as the coordinating body for the international organization of science.
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The government has doubled the incentive for exporters of garments and made-ups under the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) to support declining textile exports. Incentive rates for the two sectors have been enhanced to 4% of value of exports from 2% with effect from November 1 to June 30, 2018.
- Under the programme, exporters are given duty exemption scrips that are pegged at a certain percentage of total value of their exports. These scrips can be used to pay duties on inputs including customs.
- Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) under Foreign Trade Policy of India (FTP 2015-20) is one of the two schemes introduced in Foreign Trade Policy of India 2015-20, as a part of Exports from India Scheme.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Inter-State Council (ISC) to discuss the recommendations made by the Punchhi Commission on Centre-State relations.
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, along with Chief Ministers Amarinder Singh of Punjab, Manik Sarkar of Tripura, Naveen Patnaik of Odisha and Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh, would be present.
The Government of India constituted a Commission on Centre-State Relations under the chairmanship of Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, former Chief Justice of India on 27th April 2007 to look into the new issues of Centre-State relations keeping in view the changes that have taken place in the polity and economy of India since the Sarkaria Commission had last looked at the issue of Centre-State relations over two decades ago.
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The government is planning bids for a total of 20,000 MW of solar energy plants projects in this financial year, of which 3,600 MW have already been completed, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said.
- The Ministry is planning bids for 30,000 MW of solar projects in 2018-19 and 2019-20, each. In wind energy, the Centre announced the third wind power auction of 2,000 MW, the largest of its kind in India so far.
- As per the Ministry’s plan, Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will invite two separate bids for 3,000 MW of solar projects in December 2017 and January 2018 each. NTPC is to invite a bid for 5,000 MW of solar projects in February 2018, and another 6,000 MW will be bid out in March 2018 by SECI and other Central PSUs.
- In wind energy, the Ministry said it had already received bids for 32 GW of projects, which is more than 50% of the 60 GW target set for 2022. The government is expecting bids for a total of 8-9 GW this year, and 10 GW each in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) is a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, established to facilitate the implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. It is the only public sector undertaking dedicated to the solar energy sector.
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National drug pricing regulator (NPPA) has capped prices of 51 essential formulations, including those used for the treatment of cancer, pain, heart conditions and skin problems. The prices have been slashed in the range of 6 to 53%.
- NPPA fixes ceiling price of essential medicines of Schedule I under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013. In respect of medicines that are not under price control, manufacturers are allowed to increase the maximum retail price by 10 per cent annually. The calculation for essential drugs is based on the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment with sales of more than 1%.
NPPA is an organization of the Government of India which was established, inter alia, to fix/ revise the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce prices and availability of the medicines in the country, under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995.
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Lucknow will create history by electing its first-ever woman mayor in 100 years.
The city got its chance to elect a woman mayor 100 years after the Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act came into existence.
- The Samajwadi Party has selected Meera Vardhan, kin of educationist Acharya Narendra Dev and the Congress has pitched Prema Awasthi, wife of the former Congress legislator Surendra Nath.
The Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act came into being in 1916 and Barrister Syed Nabiullahbecame the first Indian to head the local body.
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The cycles are manufactured by Bamboo India, a Pune-based company.
- Bamboo cycles weighs only 2 kg, but is sturdy and easy to ride Yogesh Shinde, founder of Bamboo India, announced.
- The cycle costs Rs 35,000 with an online customer base of over 9,000 people in India and in Netherlands, US and Europe.
- Cycles are made by members of 10 agricultural families based in Velhe taluka, 55 km from Pune, who are involved in bamboo plantation.
India conducted a major military exercise in the Andaman and Nicobar Island archipelago.
- The “Defence of A&N Islands Exercise” (DANX) was conducted from November 20 to 24 with fighter jets, heavy-lift transport aircraft, warships, infantry combat vehicles, special forces and regular troops.
The A&N Command (ANC), set up in October 2001, is the country’s only theatre command, with all the manpower and assets of the Army, Navy and IAF placed under one commander.
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“Holding elections in our country costs money,” Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said, while rejecting a public interest litigation petition suggesting fresh elections whenever the public chose overwhelmingly the “None of the Above” (NOTA) option.
- Supreme Court advocate Ashiwni Upadhyay said that if NOTA got the highest number of votes, it would amount to an expression of public dissatisfaction with the candidates in the fray.
- Mr. Upadhyay has decided to withdraw his petition from the court. He may now approach the Election Commission.
‘Anurakthi’, the world’s first Sanskrit 3D film was screened at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2017 in Goa.
- The film was directed by Asokan PK, the film revolves around the ancient theatrical tradition of Koodiyattam in Kerala.
- The film, which was shot on a budget of around Rs.28 lakh, is expected to have its commercial release in February 2018.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe inaugirated the Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS) in New Delhi.
- Ranil Wickremesinghe is on a 4-day visit to India for bilateral talks.
- The fifth edition of the GCCS is currently underway in New Delhi with delegates from over hundred countries.
A museum has restored the longest painting in U.S. and Canada so it can share the story of American whaling with the public.
- The 0.4-km-long panorama toured the U.S. after it was completed in 1848. A section was featured at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. But the panorama deteriorated after so much travelling on wagons and trains, rolling and unrolling. Paint dried up and flaked off, and the panorama was put into storage.
- The New Bedford Whaling Museum enlisted the help of a textile conservator to fix the “Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage Round the World.” Now it’s searching for a large venue to display it.
Seated at tables with glasses of tea in the heart of Baghdad’s bookshop district, the customers of Shabandar cafe have watched 100 years of Iraq’s tumultuous history pass by.
- Since opening its doors a century ago, the establishment has become a hub of Baghdad’s intellectual life, drawing poets and politicians to its wooden benches and photo-lined walls.
- From British rule to modern-day Iraq, Shabandar has lived through the birth of a nation, the toppling of its monarchy, decades of domination by Saddam Hussein, the drama of the U.S.-led invasion and the bloody chaos that followed. The twists and tragedies have all left their mark on the cafe.
Researchers have converted a natural bacterial immune system into the world’s smallest data recorder, laying the groundwork for a new class of technologies that use bacterial cells for everything from disease diagnosis to environmental monitoring.
- The researchers at the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in the U.S. modified an ordinary laboratory strain of the ubiquitous human gut microbe Escherichia coli , enabling the bacteria to not only record their interactions with the environment but also time-stamp the events.
- Mr. Wang and his team created the microscopic data recorder by taking advantage of CRISPR-Cas, an immune system in many species of bacteria. CRISPR-Cas copies snippets of DNA from invading viruses so that subsequent generations of bacteria can repel these pathogens more effectively.
- As a result, the CRISPR locus of the bacterial genome accumulates a chronological record of the bacterial viruses that it and its ancestors have survived.
- When those same viruses try to infect again, the CRISPR-Cas system can recognise and eliminate them.
- To build their microscopic recorder, the researchers modified a piece of DNA called a plasmid, giving it the ability to create more copies of itself in the bacterial cell in response to an external signal.
State Bank of India, the country’s largest public sector bank, has launched a unified integrated app called YONO (You Need Only One) that would offer all kinds of financial and lifestyle products.
- The portal has been designed to offer maximum customer convenience and the product has been developed by SBI using artificial intelligence, predictive analysis and machine learning. It can be accessed through both Android and iOS platforms.
- The omni-channel platform will allow customers to meet their lifestyle needs across 14 categories from booking cabs to paying for medical needs — all under one roof.
- For this, the bank has partnered with 60 e-commerce players, including Amazon, Ola, Flipkart, Yatra, Swiggy and BYJU’s. Offline players such as Thomas Cook, Shoppers Stop and Cox and Kings are also part of the SBI partnership.
Headquarters – Mumbai
Tagline – With you all the way ,Pure banking nothing else,The nation's bank on us
CEO – Rajnish Kumar
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Twitter is testing a new feature called ‘Bookmarks’ that allows its over 300 million active users to privately save tweets for reading them later.
- Tina Koyama, a staff product designer at the San Francisco-based company, announced the development.
Private sector lender Axis Bank has launched an instant international payment services using Ripple’s enterprise blockchain technology solution for retail and corporate customers.
- Though an international offer, the bank is offering the facility only to its retail customers in the country to receive payments from the UAE-based Rak Bank and for its corporate customers to receive payments from Standard Chartered, Singapore.
Headquarters – Mumbai
Tagline – Badhti ka naam zindagi
CEO – Shika Sharma
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The Golden Temple in Amritsar has been awarded the ‘most visited place of the world’ by London-based organisation, World Book of Records (WBR).
- The organisation conferred the award on the basis of data compiled since September. So far, eight places, including Mount Abu and Vaishno Devi, have received this award.
Coca-Cola India appointed Vamsi Mohan, currently region director of the bottling in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as the President of Coca-Cola South Pacific.
- Mohan will take charge as the president of the Coca-Cola South Pacific business unit, effective January 1, 2018.
In a first, a woman has been inducted as a pilot in the Indian Navy. Shubhangi Swaroop, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, will soon be flying Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft.
- Three other women cadets, Astha Segal from New Delhi, Roopa A from Puducherry and Sakthi Maya S from Kerala, also created history by becoming the country’s first women officers at the Naval Armament Inspectorate (NAI) branch of the Navy.
Post Independence, in 1948, Indian Navy decided to setup its own inspection agency and thus the NAI Organisation came into existence on 11 Nov 1949. Major Lancelot Priestley of the Royal Army was appointed as the first Deputy Inspector of Naval Ordnance (DINO) at Bombay. The office of DINO was shifted to Naval Headquarters, New Delhi In 1951and re-designated as Director of Naval Armament Inspection (DNAI).
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Lionel Messi drew level with Cristiano Ronaldo’s tally of four European Golden Shoes after receiving the award at a ceremony in Barcelona, Spain.
- The FC Barcelona superstar claimed the prize – handed to Europe’s top goalscorer – for his 37 LaLiga strikes in 2016-17.
- It is the fourth time Messi has taken the honours, after his successes in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
