Daily Current affairs - January 2nd, 2018 for all competitive exams
Women and Child Development
Minister Maneka Gandhi inaugurated an online portal National Repository of
Information for Women (NARI) in New
Delhi for the empowerment of women.
- The portal will provide women with easy access to
information on government schemes and initiatives for women. The portal
summarises over 350 government schemes and other important
information.
important information.
NARI elaborates how the Government is
focussed to economically empower women through schemes under Direct Benefit
Transfer.
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Govt. to set up Centre on
Brahmaputra studies at IIT-Guwahati
A high-powered panel of
the Brahmaputra Board has approved Rs 237 crore project for the protection
of Majuli Island in Assam from flood and erosion.
- The Centre for Brahmaputra studies will cover
multi-disciplinary aspects of hydrology, environment, inland waterways,
agriculture and sociology.
Majuli Island, with an area of 524.29
sq km, is the world’s largest river island.
In 2016 became the first island to be
made a district in India.
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Assamese and Manipuri Versions
of PM Modi’s Official Website Launched
The Assamese and Manipuri
language versions of Prime Minister’s Official website- www.pmindia.gov.in
were launched.
- Now the PM INDIA website is available in 11
regional languages namely Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada,
Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu in addition
to English and Hindi.
Government extends AFSPA in
Nagaland for 6 more months
The Home Ministry has
declared Nagaland a “disturbed area” under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
(AFSPA) for six more months till June-end.
- The state is in such a “dangerous condition” that
use of armed forces in aid of civil power is necessary.
AFSPA empowers the security forces to
conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without prior notice.
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Tourist entry banned at
National Park
The Bhitarkanika National
Park in Odisha’s Kendrapara district will be out of bounds for tourists for a
week in view of for the annual census of estuarine crocodiles.
- The forest department has imposed a seven-day ban,
starting January 3, to prevent noise pollution during the headcount
operation of the reptiles
The 145-sqkm Bhitarkanika National
Park, located in the delta of rivers Brahmani, Baitarani and Dhamara, is an
ideal spot for camping, trekking and picnic.The peak winter is suitable for
the counting of the reptiles.
It was designated as national park on
16 September 1998 and as a Ramsar site on 19 August 2002.
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Kolkata to get its first
floating market
Kolkata is set to get its
first floating market, named ‘The Floating Market of Patuli’, which is likely
to be open for public in January.
- The 500-metre-long and 60-metre-wide market was
developed by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority in
collaboration with the municipal corporation by transforming a water body
in Patuli.
- The market will house over 200 shops.
U.P. theme State at Surajkund
Uttar Pradesh would be the
theme State for the 32nd Surajkund International Crafts fair, beginning from
the first week of February at Faridabad in Haryana.
- The fair is aimed to preserve Indian folk traditions
and cultural heritage. It also provides a world-class platform for
craftsmen from around the world to showcase their skills.
- The fair will begin on February 2 and culminate on
February 15.
MGR Memorial Home in
Vadavannur, Kerala
The childhood home of late
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran will be renovated and converted it
into a memorial house which is located in Vadavannur village, near Palakad in
Kerala.
- MGR’s father Maruthur Gopala Menons native is
Nalleppilly village. Though he was born in Sri Lanka, he and his family
shifted to Vadavannur after his father retired as the Magistrate of Kandy
Marijuana legalised in
California
The arrival of the new year in California
brought with it broad legalisation of marijuana, a much-anticipated change that
comes two decades after the State was the first to allow pot for medical use.
- The nation’s most populous State joins a growing
list of other States, and the nation’s capital, where so-called
recreational marijuana is permitted even though the federal government
continues to classify pot as a controlled substance.
- Pot is now legal in California for adults 21 and
older, and individuals can grow up to six plants and possess as much as an
ounce of the drug.
In 1996, over the objections of law
enforcement, President Bill Clinton’s drug czar and three former Presidents,
California voters approved marijuana for medicinal purposes.
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California
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Capital
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Sacramento
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Currency
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US dollar
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Governor
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Jerry Brown
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China develops underwater
surveillance networks in the Indian Ocean, South China Sea
China has developed a
new underwater surveillance network to help its submarines get a stronger lock
on targets while protecting the nation.
- The system, which has already been launched, works
by gathering information about the underwater environment, particularly
water temperature and salinity.
- The Chinese system is based on a network of
platforms that gather data from the South China Sea, and the Western
Pacific and Indian oceans.
Country
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China
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Capital
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Beijing
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Currency
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Renminbi
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President
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Xi Jinping
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Israeli archaeologists find
2,700-year-old “governor of Jerusalem” seal impression
Israeli archaeologists
unveiled a 2,700-year-old clay seal impression which they said belonged to a
biblical governor of Jerusalem.
- The artefact, inscribed in an ancient Hebrew script
as “belonging to the governor of the city”, was likely attached to a
shipment or sent as a souvenir on behalf of the governor, the most
prominent local position held in Jerusalem at the time
- The impression, the size of a small coin, depicts
two standing men, facing each other in a mirror-like manner and wearing
striped garments reaching down to their knees. It was unearthed near the
plaza of Judaism’s Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Governors of Jerusalem, appointed by
the king, are mentioned twice in the Bible, in 2 Kings, which refers to
Joshua holding the position, and in 2 Chronicles, which mentions Masseiah in
the post during the reign of Josiah.
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Country
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Israel
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Capital
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Jerusalem
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Currency
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Israeli new shekel
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President
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Reuven Rivlin
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Prime minister
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Benjamin Netanyahu
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NASA to build robotic
satellites to reduce space pollution
US government body Defence
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA have teamed up to build
robotic technology that can refuel and repair friendly satellites.
- Service stations in orbit name given to these
robotic satellites would not only refuel satellites but also drastically
improve their longevity and lifespan.
- According to a report in Futurism, the robots could
fix minor maintenance issue keeping up with current orbiters as they age
and sustain damage.
The National Aeronautics
and Space Administration is an independent agency of the executive branch of
the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space
program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research
Founded on: July 29,
1958
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Astronauts identify unknown
microbes in space for the first time
Astronauts aboard
the International Space Station (ISS) have for the first time
identified microbes in space without having to samples back to Earth for tests.
- NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson conducted the
experiment aboard the orbiting laboratory, with NASA microbiologist.
Google’s new AI system can
articulate like humans
In a major step towards its
“AI first” dream, Google has developed a text-to-speech artificial intelligence
(AI) system that will confuse you with its human-like articulation.
- The tech giant’s text-to-speech system called
“Tacotron 2” delivers an AI-generated computer speech that almost matches
with the voice of humans, technology news website Inc.com reported.
- At Google I/O 2017 developers conference, the
company’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the internet giant was shifting
its focus from mobile-first to “AI first” and launched several products
and features, including Google Lens, Smart Reply for Gmail and Google
Assistant for iPhone.
E-commerce sites must show
MRP, other details from January 01 2018
E-commerce players like
Flipkart, Amazon and eBay will have to display maximum retail price (MRP),
expiry date and other important details about the products up for sale on their
sites.
- This is expected to assuage buyers’ concern that
e-sellers might be inflating prices much above the MRP and then offering
steep discounts, pocketing handsome gains in the process.
Earlier this year, the Department of
Consumer Affairs had amended the Packaged Commodity Rules, 2011, and issued a
notification under which sellers on all e-commerce sites would have to
disclose the actual MRP of the product January 1 onwards.
The e-commerce sites were given a
six-month window to comply with the order.
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CRISIL launches index to track
FPI investments in fixed markets
Rating agency CRISIL
launched an index to measure the performance of investments of foreign
portfolio investors (FPI) in the fixed-income market.
- The CRISIL FPI index would serve as benchmark for
performance of FPI investments in government securities, and ‘AAA’ as well
as ‘AA’ rated corporate bonds with residual maturity greater than three
years.
The indices have significance because
of rising FPI investments in fixed-income securities and progressive hikes in
the limits prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its medium-term
framework introduced in October 2015.
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SBI Reduces Base Rate and
Benchmark Prime Lending Rates Each by 30 bps
The State Bank of
India reduced the base rate and benchmark prime lending rates by 30 basis
points each, which will benefit nearly 80 lakh customers on the old
pricing regime.
- SBI revised down the base rate to 8.65
percent for existing customers from 8.95 percent, while the benchmark
prime lending rates are down from 13.7 percent, to 13.4
percent. The one-year MCLR of the bank stands unchanged at 7.95 percent.
Bank
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State Bank of India
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Headquarters
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Mumbai
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Tagline
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With you, all the way
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Chairperson
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Rajnish Kumar
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No charges on debit card
transactions up to Rs.2,000
Customers will not have to
pay any transaction charges for payments through debit card, BHIM app and other
payment made for up to Rs 2,000.
- Union Cabinet approved a proposal that government
will bear the merchant discount rate (MDR) charges on transactions up to
Rs 2,000 made through debit cards, BHIM UPI or Aadhaar-enabled payment
systems to promote digital transactions.
The merchant discount rate (MDR) will
be borne by the government for two years with effect from January 1, 2018 by
reimbursing the same to banks.
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Salil Parekh Becoming New CEO
of Infosys
Bangalore based leading IT
firm Infosys has appointed its new CEO, Salil Parekh.
- Before this He has worked as the Business Manager”
at Capgemini
Vijay Keshav Gokhale Appointed
Foreign Secretary
Senior diplomat Vijay Keshav
Gokhale has been appointed the foreign secretary of
India. He has succeeded S Jaishankar.
- Mr Gokhale served as Indian Ambassador to China,
Germany and as Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia in the past. He is at
present secretary (economic relations) in the Ministry of External
Affairs.
- Gokhale, a 1981 batch officer of the Indian Foreign
Service (IFS), was India’s envoy to China.
Jaishankar was appointed foreign
secretary on January 29, 2015, for two years. He was given a one-year
extension in January last year.
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171st Araadhanai Music
Festival begins In Thiruvaiyaru
The Governor of TamilNadu
Banwarilal Purohit inaugurated 171st Araadhanai Music Festival begins in
Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja temple.
- The main highlight of the festival is the choral
singing of Thyagaraja’s five kritis in Ghana ragas which will be held on
its last day of five day festival.
Sangita Kalanidhi award
conferred on Ravikiran
Chief Justice of Madras High
Court Indira Banerjee conferred the Sangita Kalanidhi award on chitraveena
maestro N. Ravikiran at the Sadas of the Music Academy.
- Mridangam exponent V. Kamalakar Rao and musician
Radha Namboodiri were conferred the title Sangita Kala Acharya.
- Ghatam exponent Sukanya Ramgopal and leading
representative of the Othuvar tradition Muthu Kandasamy Desikar were
conferred the TTK Award.
- The Musicologist Award was given to T.S. Sathyavathi
and the Papa Venkatramiah Award to Thiruvallur Parthasarathy.
Violinist T.N. Krishnan
recollected how Mr. Ravikiran played in the same auditorium decades ago as a
child.
Sangeetha Kalanidhi is the title
awarded yearly to an expert Carnatic Musician by the Madras
Music Academy. It is often considered to be the most
prestigious award in the field of Carnatic Music.
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‘Whistled language’ spoken in
Turkish village entered in UNESCO list
The ‘whistled language’ used
as a means of communication in Turkish village Kuskoy has entered the UNESCO
Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
- Roughly 500 years old, it was once widespread across
the Black Sea regions.
- With over 400 words and phrases, it is used to
communicate in the rugged terrain where it could otherwise be hard to
communicate at a distance.
Veteran Poet Anwar Jalalpuri
Passes Away
Noted Urdu poet Anwar
Jalalpuri passed away at the age of 71 in Lucknow. He suffered a brain
stroke.
- Anwar Jalalpuri is best known for his
translation of shloks of Bhagavad Gita into Urdu verses.
Indian Golfer Shiv Kapur Wins
Royal Cup at Pattaya
Indian golfer Shiv
Kapur won the Royal Cup at Pattaya, which is his third Asian
Tour title of 2017.
- The 35-year-old, who had just one win in almost 11
years till April 2017, has now won three times in last eight months.
- This latest win marks Kapur’s fourth Asian Tour win
and sixth international title as he won twice on European Challenge Tour
also.
