Daily Current affairs - February 17&18, 2018 for all competitive exams
The National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI) has given consent to launch WhatsApp BHIM UPI beta with limited user
base of 1 million and low per transaction limit, the regulator said.
- This
comes after Paytm Founder Vijay Shekar Sharma accused NPCI of favoring
WhatsApp. Sharma said while Indian players require three-factor
authentication, WhatsApp was allowed to dodge the rule.
National Payments Corporation of India is the
umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in India, which aims to
allow all Indian citizens to have unrestricted access to e-payment services.
Founded in 2008, NPCI is a not-for-profit organisation registered under
section 8 of the Companies Act 2013. The organisation is owned by a
consortium of major banks, and has been promoted by the country’s central
bank, the Reserve Bank of India.
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India’s first artificial intelligence centre inaugurated in
Mumbai
In a first in the country, Maharashtra
government will be setting up an institute for artificial intelligence (AI) in
Mumbai.
- Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis will unveil the plan for the institute during
the Magnetic Maharashtra Summit.
- The
Magnetic Maharashtra Summit will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on February 18.
Kashmir to host major national tourism
convention after 30 years
Kashmir will host next month a major national
tourism convention which was earlier planned to be held in China.
- The
64th convention of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) will be
held in summer capital Srinagar after three decades.
- Kashmir
has held the convention seven times before, the last in 1988, just a year
before militancy erupted in the state.
The TRAVEL AGENTS ASSOCIATION OF INDIA (TAAI) was formed
towards the end of the year 1951 by a group of twelve leading travel agents,
who felt the time had come to create an Association to regulate the travel
industry in India along organized lines and in accordance with sound business
principles.
The primary purpose was to protect the interests of those engaged in the industry, to promote its orderly growth and development and to safeguard the travelling public from exploitation by unscrupulous and unreliable operators. |
Rajasthan to get its full share of Yamuna water
Rajasthan will get its full share of 1.119
billion cusecs of water from the Yamuna, with the Upper Yamuna Review Committee
deciding over the weekend that 1,917 cusecs water will be released from the
Tajewala headworks to Jhunjhunu, Churu and Sikar districts for drinking and
irrigation.
- With this decision, the dispute between Rajasthan and
Haryana over the sharing of Yamuna waters, as per an agreement signed
between the Chief Ministers of five States in 1994, has been resolved.
The State will get its full share of water from Tajewala
and Okhla headworks.
A detailed project report will be prepared shortly for
bringing water from Tajewala to Rajasthan at an estimated expenditure of Rs.
20,000 crore.
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UYRB is
a subordinate office of the Union Ministry of Water Resources, River
Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India. An MoU was signed
on 12-May-1994 amongst the party basin states for the sharing of the waters
of river Yamuna upto and including Okhala barrage. The MoU provides for
creation of a board called Upper Yamuna River Board, primarily
for regulation of the allocation of available flows amongst the beneficiary
states and also for monitoring the return flows; monitoring conserving and
upgrading the quality of surface and ground water; maintaining
hydro-meteorological data for the basin; over viewing plans for watershed
management; monitoring and reviewing the progress of all projects upto and
including Okhla barrage; and other similar functions.
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The
Yamuna , also known as the Jumna, is the longest and the second largest
tributary river of the Ganges (Ganga) in northern India. Originating from the
Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387 metres on the south western slopes of
Banderpooch peaks in the uppermost region of the Lower Himalaya in
Uttarakhand, it travels a total length of 1,376 kilometres (855 mi) and has a
drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi), 40.2% of the
entire Ganges Basin, before merging with the Ganges at Triveni Sangam,
Allahabad, the site for the Kumbha Mela every twelve years. It is the longest
river in India which does not directly flow to the sea.
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Cauvery water dispute verdict
The Supreme
Court verdict on Cauvery water dispute is out, and it has come as a big relief
for Karnataka. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerhead for their ‘due
share’ of Cauvery river.
- The
apex court directed the Karnataka government to release 177.25 TMC of
water to Tamil Nadu, 14.75 TMC lesser than what was allotted by the
tribunal in 2007. Karnataka will now get 284.75 TMC and Tamil Nadu will
get 404.25 TMC of Cauvery water.
- The
top court also made it clear that increase in the share of Cauvery water
for Karnataka has been done keeping in view the fact that there is an
increased demand of drinking water by Bengaluru and also for many
industrial activities.
The dispute began with Karnataka’s demand of ‘equitable
sharing of the waters’ after it expanded farming activities in the Cauvery
basin.
In 1990, the
union government set up a Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal or CWDT to look
into inter-state river water disputes. In 2007, the Tribunal came out with
its order. The Tribunal found the total water of the river 740 thousand
million cubic feet (TMC) which it divided (majorly) in Karnataka (270) and
Tamil Nadu (419 TMC). Rest of the water was divided into two other states and
several other basins. It gave Kerala: 30 TMC, Kabini sub-basin: 21 TMC,
Bhavani sub-basin: 6 TMC, Pambar sub-basin: 3 TMC, the Union Territory of
Pondicherry: 7 TMC. The Tribunal also awarded 10 TMC for environmental
protection and 4 TMC for inevitable escapages into the sea.
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Punjab government launched CCTNS
Punjab government
has launched the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), a
project to keep digitised records of FIRs and information on crimes and
criminals. FIRs and General Diaries can now be updated online by police
officials on CCTNS ‘Go-Live’. They would be provided Tablets for this purpose.
- Crime
and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) is a project initiated
in June 2009 which aims at creating a comprehensive and integrated system
for enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of policing at the Police
Station level.
The Project will
interconnect about 15000 Police Stations and additional 5000 offices of
supervisory police officers across the country and digitize data related to
FIR registration, investigation and charge sheets in all Police Stations.
It will not only automate Police functions at Police
station and higher levels but will also create facilities and mechanism to
provide public services like registration of online complaints, ascertaining
the status of case registered at the police station, verification of persons
etc.
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Plea to ban law practice of MPs, MLAs
The Supreme Court decided to examine a plea to
ban Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies from practising law.
- A
Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked Attorney-General K.K.
Venugopal for assistance.
- Petitioner,
advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, said: “Under Section 21 of the IPC, MLAs
and MPs are public servants. Hence, allowing them to practice as an
advocate and restricting other public servants is arbitrary and irrational
and violation of Articles 14-15 of the Constitution.”
India and Iran Signed Agreement for the
Avoidance of Double Taxation
India and Iran signed an Agreement for
the Avoidance of Double Taxation (DTAA) and the Prevention of Fiscal
Evasion with respect to taxes on income. The Agreement is on similar lines
as entered into by India with other countries.
- The
Agreement will stimulate the flow of investment, technology and personnel
from India to Iran & vice versa, and will prevent double taxation. It
will improve transparency in tax matters and will help curb tax evasion
and tax avoidance.
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) also referred as
Tax Treaty is a bilateral economic agreement between two nations that aims to
avoid or eliminate double taxation of the same income in two countries
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Canadian PM Arrives on a 7-day Visit to India
Prime Minister of Canada, Justin
Trudeau will arrive in India on a seven-day State visit.
- According
to the Ministry of External Affairs, his visit is aimed at further
strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries in key areas
of mutual interest including trade and investment, energy, science and
innovation, higher education, infrastructure development, skill
development and space.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid a bilateral visit to
Canada in April 2015. The last visit of a Canadian Prime Minister
to India was in November 2012.
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First large scale CO2-injected project in Asia
Oil and
Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) plans to introduce carbon dioxide injection in
its Gandhar field to recover an extra 20 million barrels of crude oil under the
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme which is being undertaken to improve
India’s energy security.
- While
the technology is a proven concept in the West specially the US and
Canada, ONGC’s project would be the first large scale CO2-injected project
in Asia.
Gandhar located in Gujarat is one of ONGC’s major
brownfields and was discovered in 1983. The field produces approximately
30,000 barrels of oil per day and is on the decline. Under this project, ONGC
plans to invest $75 million in CO2 capture and another $200 million in
injector producer network to recover an extra 15% of residual oil currently
valued at $1.36 billion. It will be operational in 20 months. ONGC is in
talks with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for utilising nearly 5
million tonnes of emitted gas (CO2) from the latter’s Gandhar plant.
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China to Host 2018 SCO Summit at Qingdao in
June
China will host 2018 Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO) Summit at Qingdao, eastern Shandong Province in June 2018.
China had taken over rotating chair of SCO after 17th SCO summit concluded in
Astana, capital of Kazakhstan in June 2017.
- SCO
is a Eurasian economic, political and security organisation headquartered
in Beijing, China. It was founded in 2001.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian
political, economic, and security organisation, the creation of which was
announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation Charter was signed in June 2002 and entered into
force on 19 September 2003. These countries, except for Uzbekistan, had been
members of the Shanghai Five group, founded on 26 April 1996 in Shanghai.
India and Pakistan joined SCO as full members on 9 June 2017 at a summit in
Astana, Kazakhstan.
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Scientists find a potentially powerful new antibiotic in dirt
Researchers
have discovered a new class of antibiotics, which they have named malacidins,
which can be extracted from soil bacteria that are notoriously difficult to
culture in labs and study.
- The
world is facing an epidemic of infections that no longer respond well to
the drugs used to treat them—also known as super bugs.
- The
findings of the research are encouraging. The researchers say that based
on their research, malacidins may be able to attack and kill many types of
super bugs. The new antibiotics fought off many common infections in lab
and mice tests, eliminating some microbes that have become resistant to
existing antibiotics.
A superbug,
also called multiresistant, is a bacterium that carries several resistance
genes. These are resistant to multiple antibiotics and are able to survive
even after exposure to one or more antibiotics.
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Japanese,
US astronauts on the spacewalk to fix robotic arm
A Japanese and an American astronaut floated
outside the International Space Station.
- The
spacewalk is the first for Japanese Aerospace Agency (JAXA) astronaut
Norishige Kanai and the fourth for his US counterpart Mark Vande Hei.
- The
Tokyo-born lieutenant in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force became
an astronaut in 2009.
Unmanned Russian Cargo Ship Progress MS-08
Launched
Russian space agency Roskosmos has
successfully launched Progress MS-08, an unmanned cargo spacecraft
for the International Space Station (ISS).
- It
was launched onboard of Soyuz-2.1a rocket from Russian-leased
Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. Soyuz-2.1a has four strap-on
boosters and core engine, all fueled by a mix of kerosene and liquid
oxygen.
Chandrayaan-2 launch in April, to aim for
moon’s south pole
India’s second lunar mission has been postponed
until April, Jitendra Singh, who heads the Department of Space, said. It was
earlier scheduled for March.
- The
mission, which would cost about ~800 crores, will be the first time India
will attempt to land a rover on the moon’s south pole.
- India
is going to launch Chandrayaan-2 in April. It is under Chandrayaan-1
mission that the Isro spotted water on the moon.
Ola 'Auto Unnati' launched to ensure healthy
ecosystem for Auto driver
Ola successfully launched 'Auto Unnati' program
to assist its auto driver partners through the firm's ‘Chalo Befikar’ insurance
program, family welfare initiatives. The aim is to create an inclusive
environment in which driver partners can operate and thrive.
- ‘Auto
Unnati’ is a milestone program in the same direction that will offer
better financial and emotional stability for thousands of auto drivers in
Bengaluru. The program is aimed to enhance business assurance plan to
ensure a healthy professional ecosystem for Auto driver partners and for
those hoping to target high business profits with ease.
RBI asks banks to accept notes & coins of small
denominations at their counters
RBI has directed all banks to accept small
denomination notes and coins tendered at their counters.
- The
apex bank issued a notification in Mumbai by saying such denial of service
causes inconvenience to the public at large as shopkeepers and traders
refuse to accept coins for payment of goods and services.
SBI launches Global NRI Centre in Kochi
The State Bank of India, which has a strong NRI
customer base of over 33 lakh, has launched its Global NRI Centre (GNC) in
Kochi.
- The
GNC will be a one-stop customer service centre for all Non-Resident Indian
(NRI) banking related services.
- To
enhance the service experience of NRIs, the bank also launched other
services such as Wealth Management, SBI Intelligent Assist, Free Post Box
Service, and SBI Mingle for NRIs and Remittance facility for US-based
customers.
CPA conference of India region to begin in Patna
The sixth conference of Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association (CPA) of India Region will begin in Patna today. Lok
Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will inaugurate the two-day event.
- Our
correspondent reports that over one hundred delegates from across the
country and abroad including Australia, Britain, Uganda and Tonga have
arrived to participate this conference.
Central Geological Programming Board
The 57th
Meeting of the Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) was recently held.
Representatives of State Departments, Central Ministries/ organizations, PSUs,
academic institutes and private entrepreneurs attended the 57th CGPB meeting.
- Apart
from discussion on achievements of GSI(Geological Survey of India) during
the current year, the proposed Annual Programme for ensuing 2018-19 was
presented before all Board members.
The Central
Geological Programming Board (CGPB) is the apex body at the national level to
overview the programme of geoscientific activities including mineral
exploration in the country. It was established through Government of India
Resolution in 1966, and subsequently revamped in 2009 with the constitution
of 12 theme based committees. CGPB meetings are held twice in a year.
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Vice President inaugurated the 8th Theatre
Olympics
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated
the 8th Theatre Olympics at Red Fort in Delhi
- The
51-day international theatre festival having 450 shows will be held in
over 17 cities including Chandigarh, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.
- Theme
of 8th Theatre Olympics: 'Flag of Friendship'
Indian Engineer Awarded Sci-Tech Oscar Award
Vikas Sathaye, a Pune-born person has been
honoured with the Scientific and Engineering Academy Award at the Oscars
Scientific and Technical Awards 2018 at Beverly Hills in Los Angeles,
California.
- Sathaye
and his team received the award for his contribution towards
conceptualisation, designing, engineering, and the implementation of
the 'Shotover K1 Camera System' during his stint at Shotover
Camera Systems in Queenstown, New Zealand.
Milkbasket recognized as ‘Startup of the Year’ 2017
Milkbasket, India’s first and largest
micro-delivery platform has been recognized as ‘Startup of the Year’ 2017 at
the 7th Small Business Awards.
- The
Startup of the Year award is dedicated to young SMEs, aged 7 years or
less, with great potential to become big in local/international markets.
- Launched
in early 2015, Milkbasket is India’s first and largest daily
micro-delivery service.
Shilpa Shetty released book titled 'The
Diary of a Domestic Diva'
Bollywood Actress Shilpa Shetty has
released her second book titled 'The Diary of a Domestic Diva'
- This
book aims to share quick and hassle-free methods of cooking healthy,
nutritious and delicious meals.
The actress has became an author with her award-winning
bestseller 'The Great Indian Diet' in 2014, which became one of the highest
selling books in the health segment.
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Virat Kohli first batsman ever to score 500
runs in bilateral ODI series
Indian skipper Virat Kohli is the first
batsman ever to score 500 runs in a bilateral ODI series.
- Kohli
achieved the feat during the sixth and final ODI of the series against
South Africa.
- Kohli
went on to score his 35th ODI hundred, his third of the series and also
the first by an Indian batsman in a bilateral series.
Australia set T20 run chase record to beat New
Zealand
D’Arcy Short anchored a high-powered
Australian batting order to produce the highest successful run chase in
Twenty20 international cricket.
- Australia
beat New Zealand by five wickets in their tri-series clash at Eden Park on
Friday.
- The
run chase eclipsed the 236 for six West Indies achieved in beating South
Africa in Johannesburg in 2015.
Roger
Federer becomes oldest tennis world number one with the win in Rotterdam
Roger Federer added yet another record to his
vast collection when he guaranteed to become the oldest ATP world number one by
beating Dutchman Robin.
- Federer
defeated Robin Haase in Rotterdam to become the oldest ever world number 1
in tennis history.
- Federer
took a wildcard into the ABN AMRO World Tennis event with his eyes fixed
on a return to number one for the first time since November 2012.
