Daily Current affairs - April 6th, 2018 for all competitive exams
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
(I&B) constituted a 10-member committee to regulate online portals,
including news websites, entertainment.
- The
committee will include secretaries of departments of Home, Electronics and
Information and Technology, Legal Affairs and Industrial Policy.
- The
committee will be headed by Narendra Kumar Sinha, the I&B Secretary.
- The
committee will look to bring online information dissemination under
regulation. It will propose a policy for foreign direct investment (FDI).
Samta Diwas celebrated every year on April 5
Samta Diwas is
the celebration of birth anniversary of nationalist politician Babu Jagjivan
Ram.
- It
is celebrated on April 5. 2018 marks his 111th birth
anniversary.
- The
day emphasizes on bringing about equality among all spheres of the
society.
About Babu Jagjivan Ram: His beliefs were of
great significance in the past era as there was predominance of multi layered
society. He focused on the harsh rules of the society and pressed for the
abolishment of this society. His 50 years as a MP is a world record.
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PM Modi to visit Sweden, the UK from April
16-20
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a
five-day visit to Sweden and the UK beginning April 16 with the aim
of boosting bilateral cooperation.
- In the UK, the prime minister will also attend the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
- The prime minister will arrive in Stockholm on the
evening of April 16 and will have a number of meetings on April 17.
- Modi will also address a gathering of select Swedish
business leaders and will also meet the Indian community in Sweden.
Coal ministry launches UTTAM app for Quality
monitoring
The Union Minister for Railways and Coal Shri
Piyush Goyal launched UTTAM App for Coal Quality Monitoring.
- UTTAM stands for – Unlocking Transparency by Third
Party Assessment of Mined Coal.
- It aims to provide an App for all citizens and coal
consumers to monitor the process of Third Party Sampling of coal across
CIL subsidiaries.
UTTAM App
ensures accountability, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency in
coal ecosystem. It provides a platform for monitoring of sampling and
coal dispatches. The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL)
developed UTTAM.
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IndiaFilings launches online income tax filing services
IndiaFilings launches online income tax filing
services IndiaFilings launches online income tax filing services
- All income tax returns like ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3, ITR-4,
ITR-5, ITR-6 and ITR-7 can be filed online using their platform directly.
- In order to prevent errors made by users while filing
tax returns, intelligence and in-built algorithms have been incorporated
in the platform.
- Apart from this self-serve platform, IndiaFilings also
offers assisted tax return filing services for all class of taxpayers
beginning from Rs.488.
IndiaFilings’ online income tax filing service will help
individuals and businesses file their income tax return using their platform.
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DoT issues 13-digit numbers to telcos for M2M
network trials
The Department of Telecom has
issued 13-digit numbers to telecom operators for the trial of
machine-to-machine (M2M) communications like smart electric metres and car
tracking devices.
- The 13-digit numbers have been allocated to state-run
firm BSNL and private telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Idea
Cellular and Vodafone for testing purposes only.
M2M communication, a new-age technology, is at the heart of
concepts such as smart homes and smart cars.
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Assam assembly passed up to 50% hike in Assam
MLAs’ pay
Assam Assembly has passed a Bill for increasing
the salary of the Chief Minister, Speaker, Ministers and MLAs by 33-50%.
- the pay structure has been designed on the basis of the
recommendations of a panel headed by retired IAS officer P.P. Verna.
- According to the new structure, the Chief Minister’s
monthly package will increase from Rs. 90,000 to Rs. 1.30 lakh while the
Speaker and Deputy Speaker will draw Rs. 1.20 lakh and Rs. 1 lakh, a
substantial jump from Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 75,000 respectively.
- A Cabinet minister and Leader of the Opposition will
now get Rs. 1.10 lakh, up from the existing Rs. 80,000 per month, while a
junior Minister’s salary has been hiked from Rs. 75,000 to Rs. 1 lakh. For
MLAs, the hike is 33% from the existing Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 80,000.
- Apart from pay hike, every MLA will be entitled to Rs.
40,000 per month as allowances.
Haryana girl aims to become youngest Indian
woman to scale Mt Everest
The teenager from Hisar in Haryana will begin her
climb to the summit in mid-May.
- Shivangi will leave for Lukla, the gateway to the Mount
Everest, after obtaining a climbing permit from the Department of Tourism.
- In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay
became the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Himachal Pradesh passed for cluster varsity
bill
The first Cluster University of Himachal Pradesh
would come up in Mandi, the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
- The Bill introduced in this regard was passed with a
voice vote in the Vidhan Sabha.
- It would be named as Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel
University.
Salman gets 5-year jail term
A local Jodhpur Rural court sentenced actor
Salman Khan to five years in jail for having poached two blackbucks in a case
from 19 years ago.
- The court acquitted four other Hindi film actors — Saif
Ali Khan, Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre — and a local travel agent,
Dushyant Singh, who were co-accused, for want of sufficient evidence.
- Chief Judicial Magistrate (Jodhpur Rural) Dev Kumar
Khatri also imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on Mr. Khan.
India and the United Arab Emirates signed MOU on technical
cooperation in rail sector
The Indian Railways apprised the Cabinet of an
MoU signed between India and the United Arab Emirates on technical cooperation
in rail sector.
- The Union Cabinet has been apprised of the Memorandum
of Understanding signed with Federal Transport Authority-Land and Maritime
of the UAE on technical cooperation in rail sector.
UAE
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Capital
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Abu Dhabi
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Currency
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Dirham
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President
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Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
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India and Azerbaijan ink 2 Agreements
India and Azerbaijan have inked two
documents for the visa waiver for diplomatic, official and service
passports holders and cooperation between diplomatic training institutes.
- The agreements were signed during the ongoing visit of
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to that country. Ms Swaraj is
there to be part of 18th NAM Ministerial Conference in Baku.
India and Canada signed MOU on foster cross-border partnerships
The Union Cabinet has been apprised of the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Canada.
- The MoU was signed on 21st February, 2018 in New Delhi.
- The MoU aims at fostering cross-border partnerships
focused on research excellence and industry-academic collaboration between
India and Canada that brings robust innovation gains to both countries.
Canada
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Capital
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Ottawa
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Currency
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Dollar
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President
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Justin Trudeau
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China announces additional tariffs on $50
billion of US goods
China will impose additional tariffs of 25
percent on 106 US goods including soybeans, autos, chemicals, some types of
aircraft and corn products.
- The products targeted by the tariffs were worth $50
billion in 2017, according to a separate statement from the commerce
ministry.
- US orange juice, certain sorghum products, cotton, some
types of wheat, as well as trucks, some SUVs, certain electric vehicles
Trump orders National Guard to Mexican border
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the National
Guard to deploy to America’s southern border, ratcheting up pressure on Mexico
and taking another step in his quest to clamp down on illegal immigration.
- Mr. Trump’s latest border move came the same day as a
caravan of Central American migrants — whose trek across Mexico had
infuriated the U.S. President — scrapped their highly publicised plans to
try to enter the U.S.
Saudi Arabia to open first cinema screens on
April 18 after 35 years
Saudi Arabia will open its first cinema in over
35 years on April 18 as part of a deal with the world’s biggest cinema chain
AMC to open up to 40 theatres in some 15 Saudi cities.
- Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information granted on
Wednesday the first licence to America’s AMC to operate a theatre.
- The past year witnessed the start of a huge drive to
bring entertainment to Saudi Arabia as part of Vision 2030.
According to Saudi Gazette, about 350 movie theatres with
over 2,500 screens will be opened by 2030.
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Sahyog- Hyeoblyeog 2018: Indian, Korean coast
guards hold joint exercise
Indo-Korean joint anti-piracy, search and
rescue exercise ‘Sahyog- Hyeoblyeog 2018’ was conducted off
the Chennai coast, in Tamil Nadu. The Korean Coast Guard ship
‘Bodaro’ took part in the exercise.
- Indian Coast Guard deployed a Dornier aircraft to carry
out a sea-air coordinated search along with ICG Shaurya, Rani
Abbakka, C-423, C-431 in the exercise.
FIEO and PayPal Inks MoU
Digital payments company PayPal and the
Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) signed an
agreement for the promotion of outbound shipments among small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) leveraging the partners' expertise and technology
products.
- As part of the agreement, PayPal will work with FIEO to
educate SMEs on how to leverage global opportunities, help them receive
money in a safe and timely manner with PayPal products. FIEO
contributes to more than 70% of India's exports.
Flipkart Partners With MakeMyTrip To Offer Travel Services
Homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart has forged a
strategic partnership with online travel company MakeMyTrip to offer travel
services on its platform.
Additionally, the services of MakeMyTrip are
other brands, Goibibo and redBus, will be available to Flipkart consumers as
part of the deal.
Ola unveils in-trip insurance: Cost starts at Re 1, covers up to
Rs 500,000
Ola has introduced an in-trip insurance programme
for all its customers in India starting at just Re 1.
- This in-trip insurance will cover for loss of
belongings, missed flights, and medical expenses up to Rs 500,000 in case
of an accident.
- This service is optional. It will be available on rides
taken in cabs, auto rickshaws, kaali-peeli cabs and e-rickshaws through
Ola.
- Ola has partnered with Acko General Insurance and ICICI
Lombard General Insurance for this in-trip insurance programme.
- Initially this service will be available in metro
cities. Later it will be launched in the 110 cities where Ola operates.
RBI decides to set up Data Sciences Lab
Reserve Bank of India has decided to set up Data
Sciences Lab to improve its forecasting, surveillance and early warning
detection abilities which will aid policy formulation.
- In a press release, it said policy making not only
benefits from data collected through regulatory returns and surveys but
also from large volumes of structured and unstructured real-time
information.
RBI said the lab will comprise experts and budding
analysts, who are trained in Computer Science, Data Analytics, Statistics,
Economics, Econometrics and Finance.
The unit is likely to become operational by December this
year
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RBI switches back to GDP scale to measure
economy
The Reserve Bank switched back to the gross
domestic product (GDP)-based measure to offer its growth estimates from the
gross value added (GVA) methodology, citing global best practices.
- The government had started analysing growth estimates
using GVA methodology from January 2015 and had also changed the base year
to 2018 from January.
- While GVA gives a picture of the state of economic
activity from the producers’ side or supply side, the GDP model gives the
picture from the consumers’ side or demand perspective.
Deputy Governor Viral Acharya said that the switch to GDP
is mainly to conform to international standards.
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RBI bars banks from dealing with virtual currencies
The Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to stop providing service to any entity
dealing with virtual currencies, with immediate effect. It has also asked
regulated entities that are already providing such services to exit the
relationship within three months.
- Widely seen as a disruption for the
traditional banking and financial institutions, cryptocurrencies have
gained significant traction over the last half a decade, at the same time
creating a regulatory nightmare for banking regulators across the globe. At
present, there are around 969 cryptocurrencies in existence across the
globe, with a total market capitalisation close to 116 Billion USD.
Founded as a
peer-to-peer electronic payment system, cryptocurrencies enable transfer of
money between parties, without going through a banking system. These digital
payment systems are based on cryptographic proof of the chain of
transactions, deriving their name, Cryptocurrency. These employ cryptographic
algorithms and functions to ensure anonymity (privacy) of the users (who are
identified by an alphanumeric public key), security of the transactions and
integrity of the payment systems.
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India 3rd most vulnerable country to Cyber
threats
India emerged as the third most vulnerable
country in terms of risk of cyber threats, such as malware, spam and
ransomware, in 2017, according to a report by security solutions provider
Symantec.
- In 2017, 5.09% of global threats
detected were in India. The U.S. (26.61%) was most vulnerable to such
attacks, followed by China (10.95%), according to ‘Internet Security
Threat Report’.
India host 16th International Energy Forum
India is
hosting the 16thInternational Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting in New
Delhi.
- The IEF Ministerial meetings are
informal dialogues, at both the political and technical levels, aimed to
improve policy and investment decisions, and through increased knowledge
and experience sharing.
- The biennial IEF Ministerial
Meetings are the world’s largest gathering of Energy Ministers who engage in a dialogue on global energy issues.
The
International Energy Forum (IEF) is an
inter-governmental arrangement set up in 1991.
It is based in Riyadh.
It serves as
a neutral facilitator of informal, open, informed and continuing global
energy dialogue among its members comprising of energy producing and
energy consuming states, including transit countries.
There are 72
membercountries of IEF, including India, covering all six continents, which
are signatories to the Charter of the IEF. Its membership accounts for 90% of
global supply and demand for oil and gas.
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Global logistics summit held in New Delhi
The Global Logistics Summit was held in New
Delhi. It was organised by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of
Commerce & Industry, along with FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers
of Commerce & Industry) and the World Bank Group.
- According to the Union Minister for
Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, 56 new
airports will be ready for operation in the next few years.
Julius Maada Bio elected as Sierra Leone’s President
Julius Maada Bio elected as Sierra Leone’s
PresidentJulius Maada Bio – Sierra Leone’s President:
- On 5th April 2018, National Electoral
Commission of Sierra Leone announced that Julius Maada Bio won the
presidential elections with 51.8 percent votes. He belongs to the Sierra
Leone People’s Party (SLPP).
He defeated Samura Kamara. Samura Kamara was the candidate
of All People’s Congress, which is the ruling party.
The presidential elections were conducted on 31st March
2018. Julius Maada Bio succeeds Ernest Bai Koroma.
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10 Indian Women Achievers were presented the FLO Icon Awards
At the Annual session 10 Indian Women Achievers
were presented the FLO ICON AWARDS.
The award winners are:
1. Banking & Finance – Ms Chanda Kochhar, MD
& CEO, ICICI Bank
2. Health & Wellness – Dr Aarti Vij, Chief of
AIIMS’ Organ Retrieval and Banking Organization (ORBO)
3. Media Entrepreneurship – Ms Ekta Kapoor, Joint
Managing Director and Creative Director of Balaji Telefilms
4. Conscientious Cinema – Ms Twinkle Khanna,
Entrepreneur, Author, Film Producer
5. Digital Entrepreneurship – Ms Falguni Nayar,
Founder & CEO, NYKAA
6. Science & Technology – Dr Tessy Thomas,
Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL), Defence Research and Development
Organization (DRDO)
7. Promoting Literature – Ms Namita Gokhale, Author
and Director of Jaipur Literature Festival
8. Environmental Protection – Ms Bharati Chaturvedi,
Founder of CHINTAN, Environmentalist and writer
9. Commando Training – Dr Seema Rao, Commando
Trainer, certified Doctor and MBA in crisis management
10.
Grassroots Mobilization – Ms Kamal Kumbhar,
Social entrepreneur & Founder of Ekta Producer Company
FICCI Ladies Organization was set up with a view to
encouraging ladies to exploit to the maximum their own human potential as
entrepreneurs, business women and lady professionals and serve the community
and nation at large through activities of social welfare on the cultural and
social fronts.
Every year FLO recognizes the achievements of women who
have excelled in their own fields and are icons of inspirations for the
society.
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Ex-England midfielder Ray Wilkins passes away
On 4th April 2018, Ray Wilkins, ex-England
midfielder, passed away after suffering from a cardiac arrest, at St George’s
Hospital in Tooting, south-west London.
- Ex-England midfielder Ray Wilkins
passes awayDeath of Ray Wilkins:
Ray Wilkins was 61 years old. He had played 84 times for
England from 1976 to 1986. He also served as a captain for 10 games.
His nickname was “Butch.” He played for teams like
Manchester United, Chelsea and AC Milan.
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Star India and DD to broadcast some matches of
the IPL together
Viewers of state broadcaster Doordarshan will be
able to watch some matches of the Indian Premier League.
- Star India Pvt. Ltd agreed to a 50-50
share of advertising revenue with the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting (MIB).
- Feed on IPL matches will also be
shared by Star India with Prasar Bharati to air IPL matches on DD Sports.
- According to this official, Star India
had proposed the revenue share from advertising in the ratio of 75: 25 with
Prasar Bharati.
Star Sports India bags BCCI media rights for Rs
6138.1 crore
Broadcasting giant Star India bagged the
media rights of the national team’s home series.
- They also bagged domestic cricket for
the next five years by shelling out a staggering Rs 6138.1 crore.
- It was for the first time
that BCCI staged an e-auction to sell the home media rights.
They also own the rights for all ICC tournaments (men’s and women’s
50-over World Cup, World T20).
- The GCR comprise TV broadcast rights
as well as digital rights for the Indian subcontinent as well as the Rest
of the World (RoW).
CWG 2018: Weightlifter Sanjita Chanu Wins
India’s 2nd Gold Medal
Weightlifter Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu has
delivered India its second gold medal of the 2018 Commonwealth Games
in Gold Coast City, Australia by dominating the women’s 53kg event.
- The defending champion, Loa Dika
Toua of Papua New Guinea, claimed silver with a total lift of
182 and bronze went to Canada’s Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet who finished
with a combined effort of 181kg.
CWG 2018- Deepak Lather Becomes Youngest
Weightlifter to Win Medal
Teenager Deepak Lather became
the youngest Indian (18 Yrs old) weightlifter to claim a Commonwealth
Games medal, clinching a bronze in the men’s 69kg category.
- He held the 62kg category national
record at 15.
Mithali Raj Becomes Most Capped Player in
Women's ODIs
Indian women's cricket team captain Mithali
Raj has become the most capped player in women's ODI
cricket after turning out for the 192nd time against England.
- Raj, who is also the highest
run-getter in WODIs, overtook former England captain Charlotte
Edwards, who had appeared in 191 WODIs. Indian fast
bowler Jhulan Goswami is the third-most capped WODI player.
