Daily current affairs for 12th Jan 2018 ( English)

2.       Union Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports in collaboration with Uttar Pradesh Government at Gautam Buddha University Greater Noida organised the 22nd National Youth Festival (NYF) in New Delhi  on the occasion of birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the youth icon of India. This is the first time that the National Youth Festival is being organized in National Capital Region (NCR). The first National Youth Festival was held in 1995 ( Bhopal). Its objective is to provide platform to bring youth of country together in attempt to provide them opportunity to showcase their talents in various activities. The Theme of 2017 NYF is ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’

3.       The Union Ministry of Railways has launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) application to help plan traffic flows and optimize freight operations. SFOORTI application will help to track movement of freight trains over Zones/Divisions/Sections on GIS View. Even passenger trains can be tracked using it. It will help to monitor freight business along with comparative analysis of Zonal and Divisional Traffic.

4.       Kerala Govt permitted Prisoners in Kerala Jails to donate organs to their relatives. This decision was taken at the cabinet meeting chaired by Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala CM .

5.       4^th ASEAN –India Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture and Forestry was held in New Delhi on 12 Jan 2018.5th Meeting will be held in Brunei, Darussalam in 2019.

6.       NITI Aayog to provide rankings to 115 aspirational districts at the “Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ conference held in New Delhi.

7.       During the recent meeting of Afghanistan Defence Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami, with Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan, China has announced to provide financial support to construct counter-terrorism base in Badakshan province of northern Afghanistan that would prevent cross-border infiltration of the Chinese Uyghur militants.

8.       China became Nepal’s second internet service provider, ending India’s monopoly on internet access.

9.       South Australia planned to build the World’s largest thermal Power plant

10.   Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is planning to create its own cyptocurrency, JioCoin. The Jiocoin project is being led by Mukesh Ambani’s elder son Akash Ambani.

11.   January 12 - The National Youth Day is observed every year to mark the birth anniversary of social reformer, philosopher, thinker and youth icon of India Swami Vivekananda. Observance of the day seeks to propagate the philosophy and the ideals of Swami Vivekananda for which he lived and worked. It will also help and act as great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.

12.   The annual survey of Gallup international has placed PM Modi at 3^rd rank among World leaders. The survey was conducted with people from 50 countries. Angela Merkel , German Chancellor became World no: 1 with a score of 21, French President Emmanuel Macron became second with a score of 20. Indian PM Narendra Modi became 3^rd rank with a score of 8 .

13.   “ Majuli : Resources and Challenges “  is a book that appreciates the beauty and challengrs of Majuli in Assam. This book was edited by Sanjib Kumar Borkakoti and published by Authorspress. This book is a collection of essays written by experts.

14.   Senior advocate Indu Malhotra becomes first woman lawyer from the country to be directly elected for post of judge of the Supreme Court. Overall she will be seventh woman judge in SC, since it was established 67 years ago. In 1989, Justice M. Fathima Beevi became first woman judge in Supreme Court. At present, Justice R. Banumathi is lone woman judge in SC which currently has a strength of 25 judges of total sanctioned strength of 31.

15.   Actress Kajol became advocacy ambassador for Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative. she will be an active supporter of eradicating preventable deaths from hygiene related issues.