Daily Current Affairs for 13th April 2018 ( English)
Important Days:
1. April 13, 2018 was the 99th anniversary Jallianwallah Bagh
Massacre (also known as the Amritsar massacre). On April 13, 1919, nearly 15000-20000 people gathered at
Jallianwala Bagh, a public garden in Amritsar, Punjab. The gathering took place to celebrate the Punjabi harvest festival of
Baisakhi and to protest against the repressive Rowlatt Act that
imposed control of the press, arrests without warrant and indefinite detention
without trial. Around
50 troops of the British Indian Army, under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer arrived at the
spot and fired at the crowd indiscriminately for 10 minutes. According
to British Government assessment, 379 individuals died and 1200 were wounded in
Jallianwalah Bagh massacre. However, as per Indian National Congress’
estimates, more than 1500 were injured and 1000 died.
Tamil Nadu:
1.
The 10th edition of Defence Expo (DefExpo 2018) in Chennai at
Tiruvidanthal, in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu organised by Ministry of
Defence was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The theme of the expo
was “India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub”. Over 670 defence firms, including 154 foreign manufacturers
participated in the exhibition of weapons and military hardware. Over 47
countries, including US, UK, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Afghanistan,
Madagascar, Myanmar, Nepal, Portugal, Seychelles and Vietnam participated
in the four-day event. Under this, for the first time project India’s Defence
manufacturing capabilities were showcased to the world.
National:
1. An agreement for up gradation
of Yagyi – Kalewa section of highway in Myanmar to two lane with earthen shoulder
was signed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). This project is part of India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) Trilateral
Highway and will be NHAI’s first international project. The project aims to
provide seamless vehicular movement for enhancing trade, business, health,
education and tourism between Indian, Myanmar and Thailand.
2. A 13-member task force has
been constituted by the union government to prepare road map and fast-track
implementation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology or drones in the
country. It will be headed by Minister of State
(MoS) for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha and will have representatives from
government, PSUs, industry and sectoral experts.
3. According to Amnesty
International’s global report ‘Death Sentences and Executions’, the Indian
courts gave away 109 death sentences in 2017 but no executions were carried
out. The report was released on April 12, 2018.The report
stated that the number of death sentences imposed by the Indian courts in 2017
had come down by 27, as in 2016 the courts had pronounced 136 death sentences.
4. Indian Dalit organisations
on April 12, 2018 announced to observe 14 April, the birth anniversary of BR
Ambedkar, as the Protect Constitution Day. These groups have also demanded that the Union government
should immediately bring an ordinance to restore the original Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. They also urged for
the inclusion of the Act in the Ninth Schedule of the Indian Constitution to
ensure that there can’t be any more revisions in the Act.
5. Haryana State Government
has approved the slum-in-situ rehabilitation policy in line with Housing for
All-2018, under which, urban
slum dwellers on Government land will be provided housing facility without
relocating them to other areas. Rs 1.67 lakh per dwelling unit will be
provided to developer for construction of houses for these urban slum dwellers
as per the policy approved by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
6.
Ministry of State (I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs launched
Smart Imprest Cards & e-Measurement Book (e-MB) on PFMS portal for CPWD
(Central Public Works Department). This is the first integrated web based module in Civil Ministries to
monitor and track both the financial progress – utilization of funds and
related physical progress captured through e-MB of various works in CPWD
projects.
 |
| CLICK HERE TO BUY ONLINE |
International:
1. President Ram Nath Kovind
and his Zambian counterpart Edgar Chagwa Lungu on April 12, 2018 laid the
foundation stone of Lusaka traffic Decongestion Project in Zambia. The cost of this 93 km road is USD 289 million, of
which, India will be contributing USD 250 million.This project is aimed
at redesigning the major road network for Lusaka city with a view to reducing
traffic jam, travel distance and saving fuel. The project will be
completed in three years.
Science and Technology/Defence:
1.
Boeing India subsidiary of US aerospace manufacturer Boeing,
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Mahindra Defence Systems entered into
agreement to manufacture fighter aircraft F/A-18 Super Hornet in India. The partnership comes in backdrop of stiff competition between
global aerospace companies looking to secure $15 billion (Rs. 97,950 crore)
deal to sell 110 fighter jets to India. Three companies exchanged Memorandum of
Agreement (MoA) for Make in India fighter at on-going ‘DefExpo’ in Chennai,
Tamil Nadu.
2. Global networking giant
Cisco on April 12, 2018 launched the ‘Blueprint for Digital Education’ to skill
students in technologies like Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
Cyber Security during the Cisco ‘Digital
Education Summit’ at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. The blueprint will allow colleges and universities to facilitate
students to learn anywhere with Cisco Connected Classroom solutions It will
help colleges and universities to create an integrated digital environment that
meets the high expectations of the industry.
3. China has introduced China Science and Technology Cloud (CSTC)
to provide scientists with accessible, accurate and secure data services to
promote research and innovation. China Science
and Technology Cloud (CSTC) has been developed by the Computer Network Information Centre of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences. CSTC obtains data from the academy’s research
institutes and major scientific installations, and many Chinese top
universities and private innovation centres.
Economy:
1. The reporting norms for
the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) have been tightened by the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI). The purpose of tightening of
norms is to improve monitoring and also to ensure compliance with LRS limit under
which individual can transfer up to US $2,50,000 abroad in a year.
2. The factory output
measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown 7.1% in
February 2017 according to data released by the Central Statistics Office
(CSO). The IIP is composite indicator that
measures short-term changes in volume of production of basket of industrial
products during given period with respect to chosen base period. The CSO had
revised the base year of the IIP from 2004-05 to 2011-12 in May 2017 to capture
structural changes in economy and improves quality and representativeness of
indices.
3. $140 million loan for project
aimed at improving rural roads (connectivity) in Madhya Pradesh was approved by
the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The Project will be co-financed with World Bank. It aims to
improve rural road connectivity and management for residents of about 5,640
villages who use the rural roads for daily activities. It was approved at
meeting of Board of Directors of AIIB recently held in Beijing, China. It was
approved at meeting of Board of Directors of AIIB recently held in Beijing,
China.
4. National E-Repository Limited (NERL), a group company of
National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX), has
empanelled ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank as repository participants. As per the agreement, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank will offer pledge finance against electronic
negotiable warehousing receipts (eNWR) created on NERL’s repository platform for commodities
stored in warehouses registered with Warehousing Development and Regulatory
Authority (WDRA).These empanelment will boost the repository ecosystem
and will also be beneficial for stakeholders in reducing the turn-around time
in processing the loans and marking the pledge on the eNWR.
Appointments:
1.
Bhanu Pratap Sharma was appointed as the chairman of Banks Board
Bureau (BBB). He replaces earlier BBB headed
by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai as its two-year term
ended in March 2018. The reconstituted BBB will have two-year tenure, same as
its predecessor.
Awards/Honours:
1. The 65th National Film
Awards were announced on April 13, 2017 by the jury headed by renowned
filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. The award
ceremony will be held on May 3, 2018 and the awards will be presented by
President Ram Nath Kovind. Late actor Vinod Khanna was honoured
with Dadasaheb Phalke Award posthumously. Late actress Sridevi has been honoured with
the best actress award.
Sports:
1.
Indian shooters added two gold and one silver to India’s total
medal tally at the 9th day of Common Wealth Games. Anish Bhanwala (15 yrs) became India's youngest gold medalist
in the 25m Rapid Fire final, in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final, Indian
shooters Tejaswini Sawant and Anjum Moudgil came out at the top by winning gold
and silver medals respectively. India’s winning streak was taken forward
by the wrestling contingent with Bajrang Punia winning gold in the men's
freestyle 65 kg category and Mausam Khatri claiming the silver in men's 97 kg
freestyle after being defeated by South Africa's Martin Erasmus in the finals.
2. The FIFA/Coca-Cola World
Ranking of April 2018 ranked current world champions, Germany at the top, Brazil,
which is ranked at the second position .While Belgium moved up two places to
the third rank, Portugal and Argentina each dropped a place to be ranked fourth
and fifth respectively.
Announcement !
கருத்துரையிடுக
கருத்துரையிடுக