Daily Current affairs for 13th to 15th April 2017 ( English )

2.    The Uttar Pradesh government has signed “Power for All” pact with the Centre to provide    24×7 power supply to all the households in the State.Power for All is a joint initiative  of Central and state government.

3.    Scientists at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) have developed a robotic platform, Seabed Resident Event Profiler (SREP) which  has been designed to regularly record the water column information at every 10 to 25 cm during every profile four times a day. SREP is capable of being stationed at any water depth from 0-200 metres to track the oceanic processes.

4.    Punjab government has prohibited VIP names (including MP’s, MLA’s) on plaques and foundation stones. Further, the order has clarified that henceforth all projects and programmes, including those inaugurated by the CM, would be “dedicated to the people of Punjab”.

5.    India Licensing Expo is scheduled to be held in Mumbai on August 20-21. The expo will be organised by License India, India’s first licensing media Services Company and supported by Franchise India. The expo aims to encourage and enable Indian licensing industry to take advantage and network, capitalise on opportunities and grow bigger and faster in the given peripheries.

6.    Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd (GNFC) township at Bharuch (Gujarat) had become India’s first 100% cashless township after demonetization.

7.    Prime Minister has launched 81 cashless/less cash townships in Nagpur across 12 states  The chosen 81 townships belonged to that of central public sector companies such as ONGC, Indian Oil, NTPC, SAIL, BHEL, NMDC, CRPF, BSF and Police Lines and also to private sector townships like Reliance, Essar, Adani, Birla Aditya, Welspun etc. The 81 townships included 56 in Gujarat and 25 in 11 states including Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar and Chhatisgarh.

8.    RBI issues “Revised Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework for NPA ( Non performance assets )in  banks.” 

9.    Nepal and China is going to  conduct first ever joint military exercise named ‘Sagarmatha Friendship-2017’ from April 17 to April 26. Sagarmatha is the Nepali name for Mt Everest.

10.  Former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Girish Chandra Saxena has passed away

11.  Prime Minister of India  has launched new  BHIM-Aadhaar platform from Nagpur. This App will help people to pay digitally using their biometric data like thumb imprint on a merchant’s biometric enabled device like a smart phone or a biometric reader. It is to be noted here BHIM App was launched in December 2016 to provide a one-stop solution for all digital payments.

12.  Prime Minister of India  has also launched two new offers rewarding BHIM users. BHIM -Referral bonus Scheme and BHIM – Cash Back Scheme Under BHIM Cash back scheme - The merchants can get cash back of up to Rs 300 per month, with each merchant eligible to win up to Rs 1800 in 6 months. Under BHIM -Referral bonus Scheme – the existing users refers new users and  Upon completion of minimum 3 unique successful transactions amounting to Rs 50 to any 3 unique users, the bonus will be paid to both the referrer and the referee.

13.  The United States of America has dropped GBU-43 bomb over an ISIS complex in Afghanistan. GBU-43 is one of the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in the battlefield. GBU-43 is known as Mother of All bombs”. The official name used by the US Air Force for GBU-43 is the ‘Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (MOAB)

14.  126th birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Dr. B.R.Ambedkar( the father of the Indian Constitution)was celebrated at the Parliament House complex on April 14,2017

15.  Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)  issued  a set of guidelines for celebrities endorsing products. ASCI have barred celebrities to endorse product/treatment/remedy that is prohibited under The Drugs & Magic Remedies Act (Objectionable Advertisements) and the Drugs & Cosmetic Act.

16.  The Income Tax department has launched the second phase of the ‘Operation Clean Money’ to investigate over 60,000 individuals with an aim to detect black money generation post demonetisation. The first phase of ‘Operation Clean Money’ was launched on January 31, 2017. This operation will help in eliminating  the black money and will widen the tax base.

17.  Loans disbursed under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) have crossed its target of Rs 1.8 lakh crore in the financial year 2016-17. The objective of this scheme to launch a Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank to support the entrepreneurs of Scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes entrepreneurs in the MSME sector. The scheme was launched on April 8, 2015. The scheme provides loans to micro units in three categories ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 10 lakh. Shishu: Loan up to Rs 50,000 Kishore: Loan ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh Tarun: Loan ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

18.  Haryana government has launched ‘Operation Durga’ to ensure women safety in the state. ‘Operation Durga’ was launched so that flying squads patrol those areas where such anti-social elements committed crimes against women. Similar to this, earlier in UP they have launchedz anti-romeo squad.

19.  The new pin code given to Central Processing Centre CPC is 560500.This unique pincode was given by the department of posts to the Income tax department’s Central Processing Centre (CPC) based in Bengaluru so as to ensure that the letters and mails  sent by taxpayers to the CPC are not lost or reach the centre late. 

20.  Jharkhand Police has initiated Tare Zameen Par programme to enlighten children in Naxal-affected areas in the Palamau district of Jharkhand. 

21.  As per the as recommendation of  the Ministry of Women and Child Development to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping (MoRTH) Cab safety measures for women commuters have been included in the new Taxi Policy guidelines. 

22For efficient service delivery and widening the reach of Employees Provident Fund (EPF) benefits the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment has launched Aadhaar Seeding Application at the 217th special meeting of the Central Board of Employees Provident Fund (CBEPF/EPFO) in New Delhi .

23.  President Pranab Mukherjee has given assent to four supporting legislations on Goods and Services Tax (GST).  The four legislations are: The Central GST Act, 2017, The Integrated GST Act, 2017, The GST (Compensation to States) Act, 2017, and The Union Territory GST Act, 2017.

24.  India-Australia Sports Partnership (IASP) was launched jointly by the visiting Australian Prime Minister Mr Malcolm Turnbull and the Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports Mr Vijay Goel in the presence of Sachin Tendulkar with a vision of increasing cooperation in sports.

25.  The Union government has constituted a time-bound inter-disciplinary committee to come up with an action plan for dealing with virtual currencies so as to fix the regulatory gaps in the existing framework governing virtual currencies( digital/crypto currencies )

26.  The Union Cabinet has approved signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Establishment of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Grid Interconnection”. The MoU will be signed among member states of BIMSTEC at the upcoming third BIMSTEC Energy Ministers’ Meeting to be held in Nepal.

27.  Justice Gita Mittal, the senior-most judge of Delhi High Court, has been appointed as the acting Chief justice of Delhi High Court with effect from April 14,2017.

28.   The Union Cabinet has approved setting up of  Government e-Marketplace  for procurement of goods & services required by Central & State Government organizations.

29.   The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for raw Jute for 2017-18 season in order to protect the economic interests of the farmers. The MSP was increased to Rs. 3500/- per quintal for 2017-18 season, an increase of Rs. 300/- (9.4%) over the previous year.