Daily Current Affairs for 11th to 13th Nov, 2017 ( English )
1. Project Saksham -
country’s largest time-bound “upskilling” exercise was launched by the Indian
Railways for its employees to boost their efficiency. It will start
in January 2018 and go on till September 2018.It aims to upgrade the skillsets
of 13 lakh-strong workforce of Indian Railways with a single drive spanning
nine months. The nature of short-duration training will range from refresher
courses, with eye on evolved global practices in respective areas, to skills in
existing lining of functioning. Employees from rank of a peon to higher
echelons of Railway Board Members will undergo the training.
2. International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos in Philippines named after PM Modi was
inaugurated by him during his three-day visit to attend ASEAN-India and East
Asia summits. IRRI is one of 15 agricultural research centres in world that
form CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research centres, a global
partnership of organizations engaged in research on food security. It is also
the largest non-profit agricultural research centres in Asia. India is
setting up regional centre of IRRI in Varanasi to develop
high-yielding rice varieties to increase farmers’ income by enhancing and
supporting rice productivity, reducing cost of production, value addition,
diversification and enhancement of farmers’ skills.
3. Child Rights Week
(Hausla 2017) will be celebrated by the Union Ministry of Women and Child
Development from 16th to 20th November, 2017. Under this festival, children will
participate in various events like Bal Sansad, athletics meet, painting
competition, football, chess competition and speech writing.
4. Former French
Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay (45) was appointed as Director General of
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) by replacing
outgoing DG Irina Bokova. She is second woman to occupy this position and also
first Jewish Director of UNESCO. She is the 11th Director-General of UNESCO.
She is the daughter of Andre Azoulay, an adviser to king Mohammed VI of
Morocco. She was France’s Minister of Culture from February 2016 to May 2017.
5. The Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was held in Da Nang, Vietnam. This was second
time Vietnam hosted APEC summit, having hosted the event previously in 2006.
Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim countries(Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia,
Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru,
Russian and Vietnam attended this meeting. The theme of summit was ‘Creating
New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future’. Next year’s APEC summit will be held
in Papua New Guinea. India is observer of APEC since 2011 and has applied for
membership. The summit laid emphasis on collaborative activity, such as
provision of support for small businesses, promoting sustainable growth and
deepening economic integration.
6. Pankaj Advani by defeating
Mike Russell of England to won 2017 IBSF World Billiards
Championship held at Doha.It was Pankaj Advani’s overall 17th world title.
He is winner of maximum number of world titles in any sport by an Indian. He is
only player in the world to win world titles in all formats of both, Billiards
and Snooker. He is the first cueist in the world to win the Grand double three
times in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
7. Haryana became
India’s first state to treat Hepatitis-C patients of all categories through
oral medicine. There are 5 types of hepatitis viz. A, B, C, D and E. Each
type is caused by a different hepatitis virus. This is for first time, state
government has included oral medicine in government hospitals. The medicine and
treatment costs about Rs 28,000 to Rs 30,000 in market, but state government
will provide it free. This oral medicine will be provided free of cost for
permanent residents of all categories at the district level.
8. Telangana Chief
Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in the state Assembly had announced and declared
that Urdu will be the second official language in Telangana according to
the article 345 of the constitution of India State government will appoint Urdu
officers in all offices over next 60 days to receive petitions from public and
reply them in Urdu. Apart from this, all competitive examinations in the state
will also be conducted in Urdu. Every office in the state will now have an Urdu
speaking officer.
9. Nov 12 – World
Pneumonia Day was observed globally every year to highlight the severity
of pneumonia and bring together the people from all over the world to promote
the prevention and treatment of the disease. Pneumonia is a form of acute
respiratory infection that affects the lungs. It is caused by inflammation of
the airspaces in the lungs. t is caused by number of infectious agents,
including viruses, bacteria and fungi. The most common are
Streptococcus pneumoniae (most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in children).
10. The Union Cabinet
approved continuation and restructuring of National Rural Drinking Water
Programme (NRDWP). Its focus will be on piped water supply, increase level of
service delivery, thrust on coverage of water quality affected habitations,
coverage of Open Defecation Free (ODF) declared villages, Integrated Action
Plan (IAP) districts, Border Out Posts (BOP) with piped water supply and Institutional set
up for proper O&M of water supply assets etc. NRDWP will be continued
co-terminus with 14th Finance Commission cycle till March 2020..
11. 1.5 MW Small Hydro
Power (SHP) Plant in Biaras Drass, Kargil area of Jammu & Kashmir is the
first project under Prime Minister’s Ladakh Renewable Energy Initiative was
commissioned by the Union New and Renewable Energy Ministry.Prime Minister’s
Ladakh Renewable Energy Initiative aims to minimize dependence on diesel in
Ladakh region to meet power requirement by diverting to local renewable sources.
The Biaras SHP project was developed by Kargil Renewable Energy Development
Agency (KREDA) under Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC). It
will power Drass town in Kargil, which is one of coldest places in India.
12. The Second Meeting
of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) chaired by Dr.
Bibek Debroy, Member NITI Aayog has spelt out ‘clear road map’ for government to ramp up
job creation and infrastructure financing avenues while investing more
resources in health, education and skill development. It identified key issues,
strategies and recommended interventions in respect of these themes.
13. The creation
of National Testing Agency (NTA) as an autonomous and self-sustained premier
testing organization was approved by the Union Cabinet to conduct
entrance examinations for higher educational institutions. It will be society
registered under Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860. NTA will be chaired
by an eminent educationist appointed by Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The CEO will be Director General (DG) appointed by Government. Besides, there
will be Board of Governors comprising members from user institutions. The DG
will be assisted by 9 verticals headed by academicians and experts. The
NTA will initially conduct entrance examinations currently being conducted by
CBSE. Other examinations will be taken up gradually after NTA is ful y geared
up. These examinations will be conducted in online mode at least twice a year
to give adequate opportunity to candidates to bring out their best. In order to
serve requirements of the rural students, it will locate centres at
sub-district and district level and as far as possible.
14. Joint
Interpretative Declaration (JID) signed between India and Colombia in Nov 2009
regarding existing Agreement for Promotion and Protection of Investments
was approved by the Union Cabinet. The JID will help to impart clarity on
interpretation of existing Agreement as it includes interpretative notes to be
jointly adopted for many clauses. It includes definition of investor,
investment, Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET), Most Favoured Nation (MFN)
treatment, National Treatment (NT), expropriation, Investor-State Dispute
Settlement provision and Denial of Benefits.
15. The
appointment of Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC) for subordinate
judiciary in country was approved by the union cabinet The Commission
will make its recommendations to State Governments preferably within period of
18 months. The recommendations will help in promoting efficiency in Judicial
Administration, optimizing size of judiciary etc. and to remove anomalies
created in implementation of earlier recommendations. It will be headed by
Justice (Retd) J P.Venkatrama Reddi, former Judge of Supreme Court. R
Basant, former Judge of Kerala High Court will be its members.
16. The Union Cabinet
approved signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and
Philippines in field of agriculture and related fields. It provides for
constitution of Joint Working Group (JWG) composed of equal number of
representatives. The JWG will meet once every two years alternatively in
Philippines and India.
17. Debjani Ghosh
will become the first woman President of NASSCOM(The National Association
of Software and Services Companies) in 2018 after R
Chandrashekhar whose tenure ends in March 2018. NASSCOM is global
non-profit trade association (organisation) of Indian Information Technology
(IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. She is former Managing
Director of Intel South Asia. She is also member of NASSCOM’s Executive Council
and a trustee of NASSCOM Foundation.
18.The Union
Cabinet approved protocol amending Agreement between India and Kyrgyz for
avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to
taxes on income. It aims to update Article 26 (Exchange of Information) of
DTAA to international standards.
Announcement !
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