Important Days:
1.
April 22- Earth
Day is being observed every year to build support for environmental protection
around world. It aims to raise awareness
that humans have a collective responsibility to promote harmony with nature and
to balance the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future
generations. The theme for 2018 Earth Day is ‘End Plastic Pollution’
2. April
23- World Book and
Copyright Day was observed across the world to highlight the power of books and
to promote UNESCO’s vision of knowledge societies that are inclusive,
pluralistic, equitable, open and participatory for all citizens. The World Book and Copyright Day pay tribute to books and
authors by encouraging everyone to discover the pleasure of reading. This
year, UNESCO designated Athens, Greece as the World Book Capital for 2018. The
city of Athens was chosen for its efforts in making books available to the
city’s entire population including migrants and refugees.
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Tamil Nadu:
1.
The Madras High Court
became first court in south India and overall eighth in the country to
introduce e-court fee payment facility. It will pave
way for easier and secured way of paying stamp duty. It will also help to
tackle sale of counterfeit judicial stamps. The e-stamps can be purchased
online through web site of Stock Holding Corporation after simple registration
process. Payments for it can be made through net banking or debit cards and so
on. The new system will enable litigants who file cases in High Court to pay
judicial stamp duty to government through e-stamps, which can be purchased both
online and offline. It was jointly launched by Chief Minister Edappadi K.
Palaniswami and Chief Justice Indira Banerjee at the principal seat of the High
Court in Chennai.
National:
1.
The State
Forest Department of West Bengal through Central Government will apply to
Ramsar Convention Secretariat to include Sunderbans in Ramsar list. West Bengal government has given its approval to State Forest
Department to apply for coveted Ramsar Site recognition under Ramsar Convention.
There are currently 26 sites in India recognised as Ramsar wetland sites of
international importance, including East Kolkata Wetlands in West Bengal. Sunderban
Reserve Forest is spread across 4,260 sq. km. with over 2,000 sq. km. of
mangrove forests and creeks making it ideal site of wetland. Once it is
conferred Ramsar site status, Sundarbans Reserve Forest will be largest
protected wetland in the country.
2.
Bengaluru Smart City is
testing prototype of an intelligent traffic management solution in
collaboration with the Electronics City Township Authority (ELCITA) to improve
traffic management in the city. It involves
capturing video streams from several cameras and processing them using
artificial intelligence. This will help in automation of traffic management
tasks such as vehicle detection, traffic density estimation and control of
traffic lights for real-time performance.
3.
Diu Smart City has become
first city in India to run on 100% renewable energy during daytime. Diu was importing 73% of its power from Gujarat until last year.
But now it has adopted two-pronged approach to reduce dependence on Gujarat for
power requirements through renewable energy. With this, it has set new
benchmark for other cities to become clean and green.
4.
The Justice Rajesh Bindal
committee has submitted on legal issues related to inter country removal &
retention of children its report to Ministry of Women and Child Development
(WCD). The recommendations of Committee includes
government should establish ‘Inter Country Parental Child Removal Disputes
Resolution Authority (ICPCRDRA)’ and stressed upon need for mediation as first
step. The authority will be chaired by retired High Court Judge and shall have
members from Legal and Social sector background along with representatives from
key Ministries. It will envisaged to provide one window solution in cases of
inter country removal and retention of children.
5.
A six-decade-old protected
area permit (PAP) regime to allow foreign tourists to access border areas of
Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur has relaxed by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for
five years with effect from April 1, 2018 with protected area permit (PAP). The protected areas currently include whole of Arunachal
Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim, besides parts of Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir. Some parts of Sikkim
fall under protected area regime while others under restricted area regime.
6.
Chennai based Geographical
Indication Registry has awarded Geographical Indication (GI) Tag to two more
craft forms from Telangana viz. Adilabad dokra and Warangal Dhurries. Adilabad Dokra is an ancient bell metal craft and Warangal Dhurries
is a popular traditional cotton rug. Adilabad Dokra is a form of ancient
bell metal craft practiced by Woj community native to Adilabad district of
Telangana. They use ancient casting technique called cire perdue (lost wax
casting technique), a technique wherein duplicate metal sculpture is cast from
an original sculpture. Warangal Dhurries is a popular traditional thick
cotton rug in which weavers create beautiful patterns and dye them using
vegetable colours, which are washed in flowing water after the printing
process.
7.
The Armed Forces (Special
Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) was completely removed from Meghalaya and some areas
of Arunachal Pradesh with effect from April 1, 2018. Till September 2017, 40 percent of Meghalaya was under AFSPA
including the 20 km stretch of the state’s 884.9 km border with Assam. However, AFSPA has been restricted to eight police stations of
Arunachal Pradesh bordering Assam and three districts adjoining Myanmar namely
Tirap, Longding and Changlang.
8.
The Supreme Court of India on April 23,
2018 sought a response from the Central Government on pleas challenging the
Indian Penal Code’s Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality.
The response was sought by a 3-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud on a plea by hotelier and LGBT activist Kesav Suri. The bench tagged Suri's plea with an earlier pending challenge to Section 377. Following this, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi urged the court to ask the government to respond to the plea.
The response was sought by a 3-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud on a plea by hotelier and LGBT activist Kesav Suri. The bench tagged Suri's plea with an earlier pending challenge to Section 377. Following this, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi urged the court to ask the government to respond to the plea.
9.
A group of 50 alumni from
the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country have
quit their jobs to form a political party to fight for the rights of Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The group, which is waiting for an approval from the Election Commission,
has named their outfit "Bahujan Azad Party". The party members, however, do not aim for the 2019 Lok Sabha
elections. The group, which includes members mostly from the SC, ST and OBC
communities, feels that the backward classes have not received their due in
terms of education and employment. All set with a
poster which has pictures of B R Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose and A P J Abdul
Kalam, among others, the party has already begun a social media campaign.
International:
1. Canada and the European Union will together host the world's
first female foreign ministers' meeting on September 21, 2018 in Canada. The meeting will be held for 2 days. The announcement
was made by the Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on April 22, 2018
in Toronto. The female foreign ministers from about 30 countries will be
invited to the gathering, which is aimed at deepening global discussion on
women's empowerment.
2. Mario Abdo Benitez, who represents Paraguay's long-dominant
Colorado conservatives, won the 2018 Presidential Elections on April 22, 2018. Abdo Benitez won 46.49 percent
of the vote, against his centrist opponent Efrain Alegre who fetched 42.72
percent votes in a race that was far closer than expected.
3. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), a South American
bloc created to counter US influence in the region, temporarily lost half its
members after six countries suspended their memberships. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay and Peru decided to
temporarily leave the bloc due to the differences over choosing the secretary
general of the group.Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Surinam, Uruguay and
Venezuela remain in the bloc.
4. The bilateral trade between India and Poland has crossed $ 3
billion in 2017 and the European country is exploring various sectors to
improve the trade balance.Of the total
trade, India's export to Poland was $2.3 billion while polish export to India
stood at $800 million. However, both the countries had
drawn up a blueprint for stepping up investments and identified a series of
actions to raise trade from the 2014 level of $2.3 billion to $5 billion by
2018.
Science and Technology:
1.
Two small potent molecules
Pep-I and Pep-II, for their inhibitory activity to treat Chikungunya disease have
identified by the researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee. Currently, there are no drugs to treat chikungunya or any
vaccine to prevent it. The antiviral activity of these molecules was so high
that their small amount was able to achieve almost 99% reduction in virus. Pep-I
molecule was very efficient in killing the virus, 99% reduction in virus at 5
microMolar and Pep-II molecule showed reduced antiviral activity of only 50%
even at a higher concentration of about 200 microMolar.
2.
In order to remove sulphur
from fossil fuels such as petroleum and coal, the Scientists from
CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (CSIR-IMMT) have found four
bacterial strains. The four bacterial strains are
Rhodococcus rhodochrous, Arthrobacter sulfureou, Gordonia rubropertinita and
Rhodococcus erythropolis. It was found that four bacteria were able to use
almost 99% of sulphur compound in just 10 days. Researchers were also able to
identify process of bio-desulfurization of these bacterial strains through
specific pathway (4-S pathway). Sulphur is one of the major pollutants emitted
during the combustion of fossil fuels.
3. Scientists have identified signs of the presence of life about
1300 feet below ground in a massive cave in Italy, a discovery that may help
detect life on other planets like Mars. Researchers explored the microbiology and geochemistry of the
Frasassi Caves in central Italy and found variations in the isotopic content of
atoms in the mineral gypsum, which is a weathering product of the cave's
formation. This isotopic variation, in combination with other data,
indicates that life played an active role in producing the gypsum.
4. For the past couple of years, NASA has been partnering with
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens in Miami, Florida, to encourage student
interest in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. Not only scientists with advanced degrees but students are also
helping NASA decide what crops to grow in space to expand food options and
increase plant diversity. NASA partners
with The Fairchild Challenge, an annual standards-based environmental outreach
programme which reaches more than 125,000 students annually, to help determine
which edible plants might be suitable for growth in microgravity aboard the
International Space Station (ISS) in the vegetable growth chamber. Using
equipment that mimics the environmental conditions aboard the ISS, students
test factors that may influence plant growth, flavour and nutrition. NASA will
use students' data to determine which plants to begin growing in space.
Economy:
1.
India’s largest IT
outsourcing company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) created history by becoming
the first Indian company to reach $100 billion market capitalisation (m-cap)
milestone. With this, TCS joined the ranks
of the world’s 100 most valued organizations and now ranks 97th. TCS has also
overtaken outsourcing and consultancy giant Accenture which has market cap of
$98.20 billion. TCS holds first position among most valuable international pure
play technology services firms.
2.
India has retained top
position as recipient of remittances with about $69 billion in 2017 according
to recently released Migration and Development Brief by World Bank. India was followed by China ($64 billion), Philippines ($33
billion), Mexico ($31 billion), Nigeria ($22 billion) and Egypt ($20 billion). Global
remittances grew 7% to US $613 billion in 2017, from US $573 billion in 2016.
Global remittances are expected to grow 4.6% to $642 billion.
3.
The central government on
April 23, 2018 stated that five more states including Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Puducherry will roll out intra-state e-way bills
from April 25. Earlier, encouraged by the
success of its inter-state implementation, the e-Way bill system for
intra-state movement of goods was implemented in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala from April 15. In Karnataka, it was
implemented along with nationwide inter-state implementation on April 1.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Finance, with the latest
addition, the total number of states implementing e-way bills for intra-state
movement of goods will rise to 17.
Awards:
1.
United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Press Freedom Prize for
year 2018 won by Jailed Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, popularly known as Shawkan,
Sports:
1. India
won 10 gold medals at 8th South Asian Judo Championship in Lalitpur, Nepal. Indian
women grabbed 7 gold while men won 3 out of total 7 gold medals in the
individual category. Indian
women such as Garima Chaudhary, C. Jina Devi and Tulika Maan showed their
golden performance at the championship.Nepal and Pakistan bagged two
gold medals each.
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