National:
1.
‘Study in India’ programme
to attract foreign students to pursue higher education in India was approved by
the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) in collaboration with
Ministry of External Affairs. It aims at
boosting country’s share of international students and subsequently, improves
global reputation and rankings of Indian educational institutions. The
programme is similar to initiative launched by Australia, Malaysia, Singapore
and Canada. The programme will provide meritorious foreign students fee waiver
and scholarship. It will target students from 30 countries, primarily in Asia
and Africa, including Nepal, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria,
Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and
Rwanda.
2.
Defence Planning Committee
(DPC), a new integrated institutional mechanism that will drive country’s
military and security strategy and guide defence equipment acquisitions was
formed by the Union Government under the
chairmanship of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The committee will operate through four sub-committees: on
Policy and Strategy, Defence Diplomacy, Plans and Capability Development and
Defence Manufacturing system.
3.
Gujarat launched
'Haemophilia Jagruti, a magazine to spread awareness about haemophilia, a
hereditary and genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to control
blood clotting. The magazine aims to
share knowledge and the research being done on Hemophilia that affects over
6000 people in the state.
4. The Union Government have announced to provide smartphones,
instead of tablets, to Anganwadi workers to promote Poshan Abhiyaan nutrition
scheme. The decision was taken during
the first meeting of National Council on India's nutrition challenges under
'Poshan Abhiyaan' which was chaired by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar.The
Council has been set up under 'Poshan Abhiyaan' and serves as the apex body to
formulate overall policies, guide and monitor all nutrition based schemes.
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International:
1. The immigration authorities of China announced that the
country’s southernmost province of Hainan will allow foreign tourists from 59
countries to stay for up to one month without a visa. Group and individual tourists from the 59 countries, including
Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and the US, can visit Hainan visa-free from
May 1 onwards and stay there for up to 30 days on condition that they book
their tour through travel agencies. Hainan had offered a 15-day visa-free stay
for group tourists from 21 countries previously.
2. India and Britain on April 18, 2018 signed 9 agreements in the
areas of technology, trade and investment during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to
the United Kingdom, at the invitation of British PM Theresa May. India and Britain signed a
framework agreement for the UK-India Cyber Relationship, aiming for a free,
open, peaceful and secure cyberspace. The agreement also calls for cooperation
in exchange of information and strategies for effective cyber security incident
management and threat response.
3. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia on April 18, 2018 opened its first
public movie theatre, after over 35 years of prohibition for religious reasons. A special screening of Marvel superhero film ‘Black Panther’ was
held in Riyadh, which was attended by Saudi Culture and Information Minister
Awwad Alawwad along with Saudi royalty, celebrities and guest filmmakers. The first public screening will be held on April 20, the tickets
for which went on sale on April 19.
Science and Technology:
1.
The launch of India’s
second lunar mission ‘Chandrayaan-2’ has postponed from April 2018 to
October-November 2018 by ISRO. Chandrayaan
2 is India’s second mission to Moon and is advanced version of previous
Chandrayaan-1 mission (launched in 2008). It has been developed indigenously by
ISRO. It is ISRO’s first inter-planetary mission to land rover on any celestial
body. The spacecraft (orbiter) weighs around 3,290 kg and it will orbit around
moon and perform objectives of remote sensing moon.
2.
‘Smart Health’- an
innovative mobile app to enable ‘ASHA’ community health workers track the
growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes in the rural areas
was developed by the researchers. The health
workers will be trained to identify people suffering from diabetes or are at
high risk of the disease in the rural communities.ASHAs will then offer
them lifestyle and diet advice and refer them to a doctor for drug treatment.
3.
Reliance Jio topped the
charts of 4G availability and was able to provide an LTE signal more than 95
per cent of the time to testers in every single region in India as per the
London-based OpenSignal. Airtel emerged as the
clear leader in OpenSignal's speed metrics across 4G providers in the country.Vodafone
had the fastest mobile data connection response times and it got both 3G and 4G
latency awards with the lowest ping scores.
4.
Indian Scientists have
discovered world’s first ayurvedic drug to cure dengue which is likely to be available
in market by 2019.
Economy:
1.
UIDAI has introduced
updated ‘QR code’ for offline Aadhaar verification to strengthen its privacy
measures during usage. The updated ‘QR code’
will only reveal non-sensitive details such as name, address, photo, and date
of birth. The new QR code comes with photo and can be used in offline mode to
safeguard against any tampering of documents.
2.
The NASSCOM (National
Association of Software & Services Companies) and TechUK launched new
UK-India Tech Alliance. The alliance is aimed at
increasing collaboration on skills and new technologies, assisting policy
development and encouraging innovation and lay groundwork for roadmap which
will be jointly presented in June 2018.
3. RBI norms on resolution of banks' Non-Performing Assets (NPAs)
are outcome-oriented and provide banks the flexibility on deciding the contours
of resolution. As per the RBI's revised
framework on NPAs, banks are required to classify even a day's delay in paying
loan instalments as a default. The accumulated NPAs in the Indian
banking system have crossed the level of Rs 9 lakh crore.
4. The TRA Brand Trust Report 2018 stated that the State Bank of
India is the most trusted bank in the country and ICICI Bank topped the chart
among the private ones. State Bank of
India topped the chart of Banking and Financial Services Institutions (BFSI)
super-category, despite witnessing a drop in its overall brand trust index
rankings from 13th in 2017 to 21st this year. The leader among the private
banks is ICICI Bank with an overall 38th rank in 2018.Punjab National
Bank, which in February witnessed a multi-crore fraud, ranked 6th among the
public sector banks (PSB) and is 297th in the overall ranking.
5. India fetched 10th position in the index topped by the United
Kingdom, Singapore and Canada as per the 2018 Commonwealth Innovation Index,
The Commonwealth Innovation Index has been created in
partnership with the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation
(WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII). The index was launched on the sidelines of the ongoing
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as part of a new Commonwealth
Innovation Hub. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting will conclude on
April 20, 2018.
Sports:
1. The
FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 on April 18, 2018 unveiled ‘Son of Dreams’ as
the official Mascot of World Cup. Born in China on August
8, 2015, Son of Dreams' magical horns give him the power to see in the future,
envisioning plays and moves before they actually happen.The mascot
finalists were a Chinese dragon ('Son of Dream'), a Siberian tiger ('Speed
Tiger') and a lion ('Qiu Qiu').
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