Daily Current Affairs for May 9-10,2018 ( English)

2.     President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to Delhi government’s proposed Bill to amend the Minimum Wages Act. In March 2017, Delhi’s Lt. Governor Anil Baijal had approved Delhi Government’s decision to hike the minimum wages of unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled workers by 37 per cent. Minimum wages for an unskilled worker in Delhi is Rs 13350 per month, for semi-skilled, it is Rs 14698 and for skilled persons is Rs 16182. As per the amended act, employers violating labour rules in Delhi will now face fine ranging from Rs 20000-50000 and jail term between one to three years.

3.       India’s first cloud-based Common Integrated Data Centre, Disaster Recovery Centre and Integrated Control and Command Centre (ICCC) has been launched by Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd. (BSCDCL). ICCC will enable Madhya Pradesh State administration to monitor and administer multiple city civic utilities and citizen services across seven smart cities in state through central cloud. These seven cities include Bhopal, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Indore, Ujjain, Satna, and Sagar. It is powered by Hewlett Packard (HP) Enterprise’s Universal Internet of Things (IoT) Platform.

4.       Green licence plates bearing numbers in white fonts for private e-vehicles and yellow for taxis to promote electric vehicles (e-vehicles) has approved by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in India. As per estimate, India at present has 1 to 1.5 lakh electric vehicles. The purpose behind distinctive green number plates is easy identification of electric vehicles for preferential treatment in parking, free entry in congested zones besides other proposed benefits like concessional toll. Currently, there are four kinds of number plates in India- white licence plates with numbers on black font for private cars, yellow plates with fonts in black for commercial vehicles, black plates with yellow font letters for self-driven rental vehicles and blue plates with white font letters for Embassies and High Commissions.

5.     Indian tea industry has recorded the highest ever production as well as exports in financial year 2017-18. India’s total tea production was 1325.05 million kgs, an increase of 74.56 million kgs as compared to 2016-17. In percentage terms the increase was around 6%. 

6.     The apex court also expressed concern over Taj Mahal being infected by insects and asked the authorities, including the ASI, and queried about the appropriate steps to protect and preserve of the iconic Taj Mahal. The two-judge bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that the situation would not have arisen if the ASI would have done its job. 

7.     The Supreme Court of India on May 9, 2018 held that railways will be liable to pay compensation to passengers in case of death or injury while boarding and de-boarding trains. The ruling was given by a two-judge bench comprising Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Rohinton F Nariman.

8.     The Union Government issued orders for extending assistance to clear the dues of sugarcane farmers.The government has decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 5.50 per quintal of cane crushed in sugar season 2017-18 to sugar mills to offset the cost of the cane.

2.       Investment Board Nepal (IBN) has granted licence to Satluj Jala Vodyut Nigam Power Development Company, a subsidiary of Indian government-owned Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, to generate power from the Arun-3 Hydropower Project that is located in Nepal. Nepal government will also receive benefits worth Rs. (Nepali) 348 billion from project as royalty, income tax, customs tariff and free energy in concession period of 25 years. The project will also provide 21.9% or 197MW s of the generated energy free of cost to Nepal.

3.     UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that a climate summit will be held in September 2019 in New York to review the Paris Agreement commitments. He announced that Michael Bloomberg will support the UN in its climate strategy and to organize the 2019 summit. He appointed former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as his Special Envoy for Climate Action in March 2018.

4.       India and Panama have signed two agreements on exemption of Visas for holders of Diplomatic and Official Passports and in the field of Agriculture during Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu’s first official foreign visit to three countries Guatemala, Panama and Peru to strengthen India’s relations with them.

5.       Under Operation Insaniyat,  India has sent its second relief consignment to Bangladesh.Indian Navy Ship INS Airavat carrying 373-tonne relief consignment sailed from Vishakhapatnam and reached Chattogram port (formerly Chittagong) Port to help tens of thousands of displaced Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar into Bangladesh following military crackdown in violence-hit Rakhine state. The second consignment mainly contained 104 tonnes of milk powder, 102 tonnes of dried fish, 61 tonnes of baby food, 50,000 raincoats and 50,000 pairs of gum boots. Another tranche containing 1 million litres of kerosene oil and 20,000 cooking stoves will be sent soon.

6.       United States President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew US from historic 2015 Iran nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal signed between Iran and P5+1 countries((five permanent members of United Nations Security Council- US, China, France, Russia, and UK).The JCPOA is aimed at preventing Iran from building nuclear weapon, involved lifting of international sanctions in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme.

7.     The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea met in Tokyo on May 9, 2018 against the backdrop of historic diplomatic moves by North Korea and a push for the isolated country to give up its nuclear weapons. South Korean President Moon said the three nations would continue cooperation as South-North relations is very important for peace and prosperity of Northeast Asia.

2.     The first edition of this year’s bi-annual Naval Commanders’ Conference was held in New Delhi from 8 to 11 May 2018. During the conference, top echelons of Indian Navy reviewed its new Mission-Based Deployments philosophy aimed at ensuring peace and stability in the region. It aims at sustained, peaceful and yet responsive presence of Indian Naval ships in critical areas and choke points.

3.     China successfully launched Gaofen-5, a hyper-spectral imaging satellite, as part of the country’s high- resolution Earth observation project on 8th May 2018. It is the world’s first full-spectrum hyper spectral satellite for comprehensive observation of the atmosphere and the land.

4.     The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) issued draft Telecommunication Interconnection (Amendment) Regulations 2018 to amend interconnect regulations, proposing certain changes in terms and conditions for operators to seek fresh call connect ports from other telecom operators.

5.     Vijay Prahar- Indian Army’s month long exercise concluded in Suratgarh, Rajasthan. It was conducted by South Western Command of Indian Army. In this month long exercise, over 20,000 troops participated with fighting equipment for couple of weeks to fine-tune jointmanship with Indian Air Force.

6.     A modern animal-free tests for drug manufacturers was approved by Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) in its 2018 edition of Indian Pharmacopoeia. It provides guidelines on tests for drugs manufactured and marketed in India. It replaces pyrogen test carried out on rabbits and abnormal toxicity test carried out on guinea pigs and mice by bacterial endotoxin test or monocyte activation test which can be carried out in test tubes. These guidelines will come into effect from July 1, 2018.

2.     Walmart Inc will acquire a 77 percent holding in Flipkart Group for $16 billion. Japan’s Softbank will exit Flipkart by selling entire 20 per cent stake to Walmart. Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal will exit Flipkart by selling his 5.5 % stake to Walmart. This is said to be the largest-ever deal in e-commerce. It is said that, Flipkart will maintain a separate brand and operating structure.

3.     Uber and NASA announced that they are tying up to simulate flying taxis in urban areas. This announcement was made at the Uber Elevate summit in Los Angeles. NASA has said that, the aim is to develop a rideshare network using which residents can hail a small aircraft like how Uber users now hire a car using the app. NASA said that, the simulations have been planned at its research facility at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

4.     15th Finance Commission has constituted an Advisory Council to advise and assist the commission. One of the functions of advisory council will be to advise the Commission on any relevant issue or subject related to the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Commission. The council comprises Arvind Virmani, former chief economic advisor, Surjit S Bhalla, Sajjid Chinoy, Neelkanth Mishra, Sanjeev Gupta, and Pinaki Chakraborty.

5.     India was ranked ^4th out of 25 nations in Asia-Pacific region in the inaugural Asia Power Index released by Australian think tank Lowy Institute. Three of the world’s four largest economies are in Asia and United States is Pacific power.