Current Affairs Daily Updates: 8th April 2017

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Current Affairs Daily Updates: 8th April 2017
APPOINTMENTS
Bhimaraya Metri appointed as the Director of IIM Trichy.
  • Metri will take over the office from Prafulla Agnihotri, who is also the founding director of IIM Trichy.
  • Before taking charge as IIM Trichy Director, Metri served as the Dean of L&T Institute of Project Management at Vadodara.
  • Besides this, he has also served as Professor in-charge of PhD programmes at BITS Pilani, Professor and Dean at MDI Gurgaon, IMI New Delhi as well.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Kirti Chakra Awards 2017
  • Kirti Chakra, the second highest peacetime gallantry award, was posthumously conferred on Lance Havildar Prem Bahadur Resmi Magar of Gorkha Rifles by President Pranab Mukherjee at the defence investiture ceremony.
  • The late Lance Havildar eliminated four terrorists during an operation in Jammu and Kashmir on June 16 last year.
  • Mr. Mukherjee also presented 13 Shaurya Chakras.
BANKING AFFAIRS
Deadline for account holders to give PAN extended to June 30
  • The deadline for getting the permanent account number or form 60 (if PAN is not available) by banks ended on 28 February, and has been now extended till 30 June.
  • Form 60 is a declaration form filed by an individual without PAN.
HDFC Bank UPI on Chillr app
  • HDFC Bank announced its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will also be available on Chillr, a multi-bank mobile payments app.
  • UPI is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to enable faster money transfer between any two parties’ bank accounts.
Canara Bank partners with BSNL
  • Canara Bank, a public sector bank, has embarked upon an ambitious project of upgrading the bandwidth at all its branches to 2 Mbps in partnership with BSNL.
  • The bandwidth upgradation of branches is in line with the bank’s policy of promoting digital channels and will ensure faster service across the counters.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Facebook's digital assistant 'M' launched in US
  • Ramping up the social network's efforts in artificial intelligence, Facebook launched its digital assistant named "M" for US users of its Messenger application.
  • For users of the messaging platform, M will pop up and suggest "helpful actions" in the chat window.
  • Facebook, which has its own artificial intelligence research lab, announced M in 2015 as an experiment, and the expansion to Messenger is another step in the social network's broader AI goals.
Ban on cash transactions of over Rs 2 lakh not applicable for bank, post office withdrawals
  • Ban on cash transaction in excess of Rs 2 lakh will not be applicable to withdrawals from banks and post office savings accounts, the Income-Tax department announced.
  • In a clarification on the newly inserted Section 269ST in the I-T Act, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) aborts the restriction to withdrawal from banks and post offices.
  • Restriction is also not applicable to any receipt by government, banking company, post office savings bank or co-operative bank respectively.
South Indian Bank, Flyworld Money in pact for remittances
  • South Indian Bank has entered into an agreement with Flyworld Money Exchange to facilitate remittances by Indian expatriates in Australia.
  • Through this tie-up, NRIs in Australia could enjoy quick and cost-effective remittances to India using the SIB Express facility. With this agreement, SIB marks the first remittance arrangement with an exchange house in Australia.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Malala Yousafzai to be United Nations Messenger of Peace
  • United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has selected Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai to be a UN messenger of peace, the highest honor bestowed by the UN chief on a global citizen.
  • UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that she will focus on promoting girls’ education worldwide.
Uruguay - world's first country to legally sell marijuana in pharmacies
  • Uruguay will become the first country in the world to legally sell marijuana over the counter in pharmacies.
  • The South American country had already legalized cultivation, distribution and consumption of marijuana in 2013 but authorization for pharmacies has not been secured until now. “Marijuana will be dispensed in pharmacies starting in the month of July,” President of the National Drug Board Juan Andres Roballo told.
  • Marijuana:- means "cannabis", especially as smoked in cigarettes.
Iceland - first country in the world to neutralise gender pay gap
  • Iceland's parliament has presented a bill that would require public and private businesses to prove they offer equal pay to employees, in what would be the first such requirement in the world.
  • Iceland ranks first on the World Economic Forum's 2015 Global Gender Gap Index, followed by fellow Nordic nations Norway, Finland and Sweden.
  • But the new law aims to close a seven percent wage gap between men and women in the island nation of more than 323,000 people.
U.S Senate Confirms Neil Gorsuch as Supreme Court Justice
  • U.S President Trump’s nominee, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, was confirmed for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, filling a 14-month vacancy after a dramatic Senate showdown that risked long-lasting repercussions to both institutions.
  • The Senate confirmed Gorsuch, 54-45, for the seat that had been open since the 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Republican-led Senate had refused last year to consider President Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, fueling partisan rancor and Democratic opposition to Gorsuch.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha to be repackaged as Swachhagraha
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to connect the 100th anniversary of Champaran Satyagraha with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This initiative attempts to re-envision the theme of the Champaran Satyagraha.
  • Satyagraha, in this context, will therefore be re-interpreted as Swachhagraha – where an individual shall pool his efforts towards building a clean India.
  • The event will be kick started by PM Modi who will launch a special digital exhibition at National Archives in New Delhi on April 10.
  • The digital exhibition titled, “Bapu Ko Karyanjali” will be an attempt to leverage this historic occasion to re-emphasise the spirit of cleanliness – or Swachhta – which was close to Mahatma Gandhi’s heart, and was also a key element of the Champaran movement.
Centre to revive ambitious North Koel irrigation project in Jharkhand
  • Seeking to provide irrigation facilities to over one lakh hectare of farm land in Daltonganj and Palamu region of Jharkhand and neighbouring districts of Bihar, the Centre has decided to revive its 45-year-old North Koel river irrigation project at an estimated cost of Rs 1,622 crore and begin the construction of remaining works soon.
  • The ministry has, meanwhile, also been focused on completing its ongoing irrigation projects in different parts of the country under the 'Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana' (PMKSY) on time.
  • Bharti said 33 other projects will be completed by 2017-18.
Modi, Hasina flag off trial run of India-Bangladesh passenger train
  • The trial run of passenger train service between Bangladesh's Khulna city and West Bengal capital Kolkata began with the arrival of a train at Petrapole along the India-Bangladesh border.
  • Named Maitree Express-2, it is the second passenger train between India and Bangladesh.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee jointly flagged off the train service through video link from New Delhi.
  • Regular service between the Kolkata station and Khulna will commence in July, Railway officials said.
  • Indo-Bangla rail corridor through Petrapole was reopened in January 2001 for goods trains.
SPORTS AFFAIRS
India's first NBA Basketball School in Mumbai
  • The National Basketball Association (NBA) has launched the first NBA Basketball School in Mumbai.
  • The school is part of NBA's initiative of a network of tuition-based basketball development programmes, open to international male and female players aged between 6 to 18.
  • Additional NBA Basketball Schools will be launched in India and around the world in the coming months.
Boxer Shyam Kumar wins gold at Thailand International
  • Indian boxer K Shyam Kumar won a gold medal in the 49- kilogram category at the Thailand International Tournament in Bangkok.
  • He clinched the medal without even stepping inside the ring for his summit clash as Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan was unable to play the match due to his injury.