Current Affairs Daily Updates: 17th May 2017

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Current Affairs Daily Updates: 17th May 2017
APPOINTMENTS
Ovais Sarmad appointed as the deputy executive secretary of the UNFCCC
  • Ovais Sarmad is an Indian national appointed by the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the post of Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
  • He is currently the Chief of Staff to the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
  • His appointment is mainly aimed to stabilise greenhouse emission and slow down climate change.
Paytm Payments Bank names Renu Satti as the new CEO
  • India's leading digital wallet player Paytm has received the final licence from the Reserve Bank of India for its payments bank entity.
  • With this, the road is now clear for the Noida-based payments player to kickstart its much-awaited payments bank operations from May 23, 2017.
  • Paytm has also announced that its long time executive and vice president Renu Satti will be the CEO of the payments bank.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
IIT-Hyderabad professor bags INSA Young Scientist award
  • Aravind Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad awarded the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) medal in the Young Scientist category for 2017.
  • His research work was published in the journal of NANOSCALE (Impact factor 7.76) and ACS NANO LETTERS (Impact Factor: 13.78) which made him achieve the award.
  • The INSA Young Scientist Medal award carries a bronze medal and a cash prize of Rs.25,000.
Renowned Biologist Dr Purnima Devi Barman Nominated for Whitley Awards
  • Dr. Purnima Devi Barman, wildlife biologist and conservationist of Assam, nominated for the prestigious Whitley Awards also known as the Green Oscars.
  • The Whitley Awards are made annually by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) to recognise and celebrate effective national and regional conservation leaders across the globe.
  • Barman has been nominated from among 166 researchers from 66 countries for this award.
Mukesh Ambani tops Forbes Global Game Changers List 2017
  • Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani topped theForbes list of Global Game Changers.
  • Ambani has been ranked at the top for his efforts to bring the internet to India’s masses.
  • These business leaders who are known to transform their industries and effect changes to the lives of billions of people around the globe.
IMPORTANT DAYS OBSERVED
16th May: National Dengue Day
  • National Dengue Day is observed on 16th of May every year by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India.
  • The aim of this day is to control the Dengue through create awareness, initiate preventive actions and continue till transmission season is over.
17th May: World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
  • World Telecommunication and Information Society Day(WTISD) is celebrated annually on 17 May.
  • The theme for WTISD-2017 is "Big Data for Big Impact".
  • The Big Data for development aims to explore to turn imperfect, complex, often unstructured data into actionable information in a development context.
  • The purpose of WTISD is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other Information and Communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
India second most attractive renewable energy investment destination: EY
  • India has overtaken the US to become the second-most attractive country after China for renewable energy investment, according to a report by UK accountancy firm EY.
  • In an annual ranking of the top 40 renewable energy markets worldwide in terms of allure, China was ranked at the top, followed by India.
  • The US slipped to the third spot from the first in the last year's ranking, EY said.
  • India was ranked third on the last year's EY renewable energy country attractiveness index (RECAI) behind the US and China.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Uttar Pradesh Government passes GST Bill
  • The Uttar Pradesh legislature passed the UP Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill 2017.
  • Four key GST legislations - the Central GST Act, the Integrated GST Act, the GST (Compensation to States) Act and the Union Territory GST Act - were passed by Parliament in its last session. The four legislations have since got the president's approval.
  • The GST bill is the result of the Narendra Modi Government's push towards wider economic reforms.
Union government launches Operation clean Money Portal
  • The Union Minister of Finance, Shri Arun Jaitley, officially launched the Portal of Operation Clean Money in New Delhi.
  • Aim:- To tab dishonest citizens hiding their income to the authorities and Government"
  • The salient features of the Operation Clean Money Portal are Providing comprehensive information at one place consisting of Step by Step Guides for creating a tax compliant society and Enabling Transparent Tax Administration by sharing status reports.
  • There has been 18 lakh people who have been identified by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) after demonetisation with respect to irregularities in tax payment and income band.
ISRO, NASA to jointly inspect 'oldest civilisation' site in Haryana
  • Teams of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) planned to inspect the excavation being carried out at an archaeological site in Haryana's Fatehabad district.
  • Archaeologists recovered important facts pre-dating the Harappan Civilisation from the site, located in village Kunal in Fatehabad district.
  • NASA and ISRO inspection are likely to be done around October this year.
CCEA gives Approval to New Coal Linkage Policy
  • The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a new coal linkage policy to ensure an adequate supply of the fuel to power plants through a reverse auction.
  • The new policy will help in ensuring fuel supplies to the power plants in an organised manner.
  • Coal linkage policy is designated by the Union Government for the allocation of coal among thermal power plants.
5 MoUs signed between India and Palestine
  • Palestian President Mahmoud Abbas is on a 4-day visit to India.
  • After the restricted talks India and Palestine sign five agreements.
  • These were MoU on visa exemption for diplomatic passport holder, agriculture cooperation, cooperation in field of IT & Electronics, health sector and cooperation in the field of youth affairs and sports.
Bandaru Dattatreya launches EPFO’s Citizens’ Charter & e-court system
  • The Minister of State for Labour & Employment(IC), Bandaru Dattatreya launched EPFO’s Citizens’ Charter 2017 and e-court management system in Bangalore.
  • Citizens’ Charter 2017 is an attempt to bring transparency and accountability on the part of EPFO and make service delivery system and grievance redressal mechanism more efficient so that it delivers goods and services to its all stakeholders in a time bound manner with a reduced timeline from earlier timeline of 30 days.
  • The timeline in case of claim settlements is 10 days and 15 days in case of grievance redressal management.
  • The citizens’ charter has been launched with the vision of social security coverage to all employees as well as implementation of policies for benefit of all stakeholders with adequate support level of social security.
  • The objective of the EPFO e-court Management System is a transparent and electronic case management system which will cater to aspirations of all stakeholders – the employers, the employees, litigants and CBT.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE AFFAIRS
18-year-old Indian designed world's lightest satellite: KalamSat will be launched by NASA
  • Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from Tamil Nadu built a satellite that fits into a 4-centimetre cube and weighs 64 grams.
  • The satellite ‘KalamSat’, named after India's nuclear scientist and former President, APJ Abdul Kalam.
  • It was made using reinforced carbon fibre polymer and weighs lesser than a smartphone's weight.
  • It is the first one to be manufactured via 3D printing and got selected through a competition named 'Cubes in Space', which was sponsored jointly by NASA and 'I Doodle Learning'.
  • The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) planned to launch the rocket on June 21.