Current Affairs Daily Updates: May 1st 2017
APPOINTMENTS:
Yusra
Mardini appointed UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
- The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR (UN High Commissioner
for Refugees) has appointed Syrian refugee and Olympic athlete 'Yusra Mardini' (19-years) as a Goodwill Ambassador to help
raise awareness about the plight of refugees.
- Mardini has participated in the
first ever Olympic refugee
team at the Rio de Janeiro games 2016.
- Mardini studying in Berlin will
go soon on a UNHCR mission to Tokyo, venue of the 2020 Summer Games.
Deputy
PM & Home Minister of Nepal Bimalendra Nidhi resigns
- The Deputy Prime Minister &
Home Minister of Nepal Bimalendra
Nidhi has resigned from his post in protest of impeachment
motion registered against Nepal's first female chief justice Sushila
Karki.
- At least 249 MPs signed the
motion which is over the required number to open an impeachment
investigation.
- It comes after the Supreme Court
overturned the government's choice of chief of police.
Ilir
Meta elected as new President of Albania
- lir Meta was elected as
President of the Republic of Albania with 87 votes pro and 2 against.
- Parliament of Albania, which
convened in an extraordinary session, has voted the candidacy of Ilir Meta
as President of the Republic.
- While 89 deputies have voted in
total, the election of president in this fourth round requires 71 votes in
favor.
- Ilir Meta will hold the post of
President of the Republic for the period 2017-2022.
AWARDS AND HONORS:
Sudarsan
Pattnaik wins gold medal at 10th Moscow sand art championship
- Noted sand artist Sudarsan
Pattnaik from Odisha has won the jury prize gold medal at the10th Moscow
Sand Art Championship.
- Twenty five sculptors from
different countries around the world had participated in the championship
on the theme - "World Around Us".
- Pattnaik had created a 10 feet
high sand sculpture of Lord Ganesh and inscribed "Go Green" on
the statue.
- Recently, Pattnaik had created
world's tallest sand castle at Puri beach.
Ashwani
Kumar to be conferred with Japan's top honour
- Japan has selected former union
minister for Law and Justice Ashwani Kumar for this year's Spring Imperial
Decorations, for his contribution to strengthening of the bilateral ties
and promotion of friendship between Tokyo and New Delhi.
- Kumar will be conferred with the
Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, the highest category of
decorations among the Orders of the Rising Sun, in recognition of
distinguished accomplishments of individuals.
- The Presentation Ceremony for
the Investiture of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun will be
held at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 9.
BANKING AFFAIRS
SBI
reduces term deposit rates by up to 50 bps
- The State Bank of India (SBI) has cut its term deposit rates
by up to 50 basis points for various maturities.
- The rates have been revised for medium and long term
deposits and for the amount below Rs. one crore.
- Now, SBI will offer a rate of
6.25% as compared to 6.75% earlier for two to less than three year
deposits,
- For the similar maturity, the
deposit rates for senior citizen have been cut to 6.75% from 7.25%.
- The rates have been lowered by
25 basis points to 6.50% for deposits maturing between three years and 10
years.
- The bank is offering highest
rates of 6.90% for one year to 455 days term deposits.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
RBI asks ARCs to have a minimum net corpus
of Rs100 crore by 2019
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
has asked all the existing asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) to have a
minimum net owned fund (NOF) of Rs100 crore by March 2019.
- This decision has been taken by
RBI in accordance with its last bi-monthly monetary policy in which it had
proposed to stipulate a minimum NOF of Rs100 crore taking into
consideration the enhanced role and greater cash based transactions
carried out by ARCs.
- As per amended SARFAESI Act,
2016, ARCs cannot carry on the business of securitisation or asset
reconstruction without having NOF of not less than Rs 2 crore or any other
amount stipulated by the RBI.
- As per the notification of RBI,
the existing ARCs not meeting the minimum NOF criteria need to achieve the
minimum NOF of Rs100 crore latest by 31 March 2019.
Real
Estate Act comes into effect
- The Real Estate Act which aims
to protect the interests of homebuyers by ensuring transparency has come
into effect. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA)
has asked all the states and Union Territories to implement the Act with
letter and spirit.
- Since land is a state subject,
real estate sector comes within the ambit of the state governments.
- The Real Estate (Regulation and
Development) Bill, 2016 was passed by Parliament in March last year.
Partially, the act came into force on 1 May last year with 59 of 92
notified sections of the act coming into force.
- The remaining provisions have
come into the force now. Already the act has been notified by 13 states
and Union Territories including Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Gujarat, Delhi, Daman and Diu.
IMPORTANT DAYS OBSERVED
International
Labour Day observed on 1st May
- The 'International Labour Day'
is a celebration of laborers and the working classes, promoted by the
international labour movement, anarchists, socialists, and communists.
- It takes place every year on 1st May which also matches
with the Celtic spring festival.
- The day marks the victory of
workers' movement for eight hours of work. It also aims to pay tribute to
workers sacrifices in achieving economic and social rights all over the
world.
- The date was chosen for
International Workers' Day by the Second International to commemorate the
Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4th May 1886.
Ganga
Swachhta Sankalp Divas to be celebrated on May 02, 2017
- May 2, 2017 will be observed as
the Ganga Swachhta Sankalp Divas by National Mission on Clean Ganga (NMCG)
at 12 locations, namely, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Bhagalpur,
Sahibganj, Kolkata, Raj Ghat (Hardoi), Bithoor, Srinagar ( Uttarakhand),
Vidhur Kuti (Bijnor) and Devprayag.
- Apart from these locations, with
the help of Ganga Vichaar Manch, local NGOs and volunteer support, the
event is slated to be organized at more than 30 other locations.
- The objective of the event is to
spread awareness and promote active involvement of the masses in Swachh
Ganga.
- The event envisages developing a
sense of pride and ownership among masses and to actively support for
Namami Gange programme.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Exhibition
of Global Mobile Internet Conference held in Beijing
- The exhibition of Global Mobile
Internet Conference (GMIC) was held in Beijing, capital of China, April
27, 2017.
- The Global Mobile Internet
Conference is hosted annually in Beijing and Silicon Valley.
- Mobile executives,
entrepreneurs, developers, and investors from around the globe and across
platforms attend GMIC each year.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
India to give Rs 35 cr to children of
freedom fighters in Bangladesh
- India will give Rs. 35 crore
rupees to children of freedom fighters in Bangladesh under the new
‘Muktijodha scholarship’ scheme in the next five years.
- Under the scheme, students at
higher secondary level will get a one-time grant of Tk 20,000 (Rs 15,370)
and students at the undergraduate level will get a grant of Tk 50,000 (Rs
38,430).
- In addition, all freedom
fighters will be eligible for multiple entries on Indian visa for a period
of five years. Also, every year 100 of them will be entitled to free
medical treatment in Indian hospitals.
Railways
to use RFID tags to track wagons, coaches
- The Indian Railways will use radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) for
tracking of wagons, coaches, and locomotives to ensure effective and
transparent functioning.
- Using RFID devices, it will be
easier for the railways to know the exact
position of wagons, locomotives, and coaches.
- Railways had implemented the
RFID system on the Vishakhapatnam-Talcher-Paradeep section as a pilot
project.
Maharashtra becomes First State to Use
Automated Weather Stations (AWS) for Farmers
- Maharashtra chief minister
Devendra Fadnavis has inaugurated the state’s first automatic weather
station at Dongargaon in Nagpur.
- The state government proposes to
install around 2,065 such weather stations across the state on a public
private partnership (PPP) mode in this year and 1,000 in next year.
- The weather stations will be
helpful in measuring the wind direction, wind speed, air temperature,
relative humidity and record amount of rainfall.
- The information gathered by the
weather stations would be shared among the farmers by making them
available on Mahavedh portal (Maharashtra agriculture weather information
network) as well as on the mobile application of Skymet. Weather forecast
firm Skymet Weather Private Ltd will be setting up these weather stations.
Haryana government to set up 15 solid waste
management clusters
- The Haryana state Govt. has decided to set up 15 integrated solid waste
management clusters to deal with solid waste in urban areas.
- Electricity would be generated
from solid waste in three clusters and manure from the remaining 12
clusters.
- A solid waste management plant
is being set up at Faridabad at a cost of Rs. 330 crore.
First
book village in the country to come up in Maharashtra
- From May 4, Bhilar, a tiny hamlet
in Satara district of Maharashtra is all set to become India’s first ‘book
village’.
- The concept of book village is
inspired by Britain’s Hay-on-Wye, which is a Welsh town located in the
United Kingdom, famous for its bookstores and literature festivals.
- Under this initiative, tourists
and locals can come and read books, magazines, newspapers stacked at 25
artistically decorated locations around the village.
- The books on wide-ranging
subjects and 15,000 books in Marathi would be made available on these
premises.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE AFFAIRS:
India
to launch South-Asia satellite on May 5
- The “South Asia satellite” for
use by countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) region will be launched on May 5.
- This was stated by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi during his latest Mann ki Batt radio address.
- The Prime Minister has hailed
the satellite as an invaluable gift of India to South Asia and has further
stated that the satellite “will go a long way in addressing South Asia’s
economic and developmental priorities.”
- During the 2014 SAARC summit
that held in Nepal, the plan for the satellite was announced and
subsequently all SAARC countries have joined it except Pakistan.
- Hence, the beneficiaries of the
satellite will be Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and
Maldives.
- The total cost of launching the
satellite (around Rs 235 crore) would be met by the Government of India.
SPORTS AFFAIRS
Valtteri
Bottas wins first ever F1 race at Russian GP 2017
- Finnish racing driver Valtteri
Bottas (with Mercedes) has won his first Formula One victory at the 2017
Russian Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom Russia.
- Bottas won the race by 0.617
seconds over Sebastian Vettel, the smallest winning margin since the 2016
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
- Sebastian Vettel finished in
second and Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton stood fourth.
Paes-Lipsky
win Tallahassee Challenger title of men's doubles
- Indo-American tennis player Leander Paes and Scott Lipsky has won the Tallahassee Challenger title of
the men's doubles.
- They defeated Argentine third
seeds Leonardo Mayer and Maximo Gonzalez 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-7 in the summit
clash.
- Earlier, Paes had won the Leon
Challenger in Mexico with Adil Shamasdin.
Aizawl
FC become first Northeastern club to win I-league
- Aizawl
FC has won its maiden I-League title against
Shillong Lajong in their final game of the league season.
- Aizawl ended the league on 37
points and became the first club from the Northeast to bag the title.
- Mohun Bagan defeated Chennai
City FC 2-1 and finished second in the League with 36 points.
