18th May 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

Today (18th May) is International Museum Day.
- Theme of the year 2016 : Museums and Cultural Landscapes
The Republic of Panama has officially signed a deal to comply with standards in exchanging tax information as prescribed by global body Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
- Note : This comes a month after the 'Panama Papers' data leak which revealed records of over 200,000 offshore companies.
- However, the new membership does not take effect until 2018.
The United States has eased sanctions on Myanmar to support political reforms while expressing concern over its alleged human rights violations.
- Myanmar's state-owned banks were removed from the US blacklist and sanctions against state-owned timber and mining companies were lifted.
- The USA also indefinitely extended a sanctions exemption that allows financing shipments coming from Myanmar.
The US Senate has passed a bill that will allow the families of 9/11 victims to file lawsuits against Saudi Arabia.
- This comes after Saudi reportedly threatened to withdraw its investments worth $750 billion in the US if the bill became a law.

National Affairs

The World's largest solar power plant on a Single rooftop with a capacity of 11.5 megawatts was inaugurated by Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh near Amritsar today.
- The project is also India's largest rooftop solar power plant installed over multiple roofs in a single campus with a capacity of 19.5 megawatts.
Union Minister Maneka Gandhi today unveiled the draft 'National Policy for Women, 2016' focusing on protecting women from cyber crime and recognising the rights of single women.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has launched its Nagaland unit in Dimapur in the presence of National Executive Committee member Habung Payeng.
- The party also elected a 13 membered executive body for the state.
To counter the "menace" of coaching, HRD Minister Smriti Irani today announced that the government will launch an IIT-Pal portal and mobile app to help students prepare for IIT-JEE.
- The portal would include free lectures from IIT faculty and previous 50 years' question papers.
Odisha Government has decided to launch Green Passage scheme for orphan students to ensure that they get free of cost higher education in the state.
- As per the scheme Orphan students pursuing higher education (from Plus-II level) to post-graduation level, will be exempted of tuition fees, admission fee and laboratory fees for higher studies.

Recent Committees in News

The Union Government constituted a 5 Member committee to comprehensively review and give recommendations on the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) roadmap for the future.
- It has been asked to submit its report by 31 October 2016.
- The committee will be headed by : NK Singh (former Revenue and Expenditure Secretary).
- Other members of the Committee are,
- - Sumit Bose (former Finance and Revenue Secretary),
  - Dr. Arvind Subramanian (Chief Economic Adviser),
  - Urijit Patel (Deputy Governor, RBI),
  - Rathin Roy (Director, National Institute Public Finance and Policy, NIPFP).

People in News

Baba Ramdev and Amit Agarwal (Amazon India Head), have been named in the list of ‘100 Most Creative People in Business’ by American magazine Fast Company.
- Agarwal has been ranked 10th for "extending Amazon's reach, one vendor at a time".
- Further, Ramdev has been ranked 27th for "disrupting India's $49 billion consumer packaged goods market".

Andre Brahic (73), one of the discoverers of Neptune's rings, passed away.
- In 1984, Brahic with US astronomer William Hubbard launched a program that led to the discovery of the rings around the gaseous planet Neptune.

Science & Technology

The trial run of India's first driverless train was today flagged off by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.
- Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had acquired the trains from a Korea-based manufacturer last year.
- The trains will, however, be run by operators till next year to allow DMRC to identify and fix shortcomings.
The 'Valravn' roller coaster, claimed to be the tallest, fastest and longest “dive coaster” in the world, has opened at 'Cedar Point', an amusement park in Ohio, USA.
- The ride features a drop of 214 feet and speed of upto 121 km/h.

Awards & Honors

Eminent Harry Potter Series Author JK Rowling has been honored with the highest French civilian honour French Legion of Honour.
Indian American teenager from Texas Syamantak Payra (15) has won the $50,000 Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award.
- He won this prestigious award along with Kathy Lu (17).
- He won the award for his work in making a low-cost electronically-aided knee brace device which allows people with weakened legs to be able to walk better.

Business & Economy

India's biggest lender State Bank of India today announced that it is seeking the government's in-principle sanction to acquire its five associate banks including the State Bank of Mysore as well as state-owned Bharatiya Mahila Bank.
State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) today posted a loss of ₹5,367 crore for the quarter ended March.
- Important Note : This is the highest ever quarterly loss by an Indian bank.

New Appointments

Uttar Pradesh government has appointed Manzil Saini as the new Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of state capital Lucknow.
- With this, she became first-ever woman district police chief in the state capital.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has appointed Tala Marandi as the party’s Jharkhand unit President.
- He replaces Ravindra Kumar Rai, who is a Member of Parliament from Koderma, Jharkhand.

The Indian 4x100m women’s relay team comprising Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, HM Jyoti and Merlin Joseph broke the 18-year-old national record to finish 4th position at the IAAF World Challenge in Beijing today.
- The team clocked a time of 44.03 seconds, breaking the 44.43-second record set by a PT Usha-led team in July 1998 in Japan.