18th September 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Finance minister Arun Jaitley is on a Four-day visit to Asian financial hubs Singapore and Hong Kong to convince investors to invest in India’s infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.
• • He is going to address investor meets and participate in the Singapore Summit. 
  • Note : In Singapore, he will give a talk on "India: A heaven of opportunity in globally challenging times" and meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other leaders.

MOUs

• Vice President Hamid Ansari, who is on a 4 day visit to Cambodia and Laos, held delegation level talks with the Laotian leadership today.
• • He also had separate meetings with the Vice-President Dounyang Vorachith and President Choummally Sayasone.
  • India and Laos signed Two Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
  • • 
    • One MoU is related to Air Services Agreement between India and Laos and the Second one is on Quick Impact Assessment for implementation of key projects under the Mekong Ganga Cooperation.

National Affairs

• Ending years of wait on classified information on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his family members, the West Bengal government today declassified 64 such files which were in the possession of the Kolkata police and West Bengal police.
• • The files are being kept at the Calcutta Police Museum, which is housed in the Office of Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police.
  • Note : There are 64 files which contained 12,744 pages and all those files were digitised before being made public.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the Rs. 45,000 crore nationwide Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) at Varanasi.
• • This scheme ensures 24 hour power supply to every house.
  • Under IPDS, Varanasi will get Rs 572 crore for the project that aims at underground cabling of power lines, cutting line losses and many other things.
  • Note : Modi also launched seven other projects and schemes that include construction of a ring road in Varanasi city, beautification and widening and revamp of the road from Babatpur airport to the city.
• The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh has inaugurated a Conference of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) at Varanasi. 
• • The aim of the meeting is to discuss the ways and means to make the NHRC and the SHRCs stronger and effective for the promotion and protection of human rights. 
  • There are 25 States in the country so far which have set up SHRCs, autonomous bodies independent of the NHRC. 
  • The Commission has proposed to the Government of India for an amendment in the Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act, 1993 for constitution of Human Rights Commissions in the Union Territories.
  • NHRC Chairperson : Justice Cyriac Joseph 

Business & Economy

• The US central bank has decided not to raise interest rates, keeping them at the same level they have been at since December 2008.
• Indian Government today hiked import duty on crude and refined edible oils by 5 per cent in a bid to protect farmers' interest and provide a level-playing field to domestic oilseed processors.

Awards & Honors

• President Pranab Mukherjee presented National Tourism awards for the year 2013-14 today
• • Gujarat got the top award in Comprehensive Development of Tourism category.
  • Madhya Pradesh was awarded the Best Maintained & Disabled-friendly Monument National.
  • Gujarat was also awarded the Best Rural Tourism Project Award

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