Daily Current Affairs Updates–18th January 2017

Daily Current Affairs Updates–18th January 2017:

Daily Current affairs News Updates about the National and International events were listed here. Candidates those who are preparing for IBPS/SBI/PO/Clerk exam and all other competitive exams can use this.

Black boxes developed by HAL for flights got approval from IAF :

The Indian Air Force has placed orders with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for black boxes. This comes after a successful trial of the black boxes which were developed by HAL. Notably, India will not have to purchase black boxes from other countries as they will be manufactured within the country itself.

Organization: Indian Air Force

Headquarters: New Delhi

Two 'non-performing' IPS officers given premature retirement by Govt :

The Centre has ordered premature retirement of two 'non-performing' IPS officers – Raj Kumar Dewangan of Chhattisgarh cadre and Mayank Sheel Chauhan of AGMUT cadre. While Dewangan is a 1992 batch officer, Chauhan belongs to the 1998 batch. The order was issued following a performance review which found that their 'services were no longer useful for general administration', officials said.

'Karang island' becomes first cashless island in India located in Manipur

The Centre, under its Digital India programme, has announced Karang in Manipur as the country's first cashless island. The Karang island is located in the middle of Loktak lake, the largest freshwater lake in the North Eastern part of India. This comes after campaigns on cashless transactions were held by the island's boat association and other bodies from January 9-12.

State : Manipur

Capital : Imphal

Chief Minister : Okram Ibobi Singh

Governor : Najma A. Heptulla

Kerala : Virtual reality kiosks to be set up at airports of the state by Kerala Tourism

Kerala Tourism is planning to set up virtual reality kiosks at major airports of the country, an official said. The first such kiosk was put up at the Delhi airport last month, and another one is in the process of being operationalised in Mumbai, the official added. The kiosk will bring to life the backwaters of Kerala, officials stated.

State : Kerala

Capital : Thiruvananthapuram

Chief Minister : Pinarayi Vijayan

Governor : P Sathasivam

Haryanay CM grants ₹10 cr to Yogeshwar Dutt's village on his wedding

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, on Monday, met Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt to congratulate him for his wedding and also granted ₹10 crore for his village. Khattar also accepted all the demands and grievances of the village residents. The money would be used to build roads, and on drinking and irrigation facilities, as per reports.

State : Haryana

Capital : Chandigarh

Chief Minister : Manohar Lal Khattar

Governor : Kaptan Singh Solanki

Global passport-strength list India ranks 78th position : Survey

The Indian passport has ranked 78th in a list of the world's strongest passports, as it offers visa-free or visa on arrival facilities to 46 countries, according to financial advisory firm Arton Capital. Afghanistan's passport has been rated the weakest, with a rank of 95, while Pakistan's passport has been placed second lowest, occupying the 94th position.

Indian Agriculture Research Institute approves to setup an Off-campus in Jharkhand

Cabinet has approved setting up of an off-campus of Indian Agriculture Research Institute in Jharkhand. It will have an estimated outlay of 200.78 crore rupees.  The Institute will work on the agrarian challenges and complexities of eastern India with all existing Central and State Government Research and Development institutions and Private sector enterprises.

It will undertake research, education, extension programmes in its mission towards developing quality human resource, generation of farmer friendly technologies to enhance productivity, quality and profitability.

State : Jharkhand

Capital : Ranchi

Chief Minister : Raghubar das

Governor : Draupadi Murmu

58th India International Garment Fair starts today at New Delhi :

Textiles Minister Smriti Irani today inaugurated the 58th India International Garment Fair - IIGF at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. On the occassion Mrs Irani said the three-day fair provides a platform to overseas garment buyers to source products and forge business relationships with Indian players in the apparel and fashion accessories domain.

She said the fair will gave great benefit to the Indian emerging export players. More than 130 participants from 14 states are participating in the fair and nearly one thousand byers are coming on first day.

Ministry : Ministry of Textiles

Head : Smriti Irani

Constituency :Gujarat

'Mawlynnong' the cleanest village of  Asia becomes role model for cleanliness

In Meghalaya, Mawlynnong village has become a role model for other states in maintaining cleanliness. Termed as Asia’s cleanest village, Mawlynnong has become tourists' hotspot.

The Secretary of the village committee said, all 90 families of the village constructed toilets in 1989. Under Swachh Bharat Mission, three public toilets have been constructed in the village. Over 500 tourists from across the country and abroad visit the village daily, which is located 80 kilometers away from capital Shillong.

State : Meghalaya

Capitals: Shillong

Chief minister:Mukul Sangma

Governor : V. Shanmuganathan

Community radio awareness workshop organised by union govt in Raipur :

The Union Government is organising a community radio awareness workshop in Raipur in association with Community Radio Association. The workshop is being attended by a large number of academic, research and civil society organisations in Chhattisgarh and neighbouring states.

On the first day of workshop today, Director, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Amit Katoch told participants that government has now hiked the infrastructure subsidy for setting up Community Radio stations from earlier 50 per cent to 75 per cent of expenditure incurred by the licence holder.

State : Chhattisgarh

Capitals: Raipur

Chief minister:Raman Singh

Governor : Balram Das Tandon

Bengaluru tops in world's most dynamic city list released at  WEF :

Bengaluru has topped the world's most dynamic cities list, released by real estate consultancy firm Jones Lang LaSalle at the World Economic Forum. While Hyderabad is fifth on the list, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Pune are other Indian cities that have made to the top 30. Notably, USA's Silicon Valley is third on the list, while China's Shanghai is fourth.

Organisation :World Economic Forum

Headquarters: Cologny, Switzerland

Pratibha-Parva being observed 3-day in Madhya Pradesh

In Madhya Pradesh, a three day Pratibha-Parva is being observed in all the government middle schools from today. Our correspondent reports that the evaluation of academic achievements of 78 lakh students pursuing studies in class 1 to 8 is being made during the Parv.

Subject based evaluation will be made of students in one lakh 14 thousand government schools in the first two days. The progress in basic capabilities and subject based capabilities will be evaluated with cooperation of UNICEF.

State : Madhya Pradesh

Capitals: Bhopal

Chief minister:Shivraj Singh Chouhan

Governor : Om Prakash Kohli (Additional charge)

INTERNATIONAL:

$500 million got transfered to Green Climate Fund by US President Obama

Outgoing US President Barack Obama on Tuesday transferred a second $500 million (around ₹3,400 crore) installment to the Green Climate Fund just three days before he is set to leave the White House. The transfer is part of $3 billion (around ₹20,400 crore) pledged by Obama in 2014. US President-elect Trump has promised to cancel future payments to the fund.

Country : United States of America

Capital : Washington, D.C.

Currency : US Dollar

President :Barack Obama

President elect:Donald Trump

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY NEWS:

Five General Insurance Companies got approval in stock exchanges by CCEA :

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given in-principle approval for listing five government-owned General Insurance Companies in stock exchanges.

Briefing media in New Delhi this afternoon after a Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, the listing will open way for the companies to raise resources from the capital market to meet their fund requirements. He said, shareholding of these companies will be divested from 100 per cent to 75 per cent.

The companies are New India Assurance, United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance, National Insurance and General Insurance.

Data center startup SimpliVity boughty by HP Enterprise for $650mn :

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which split off from HP in 2015, on Tuesday acquired SimpliVity, a startup that sells data center hardware, for $650 million in cash. Founded in 2009, the startup, valuation of which crossed $1 billion in March 2015, was reportedly considering an IPO. SimpliVity sells data center hardware aggregating components like servers and storage boxes.

Company : Hewlett Packard Enterprise

CEO: Meg Whitman

Headquarters: Palo Alto, California, United States

US based Qualcomm announces investment of ₹57.7 crore in India

Qualcomm has announced that it will invest $8.5 million (over ₹57.7 crore) in India with an aim to expand its digital design initiatives in the country. The company also announced the winners of the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge launched in 2015 in association with Nasscom. The winning startups, Carnot Technologies, iFuture Robotics and Uncanny Vision, received ₹68 lakh each.

Company : Qualcomm

Headquarters:  San Diego, California, United States

CEO:  Steven Mollenkopf

Facebook to get participate in world’s biggest startup campus through Station F :

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has announced that the social media major will open a 'Startup Garage' in Station F, the world's biggest startup campus. Facebook will work with 10 to 15 startups every six months in the Paris-based campus. Station F will host over 1,000 startups and is expected to begin operations from April this year.

Company : Facebook

Headquarters: Menlo Park, California, United States

UN report said that India’s economy to grow by 7.7% in 2016-17

India's economy is projected to grow by 7.7% in 2016-17 and 7.6% in 2017-18, benefiting from strong private consumption, a UN economic report said. Notably, this comes after the International Monetary Fund slashed India's growth forecast for 2016-17 to 6.6% from its previous estimate of 7.6%. Meanwhile, the World Bank forecasted India’s growth for 2016-17 to be 7%.

APPOINTMENTS:

N Chandrasekaran appointed as Chairman of Tata Motors :

Tata Motors on Tuesday appointed Natarajan Chandrasekaran as an Additional Director and Chairman of the board with immediate effect. The appointment comes within a week of Tata Sons announcing former Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO Chandrasekaran as its new Chairman. Notably, Chandrasekaran is the first non-Parsi chairman of the 150-year-old Tata Group.

Company : Tata Motors

CEO: Guenter Butschek

Headquarters: Mumbai

European Parl elects Antonio Tajani as new President :

Italian conservative Antonio Tajani has been elected the new President of the European Parliament. Mr Tajani is a former spokesman for Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and an ex-European commissioner. He defeated another Italian, Gianni Pitella, and will take over from Germany's Martin Schulz. Mr Tajani secured 351 votes, against 282 for Mr Pittella, a socialist. The contest ran to the maximum four rounds.

AWARDS AND HONORS:

Actress Shabana Azmi nominated for Asian Film Awards for 'Neerja' :

Actress Shabana Azmi has been nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for the upcoming 11th Asian Film Awards, to be held on March 21 in Hong Kong. She has been nominated for her role in the film 'Neerja'. Shabana is the only person from Indian cinema who has received a nomination for an award this year.

Legends Club added Former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev into 'Hall of Fame'

Former Indian captain Kapil Dev was inducted into the Legends Club 'Hall of Fame' at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai on Tuesday. He was presented with a citation by ex-India player Madhav Apte, with former India captains Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar and Nari Contractor also in attendance. Gavaskar was already inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2013.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:

"16 Psyche" the mission to explore iron-rich asteroid got NASA approval

NASA has approved a mission to explore 16 Psyche, an iron-rich asteroid whose contents are said to be worth over 100-thousand times the value of the entire world economy.

The mission, proposed in 2014, would send a NASA spacecraft to Psyche, running tests to learn more about the history and composition of the celestial body. That information will undoubtedly be interesting to space fans and useful to astronomers, but the financial implications of a mission to Psyche are what appear to be most compelling.

Organisation :National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Headquarters: Washington, D.C.

SPORTS NEWS:

The record of longest ever Aus Open match played between Karlovic, Zeballos :

Croatia's Ivo Karlovic and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos' first round match on Tuesday became the longest-ever Australian Open match in terms of the number of games played. The match, which ended with Karlovic winning 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 22-20 in 5 hours and 15 minutes, featured 84 games. The fifth set featured 42 games, taking 2 hours, 37 minutes to finish.

Trophy : Australian Open

Game : Tennis

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