Daily Current Affairs Updates – 23rd May 2017

Daily Current Affairs Updates – 23rd May 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.

Maharashtra Assembly passes State GST Bill

Both the houses of Maharashtra Legislature today unanimously passed the state Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill. During the three day special session, the state legislature also passed two other bills regarding Compensation to Local Authorities and a bill on the existing state laws that need to be repealed in view of GST.

State – Maharastra

Capital – Mumbai

CM – DevandraFadnavis

Governor – VidyasagarRao

Radha Mohan Singh assigned additional charge of Food & consumer affairs

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has been given additional charge of Ministry of Consumer Affairs,FoodandPublicDistribution.MrRamvilasPaswan, who is currently holding the charge of the Ministry is undergoing treatment abroad. MrPaswan will continue as a Minister without portfolio for periodofhisillness.The change in portfolio was approved by President Pranab Mukherjee on the advice of Prime Minister NarendraModi.

Minister –Radha Mohan Singh

Department– Agriculture & farmers welfare

Constituency – PurviChamparan (Bihar)

India & Africa: Partners in Growth exhibition inaugurated

Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal today inaugurated the exhibition on “India & Africa- Partners - in Growth” at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Union Minister of state for Finance- Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Vice President of African Development Bank PiereeGuislain were present on this occasion. The exhibition has been organised as part of 5 day long Annual Meeting of African Development Bank to be held at the same venue.

Assam CM launches pilot project for traffic police

Launching a pilot project ofthe Guwahati Traffic Police,Assam Chief MinisterSarbanandaSonowal onMonday said a smart policeforce is of paramountimportance to cope withmodern day law and orderchallenges.

Rajasthan government would renovate 180 ancient temples

Rajasthan Chief MinisterVasundharaRaje on Mondaysaid her government wouldrenovate 180 ancienttemples across the State todevelop them into places ofreligious tourism. “Apartfrom centres of our faith, thetemples will connect us withthe glorious history,” Ms. Rajesaid. All 36 castes togetherhave contributed inrenovation of the 415-year old AlakhJiMaharaj Temple.

INTERNATIONAL

US, six Gulf countries sign MoU to curb financing terror organizations

The United States and six Gulf countries on 23 May 2017 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to curb financing terror organisations like Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, Hizbollah, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and the Haqqani Network. The MoU was signed by the US and six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh. These six Gulf Countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The MoU was signed during US President Donald Trump's historic visit to Saudi Arabia.

Italy signs deal with Libya to cut off routes of illegal migrants

Italy has signed a deal with Libya, Chad and Niger to try to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean by beefing up border controls and creating new reception centres in the African nations. A joint statement by the interior ministers of the four countries said they had agreed to set up centres in Chad and Niger, key countries of transit for migrants who travel to Libya and on to Italy from sub-Saharan Africa.

Country : Italy

Capital : Rome

Currency: Euro

President: Sergio Mattarella

Prime minister: Paolo Gentiloni

Two day “Start up India Summit” Begun in UAE

A two day “Start up India Summit” will begin in Abhu Dhabi, UAE, today. This is the first “Start Up Summit” being held in the UAE by the Consul General of India (CGI) in Dubai and Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi in partnership with iSPIRIT, a nonprofit think tank and supported by TiE, Dubai.The aim is to provide a shared platform for the Start up eco system in both India and UAE for greater collaboration, exchange ideas, interact with academia, investors and industry and have access to funding from the venture capitalist in the UAE.

Country – United Arab Emirates

Capital– Abu Dhabi

Currency– UAE Dirham

Indian Ambassador to UAE – Mr NavdeepSuri

Smallest nation “Nauru” joins solar alliance

The world’s smallest republic,the tiny island nation ofNauru — has become the sixth country to ratify the International Solar Alliance(ISA) Framework pact initiated by the Indian and French Governments at the climate change summit held at Paris in 2015.Five more nations, from Africa, — Comoros, Coted’Ivoire, Somalia, Ghana and Djibouti — have committed to sign the pact during the ongoing meeting of the African Development bank in India.

Country – Nauru

Capital– Yaren

Currency – Australia dollar

India becomes No. 2 in stainless steel maker

India overtook Japan to becomethe second-largestproducer of stainless steel inthe world, behind China, in2016, according to data releasedby the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF).

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Paytm launches payments bank

Paytm Payments Bank becoming the first bank to offer cashbacks on deposits. Customers will also be offered zero charges on all online transactions and no minimum balance requirement. The Payments Bank plans to roll out 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in the first year. For savings accounts, it will offer an interest of 4 percent per annum. It will also offer current accounts to its millions of merchants.

Chairman - Vijay Shekhar Sharma

CEO, Paytm Payments Bank - RenuSatti

Headquarters– Noida

CBDT signs 2 more advance pricing pacts

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed two more unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs).The two APAs signed pertain to chip design/development of embedded software and information technology (software development) sectors of the economy.

Panasonic, TCS collaborate for innovation centre

In an effort to offer technologies in Internet of Things, mobility and Artificial Intelligence, Panasonic India has announced its first India Innovation Centre, in collaboration with TCS. The centre will work as a hub that will be central to developing new-age technology.

Regional Head, Panasonic India - Daizo Ito

President and CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia - Manish Sharma

BANKING NEWS

RBI to Reconstitute Oversight Committee to Tackle Bad Loans

The Reserve Bank of India is set to reconstitute Oversight Committee to operationalise the banking ordinance, which was recently cleared by the Union Cabinet to amend the Banking Regulation Act for the sake of giving more powers to Reserve Bank of India for effectively dealing with non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector. The existing Oversight Committee was constituted by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). The move is aimed at containing the bad loans which have reached to over Rs 8 lakh crore.

AWARDS & HONORS

ISRO receives 2014 Indira Gandhi Peace Prize

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented now the 2014 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The award was announced by a jury headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari in 2014, consists of a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 1 crore. The Prize was awarded to ISRO in recognition of its path-breaking achievements culminating in the Mars orbiter mission and its significant contributions in strengthening international cooperation in peaceful use of outer space.

Deveshwar, Soumitra Chatterjee conferred Bengal's highest civilian award

Thespian Soumitra Chatterjee and Y.C. Deveshwar conferred the West Bengal'sHighest Civilian Banga Samman award by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Two categories of awards are presented as part of Banga Samman - Banga Bhushan and Banga Bibhushan. The Banga Bibhushan recipients are Deveshwar(Industrialist), Dhiman Ganguly(pulmonologist), Arun Prasad Mukherjee (former Mizoram Governor), veteran actor Chatterjee, and acclaimed poet Nirendranath Chakraborty. This year Banga Bhushan recipients are Rezwana Chowdhury Banya (Bangladeshi singer), Hidmat Fakir (folk singer), Chapal Bhaduri, (impersonator in folk theatre), Lakshman Das Baul(baul exponent) and Abhijit Chowdhury(Liver Foundation secretary and gastroenterologist).

India’s Rohan Chakravarty wins WWF International President’s Award

Rohan Chakravarty, Indian wildlife and environment cartoonist, in May 2017 won 2017WWF International President’s Award. Chakravarty has been honoured for his efforts to inspire change and attitudes towards nature.Chakravarty, under the banner ofGreen Humour, runs a series of cartoons on nature conservation issues. It is possibly one of the largest cartoon collections in the genre in India today.

Major Gogoi awarded by Army for counter-insurgency ops

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat has awarded commendation card to Major Leetul Gogoi for his sustained efforts in counter-insurgency operations. This was confirmed by the Army spokesperson Col. Aman Anand. Recently Major Gogoi of 53 Rashtriya Rifles used a civilian as a human shield to prevent public from stone pelting during polling in the Srinagar Lok Sabha by-election in Kashmir. MajorGogoi was awarded during General Rawat's recent visit to Jammu and Kashmir. The Army chief's 'Commendation Card' is considered a prestigious award and is given for distinguished services and devotion to duty.

APPOINTMENTS

Harsh Vardhan takes additional charge of Environment Ministry

Science and Technology Minister Dr Harsh vardhan today took over the additional charge of Environment Ministry. Anil Madhav Dave, who passed away last week, held the portfolio earlier.

Minister– Harsh vardhan

Department– Science & technology, earth science

Constituency – Chandni Chowk (delhi)

Ford appoints James Hackett as CEO

Ford Motor Co. on Mondaysaid it was replacing ChiefExecutive Officer MarkFields withJames Hackett,the head of the unit developingself-driving cars, inresponse to investors’growing unease over thecarmaker’s stock performanceand prospects.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:

NASA Names New Species After Abdul Kalam

NASA has named a new bacteria discovered on the filters of the International Space Station, ISS, as Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. The genus is Solibacillus and the species name is kalamii. Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has found that the bacteria remained on board the International Space Station for 40 months. The new organism is found only on the ISS and has not been found anywhere on the earth. In 1963, Dr. Kalam had his early training at NASA before setting up India’s first rocket launching facility at Thumba in Kerala.

Squash: India's Harinder Pal Sandhu bags another PSA title

Indian squash player Harinder Pal Sandhu has won the Makati Open in Philippines after beating Mohd. Syafiq Kamal of Malaysia. In the Final, Sandhu stormed past his opponent 11-5, 11-7, 11-7.

Divij-Raja wins first title of 2017 season in Bordeaux

The Indian duo of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja have won their first title of the 2017 season by lifting the Bordeaux Challenger trophy at Bordeaux, France. They defeated the fourth seeded Mexican-Kiwi combination of Santiago Gonzalez and Artem Sitak of New Zealand in the straight sets 6-4, 6-4.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina wins Italian Open tennis title

Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) has won the Italian women's Open tennis title in Rome.

She defeated Simona Halep 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. For Svitolina, it was her fourth title of the season after wins in Taipei, Dubai, and Istanbul.

R Vaishali won Gold at Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championship

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated R. Vaishali for winning the Gold medal at Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championship. R Vaishali won the women's title of the Championship in Chengdu, China yesterday.

Country –china

Capital –Beijing

Currency– renminbi–yuan

President- Xi Jinping

Nitin Tomar sets new record in Pro Kabaddi League

On a day of furious bidding, new UP franchise pays 93 lakh rupees for the raider. Nitin Tomar broke all previous records for the Pro Kabaddi League, going for awhopping 93 lakh rupees at theSeason Five auctions here onMonday. The 22-year oldraider, previously with Puneri Paltan, not just became the highest-bid player ever but also the most expensiveplayer in the brief history ofthe PKL

Abhay Gupta and Sanjay Kumar has won gold

Haryana’s Abhay Guptabroke the meet record asIndia bagged the gold andsilver in boys’ discus at the second Asian youth athletics championship. And also Sanjay Kumar, the National youth record holder, who won the boys 10,000m in 45:30.39s.