1st March 2018 Events - Important Daily Current Affairs

Daily Current Affairs of 1st March 2018

International Current Affairs

Today (1st March) is Zero Discrimination Day.
- This is an annual worldwide event that promotes diversity and recognizes that everyone counts.
- This day urges people to join together against discrimination and celebrate everyone's right to live a full and productive life with dignity.
- Theme of Zero Discrimination Day 2018 : “What if …”
The King of Jordan Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein is on a 3 day visit to India.
- He was accorded a grand welcome with Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving him at the airport, in a special gesture.
- Aim of this visit : Taking bilateral relations to a "new high".
- The Jordanian king's visit comes nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Jordan as part of his trip to West Asia, including Palestine.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu , already under investigation for two instances of corruption, has been named as the beneficiary of a PR scheme worth "up to a billion shekels".
- Netanyahu allegedly benefitted from a deal struck between his former media adviser Nir Hefetz and communications giant Bezeq for positive coverage in return for ₹1,800 crore as bribe.

National Current Affairs

Festival of colours Holi being celebrated with fanfare & religious fervour in India & Nepal.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 for introduction in the Parliament.
- Key features of this bill :
- Covers new forms of aggravated trafficking.
- Prescribe stringent punishment.
- Institutional mechanism from district to national level.
- Time bound trial and repatriation.
- Immediate protection of rescued victim.
- Rehabilitation not contingent on criminal proceedings.
The Union Cabinet has cleared the proposal for hiking the salaries of Members of Parliament (MPs).
- Their constituency allowance will be increased from ₹45,000 to ₹70,000, office expense allowance from ₹45,000 to ₹60,000, and the one-time furniture allowance from ₹75,000 to ₹1 lakh.
- Note : While presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced such a salary revision every five years.
The Haryana Cabinet, chaired by CM Manohar Lal Khattar, has approved death penalty for those guilty of raping girls aged up to 12 years.
- The crime will also be punishable by at least 14 years in jail, which may be extended to life term.

MOUs & Agreements

During bilateral talks between Jordan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, India and Jordan signed 12 agreements at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. The Signed agreements are :
- MoU on Defence Cooperation
- Visa waiver for diplomatic and official passport holders
- Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP)
- Manpower Cooperation Agreement
- MoU for cooperation in the field of Health and Medicine between India and Jordan
- MoU for setting up of the next generation Centre of Excellence (COE) in Jordan
- MoU for long term supply of Rock Phosphate and Fertilizer/NPK
- Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement
- Twining Agreement between Agra and Petra (Jordan)
- Cooperation between Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and Jordan Media Institute (JMI)
- MoU between Prasar Bharati and Jordan TV
- MoU between University of Jordan (UJ) and ICCR regarding setting up of a Hindi Chair at the University

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Jayant Kumar Malaiya presented the state budget worth over ₹2 lakh crore with focus on agriculture, health, education, and employment.
- The budget allocated ₹37,000 crore for the agriculture sector.
India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth surged to 7.2% in the December quarter of 2017-18, restoring its status as the world's fastest-growing major economy.
- The economy grew at 6.7% in Gross Value Added (GVA) terms.
- The GDP growth rebounded from 6.5% in the previous quarter, reportedly indicating that the economy has moved past disruptions due to demonetisation and GST rollout.

Science & Technology

The world’s largest solar park, Shakti Sthala, was inaugurated in Karnataka's Pavagada by Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and state Power Minister DK Shivakumar.
- The park has a 2000-MW capacity and was built at a cost of ₹16,500 crore, over 13,000 acres across five villages.
Technology giant Google has launched Hangouts Chat, a messaging service for the workplace.
- It features virtual rooms for different parts of a company's team with a capacity to hold up to 8,000 users per room and works with 28 different languages.
The third-largest manufacturer of flash memory SanDisk has unveiled the world's fastest microSD card called Extreme UHS-I microSDXC with 400 GB of storage.
- The card can achieve read speeds of up to 160 Mbps and write speeds of up to 90 Mbps.
The Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) Nag was successfully flight-tested in desert conditions against two tank targets at different ranges and timings.
- The missile is now ready for induction in the Army.
- Note : It is the third-generation fire-and-forget ATGM developed by the DRDO.

Sports Current Affairs

The Mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics selected by elementary school kids were unveiled today.
- The Olympics mascot is a blue-checked, doe-eyed character with pointy ears and "special powers", while the Paralympics mascot sports pink checks and can "talk with stones and the wind".
- A total of 6.5 million children cast their vote to select the mascots.
- The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled for July 24 to August 9, 2020.
The Decision Review System (DRS) will be used in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the first time in the tournament's 2018 edition following BCCI's approval.
- With this, the Indian Premier League will become the second major T20 league to adopt the system after Pakistan Super League.
Russia's Olympic membership has been restored by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following its suspension from Pyeongchang 2018.
- Note : Russia was banned from February's Games by the IOC over state-sponsored doping.

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