26th September 2018 Daily Current Affairs - PDF Download

Daily Current Affairs of 26th September 2018

Download PDF Version of 26th September 2018 Current Affairs from HERE

International Current Affairs

As part of it's 'Saudi Vision 2030' programme, Saudi Arabia today inaugurated a high-speed rail line connecting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
- The distance between the two cities would be covered in less than two hours, less than half the time it takes to cover the same distance by road.
- The 450-kilometre Haramain Railway line is a part of the 'Saudi Vision 2030' programme.
South Korea's BTS band today became the 1st K-Pop group to address the United Nations.
- Kim Nam-joon, the leader of the seven-member band delivered a six-minute speech during the launch of UNICEF's 'Generation Unlimited' youth campaign.
Moroccan Defence Minister Abdeltif Loudyi is on a two day visit to India.
- This is the first ever visit of a Moroccan Defence Minister to India.
- During this visit, he met Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in South Block in New Delhi.
- India and Morocco have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in the fields of Defence and Security.
- They identified fields of hydrography, peacekeeping, telemedicine, information technology and communications as well as counter Terrorism and counter insurgency as potential areas for bilateral engagement.
- They also discussed cooperation in defence industry including collaboration in ship building and manufacturing.

National Current Affairs

The Supreme Court today ruled that the linking of a person's Aadhaar to his/her bank accounts is not mandatory.
- However, the court said that a person may choose to give Aadhaar voluntarily as identity proof.
- The court also ruled Aadhaar is not needed for mobile connections, school admissions and UGC, NEET, CBSE examinations.
- The court also ruled that linking the Aadhaar card to PAN card is mandatory and is needed for filing income tax returns.
The Haryana cabinet today approved a scheme under which a Monthly pension will be provided to Acid Attack survivors.
- Any woman or girl who suffered an acid attack on or after May 2, 2011 will be eligible for the pension.
Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated Indian Culinary Institute (ICI) in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
- The main objective of ICI is to institutionalize mechanism to support efforts intended to preserve, document, promote and disseminate Indian Cuisine.
- It also seeks to meet sectoral requirement of specialists specific to Indian Cuisine and promote cuisine as niche tourism product.

Science & Technology

Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences and Environment Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated air pollution control device WAYU (Wind Augmentation PurifYing Unit) for traffic junctions at ITO intersection and Mukarba Chowk in New Delhi.
- WAYU has been indigenously developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) as part of Technology Development Project being funded by Department of Science and Technology.
- Its prototype has capacity to purify air in area of 500 meter square.
- It consumes only half unit of electricity for 10 hours of running and has maintenance cost of only Rs. 1500 per month.
- Aim of WAYU : Tackling toxicity in air by sucking in particulate matter and release fresh air
Elon Musk's SpaceX has signed a deal with Japanese lunar-exploration startup ispace for a Lunar Rover Mission.
- ispace plans to orbit its lunar lander around the Moon and, in its second mission, land two rovers on the Moon's surface using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX's French rival Arianespace has launched its Ariane 5 rocket for the 100th time, propelling two telecommunications satellites into orbit.
- Carrying a payload of 10,827 kg, it also marked the sixth launch of the rocket this year.
- Note : The Ariane 5 will soon be replaced by an updated model, the Ariane 6, which will be an estimated 40% cheaper to make.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

India has lost its tag as Asia-Pacific's best-performing stock market this year to New Zealand.
The Cabinet today approved the New telecom policy titled National Digital Communications Policy-2018.
- Aim of National Digital Communications Policy-2018 : To attract $100 billion in investments and create 4 million jobs in the sector by 2022.
- Under this policy the government aims to provide universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps to every citizen.
- The policy also aims to expand IoT ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices.
According to Barclays Hurun India Rich List 2018, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani's family has emerged as India's Richest Family with ₹3,90,500 crore wealth.
- Top 4 Richest Families in India :
- - Mukesh Ambani
  - Adi Godrej
  - SP Hinduja
  - Cyrus Mistry
India and Pakistan's rivalry and "artificial barriers" are costing the countries $35 billion worth of annual trade, the World Bank has said in a recent report.
- The trade between South Asia's two largest economies currently stands at a "paltry $2 billion", it added.
- The bank estimated India's potential trade with South Asia at $62 billion against actual trade of $19 billion.

Awards & Honors

Social networking giant Facebook has selected 3 Indian women among five global leaders for $1 million award as part of its Community Leadership Programme.
- They are :
- - Adhunika Prakash
  - Chetana Misra
  - Tamanna Dhamija

People in News

Fields Medal and Abel Prize-winning mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah today demonstrated a proof of the 159-year-old Riemann Hypothesis, which is one of the "Millennium Problems", carrying a $1-million award for a confirmed solution.
- The hypothesis states that the distribution of prime numbers is not random, but might follow a pattern described by an equation called the Riemann zeta function.

New Appointments

Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler has named Swedish development head Ola Källenius as its next CEO.
- Källenius, the first non-German to take the helm of Daimler, will become CEO in 2019 replacing Dieter Zetsche two years ahead of schedule. The company will nominate Zetsche, who has led the German automaker since 2006, to become Chairman of the supervisory board in 2021.

Download PDF Version of 26th September 2018 Current Affairs from HERE

Monthly Current Affairs PDF Downloads ↓