Current Affairs Today – April 29 2016

Govt plans to keep 1% of highways project cost for road safety

Union government is mulling to make it mandatory to allot 1 per cent of total cost of any highway project for road safety.

• India witnesses as high as 5 lakh road accidents per annum in which 5 lakh people die and another 3 lakh are crippled across the country.
• Transport Ministry is likely to frame a policy for setting aside one per cent of the total project cost of any highway project for road safety issues.
• The government is committed to reducing the number of road accidents and fatalities by half in following two to three years.
• Indian road accidents cause an annual loss equivalent to 3 per cent of the GDP.

J&K Cabinet approved 5% interest subsidy for flood-hit traders

State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti sanctioned a grant of 5% interest subvention with the effect from 1st April, 2016 with a limit of Rs 5 Lac per unit for a period of four years.

• The move is to give relief to September -2014 flood affected traders and business units, This will pave the way for subsidizing interest on loan to flood hit traders/ business to an extent of 5% starting from 1st April-2016 to 31st December-2020.
• To monitor proper implementation of the scheme the sate cabinet ordered constitution of a High Level Coordination Committee headed by Chief Secretary and comprising representatives of any other appropriate agency.

Jammu & Kashmir:

• Jammu is the Winter Capital of the state whereas Srinagar is the Summer Capital of the state.

Rahuri in Ahmednagar becomes first to have digi-locker

Tele Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked all the municipal bodies to adopt Digi Locker facility where citizens will have access to all these documents at any time that help in digitalizing governance and make administration paperless.

• The move comes give fillip to Digital India Programme Rahuri Municipal Council of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra became the first municipality to attain the status of integrated with digital locker for the issuance of all essential Documents.

Digi Locker:

• The service is launched to provide a secure dedicated personal electronic space for storing the documents of resident Indian citizens.
• The storage space (maximum 1GB) is linked to the Aadhaar number of the user

DoNER to invest Rs. 33,000 crores in NE states for skill development

The Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Ministry will earmark Rs 33,000 crores for development of the north-eastern states during the present fiscal.

• The ministry has given special emphasis on skill development also pledged to invest Rs 170 crores will be underIt has also increased its budget by fivefold from Rs 11 crores to Rs 55 crores in the present fiscal in skill development sector.
• To overcome the hurdle of loan problem for first generation entrepreneurs DoNER is opening a new scheme under the brand name of Venture Fund and Start Up Centre under North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited for those youth who have innovative business ideas.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

President embarks on two nation tour to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand

Indian Air Force (IAF) for the first time took part in Exercise Red Flag

The New Delhi based Indian Air Force top pilots and jets participating in the Exercise Red Flag are kept ready to go for the kill during the Main Conduct Phase.

• The Air Force team currently in the United States for the Exercise Red Flag to have completed the Work-up Phase at Eielson Air force base Alska.
• The Indian side taking part including four Sukhois, four Jaguars, two IL-78 tankers and two C-17s strategic airlift platforms are participating in this exercise.

Exercise Red Flag:

The prestigious exercise is to demonstrate aerial exercise that features the best pilots and aircrafts across the globe.

BANKING & FINANCE

BlackBerry launches payments service in India called BBM Money

Canada based Mobilephone maker BlackBerry and Digitsecure a payments platform have jointly to bring BBM Money to India. It is noted that service is limited to inter-BBM transfers.

• The App named BBM Money which integrates directly with a customer’s BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) account and permits users to pay for goods using the BBM platform.
• The app is available for Black Berry 10, Android and iOS platform and enables users to transfer cash to BBM contacts instantly and securely.
• Earlier the company had started the digital remittance service in Indonesia in 2014. However this is the first its kind in India.

I-T department publishes direct taxes related data for first time

Central Board of Direct Taxes has released a hard data on the total number of taxpayers in the country. This is the first time the board released such details.

• The data shows the income disclosed in IT returns by various category of taxpayers and number of PAN holders in the country for a chosen period of time.
• The move is to publish these statistics was to encourage wider use and analysis of Income Tax data by departmental personnel and academicians.
• The board made available a set data between 2000-01 and 2014-15 financial years which discloses the actual direct taxes collection made by the department, direct tax to GDP ratio, the cost of collecting the revenue for the government kitty, number of effective assesses and workload and disposal of IT cases.

BSE inks pact with Korea Exchange to list Sensex-based derivatives

World’s fastest Bombay stock exchange has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Korea Exchange (KRX) of South Korea for listing S&P BSE Sensex-based derivatives contracts on the latter.

• The MoU is expected boost the sharing of information, and foster new opportunities for the exchanges and their respective issuers.
• The two exchanges will work for investor relations activities of cross-listed products and assist with cross-border supervision and enforcement.
• Both the sides also decided to carry out joint research in the area of derivatives markets and to support the development of new products experience sharing and cooperation on IT system.

Bombay Stock Exchange:

• The Mumbai based Bombay Stock Exchange is established in 1875, it is Asia’s first stock exchange and the world’s fastest stock exchange.
• The exchange grated with InfoSec Maestros Awards and Lions CSR Precious Awards in 2016

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Politician NK Singh gets Japan’s prestigious national Award

Politician NK Singh will be awarded with Japan’s Second Highest national award for his contribution towards Indo-Japan economic relations over 10 years more.

• Japan government announced the award and expressed that award was conferred for the honour in recognition of the “Catalytic role”played by him in the maintenance of Indo-Japanese economic relations for the years.

  Sudarsan Pattnaik wins gold in sand art contest in Russia

  

  Odisha hailed eminent sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won gold medal in an International Sand Art Championship held at Russia.

• Pattnaik has participated in the ninth Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship “The magical world of sand- 2016 and where he produced the sand art of 15 feet high Mahatma Gandhi sculpture for non-violence and peace in the sand art contest.
• In the competition 20 sculptors from across the globe took part in the contest.
• The artist also runs a sand art school at Puri beach in Odisha. He was Awarded Padma Shri in 2014.

  APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNS

  Senior IPS officer Surender Kumar Bhagat appointed as DG of RPF

  Uttarakhand cadre Senior IPS officer Surender Kumar Bhagat was appointed as the Director General (DG) of Railways Protection Force (RPF).

  • His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). He will serve the Railway Board till the date of his superannuation that is on 30 June 2017.
  • He is1982 batch IPS officer presently working as Special Director General in Central Reserve Police Force at Jammu & Kashmir.

  RPF:

  • The Railway Protection Force is a security force of India has a strength of RPF is about 65,000. It runs under the authority of Ministry of Railways.

  SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

  EC launches mobile app e-voter for Kerala assembly polls

  The Election Commission has launched mobile application with comprehensive details about the coming May 16 assembly polls in Kerala.

  • The app developed by the state IT Mission which provides great transparency and conduct of free and fair elections

  Features in the App:

  • The app is named e-voter which is envisaged for voters’ facilitation for search in electoral roll, location of polling station, information regarding candidates, affidavit filed by them, filing of complaint and many other features.
  • The ‘know your candidate’ option provides a constituency wise details of candidates while constituency list option would give segment wise details of voters and total polling stations.
  • Information about results of previous elections and names of Chief Ministers would also be available in the app.
  • There is a separate Provisions for public grievances would also made available in the application.

  Indian Naval Ships Veer, Nipat decommissioned

  

  Naval Ships namely Veer and Nipat, served for the defence operations under illustrious 22nd Killer Squadron decommissioned from the Indian Navy.

  • Both naval carriers that are of 1241 RE class missile vessels have completed 29 and 28 years of commissioned service respectively.
  • Throughout their service, the ships have contributed in many operations and successfully completed so many deployments.
  • Veer and Nipat have been forward deployed to safeguard security of valuable assets off Gujarat coast and International Maritime Borderline on various occasions.

  Indian Navy:

  • Indian Navy is the fifth largest Navy in the world.

  Japan Space agency leaves costly X-ray satellite lost in space

  The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has abandoned its efforts to reinstate the operations of costly satellite that was used to probe the black holes using X-Ray Telescopes.

  • The connection was lost with the satellite, named Hitomi in that two solar arrays had broken off at their bases and so the agency announced that they would stop to work on the satellite.
  • The satellite was sent on partnered with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and also with eight nations, including Canada and the Netherlands.

  Investment:

  • JAXA: 31 Billion Yen
  • NASA: 7.6 Billion Yen

  SPORTS

  SanathJayasuriya Returns as Sri Lanka Cricket’s Chief Selector

  Explosive former Srilankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya has come back as the chief selector and will serve a two-year term for the Sri Lanka Cricket.

  • The country’s sports ministry for brought back Jayasuriya will lead the committee that will include Kaluwitharana, his former opening partner in ODIs, RanjithMadurusinghe and Eric Upashanta. The new Committee will assume duty on the May this year.
  • The former captain has already held the post of the selection committee chief two years, from January 2013 to March 2015, before stepping down in April.
  • In the course of his tenure as chief selector Sri Lanka won the ICC World T20 2014 title team led by Pacer Lasith Malinga.

  Kane Williamson named New Zealand’s captain in all three formats

  Prolific New Zealand batsman Kane Stuart Williamson has been named as the Black Caps captain in all the three formats of the game of cricket.

  • The right hander succeeds Brendon McCullum who retired in February, the new captain was determined to continue McCullum`s legacy in the sport.
  • He will be the 34th player to skipper the New Zealand team in full internationals, he will also become the country`s 29th Test skipper for the side.
  • Williamson has played 48 Tests so far to mount up 4037 runs at an average of 49.23.He is ranked by the ICC as the third best batsman in the world.

  Allan Donald appointed Australia’s bowling coach

  The former South Africa pacer Allan Donald is set to join the Australian team as temporary bowling coach which includes for a series against the Proteas.

  • The new appointment comes after Australia bowling coach Adam Griffith was announced as the bowling coach of the West Indies tour in June.
  • The speedster Donald has previously coached with England, New Zealand and South Africa. Along with him former Australia batsman Stuart Law who used to coach the Sri Lankan and Bangladesh national sides, was drafted in for the Test component of the Sri Lanka tour.

  Garima wins gold at Commonwealth Judo Championship &Two Indian Judokas in race for Rio Qualification

  In the qualifying events for Asian judokas the Indian judok as players Avatar Singh and Thoudam Kalpana Devi are the front runners of qualifying for the Rio Olympics after their impressive performances in Asian Championship in Tashkent.

  • Avtardid well in the below 90kg category by finishing 5th and is expected to get anything between 80 to 90 points that is likely to improve his world rankings.
  • Meerut hailed Judoka Garima Chaudhary has sealed the gold medal at the 2016 Commonwealth Judo Championship finals at Port Elizabeth in South Africa.

  In the same contest Rajwinder Kaur won a silver in the below 78Kg category.

  IMPORTANT DAYS

  Day of Remembrance for all Victims of Chemical Warfare 2016 

  The Day is observed to remember all Victims of Chemical Warfare every year on April 29. This year 11^thanniversary of the Day is commemorated.

  • The day is Instituted in the year 2005 an annual event held to pay a tribute to the victims of chemical warfare and to discourage the world to prohibit the use of chemical weapons.

  International Dance Day:

  This day is devoted to dance lovers and dance enthusiasts. It was announced by UNESCO jointly with NGO Conseil International de la Danse (CID) France in 1982.

  • The primary objective of Dance Day events is to fascinate the attention of the wider public to the art of dance.