DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 17TH & 18TH MAY 2017

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 17^TH & 18^TH MAY 2017

(DAILY NEWS INDIA)

SHARED BY: WWW.DAILYGK.IN

1. PM MODI LAUNCHES NARMADA SEVA MISSION IN MADHYA PRADESH

i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Narmada Seva Mission’, which enlists steps to be taken for the conservation of the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh.

ii. Prime Minister launched this mission document at the concluding ceremony of the ‘Namami Devi Narmade Sewa Yatra’ at Amarkantak in Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh.

iii. ‘Namami Devi Narmade Sewa Yatra’, an awareness campaign for conservation of River Narmada was launched by Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan on December 11, 2016 from Amarkantak.

2. WEST BENGAL MAKES BENGALI MANDATORY IN ALL SCHOOLS

i. The West Bengal government has made the Bengali language mandatory in all schools. It was declared by the State’s Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.

ii. The Bengali language is compulsory for all schools including English medium.The students who select any of the other languages as their first language would need  to pick up two other languages, among which one would have to be Bengali.

3. AP, SINGAPORE IN PACT FOR DEVELOPING AMARAVATI STARTUP AREA

i. Andhra Pradesh govt. inked a pact with Singapore for developing an area of 6.84 km at capital Amaravati as startup area.

ii. The Pact between the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Singapore include economic development, master development of the startup area in Amaravati.

iii. It will promote bilateral trade and investments and enhancing capacities of government departments. A high Level Joint Implementation Steering Committee will be formed for speedy implementation of the project.

4. INDIA, CHILE TRADE AGREEMENT TO COME INTO FORCE FROM MAY 16

i. The Preferential Trade Agreement, between India and Chile has come into effect from 16th May.

ii. According to Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the Preferential Trade Agreement between India and Chile was first signed on 8th March 2006, which came into force from August 2007 and will be implemented from 16th of May.

iii. Chile has offered duty concessions on about 1798 goods including agricultural items, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, textiles, iron and steel items, to Indian exporters as compared to 178 items earlier.

iv. India has offered concessions to Chile on 1031 products including processed food, pharma, vegetable oil, plastic, and pearls as against 296 earlier.

5. INDIA RANKED 2ND IN EY RENEWABLE ENERGY ATTRACTIVENESS INDEX

i. India has ranked 2nd among 40 countries on ‘Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index’ 2017 released by Ernst and Young . This marks an improvement of one spot as compared to 3rd rank in 2016.

ii. India maintained its upward trajectory on the index on account of Central Government’s programme to build 175 GW in renewable energy generation by year 2022.

iii. This initiative is in direction to realize a larger vision of wherein renewable energy will account for 40% of installed capacity by year 2040.

6. INDIA’S ‘UJALA’ TO LIGHT UP HOMES IN UNITED KINGDOM

i. India has launched the process to export ‘Ujala to the United Kingdom with affordable ‘Made in India’ LED bulbs. Ujala is globally one of the largest efficiency programmes and being run by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd.

ii. The programme has turned India into the world’s LED capital, accounting for 10-12% of the global market 4 billion bulbs. Through this initiative, the government is planning to replace all 770 million inefficient incandescent and CFL in the country with LED bulbs.

7. IIT-HYDERABAD PROFESSOR ARAVIND KUMAR RENGAN BAGS INSA YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD

i. Aravind Kumar Rengan, Assistant Professor in Department of Biomedical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology – Hyderabad has been awarded the prestigious Indian National Science Academy  medal in the Young Scientist category for 2017.

ii. Prof. Aravind has been awarded the medal for devising a novel way of nano delivery using liposomes and gold nanoparticles which is useful for both, imaging and therapeutics

8. EMMANUEL MACRON PICKS CENTRE-RIGHT ÉDOUARD PHILIPPE AS PM

i. French President Emmanuel Macron named Edouard Philippe as the PM of the country.

ii. Edouard Philippe is a French lawyer and politician and he is a member of the Les Republicans party.

iii. He has served as a member of the National Assembly representing the 7th constituency of Seine-Maritime since 2012.

9. SPACEX LAUNCHES INMARSAT COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE

i. SpaceX launched a communications satellite for London-based mobile broadband company – Inmarsat.

ii. Inmarsat-5 F4 satellite, built by Boeing, blasted off a top Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, US. SpaceX confirmed that the satellite was successfully deployed to a distant, geostationary orbit.

iii. The satellite is the 4th in Inmarsat’s Global Xpress constellation, aimed at providing high-speed mobile broadband service.

10. NATIONAL DENGUE DAY: MAY 16, 2017

i. The Government of India has declared 16th May as National Dengue Day by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Dengue is a viral disease that is transmitted by the bite of Aedes mosquito.

ii. It is observed to mark the toll of deadly disease that has been taking in terms of lives and to reaffirm nationwide efforts to tackle it by using both education and medical intervention.Philippines instigated World's maiden Public Immunization Program for Dengue

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON TODAY’S NEWS

Q1. ANDHRA PRADESH GOVERNMENT HAS INKED A PACT WITH WHICH COUNTRY FOR DEVELOPING AN AREA OF 6.84 KM AT CAPITAL AMARAVATI AS STARTUP AREA IN PHASES?

a)  Singpore

b)  Japan

c)  Spain

d)  France

Q2. INDIAN HAS RANKED _____ AMONG 40 COUNTRIES ON ‘RENEWABLE ENERGY COUNTRY ATTRACTIVENESS INDEX’ 2017 RELEASED BY ERNST AND YOUNG?

a)  3rd

b)  5th

c)  4th

d)  2nd

Q3. INDIA HAS LAUNCHED THE PROCESS TO EXPORT ‘UJALA’ TO ___WITH AFFORDABLE ‘MADE IN INDIA’ LED BULBS?

a)  Spain

b)  Russia

c)  United Kingdom

d)  Italy

Q4. EDOUARD PHILIPPE HAS BEEN NAMED AS PRIME MINISTER OF WHICH EUROPEAN COUNTRY?

a)  Belgium

b)  France

c)  Portugal

d)  Austria

Q5. PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI LAUNCHED ‘NARMADA SEVA MISSION’ AT THE CONCLUDING CEREMONY OF THE ‘NAMAMI DEVI NARMADE SEWA YATRA’ IN ________ DISTRICT OF MADHYA PRADESH?

a)  Chhatarpur District

b)  Ratlam District

c)  Ujjain District

d)  Anuppur District

ANSWERS: 

1 - A    2 - D    3 - C    4 - B    5 - D