DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 5TH JAN 2017
(Daily News India)
1.
CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST FREIGHT TRAIN TO LONDON
i. China has launched its first freight train
to London.
ii. The train will travel for about 18 days
and more than 12,000 km before reaching its destination in Britain.
iii. It will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia,
Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before arriving in London.
2.
CENTRE APPROVES NEW PROJECTS FOR GANGA CLEANING OVER RS. 370 CRORE
i. The National Mission for Clean Ganga has
approved many new projects at an estimated cost of over Rs 370 crore for its
ongoing Ganga rejuvenation programme in Haridwar and Varanasi
ii. In Haridwar, 68 MLD sewage treatment
plant in Jagjeetpur and 14 MLD STP in Sarai have been approved at an indicative
cost of Rs 110.30 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively under Hybrid Annuity based
PPP mode.
iii. The ‘Namami Gange’ programme was
launched as a mission to achieve the target of cleaning river Ganga in an
effective manner by involving all stakeholders.
3.
TELANGANA AND ASSAM JOINS UDAY SCHEME
i. Assam and Telangana signed a pact with the
Power Minister, Piyush Goyal to join the UDAY scheme in New Delhi in a bid to
improve the performance of state run power distribution companies.
ii. Since the launch of the UDAY Scheme, the
Power Ministry has signed Agreements with 18 states to join the Scheme. With
the joining of Assam and Telangana, the total states covered under the scheme
rose to 20.
4.
FINLAND BECOME 1ST COUNTRY IN WORLD TO PAY BASIC INCOME TO RANDOMLY PICKED
CITIZENS ON NATIONAL LEVEL
i. Finland become First country in world to
pay basic income to Citizens to ensure a universal income offering greater
security, especially as technological advances reduce the need for human
labour.
ii. Its main aim to tackle unemployment,
which stands at 8.1 percent in a nation of 5.5 million.
iii. Under this programme every month 2,000
selected unemployed will get 560 Euros.
5.
MUNICH RE TO OPEN REINSURANCE BRANCH OFFICE IN MUMBAI
i. Germany based Munich Reinsurance Company
has planned to open its branch office in Mumbai to provide the
property-casualty, life, health reinsurance markets in India.
ii. Munich Re is one of the first foreign
reinsurers to receive approval for a dedicated branch in India.
6.
YES BANK TIES-UP WITH BAJAJ ELECTRICALS FOR VENDOR FINANCING USING BLOCK CHAIN
i. Yes Bank has tied-up with Bajaj
Electricals for vendor financing using block chain solution.
ii. Block chain solutions is a distributed
database that maintains a continuously-growing list of ordered records called
blocks
iv. ICICI Bank was the India’s first bank to
execute its first transaction on block chain.