DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 16 JAN 2018

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 16 JAN 2018

(DAILY NEWS INDIA)

SHARED BY: WWW.DAILYGK.IN

1.      WB, KERALA, ODISHA OPT OUT OF CENTRE’S ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICT SCHEME

i. West Bengal, Odisha and Kerala have opted out of the Central Government’s Transformation of Aspirational Districts scheme. In context of this scheme, aspirational districts refer to selected 115 backward districts that are lagging on specific development parameters.

ii. Central Government has undertaken a major policy initiative for rapid transformation of these districts and senior government officials have been assigned responsibility to coordinate the efforts of the Centre and states in facilitating development in such districts.

iii. With the exit of West Bengal, Kerala and Odisha, total number of districts under this scheme has now reduced to 102 from 115.

iv. ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ conference, held in New Delhi in first week of January 2018, NITI Aayog said it will come out with a ranking of 115 aspirational districts by April 2018.

2.      INDIA, ISRAEL INK NINE PACTS ON CYBER SECURITY, OTHER SECTORS

i. India and Israel signed nine documents to further the cooperation. These include cooperation in Cybersecurity, cooperation in the field of Petroleum and natural gas, document for the amendment to the air transport agreement, cooperation in film co-production, cooperation in the homoeopathy medicines, co-operation in the field of space science, boosting investment, cooperation in metal-air batteries and cooperation in solar thermal technology.

ii. The documents were signed in the presence of the two prime ministers. The two leaders also addressed a joint press conference.

3.      UIDAI ALLOWS FACE RECOGNITION FOR AADHAAR AUTHENTICATION

i. The Unique Identification Authority of India approved authentication based on facial recognition in combination with fingerprint or iris scan for Aadhaar users.

ii. This move will benefit persons who have difficulty with other biometric authentications like fingerprint and iris. The facial recognition-based authentication will come into act from 1st July 2018 and will be allowed only in fusion mode combined with fingerprint or iris or OTP to authenticate Aadhaar user.

iii. Also, this facial recognition based-authentication will be permitted “on need basis”. Since photos of users are already available in the UIDAI database collection of new data is not required.

4.     RAJYAVARDHAN RATHORE LAUNCHES ‘KHELO INDIA’ ANTHEM

i. Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore made the announcement during the launch of the official anthem and mascot of Khelo India School Games, beginning January 31.  “Now when an athlete wins a medal at Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Olympics, the coach gets incentive.

ii. The video features India's eminent sports personalities such as Sardar Singh, Leander Paes, Sunil Chhetri, Devendra Jhajharia, Baichung Bhutia, Pullela Gopichand, Akhil Kumar, Sakshi Malik, Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal.

5.      DIGITAL LAUNCH OF ‘I4FUND CALL FOR PROPOSAL’ WEBSITE AT INDIA-ISRAEL BUSINESS SUMMIT

i. The ‘I4Fund Call for Proposal’ was announced with the joint launch of the website and the unveiling of the brochure by the 2 PMs (Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu). The "India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund" was announced in July, 2017.

ii. Under this, the Department of Science and Technology, India and the National Innovation Authority of Israel have established a 40 million US dollar Fund.

6.      INDIA, SRI LANKA SIGN FOUR AGREEMENTS FOR COLLABORATION IN ICT SECTOR

i. India and Sri Lanka signed four agreements for collaboration in Information and communication technology sector, connecting of National Knowledge network for collaboration among universities and academics and setting up of e-office system.

ii. The memorandum of understanding for cooperation was signed by Union Minister for Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad with his Sri Lankan counterpart in Colombo. With this agreement, Sri Lanka has become the 1st country to be connected to NKN.

iii. NKN will be connected to Sri Lanka’s Education & Research network through a Gigabyte optical fibre network. Owing to this, universities in India and Sri Lanka will be able to share research ideas and best practices. A model E-office system for Sri Lanka, set up by India’s National Informatics centre has also been formally inaugurated.

7.      EXPORTS RISE MORE THAN 12% RIDING ON ENGINEERING GOODS AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS

i. The Country's exports grew by 12 point 36% in December 2017 to 27 point 03 billion US dollars on account of strong performance by sectors like engineering goods and petroleum products.

ii. According to data released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, exports have been on a positive trajectory since August 2016 to December 2017 with a dip of 1.1% in the month of October last year. Exports of engineering goods as well as petroleum products showed an increase of over 25 percent in December.

8.      DIPP ARM LAUNCHES COMPETITION FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

i. Cell for IPR Promotion and Management, under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, has launched a competition for college and university students to foster a culture of innovation and creativity in the youth.

ii. The competition - IPrism - invites students to submit films on piracy and counterfeiting under two categories of 30 and 60 seconds. Another category in the competition is for a mobile gaming app on intellectual property. Cash prizes of Rs 4 lakh will be given to the winning teams along with mementos and certificates.

9.      ROMANIAN PM MIHAI TUDOSE RESIGNS AFTER LOSING PARTY SUPPORT

i. Romania's left-wing PM Mihai Tudose resigned after losing the backing of his party due to internal power struggles, barely seven months after his predecessor suffered the same fate.

ii. He handed in his resignation after senior members of the ruling Social Democrats voted to withdraw their support at a leadership meeting.

10.  VIJAY KUMAR APPOINTED MD & CEO OF NCDEX

i. Market regulator SEBI has approved the appointment of Vijay Kumar as Managing Director and CEO of the country’s largest agri-commodity bourse NCDEX.

ii. Mr Kumar is a former chief business officer at NCDEX. The exchange's selection committee had picked his name for the MD and CEO's post from a list of 11 candidates.

11.  INDIAN OIL SIGNS LOI WITH 2 ISRAELI FIRMS

i. Indian Oil Corporation has signed Letters of Intent with Phinergy, an Israeli start-up company, and YEDA, a technology spin-off company from Weizmann Research Institute, Israel.

ii. The agreement with Phinergy will allow Indian Oil to work on adoption of advanced energy systems for the Indian market both for mobility and stationary industrial applications. This association could lead to the setting up of manufacturing units for these energy systems initially in India.

12.  PM MODI INAUGURATES PROJECT COMMENCEMENT OF RAJASTHAN'S FIRST OIL REFINERY IN BARMER

i. PM Narendra Modi has inaugurated the project commencement of the Rajasthan Refinery at Pachpadra in Barmer district. This is the first oil refinery in the state. The 43,000 cr rupee project is a joint venture between HPCL and the Rajasthan government.

ii. The refinery is expected to be operational in 4 years and the state will have an additional income of 34,000 cr rupees from it. The project is expected to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON TODAY’S NEWS

Q1. UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION AUTHORITY OF INDIA APPROVED AUTHENTICATION BASED ON FACIAL RECOGNITION IN COMBINATION WITH FINGERPRINT OR IRIS SCAN FOR AADHAAR USERS. THE FACIAL RECOGNITION-BASED AUTHENTICATION WILL COME INTO ACT FROM?

a)  1st June 2018

b)  1st March 2018

c)  1st December 2018

d)  1st July 2018

Q2. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING STATES WERE OPTED OUT OF THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT’S TRANSFORMATION OF ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS SCHEME?

a)  West Bengal, Kerala and Odisha

b)  Punjab, Kerala and Gujarat

c)  Haryana, Kerala and Meghalaya

d)  Goa, Karnataka and Odisha

Q3. WHO WAS APPOINTED THE NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO OF NATIONAL COMMODITY & DERIVATIVES EXCHANGE LIMITED?

a)  Surjith Barnala

b)  Sudeep Sundar

c)  Vijay Kuma

d)  Sandeep Singh

Q4. WHICH ROMANIAN PRIME MINISTER RESIGNED AFTER HIS PARTY WITHDREW ITS SUPPORT?

a)  Alexandru Christin

b)  Mihai Tudose

c)  Steve Austin

d)  Gheorghe Mihaela

ANSWERS: 

1 - D    2 - A    3 - C    4 - B