DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 16 JAN 2018
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
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.