23rd May 2017 - Current Affairs Today

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High-speed Tejas Express between Mumbai-Goa

The luxurious train, Tejas Express set to be running between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Karmali in North Goa has been inaugurated.
Tejas Express has ultra-modern facilities like LED TV, wi-fi, CCTV etc. The Tejas Express would operate between Mumbai and Karmali (Goa) five days a week during non-monsoon period and during monsoon, just three days a week.
It has 20 coaches – one executive AC chair car with 56 seating capacity and 12 AC chair cars with 78 seat capacity of each coach. It is a super-fast train, which will run at a speed of 130 kmph

Madhya Pradesh govt announces indefinite ban on sand mining in Narmada river

The river flows through 18 districts in Madhya Pradesh and the ban will be effective in all 18 districts.
The state government has also imposed a complete ban on use of all kinds of machines for mining from the remaining rivers in the state.

WiFi facility at 28 Railway Stations

Indian Railways has tied by with SYSCON/JOISTER for providing 2 Mbps peer-to-peer.
Free Wi-Fi bandwidth is available for 24 hrs at 28 railway stations of Konkan Railway.
The free Wi-Fi facility would help the travelers, commuters and tourists access essential information while waiting for trains on railway stations.
The company has now undertaken as a part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity of providing free Wi-Fi to rural area on the Konkan Route.

Jordan’s Azraq becomes world first clean energy refugee camp

To serve 20,000 Syrian refugees in the remote Azraq camp in Jordan’s desert the United Nations refugee agency switched on a newly built solar power plant.
The $9.7 million plant was funded by the Ikea the global home furnishings retailer.
With the solar plant, the refugee agency is going to save $1.5 million a year in electricity costs.

Karnataka Bank and LIC ink pact

Karnataka Bank Ltd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India for selling life insurance products of LIC.
With this MoU the bank will provide the abundance choices of life insurance products to its customers across all its 769 branches.

HDFC Life launches AI-based insurance email bot ‘SPOK’

It can automatically read, understand, categorize, prioritize and respond to customer emails sent to the private insurer.
SPOK is an insurance email bot that can read customer queries within milliseconds and respond to them.
It will enable the company to respond to user queries faster, more efficiently and effectively.
HDFC Life has collaborated with Senseforth. It is a startup that offers a wide range of enterprise bots built on its artificial intelligence (AI) platform

First Indian-born woman Rehana Ameer elected to City of London Corporation

AUK entrepreneur Rehana Ameer has become the first India-born woman to be elected as a councillor to a ward in the UK.
She was elected as a counselor to the Court of Common Council.

Matthunny Mathews who inspired ‘Airlift’ dies in Kuwait

Prominent Indian businessman Matthunny Mathews has passed away in Kuwait.
Mathews had done yeoman service to bring his countrymen, who had lost everything in the war.

Jacqueline Fernandez wins humanitarian award for her philanthropic work in India

Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez has received the International Humanitarian Award at the second annual Asian Voice Charity Awards.
Jacqueline has been given this award for her humanitarian work in India and abroad.
Since past five years, she has been closely working with a non-profit organization called ‘Habitat for Humanity’ which builds affordable houses for poor.

Cochin Port Trust bags two awards

Cochin Port has received the award for the highest growth in operating surplus.
It also achieved the third highest growth in cargo traffic among the major ports in the year 2016-17.

Italian Open 2017 – Overview

Category	Winner	RunnersUp
Men’s Singles	Alexander Zverev (Germany)	Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
Women’s Singles	Elina Svitolina (Ukraine)	Simona Halep (Romania)
Men’s Doubles	Pierre-Hugues Herbert (France) Nicolas Mahut (France)	Ivan Dodig (Croatia) Marcel Granollers (Spain)
Women’s Doubles	Martina Hingis (Switzerland) Y Chan (Taiwan)	E Makarva (Russia) E Vesnina (Russia)

India win all 10 gold medals in South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships

The South Asian Junior Table Tennis championship was held in Mount Lavinia, near Colombia in Sri Lanka.
Apart from 10 gold medals, the Indian participants have also won 14 medals that total makes to 14.
Manav Thakkar won Junior Boys final.
Archana Girish Kamath won Junior Girls final.
In Cadet Boys final H. Jeho won the Gold Medal.
India led the championship with eight points, followed by Sri Lanka (six points).

Bengaluru FC beat Mohun Bagan to lift Federation Cup

Bengaluru FC beat Mohun Bagan 2-0 to be crowned the Federation Cup champions at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, Odisha.
This was Mohun Bagan’s 20^thFinal in the Federation Cup. Earlier, Mohun Bagan had finished second to Aizawl in the I-League.

Mumbai Indians win IPL title for third time

Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) in the Grand Finale by a margin of 1 run to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 title.
With this win Mumbai Indians became the only IPL team to have won three titles. Moreover, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma became the only player to be on the winning side for four times.

India’s Vaishali wins gold in Asian Blitz Chess Championship

Vaishali won seven games and posted two draws in the nine-round event. She scored 8 points from 9 rounds.
She drew her final round game against Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya of Mongolia to finish half-a-point ahead of Iran’s Sarasdat Khademalsharieh and clinch the gold medal.
Vaishali secured the third spot (bronze medal) in the women’s event of Asian Chess Championship.
Another Indian chess player, Padmini Rout finished third with seven points after a last round win over Yuxin Song of China.