28th April 2017 - Current Affairs Today

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National Current Affairs

NITI Aayog’s vision – Houses, vehicles, ACs for all by 2032

NITI Aayog has envisaged houses, vehicles, Air Conditioners for all Indian Citizens by year 2032
Work on Fifteen Year Vision and Seven Year Strategy document spanning 2017-18 to 2031-32 is in progress.
Three Year Action Agenda covering 2017-18 to 2019-20 which has been provided to the Governing Council Members would be finalised shortly

Maiden Shimla-New Delhi flight under UDAN scheme

First UDAN flight from Shimla to Delhi under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) has been inaugurated.
UDAN flights will start operating from 70 airports across India in next one year.
UDAN flights from Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh) to Hyderabad and Nanded (Maharashtra) to Hyderabad were also inaugurated.

Rajasthan Assembly & Jharkhand Legislative Assembly Passes State GST Bill

Rajasthan assembly passed the Rajasthan Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017 and thereby became the third state assembly after Telangana and Bihar to adopt this comprehensive indirect tax reform.
Three-day special session was convened to take up the GST Bill. 14 opposition MLAs who were trying to disrupt the proceedings were suspended
Jharkhand assembly passed the Jharkhand Goods and Services Tax Bill 2017. A one-day special session of the assembly was convened to take up the GST bill.

Belgium opens honorary consulate in GIFT City

Belgium has become the first country to open an honorary consulate office in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
Belgium has expanded its diplomatic representation in India with this new office in Gandhinagar.
Besides the Belgian Embassy in New Delhi, two Consulates-General was also selected for Mumbai and Chennai, and an honorary consulate in Kolkata.

International Conference on Dara Shikoh begins

The conference will be organized by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).
The objective of the conference is to highlight Dara Shikoh’s contributions.
Aim: To bring about spiritual alliance of Hinduism and Islam.

Haryana CM to interact with People on Twitter and Facebook

The Haryana state government will launch an integrated Social Media Grievances Tracker – Twitter and Facebook.
It aims for faster and real-time addressable of grievances pertaining to different departments.
It is being set up to identify process and resolve all relevant short-term complaints that are sent by citizens to the Chief Minister Office (CMO) or the Government through social media.

International Current Affairs

India ranks 136 on World Press Freedom Index, slips three places since 2016

Rank	Country
1^st	Norway
2^nd	Sweden
3^rd	Finland
4^th	Denmark
5^th	Netherlands

Business & Economy

RBI to issue new Rs 5 and Rs 10 coins

Reserve Bank is set to issue new Rs 10 and Rs 5 coins.
These coins are legal tender as provided in The Coinage Act 2011.
Rs 10 Coin has been minted to celebrate 125th year of National Archives of India.
Rs 5 coins to celebrate 150th anniversary of Allahabad High Court.

RBI issues new draft rules for M&As

The draft regulations will be known as ‘Foreign Exchange Management (Cross Border Merger) Regulations’.
RBI proposed these Regulations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
The regulation makes reporting of any cross-border activity mandatory within 180 days from the date of sanction.
These guidelines address the issues that arise when an Indian company and a foreign company enter into scheme of merger, demerger, amalgamation, or rearrangement.
These Regulations specify conditions that should be followed by the companies involved in the Scheme.
Section 234 of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for mergers and amalgamations between Indian companies and foreign companies.

MFIN launches financial literacy app for microfinance clients

Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), a self-regulatory organization and industry association of the microfinance industry in India launched the financial literacy mobile app for microfinance clients
The financial literacy app has been released on Android platform and will be available in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and English.
It will help microfinance clients in understanding dynamics involved in microfinance including credit history, interest rates, repayment cycles and their rights as a borrower

IOC to build new oil terminal at Motihari to supply fuel to Nepal

It aims to supply fuel to Nepal from the planned pipeline up to Amlekganj in Nepal.
The 69-km Motihari-Amlekganj pipeline will be built at a cost of 325 cror
The old terminal at Raxaul in Bihar will be shut down as it not up to the current OISD (Oil Industry Safety Directorate) guidelines.
Nepal is giving at most importance to the project by giving it a national priority.
As per the agreement, a new 200 km pipeline would be laid between Patna and Motihari.
The fuel supply agreements between India and Nepal have been extended to five years. Nepal receives around 2 lakh kilo-liters of fuel from IOC every month.

People in News

Vinod Khanna passes away at 70

Vinod Khanna, a Bollywood actor and politician expired at the age of 70.
In 1999, he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
His famous films are Mere Apne, Insaaf and Amar, Akbar, Anthony. He was last seen in 2015 in Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale.
He served as the Union minister for culture and tourism in 2002.
He won Filmfare award for best supporting actor and the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999

Awards

Srishti Kaur wins Miss Teen Universe Pageant

Srishti Kaur of India has been crowned Miss Teen Universe 2017 at Managua.
Srishti won after beating 25 contestants from across the world. She also bagged an award for the best national costume.
She succeeds Nieveles Gonzalez of Puerto Rico as the Miss Teen Universe.
Kaur had also won the title of Miss Teen Tiara International at the beginning of this year beating 29 contestants.

Vani Jairam gets Ghantasala national award

Vani Jairam, a versatile playback singer received the Ghantasala national award.
She is known in the North as Meerabai for her songs sung by the medieval poet in praise of Lord Krishna.
The award has been given in the memory of the legendary singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao.

Youngest Indian chancellor bags Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Foundation award

38-year-old Dileep K Nair is the current Chancellor of the North East Frontier Technical University (NEFTU) in Arunachal Pradesh.
Nair is also the founder of The Automobile Society (India) and The Engineer’s Outlook Magazine.
He is a literary master having knowledge of 6 languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, English, Hindi and Marathi.

Science & Technology

ISRO develops “Solar Calculator” android app

ISRO has launched a solar calculator app that can calculate the benefits of installing solar panels in different regions of the country.
It primarily focuses on the design of space-borne instruments for ISRO missions.
At present this app can be downloaded from ‘New and Renewable Energy’ section at gov.in.
It is helpful in setting up of photovoltaic thermal power plants.The app provides monthly and yearly solar potential by processing data obtained from Indian Geostationary Satellites (Kalpana-1, INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR).

India successfully test-fires Agni-III ballistic missile

The test was carried by the Strategic Forces Command with logistics support from Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO).
This Surface-to-Surface nuclear capable intermediate-range ballistic missile can hit targets in the range of around 3000 km.
It can carry a warhead of 1.5 tonnewhich is protected by carbon all composite heat shield.
It was developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme(IGMDP).

MyMSME mobile app launched

MyMSME was launched as a part of Digital India Initiative. Through this app MSMEs can lodge grievances pertaining to Ministry of MSME.
MyMSME mobile app provides information on all schemes implemented by the Ministry of MSME at one place.
Its aim is to access information on all schemes implemented by the Ministry and as well as apply for any of them.