28th March 2017 - Current Affairs Today

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94 Out Of 500 Cities Rated By AMRUT

500 cities and towns that account for the 65% of India’s urban population are to be credit rated by Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).Out of these 500 cities, 94 citiesgot its rating from AMRUT.
55 out of 94 cities have got Investment grade ratingswhich account 59% of the rated cities spread across 14 states. These 500 cities are included in Smart city mission.
The cities which got AA+rating are NDMC, Navi Mumbai and Pune followed by Ahmadabad, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad with AA

2017 International Diamond Conference

The two day conclave was organized by Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC).
Aim: Bringing together the leading Miners, Diamantaires, Retailers, Bankers and Analysts from across the globe on a platform to discuss the supply and demand issues faced by the Global Diamond Industry.
The GJEPC is the apex body of the gems & jewellery industry and today it represents over 6,000 exporters in the sector.

ESIC launched Mobile Clinic Services in AP, Telangana

13 mobile clinics have been launched initially and among them 8 clinics would serve in Telangana while 5 clinics would serve in Andhra Pradesh.
The annual expenditure for these services will be around Rs. 30 crores.
Each clinic will have a vehicle with a Doctor, pharmacist, attendant, driver and the necessary equipment and medicines.
The vehicle will visit two locations in a day for three hours each and conduct basic investigations.

India Overtakes Japan To Become Third Largest In Domestic Air Traffic

USA topped the list with 719 million passengers in 2016, which is followed by China with 436 million passengers. India attained 3^rdspot with 100 million passengers in 2016.
India pushed back Japan which had only 97 million passengers last year. These reports are prepared by aviation think-tank Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

IREDA to sanction Rs 13K crore loans for renewables in FY18

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA)will sanction a loan worth 13K Crore Rupees for clean energy projects in FY18, which plays the major role in reducing the pollution in India.
The government of India is aiming at adding around 15 to 16 GW of clean energy projects, including solar and wind.
The total credit market size for clean energy project is around 65K crore The loan which is to be sanctioned by IREDA accounts around 20 percent of market share.

CCI imposes Rs.591 crore penalty on Coal India

Competition Commission of India(CCI) imposed a penalty of Rs 591 crore which is a well reduced fine over Coal India Ltd for its misconduct of agreement in fuel supplies.
Based on the first ruling of Rs 1773 crore fine on Coal India that was passed 3 years ago, the company has taken several steps in resolving issues with its stakeholders.
Based on the second ruling, CCI has reduced its fine by one third (1/3). The main reason found by CCI over Coal India is the violation of competition norms by imposing unfair conditions in the matter of supply of non- coking coal to power producers.

CBEC to be renamed CBIC under GST regime

Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) is to be renamed as Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) under the new regime of GST which is to be rolled out from July 1st.
In addition to that existing training establishment, to be renamed as National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics will have an all-India presence, to enable capacity building to the employees of the indirect tax administration of the Centre as well as of the State Government.

HAL finalises major plan to manufacture 1000 military helicopters and over 100 planes

In the event to strengthen the Indian Air Defense system, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has finalized the major plan to manufacture nearly 1000 military helicopters and over 100 planes in the upcoming years.
For making things easier HAL and Russian defense firms have finalized a Joint Venture agreement for production of light weight multi-role ‘Kamov 226T’ helicopters in India which will replace the aging fleet of Cheetah and Chetak choppers
HAL has planned to deliver 123 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft with an annual delivery of 16 jets from 2018-19 onwards.
It has also planned to carry out major upgrade of almost the entire fighter fleet of Indian Air Force IAF including Su-30MKI, Jaguars and Mirage jets in the next 5 years.

Flipkart Plans to Acquire eBay’s India Operations

India’s largest online retailer Flipkart is planning to acquire eBay India’s operations as part of its latest capital raising programme of $2billion.
The move is an effort of the e-commerce firm to strengthen its position against the rising threat from the global competitors such as Amazon and China’s Alibaba.
For Flipkart, the latest fund raising will see Chinese internet company Tencent infusing over $500 million along with eBay and Microsoft.

HDFC’s Aditya Puri Makes into World’s 30 Best CEOs List By Barron’s

Aditya Puri, HDFC Bank Managing Director has made it to the list of the world’s 30 best chief executive officers (CEO), published by American financial magazine Barron’s. Puri has been placed at 23rdposition in the list
Others in the list includes, Jensen Huang of Nvidia (4) and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella (5) Amazon’s CEO Jeffrey Bezos, Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings, Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz etc.

Telangana Archaeologists Find World’s Largest Capstone

The world’s largest capstone has been discovered by the Archaeology Department of Telangana after excavating an ancient human burial site in Narmeta village, Siddipet district.
The capstone weighing 40 tonnes was so huge that required large crane to lift it.
Telangana Archeological Department will now undertake DNA testing of various artifacts that have been discovered at this site.
The testing will help in tracing the lineage of pre-historic humans, their food habits, lifestyle and how their population later became extinct.

India ends with 73 medals from 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games, Austria

Indian team finished in a high note in the 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games with a triumphing 73 medals held in Austria
These games are meant for the specially-able person and India finished as a special team with 89 participants.
India finished the games with an overall medal tally of 37 gold, 10 silver and 26 bronze with total tally of 73 medals.