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7th April 2017 – Current Affairs Today

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National Current Affairs

Haryana to provide one-time grant of Rs. 21,000 to families for third girl child

  • In its ongoing efforts to combat the problem of declining child sex ratio in the state, Haryana State Govt. has announced to provide one-time grant of Rs 21,000 to all those families whose third girl child was born after August 24, 2015 under the currently operational ‘Aapki Beti Humari Beti’ scheme.
  • As per the scheme, the first girl child born in the families belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) category will be eligible for a grant of Rs. 21000/-
  • As per the scheme, the first girl child born in the families belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Below Poverty Line (BPL) category will be eligible for a grant of Rs. 21000/-

First express highway project worth Rs.40000 Cr in northeast 

  • This 1300 Km highway project will be implemented with an outlay of Rs 40,000 crore in Assam
  • Assam government, the National Highways Authority of India and the Inland Waterways of India have signed a tripartite agreement to construct the highway in Assam along the banks of Brahmaputra

India and UK Economic and Financial Dialogue held 

  • Aim:To combat cross border tax evasion, enhance cooperation in financial services and boost investments by encouraging Indian companies to raise funds through masala bonds.
  • India and the UK  has decided to set up Green Growth Equity Fund to finance clean energy projects
  • Both contribution will contribute 120 million pounds to fulfill the energy needs in India
  • This is considered as sub-fund of National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF) and it will be raised to 500 million pound.
  • India and UK have agreed to work together to ensure effective implementation of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards globally.
  • Both countries have agreed to explore the possibility of regulatory cooperation agreement between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the UK and the Reserve Bank of India in the April-June quarter of 2017.
  • Both the countries have also agreed to set up a forum comprising representatives from the RBI, Sebi, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of England, among others, to share experiences and best practices on issuance of green and masala bonds.
  • The Ministerial India-UK Energy for Growth Dialogue also held to identify further opportunities for the UK to engage in the India’s highly successful green finance sector.

Uttar Pradesh waives Rs 36,359-crore loan for UP farmers

  • The U.P government planned to waive off crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh of small and marginal farmers and the cabinet also decided to write off Rs 5,630 crore in non-performing assets (NPAs) of 700,000 farmers in the state.
  • About 92.5% of the state’s farmers fall in the small and marginal categories.

International Current Affairs

India’s is the world’s 7th largest tourism economy in terms of GDP

  • According to a new report released by World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India’s travel and tourism sector ranks 7th in the world in terms of its total contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
  • WTTC has forecasted 7% growth for the sector in 2017. Visitor exports are expected to grow by 5.4%in 2017.
  • Over the past few months, Indian Govt. has made significant changes in visa facilitation with a view to encourage international arrivals and thereby increasing visitor exports.

WTO sets up panel to resolve steel dispute with India, Japan

  • Dispute Settlement Body of World Trade Organisation (WTO)agreed to set up a panel for resolving a dispute pertaining to imposition of safeguard duty on imports of Japanese steel products by India
  • Indian authorities have put forth an argument that imposition of duties were warranted by the prevailing circumstances and is consistent with WTO norms.

Germany 1st NATO member to launch cyber command

  • Germany is the first NATO( North Atlantic Treaty Organization) state to launch a “self-contained” cyber command unit to protect from growing attacks. The Bundeswehr’s Cyber and Information Space (CIR) boasts a status of army, navy, and air force.
  • The military’s computers are attacked from online sources thousands of times each day. To improve defense, has now launched its own cyber command

Awareness against the fake news spread global wise

  • As a part of its ongoing effort to curb the spread of fake news and fabricated articles, leaders from Tech industry and academic organizations joined together with $14 million to create an awareness of news literacy and make trust in social media.
  • These organizations expose the plan on Monday of their latest step to control over the spread of fake news and create a positive approach of journalism over public.
  • The News Integrity Initiative will launch with $14 million from Facebook, the Ford Foundation, Mozilla and others, based at the City University of New York’s journalism school.
  • Face book has enlisted fact-checking organizations to help to monitor the stories flagged as fake and to a set of principles including transparency and non-partisanship.

Business & Economy

Aditya Birla Group gets RBI license to start payments bank

  • Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd. has become the seventh entity to receive a final license from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for carrying out the business of payments bank in India.
  • Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd. will be launched in the first half of year 2017.

Japan officially recognizes Bitcoin as currency from April 2017

  • The currency of the Internet, Bitcoin and other digital currencies have recognized as a payment method by Japan with effect from its new fiscal year
  • It was recognized under new banking law of Japan but it is not a legally-recognized currency.
  • Bitcoin exchanges will come under additional regulatory scrutiny. They will be required to comply with strict anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, along with annual audits.
  • Financial institutions can make Bitcoin exchange after registered with the government with the minimum capital of 10 million yen.
  • This new payment system expected to increase the usage of crypto currency in Japan.
  • Bitcoin is a form of digital, created and held electronically. It is also known as first decentralized digital currency.

People in News

 Twitter’s VP of Asia Pacific, Aliza Knox quits

  • Aliza Knox has decided to quit after her successful near five year tenure with Twitter.
  • Twitter has also confirmed Knox’s departure from the company. Due to realignment and costs cut, Twitter had reduced nine per cent of workforce globally

Prithika Yashini from Tamil Nadu become India’s first transgender police officer

  • Prithika Yashini’s application for the police post was initially rejected and tried hard to become the India’s first police officer from the transgender  community
  • The Madras high court has directed Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint a transgender as sub-inspector of police

Science & Technology

Online tax filing portal ClearTax.com – tech platform for GST

  • It is a multi GSP (GST Suvidha Provider) taxation solution and it helps to monitor one billion invoices which will be generated once the GST comes into action.
  • GSTN will become the world’s biggest and complex tax framework with shortlisted 34 companies to be the GSP.
  • It becomes user friendly among taxpayers and other stake holders to upload the invoice details to filing of returns.
  • Clear Tax will be available on mobile apps, desktop which used to work in both offline & online. In addition to these upload and download of million invoices, filing on time will become easy while you access from GSTN via Clear tax.

Morocco Launches Final Stage of Largest Solar Plant in The World

  • The plant is based on photovoltaic (PV) technology, which spanned over an area of 137 hectares (1.37 square km). The cost of this plant is nearly 75 million U.S. dollars
  • It will be built as a part of a partnership involving the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy (Masen), and a consortium of private operators led by the Saudi Arabian Acwa Power group and German development bank KfW.
  • It is scheduled to start operating in 2018 and it is expected to generate 582 megawatts

Sports Current Affairs

 Mashrafe Mortaza announces retirement from T20Is

  • Mashrafe Mortaza (33) who led the Bangladesh international cricket team for One day and Twenty20 international matches has announced retirement from T20Is in Colombo
  • He has has played 52 T20Is. Out of 52, he captained Bangladesh team in 26 T20Is and won 9 T20I series.
  • He has taken 39 wickets and scored 368 runs.

Virat Kohli named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World for 2016

  • Virat Kolhi (28) was named as the Leading Cricketer in the World for the year 2016 by Wisden India Almanack.
  • Kohli also features on the cover of the 2017 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.
  • He became the third Indian cricketer to receive this honour after Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.
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