9th May 2017 - Current Affairs Today

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Country’s first bio refinery plant inaugurated in Pune

It can produce one million litre of ethanol per annum by processing a variety of agro-residue like rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, cane trash and corn cobs. With further research and development, pipeline of other renewable fuels and chemicals will also be produced from this technology platform.
India’s National Policy on Bio fuels has set indicative target of 20% blending of biofuels, both for bio-diesel and bio-ethanol.

CRPF Command Shifted from Kolkata to Chhattisgarh

Its aim is to bring focus on combing operations in Chhattisgarh.
Seven years ago, the command headquarter was shifted to Kolkata due to logistical and connectivity issues
The Centre has planned to enhance the surveillance of Maoist-hit areas by drones and more flying hours for Indian Air Force choppers, which are used by the forces for logistical support
The move is in line with the Centre’s plan to redeploy its forces from peaceful West Bengal to Maoist capital of Abujmad in Chhattisgarh.

Haryana to start door-to-door survey to collect data of every resident, issue smart IDs to every house

The aim of this survey is to get details of land holdings and the status of facilities such as social security pension, scholarship, MGNREGA, loans and LPG connection.
The data will be used to make sure that benefits of 150 services of 87 departments are provided online.
The unemployed youth will be provided employment through the survey and every hired youth (Saksham) will cover 150 to 200 houses.
During the survey, address of each house, photo, location, details of owner of the house, electricity connection, water connection, details of electronic devices, bank account numbers, IFSC code and Aadhaar and personal details such as mobile number, e-mail ID, educational qualification, religion and other details will be gathered.

DIPP, WIPO to set up Technology and Innovation Support Centres for IP generation

It aims to boost generation and commercialization of intellectual properties.
It will provide an impulsion to knowledge sharing, capacity building and sharing of best practices among the over 500 TISCs operating worldwide.
WIPO’s TISC program provides innovators in developing countries with access to locally based, high quality technology information and related services.
It helps in creating protecting and managing their intellectual property (IP) rights.
The services offered by TISCs include access to online patent and non-patent resources and IP-related publications monitoring technology and competitors; and basic information on industrial property laws.
The Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) act as the main intermediary between WIPO and TISC.

Indians 6th biggest private spenders on health among low-middle income nations

In India spending on Public Health was 3% of total health spending in 2014. Indian Government ranked 147 among 184 countries on this parameter.
The Global average for the same was 55% for 2014.Among the 50 lower-middle-income countries, India ranked 39^th, as the average for these countries was 2%.

Jordan, US launch major military exercises “Eager Lion”

7,400 troops from 20 nations are taking part in Eager Lion military drills. It is the largest and most complex until now.
Jordan and the United States will be going to start the Eager Lion, an annual military exercise.
The exercise would include border security, cyber-defense, and “command and control” exercises to strengthen coordination in response to threats including “terrorism”.
Eager Lion exercise is the seventh exercise and the largest and most complex.

Edelweiss Tokio launches India’s first insurance that can be bought at PoS

Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance has launched India’s first insurance product that can be bought at a point of sale (PoS). The product has been named ‘PoS Saral Nivesh’.
It is the first product to be approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s guidelines on point of sale-life insurance products.
In the guidelines, it has been directed that for all PoS products, the benefits have to be predefined and disclosed upfront at the time of sale itself. Moreover it should be very simple to understand.

Emma Watson takes first major gender-neutral movie award

Emma Watson became the first person to win the MTV Movie and TV Awards new gender-neutral Best Actor in a Movie award for her performance as Belle in “Beauty and the Beast.”
This year, MTV Movie and TV Awards’ also added a gender-less best actor category award for television.
In this context, ‘gender-neutral’ means, every award category had a single list of male as well as female nominees together, unlike Oscars or Golden Globe, which have separate categories for Male Actor and Female Actor.

Lion actor Sunny Pawar named Rising Star at Asian Awards

London Child actor Sunny Pawar has been chosen for the Rising Star Award.
He is known for his best performance in the Oscar-nominated film “Lion”.

Baahubali 2′ becomes first Indian movie to cross Rs 1000 cr at box office

Baahubali 2 is the first Indian movie to cross Rs 1000 crore mark with its worldwide collections.

Emmanuel Macron to be France’s youngest President

Emmanuel Macron an Independent centrist has become France’s youngest-ever president. He is 39.
Macron now faces the challenge of trying to win a parliamentary majority.
It is projected that Macron has received almost two thirds of the vote.
He also said in his speech that France was facing an “immense task” to rebuild European unity, fix the economy and ensure security against extremist threats.

1st large Chinese-made passenger jet C919 makes its maiden flight

The first Chinese-built passenger jet C919 has made it maiden flight. It would move the country into a new era of aviation.
The C919 is a twin-engine airliner designed to compete with the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737.
The C919 can be compared to mainstream large passenger jets such as the Boeing 737 and the Airbus 320 in terms of its capacity and its technology.
By 2024 China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s largest aviation market.

Heena Sindhu wins bronze, India come back with 7 medals

In the women’s 10m Air Pistol Heena Sindhu won a bronze medal.
India ended the Grand Prix of Liberation Plezn 2017 shooting championships with seven medals.
India won one gold, two silver and four bronze medals.
Tejaswini Sawant took silver in the 50m rifle prone.
Pemba Tamang bagged bronze in the men’s 25m centre fire pistol.
Anmol Jain had won bronze in men’s 10m air pistol.

Hockey Him crowned champions of 7th Junior Women’s Hockey Championship

Hockey Him (Himachal) defeated Hockey Mizoram in the 7th Junior National Hockey Championship 2017 (Women).
Manju Chorasiya (39′) and Umra (66′) were among the scorers for Hockey Him.

Devender Singh becomes 2nd Indian javelin thrower to qualify for London Worlds

Indian javelin thrower Devender Singh qualified for the World Championships in London.
Devender Singh with a stunning throw of 84.57 m won the gold medal at the Indian Grand Prix Athletics meet in Patiala.
He is the second javelin thrower from the country qualify of the London Championships.
Neeraj Chopra, the World junior champion and record-holder. He was the first Indian javelin thrower to qualify for the London Worlds when he threw 83.32 m at the Asian Grand Prix in Jiaxing.