1 November 2017 - Daily Current Affairs

36th Edition of Sharjah International Book Fair begins today

• Today, the 36th edition of Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) 2017 Kicks Off at the Expo Centre Sharjah. (1st - 11th Nov 2017).
• This year’s book fair will see the participation of 1,650 publishing houses from 60 countries.
• The theme of this year’s SIBF is ‘A World inside My Book’.
• More than 15 lakh titles will be on display throughout the celebration of literature, knowledge, and culture.
• Sharjah Book Authority has announced that the United Kingdom will be the ‘Country of Honour’ at the Book Fair.

Note:

• Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is the most prestigious in the Arab world and home to the most exciting literary event in the region.
• SIBF is considered the 3rd largest book Fair in the world.

Goa hosts inaugural India-US Ocean Dialogue today

• Goa state is hosting the inaugural India-US Ocean Dialogue aimed at promoting sustainable development of the Blue Economy.
• The dialogue is being hosted by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO).

Sharmila Tagore honored with Lifetime achievement award

• Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore (72-year) has been honored with 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) for her contribution in the field of cinema.
• She had debuted in movies with legendary director Satyajit Ray’s Bengali film Apur Sansar (1959).
• Filmmaker-poet Muzaffar Ali was conferred with Special Award for his outstanding contribution to promote and arts, fine arts and literature.
• Filmmaker-poet Muzaffar Ali was conferred with a Special Award for his outstanding contribution to promote and arts, fine arts and literature.

SK Sinha is new Secretary (Security) in Cabinet Secretariat

• The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of S K Sinha (1983-batch Bihar cadre IPS) as Secretary(Security) in the Cabinet Secretariat.
• A P Maheshwari (1984 batch IPS of UP cadre) Special DG, BSF will be the Director General (DG), Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).

B C Khanduri to head a parliamentary standing committee on defense

• The senior member of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MP Major General (Retd.) B C Khanduri will head the parliamentary standing committee on defence.
• The committee will examine the operational preparedness of armed forces and review accidents involving strategic defence assets.
• It will also assess the procurement policy relating to defence equipment.
• It will also critically review accidents involving strategic defence assets and look into the quality of ration provided to forces especially in border areas.

Government sets up Arun Jaitley led panel on PSU bank mergers

• The union govt. has constituted a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister ‘Arun Jaitley’ to oversee merger proposals of state-owned banks.
• The other members of the panel are Railway & Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
• The move to create large banks aims at meeting the credit needs of the growing Indian economy and building capacity in the PSB space to raise resources without dependence on the state exchequer.
• The mechanism will oversee the proposals coming from boards of PSBs for consolidation.
• Earlier, Mr Jaitley had announced 2.11 lakh crore rupees capital infusion roadmap for the public-sector banks.

JD-S MLA Chikkamadu passes away

• Janata Dal (Secular) member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly (MLA) Chikkamadu (68-years) passed away after a prolonged illness.
• He was elected from Hunsur assembly segment in Mysuru district first time and then H D Kote in the same district in 2013 from Janata Dal (S).

Coolie trains’ withdrawn from the service in Bihar

• Today, a pair of 150 - years old Shramik train (coolie train) running on Bhagalpur-Kiul section (Malda division-ER) has been withdrawn from service.
• The ‘coolie train’ was in service between Jamalpur in Munger district and Sultanganj in Bhagalpur district and also from Jamalpur to Kajra in Munger district.
• On 8^th February, 1862, the two ‘Shramik’ trains were rolled out for the convenience of railway employees working at Asia-fame diesel locomotive factory in Jamalpur.

SBI cuts benchmark lending rate by 0.05 pc across maturities

• The State Bank of India (SBI) slashed benchmark lending rate by 0.05% across maturities.
• The reduction in the marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) came after a gap of almost 10 months.
• The MCLR for one year has come down to 7.95% from 8%.

Note:

• The MCLR on overnight borrowings has been reduced to 7.70% from 7.75%, while the lending rate for three-year tenure has been cut from 8.15% to 8.10%.
• Allahabad Bank also reduced the MCLR rate by 0.15% across all tenor.

The World Bank Releases Doing Business Report 2018

• According to the World Bank’s released report, 'Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs', India ranked 100^th (earlier 130^th) among the 190 countries, assessed by the Doing Business Team.
• The Doing Business Report assesses covers 10 indicators which span the lifecycle of a business.
• India is the only country in South Asia and BRICS economies to feature among most improved economies of the DB Report this year.
• India's rank has improved in 6 of the 10 indicators and Distance to Frontier (DTF) has improved in 9 of the 10 indicators.

Govt extends the last date for filing of GSTR-2 to 30^th Nov

• The government has extended the last date of filing of GSTR-2 for July to 30th of next month to facilitate businesses and all taxpayers.
• GSTR-2 or purchase returns have to be matched with GSTR-1 which is the sales return.
• The Finance Ministry has also extended the date of filing of GSTR-3 for July to 11th December.
• Earlier, the deadline was 10th of next month.

Heena Sidhu wins 10-meter air pistol gold medal at C'wealth Shooting

• Heena Sidhu has won the 10-meter air pistol gold medal at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Brisbane.
•  Sidhu shot a combined score of 626.2 to claim the top honors.
• This was Sidhu's second successive international gold after she along with Jitu Rai, claimed the top position in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event in the ISSF World Cup Finals in Delhi.
• Deepak Kumar won a bronze medal in the 10-meter air rifle event.

Olympic flame arrives in South Korea for 2018 Pyeongchang Games

• Today, the Olympic flame arrived in South Korea to begin its journey towards the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
• Do Jong-hwan (South Korean sports minister) and 2010 Vancouver Games figure skating champion Kim Yuna carried the flame in a special lantern off a Korean Air flight from Greece at a ceremony.
• The torch relay will cover 2,018 kilometres through nine provinces, eight major cities, and more than 150 counties & districts before it winds up at its destination in Pyeongchang.
• The Games kick off on 9^th February 2018 and will feature approximately 3,000 athletes from 95 NOCs.