04 April 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

04 April 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

Sports

Commonwealth Games 2018 begins at Gold Coast in Australia

• The 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games has begun in Gold Coast, Australia with a colorful opening ceremony at Carrara Stadium Queensland, Australia (4 to 15th April 2018).
• More than 4,500 athletes from 71 nations and territories will compete for 275 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games.
• India has represented at the opening ceremony by a contingent of over 200 athletes, led by flag-bearer Olympic Silver Medallist, P V Sindhu.
• It is the fifth time Australia has hosted the Commonwealth Games.

Note:

• The 2018 Commonwealth Games is an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth.
• Motto: The official motto for the 2018 Commonwealth Games is "Share the Dream".
• Emblem: The emblem of the 2018 Commonwealth Games is a silhouette of the skyline and landscape of the Gold Coast, the host city of the games.
• Mascot: Borobi was named as the mascot of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Borobi is a blue koala, with indigenous markings on its body. The term "borobi" is an Aboriginal term for koala.
• Medals: Approximately1,500 medals have been created to be distributed to the medallists and each measure approximately 63 millimeters in diameter. The medals weigh between 138 and 163 grams.

National Affairs

Prakash Javadekar releases INDIA RANKINGS 2018 for Higher Educational Institutions

• The Union Human Resources Minister ‘Prakash Javadekar’ has released INDIA RANKINGS 2018 for Higher Educational Institutions and presented awards to the institutions under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
• The idea behind these rankings is to promote quality in education, a total of 2809 institutions participated in 9 categories.

Top 5 institutions under each category in 2018 

S.N.	Overall best institution	Management	Engineering	Medical	Top university category	Top colleges
1.	IISc, Bangalore	IIM. Ahmadabad	IIT, Madras	AIIMS, New Delhi	IISc, Bangalore	Miranda House, Delhi
2.	IIT, Madras	IIM, B’lore	IIT, Bombay	PGIMER, Chandigarh	JNU, Delhi	St Stephen’s Delhi
3.	IIT, Bombay	IIM, Cal	IIT, Delhi	Christian Med College, Vellore	BHU, Varanasi	Bishop Heber, Tiruchirappalli
4.	IIT, Delhi	IIM, Lucknow	IIT, Kharagpur	Kasturba Med College, Manipal	Anna University, Chennai	Hindu College, Delhi
5.	IIT, Kharagpur	IIT, Bombay	IIT, Kanpur	King Gorge’s Medical Uni. Lucknow	Univ of Hyderabad	Presidency College, Chennai

Suresh Prabhu launches digital initiatives for ease of exports

• The Union Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has launched digital initiatives for ease of exports at New Delhi.
• This is a major step towards digital India in export trade ushering inefficient assessment, quality monitoring, and traceability.
• The union Minister launched three integrated digital portals, namely ‘Safe Food Export Traceability Portal’, ‘One Laboratory One Assessment Portal’ and ‘Monitoring Export Alerts Portal’.
• The portals will have brought together all regulators, accreditation bodies and other stakeholders at one place.

HRD Ministry forms a panel to examine CBSE's exam conduct process

• The union govt has set up a high-powered committee headed by former HRD Secretary VS Oberoi to examine the process by which the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducts examinations.
• The panel will suggest measures to make the process secure and foolproof through use of technology.
• The committee will submit a report by the 31st of next month.
• The move comes following the alleged leak of the Class 10 Mathematics and Class 12 Economics papers.

Banking & Finance

MoU Between Indian Army and HDFC Bank

• A Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) has been signed between the Indian Army and HDFC Bank on the Defence Salary Package.
• MoU is tailor-made to suit the requirements of serving soldiers, pensioners and families.
• Under the current MoU apart from other benefits, the Army personnel will get free personal accident death cover and free permanent disability cover of Rs 30 lakhs.
• Free educational cover of up to Rs 1 Lakh per year for four years for education of the dependent child in case of accidental death of defense personnel and 100% processing fees waived for Car Loans and Personal Loans.
• At present, Indian Army has MoUs on defense salary package with 11 public and private sector banks.

Note: The first MoU between HDFC Bank and the Indian Army was signed in 2011 and was renewed in Mar 2015.

SoftBank Signs USD 930 Million deal to set up the solar venture in India

• The SoftBank has signed a USD 930-million deal with China's energy conglomerate Golden Concord (GCL) to produce and sell solar equipment in India.
• GCL will invest for a 40% stake in the joint venture, with SoftBank taking the rest.
• The project will have a 4 gigawatt-capacity and will produce solar ingots, silicon wafers, batteries, & component.

Jio Payments Bank starts operations from Tuesday after RBI nod

• Jio Payments Bank Ltd. has started operations.
• The Reserve Bank of India has issued the license to Jio Payments Bank Ltd. (sixth payments bank) to carry its business in India.
• Payments bank is a differentiated bank providing a limited range of products, such as acceptance of demand deposits and remittances of funds.

Note:

• Jio Payments Bank Ltd. is a 70-30 joint venture between Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. and India’s largest lender State Bank of India.
• The Reserve Bank has issued a licence to the bank under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India.

Payments banks in India

• Airtel Payments Bank
• Fino Payments Bank
• Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank
• India Post Payments Bank
• Paytm Payments Bank

International Affairs

Turkey launches construction of the first-ever nuclear plant

• The Recep Tayyip Erdogan (President of Turkey) along with Vladimir Putin (Russian President) has launched the construction of Turkey's first-ever nuclear power plant in Mersin region through video conferencing.
• The total estimated cost of the power plant would be around 20 billion dollars.
• The power station will contribute around 10% to the electricity needs of Turkey.

EAM Sushma Swaraj begins her 3-day visit to Azerbaijan to attend NAM meet

• The union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reached Azerbaijan to participate the three-day Mid-Term Ministerial Meeting of the 18th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
• She will hold bilateral consultations with the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov and Ilham Aliyev (President of Azerbaijan).
• As a founding member of NAM, India remains committed to the purposes and principles of the Movement.
• The two sides will discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.
• Ms. Swaraj will attend the Mid-Term Ministerial Meeting of NAM in Baku tomorrow and the day after.

Note: The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.