05 May 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

05 May 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

Justice A K Mittal appointed acting chief justice of Punjab & Haryana HC

• The union govt. has appointed Justice A.K. Mittal as acting Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court.
• The post is vacant due to the retirement of Justice Shivax Jal Vazifdar.
• Earlier, the Law Ministry issued a notification to appoint Justice Mittal as the acting chief justice with effect from 4^th May.

Note: Punjab and Haryana High Court is the common High Court for Indian states of Haryana and Punjab and Union Territory of Chandigarh based in Chandigarh, India.

National Affairs

4th Regional Conference on Futuristic, Resilient and Digital Infrastructure of AIIB

• The Ministry of Finance, Government of India in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) organized the 4th Regional Conference on Futuristic, Resilient and Digital Infrastructure in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
• The two-day Conference is a lead-up to the 3rd Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to be hosted by the Government of India on 25th and 26th June 2018 in Mumbai.
• The Conference saw eminent delegates from various fields expressing their views on how to bring about institutional approaches for futuristic and digital infrastructure in India.

12th informal meeting of SAARC finance ministers held in Manila

• The 12th informal meeting of SAARC Finance Ministers was held in Manila, Philippines, on the sidelines of the 51st Annual Meeting of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
• The meeting was attended by the Finance Ministers/Heads of Delegations from the SAARC member states. Finance Minister of Nepal Yuba Raj Khatiwada chaired the meeting.
• The Finance Ministers/Heads of Delegation briefed the meeting about the current status of economic progress achieved by their countries.
• They also appreciated ADB for its contribution in the economic growth of SAARC countries.

HRD Ministry notifies 75 NRCs for online refresher programmes through SWAYAM

• The Human Resource Development Ministry has launched a unique initiative of online professional development of 1.5 million higher education faculty using the Massive Open Online Courses platform ‘SWAYAM’.
• In the first phase, 75 discipline-specific National Resource Centres (NRCs) have been identified.
• The National Resource Centres will prepare online training material with the focus on new and emerging trends, pedagogical improvements, and methodologies for transacting revised curriculum.
• It will cover wide-ranging disciplines of Social Sciences, Sciences, Engineering and Technology and other disciplines.
• A set of institutions such as Central, State and Open Universities, National Institutes for Technical Teachers Training, IITs, IIITs, NITs and other have been notified as NRCs.

Note: Under the initiative, all in-service teachers, irrespective of their subject and seniority will have an enabling opportunity to keep abreast of the latest developments in their disciplines through the online refresher course.

GST Council approves ownership change of GST Network to convert it into govt holding

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council (27th meeting) has approved ownership change of GST Network structure and now it will be converted into a government holding.
• According to the Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley, the government will acquire the 51% stake held by private entities.
• The Central and the state governments will hold a 50%stake each in the entity.
• The government will constitute two Group of Ministers (GoMs) to consider the issues related to the imposition of Cess on Sugar and incentivizing digital payments under the GST regime.
• The GoM related to Cess on Sugar will be headed by Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam Finance Minister).
• The other GoM considering on digital payments will be headed by Sushil Kumar Modi (Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister).

Note: Currently, five private financial institutions hold 51% stake in GSTN and remaining 49% stake is with the Centre and states.

NITI Aayog & IBM to develop a crop yield prediction model using Artificial Intelligence

• NITI Aayog & IBM signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to develop a crop yield prediction model using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide real-time advisory to farmers in aspirational districts.
• The SoI was signed in the presence of Amitabh Kant (CEO of NITI Aayog) and Karan Bajwa (Managing Director of IBM India).
• The objective of the agreement to work together towards use of technology to provide insights to farmers to improve crop productivity, soil yield, control agricultural inputs with the overarching goal of improving farmers’ incomes.
• In the first phase, the ten aspirational districts across the states of Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.

Science & Defence

Dakota aircraft join IAF again

• A restored Dakota aircraft (Gooney Bird) has joined the Indian Air Force (IAF) after more than four decades the fleet was phased out following an illustrious service record.
• The Dakota DC-3 VP 905 was formally inducted at a grand ceremony held at Hindan air force station in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
• The aircraft was accepted by Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal ‘B S Dhanoa’ from the Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar in February this year.
• The aircraft was flown back to India from the UK by a joint crew of IAF and Reflight Airworks.
• The aircraft played a pivotal role during the conflict in Indian Kashmir in 1947 war and Bangladesh war in 1971.

Note:

• The Dakota is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner.
• It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remains in front-line service with various military operators.

India & France conduct final phase of Varuna naval exercise near Reunion Island

• Indian and French navies conducted final and third phase of Varuna naval exercise 2018 near Reunion Island in Indian Ocean region (IOR).
• In the final phase, both navies simulated different possible scenarios such as asymmetric warfare and tested their air defense capabilities.
• 2018 Varuna naval exercise between Indian and French Navy was conducted in three phases and included anti-submarine, air defense, and asymmetric engagement exercises.

Nobel Literature Prize will not be awarded this year

• According to the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prize in Literature will be not awarded this year following allegations of sexual abuse and other issues within its ranks that have tarnished the body’s reputation.
• It will be the first time since wartime 1943 that the prestigious award is not handed out.
• The 2018 prize will be given in 2019.

Note:

• The Nobel Prize in Literature is a Swedish literature prize that has been awarded annually, since 1901.
• Author from any country who has produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction".
• It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895.

Sports initiative 'Star Khel Mahakumbh' launched at Dharamshala

• Anurag Thakur (BJP MP) and Sachin Tendulkar (cricketing great) launched 'Star Khel Mahakumbh' in the presence of 1500 athletes at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.
• The athletes will compete in volleyball, basketball, cricket, football, kabaddi, and athletics.
• The initiative has been designed in a manner as to attract the participation of at least one lakh youth from across 5000 villages and 800 panchayats.