13 July 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

13 July 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

1. Hima Das becomes 1st Indian woman to win gold at IAAF World U-20 Athletics Championships

• Hima Das (18-years) has become the first Indian woman to win a gold at the IAAF World Under- 20 Athletics Championships in Tempere, Finland.
• She clocked 51.46 seconds to clinch the top spot in the women's 400 meters race.
• Now, she joins the illustrious company of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who won a gold in Poland in the last edition in 2016.
• Seema Punia (bronze in discus - 2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze in discus - 2014) are previous medal winners at the World Junior Championships.

National Affairs

2. Govt. allows photography at all protected monuments except Ajanta Caves, Leh Palace and Taj

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has issued an order allowing photography within the premises of all centrally protected monuments or sites, except at Ajanta Caves, Leh Palace and Taj Mahal.
• The order came after PM Modi in his Speech at ‘Dharohar Bhawan’ in New Delhi.

Note:

• The Ajanta Caves are 29 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 CE in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state of India.
• Leh Palace is a former royal palace overlooking the Ladakhi Himalayan town of Leh.
• The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra.

3. CM Chandrababu Naidu launches 60 'Anna Canteens' across Andhra

• The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has launched the much-awaited 'Anna Canteens' in various parts of the state.
• The canteen would serve breakfast (3 idlis/ 3 pooris/ upma/ Pongal), lunch, and dinner with rice, dal/sambar, pickle, curry and curd at the same rate (5 rupees).
• In the first phase, the state government is setting up 203 Anna Canteens in 110 municipalities across the state and 60 Anna Canteens have been inaugurated in 25 municipalities.
• Under Phase 2, 143 canteens will be inaugurated at 85 locations by August.
• The Akshaya Patra Foundation will run these canteens.

4. Industrial production growth slips to 3.2% in May

• According to the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Industrial production growth slipped to a seven-month low of 3.2% in May mainly due sluggish performance of manufacturing, power sectors and other reasons.
•  The manufacturing sector grew by just 2.8% in May (last year 2.6%).
• The mining sector output recorded an impressive growth of 5.7% in May (last year 0.3% in May)
• The FMCG sector was the worst performer among the user- based goods segment.

5. MP govt to appoint girls as district Brand Ambassador of Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao

• Madhya Pradesh Govt. will appoint girls as a district Brand Ambassador, who have recorded significant achievements in any field under the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao scheme.
• The Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme was launched on 22 January 2015 by PM Narendra Modi.
• Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao aims to address the issue of the declining child sex ratio image (CSR).
• It is a national initiative jointly run by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.
• On 26^th August 2016, Sakshi Malik (Olympics 2016 bronze medallist) was made brand ambassador for BBBP.

6. Railways launched its first consolidated Bridge Management System

• The Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal launched the first consolidated Bridge Management System (a web-enabled IT application) to store data on its one lakh 50 thousand bridges.
• It is a web-enabled IT application for meaningful assimilation, analysis and dissemination of information related to various activities.

Station Beautification competition awards:

• Maharashtra’s Balharshah & Chandrapur railway stations (Central Railway) were awarded the first prize while Madhubani station (East Central Railway) and Madurai station (Southern Railway) were the co-winners of the second prize.

International Affairs

7. Canada to assume command of new NATO training mission in Iraq

• According to Prime Minister ‘Justin Trudeau’, Canada will assume command of a new NATO training and capacity building mission in Iraq for its first year.
• The Canadian troops will be deployed in the Baghdad region to help Iraq build a more effective national security structure and improve training for Iraqi security forces.
• As part of this mission, around 250 Canadian Armed Forces members will join partner countries in helping Iraq build a more effective national security structure and improve training for Iraqi security forces.

Note:

• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.

Banking & Finance

8. Indian Army signs MoU with SBI on a salary package

• The Indian Army has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the State Bank of India (SBI) on defence salary package.
• This MoU will benefit a large number of serving and retired Army personnel who are having their accounts with SBI.
• The MoU will be valid till 3^rd January 2019 and continuation thereafter will be subject to review/renewal.
• According to the Indian Army, the revised MoU is tailor-made to suit the requirements of serving soldiers, pensioners and their families.

9. HDFC securities enable MF transactions through facebook messenger

• The HDFC securities announced the launch of Mutual Funds transactional capabilities on Facebook Messenger through their virtual assistant, Arya.
• HDFC securities (a subsidiary of HDFC Bank) rolled out a theme called “The Pace of Innovation” which is structured to innovate and provide intuitive, relevant digital solutions to customers.

10. RBI directs banks to put purchaser’s name on demand drafts

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made it compulsory to incorporate the purchaser’s name on the face of demand draft, pay order, banker’s cheques and other instruments.
• This directive will come into effect from 15th of September this year.
• The RBI took the decision to address concerns arising out of the possible misuse of anonymous DDs (Demand Drafts) for money laundering.

Note:

• A demand draft is a negotiable instrument similar to the bill of exchange.
• A bank issues a demand draft to a client (drawer), directing another bank (drawee) or one of its own branches to pay a certain sum to the specified party (payee).