04 September 2018 - Daily Current Affairs

India along with 23 other nations has participated in a major Indian ocean-wide tsunami mock drill ‘IOWave18’ to enhance the tsunami preparedness at the community level.
The mock drill ‘IOWave18’ is being organised by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, which coordinated the setting up of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWMS) in the aftermath of December 2004 tsunami.
The objective of the exercise is to increase tsunami preparedness, evaluate response capabilities in each state and improve coordination throughout the region.

Note:

Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC), based out of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The National Nutrition Month is being celebrated across the country to mark the fight against malnutrition.
During this month, Various programmes have been organized by the Women and Child Development Ministry to spread broad awareness on the issues related to malnutrition like stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children.
The Nutrition Month will also focus on adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers to eliminate the deficiencies prevailing in the Health sector.

Note:

The Ministry is working on eight focused themes like optimal breastfeeding, growth monitoring, hygiene and sanitation, food fortification and girls' education, diet and marriage at right age etc. to achieve improvement in nutritional status of children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
The objective of the program to bring down the stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38% to 25% by 2022.

The National Housing Bank (NHB) has announced a refinance assistance of Rs 200 crore to the flood-hit state of Kerala.
It will provide relief to the households having annual income up to Rs 3 lakh (in rural areas) and up to Rs 6 lakh (in urban areas).
Individual housing loans (between August 1, 2018, and till June 30, 2019) by primary lending institutions in rural and urban areas of Kerala, are covered under this assistance.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has cleared the Jharkhand government's proposal to rename a railway station in Garhwa district after ‘Lord Krishna’.
The state government had proposed that the railway station and Nagar Untari town should be renamed as Banshidhar Nagar after Bandshidhar Temple.
The state government wants to develop the town on the lines of Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh to boost tourism in the city.

Appointments

R Madhavan took over as Chairman and Managing Director of defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from T Suvarna Raju.
Earlier, he was heading the Accessories Division of HAL at Lucknow as an Executive Director.
Madhavan has contributed to ‘Make in India’ drive by developing MSME vendors for aerospace manufacturing

Note:

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company headquartered in Bangalore, India.
It is governed under the management of the Indian Ministry of Defence.

Former Maharashtra football player Arthur Pereira (70-years) passed away in Mumbai.
Pereira toured Russia as a striker with the Indian team in 1971.
After his playing career, Pereira became a Physical Education teacher at St Joseph’s School in suburban Malad.

ITI Limited signed agreements with leading startups and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) covering the manufacturing of a wide range of ICT-IOT based solutions.
These include civil and military advanced radar systems, advanced edge router systems, next-generation 5G technology products, data storage and networking solutions, digital security solutions, advanced metering solutions, and wi-fi products and solutions.

Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) has set up at India Pavilion at the Food and Drink Technology Africa 2018 (4-6 September 2018).
Trade show being organized at Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The trade show covers the entire value chain related to food and beverages industry and offers solutions to the challenges and demands of the market in Southern Africa.
The India Pavilion is part of TPCI’s efforts to promote India’s trade related to food and beverages industry globally and with a special focus on Africa.
Food & Drink Technology Africa (FDT-Africa) is the premier beverage and food event in Southern Africa, tailored to promote the specific needs of the market.

According to RBI’s latest annual report for 2017-18, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has bought 8.46 tonne of gold in the financial year 2017-18.
The RBI held 566.23 tonnes of gold (as on June 30, 2018), compared with 557.77 tonnes (as on June 30, 2017).
In 566.23 tonne of gold reserves, 292.30 tonnes is held as backing for notes and the balance 273.93 tonnes is treated as an asset of the Banking Department.
Earlier, RBI purchased gold in November 2009, when it had bought 200 tonnes of yellow metal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The value of gold held as an asset of the Banking Department rose by 11.12% to Rs 69,674 crore as on June 30, 2018.
This increase was primarily due to the depreciation of rupee as against the dollar and the addition of 8.44 tonne of gold during the year.

England's leading Test run-scorer ‘Alastair Cook’ (33-years) will retire from international cricket after the conclusion of the fifth Test against India at Kennington Oval, London (from 7^th Sep 2018).
Cook is the sixth highest scorer in test cricket with 12,254 runs (32 centuries).
He is the youngest player to complete 12,000 Test runs (the 6th overall and the only Englishman).
The left-handed opening batsman captained England in 59 tests.

Former Indian middle-order batsman Subramaniam Badrinath (38-year) has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
In first-class cricket, he captains Vidarbha and was captain of Tamil Nadu earlier.
He scored 10,245 first-class runs from 145 First-class games and Tests (2), ODIs (7) and T20Is (1).

Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela have become the first set to secure quota places for the 2020 Olympics.
Moudgil (24-year) shot a total of 248.4 and won a silver in the women's 10m air rifle event of the International Shooting Sport Federation's (ISSF) World Championship in Changwon, South Korea.
Chandela aggregated 207 to finished fourth in the same event.
This is the premier tournament of the ISSF and assumes added significance as it is the first Olympic quota event for the Tokyo Games, offering as many as 60 berths across 15 events.