09 April 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

President Ramnath Kovind declared the 4th edition of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF India Rankings 2019) at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
He also announced the Atal Ranking of Institutions for Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) 2019.
The NIRF rankings were released for a total of 9 categories - Overall, Universities, Engineering, Colleges, Management, Pharmacy, Medical, Architecture, and Law.
The NIRF India Rankings 2019 for each category will also be released on the official website ‘nirfindia.org’.

Note:

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has been accepted by the Human Resource Development (MHRD) and launched by Honourable Minister for Human Resource development on 29th September 2015.
This framework outlines a methodology to rank institutions across the country.

S. No.	Categories	Names of Institution
1.	Overall	Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras
2.	University	Indian Institute of Science (IIS) Bangalore
3.	Engineering	Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)Madras
4.	College	Miranda House, Delhi
5.	Management	Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
6.	Pharmacy	Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi
7.	Law	National Law School of India University, Bengaluru
8.	Architecture	Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)Kharagpur
9.	Medical	All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi

Source: The Times of India

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with guidelines for banks to set up new currency chests, which include a minimum area of 1,500 square feet for the strong room.
The new chests should have a processing capacity of 6.6 lakh pieces of banknotes per day.
It added that for those situated in the hilly/ inaccessible places, capacity should be 2.1 lakh pieces of banknotes per day.
Earlier, RBI appointed committee had recommended that the apex bank should encourage banks to open large currency chests with modern facilities and Chest Balance Limit (CBL) of at least Rs 1,000 crore.

Note:

Currency chests are branches of selected banks authorized by the RBI to stock rupee notes and coins.
These chests act as the distributives of RBI cash and enable RBI to take back soiled notes and mutilated notes from the public.

Source: Money control

Important Dates

Today, President Ram Nath Kovind paid homage to the martyrs of police at National Police Memorial in New Delhi on 54th Valour Day of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Mr. Kovind also presented Gallantry medals to six Jawans posthumously.
As a tribute to the brave personnel of the Force, 9th April is celebrated as Valour Day in the Force.
The President also launched the App - Veer Parivar for assistance to next of kin of Martyrs of CRPF personnel.

Note:

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is India's largest Central Armed Police Forces.
It functions under the authority of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) of the Government of India.

Source: AIR News

Bollywood actor Shri Navtej Hundal passed away in Mumbai.
Mr. Hundal had been a part of films like Khalnayak (1993), Tere Mere Sapne (1996) and The Whisperers (2009).
The actor was last seen in Vicky Kaushal starrer ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ which released in January this year.
He played the role of the Home Minister in the movie.

Source: Indian Express

Former South Africa Women all-rounder Elriesa Theunissen-Fourie (25-years) passed away in a motor-car accident in Stilfontein in North West province of South Africa.
She represented South Africa in three One-Day Internationals and one T20I in 2013.
The medium pacer was even part of South Africa’s 2013 World Cup squad.

Source: The Hindu

Guillermo del Toro will expand the folklore around his Oscar-nominated film Pan's Labyrinth with a new novel titled Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun.
The novel is co-written by the filmmaker and Cornelia Funke.
The book will include stories that expand the folklore on which the original film was based on.

Source: The Indian Express

According to Ministry of Ayush, India is hosting a two-day convention to mark the ‘World Homeopathy Day’(10^th- April) at Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi (9-10th April 2019).
The day is observed to commemorate the birth anniversary of the founder of Homoeopathy, Dr. Christian Fredrich Samuel Hahnemann.
AYUSH awards relating to Homoeopathy for Life Time Achievement, Best Teacher, Young Scientist and Best Research paper will be conferred on this occasion.

Source: AIR News

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) bench, headed by the Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel has slapped an interim penalty of Rs 100 crore on the Andhra Pradesh government for inaction to prevent illegal sand mining in the state.
The tribunal directed the state government to deposit Rs 100 crore 'environment compensation' with the Central Pollution Control Board within a month.
The tribunal's direction came on a plea filed by Andhra Pradesh resident Anumolu Gandhi, alleging illegal sand mining was causing damage to Krishna, Godavari rivers and their tributaries in the state.

The first indigenous long-range artillery gun ‘Dhanush’ has been inducted into the Indian Army.
The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) handed over the first batch of six Dhanush artillery guns to the Army.
The 155 mm calibre artillery gun was manufactured by the Jabalpur-based Gun Carriage Factory.

Note:

Dhanush is a 155 mm, 45-calibre towed artillery gun with a range of 36 km and has demonstrated a range of 38 km with specialised ammunition. It is an upgrade of the existing 155m, 39 calibre Bofors FH 77 gun.
It is compatible with all North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) 155 mm ammunition system.

Source: The Hindu

Rahul Sharma (Micromax co-founder) has announced his new venture Revolt Intellicorp Pvt Ltd that will be making smart electric two-wheelers & connected devices.
The e-motorcycle is supposed to be launched in June this year.
As per some crucial specifications, the bike will be able to cover over 150 km on a single charge.

Source: Financial Express

Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper ‘Virat Kohli’ overtook Suresh Raina to become the leading run-scorer in the Indian Premier League.
Kohli also became the 2nd fastest after Chris Gayle to reach 8000 T20 runs.
Till date, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina are the only two players to score 5000 runs in the IPL. Both men got to the landmark this year.
Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians) is 3rd in the list of most runs in the IPL with 4600 runs.

Most Runs