23 April 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

1. Asian Badminton Championships begins at Wuhan in China

Today, the Asia Badminton Championships has begun at Wuhan Sports Center Gymnasium in China.
255 players from 21 nations are participating in this edition and the total prize money is USD 400,000.
India will be represented by Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma in men's singles and P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in women's singles.

Note:

The 2019 Badminton Asia Championships is the 39th edition of the Badminton Asia Championships.
This tournament is hosted by the Chinese Badminton Association, with the sanctioned from the Badminton Asia.

Source: AIR news

Important Days

2. The World Book & Copyright Day being observed today

The ‘World Book and Copyright Day’ (WBCD) is being observed every year on 23^rd April to raise awareness about the importance of reading and promote publishing and the protection of copyright around the globe.
The aim is to make books accessible to the city’s entire population, including migrants and refugees.
It is on this date (in 1616) that Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all passed away.

Note:

UNESCO at its General Conference held in Paris chose 23rd of April to celebrate World Book Day as it is a highly symbolic date for world literature in 1995.

Source: UN.Org

3. 23rd April: United Nations English Language Day

The United Nations English Language Day is being observed annually on 23 April across the world to entertain as well as inform people about the culture, history, and achievements associated with the English language.
It is the date traditionally observed as both the birthday and date of death of the greatest writer ever known in the English language ‘William Shakespeare’.
English has an official or special status in at least 75 countries that have a total population of over two billion.

Note:

The day was established in 2010 by the Department of Public Information, as a result of its efforts to establish language days for each of United Nation’s six official languages.

The days are as follows:

Arabic days: 18 December
Chinese day: 20 April
French day: 20 March
Russian day: 6 June
Spanish day: 23 April

Source: UN.Org

Appointments

4. Twitter appoints Manish Maheshwari as new India MD

Manish Maheshwari (CEO of Network18 Digital) has been appointed as the Managing Director (MD) of Twitter (U.S.-based microblogging platform) for India operations.
Mr.Maheshwari takes over from interim head Balaji Krish.
He will be responsible for driving an integrated business strategy to accelerate Twitter’s audience and revenue growth in the country.

Note:

Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets".
As of 2018, Twitter had more than 321 million monthly active users.

Source: The Economic Times

Honours & Awards

5. Sunil Kumar Gautam felicitated with Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Award for 2018-19

Sunil Kumar Gautam (IPS-officer) has been honoured with the Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Award for the year 2018-19 for his book ‘Samvidhan Kavya’(Constitution of India in Poetic form).
The award was presented by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
The book depicts the Constitution of India in a very simple and poetic form to make it understandable to the common man in a very simple manner.
In addition to this, books of four other police officers from across the country have also been rewarded.
The selection of books was done in the meeting of the evaluation committee under the chairmanship of Sudip Lakhtakia, Director General, BPR&D.

Source: Business Standard

6. Gagandeep Kang becomes first Indian woman Royal Society Fellow

Professor Gagandeep Kang (56-year) has become the first Indian female scientist to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in the UK fellowship’s 358-year-history.
Dr Kang is known for her inter-disciplinary research studying the transmission, development and prevention of enteric infections and their sequelae in children in India.
She is the Executive Director of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute at Faridabad.
Other notable FRS inducted in 2019 include Fields Medal-winning mathematicians Akshay Venkatesh and Manjul Bhargav.

Source: The Hindu

Banking and Finance

7. SBI General Insurance launches Cyber Defence Insurance

SBI General Insurance (SBIG) has launched a product to protect businesses from financial and reputational losses due to cyber-attacks.
In the initial phase, it will focus on small medium-sized enterprise (SME), mid-market businesses.
The new insurance plan of SBI General Insurance comes with CyRUSS (Cyber Risk Underwriting and Solution Suite).
CyRUSS is a cloud-based tool for commercial cyber policies including risk assessment, ongoing risk management and claim management as well.

Note:

SBI General Insurance Company Limited is considered one of the leading non-life insurers in India.
It is a joint venture between Insurance Australia Group (IAG) and the State Bank of India.

Note: Business Today

National Affairs

8. Naval Commanders’ Conference - 2019 begins in New Delhi

The first edition of Naval Commanders’ Conference of 2019 has begun in New Delhi.
The three days conference is the apex forum within the Service for interaction between the Naval Commanders.
It will provide the higher naval leadership a forum to discuss the emerging challenges in the maritime domain.
The conference also serves as a platform for interaction of Naval Commanders with senior Government Officials.

Source: AIR News

Obituaries

9. Noted lady Mountaineer Rama Sengupta Paul passes away

The veteran lady mountaineer of the country Rama Sengupta Paul (66-years) has passed away following a cardiac arrest.
She led the first successful all-women expedition to Krdarnath Dome in Garhwal Himalaya.
Rama was a member of Indo-Japanese Women expedition to Kamet and Abi Gamin organized by Indian Mountaineering Foundation in 1976.

Source: United News of India

International Affairs

10. Mount Agung volcano in Bali resort Island erupted

Mount Agung on Indonesia's resort island of Bali has erupted again (last eruption in 1963).
The volcano's status remains on alert, or level three of four possible levels and authorities continue to impose a 4-kilometre exclusion zone.
Thousands of masks have been distributed to the communities amid the fears of the ashes impacting human respiratory.
Mount Agung is situated in Karangasem district and about 70 km from tourist hub Kuta.

Source: Straits Times

11. Saudi Arabia to host the G20 leaders' summit in November 2020

Saudi Arabia (first G20 meeting in the Arab world) will host the G20 summit on 21-22 November 2020 in its capital Riyadh.
First-ever ‘Japan’ will host this year's G20 summit in Osaka (28-29 June 2019).

Note:

The G20 (Group of Twenty) is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 19 countries and the European Union.
It was founded in 1999 with the aim to discuss policy pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability

Source: Aljazeera