Current Affairs Update – 18 January 2019

Current Affairs Update 18 January 2019

Current Affairs is an important part for many exams. Be prepared for this section with ByScoop which brings all the important Current Affairs in one place. 18 January 2019

Centre to make Euro 6 mandatory for initial launch of autmobiles from April 1, 2020

  • Union Minister for Transport Nitin Gadkari has announced that the central government has taken a decision to make Euro 6 mandatory for initial launch of automobiles from April 1, 2020.
  • The aim of Euro 6 is to reduce levels of harmful car and van exhaust emissions, both in petrol and diesel cars.

Government forms 8-member committee to decide lottery GST rates; Head- Sudhir Mungantiwar

  • GST Council has announced the formation of a Group of Ministers (GoM) panel to look into the differential GST rates on lottery tickets and tax issues arising from lottery sales.
  • The GoM/Committee will be headed by Sudhir Mungantiwar (Finance Minister of Maharashtra). The committee has 8 members.
  • The Panel will suggest if a uniform tax rate should be imposed on lotteries or the current system of differential tax rate be continued.
  • Currently, a state-organised lottery attracts 12 per cent GST while a state-authorised lottery attracts 28 per cent tax. 

Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates Diffo (Chipu) bridge in Arunachal Pradesh

  • Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited the India-China border in Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh and inaugurated the Diffo (Chipu) bridge at Roing.
  • The length of the bridge is 329-metre bridge.

PM Modi Inaugurates 9th Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar

  • Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the 9th edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on January 18, 2019.
  • The three-day investors’ meet will take place at Mahatma Mandir Exhibition cum Convention Centre from 18 – 20 January 2019
  • The theme of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2019 is “Shaping a New India.
  • 15 Countries are taking part as Partner Countries of this edition of Vibrant Gujarat while 11 international organizations are participating as partner organizations for the Summit. 
  • First edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit was held in 2003 under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was then the Chief Minister of Gujarat

IIT-Madras launches start-up “PadhAI” to train students in Artificial Intelligence (AI)

  • The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has launched a start-up name “PadhAI” to prepare the workforce about the Artificial Intelligence (AI) by training students at nominal costs.
  • The start-up “PadhAI” offers  hands-on course on ‘Deep Learning’ which is a sub-field of AI.

Reliance Retail, Jio to launch new e-commerce platform; Gujarat first state to get it

  • Mukesh Ambani has announced that  Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio Infocomm would jointly launch a new e-commerce platform in the country. Gujarat would be the first state to get it.

Global Risks Report 2019 released by World Economic Forum

  • The World Economic Forum has released the 14th edition of the Global Risks Report 2019.
  • The report presents the results of  latest Global Risks Perception Survey in which nine out of 10 respondents expect worsening economic and political confrontations between major powers this year.
  • The report mentioned that the largest Malicious cyber-attacks and lax cybersecurity protocols that led to massive breaches of personal information in 2018 was in India. The government ID database, Aadhaar, reportedly suffered multiple breaches that potentially compromised the records of all 1.1 billion registered citizens

China lowers final GDP growth for 2017 to 6.8%

  • National Bureau of Statistics of China  has lowered the final GDP growth attained by China in 2017 from 6.9 per cent, announced initially, to 6.8 per cent.
  • China calculates its GDP in two phases: first, preliminary estimations which gave rise to the figure of 6.9 per cent revealed in January 2018. There is then another phase of final revision, whose results were published on January 18, 2019.
  • According to the final review, China’s GDP in 2017 was not 82.71 trillion yuan ($12.2 trillion) as previously published but 82.08 trillion yuan ($12.1 trillion).

Justice Maheshwari, Justice Khanna sworn in as SC Judges

  • Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna were sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court on January 18, 2019. They were administered the oath by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
  • With the appointment of Justice Maheshwari and Justice Khanna the total strength of Judges in Supreme Court is 28 against its sanctioned strength of 31.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa takes oath as new Chief Justice of Pakistan

  • Justice Asif Saeed Khosa  took oath as the 26th Chief Justice of Pakistan on January 18, 2019.
  • President Arif Alvi administered oath to the new Chief Justice who took office after the retirement of Chief Justice Saqib Nisar.

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