Daily Current Affairs 17 April 2019: We have collected the latest current affairs for 17 April 2019 that are important for all competitive exams like bank, ssc, ibps, sbi exams. The GK current affairs will help you score more in these competitive exams. Improve your general knowledge with our daily online current affairs. You can also read the current affairs on our mobile app.
Current Affairs 17 April 2019
Second Edition of Indian Navy-Vietnam Peoples’ Navy Bilateral Exercise Concludes
- The second edition of the bilateral maritime exercise between Indian Navy and Vietnam Peoples’ Navy (IN – VPN BILAT EX) was held off Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam from April 13 to April 16, 2019.
- IN Ships Kolkata participated in the exercise comprising of a harbour and a sea phase.
- The exercise aimed at strengthening mutual confidence, inter-operability, sharing best practices besides boosting maritime engagement between the Indian and the Vietnam Peoples’ Navies.
General Bipin Rawat Commissions ICG Ship Veera
- Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, commissioned the Indian Coast Guard Ship Veera on April 15, 2019 at Naval Jetty at the dockyard in Visakhapatnam.
- Veera is the third in the series of seven offshore patrol vessels of the Coast Guard being built by L&T Ship Building at its facility at Kattupalli in Chennai.
- The Vikram-class offshore patrol vessel are long range surface ships which are capable of coastal and offshore patrolling.
- The other two active vessels include: ICGS Vikram and ICGS Vijaya
Mukesh Ambani, Arundhati and Menaka named in TIME 100: The Most Influential People of 2019
- TIME magazine has released the Time 100 Most Influential People 2019 list. Three Indians have been named in the list. Mukesh Ambani has been named in the list along with Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy.
- Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy are lawyers by profession and had fought for the LGBTQ+ rights. Arundhati and Menaka were instrumental in the Supreme Court partly striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
IDBI Bank launches ‘NRI-Insta-Online’ paperless account opening facility for NRIs
- IDBI Bank has launched the ‘NRI-Insta-Online’ account-opening facility for NRIs to open an account in IDBI Bank without submitting paper documents.
- The facility will be available to NRIs residing in Financial Action Task Force (FATF) member countries.
- FATF has 38 member countries. Applicants can open an account online by submitting the required documents online on the banks’ website and selecting their branch.
Canara Bank becomes first Public Sector Bank to shift to EMV chip cards as per RBI Mandate
- The Reserve Bank of India had mandated all banks to migrate the magnetic strip based ATM/Debit cards to EMV chip-and-PIN payment cards by December 31, 2018.
- In this direction, Canara Bank in association with ACI Worldwide has announced that Canara Bank has successfully rolled out major new functionality for this, to support EMV card across its ATM network. With this Canara Bank has become the first Public Sector bank to meet RBI’s EMV mandate.
- The technology developed by ACI and Canara Bank also speeds up the process of Aadhaar number linking, hence improving the KYC compliance at the bank’s branches.
IMF & World Bank Launches “Learning Coin” to Educate Staff about Blockchain
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have launched their own private blockchain and digital currency network on April 12 to familiarize staff with the concepts of cryptographic assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
- The new pseudo-token has been named as “Learning Coin” and has no real value. The purpose of such token is to generate understanding among relevant employees within the organizations about blockchain technology in the real world.
- The Staff members will earn the tokens by successfully clearing training goals. They can then exchange their earnings for rewards of some kind.
- These coins will only be accessible within the organizations and will not be able to buy real-world goods and services.
World’s Tallest Indoor Waterfall Launched at Singapore’s Changi Airport
- The Singapore’s Changi Airport which has been named “world’s best airport” for seven consecutive years by Skytrax, officially opened its new hub known as ‘Jewel’ on April 17, 2019.
- The Jewel Changi Airport is about $1.3 billion dollar project, connecting three of the four terminals at Changi Airport with the aim to increase the number of passengers coming to Singapore for visits and stopovers.
- The state of the art Jewel Changi features the most attractive indoor waterfall in addition to botanical gardens, 280 retail and food outlets, a cinema, as well as a hotel.
- Named as, HSBC Rain Vortex, the waterfall is said to be the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, which is 130-foot-tall and can channel 10,000 gallons of water per minute.
Mohammad Ishtayyeh Sworn in as Prime Minister of Palestine
- The President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, has confirmed the appointment of Dr. Mohammad Ishtayyeh as the new Prime Minister of the country with effect from April 14, 2019.
- The 61 year old Ishtayyeh will succeed Rami Hamdallah.
Salman Rushdie’s New Novel “Quichotte” to Release in August
- The British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie’s new novel “Quichotte” will be released in August 2019.
- This will be the 14th book of the Booker prize-winning author and will be published at Jonathan Cape in the UK on 29 August 2019.
- The book Quichotte is inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote, and tells the story of an ageing travelling salesman who falls in love with a TV star and sets off to drive across America on a quest to prove himself worthy of her hand.
World Hemophilia Day: April 17
- Every year the World Hemophilia Day is observed internationally on April 17 to raise awareness and understanding about hemophilia and other bleeding disorders.
- April 17, 2019, will mark the 30th World Hemophilia Day.
- The theme for 2019 World Hemophilia Day is “Reaching out – connect to your community”.
- The day is being held since 1989, which marks the birthday of Frank Schnabel, founder of the World Federation of Hemophilia.
Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, Son of Late Uttarakhand CM ND Tiwari, Passes Away
- Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, the son of late Uttarakhand Chief Minister N D Tiwari passed away. He was 40.
- In January 2017, Rohit Shekhar had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
- Narayan Dutt Tiwari who died on October 18 at the age of 93 has served as the chief of minister of Uttarakhand (2002–2007) and Uttar Pradesh (1976–77, 1984–85, 1988–89).