Current Affairs Update 09 July 2018

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Rajnath Singh to chair North Eastern Council meet in Shillong

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will chair a two-day plenary meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC) at Shillong in Meghalaya on July 9. NEC is a regional planning body of eight Northeastern states.
The meeting being held for the first time after the Union Cabinet brought NEC under direct control of the Home Ministry, will have DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh, Governors and Chief Ministers of all the Northeastern states as participants.
Some of the major issues to be discussed are transformation of several districts in the region, strengthening livelihood programmes, water resources management, catchment area treatment through afforestation, doubling farmers’ income by 2022, road connectivity and continuation of NEC schemes till March 2020 as approved by the Cabinet in March 2018.

‘Mukhyamantri Teerth Yatra Yojana’ launched by Delhi Government

Delhi Government has approved ‘Mukhyamantri Teerth Yatra Yojana’ under which 1,100 senior citizens from each of the 70 Delhi Assembly constituencies can undertake free pilgrimage.
Any resident of Delhi above the age of 60 will be eligible to undertake pilgrimage, accompanied by an attendant above the age of 18, whose expenditure will also be borne by the government.
Pilgrims will get an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh each. Employees of central, state, local government or autonomous bodies are not eligible.

Kasturirangan Committee on New Education Policy gets Another Extension

The Kasturirangan Committee, entrusted with the job of drafting the New Education Policy, has been granted the third extension from the Union Human Resource Development Ministry till 31st August to give final shape to the policy.
The panel headed by the former ISRO Chief K Kasturirangan was supposed to submit its report by June 30. This is the third extension granted to the panel.
The panel was set up by the HRD Ministry in June 2017. It was supposed to submit its initial report by December 2017, but was then given an extension till March 2018 and further an extension of three months till June 2018.
The committee has eight members, including mathematician Manjul Bhargava.
The existing National Education Policy was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992. A new policy was part of the manifesto of the BJP.

First ever ‘India Tourism Mart’ to be hosted in New Delhi

Ministry of Tourism will organize the ‘first ever’ India Tourism Mart (ITM) from 16^th to 18^th September, 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
Ministry will organise the Mart in partnership with the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) and with the support of State /UT Governments.
The objective of the event is to create an annual Global Tourism Mart for India in line with major international travel marts being held in countries across the world.

CEERI’s Delhi Campus to Have India’s 1st Industrial AI Supercomputer

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has joined hands with US-based chip-designer NVIDIA Corp to set up a Centre of Excellence to offer the industry a complete design and implementation environment for the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based applications.
The CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) in Delhi and US-based chip-designer NVIDIA Corp signed an MoU to set up CEERI- NVIDIA Centre of Excellence (CNCoE) at CEERI’s New Delhi Campus.
This research lab will house high-throughput AI computing infrastructure and India’s first industrial Artificial Intelligence (AI) supercomputer.
The CEERI-NVIDIA Centre of Excellence (CNCoE) will be powered by a five-petaflop AI supercomputer
The computing systems will be open for CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) to use, as well as public and private organizations and industries across the country, to conduct research and development.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in Arrives India on 4-day Visit

The President of South Korean, Moon Jae-in, is on four days visit to India from July 8. He is being accompanied by his wife Kim Jung-sook on his maiden visit to the nation.
The visit aims to focus on expanding “future-oriented cooperation” between the two countries.
The two nations will hold talks on key issues such as the situation on the Korean peninsula, and ways to boost trade and defence cooperation. President Moon will also attend the India-Korea business forum.
As a part of the visit, the Union Commerce and Industries Minister Suresh Prabhu and South Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-Chong signed agreements on trade and commerce to further bilateral ties between the two countries.

Momota Wins Indonesia Open Title

Japanese shuttler Kento Momota claimed his second Indonesia Open badminton title after defeating top- seeded Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in men’s single final in the tournament, a BWF Tour 1000 event.
The 23 year old had earlier won the bronze in 2015 Indonesia Open. However, he was slapped with a 12-month ban by the Japan Badminton Association the following year after being caught gambling in an illegal casino.
The event is also a tune-up for the biggest badminton event of 2018 – the BWF World Championships, which will be held from July 30 to August 5 in Nanjing, China.

Event	Winner	Runner Up
Women’s Single	Tai Tzu Ying (Taiwan)	Chen Yufei (China)
Men’s Double	Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (Indonesia)	Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko (Japan)
Women’s Double	Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirot (Japan)	Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara (Japan)
Mixed Double	Tontowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir (Indonesia)	Chan Peng Son and Goh Liu Ying (Malaysia)

PR Sreejesh to captain Indian hockey team at Asian Games 2018

Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will be the captain of the 18-member Indian men’s hockey squad in the 18th Asian Games, to be held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia.
Chinglensana Singh Kangujam will be the vice captain.

‘The English Patient’ wins Golden Man Booker Prize

Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, essayist and novelist Michael Ondaatje’s bestselling novel “The English Patient” has been crowned the Golden Man Booker Prize for the best work of fiction.
The award was presented during the event of the Man Booker 50 Festival in Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre to mark the 50th anniversary of the finest fiction award “Man Booker Prize.”
All 51 previous winners were considered by a panel of five specially appointed judges to shortlist 5 novels.
The English Patient, which won the Man Booker Prize in 1992, is a compelling work of fiction, both poetic and philosophical.

Brexit Secretary David Davis Resigns

David Davis, the man responsible for overseeing the UK’s exit from the European Union has resigned, citing differences with Prime Minister Theresa May.
The May cabinet has recently approved a plan to retain strong alignment with the European Union even after leaving the bloc.
The 69-year-old Brexit Minister Davis and some MPs in Teresa’s own party however wanted a cleaner break from the bloc. Following Davis resignation, some fellow Brexit ministers have also resigned from the post.
A long-time eurosceptic, Davis was appointed two years ago to head up the newly-created Department for Exiting the European Union after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a historic referendum.
The UK is due to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019 after a referendum was held in 2016.

Ireland Marks National Day of Commemoration

Ireland observed country’s National Day of Commemoration on July 8, 2018 (Sunday), with main function held at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin, Ireland.
The day is marked to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the nation in past wars as well as in the United Nations peacekeeping missions.
The National Day of Commemoration is marked annually in Ireland on the Sunday nearest to July 11th, a day when the Irish War of Independence ended in 1921.

Local Area Plan (LAP) & Town Planning Scheme (TPS) To Be Implemented In 25 Cities

Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has formulated two schemes under the AMRUT Scheme.
First is the Local Area Plan (LAP) scheme to enable planning for developing infrastructure in the Brownfield areas. Brownfield areas are those parts of the city that are already developed but not able to sustain the pressure on the existing infrastructure.
Second is the Town Planning Scheme (TPS) to enable planning for developing infrastructure in the Greenfield areas. Greenfield areas are the periphery of the city that is prone to haphazard growth and development).
They will be implemented in 25 selected cities on pilot basis with 100% assistance from Central Government.
An amount of Rs. 50 crore would be provided as Central assistance @ Rs 2.00 crore per city for identified 25 cities for preparing LAP/TPS.

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Current Affairs Update – 09 July 2018