Current Affairs Update 6 September 2018
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. 6 September 2018
7 new IIMs to get permanent campus by June 2021
- The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the establishment and operationalization of permanent campus of seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) by June 2021 at a total cost of Rs 3775.42 crore.
- They will be set up at Amritsar, Bodh Gaya, Nagpur, Sambalpur, Sirmaur, Vishakhapatnam and Jammu.
- These IIMs were established in the year 2015-16/2016-17. and are presently functioning from transit campuses. With this, all the 20 IIMs will have their own permanent campuses.
- The total expenditure includes Rs 2999.96 crore as Non-Recurring and Rs 775.46 Crore as Recurring Expenditure.
Maiden India-United States 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue Held in New Delhi
- The first-ever India-United States 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue was held in New Delhi on September 6, 2018 with main focus on Defence Cooperation and counter terrorism.
- US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Defence Secretary James N Mattis visited India to hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the dialogue.
- A Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) was inked between the two parties.
- The pact will enable Indian military to obtain critical, secure and encrypted defence technologies from US and access critical communication network to ensure interoperability among the US and the Indian armed forces.
- The next 2+2 meeting is to be held in the United States in 2019.
Ministry of Railways organises seminar on ‘Leveraging IT for Mobility’
- The Ministry of Railways in collaboration with Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) had organised a seminar on “Leveraging IT for Mobility” in New Delhi.
- Minister of Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and launched a new app – “AAPOORTI’ mobile App of ‘Indian Railways e-procurement system’.
- The seminar focused on discussing how IT can be leveraged to enhance mobility for the Railways such as continuous information availability to customers, network optimisation, end-to-end visibility of cargo, and maintenance of assets using IoT.
- The Aapoorti App provides information and data related to e-tendering and e-auction related activities of Indian Railways.
Home Minister inaugurates Defence & Homeland Security Expo and Conference
- The 3-day Defence & Homeland Security Expo and Conference – 2018 was inaugurated by the Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh in New Delhi.
- The conference was organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in association with Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
- The expo is being organised for the first time to make leading policy makers and luminaries from diverse defence segments take part with special focus on MSMEs in defence production and procurement.
- The Minister called upon the law enforcement agencies to adopt new technologies to enhance their capacities to contain terror and to counter the emerging challenges to homeland security.
Tourism Ministry Sanctions Rs. 80.37 Crores for Development of Rural Circuit In Kerala
- The Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned the project “Development of Rural Circuit: Malanad Malabar Cruise Tourism Project’ in Kerala under Swadesh Darshan Scheme for Rs. 80.37 Crores.
- The project envisages development of three thematic cruises in and around Valapattanam and Kuppam Rivers of Kannur District. These includes:
- Malabari Cuisine and Culinary Cruise in Valapattanam River (Muthappan Cruise) – 40 km cruise begins from Valapattanam to Munambu Kadavu in Valapattanam River.
- Theyyam Cruise in Valapattanam River – The 16 km Cruise starts from Valapattanam to Pazhayangadi in Valapattanam River.
- Mangrove Cruise in Kuppam River – The 16 km Cruise starts from Pazhayangadi to Kuppam in Kuppam River.
Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats Scheme to Continue Beyond 12th Plan
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved continuation of the Centrally Sponsored Umbrella Scheme of Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (CSS-IDWH) beyond the 12th Plan period from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
- The Scheme consists of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger (CSS-PT), Development of Wildlife Habitats (CSS-DWH) and Project Elephant (CSS-PE).
- The total outlay is Rs.1731.72 crore as central share that includes
- Project Tiger- Rs. 1143 crore
- Development of Wildlife Habitats – Rs. 496.50 crore
- Project Elephant – Rs.92.22 crore
6th Bengaluru Space Expo Begins
- The 6th edition of Bangalore Space Expo-2018 (BSX 2018) began at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), Bengaluru from September 6-8, 2018.
- The focused theme for this edition is “Creating dynamism in Indian Space Ecosystem”.
- The biennial event has been organised by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Antrix Corporation Limited
India-Sri Lanka Joint Exercise SLINEX-2018 to Begin Sept 7
- Indian navy ships and aircraft have arrived in Sri Lanka to take part in the joint exercise SLINEX-2018 to be held at Trincomalee, Sri Lanka from 07 -13 September 2018.
- The exercise which was previously held biannually has been converted to an annual event from this year to enhance cooperation in the maritime domain and to further strengthen mutual trust and interoperability between the two navies.
- The week long exercise will be conducted in two phases, namely the Harbour and Sea Phase.
- The scope of the exercise has been significantly increased this year with three ships, two maritime patrol aircraft and one helicopter participating from the Indian side. In addition, Sri Lanka Air Force personnel would also join in the exercise for the first time.
Microsoft releases Indian language ‘Speech Corpus’ for researchers
- To help researchers and academia build Indian language speech recognition for all applications where speech is used, Microsoft India launched its Indian language “Speech Corpus”, offering speech training and test data for Telugu, Tamil and Gujarati.
- This is the largest publicly available Indian language speech dataset which includes audio and corresponding transcripts
Airtel Payments Bank enables card-less cash withdrawal at ATMs
- Airtel Payment Bank, India’s first payments bank, has tied up with Empays to enable card-less cash withdrawals at over 100,000 ATMs across India.
- Airtel Payments Bank’s savings account holders can now withdraw cash using just their mobile phone through the card-less cash technology of Empays, called IMT (Instant Money Transfer).