Daily Current Affairs 17 January 2020: We have collected the latest current affairs for 17 January 2020 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 daily current affairs on our mobile app.

Current Affairs 17 January 2020

First Agribusiness and Rural Development Summit “Krishi Manthan” Held in Gujarat

• The first edition of the Krishi Manthan, the largest Food, Agri-business and Rural Development Summit of Asia was held at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) in Gujarat on 16-17 January 2020.
• The Summit was organised by the Food and Agribusiness Committee of IIMA.
• More than 1,500 delegates including students and academicians participated in the two-day event to share ideas, knowledge, and expertise to create solutions.

Vijay Rupani Flags-off State of Art Tejas express between Mumbai-Ahmedabad

• Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani flagged off Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas express at Ahmedabad Railway Station on 17 January 2020.
• The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas express is India’s second premium train operated by private operators, IRCTC, a subsidiary of Indian Railways.
• The first such train is Lucknow – New Delhi Tejas Express, which started its operations on 4 October 2019.
• The Ahmedabad-Mumbai Tejas express will begin its commercial run from January 19, 2020.
• The Tejas express is one of India’s semi-high speed fully air-conditioned Train having several modern features such as sliding doors, personalized reading lights, mobile charging points, attendant call buttons, bio-toilets, automatic entry and exit doors, CCTV cameras, reclining facility, comfortable seats, etc.
• The Railways has proposed to run 150 such premium trains across the country.
• IRCTC will compensate passengers for delays by providing Rs 100 to each passenger in case delay is more than one hour and Rs 250 if delay exceeds two hours.

Rajnath Singh dedicates 51st K9 Vajra-T guns to nation

• Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh dedicated to the nation the 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Armoured System Complex at Hazira in Gujarat on 16 January 2020.

‘K9 VAJRA-T’ Guns

• The ‘K9 VAJRA-T’ Tracked, Self-Propelled Howitzer Guns are being manufactured by Larsen & Toubro under the contract awarded to the company by Ministry of Defence through global competitive bidding to deliver 100 such guns.
• More than 75 percent of K9 Vajra has been manufactured in India.
• The gun weighs 50 tonnes and can fire 47-kilogram bombs at targets up to a distance of 43 kilometres. It can also turn around at zero radius.

Other Reforms in Defence Industry

• To achieve $26 billion defence industry by 2025, Shri Rajnath Singh also listed out various reforms introduced by the Government under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, which would in-turn also provide employment to 2-3 million people. Some of them includes:
  • Setting up of Defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu;
  • Simplification of industry licensing process;
  • Increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap;
  • Steps to promote defence exports;
  • Streamlining of Defence offsets policy;
  • Establishing Defence Investor Cell;
  • Providing Government-owned trial and testing facility to the private sector
  • Schemes for startups and small & medium enterprises to promote innovation among other.

Arunachal Pradesh Becomes First State to ink Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IUCN

• Aunachal Pradesh has become the first State in India to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• As per the MoU, the state government will collaborate to prepare the IUCN’s Red List Assessment for all orchids in the State.
• The Department of Environment and Forest is the nodal department for execution of the project.
• The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is a critical indicator of the health and conservation status of the world’s biological species. It uses a set of criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies.
• The project will spread across 12 months, wherein training workshops for Red List Assessment will be conducted by experts from IUCN.
• IUCN Headquarters: Gland, Switzerland

World Bank and GOI Inks USD 88 million loan agreement for the implementation of Assam Inland Water Transport Project

• The Government of India, the Government of Assam and the World Bank has signed a loan agreement worth $88 million for the implementation of the Assam Inland Water Transport Project (AIWTP).
• The loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) will help to
  • Modernize the passenger ferry infrastructure and its services
  • Strengthen the capacity of the institutions running the inland water transport
  • Make ferry services more sustainable with least disruption to nature, because of technically better designed terminals and energy-efficient vessels (both new and retrofitted).
• A majority of Assam’s more than 361 ferry routes cross the Brahmaputra or serve its islands, providing a crucial means of transport to thousands of commuters in both the urban and rural areas of the Brahmaputra Valley.

Government Constitutes 11-member Committee to draft the National Water Policy with Dr Mihir Shah as Chairman

• The Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti has constituted 11-member drafting committee on 5 November, 2019 to revise the National Water Policy 2012, in order to meet the present challenges in water sector.
• Dr Mihir Shah, Distinguished Professor at the Shiv Nadar University, a leading multidisciplinary and research-focused university has been appointed the Chairman of the Committee to draft the National Water Policy.
• The committee will submit the draft to the government within six months from the date of its constitution.

Members of the committee

• • Dr Mihir Shah, Distinguished Professor, Shiv Nadar University
  • Shashi Shekhar, former Secretary, Water Resources, Government of India
  • Dr RC Panda, former secretary, Government of India
  • AB Pandya, former chairman of the Centre Water Commission (CWC)
  • Prof Tushaar Shah, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
  • Prof Anamika Barua, IIT Guwahati
  • Dr Himanshu Kulkarni, Advanced Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (ACWADAM), Pune
  • Srinivas Chokkakula, Centre of Policy Research
  • B Rath, Technical Expert (Water Management), National Rainfed Area Authority, Development of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare,
  • Brijesh Sikka, Retd. Scientist ‘G’, National River Conservation Directorate
  • Prof KJ Joy, Senior Fellow, Society of promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM)

Lt Col Yuvraj Malik Appointed Director of National Book Trust

• Lt Col Yuvraj Malik has been appointed the Director of the National Book Trust (NBT).
• Malik has joined the NBT on deputation from the Indian Army on January 8, 2020.
• He takes over from Sahitya Akademi-awardee writer Rita Chowdhury.
• NBT is an Indian publishing house functioning under aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India.

Senior Indian Advocate Harish Salve Appointed Queen’s Counsel for Courts of England & Wales

• Noted Indian lawyer Harish Salve has been appointed as Queen’s Counsel (QC) for the courts of England and Wales.
• The title of Queen’s Counsel is awarded to lawyers who have demonstrated particular skill and expertise in the conduct of advocacy.
• Salve, along with other appointees will be formally appointed as QC on March 16, 2020.
• Advocate Salve served as a Solicitor General for India from November 1999 to November 2002.
• He is known for representing India before the International Court of Justice in the Kulbhushan Jadhav extradition case.

Sindhi writer Vasdev Mohi Selected for 29th Saraswati Samman

• Eminent Sindhi poet and writer Vasdev Mohi has been selected for the 29th Saraswati Samman, a literary recognition given annually by the KK Birla Foundation.
• He has been selected for this prestigious literary award for his work, ‘Chequebook’, a collection of short stories in Sindhi, published in 2012.
• ‘Chequebook’ highlights the life of a domestic helper, facing ill-treatment from her husband and hardships because of poverty.
• Saraswati Samman carries a cash award of Rs 15 lakh rupees, a citation and a plaque.

Click Here For Daily Current Affairs

Click Here for Daily Current Affairs Quiz