Current Affairs 14th sep 2018

Man Kaur, a 102-year-old Chandigarh-based athlete, won the 200m race in the 100-104 age group category at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Spain.  Last year, Man Kaur won 100m gold at the World Masters Games at Auckland, New Zealand. World Masters game is considered as an Olympics for senior citizens.

Apple unveiled its updated version of iPhones along with a new smartwatch which allows users to take their own Electrocardiograms (ECG). Apple revealed its updated iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. They are aimed at maintaining Apple’s share in the premium segment.  The new phones have displays of 5.8 and 6.5 inches, boosting screen size while keeping a small-format handset. The Smartwatch is built with an ability to perform ECG. The watch, sold in the U.S. from $399 and up, will be available in stores on September 21. The iPhone XS Max will sell for about $1,100, or $100 more than last year’s iPhone X. The iPhone XR will use cheaper materials and sell for about $750.

Apsara, located at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) in Mumbai, was shut down in 2009 for repair. The refurbished version of the reactor is named as ‘Apsara-upgraded’ (Apsara-U). Apsara is a highly versatile swimming pool type of reactor that was built in August 1956. This reactor provides much needed isotopes for medical purposes and also helps refine the design of India’s nuclear weapons.

Justice Mukul Mudgal, who headed the Supreme Court-appointed probe into the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scandal, has been named chairman of the 11-member selection committee to pick this year’s Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand awardees. Dronacharya award is presented to coaches for their work on a consistent basis over a period of four years. The Dhyan Chand award is bestowed on sportspersons for their life-time achievement and contribution to sport during both their active career and after retirement. The National Sports Awards ceremony will be organised on September 25 this year.

The government has banned manufacturing, sale and distribution of 328 Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) drugs including the painkiller Saridon, the skin cream Panderm, combination diabetes drug Gluconorm, antibiotic Lupidicl, x and antibacterial Taxim AZ with immediate effect citing safety concerns. The banned FDCs account for about Rs 2,500 crore.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) defeated a proposal to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic at a meeting in Brazil. The proposal received support from 39 countries but was opposed by 25. Brazil first introduced the proposal in 2001.  Japan and few other nations argued that there is no need for sanctuary because countries are not currently doing commercial whaling in the South Atlantic. Other environmental groups and conservationists argued that the sanctuary would protect whales from being hunted, trapped in fishing gear or struck by ships.

The sweetmeat was prepared by Suruchi Food at Tapeswaram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. The laddu costs about ₹3 lakh, with 220 kg sugar, 145 kg cow ghee, 175 kg Bengal gram flour, 25 kg cashew, going into its making besides other ingredients.

NASA is set to launch the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), a satellite equipped with the most advanced laser instrument of its kind. ICESat-2 will provide observations of how the Earth’s ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice are changing. ICESat-2 represents a major technological leap in the ability to measure changes in ice height. ICESat-2 will measure height using Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS). It measures the height by calculating the amount of time taken by individual light photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back.   ATLAS will fire 10,000 times each second, sending hundreds of trillions of photons to the ground in six beams of green light. ICESat-2 will measure the heights of the ice along the same path in the polar regions four times a year to provide seasonal ice elevation changes.

She is the new managing director and CEO for a period of three years. The terms of appointment are subject to approval by the shareholders and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Russia and Japan sign a peace treaty in 2018. The proposal was made during a session in the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF). Japan welcomed Mr.Putin’s sudden proposal.  Both Russia and Japan are to resolve the territorial dispute before signing a peace deal. The dispute between Russia and Japan centres on four islands namely Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, in the strategically-located Kuril chain which the Soviet Union occupied at the end of the war in 1945 but are claimed by Japan.

The platform has been developed by global payments and technology company Mastercard and aims to digitize agriculture marketplaces, payments, workflows, and provide farmers an easy and secure way to buy, sell and receive payments for agricultural products via their feature phones.  e-Rythu was launched by chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The main aim of the scheme is to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce as announced in the Union Budget for 2018 the announcement was made by the Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh in New Delhi.  1. Price Support Scheme (PSS),  2. Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS), and  3. Pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme (PPPS).

The mission, which also celebrates the fourth anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission will take place across the length and breadth of the country and will continue till Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on October 2.  The initiative will see people from all walks of life taking part in various cleanliness drives across the length and breadth of the country.

Opera House, the 33,000 sq ft iconic building in the city’s central business district, has been given a facelift to showcase Samsung’s mobile devices and other consumer electronic products.  It has a service centre for phones and is equipped with high-speed public Wi-Fi.

Tata Power has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Da Afghanistan Bresha Sherkat (DABS), an Afghanistan Government-owned power distribution company. The MoU was signed during the second India-Afghanistan International Trade and Investment show.  The agreement aimed at production, distribution and transmission of power in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, only 35% of the people have access to electricity despite its huge natural resources, including rivers and sun power which can help sustain the country. In this area, Tata Power would work very closely with the state-government power distribution company as well as local entrepreneurs.

The awards were given by Union Minister of Steel, Chaudhary Birender Singh, at a function in New Delhi.  India is the 3rd largest steel producer in the world.  Steel contributes to over 2% to India’s GDP and creates a virtuous cycle of employment generation throughout the economy.

Chinese Consul General Ma Zhanwu said that the bullet train, on a daily basis, between Kolkata and Kunming in southwest China, covering the distance of about 1,500 km in two hours could be established. The train will pass through which will pass through other neighbouring countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh. He said the rail route was aimed at boosting trade flow in the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor. Myanmar and Bangladesh would also benefit from the project. He also mentioned that China is striving hard to revive the Silk Route to increase connectivity from Kunming to Kolkata.

The Delhi government has asked all Delhi schools including government, government-aided and private schools, to collect Aadhaar details of their students. The government is to create a DATA BANK of the students of Delhi. The move is because of the study in two east Delhi schools which stated that 60% of students in one and 50% in the other were residents of a neighbouring State. The reason for collecting information and documents from students studying Delhi Schools can help the government to analyze the information for various purposes of the department.  To this move of the government, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that the AAP government violates the right to privacy of the students and their families.

This initiative will cost the government around Rs12,134 crore. The main aim is to electrify 108 sections of the railways covering 13,675 route kilometres of tracks. Indian Railways is the largest rail networks in the world with 67,368km of tracks and 22,550 trains that carry 22.24 million passengers and 3.04 million tonnes of freight every day.

The partnership between Unlimit end-to-end  Internet of Things (IoT) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will leverage seamless wireless network footprint pan India to provide its solutions and services across industries.  About Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)  Founded: 1 October 2000; 17 years ago Headquarters: New Delhi, India Anupam Shrivastava is the Chairman & Managing Director and Director of BSNL.