CURRENT AFFAIRS JANUARY 12, 2018

NATIONAL

ISRO successfully launches its 100th satellite

  • Indian space agency ISRO launched its 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission.
  • Thirty-one spacecrafts, including weather observation Cartosat-2 series satellite were launched by PSLV-C40.
  • Out of the 31, 28 satellites are foreign, while three are from India.
  • The other satellites comprise one micro and nano satellite each from India as well as three micro and 25 nanosatellites from six countries — Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and United States of America.

ISRO

Headquarters: Bengaluru

Director: M Annadurai

Women leadership summit at IIM

  • The 4th Annual Women Leadership Summit will be held at IIM-Bangalore.
  • It is organised by the student-run Women in Management Club (WIM) of IIM-Bangalore.
  • The theme for 2018 is ‘Redefining Power for a Newer Tomorrow’.
  • Diversity issues prevalent to both men and women will be discussed during the summit.

Ministry of Railway launches SFOORTI App

  • Ministry of Railways have launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for Freight Managers.
  • It is a major digital initiative to plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations.
  • With this application, movement of freight trains on Geographic Information System (GIS) view can be tracked.
  • Both passenger and freight trains can be tracked over through this application.

Ministry of Railway

Railway Minister: Piyush Goyal

Constituency: Deoria, Uttar Pradesh

INTERNATIONAL

Australia India youth dialogue 2018

  • Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD) is a youth-led dialogue between the young and emerging leaders of both countries.
  • AIYD promotes exchange and partnering across organisations by hosting 15 talented young minds from each country annually. It also significantly strengthens the Australia-India bilateral relationship in different arenas.
  • The seventh edition of Australia India Youth Dialogue with 2018 theme “DIGITAL DISRUPTION”
  • AIYD 2018 will be hosted in Mumbai and Delhi from 21-24 January.

Australia

Capital: Canberra

Currency: Australian dollar

Prime Minister: Malcolm Turnbull

Israel PM Netanyahu to arrive on six-day visit to India

  • Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu will be on a six-day visit to India since 2003.
  • He will attend the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi besides meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
  • It was announced by Joint Secretary in External Affairs Ministry Dr. Bala Bhaskar.
  • Agriculture and water are the major strategic cooperation areas between the two nations and India will further expand the cooperation in these areas.
  • The bilateral trades between the two countries is 5 billion US dollar.

Israel

Capital: Jerusalem

Currency: Israeli new shekel

President: Reuven Rivlin

South Korea inks pact with GCCI for Business Cooperation

  • South Korea and the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) signed a memorandum of understanding for co-operation between industries.
  • The main objective of the MoU is to help Gujarat-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to explore opportunities through joint ventures with South Korean firms.
  • It mainly focuses on automobile, defence and textiles sectors.

GCCI president: Shailesh Patwari

South Korea Consul General: Kim Soungeun.

South Korea

Capital: Seoul

Currency: South Korean won

President: Moon Jae-in

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY

TN’s LoomWorld ties up with Amazon India

  • Amazon India has partnered with LoomWorld to offer handwoven products from Tamil Nadu on Amazons platform.
  • The tie-up is expected to promote goods produced by the 800 Weavers’ Cooperative Societies
  • It also supports 1.89 lakh households across the State.
  • It was announced by Minister for Handlooms and Textiles,OS Manian.

Reliance Jio plans its own cryptocurrency: JioCoin

  • Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd plans to create its own cryptocurrency, JioCoin.
  • Mukesh Ambani’s elder son Akash Ambani leads the JioCoin project.
  • Reliance Jio plans to build a 50-member team of young professionals to work on blockchain technology.
  • Mean while, the government has warned the public against investing in cryptocurrencies, terming them as “Ponzi schemes”
  • Bitcoins or any such cryptocurrency are not legal tender and those indulging in such transactions are doing it at their own risk, announced by arun jaitley recently.

APPOINTMENTS

First woman lawyer directly promoted as SC judge

  • The senior advocate Indu Malhotra is the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court.
  • Indu is a senior counsel practising in the Supreme Court for the past 30 years.
  • She will be one of only seven women judges that the top court has had so far since independence.
  • In 1989, Justice M Fathima Beevi became the first woman to be appointed as a judge of the apex court.

SPORTS

Wang Jiali has been banned for 8 years : CAA

  • China’s national marathon champion and Olympian Wang Jiali has been banned for eight years after failing a drugs test.
  • The CAA also fined Wang 40,000 yuan ($6,000) and banned her coach Lyu Qiang for life.
  • It was announced by China’s Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA).
  • She had recently won gold at the 2017 National Games.
  • Wang, who came 57th in the marathon at the 2012 London Olympics was banned for two years in 2013 for a previous violation.

IMPORTANT DAYS

National Youth Day – January 12

  • National youth day (Yuva Diwas or Swami Vivekananda Birthday) 2018 will be celebrated all over India on 12th of January.
  • It is celebrated in order to inspire all the youths of country towards the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and his ideals.
  • The theme of 2018 is  ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’.

     

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