DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: FEBRUARY 24, 2018

NATIONAL

India to host 1st International Solar Alliance on 11th March:

India will host the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit on 11th March, which will be attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The ISA aims to launch 121 projects during the summit. During the summit, two new programmes will be inaugurated on- Scaling Solar E-Mobility and Storage, and Rooftop Solar. The summit will be held in Delhi.

‘Dhanush’ ballistic missile successfully test-fired:

India successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable ‘Dhanush‘ ballistic missile with a strike range of 350 km from a naval ship off Odisha coast.

The surface-to-surface missile, a naval variant of the indigenously-developed ‘Prithvi’ missile, was test-fired from the ship positioned near Paradip in the Bay of Bengal.

Odisha

Capital: Bhubaneswar
Chief Minister: Naveen patnaik
Governor: S. C. Jamir

CII partnership summit begins in Vizag:

The third Partnership Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will begin, with over 2,000 delegates attending the meet.

About 40 percent of the delegates belong to other countries.

Vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the three-day event. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Ashok Gajapathi Raju will attend the function.

Andhra Pradesh

Capital: Amaravati
Chief Minister: Chandrababu Naidu
Governor: E. S. L. Narasimhan

Assam to observe ‘Rhino Day’ on September 22:

The Assam government will be observing September 22 as ‘Rhino Day’ to generate public awareness on protection of the one-horned pachyderm, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

A State Rhino Project in line with National Rhino Project will be launched in Assam soon for protecting the pachyderms from threats of poaching.

Assam

Capital: Dispur
Chief Minister: Sarbananda Sonowal
Governor:Prof Jagdish Mukhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates projects worth 1,000 crore rupees at Daman:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated various developmental projects in Daman in Union territory of Daman and Diu.

He launched the helicopter service between Daman and Diu. Mr. Modi also launched Air Odisha flight service connecting Ahmedabad with Diu under UDAN Scheme.

BANKING & BUSINESS

RBI launches Ombudsman scheme for NBFCs:

The Reserve Bank of India has launched Ombudsman Scheme for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) for redressal of complaints against them. The scheme will provide a cost-free and expeditious complaint redressal mechanism relating to deficiency in the services by NBFCs covered under the scheme. The scheme will cover all deposit-taking NBFCs, and based on the experience gained, it would extend it to cover NBFCs having asset size of 100 crore rupees and above with customer interface.

The offices of the NBFC ombudsmen will function at four metro centres – New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

First sale of Electoral Bonds to commence from 1st March:

The first sale of Electoral Bonds will commence from the 1st of next month for a period of ten days.

State Bank of India has been authorized to issue and encash Electoral Bonds initially at its four authorised branches.

Electoral Bond will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue and no payment shall be made to any payee Political Party if the Bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period.

The Bond deposited by any eligible political party to its account shall be credited on the same day.

Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank begins operations:

Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd (ABIPBL) started operations, making it the fifth payments bank to roll out operations after the central bank gave its in-principle approval to 11 applicants in August 2015.

“Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd has commenced operations as a payments bank with effect from February 22, 2018,”. The Reserve Bank has issued a licence to the bank under Section 22 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on the business of payments bank in India.

The roll-out comes at a time when the regulator has issued fresh know your customer norms for payments banks that are likely to increase operational costs for these banks.

SPORTS

Pyeongchang 2018: Ester Ledecka gets second gold medal:

Ester Ledecka became the first woman to claim gold medals in two sports at a Winter Olympics with a win in the snowboarding parallel giant slalom.

The 22-year-old Czech, who earned a shock victory in the skiing super G last, beat Germany’s Selina Jorg to win her second gold.

She is the fifth athlete to win in two sports at one Games and the first in unrelated events with the previous double wins coming in Nordic events.

Ramona Theresia Hofmeister took bronze.

Cricket Canada unveils ICC-approved T20 league:

Canada became the latest to embrace franchise-based T20 cricket with the formation of the Global T20 Canada. The announcement of the league – conceptualised, designed, developed and managed by India’s Mercuri Group in association with Cricket Canada – was done in New Delhi.

Cricket Canada has become the first Associate member of the ICC to start a Twenty20 franchise league in the North America market.

Canada

Currency: Canadian dollar
Capital: Ottawa

OBITUARY

National Herald editor-in-chief Neelabh Mishra passes away:

Senior journalist and editor-in-chief of National Herald, Neelabh Mishra, passed away at a Chennai Hospital.

HISTORIC EVENT OF THE DAY

World Sustainable Energy Days: February 24^th

The World Sustainable Energy Days (WSED) are one of Europe’s largest annual conferences in this field. The 2018 conference will take place from 28 February – 2 March 2018 in Wels/Austria.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy are key to boost the economic competitiveness of the EU, its member states, regions and individual businesses. Resulting economic growth provides jobs and the ability to invest in the further progress of the clean energy transition to the benefit of all citizens. Clean energy for economic competitiveness and how to make the clean energy transition work for business, planet and people will therefore be core themes of the World Sustainable Energy Days 2018.

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