DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: JANUARY 20 & 21, 2019

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: JANUARY 20 & 21, 2019

Dear Aspirants,

Daily Current Affairs (January 20 & 21, 2019) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness , Static GK and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

NATIONAL

The Diffo Bridge In Arunachal Pradesh being inaugurated by defence minister Nirmala sitharaman:

• The Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated the 426.60 m long Pre Stressed Concrete Box Girder type Diffo bridge over Diffo river on Roing – Koronu- Paya road in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The construction of the bridge began in 2011. The total cost to build the bridge was Rs 4,847.83 lakh and was funded by the Union ministry of road transport and highways.

STATIC: Arunachal Pradesh

Capital- Itanagar.

CM: Pema Khandu

Governor: B. D. Mishra

PM Narendra Modi Inaugurates Country’s First National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai :

• Prime Minister of India,Shri Narendra Modi launched the Country’s First National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai,Maharashtra, that seeks to portray over a century-old journey of movies in India.
• The state-of-the-art museum has been built at a cost of Rs 140.61 crore and is housed in two buildings – the New Museum Building and the 19th century historic palace Gulshan Mahal – in the Films Division campus in Mumbai.

Government approves setting up of three new naval air squadrons :

• Government approved Setting up of Three Naval air Squadrons in Gujarat and TamilNadu.This Decision is taken to enrich the Indian Navy’s Overall Strength.
• In addition to this approval Government of India also approved recruitment of ManPower for Dornier Surveillance Squadrons located in Kerala and Andaman Islands.
• In 2016, contract for procurement of Dornier 228 maritime surveillance aircraft was signed with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

15th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas Begins At Varanasi :

• The 3 day event of the 15th edition of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas begins at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh for the first time.
• ‘Role of Indian Diaspora in building New India’ is the theme for this year.Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore inaugurated several exhibitions including a digital exhibition on the theme of ‘Ek Bharat Swacch Bharat: Sardar Patel and Gandhi ke Sapno ka Bharat.

Naveen Patnaik announced extension of free health services under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana :

• Odisha Chief Minister, Shri Naveen Patnaik announced the extension of free health services under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana(BSKY) to all medical colleges and hospitals of Odisha from 1^st February 2019.
• Earlier the free health services under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana also known cashless care were available to all at sub-centres in villages and district headquarters hospitals.

STATIC : ODISHA

Governor: Ganeshi Lal

Chief Minister: Naveen Patnaik

Capital: Bhubaneswar

Two-day conference on ‘Envisioning Agro Solutions for Smart and Sustainable Agriculture’ at Hyderabad :

• Vice-President of India Shri Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 2-days Agri-Vision 2019 conference on ‘envisioning Agro-solutions for smart and Sustainable Agriculture” in Hyderabad, Telangana. The conference was concluded on 18^th January 2019.
• The Agro-vision 2019 conference was jointly organized by the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Cornell University, USA.

STATIC : Telangana

Governor: E.S.L. Narasimhan

Chief Minister: K Chandrshekar Rao

Capital: Hyderabad

INTERNATIONAL

World Economic Forum Annual Meet Begins in Switzerland :

• The 48th WEF –World Economic Forum annual meet had begun in Davos, Switzerland.
• ‘Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ is the theme of the event.

The 4th Edition of Arab Economic And Social Development Summit Held In Beirut :

• The 4th edition of Arab Economic and Social Development Summit held in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
• The summit aimed to make a joint statement on a 29-item agenda that ranges from discussions on an Arab free trade zone and the economic effect of Syrian refugees on host countries.

25th International conference ,BES EXPO 2019 held in New Delhi:

• 25th International conference and exhibition on terrestrial and satellite broadcasting, BES EXPO 2019 was inaugurated by the Information and Broadcasting Secretary Amit Khare and TRAI Chairman RS Sharma in New Delhi.
• The theme of the exhibition is “Next Gen Broadcasting in the IT World”. The Exhibition was concluded on 19^th January 2019.

RANKINGS

India to overtake UK in the world’s largest economy rankings :

• According to a report by global consultancy firm PwC,India is likely to surpass the United Kingdom in the world’s largest economy rankings in 2019, to become the world’s fifth largest economy.
• PwC’s Global Economy Watch report projects real GDP growth of 1.6% for the UK, 1.7% for France and 7.6% for India in 2019.
• The US was the world’s largest economy with a size of 19.39 trillion dollars, followed by China at 12.23 trillion dollars at the second place in 2017.

BANKING & ECONOMY

UK Sinha-headed working group to suggest suitable framework :

• Former Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), U.K. Sinha will head an 11-member working group constituted by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy board of India (IBBI) to study the concept of ‘Group Insolvency’ and suggest a suitable framework.
• Group Insolvency will be very beneficial in a situation where two or more applications are pending in the same court against debtors in the same group.

APPOINTMENTS

RBI approves appointment of V Vaidyanathan as MD, CEO of IDFC First Bank :

• Reserve Bank of India approved the appointment of V Vaidyanathan as MD and CEO of IDFC First Bank for a period of three years.
• IDFC Bank and non-banking financial company Capital First completed their merger in December 2018 and created a loan asset book of 1.03 Lakh crore for the merged entity IDFC First bank.

Prabhat Singh was appointed Director General of NHRC :

• Senior IPS officer Prabhat Singh has been appointed as Director General (Investigation) in the National Human Rights Commission.
• Singh is at present Special Director, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).He has been appointed to the post for a period up to April 30, 2020, the date of his superannuation

STATIC:NHRC

Chairperson: Shri Justice H. L. Dattu

Headquarters: New Delhi.

AWARDS & HONOURS

Indian-American Gurinder Singh Khalsa,presented with the prestigious Rosa Park Trailblazer award :

• An Indian-American philanthropist and entrepreneur, Gurinder Singh Khalsa(45), has been presented with the prestigious Rosa Park Trailblazer award for his campaign that forced US authorities change their policy towards headgear of the Sikh community.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IIT-Hyderabad announces launch of full-fledged B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence :

• A full-fledged B-Tech programme in Artificial Intelligence would be introduced by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad, from the coming academic year.
• The new course will have an intake of around 20 students would be through the JEE-Advanced test.
• Besides IIT, Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), both of which are in the US, offer full-fledged B.Tech programmes in AI.

SPORTS

India’s Ankita Raina Wins ITF’s Tournament In Singapore :

• India’s Ankita Raina has won the International Tennis Federation’s 25,000-dollar Women’s tournament in Singapore by defeating the top seed World No. 122, Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament .

OBITUARIES

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver passes away :

• Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose rapturous odes to nature and animal life brought her critical acclaim and popular affection, has died. She was 83.

Masazo Nonaka, world’s oldest man, dies aged 113 :

• Masazo Nonaka, the world’s oldest man at the age of 113 , passed away at his home in the north of Japan’s Hokkaido island.
• Nonaka, who was officially recognized as the oldest male in the world by Guinness World Records in April 2018.

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: JANUARY 19, 2019