DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: MARCH 25 & 26, 2018

NATIONAL

India, China Economic Group meeting to be held in New Delhi

• India and China Economic Group meeting will be held in New Delhi.
• The Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan and senior officials of both countries discuss to boost trade and reduce trade deficit.
• Trade deficit with China stood at 36.73 billion dollar during April-October this fiscal.

Trade deficit: It is the amount by which the cost of a country’s imports exceeds the value of its exports.

Assam govt to construct 1 lakh toilets across state under Swachh Bharat Mission

• The Assam government launches a programme to build one lakh toilets across the state under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
• The special scheme will be known as Mission Sambavh ( or Mission Possible ) and construction works will be completed within 10 days.
• The state government has targeted to make the state Open Defecation Free, ODF within this year.

Assam

Capital: Dispur

Chief Minister: Sarbananda Sonowal

Governor: Jagdish Mukhi

India is the third largest electricity producer ahead of Russia, Japan  

• India’s electricity production grew 34% over seven years to 2017. The country now produces more energy than Japan and Russia.
• As of January 2018, India has installed power capacity of 334.4 gigawatt (GW), making it the fifth largest installed capacity in the world after European Union, China, United States and Japan.
• The government is targeting capacity addition of around 100 GW–the current power production of United Kingdom–by 2022. Power sector has a 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) permit.

BANKING AND ECONOMY

PSBs to link SWIFT with CBS

• All public sector banks (PSBs) will have to link their SWIFT systems with their respective Core Banking Solution (CBS) systems by April 30 as a measure to prevent fraud.
• The state-run banks also decided to speed up the process of taking out “cyber insurance”.
• The abbreviation of SWIFT is Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.

Uber sells Southeast Asia business to Grab

• The Ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to sell its Southeast Asian business to bigger regional rival Grab. Uber had invested $700 million in its Southeast Asia business.
• As part of the transaction, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Singapore-based Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.
• Two months before SoftBank finalized a separate deal to acquire 15 percent of Uber.

APPOINTMENTS

Martin Vizcarra Sworn In As Peru’s New President

• The Peruvian regional governor Martin Vizcarra sworn in as the country’s new president.
• He has vowed to eliminate economic corruption from the country.
• He sworn in after his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resignation.

Peru

Capital: Lima

Currency: Sol

Balesh Sharma Named CEO of Vodafone-Idea India Merged Entity

• Telecom operators Vodafone India and Idea Cellular announced the leadership team for their soon-to-be-merged entity.
• Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman and Balesh Sharma is the new CEO.
• Idea Cellular’s CFO Akshaya Moondra will head the financial operations of the new entity as its CFO.

JS Rajput nominated to UNESCO Executive Board

• The Ministry of Human Resource Development has nominated former NCERT director JS Rajput as India’s representative to the Executive Board (EXB) of UNESCO.
• He has been awarded the Maharishi Ved Vyas award by the Madhya Pradesh government for his contributions in the education sector.
• ‘Education of Muslims in India’, a book he edited, was released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 15, 2015.

AWARDS AND HONOURS

G.K. Reddy award for journalist Karan Thapar

• Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented the G.K. Reddy Memorial National Award for journalism to senior journalist and television presenter Karan Thapar.
• Gunupati Keshava Reddy, better known as G. K. Reddy (1923–1987), was an Indian journalist that attained national and international acclaim for his articles and news stories.

London based organisation SACF wins Frederick Pincott Award for 2017

• The South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF), a London based organisation has received the Frederick Pincott Award for 2017.
• The award award was conferred from the Indian High Commissioner, Y K Sinha for promoting Hindi cinema in Britain for the last 18 years.

SPORTS

India U-16 beat Hong Kong to win Jockey Youth Cup

• India U-16 were crowned champions of the Jockey Cup International Youth Invitational Football Tournament after defeating hosts Hong Kong.
• The youth tournament was a part of a series of International exposure tours planned by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) along with the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Pankaj Advani Wins Asian Billiards Championships Title

• Pankaj Advani wins Asian Billiards Championships title by defeating B Bhaskar.
• The event held at yangon, Myanmar.
• With this win, Advani remains the reigning Indian, Asian and world champion in billiards for 2017-18.
• India’s Amee Kamani won the Asian Women’s Snooker title by defeating Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan.

Sebastian Vettel Wins Australian Grand Prix

• Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) won the 2018 Australian Grand Prix after surpassing Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) during a safety car period.
• Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari was in the third position.

PV Sindhu To Be India’s Flag-Bearer At 2018 CWG

• Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu will be Indian contingent’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
• Sindhu, who reached the semi-finals of the All England championships, was picked by the IOA as the flag-bearer.
• CWG

Motto: Share the Dream

Nations participating: 71 Commonwealth Teams

Opening ceremony: 4 April

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DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS QUIZ: MARCH 25 & 26, 2018