DAILY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS – 19.05.2017 TO 22.05.2017

DAILY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS

NATIONAL c) The Beas station was the cleanest, followed by Madhya Pradesh bans Sand Excavation in Narmada Khammam, in the A category. Ahmedanagar station River was ranked 3rd. a) The State Government of Madhya Pradesh has put an India to become TB free by 2025 indefinite ban on the sand excavation in the Narmada a) While representing India in the 29th board meeting of River. „Stop TB‟ programme coordination committee in b) The government has also set up a committee to Berlin, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare suggest the scientific ways of mining the rivers. J.P. Nadda declared that the government would c) Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched eradicate Tuberculosis (TB) by 2025. the Narmada Seva Mission at Amarkantak in b) He also said that it is aimed that the world will be TB Anooppur district of Madhya Pradesh for the free by 2030. conservation of river Narmada. c) But under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra d) The event also marked the conclusion of „Namami Modi, we have set a target to eradicate TB completely Devi Narmade Sewa Yatra‟. by 2025 in India. e) The Narmada, also called the Rewa,also known as Haryana launches e-textbook portal for school students "Life Line of Madhya Pradesh". The river Narmada Haryana government has launched e-textbook portal for originates from the Maikal hills through the Gulf of school students. Students can now download school books Khambhat into the Arabian Sea. instantly from the e-textbook portal of the Haryana School Free Wi-Fi facility inaugurated at 28 Railway Stations Education Boar. As of now, 26 textbooks of classes IX to a) Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu inaugurated free XII have been uploaded on the portal and these can be Wi-Fi facility at 28 Railway Stations of easily converted into audio files. Railway from Kudal Railway Station in . Hyderabad’s Turbo Megha Airways first private airline b) has tied up with broadband and to get UDAN licence internet service provider Joister/SYSCON to provide Turbo Megha Airways has become the first private airline Wi-Fi facility at its stations. to get a licence to fly under UDAN, the government c) He also inaugurated improved passenger amenities scheme for subsidized regional flights. and facilities at Kudal and Chiplun stations. The Hyderabad-based airline which flies as TruJet stated Madhav Chitale Committee Recommends Measures for that it will launch flights on Hyderabad-Cuddapah, De-silting Ganga Hyderabad-Nanded and Nanded- routes. The five The Madhav Chitale Committee of the Ministry of Water airlines awarded the rights to fly UDAN flights so far are Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Air India, SpiceJet, Turbo Megha, Air Odisha and G.R. has recommended creation of sand registry for de-silting of Gopinath led Deccan Air. the Ganga. The committee has also recommended an UDAN Scheme institute be established for flood routing studies  Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the National Green Tribunal Bans Open Defecation and UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme from Waste Dumping on Yamuna Floodplains Jubbarhatti, an airport on the outskirts of Shimla. a) A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice  He flagged of the first UDAN flight under Regional Swatanter Kumar has banned open defecation and Connectivity Scheme (RCS) on Shimla- sector. waste dumping on the floodplains of the Yamuna. It  UDAN flights on Kadapa–Hyderabad, and Nanded - has also slapped an environment compensation of Rs Hyderabad sectors were also flagged off. 5,000 for people who violated the order.  The operations under the scheme are intended to b) NGT has also constituted a committee under the head provide air connectivity to un-served and remote of Delhi Jal Board CEO to oversee the cleaning works routes with airfare being capped at Rs 2,500 for an of the river. hour's journey of around 500 km c) The central government had sanctioned the Yamuna  The airline companies chosen are Airline Allied Action Plan (YAP)-I and YAP-II schemes for the Services (Alliance Air), SpiceJet, Turbo Megha states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Airways, Air Deccan and Air Odisha. d) YAP-III projects which are to be completed by  The seating capacity of airlines under the UDAN December 2018 has been introduced in Delhi with scheme will range from 19 to 78. financial assistance from Japan International  However, only 50% of the seats will be sold at Rs Cooperation Agency (JICA). 2500 per seat per hour. The airlines can sell the rest of Vishakhapatnam adjudged cleanest railway station the tickets at market rates. a) Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh has been  Recently Union Civil Aviation Ministry has adjudged as the cleanest railway station in category announced as many as 128 routes connecting 70 big A1 followed by Secunderabad in Telangana and and small airports across the country were selected Jammu Tawi. and all flights will become active within 4-6 months. b) The Darbhanga railway station in Bihar was the

dirtiest among the busiest stations. BILATERAL India-Bangladesh: To enhanced cooperation in the field of military education , The Union cabinet, chaired by Prime

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Minister Narendra Modi, gave an ex-post facto approval to rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent as against the single the agreement, signed between the National Defence rate of 15% levied on all taxable services. College, New Delhi and the National Defence College, b) Luxury hotels, gambling, race club betting and cinema Dhaka, Bangladesh. services will attract a tax rate of 28%. Start up India Summit to be held in Dubai c) Telecom and financial services will be taxed at a rate CGI Dubai and Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi in of 18%. partnership with iSPIRIT, a nonprofit think tank and d) Transport services will be taxed at the rate of 5%. Cab supported by TiE, Dubai will host a two day “Start up India aggregators like Ola and Uber will have to pay 5% Summit” in UAE on 23rd and 24th of May 2017. This is under GST in place of 6%. AC rail travel will attract the first such “Start Up Summit” being held in the UAE. 5% tax. Economy class air travel will attract 5 % GST The aim is to provide a shared platform for the Start up eco while business class will attract 12%. system in both India and UAE for greater collaboration, e) The e-commerce players like Flipkart and Snapdeal exchange ideas, interact with academia, investors and would be required to shell out 1% Tax Collected at industry and have access to funding from the venture Source (TCS). Non-AC restaurants and AC restaurants capitalist in the UAE. will attract a GST of 12% and 18% respectively. Advertisements published in newspapers will attract INTERNATIONAL 5% GST. Hassan Rouhani Wins Iran’s Presidential Election f) Education, healthcare and non-AC rail travel will a) Hassan Rouhani has been re-elected as the President remain exempted from the GST tax regime. Travelling of Iran. He was elected as president for his first term on metro, local train and religious travel such as Haj in 2013. Yatra would be exempted from GST. b) Iran-Capital: Tehran, Currency: Iranian rial Paytm Payments Bank to launch next week China, ASEAN Countries Agree on Framework for India‟s leading digital wallet player Paytm has received the South China Sea Code of Conduct final licence from the Reserve Bank of India for its a) China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations payments bank entity. Paytm has also announced that its (ASEAN) took a step towards easing tensions in the longtime executive and vice president Renu Satti will be South China Sea, agreeing to a framework for a “code the CEO of the payments bank. of conduct” to prevent incidents in the disputed RBI asked to open 25% of new bank branches in rural waters. areas b) The issue has come to a head in recent years as China The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandated that 25 per has pursued a strategy of building artificial islands cent of the total number of 'banking outlets' opened during capable of supporting military facilities in the region, a financial year should be located in unbanked rural provoking strong reactions from other claimants as centres. The RBI mandated this in its notification -- well as the US. "Rationalisation of Branch Authorisation Policy- Revision c) 10 ASEAN Members: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, of Guidelines". Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, DBS Bank India expands bancassurance partnerships Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Jakarta, Indonesia a) DBS Bank India has expanded its bancassurance is the H.Q. of ASEAN partnerships with two new partners in Tata AIA Life d) The 28th and 29th ASEAN Summits were held from 6 and Birla Sun Life in addition to Aviva India Life. to 7 September 2016 in Vientiane, Laos. b) With this move, Singapore-heaquartered DBS Bank India ranks 154th out of 195 countries on healthcare has become the first bank in India to adopt a new open index architecture model with three life insurers on a single a) According to the Global Burden of Disease Study platform (GBD) published in the medical journal The Karnataka Bank inks pact with LIC Lancet,India came at 154th position in the ranking of a) Karnataka Bank Ltd has entered into a Memorandum healthcare quality in 195 countries. of Understanding (MoU) with Life Insurance b) However, India‟s healthcare access and quality (HAQ) Corporation (LIC) of India for selling life insurance index has increased by 14.1, up from 30.7 in 1990 to products of LIC. 44.8 in 2015. b) Mr.Mahabaleshwara M.S is the Managing Director & c) Switzerland topped the health index. Chief Executive Officer of Karnataka Bank(H.Q- India ranked 24th international tourist arrivals Mangaluru, Karnataka) The rank of India in international tourist arrivals (ITA) in c) V. K. Sharma is the current chairman of LIC. LIC is both 2014 and 2015 in the latest UNWTO‟s World Tourism Headquartered in Mumbai. Barometer, as of March 2017, is 24th as against the  India Ratings and Research has downgraded State-run previous ranks of 41st and 40th in 2014 and 2015, IDBI Bank to AA from AA+ and gave a negative respectively, as per a press release issued by the Ministry of outlook due to challenges arising out of stressed assets Tourism. and weak capital position.

ECONOMY & BANKING PERSON IN NEWS GST Council Finalises 4-slab Service Tax Structure Harsh Vardhan: Union Science and Technology Minister a) The GST Council headed by finance Minister Arun Harsh Vardhan has been given additional charge of the Jaitley has finalised a 4-slab service tax structure at the

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Environment Ministry following the death of Union international cooperation in peaceful use of outer space. Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave. ISRO Chairman is A. S. Kiran Kumar and its headquarter is Saurabh Agrawal: Tata Sons has appointed Saurabh in Bengaluru Agrawal, an investment banker who was formerly with the

Aditya Birla Group, as its Group Chief Financial Officer. He SPORTS will join the company from July 2017. Mumbai Indians win IPL title for third time

a) Mumbai Indians lifted the 10th Indian Premier League AWARD trophy for the third time by defeating Rising Pune Indian Boy Wins Intel International Science Award in Supergiant in the title clash at Hyderabad during final. US b) Krunal Pandya from Mumbai Indians was named the Prashant Ranganathan has emerged winner in the world‟s man of the match. largest pre-college science competition in the environment c) Orange Cap in IPL 2017 refers to the most runs taken engineering category for his work on biodegradation of by a batsman which is David Warner from Sunrise Hyderabad team has taken 641 runs in 2017 pesticides. Prashant Ranganathan is a student of Carmel tournament. Junior College in Jamshedpur. d) Purple Cap in IPL 2017 refers to the most wickets Indian Scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni Wins Prestigious taken by a bowler which is Bhuvneshwar Kumar from Dan David Prize Sunrise Hyderabad team has taken 26 overall wickets Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni has won the prestigious in 2017 tournament. Dan David prize as a recognition for his contributions made ICC Test Ranking: India Retains No.1 Spot in the field of astronomy. Shrinivas Kulkarni, a professor of Indian cricket team has retained its top position in the latest astrophysics and planetary science at California Institute of ICC Test rankings with 123 points. Indian team is six Technology in Pasadena. points ahead of second placed South Africa. Australia has Indian-origin steel tycoon bags prestigious ‘CEO of the been placed at the third place with 100 points followed by England at 4th (99 points). Year’ award in UK India wins all 10 Gold Medals at South Asian Junior Britain‟s Indian-origin steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has Table Tennis Championships bagged a top global award „CEO of the Year‟ award for his successful acquisitions and his drive to transform the steel a) India has won all the 10 Gold Medals in South Asian Junior Table Tennis championship which was held in industry in the UK, India and beyond. Mount Lavinia, near Colombia in Sri Lanka. Reliance Jio gets TM Forum’s ‘Digital Service b) India led the championship with total 14 medal, Innovator of the Year Award’ followed by Sri Lanka. Reliance Jio has received TM Forum‟s „Digital Service c) In this championship, top seeded Manav Thakkar won Innovator of the Year Award‟ 2017. TM Forum is the Junior Boys final; while Archana Girish Kamath won industry association driving digital business transformation Junior Girls final. of the communications industry. Reliance Jio got this award Bengaluru FC beat Mohun Bagan to lift Federation by acquiring 90 million customers in four months. Cup Banga Samman Bengaluru FC has won this year‟s Federation Cup by Thespian Soumitra Chatterjee and India‟s longest serving beating Mohun Bagan. The Federation Cup, also known as Hero Federation Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual boss Y.C. Deveshwar have been conferred with the Banga knockout style club football tournament in India that started Samman, West Bengal‟s highest civilian award, by Chief in 1977. Minister Mamata Banerjee. Alexander Zverev won Italian Open Cochin Port Trust bags two awards Alexander Zverev (Germany) defeated the world no. 2 Cochin Port Trust has received two Best Performance ranking player Novak Djokovic (Serbia) to win the Italian Awards from Ministry of Shipping for the highest growth Open, 2017. The final was held in Rome, Italy. in operating surplus and also for achieving third highest  The Indian Men‟s compound archery team has won growth in cargo traffic among the major ports in the year gold after defeating Columbia, in the archery World 2016-17. Cup stage 1 championships held in Shanghai, China.  Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna registered his ISRO receives 2014 Indira Gandhi Peace Prize first win at the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix after getting Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented now the better of English GM Michael Adams in Moscow. the 2014 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace to the Indian Space  Grand Master R.R. Laxman of Integral Coach Factory Research Organisation (ISRO). The award was announced has won the All India Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess by a jury headed by Vice President Hamid Ansari in 2014, Tournament. consists of a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 1 crore. The  Spanish Movistar Yamaha rider Maverick Viñales has Prize was awarded to ISRO in recognition of its path- won the French motorcycle Grand Prix beating Frenchman Johann Zarco. breaking achievements culminating in the Mars orbiter mission and its significant contributions in strengthening

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MISCELLANEOUS c) The train will be introduced on the Delhi-Chandigarh Prime Minister Releases Book Series written by MS and Delhi-Lucknow routes too. Swaminathan The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released a two-part book series written by the eminent agricultural scientist Dr. IMPORTANT DAY M.S. Swaminathan. The series is titled – M.S. 22 May: World Biological Diversity Day Swaminathan: The Quest for a world without hunger. Dr. The theme for 2017 for World Biodiversity Day is M S Swaminathan is known as the Father of the Green “Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism”. Revolution in India. 21 May 2017: Anti-Terrorism Day The Anti-terrorism Day is celebrated annually in the Scientists discover First Natural Human Antibodies country to commemorate the death anniversary of the against Ebola Virus A team of scientists from the United States have discovered former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on 21st May. the first natural human antibodies that are capable of 20 May: World Metrology Day neutralizing and protecting animals against all three major Theme of 2017 World Metrology Day: “Measurements for disease-causing Ebola viruses. In 2014, Ebola virus had transport”. erupted periodically mainly across west and east Africa 18 May: International Museum Day mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The theme for 2017: “Museums and contested histories: Saying the unspeakable in museums”. Scientists at IIT Delhi Develops Cheapest Respiratory 17 May: World Hypertension Day 2017 Filter Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi have The theme of 2017 World Hypertension Day: “Know Your developed cheapest naso filter involving a cost of Rs 10, Numbers” with a goal of increasing high blood pressure which is capable of restricting up to 95% of dust and air (BP) awareness in all populations around the world. pollutants. 17 May: World Telecommunication and Information Society Day IIEST creates India’s first smart grid project The Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Theme of 2017 World Telecommunication and Information Technology (IIEST) has successfully created the country‟s Society Day: “Big Data for Big Impact”. first smart grid project, which will generate power from renewable sources of energy. IIEST is a national OTHER NEWS engineering and research institution located at Shibpur,  India Meteorology Department (IMD) issued orange Howrah district, West Bengal. alert – a warning for severe heat wave, across the state Joint HADR Exercise commences at Naval Station for two days. The temperature was recorded above 45 Karwar degree Celsius. The Annual Joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster  Andhra Pradesh Legislature has passed a Bill to Relief (HADR) Exercise began on 18 May 2017 at Naval appoint Olympics silver medallist P V Sindhu as a Station Karwar, Karnataka. Named as „Karavali Karunya‟, Group-1 officer in the government, by amending the the exercise is being conducted by Indian Navy‟s Western State Public Services Act. Naval Command. Karavali Karunya means „assistance to  Cab aggregator Ola has announced the launch of its the coast of Karnataka‟. “Progressive Web App” (PWA), a lightweight data In tribute to APJ Abdul Kalam, NASA names new friendly mobile website that offers users, especially in species after him smaller towns and cities, an app-like experience on a) In great news for India, scientists at NASA have smartphones. named a new organism discovered by them after the  The European Union (EU) has announced it will fine much-loved APJ Abdul Kalam. Facebook 110 million euros ($122 million) for b) Till date, the new organism – a form of a bacteria – providing incorrect or misleading information in has been found only on the International Space Station connection with the 2014 purchase of mobile (ISS) and has not been found on earth! messaging service WhatsApp. c) The bacterium is named Solibacillus kalamii, after Dr  Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr. Raman Singh has Abdul Kalam and genus name is Solibacillus which is announced that a 41 hectare forested land in the Durg a spore forming bacteria. region of the state would be named after late Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave. to make its debut on Mumbai- route  Arunachal Pradesh mountaineer Anshu Jamsenpa has become the world‟s first woman to scale Mt Everest a) India‟s state-of-the-art high-speed train Tejas Express, twice in five days. She scripted history by becoming which can run up to the speed of 200km per hour, has the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest for the made its trip between Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, fourth time. Mumbai, and Karmali, North Goa. b) The 15-coach train has two classes chair car and executive chair car and is equipped with facilities like secured gangways, automatic doors, LCD screens, Wi- Fi, tea-coffee vending machines, magazines, bio- toilets, hand dryers etc.

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