Current Affairs Year Book 2018 www.avijitsirsclasses.com CURRENT AFFAIRS ~: JANUARY 2018: ~ Appointments: Former RAW chief Rajinder Khanna appointed Deputy NSA . Dilip Asbe was authorized as the Managing Director and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has chosen rocket scientist K. Sivan as forthcoming Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of Space Commission and ISRO. Harjinder Singh on 10th January 2018 was designated as the Chef De Mission of Indian Contingent participating in the 23rd Winter Olympic Games to be organised in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February 2018. The Supreme Court collegiums headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has unanimously suggested name of senior advocate Indu Malhotra for designation as a judge of the Supreme Court. With this, she becomes 1st woman lawyer from the nation to be instantly elected for position of judge of the Supreme Court. New Chief Election Commissioner of India - Om Prakash Rawat. Former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel was on January 23rd, 2018 took oath as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. The United States Senate confirmed the appointment of Jerome H Powell as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. Renowned scientist, S Somanath took charge as the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Vijay Keshav Gokhale, a senior official of the External Affairs Ministry, appointed as the new Foreign Secretary. Sports: Indian skipper Virat Kohli was nominated the ICC Men‟s Cricketer of the Year at the ICC yearly awards, which were declared in Dubai. Apart from this, Kohli also won the ICC Men‟s One-Day- International Cricketer of the Year honour. Kohli was also nominated the captain of the ICC Test and ODI teams of the year. The ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award was given to Australian captain Steve Smith. Swiss tennis player Roger Federer has kept his Men‟s Singles title by winning Australian Open 2018. In the top clash played at Melbourne, he beat Croatia‟s Marin Cilic. It was Federer‟s 6th Australian Open title and overall 20th Grand Slam singles titles. Women‟s Singles: Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark won women‟s Singles crown in 2018 Australian Open by defeating Simona Halep of Romania. Men‟s Doubles: Oliver Marach from Austria and Mate Pavi? from Croatia pair secured the crown by defeating Juan Colombian pair of Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah. Women‟s Doubles: Tímea Babos from Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic from France pair secured the crown by defeating Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. Mixed Doubles: Gabriela Dabrowski from Canada and Mate Pavi? from Croatia pair secured the crown by defeating Tímea Babos of Hungary and Rohan Bopanna of India. 2 Classroom: Garia: Near Kavi Nazrul Metro Station, Kolkata: 700084, Mobile: 6290 123 176 Website: www. avijitsirsclasses.com, Email id:[email protected] Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has initiated Promise for Khelo India at Khelo India School Games Carnival in Delhi. The promise resonates with vision of Khelo India program and is focused at inspiring youth to made mass participation and excellence in sports. It also is assuring to participant and boosts sportsmanship spirit. Summits: The 18 All India Whips‟ Conference was initiated by Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Chemicals & Fertilizers Ananth Kumar on 8th January 2018 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The tenth edition of Global Forum for Food and Agriculture was organized in Berlin, Germany from 18 th to 20th January 2018. The subject of this year‟s event is “Shaping the future of livestock – sustainably, responsibly, efficiently”. Operations and Exercises: The Indo-US combined military exercise „Vajra Prahar‟ will be organized at Joint Base Lewis- McChord in Seattle in 3rd week of January in line with the increasing military cooperation between both nations. The biennial search and rescue exercise between Indian Coast Guard and Japan Coast Guard was organized near Chennai, Tamil Nadu in Bay of Bengal. The India-Vietnam Bilateral Army Exercise- VINBAX-2018 was organized at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. Miscellaneous: 1. Arunachal Pradesh has officially been announced Open Defecation Free state. It is 2nd State from Northeast, after Sikkim and overall 5th state after Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Haryana to be announced ODF state. 2. Famous Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma was awarded with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals-PETA 2017 Person of the Year Award. The actress was decorated with the award for her wide-reaching efforts for animals, from helping to safeguard dogs from fireworks to supporting the horses who are laboured to pull carriages in Mumbai. 3. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates launched value-added tax. These are the first 2 nations in the Gulf which have launched the VAT system. The 5% levy is being laid to the majority of goods and services. The UAE evaluates that in the 1st year, VAT income will be approximately 12 billion dirhams. Petrol and diesel, food, clothes, utility bills and hotel rooms all now have VAT applicable. 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the coming Republic Day celebration in 2018 would be recollected through the ages due to the reason that the government for the 1st time in India's history would be presenting leaders of Ten ASEAN nations as chief guests on the coming 26th January 2018. 5. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi launched an online web portal “NARI” in New Delhi for the empowerment of the females. The web portal will facilitate women with simple entrance to information on government projects and strategies for women. 6. Nepal restricted solo climbers from scaling its mountains, including Mount Everest, in a tender to decrease injuries. The new safety guidelines also restrict double amputee and blind climbers from trying to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain peak without a reasonable medical documentation. 7. The Union Ministry passed establishment of new All India Institute of Medical Sciences- AIIMS at Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. 8. Union Minister of State (I/C) Youth Affairs and Sports Col Rajyavardhan Rathore released the vibrant Khelo India logo, presenting the freshness, agility and vitality of New India at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The logo also passed the sense of fitness and competitiveness. More about “Khelo India logo”: 3 Classroom: Garia: Near Kavi Nazrul Metro Station, Kolkata: 700084, Mobile: 6290 123 176 Website: www. avijitsirsclasses.com, Email id:[email protected] The 3-stroke Khelo India logo was drawn by Ogilvy India. It has in-built modularity, permitting plenty of adaptability and flexibility into unlimited pictorial types. The colour of the Indian flag evokes a sense of National pride and team-work. The logo drawing is a crowd-sourced view. Khelo India Khelo India, being the national initiative for the development of sports, will cover a long way in attaining the twin aims of mass participation and encouragement of excellence in sports. According to the government, the future of India is associated with the youth of the country, which is adopting sport as part of its tradition. 9. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is going to initiate National Programme for Control of Viral Hepatitis, a new plan free treatment of Hepatitis C from the 2018-19. In the new plan, the aim will be on anti-viral treatment of Hepatitis C which will be made available free at all government health centers. For this government has set about a budget of Rs.600 crores for the coming 3 years. 10. India‟s fastest and 1st multi-petaflop supercomputer called Pratyush was unveiled at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. 11. The Election Commission of India on 11th January 2018 formed a 14 members committee to propose changes to Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in view of social media development. The Committee will be headed by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha. Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 Section 126 of the Representation of the People, 1951, bans exhibiting any election matter by means, inter alia, of TV or same equipment, during the period of 48 hours earlier the hour fixed for conclusion of poll in a constituency. 12. The fourth International Dharma-Dhamma Conference on State and Social Order in Dharma- Dhamma Traditions was organized at Rajgir in Nalanda district, Bihar. 13. Norwegian fertiliser giant Yara International has declared completion of its purchase of Tata Chemicals‟ 1.2 million tonnes yearly production capable urea plant at Babrala in UP. 14. Nepal has collaborated with China to offer internet services to its residents, ending India‟s decade‟s long monopoly of Nepal‟s cyber connectivity services. 15. The Unique Identification Authority of India on 15th January 2018 initiated face authentication as an additional method of Aadhaar authentication along with finger-print and eyes scan. The initiation will enable simple authentication for those persons who feel difficulties in another biometric authentication including fingerprints and eyes scan. 16. The Ministry of Home Affairs has finalized to structure Cyber Warrior Police Force and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to handle internet based crimes including child pornography, cyber threats and online stalking. 17. China has manufactured an experimental air purifying tall building called the Xian smog tower, which is endorsed to be the world‟s mega air purifier with a height of over 100 m, to fight against smog and air pollution. 18. Made in India long-range surface-to- surface Agni-5 ballistic missile was successfully tested from Abdul Kalam Wheeler Island, Odisha. 19. The state of Maharashtra has become the 1st state to come forward with a public cloud policy, virtually instructing its departments to transfer their data storage onto the cloud.