SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 INDIAN AFFAIRS Suresh Prabhu unveils Antyodaya rail coaches for unreserved passengers i. Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had unveiled the new Antyodaya Express, a fully unreserved train for the common man with specially designed colourful coaches. ii. The first Antyodaya Express will be plied between Mumbai and Tatanagar, and the second will be between Ernakulam and Howrah shortly. iii. As stated in the Union budget these Antyodaya was meant for Aam Aadmi (common man) provided in Antyodaya coaches are similar in first class that will have cushioned seats with aluminium composite panels. The fare structure will be between 10 per cent and 15 per cent more than the regular fare. iv. These modern coaches are provided with bio-toilets for zero discharge of effluents and also have toilet occupation indication lights provided at each end near the doorway with better visibility from compartments, a first in general class. v. Along with cushioned luggage racks with coat hooks, the train will also have LED lights and enhanced capacity dustbins Sikkim becomes 22nd State to join UDAY i. India‘s first fully organic state Sikkim has joined the union government‘s Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) as 22 nd state , the so called UDAY will in turn hand it an overall benefit www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 1 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 of Rs 356 crore. ii. Upon this decision Sikkim has inked MoU with the union government under the Scheme Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) for operational improvement of the state‘s Power Distribution Department. iii. The MoU will help in improving operational efficiency of the power distribution and reduction in AT&C and transmission losses to 15 per cent and 3.50 per cent, respectively, is possibly to bring in added revenue of around Rs 328 crore. Sikkim: ♦ Capital: Gangtok ♦ Chief minister: Pawan Kumar Chamling ♦ Governor: Shriniwas Patil Maneka Gandhi Announces Compensation Fund For Children i. Union Women and Child Development Minister Sanjay Maneka Gandhi has unveiled the setting up of a compensation fund under Nirbhaya scheme to make available financial help to children who are victims of sexual crimes. ii. The money for this fund will be drawn from Nirbhaya Scheme and will be watched directly by the Women and Child Development Ministry and on the total amount of money to be set aside for this scheme is yet to be decided. iii. In contrary Central Victim Compensation Fund was set up with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore in 2015 but has not been www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 2 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 operating. iv .POCSO Act or Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was formulated in 2012 to address sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children. The POSCO victims are now included in the scheme. International Ayurvedic Research Institute Planned At Kannur i. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has decided to set up Ayurvedic research instituteand Kerala Blood Bank society of International standards in Kerala during the 13th five year plan. ii. Ayurvedic research institute will be set up at the cost of Rs 300 crore at Kannur. iii. It will be set up jointly by Thiruvananthapuram Citizens India Charitable Trust, Health Department with technical assistance of WHO. Kerala to launch sex offenders registry, first in the country i. The Kerala government also plan to launch the country’s first sex offenders registrywhich will contain all identification details of sex offenders and would be kept in public domain ii. A comprehensive victim relief fund will be set-up by the state government to provide interim relief for victims of sex crimes, both children and adults. Kerala : www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 3 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 ♦ Ernakulam is India‘s first Bachat (Savings) district. ♦ Kochi (Cochin) the major port is also known as ―Queen of Arabian Sea‖. ♦ Kerala was promoted and called by tourism department as ―God‘s own Country― Punjab bans manufacture, sale of gutkha, pan masala for one year i. Punjab government lead by Parkash Singh Badal has imposed the one year ban on the manufacture, storage, sale or distribution of food products containing tobacco or nicotine like gutkha and pan masala ii. The decision has been taken in view of the orders issued by Supreme Court iii. The ban also applicable to processed, flavoured, scented, chewing tobacco. Punjab : ♦ Assembly seats – 117 (Unicameral Legislature) ♦ Lok Sabha seats – 13 ♦ Rajya sabha seats – 7 India and Japan ink pact on rail safety Indian Railway Board Chairman A.K.Mittal and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan Vice-Minister Hiroshi Tabata has signed Memorandum of Cooperation on February 21, 2017 www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 4 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 i. Aim of the MoU : To enhance railway safety in the Indian Railways with focus on railway track and rolling stock safety, a press statement said on Tuesday. ii. Areas of cooperation: Rail inspection, rail wielding and providing automatic railway track safety inspection, maintenance of rolling stock. iii. The Delhi – Mumbai and the Delhi – Howrah lines are will be taken up first for the technology upgrade plan. Japan : ♦ Capital: Tokyo ♦ Currency: Japanese yen ♦ Prime minister: Shinzō Abe INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS BRICS summit’s 1st Sherpas Meeting held in China i. China is hosting the first official BRICS Sherpas Meeting in Nanjing -Jiangsu Province on February 23 and 24 under its chairmanship. ii. The meeting is focusing on the theme of ―Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future‖ upon considering the current international situation. iii. This event will see a participation of 100 people, including Sherpas, diplomatic envoys in China and the New Development Bank representatives. www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 5 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 iv. The Sherpas mechanism, as a main vehicle to coordinate and promote the BRICS cooperation, primarily serves to make political preparations for the BRICS Summit. v. After the country assumed Sherpas group chairmanship this January, subsequently hosting this event which will discuss BRICS cooperation in 2017, particularly in the political, economic, and cultural sectors. BRICS: ♦ BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa ♦ 9th BRICS summit is scheduled to be held in China in 2017 BANKING & FINANCE Oriental Bank Ties Up With Chola MS To Sell Insurance Products i. Haryana based Oriental Bank of Commerce has signed a corporate agency agreement with Chennai based general insurance provider Cholamandalam General Insurance Company for distribution of insurance products on February 22, 2017 ii.The partnership will benefit our customers and through this ties up iii. The insurance products includes motor, health, home and travel Oriental Bank of Commerce : www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 6 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 ♦ Headquarters: Haryana ♦ CEO: Animesh Chauhan ♦ Founded: 19 February 1943 India’s GDP projected to slow to 6.6% post- demonetisation, says IMF i .International Monetary Fund come up with India‘s growth projection which predicted slow 6.6 per cent in 2016-17 fiscal due to ―temporary disruptions‖ caused by demonetisation. ii. The IMF has noted that demonetisation would have only short term impact on the economy and it would bounce back to its expected growth of more than 8% in the next few years. iii. The IMF said in its annual country report on India mentioned that growth is projected to slow to 6.6 per cent in FY2016/17, then rebound to 7.2 per cent in FY2017/18, due to temporary disruptions, primarily to private consumption as a result of cash shortage IMF : ♦ Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States ♦ CEO: Christine Lagarde BUSINESS Visa-AP Sign MoU To Make Vishakhapatnam ‘Less-Cash’ City www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 7 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 i. The world‘s second largest card payment organization Visa has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Andhra Pradesh government to make Vishakhapatnam asIndia’s first ‘less-cash’ city ii. Aim : To provide 500 million underserved with a payment account by 2020 iii. This is the first step to design India‘s ‗Fintech Valley’ that will act as a facilitator for information flow. It will provide support to FinTech start-ups by providing access to Visa‘s APIs, providing subject matter expertise, and participating in boot camps and hackathons. iv. It will increase increase customer adoption of electronic payments by 75 per cent to 100 per cent. Visa : ♦ Visa Inc is an American multinational financial services corporation. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards and debit cards ♦ Founder: Dee Hock ♦ Headquarters:California, United States For the first time in the world, Microsoft to deploy Azure Stack in Andhra Pradesh i. Technology giant Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has signed agreement to utilise Microsoft Azure Stack for AP government state data centre www.sadhanaedu.co.in Dilsukh nagar Page 8 SADHANA ACADEMY PH:9290699996 at the ‗Microsoft Future Decoded‘ held in Mumbai on February 22, 2017 ii. For the first time in the world, Microsoft Azure Stack will be used to migrate 340 live applications of AP government from Hyderabad State Data Centre (SDC) to Vizag data centre. Microsoft Azure Stack : ♦ It consists of three key components includes Data centre – application, server, and the storage – into one physical box and deliver to the client. ♦ It is a cloud software that is binding the entire stack together in one environment. ♦ Microsoft is doing proof of concept (POC) with Government of Andhra Pradesh to prove its capability for the first time. Background : According to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, AP has 10 years rights on the data centre but state is gradually planning to move all applications hosted in Hyderabad SDC to Vizag and Vijayawada data centres.