5th April 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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National Affairs

• Today (5th April) is India’s National Maritime Day.
• On this day in 1919 navigation history was created when SS Loyalty, the first ship of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, journeyed to the United Kingdom.
• Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has declared that more than one billion Aadhaar numbers have been generated by the Unique Identification Authority of India in the past five and a half years. 
• Note : The first Aadhaar card was issued in 2010.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the 'Stand Up India' scheme in Noida.
• Under this scheme, banks will give loans of up to ₹1 crore to SC/ST and women entrepreneurs. 
• A corpus of ₹10,000 crore has been allocated to the scheme. 
• Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu has flagged off India’s fastest train, the “semi-bullet” Gatimaan Express, from Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station in Delhi. 
• The train will run between Delhi and Agra. 
  
• Gatimaan will operate six days a week, except on Friday and can attain a maximum speed of 160 km per hour. 
• The train's commercial run will commence from April 6.
• Mumbai has got its first air-conditioned suburban local train, built at a cost of ₹54 crore. 
• The local train does not have any general or first class compartments. 
• It will undergo software and technical updates in the coming month, and speed trials for another five to six months.
• The Delhi government has passed a proposal to build a memorial for late President APJ Abdul Kalam at Dilli Haat, south Delhi. 
• The memorial will display his belongings and showcase his contributions to the field of science. 
• Bihar government has imposed a complete ban on foreign and local liquor across the state, joining the list of completely dry states like Gujarat and Nagaland. 
• The Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for implementation of One Rank One Pension (OROP) retrospectively with effect from 1st July, 2014. 
• Decision in this regard was taken by Union Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. 
• Note : OROP will provide ex-servicemen of same rank and same length of service uniform pension regardless of date of retirement. 

Awards & Honors

• Five-time world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand will be honoured with the Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award 2016. 
• Maharashtra State Governor C Vidyasagar Rao will bestow award upon him at an event to be held in Mumbai on April 12, 2016. 
• President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the National Geoscience Awards - 2014 today.
• A total of 33 scientists receivef the Awards which include one Award for Excellence, one Young Scientist Award and nineteen individual and team awards.
• A.K. Singhvi, Honorary Professor, PRL Ahmadabad received the Award for Excellence and Dr. Indra Kumar Sen, Assistant professor, IIT, Kanpur received the Young Scientist Award.
• Note : The Awards was to honour individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in fundamental and applied geosciences and mining and allied fields.
• In accordance with the study by Aon Hewitt, the global talent, retirement and health solutions business, the Reliance Asset Management Company has been listed among the best employer brands.
• Note : Reliance AMC is the only mutual fund company to get this recognition in India in the top 25 AON list for 2016.

Science & Technology

• Google has started rolling out healthcare information in India in the Knowledge Graph, providing data of over 400 health conditions in English and Hindi. 
• Note : Google Search will display additional information when a user searches about common health conditions, highlighting typical symptoms, whether it's contagious, what ages it affects, and more. 

Deaths

• Former Mumbai Ranji Trophy player Ranjan Baindoor passed away.
• Mumbai left-arm spinner played for the then Bombay Ranji team from 1974-75 to 1984-85.
• Baindoor was also the former secretary of Tata Sports Club and served as the chairman of the selection committee for the under-19 team.
• Former Project Director of Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) Myneni Hari Prasad Rao passed away. 
• He was considered the Father or Architect of the MAPS and had served its first project director.

People in News

• Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned over allegations of his offshore dealings that were revealed in the leaked "Panama Papers". 

New Appoints

• Lamborghini India Pvt. Ltd has appointed Sharad Agarwal as its country head with immediate effect.
• In his new role, he will oversee the functions of sales, marketing, after sales and network development of the company. 
• Go Airlines (India) Ltd. elevated its present chief executive officer (CEO) Wolfgang Prock-Schauer as the Managing Director.
• He will hold twin charge of both CEO & managing director.
• Japanese electronics giant Panasonic appointed senior executive Manish Sharma of India to its Global Executive Council.
• Sharma is the first Indian and fourth non-Japanese member of the 50-member Council headed by a global president.

Business & Economy

• The RBI cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to a five-year low of 6.5% in its bi-monthly monetary policy review. 
• The key interest rate was earlier cut by 125 basis points in 2015.
•  Further, the RBI increased the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 6% while maintaining the cash reserve ratio at 4%.
• Check complete Highlights of RBI's 1st Bi-Monthly Policy Review from here
• India has signed an MoU with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for a possible $100 million line of credit to facilitate exports to IDB's member countries. 
• The Saudi Arabia-based bank currently has 56 member states including Egypt, Qatar and Kuwait, and promotes development in these countries by providing facilities and investments which are in accordance with the Islamic Sharia law.
• According to SocialCops' analysis of data from the Annual Survey of Industries, 53.2% of India's factories are in five states (Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh) as of 2013-14. 
• In comparison, the five states with the fewest factories (Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura) account for an estimated 0.42% of the total factories.

Sports

• Waqar Younis has stepped down from his position as head coach of Pakistan following the team's failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the 2016 ICC World T20. 
• India's Virat Kohli retained the top rank in the ICC T20I rankings for batsmen. 
• Meanwhile, Indian bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Ashish Nehra achieved their career-best rankings of seventh and eleventh respectively. 
• Note : India managed to remain the top T20I team, after crashing out in the semifinals of the World T20 tournament.
• Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman, Sarfaraz Ahmed has been named as the new captain of the T20I squad. 
• Sarfaraz, who was the vice-captain during the Asia Cup T20 and the World T20, will take over the reins from Shahid Afridi who skippered Pakistan in 43 T20Is from 2009 to 2016. 
• The 28-year-old had previously captained Pakistan Super League finalists, Quetta Gladiators.
• Former Portugal captain, Luis Figo, is on a visit to India to launch the Indian edition of the Premier Futsal League. 
• The 10-day tournament will feature five-a-side football matches between eight city-based franchise teams. 
• Note : Around 56 futsal players from around 21 countries will participate in the tournament, which begins from July 15 this year.

Note : Current Affairs of 6th to 8th April 2016 will be available soon. 

Read more Daily Current Affairs updates from here

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