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Daily Current Affairs of 19th April 2018

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International Current Affairs

Today (19th April) is World Liver Day (WLD)

Theme of World Liver Day : ‘Riding New Waves in Liver Diagnosis, Staging & Treatment’.

During his ongoing UK visit, India Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi today met Queen Elizabeth II at the Buckingham Palace (London).

Modi also met Prince Charles at an exhibition titled '5000 Years of Science and Innovation in India'.
After that Modi participated in an interactive event titled Bharat Ki Baat Sabke Saath at Westminster Central Hall.

Ending an over 35-year ban on cinemas, Saudi Arabia today launched its 1st commercial movie theatre.

Note : Saudi Arabia is planning to open 350 theatres by 2030 as part of a social program launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

5 Nordic nations ( Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Finland) have supported India's bid for permanent membership to the UN Security Council.

This came after PM Narendra Modi and leaders of the five nations attended the 1st India-Nordic Summit held at Stockholm.
India and the Nordic nations also agreed to enhance cooperation on various issues, including global security and economic growth at the summit.

National Current Affairs

To attract foreign students to India, the Union government today launched the 'Study in India' programme.

The programme projects 160 premier universities and institutes, including IITs and IIMs, as the ideal destination for higher education.

Objectives of Study in India Programme :
To improve the global ranking of Indian educational institutes.

To Encourage more foreign students to choose India as destination for higher education.

To double India’s market share of global education exports from less than 1% to 2%.

The Andhra Pradesh government today launched a new scheme titled 'Chandranna Pelli Kanuka' welfare scheme.

Under this scheme Rs 75,000 will be paid to an SC/ST bride marrying a groom of a different cast.
Rs 50,000 to a Backward Class bride if she has an inter caste marriage.
Rs 1 lakh to be paid if either or both the bride and bridegroom are physically challenged.

Science & Technology

India's first satellite, Aryabhata, built by the Indian Space Research Organisation, was launched on this day (April 19, 1975), by the Soviet Union.

Weighing 360 kg and built to conduct experiments in X-ray astronomy, aeronomics, and solar physics, Aryabhata re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1992.
Note : The satellite was named after an Indian mathematician-astronomer who is believed to have discovered 'zero'.

India's second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 has been postponed from April 2018 to October-November 2018.

This mission would cost a total of ₹800 crore, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan announced today.
While the 3,290-kg satellite is worth ₹600 crore, the launch would cost ₹200 crore.

Microsoft has announced that it is going to launch a new operating system Azure Sphere.

With this, for the first time Microsoft is launching a product based on former rival technology Linux kernel.
Microsoft says this product will help improving the security of internet-connected devices.

MOUs & Agreements

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UK, the NASSCOM (National Association of Software & Services Companies) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UK cyber security community TechUK to launch a new UK-India Tech Alliance.

The alliance is aimed at increasing collaboration on skills and new technologies, assisting policy development and encouraging innovation and lay groundwork for roadmap which will be jointly presented in June 2018.

34 leading global technology firms including Facebook, Microsoft, HP, ARM, Cisco, and Oracle have signed Cybersecurity Tech Accord to work together on cybersecurity issues.

Under this Cybersecurity Tech Accord, signatory companies have agreed to collaborate on stronger defence systems, no offensive cyberattacks, and protect against tampering of their products, capacity building and collective action.

Deaths

Chile's Celino Villanueva Jaramillo (121 years), believed to be the world's oldest person, died today.

As per Chile's government records, Jaramillo was born on July 25, 1896, but could not be recognised by Guinness due to lack of official verification of his date of birth.

Awards & Honors

Actor Kartik Aaryan will be conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award in Best Entertainer category for his performance in the film 'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety'.

Apart from Kartik, Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh will also receive the Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Award as Best Actor and Best Producer respectively.

Indian film director, producer Karan Johar has become the 1st filmmaker from India to get his wax statue at Madame Tussauds Museum.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

According to the recently released data by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) India is now the world's sixth largest economy, displacing France, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.6 trillion in 2017.

The top five economies are :

US
China
Japan
Germany
UK

Facebook has started rolling out a feature in India that allows Android users to recharge their prepaid mobile numbers.

The users can access the feature by clicking on the three horizontal lines (≡) next to notifications tab and selecting the 'Mobile Recharge' section.

Recent Committees in News

To formulate military and security strategy, the Centre is going to set up the Defence Planning Committee (DPC).

The committee will be a permanent body and it will prepare draft national security strategy besides undertaking strategic defence review and formulating international defence engagement strategy.
This committee will help the government overcome coordination problems between various ministries on national security matters.
The body will have four sub-committees and submit its reports to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Head of Defence Planning Committee (DPC) : Ajit Doval (National Security Adviser)

New Appointments

Cuba's National Assembly has appointed First Vice President Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez as the country's President.

Bermudez is going to replace Raúl Castro who recently retired.
Important Note : Bermudez is going to become the first leader outside the Castro dynasty to lead the country since the 1959 revolution.

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