Current Affairs Updates - 17th March 2018

Current Affairs Updates - 17th March 2018

Achieversrule have brought to you the Important and Latest Current Affairs Updates in our today's Current Affairs Updates - 17th March 2018. We have included all the important headlines under different sections of National, International, Banking, Schemes and Obituary. All headlines are  marked in red and the rest is given in bullet points. We request all our readers to go through the points thoroughly. As you all know the One Liner Static and GK Points along with the Daily Current Affairs Quiz should be practiced regularly for better performance in the examination.

New Appointments: National

Ms. Sangeeta Bahadur appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Belarus

• Ms. Sangeeta Bahadur (IFS:1987), currently Additional Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Belarus.

Banking, Economic & Financial Affairs

The goods and services tax (GST) implemented by the Narendra Modi government from 1 July last year is one of the most complex with the second highest tax rate in the world among a sample of 115 countries which have a similar indirect tax system, the World Bank 

• India’s GST structure has five tax slabs of 0, 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%. Further, there are several exempted sales and exports are zero rated, which allows exporters to claim refund for taxes paid on inputs.

Continuing the positive growth path, India's exports grew by 4.5 per cent in February to 25.8 billion dollar, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said.

• Imports too rose by 10.4 per cent to 37.8 billion dollar during the last month, leaving a trade deficit of 12 billion dollar. 

Private sector lender Yes Bank has launched a robotics based ‘Digital export Import’ payments solution as a part of its Yes Transact Smart Trade product suite. 

• The integrated product uses robotics process automation and helps in eliminating the requirement of documents submission for import and export payments. 

Karnataka Bank opened its first all-woman branch at Bull Temple Road in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

• This is the 800th branch of the bank. Mahabaleshwara MS, Managing Director and CEO, said the bank opened 36 branches during 2017-18. The bank has registered a business turnover of 1.06-lakh crore. 

Rankings & Indexes

Andhra Pradesh stands at equivalent to 51st rank globally in Multidimensional Poverty Index according to a recent household survey conducted in the state.

• Andhra Pradesh becomes the first Indian state to conduct an exclusive household survey at state and district level to estimate the multidimensional poverty of the state.

National Affairs

The Lok Sabha has passed Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to empower government to fix period of maternity leave and tax-free gratuity amount with an executive order.

• The Lok Sabha has passed Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to further ease procedures for doing business in the country.

International Affairs

President Donald Trump will name Larry Kudlow, the conservative media analyst who served as his informal economic adviser during the 2016 campaign, as the next head of the White House National Economic Council

• Trump tweeted on Thursday morning that with Kudlow in his administration, "Our country will have many years of Great Economic & Financial Success, with low taxes, unparalleled innovation, fair trade and an ever expanding labor force leading the way!"

Member-countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region, including India, on Wednesday committed to intensifying efforts to eradicate tuberculosis by 2030.

• The summit sets the stage for the September 2018 United Nations high-level meeting on TB, wherein the issue will be discussed at the Heads of State level.

Oklahoma to become first U.S. state to use nitrogen gas for executions

• Oklahoma plans to start using nitrogen gas for executions, officials said on Wednesday, in what would be the first such method of capital punishment in the United States.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico officially resigned Thursday, less than three weeks after the murder of an investigative reporter and his fiancée shocked the nation.

• President Andrej Kiska formally accepted the resignation of the 53-year-old social democrat-turned-populist, who ran the Slovak government for 10 of the past 12 years. 

Schemes / Programme

The government has launched "LaQshya" program aimed at improving quality of maternity care in labour room and maternity Operation Theatre 

• The program aims to improve quality of care for pregnant women in labour room, maternity Operation Theatre and Obstetrics Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and High Dependency Units (HDUs).

Summit /Conference / Events

The three-day annual Krishi Unnati Mela will begin in New Delhi today with a focus on doubling the farmers' income. 

• The objective of the fair is to create awareness among farmers about the latest agriculture-related technological developments.

On 16 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 105th Indian Science Congress which will take place till 20 March 2018 at Imphal in Manipur.

• Themed “Reaching the Unreached Through Science and Technology”, the conference will see social sciences and science coming together.

Awards & Honours: Sports

The first Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games and won a Silver medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in the shot put, Deepa Malik has once again made all of us proud. 

• Owing to her hard work, great spirit and the sheer will to win, Malik has now bagged gold in the F53/54 Javelin event at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai on Thursday.

Awards & Honours: Miscellaneous

Actor Jackie Shroff's short film 'Shunyata' has won an award at Best of India Short Film Festival in Los Angeles, US.

• The 22-minute fiction film directed by Chintan Sarda was selected to be in top six from amongst thousands of entries and was played at a theatre in Los Angeles for a ticketed event for a week. 

Indian filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda's "Halkaa", which had its world premiere at the 21st Festival International du Film Pour Enfants de Montreal Film (FIFEM), has bagged the Grand Prix de Montreal at the gala.

• "Halkaa" was selected among seven international children's films from different countries in the official competition of the festival.

Baskaran Adhiban is the winner of the 2018 GAMMA Reykjavik Open

• He said before the tournament that he hoped Fischer’s spirit was with him and the said after it that he though it was! It’s hard to argue and especially with the nice wins in rounds 7 and 8. Here is the last round game.