Current Affairs Updates - 12th May 2018

Current Affairs Updates - 12th May 2018

Current Affairs Updates for  12th May 2018 includes some of the Latest Current Affairs Updates such as Tourism Minister attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Tourism Ministers’ Conference in China, Gujarat-Poland sign MoU on organising independence centenary, China's Alibaba buys Pakistan E-Commerce Firm Daraz and more similar ones under different sections of Bank, Economics, National, International, Schemes, Obituary and others. Aspirants should go through all of these in details for a better understanding of the topics along with some extensive practice of the regular Current Affairs Quiz.

Important Days

May 11 is marked as National Technology Day to commemorate India's technological achievements, including Operation Shakti at Indian Army's Pokhran Range in 1998.

• After five successful nuclear tests, Ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared India a nuclear state, the sixth country to do so. On the same day, India successfully tested its first indigenous aircraft Hansa-3 and short-range missile Trishul.

New Appointments: International

Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad sworn in after shock comeback victory

• After taking the oath at the Istana Negara palace in Kuala Lumpur, he told reporters his focus would be on the country's finances.

National Affairs

To promote electric vehicles in India, the government has approved green licence plates bearing numbers in white fonts for private e-vehicles and yellow for taxis

• The government also plans to allow youth in the age bracket of 16-18 years to drive electric scooters, besides mandating taxi aggregators to have a certain percentage of e-vehicle fleet.

Indian tea industry has recorded the highest ever production as well as exports in FY18. 

• The total tea production was 1325.05 million kgs, an increase of 74.56 million kgs as compared to 2016-17. In percentage terms the increase is around 6%. 

International Affairs

Bangladesh’s first communication satellite Bangabandhu-1 will be launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center 

• It is named after Bangladesh’s “Father of the Nation”- Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

China's Alibaba buys Pakistan e-commerce firm Daraz 

• The move came after Alibaba announced in March a doubling of its investment in Southeast Asian e-commerce firm Lazada. 

Science & Technology

Scientists have discovered world’s second oldest grain of magmatic zircon in odisha

• It is an estimated 4,240 million years old, making it world’s second oldest rock ever to be discovered. It is oldest magmatic zircon on earth.

Defence & Railway News

The Indian Army's 'Vijay Prahar' exercise in which over 25,000 troops of the Jaipur based South Western command participated culminated today in Rajasthan's Suratgarh.

• South Western Army Commander Lt Gen Cherish Mathson witnessed the final offensive of the forces achieving a decisive victory.

Agreements/ MoUs Signed

Gujarat-Poland sign MoU on organising independence centenary

• The MoU was signed by Polish ambassador to India Adam Burakowski and principal secretary of youth and cultural affairs department V P Patel in presence of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, as per an official release.

Summit /Conference / Events

Tourism Minister attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Tourism Ministers’ conference in China 

• The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism and Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Shri K. J. Alphons attended the Tourism Ministers’ conference by Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Wuhan, China held on 9th May 2018.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu inaugurated the state’s biggest solar power plant at Energy Awareness Park here in the presence of Power Minister Tamiyo Taga.

• The officials of Arunachal Pradesh Energy Development Agency (APEDA), who successfully implemented the project, received accolades from Khandu on this occasion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli on Friday jointly inaugurated a direct bus service between Janakpur and Ayodhya - the two sacred cities for Hindus.

• The Indian government has identified 15 destinations in India for development under the Ramayana Circuit theme namely Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur & Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh), Sitamarhi, Buxar & Darbhanga (Bihar), Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), Mahendragiri (Odisha), Jagdalpur (Chattisgarh), Nashik & Nagpur (Maharashtra), Bhadrachalam (Telangana), Hampi (Karnataka) and Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu).

The inaugural session of the Indian Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 was held at Cannes, France.

• The agenda of the delegation from India this year is to showcase diversity in films of our country while furthering collaborations with various other countries.