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Current Affairs Updates: 18th August

Current Affairs Updates: 18th August

Current Affairs Updates: 18th August

It is important to follow the News Headlines for competitive exams like Banking, SSC and Railway. So do follow the updates regularly and also practice the Current Affairs Quiz on daily basis to improve your performance in every exam. 
Do You Know?
Alibaba may become the world's largest e-commerce company
  • Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba may become the world's largest online retailer according to analysts, leaving behind rival Amazon. The market capitalisation of Alibaba increased from 65% to 87% at 404 dollar billion compared to Amazon's 469 billion dollar as on 16th August. 
Indians second largest buyers of Central London property
  • According to a report by property advisory firm London Central Portfolio, Indians are the second largest buyers of property in Central London after South-East Asian buyers, accounting for 22% of sales in the year to August. Indians also spent more per house with an average purchase price of £1.77 million (14.6 crore), higher than the market average of £1.6 million.
Maharashtra to soon have battery-run vehicles as cabs
  • Maharashtra government has decided to register battery-powered vehicles as cabs and e-taxis to help reduce air and noise pollution. Such battery-run vehicles could earlier be registered only as app-based taxis with aggregators like Ola and Uber. However, taxi unions said that cabbies might not prefer to invest in battery-run taxis as they are expensive and no [road] infrastructure is available.
Central Ministers to get electric cars from November
  • The government is planning to get 1,000 four-door Electric Vehicles (EV) for Central ministers and senior bureaucrats by November. The cars can reportedly run 120-150 km on a single charge. Notably, Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, a company promoted by state-run power utilities, is set to float global bids to install 10,000 battery operated cars and 4,000 charging stations in NCR.



Appointments: National
Karur Vysya Bank appoints Shri P R Seshadri as MD & CEO
  • Karur Vysya Bank vide the Reserve Bank of India's approval has appointed Shri P R Seshadri as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Bank for a period of 3 years from the date of his taking charge.
Ola hires former eKart executive Harish Abhichandani as Chief Financial Officer
  • Cab hailing startup Ola hired former executive of eKart, Harish Abhichandani as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Abhichandani replaced former Ola CFO Rajiv Bansal who quit the job in February, within six months of taking over the position. Abhichandani had held the same position at Tata Teleservices before joining eKart in 2016.
Banking/Economic Affairs
Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB) wins 'Inclusive Finance India’ award
  • Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank (KVGB), a premier regional rural bank of the country, has added another feather to its cap after being honoured with the national-level ‘Inclusive Finance India’ award instituted by ACCESS ASSIST.
  • A release by KVGB said the bank won the first runner-up award for best performance under the Self Help Group-Bank Linkage scheme for the fiscal 2014-15.
  • The award has been instituted particularly to recognise the role of the regional rural banks in development and empowerment of the rural populace.
Corporation Bank has received best performance award for SHG-bank linkage programme
  • Corporation Bank has bagged the best performance awards for SHG-bank linkage programme for Karnataka for 2015-16 and 2016-17 from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). A press release said here that the bank was given the award for its overall performance under SHG-bank linkage programme for 2015-16 and 2016-17 among commercial banks operating in Karnataka. The bank has formed more than 1.32 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) till date, it said.
SBI gives leg-up to CSR initiatives, adopts 50 villages
  • The nation's largest lender State Bank of India today launched a CSR initiative, SBI Gram Seva, which will work in the areas of health, education, environment and rural infrastructure.
  • The SBI Foundation will identify and partner with NGOs to carry out CSR initiatives under which it adopt five villages each from 10 village panchayats with each village getting around Rs 2.40 crore over the next three years.
RBI advises banks to make Aadhaar card linkage mandatory for crop loans
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday advised commercial banks to make Aadhaar cards linkage mandatory for farmers to avail short-term crop loans in 2017-18.
  • The advice to all public and private sector scheduled commercial banks was sent through a RBI notification on the "Interest Subvention Scheme for Short Term Crop Loans during the year 2017-18" issued on Wednesday.
  • "To ensure hassle-free benefits to farmers under interest subvention scheme, the banks are advised to make Aadhaar linkage mandatory for availing short-term crop loans in 2017-18," the notification said.
Rankings
Serena Williams named highest paid female athlete of 2017
  • American tennis player Serena Williams has topped the Forbes' list of highest paid female athletes of 2017, with $27 million in earnings between June 2016 and June 2017. Her earnings, which include prize money and endorsements, is twice that of any other female athlete. Serena is on a break from tennis as she is expecting her first child in September.
The World's Highest-Paid Actresses 2017: Emma Stone Leads With $26 Million
  • La La Land--the city and its celluloid namesake--has been very kind to Emma Stone. At just 28 years old, the Hollywood star is this year's highest-paid actress, banking $26 million pretax in our 12 month scoring period.
  • Stone has her earnings from the movie-musical to thank for the bulk of her payday, which also won her a Best Actress Oscar. Her portrayal of Mia, an aspiring actress and barista, garnered rave reviews and goosed the film to $445.3 million at the global box office.
National Affairs
Karnataka launches 'Indira Canteen' in Bengaluru
  • 'Indira Canteen', aimed at serving the poor at subsidised rates, was inaugurated in Bengaluru on Wednesday by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
  • Mr. Gandhi, who had the first breakfast at the canteen in Jayanagar, said 'Indira Canteens' would serve the migrants who came to Bengaluru with a dream to build something. “No person in Bengaluru should ever go hungry and the canteens are a great means towards it,” he said, asking the government to give much attention to cleanliness and taste.
Cabinet approves creation of a single non-lapsable corpus fund for Secondary
  • The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has accorded its approval today for creation of a non-lapsable pool in the Public Account for secondary and higher, education known as "Madhyamik and Uchchtar Shiksha Kosh" (MUSK) into which all proceeds of "Secondary and Higher Education Cess" will be credited.
  • The funds arising from the MUSK would be utilized for schemes in the education sector which would be available for the benefit of students of secondary and higher education, all over the country.
Agreements (MoU)
EESL and IOCL, BPCL & HPCL sign MOUs for distribution of Energy Efficient appliances 
  •  Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the Ministry of Power, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) for distribution of energy efficient appliances under the flagship Unnat Jeevan by Affordable LEDs and appliances for All (UJALA) scheme. According to the agreement, Oil Marketing Companies- IOCL, BPCL and HPCL will take up distribution of LED Bulbs, LED Tubelights and energy efficient Fans from select retail outlets across the country. 
  • The distribution of these energy efficient appliances will be conducted in a phased manner across these select outlets. In the first phase, distribution will commence from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra
Summit /Conference / Events / Host
  • Italy will host a summit MIA heads of G7 in Autumn
  • In autumn of 2017 in Italy, the summit of the Interior Ministers of the G-7 countries will be held.
  • "In Italy, the autumn of the G-7 Interior Ministers Summit on security issues," the press service said.
  • So, according to the calendar of events G-7, the meeting of Interior Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Japan and the United States can take place in October.
Awards & Honours
12-year-old Indian-origin boy named Rahul wins first round of UK TV show 'Child Genius'
  • A 12-year-old Indian-origin boy named Rahul won the first round of British TV Show 'Child Genius' by answering 14 questions out of 15 correctly. Rahul reportedly has an IQ of 162, which is believed to be greater than that of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. He also scored full marks in spelling test, by reciting words like 'garrulous', 'accouchement' correctly.
Sports: Awards & Honours
Junior world no. 1 Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen wins Bulgaria Open
  • India's Lakshya Sen, who is currently the world number one junior shuttler, won the Bulgaria Open International Series title a day after turning 16 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Uttarakhand shuttler defeated Croatia's Zvonimir Durkinjak 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 in the 57-minute-long final on Thursday. Notably, Lakshya had earlier reached the finals of the Senior National championship in February.
India beats Austria 4-3 to end Europe tour on a high in Indian men’s hockey Tournament.
  • Ramandeep Singh and Chinglensana Singh Kangujam struck twice to guide the Indian men’s hockey team to a sensational 4-3 win over Austria in its final encounter of the Europe Tour here.
  • Double goals from Ramandeep (25th minute, 32nd) and Chinglensana (37th, 60th) helped India end the tour with three wins and two loses.
  • For Austria, Oliver Binder (14th), Michael Korper (53rd) and Patrick Schmidt (55th) sounded the board.
  • After two successive wins against World No. 4 The Netherlands, India made a steady start against Austria. While it kept most of the ball possession, penetrating into the striking circle was hard to come by.
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