Current Affairs Updates - 15th February 2018

Current Affairs Updates - 15th February 2018

We, the Achieversrule team have brought to you the Daily Current Affairs Updates - 15th February 2018. We have sorted out all the important updates under different sections such as National, International, Schemes, Rankings, obituary and more. These headlines are very important for the upcoming examinations of Bank, Rail and SSC. We hope readers will go through this and find it useful. Stay tuned for more such Latest Updates and Quizzes at the end of the day.

New Appointments: National

Ashok Das, a 1987 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, was named India’s new Ambassador to Brazil.

• Das earlier served as India’s Ambassador to Iceland. He has also served in the Indian diplomatic missions in Portugal, Cambodia, US, Canada and Bangladesh.

Committees in News

Punjab government has notified six-member Revenue Commission with an aim to bring greater efficiency and accountability in functioning of t Revenue Department.

• The Commission will be headed by (Retd.) Justice SS Saron of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Banking, Economic & Financial Affairs

RBI relaxes priority sector lending rule for banks.

• The central bank has however told foreign banks with 20 or more branches to adhere to the priority sector sub-targets for farm loans and loans to micro enterprises to make the rule equal with other banking entities. 

Citibank has banned the usage of its credit card and debit cards towards purchase or trading of Bitcoins, cryptocurrencies and other virtual currencies in India.

• Banking sources didn’t rule out other banks also banning the use of cards to purchase cryptocurrencies. 

In a major fillip to the State government’s plans to develop the electronics industry, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has come forward to invest in Andhra Pradesh.

• Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has plans to manufacture 10 million mobile phones per annum in Andhra Pradesh.

National Affairs

The Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs is planning to introduce ranking system for National Sports Federations (NSFs).

• It is aimed at inculcating healthy competition between sports bodies.

The Union Government is developing soft power matrix, a tool aimed at calibrating effectiveness of India’s soft power outreach and foster better diplomatic traction in India’s immediate neighbourhood and beyond.

• The process is currently at a research stage. It will help in dealings with neighbouring countries and serve better as operational instrument in India’s broader diplomatic doctrine.

Russian space agency Roskosmos has successfully launched Progress MS-08, an unmanned cargo spacecraft for the International Space Station (ISS).

• It was launched onboard of Soyuz-2.1a rocket from Russian-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.
• Soyuz-2.1a has four strap-on boosters and core engine, all fueled by mix of kerosene and liquid oxygen.

India’s biggest electricity producer NTPC Ltd has won tender to supply 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity to power-starved Bangladesh for 15 years.

• The tender was floated by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for supply of 500 MW power from India for short term (2018-2019) and long term.

The government today made amendments in Small Saving Act, proposing the merger of Government Savings Certificates Act, 1959, Public Provident Fund Act, 1968 with the Government Savings Banks Act, 1873.

• The amendment will retain all existing protections while consolidating PPF Act under the proposed Government Savings Promotion Act.

R.K. Singh inaugurated the ‘Indian Power Stations 2018’ in New Delhi. 

• It is the three-day International Conference on Operations and Maintenance.

Delhi-Pune, Delhi-Lucknow are now in top ten air routes in the country.

• Over the last decade, even as India’s air passenger traffic more than doubled, the pecking order of the top air routes on which people travel has largely stayed the same, with sectors such as Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi, Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi and Mumbai-Bengaluru-Mumbai continuing to top the routes ranked in terms of number of seats deployed.

State-run NTPC Ltd will supply 300 megawatts (MW) to power-starved Bangladesh as part of India’s strategy of playing a key role in creating a new energy security architecture for its neighbours.

• Unit NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVN) will supply power to Bangladesh Power Development Board, said India’s largest power generation utility in a statement on Tuesday. 

Defence & Railway News

The Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Defence Minister has approved capital acquisition.

• The Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Defence Minister has approved capital acquisition of 7.4 lakh assault rifles, 17,000 light machine guns, 5,719 sniper rifles and Mareech advanced torpedo decoy systems for Indian Navy worth Rs. 15,935 crore.

India gets access to strategic port in Oman for military use, to counter China in the Indian Ocean

• The Duqm port is located close to both the Chabahar port in Iran, which India is helping develop, and the Gwadar port in Pakistan, which has Beijing’s help.

Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Chief Marshal (ACM) B.S. Dhanoa received a restored World War-II DC3 Dakota aircraft from an IAF veteran.

• The DC3 Dakota aircraft Parashurama bearing the Tail Number VP-905 will be part of the IAF’s vintage fleet. 

Application / Portal 

LinkedIn launches ‘Scheduler’ feature to ease hiring process

• Microsoft's LinkedIn has introduced a 'Scheduler' feature, that allows job seekers and employers to schedule meetings through the professional linking platform.

Radio Umang: India's first online radio station launched

• Deeper penetration of smart phones and internet data has given fillip to several non-conventional services and Radio Umang is one of them.

Agreements/ MoUs Signed

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance announced a partnership with Quikr under which its insurance products will be distributed by the digital classifieds platform.

• Quikr will be a new age distribution channel for Bajaj Allianz’s personal line of general insurance products such as Health, Personal Accident, Home, Motor and Travel, besides commercial line of products such as Property, and Engineering Insurance.

Summit /Conference / Events

President Ram Nath Kovind hosted an‘LPG Panchayat at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

• It was organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY).
• The LPG Panchayat aims to provide a platform for LPG consumers to interact with each other, promote mutual learning and share experiences.

India-Russia Agriculture Business Summit held in New Delhi

• India and Russia discussed trade relations in the agricultural sector in a business summit on Tuesday, in New Delhi.
• Apart from presentation by both countries that highlighted the agricultural trade opportunities, there was intense discussion in 4 theme sessions on potential areas of collaboration and trade in the fields of allied sectors.

Awards & Honours: Miscellaneous

Siddharth Zarabi with 20 years of work experience is currently Executive Editor of Business TV India while Abhijit Majumder is Managing Editor of Mail Today newspaper.

• Moving to overhaul the national public broadcaster, the Prasar Bharati is said to have zeroed in on two journalists for editorial leadership positions in Doordarshan News and Prasar Bharati News Service under All India Radio.