Current Affairs Updates - 13th March 2018

Current Affairs Updates - 13th March 2018

Achieversrule team has once again come up with the important Current Affairs in our today's Current Affairs Updates - 13th March 2018. There are news from National, International, Schemes, Agreements, Awards and Honors. These are divided into sections and each one of them have details given in further bullet points. We request candidates to go through them properly before attempting the Daily Current Affairs Quiz. We also ask our readers to go through the One Liner Gk and Note Down points regularly to boost their knowledge as these will help in government exams like Bank, Rail and SSC.

National Affairs

Rajasthan Assembly Approves Death Penalty For Raping A Girl Below 12.

• the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018, which was tabled in the assembly on Wednesday, seeks to add section 376-AA in the IPC, which will be defined as:“Punishment for rape on a woman up to 12 years of age. Whoever commits rape on a woman up to twelve years of age shall be punished with death, or rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than fourteen years but which may extend to imprisonment for life which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life, and shall also be liable to fine.”

For intra-State movement, the e-way bill will be rolled out in a phased manner beginning April 15, and will cover all the States by June 1.

• Businesses will continue to file summary sales return GSTR-3B till June as the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Council on Saturday extended the present system of return-filing by three months.

The Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Laboratory (IBSD), Imphal, set up a floating laboratory in northeast India's largest freshwater lake, Loktak to constantly monitor its water quality and eventually improve it.

• The laboratory was inaugurated by Manipur's Forest and Environment Minister, Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh in Imphal on February 24.

Milk production in the country increased by 20 per cent from 137.7 million tonnes to 165.4 million tonnes between 2014 and 2017.

• Also, the per capita availability of milk has risen by 15.6 per cent from 307 gms a day to 355 gms per day between 2013-14 and 2016-17 

The Economic Offenders Bill 2018 was introduced by Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance, in the Lower House amidst din over the PNB scam.

• The Bill paves the way for confiscation of all assets, including benami assets, both within and outside the country, of declared economic offenders. The proposed law will apply for economic offences with monetary value in excess of 100 crore.

Khadi industry lost 7 lakh jobs in years that witnessed 33% sales rise 

• The popular Khadi industry lost 7 lakh jobs during the years when sales increased by almost 33 percent.

A parliamentary panel has observed that the Himmat App, launched by the Delhi Police for women safety, has failed to serve the purpose as a very limited number of people registered as its users in a city of 19 million. 

• The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, said that without adequate publicity among the target group, this App will not be able to see any increase in the number of users. 

The World Health Organization has launched new guidelines on the role that tobacco product regulations can play in reducing tobacco demand, saving lives and raising revenues for health services to treat tobacco-related diseases.

• The new guide, titled ‘Tobacco product regulation: Building laboratory testing capacity’, and a collection of country approaches to regulation of menthol in tobacco products, presented in the publication, titled ‘Case studies for regulatory approaches to tobacco products — Menthol in tobacco products’, were launched at the 2018 World Conference on Tobacco or Health recently.

International Affairs

Russia 'test-fires hypersonic Kinzhal missile'

• The Kinzhal is said to travel at 10 times the speed of sound and have a range of 2,000km (1,200 miles).
• The defence ministry said the missile was launched from a MiG-31 jet that took off from an airfield in south-west Russia on Saturday.

Science & Technology

A team of students from IIT-Madras has developed a solar-powered mobile unit that converts non-recyclable plastic waste into fuel oil that is cheaper than diesel and can be used as a substitute in generators, industrial boilers, furnaces, diesel-powered engines and agricultural pumps.

• This green technology — Plastic Pyrolysis — essentially breaks down polymer chain in plastic at 350-500 degree Celsius in the absence of oxygen to get the low density fuel oil. 

Defence & Railway News

India’s first national coastal policing academy, National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP) to train police forces in effectively safeguarding country’s shoreline will start functioning from April 2018.

• This will be launched from the campus of Gujarat’s Fisheries Research Centre located in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat. 

Agreements/ MoUs Signed

In a major expansion of strategic ties, India and France today inked 14 pacts in key areas of defence, security, nuclear energy and protection of classified information, besides resolving to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and step up joint efforts to contain terrorism.

• The agreements were signed after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, including on the changing security dynamics in the Indian Ocean and Pacific.

European long-term lending institution European Investment Bank (EIB) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) Ltd, the financing arm of the ministry of new and renewable energy, have signed a loan agreement for a second line of credit (LoC) of 150 million dollar on non-sovereign basis.

• The line of credit is for a tenure of 15 years including a grace period of three years, and it will be used for financing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency projects in India.

Summit /Conference / Events

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron have inaugurated Uttar Pradesh's biggest solar power plant in Mirzapur district's Chhanvey block

• The prime minister and the French president pressed a button to energise the solar panels and dedicated the 100 MW facility to the people of the state.

PM Narendra Modi to inaugurate End TB summit in Delhi 

• The summit will be hosted by the Union Ministry of Health along with the WHO and the Stop TB Partnership. 
• The summit will be inaugurated on March 13 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and addressed by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Union Health Minister J P Nadda and Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Chair of the Stop TB Partnership. 

Awards & Honours: Sports

Matt Wallace beats Andrew 'Beef' Johnston in Indian Open play-off

• Johnston fired a bogey-free 66 at DLF Golf and Country Club to set the clubhouse target at 11 under, which overnight joint-leader Wallace joined by closing out a four-under 68.

Reigning Asian champion Navjot Kaur was rewarded for her recent gold medal effort as she became world No 2 in the women’s 65 kg category during the latest rankings released by the United World Wrestling.

• Navjot became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the recent Asian Championship in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. This is Navjot’s career-best ranking.

Awards & Honours: Miscellaneous

West Bengal has become the best performing State both in terms of allotting jobs and utilising funds under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

• According to statistics recently provided in Rajya Sabha by the Minister of State for Rural Development Ram Kripal Yadav, West Bengal generated more than 28.21 crore work days under the scheme so far in 2017-18 and spent more than 7,335.31 crore for it. 

“Palace on Wheels” gets tourist train of the year award

• The luxury train ‘Palace on Wheels’ of Rajasthan, popular among foreign tourists, has bagged the ‘Tourist Train of the Year’ award of the Pacific Area Travel Writers’ Associ-ation. State Director (Tourism) Pradeep Kumar Borar received the award from Union Minister of State for Tourism K.J. Alphons.