Current Affairs Update – 28th April, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important Current Affairs for 28th April, 2015.

• India-US bilateral trade has crossed the $100-billion mark in 2014, with the two countries now eyeing the ambitious mark of $500 billion, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma has said.
• Both sides are working hard to assess the prospects of a high standard bilateral investment treaty (BIT) to bolster investor confidence, and the newly reconstituted strategic and commercial dialogue is expected to be held in Washington soon, Verma said at an event organised by the American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday.
• Bilateral trade was $103 billion in 2014.
• The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary, Amitabh Kant, said that the $500-billion target was achievable if India continued to move on a high growth trajectory and managed to attract investments from US-based companies.

• The World Bank projects India's GDP to expand to 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal on account of increased economic activity and greater stability.
• "India's economic growth is expected to rise to 7.5 per cent in 2015-16, followed by further acceleration to 7.9 per cent in 2016-17 and 8 per cent in 2017-18," the World Bank said in its India Development Update report today.
• "However, acceleration in growth is conditional on the growth rate of investment picking up to 11 per cent during FY16 to FY18," the World Bank said.
• The government in the Union Budget 2015-16 had projected the GDP growth to be at 8.5 per cent this fiscal.
• It said India's government has begun to implement reforms to unlock the country’s investment potential to improve the business environment, liberalise FDI, boost both public and private investment in infrastructure, quickly resolve corporate disputes, simplify taxation and lower corporate taxes.

• Smart Cities in Maharashtra could very well end up looking as "smart" as Tel-Aviv, the capital of Israel.
• In a key stride in collaboration between the State and Israel, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on Monday agreed to cooperate in building smart cities.
• After the discussions held on Smart City partnership, the two parties-Maharashtra government and Municipality of Tel Aviv-agreed to discuss common challenges faced by modern cities and possible solutions. They would also explore the possibility of using Indian IT capabilities to increase efficiency of smart urban solutions.
• On a four-day visit to the country, Mr. Fadnavis was briefed on the concept and implementation of the Smart City project in Tel Aviv, which was adjudged as the ‘World’s Smartest City’ at the Smart City Expo World Congress held in 2014.  Mr. Fadnavis held discussions with Mr. Huldai, besides meeting other experts and officials.
• During his tour of Israel, Mr. Fadnavis, who has stressed on attracting investment to the State, will attend an exhibition on agricultural technology, Agritech Israel 2015,  and explore areas of co-operation including in emergency preparations and crises management technologies.  Agritech Israel 2015 is one of the world's most important exhibitions in the field of agricultural technologies.

• Union Minister for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal on 27 April 2015 flagged off three NTPC Mobile Science Labs (MSL) for revolutionizing education in rural India.
• MSL is a vehicle fitted with LCD TV carrying working Science Models which emphasizes curiosity based learning for children in rural India. It is an initiative to make hands-on learning accessible amongst underprivileged children.
• These three MSLs will be initially deployed at NTPC's ongoing projects at Darlipalli, Pakri Barwadih and Kahalgaon through Agastya International Foundation. Each MSL will cover a set of about 20 schools around NTPC project generating about 16000 student exposures per year.
• More than 140000 student exposure will be generated in three years. The instructors for mobile science lab will be from neighbourhood community.
• MSLs will focus on School visits, Young Instructor's Program, Science Fairs, Activity Camps and Teacher Training.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the third most followed world leader on the micro-blogging site Twitter while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is the most followed foreign minister, according to a latest study.
• Twiplomacy Study 2015 showed that Sushma Swaraj is the most followed foreign minister with 2,438,228 followers - far ahead of UAE’ Abdullah Bin Zayed (1,608,831) and Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu (376,429).
• The three most followed world leaders were US President Barack Obama with 56,933,515 followers, Pope Francis with 19,580,910 followers on his nine different language accounts, and Modi with 10,902,510 followers.
• The study, which counted data till March 24, is an annual global survey of world leaders on Twitter. It is aimed at identifying the extent to which world leaders use the site and how they connect on the social network.
• Since his election in May 2014, Modi’s account has moved into the top three most followed Twitter accounts of world leaders, said Twiplomacy’s Matthias Luefkens. He told IANS that Modi was also among the most effective in terms of re-tweets per tweet.

• Incumbent President of Sudan Omar Hassan al-Bashir on 27 April 2015 won the Presidential election of the country. He won another term in office with 94 percent of votes.
• The election results were announced by the election office after four days of voting. The head of the country's electoral commission said turnout was 46 percent.
• This win has extended Bashir’s tenure as President of the country for another five-year term. He had been in power in Sudan since 1989.
• The election has been boycotted by the opposition. It was also critisised by the European Union, United States, Britain and Norway, by terming that the country had failed to create a free, fair and conducive elections environment.
• 71-year old Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges. He continues to defy The Hague’s arrest warrant in relation to his violent suppression of the conflict in Darfur.

• NASA has launched an ambitious project that will lead the search for signs of life beyond our solar system.
• The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative will bring together the “best and brightest” and marshal the expertise of 10 universities, three NASA centres and two research institutes, the US space agency said.
• The programme aims to better understand the various components of an exoplanet, as well as how the parent stars and neighbouring planets might interact to support life.
• The programme brings together planetary scientists, Earth scientists, heliophysicists and astronomers to identify and search for biosignatures, or signs of life.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 26 April 2015 conferred the 50th Jnanpith Award on eminent Marathi litterateur Bhalchandra Nemade in Parliament House Complex, New Delhi.
• Nemade received the country’s highest literary award for his outstanding contribution towards Indian literature.
• His novel, Kosala (Cocoon), written in 1963 was considered as a path breaking in Marathi literature. His other novels include Bidhar, Hool, Jarila and Jhool. He composed various poems which are compiled up in his collections named Melody and Dekhani.
• He is the leader of the post-1960s Little Magazine movement and was given Sahitya Akademi Award (1990) for his critical work Teeka Svayanwar.

• Srinagar-born novelist Siddhartha Gigoo has won the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for Asia region for "Umbrella Man", a tale of surreal meditation on mental health and the environment, organisers said today.
• Gigoo won 2500 pounds and will now compete with the other four regional winners for the 5000 pounds grand prize, to be announced in London on September 8.
• Gigoo's prize winning story has been published in the book A Fistful of Earth and Other Stories.
• Judges praised Gigoo's book for "his sensitivity and perception, which made his story stand out from the rest" and chose it as top story from the 22 stories shortlisted from the nearly 4000 entries received from countries in Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and the Pacific.
• Born in Srinagar in 1974, Gigoo's first novel The Garden of Solitude was first published in 2011. He has also written two poetry books, Fall and Other Poems (1994) and Reflections (1995).

• The Andhra Pradesh Government on 27 April 2015 appointed Chadalavada Krishnamurthy as the Chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Board of Trustees, a body which administers Tirupati's Lord Venkateswara temple.
• Moreover, Principal Secretary of the Revenue (Endowments) Department, Commissioner of Endowments Department and Executive Officer of TTD would also be ex-officio members of the Board.

• Chennai-born Raja Rajeswari has been sworn-in as a criminal court judge in New York by Mayor Bill de Blasio, becoming the first India-born woman to be appointed a judge in New York City.
• Ms. Rajeswari, 43, who had migrated to the U.S. from Chennai as a teenager, previously worked with the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office for her entire career in several bureaus including Criminal Court, Narcotics, Supreme Court, and the Sex Crimes Special Victims Bureau, where she last served as Deputy Chief.
• Ms. Rajeswari took the oath of office at a ceremony in New York City on Monday along with 27 other judges appointed earlier this month to the Family Court, Criminal Court, and Civil Court, which are part of the New York State Unified Court System.
• The mayor appoints judges to 10-year terms in the New York City Criminal Court and the Family Court within the city.

• Lin Dan of China on 26 April 2015 won the men`s title at Badminton Asia Championships 2015 held in the central city of Wuhan, China. He won the title by defeating compatriot Tian Houwei 21-19, 21-8.
• With this he won the Asian championship for the fourth time.  Lin, the No. 2 seed, is a five-time world champion and twice Olympic gold medallist.
• In the women`s singles, seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand defeated top seed Li Xuerui of China 20-22, 23-21, 21-12 in a match that lasted 76 minutes.
• In the men`s doubles, Lee Yong-Dae and Yoo Yeon-Seong of South Korea defeated Indonesia`s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 18-21, 24-22, 21-19.
• In an all-China women`s doubles final, Ma Jin and Tang Yuanting beat Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang 21-12, 21-12.

• Delhi Daredevils’ player Yuvraj Singh today announced a tie-up with his IPL franchise to promote awareness about fighting cancer and the May 1 match against Kings XI Punjab will be dedicated to those who are fighting the dreaded disease. Yuvraj’s cancer foundation ‘YouWeCan’ in alliance with Delhi Daredevils and Max Hospitals has announced free cancer detection clinics on May 1.
• Similarly the Delhi Daredevils players will be wearing lavender colour jerseys on that particular day.
• Delhi Daredevils CEO Hemant Dua said that around 100 children, who are fighting cancer will be watching the IPL match live from the Feroze Shah Kotla stands.

• World Day for Safety and Health at Work is commemorated every year by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on April 28.
• The ILO acknowledges the shared responsibility of key stakeholders and encourages them to promote a preventive safety and health culture to fulfil their obligations and responsibilities for preventing deaths, injuries and diseases in the workplace, allowing workers to return safely to their homes at the end of the working day.
• The theme of the campaign for 2015 is ‘Join in building a culture of prevention on OSH’ (Occupational Safety and Health).

Regards



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