Current Affairs Update – 16-18th April, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important current affairs from 16th of April to 18th of April, 2016. These are very important for the upcoming SBI Clerk and NABARD Assistant Manager 2016 Exams.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
  14 April 2016 launched the pilot of e-NAM, the e-trading platform for the
  National Agriculture Market, for the farmers. It was launched on 125th birth
  anniversary of Baba Saheb Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
• The initiative will usher in
  transparency which will greatly benefit the farmers. In the initial stage 21
  mandis in 8 states have been linked to e-NAM and by September 2016 two hundred
  mandis will be included and by March 2018 five hundred eighty five mandis.
• With this, the farmers can sell
  or buy the agricultural products online using this portal.

• This project will operate through
  an online portal which is being linked to the mandis of the States.
• Its software will be provided to
  all the willing states without cost.
• A knowledgeable person will be
  deployed for one year in every sharing mandi to facilitate the smooth
  functioning of the portal.
• Under this Project, Union
  Government is providing a grant of 30 lakh rupees to the proposed agriculture
  mandis of the states.

• Google in collaboration with
  RailTel, the telecom arm of the Indian Railways, rolled out free Wi-Fi service
  at Bhubaneswar railway station on 17 April 2016.
• With this, Bhubaneswar railway
  station became the second station to be covered under the Google-RailTel Wi-Fi
  project. Free Wi-Fi by Google-RailTel took off at Mumbai Central in January
  2016.
• This facility will enable
  passengers to stream high definition videos while waiting for their respective
  trains at the railway station.
• Besides Bhubaneswar, trials are
  going on at about 10 more stations which include Jaipur, Patna, Ranchi,
  Ernakulum, Allahabad, Lucknow and Guwahati. Wi-Fi services will be available on
  these stations in a short time.

• Indian Railway on 17 April 2016
  for the first time used an unmanned air vehicles or drones to inspect the
  ongoing work on the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project.
• The drone was used for three days
  on a trial basis to monitor a total of 98 kilometers on the DFC. Out of this,
  it was used to monitor 42-km long track between Baghega to Srimadhopur in
  Rajasthan in the Western DFC and the 56-km long line between Durgawati and
  Sasaram in Bihar.
• The use of drone enabled Indian
  Railway officials to prepare the status report of the surveyed section of the
  DFC project quickly and easily.
• The drone was hired from a
  private operator and it cost 3000 rupees per km for undertaking the aerial
  survey. Currently about 170 projects, including doubling and laying of new
  lines, are being executed by railways.

• Sikkim Governor Shrinvas Patil on
  17 April 2016 formally unveiled Supercomputer named ‘Param Kanchenjunga’ at the
  National Institute of Technology (NIT) Sikkim. It is named after Kangchenjunga
  Mountain (8586 m), the third highest mountain in the world.
• The Param Kanchenjunga is the
  most powerful and fastest among all available at the 31 National Institute of
  Technology’s.
• It has been jointly developed by
  Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the NIT
  Sikkim. The total cost of the Supercomputer is around three crore rupees.

• Panagarh Air Force Base of West
  Bengal was renamed as Air Force Station Arjan Singh on 16 April 2016. This can
  be termed as a rare honour to the nation’s oldest soldier Marshal of Air Force
  Arjan Singh.
• Air Officer Commander-in-Chief of
  the Eastern Air Command, Air Marshal C Harikumar unveiled the rechristening
  plaque at a ceremony held at the Panagarh Air Base. He announced that the
  crucial Air Force Base in the eastern theatre will now be called Air Force
  Station Arjan Singh.
• Marshal of the Air Force Arjan
  Singh, 97, had led the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the 1965 India-Pakistan war.

• Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar
  Das on 14 April 2016 launched the Bhimrao Ambedkar Awas Yojana for widows.
• Its objective of the scheme is to
  create equality and harmony in society, ensuring all round development.

• The programme is with a budget
  allocation of 80 crore rupees and a target of 11000 units (houses) for widows
  was set in 2016-17 financial year.
• An amount of 75000 rupees would
  be granted to build a house in districts in hilly terrains and 70000 rupees in
  plains and the amount would be distributed among the beneficiaries in three
  installments in their bank accounts.

• Gujarat government on 15 April
  2016 appointed Geeta Johri as the Director General of Police (DGP). The
  1982-batch IPS officer Johri, who has the distinction of being Gujarat’s first
  women IPS officer, also became the first female DGP of Gujarat.
• She was elevated to the post
  after the state DGP PC Thakur was transferred to the centre as the Director
  General of Civil Defence and Home Guards on deputation.

• Tata Steel Europe has appointed
  Bimlendra Jha as Chief Executive Officer of Tata Steel UK which has been put on
  block.
• As Executive Chairman of Tata
  Steel Europe’s Long Products Europe Business, Jha played a crucial role in
  finding a suitor for the long product division in Europe.
• In his new position, Jha will
  report to Hans Fischer, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Steel Europe and will
  be supported by a team of executives drawn across functions including
  operations, procurement, finance, human resources and commercial, said Tata Steel
  in a statement on Monday.
• Last week, Tata Steel signed an
  agreement with Greybull Capital to sell its struggling long product division.
• Koushik Chatterjee, Group
  Executive Director, Tata Steel said Jha’s experience in the process of
  divestment of Long Products division in Europe will be invaluable as Tata Steel
  Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK.

• IAS officer C K Deshmukh was
  today appointed as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) in Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
• C K Deshmukh, a 1996 batch IAS
  officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, has been appointed to the post till May 23,
  2017, the date on which she completes combined central deputation tenure of
  seven years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.
• The CVO acts as distant arm of
  Central Vigilance Commission to check corruption and strengthen anti-graft
  measures in an organisation.

• Advocate Hari Phuyal has been
  appointed as the new Attorney General of Nepal by President Bidya Devi Bhandari
  upon the recommendation of the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
• Phuyal was appointed as per
  Article 157.2 of the Constitution yesterday.
• The office was vacant since March
  1, when the then Attorney General Hari Krishna Karki resigned from his position,
  reports Himalayan Times.
• The post of Attorney General is a
  coveted one and he works as the chief legal advisor to the government here.

• Indian artistic gymnast Dipa
  Karmakar on 17 April 2016 created history by becoming the first Indian woman
  gymnast to qualify for Olympics.
• Karmakar booked a berth for the
  Rio Games after a strong performance at the final qualifying and test event.
  She earned a total score of 52.698 points in the Olympics qualifying event to
  book a berth for artistic gymnastics in Rio Games to be held in August 2016.
• Karmakar has been listed as the
  79th gymnast among individual qualifiers in the list of women’s artistic
  gymnast who have qualified for the Rio Olympics.

• Australia on 16 April 2016
  defeated India 4-0 in the final to win the 25th edition of the Sultan Azlan
  Shah Cup held in Ipoh, Malaysia.
• This was the 9th title for the
  Aussies at this tournament having last won it in 2014.
• India last won the tournament in
  2010, their fifth title, when they were jointly declared winners with South
  Korea.
• Thomas Craig and Matt Gohdes
  scored two goals each in open field play for Australia. The Aussies took off
  though Craig’s field goals in the 25th and 35th minutes. Gohdes made it 3-0 in
  the 43rd minute and scored the fourth in the 57th minute.

• Rafael Nadal on 17 April 2016
  defeated Frenchman Gael Monfils to grab the 2016 Monte Carlo Masters title.
• Nadal, appearing in his 100th
  Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour final, won 7-5 5-7 6-0 in 2 hours
  46 minutes to claim his ninth title, but his first since 2012.

• International Day for Monuments
  and Sites traditionally called World Heritage Day was observed across the world
  on 18 April 2016 with theme ‘The Heritage of Sport’.
• The theme was decided by the
  International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in the backdrop of Rio
  Olympics 2016 that is to be hosted in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 2016.
• World Heritage Day is observed to
  create awareness to protect and preserve the shared wealth of humankind and
  showcases the diversity of cultural heritage. It calls for collective efforts
  of the international community to preserve the valuable asset.

• World Haemophilia Day was
  observed globally on 17 April 2016 with theme Treatment for all is the vision
  of all.
• The day aims at raising awareness
  about haemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders.  The day also provides an opportunity to talk
  to the family and friends, colleagues, and caregivers to raise awareness and
  increase support for those living with an inherited bleeding disorder.
• Hemophilia Day was established in
  1989 with the support of the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH). The date of
  17 April was chosen to honour Frank Schnabel, the founder of WFH, whose
  birthday falls on the same date.

• Dell on 15 April 2016 released
  its ranking of Future Ready Economies Model globally. As per the ranking, San
  Jose topped the list of 50 future-ready cities around the world that are
  embracing technology to adapt and thrive in an ever changing and globalised
  future.
• The national capital Delhi was
  ranked 44th in the list.
• The Future-Ready Economies Model
  scores large, high-growth global metropolitan areas based on attributes that
  enable people and organisations to access new tools and ideas that deliver
  better connectivity, better economic performance and a greater ability to
  attract talent.
• The rankings were compiled by IHS
  Economics based on proxy indicators that define the insights and criteria
  developed at the 2015 Strategic Innovation Summit: Enabling Economies for the
  Future, hosted by Harvard University and sponsored by Dell.

• Satyanand Munjal, co-founder of
  Hero Cycles group, passed away on 14 April 2016 at Model Town, Ludhiana. He was
  99.
• He was popularly known as Mahatma
  Satyanand Munjal for being devoted to several social causes related to the Arya
  Samaj.
• Satyanand had co-founded Hero
  Group with his three brothers, Om Prakash Munjal, Brijmohan Lall Munjal and
  Dayanand Munjal. The brothers hailed from a small town called Kamalia, now in
  Pakistan.
• The philanthropist had served as
  a Co-Chairman and Managing Director (MD) of Hero Cycles Ltd.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});