Current Affairs Update – 22nd April, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 22nd April, 2016. These are important for the upcoming NABARD Assistant Manager and SBI Clerk 2016.
Current Affairs at a Glance – 22nd April, 2016
  1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
    May 1 will launch Rs. 8,000 crore scheme to provide 5 crore free LPG
    connections to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families
    using the money saved
    from 1.13 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies. The
    scheme is called Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and Mr. Modi will be
    launching it on May 1 at Ballia in Uttar Pradesh and Dahod in Gujarat on May
    15.
  2. Owing to poor performance of
    developers, the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry has taken a decision to
    terminate three highway projects worth over Rs. 3,000 crore
    . The
    projects are Rargaon-Jamshedpur (Rs. 1,650 crore)
    in Jharkhand, Rohtak-Jind (Rs. 410 crore) in
    Haryana and Haridwar-Dehradun (Rs. 1,021 crore) in Uttarakhand.
  3. The Commerce and Industry
    Ministry on 21 April 2016 launched a service named Twitter Seva to address issues and grievances of startups,
    exporters and importers, and other stakeholders.
  4. Full service airline Vistara
    has entered
    into a strategic partnership
    with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for a broad range of information technology (IT)
    services, including application maintenance services and airport infrastructure
    support.
  5. Scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai
    Space Centre
    , Thiruvananthapuram indigenously manufactured the
    world’s lightest synthetic material called ‘silica aerogel’ or ‘blue air’ or ‘frozen smoke’.
    It was in news in the third week of April 2016. Silica Aerogel is the lightest
    synthetic material ever made by man.
  6. The Uttarakhand High Court on 21 April 2016 quashed the imposition of President’ Rule in the state and revived
    the term of Congress Government headed by Harish Rawat. The court also asked
    Harish Rawat to prove his majority on 29 April 2016.
  7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 April 2016 inaugurated the 10th Civil Services Day in New Delhi.
  8. The
    International Mother Earth Day was on 22 April 2016
    observed across the world with the theme ‘Trees
    for the Earth’. This year’s theme sets the goal of planting 7.8 billion trees
    over the next five years.
  9. Japan’s first stealth fighter jet
    Mitshubishi X-2 Shinshin successfully took
    to the skies
    on Friday as the country joins a select group of world
    military powers wielding the radar-dodging technology.
  10. The World Health Organization
    (WHO) on 20 April 2016 announced that the European
    Region became the first in the world to have
    achieved interruption of indigenous malaria transmission
    . The number of
    indigenous malaria cases in the region dropped from 90712 in 1995 to zero cases
    in 2015.
  11. Pop music superstar Prince Rogers Nelson, popularly
    known as Prince, died on 21 April 2016 at his home in Paisley Park in
    Chanhassen, Minneapolis.

Finance/Economy –
PM to launch Rs. 8,000 crore scheme “Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala
Yojana” for free LPG connections to poor

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
    May 1 will launch Rs. 8,000 crore scheme to provide 5 crore free LPG
    connections to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families using the money saved from
    1.13 crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies.
  • The scheme is called Pradhan
    Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and Mr. Modi will be launching it on May 1 at Ballia in
    Uttar Pradesh and Dahod in Gujarat on May 15.
  • The ‘Give-it-Up’ campaign seeking
    the well-heeled to voluntarily surrender cooking gas subsidies for one year was
    launched in January, 2015.
  • Maharashtra tops the list with
    16.44 lakh consumers giving up subsidies, then Uttar Pradesh where nearly 13
    lakh users gave up subsidies, followed by Delhi with 7.26 lakh people giving up
    subsidies. Prime Minister’s home state Gujarat was way down the list with just
    4.2 lakh giving up subsidies. In Odisha around 1.3 lakh people gave up
    subsidies.

Government to terminate three highways project worth Rs. 3,000 crore

  • Owing to poor performance of
    developers, the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry has taken a decision
    to terminate three highway projects worth over Rs. 3,000 crore.
  • The projects are
    Rargaon-Jamshedpur (Rs. 1,650 crore) in Jharkhand, Rohtak-Jind (Rs. 410 crore)
    in Haryana and Haridwar-Dehradun (Rs. 1,021 crore) in Uttarakhand.
  • While in the first two projects,
    which were started in December 2012 and October 2013 respectively, the NHAI had
    suspected diversion of funds, the concessionaire failed to bring in promised
    funds in the Uttarakhand project which had begun construction in November 2011.
    None of these projects had even completed half the work.
  • Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and
    Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had met bankers and road
    developers to break the stalemate over 19 pending road projects in January. The
    government will soon hold another meeting to review the fate of the remaining
    16 stuck highway projects.

Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry launched Twitter Seva

  • The Commerce and Industry
    Ministry on 21 April 2016 launched a service named Twitter Seva to address
    issues and grievances of startups, exporters and importers, and other
    stakeholders.
  • For this, an institutionalised
    mechanism with a special Twitter cell has been created in the ministry manned
    by a set of dedicated officers of the ministry.

Key highlights of Twitter Seva
  • Queries on matters relating to
    Department of Commerce and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)
    will be answered through this service.
  • The ministry will try to respond to
    the queries within 48 to 72 working hours.
  • In particular, queries regarding
    the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Directorate General of
    supplies and Disposals, SEZs, tea, coffee, rubber, spices, Agricultural and
    Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) will be addressed
    by the ministry.
  • Issues related to manufacturing
    policy, industrial corridors, investment promotion, Make in India, Start up
    India, FDI, intellectual property rights will be addressed by the DIPP.

Vistara, TCS enter into strategic partnership

  • Full service airline Vistara has
    entered into a strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for a
    broad range of information technology (IT) services, including application
    maintenance services and airport infrastructure support.
  • Vistara is a joint venture between
    Tatas and Singapore Airlines.
  • The carrier and TCS have entered
    into an agreement for a “long term strategic partnership”.
  • According to the agreement, TCS
    would manage the operational aspects of the airline’s IT, including application
    maintenance services, network maintenance, end-user computing and airport
    infrastructure support.

Google most influential brand in India, Flipkart at 7th slot

  • It is the foreign brands like
    Google and Facebook that rank on top in terms of their influence, while
    domestic ones are placed lower, as per the new list of ten most influential
    brands in the country.
  • According to the study by global
    research firm Ipsos, Google ranks on the top and is followed by Facebook,
    Gmail, Microsoft and Samsung in the top five — all of which are foreign
    brands.
  • While another foreign brand
    WhatsApp is sixth on the India’s top 10 most influential brands, Flipkart is
    the top ranked Indian brand at seventh place.
  • The other two Indian brands on
    the list – SBI and Airtel- are ninth and tenth, US based Amazon is placed at
    number eight.
  • The Most Influential Brands study
    that ranks brands according to their influence in 21 countries including
    Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, the US and UK, was conducted in December
    2015.
  • Ipsos study has measured the
    biggest, most well-known and/ or highest spending brands only. As a result, the
    study did not look at the entire market.         

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India –
ISRO Scientists made world’s lightest material ‘Silica Aerogel’ to keep
soldiers warm in Siachen

  • Scientists at the Vikram Sarabhai
    Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram indigenously manufactured the world’s lightest
    synthetic material called ‘silica aerogel’ or ‘blue air’ or ‘frozen smoke’. It
    was in news in the third week of April 2016.
  • Silica Aerogel is the lightest
    synthetic material ever made by man.

Key characteristics of Silica Aerogel
  • The material is so light weight
    that it can be delicately placed on a flower head.
  • It has an excellent thermal
    resistance and if it is used as filler in soldiers’ uniforms it can save many
    lives at the Siachen glacier.
  • The material can be used both in
    space and on Earth. Scientists also hope it can be used to insulate rocket
    engines.
  • Frozen smoke can be also used to
    make light weight clothing, if painted on windows it can keep buildings cool or
    warm.

Uttarakhand High Court quashed imposition of President’ Rule in the
State
  • The Uttarakhand High Court on 21
    April 2016 quashed the imposition of President’ Rule in the state and revived
    the term of Congress Government headed by Harish Rawat. The court also asked
    Harish Rawat to prove his majority on 29 April 2016.
  • The decision in this regard was
    passed by the two-judge bench of the Uttarakhand High Court comprising Chief
    Justice KM Joseph and Chief Justice BN Bisht.
  • The court stated that there was
    no reason for the Centre to impose President’s Rule in the state. It also said
    that the disqualification of the nine rebel MLAs by the Speaker under the
    Anti-defection Law was no material for imposition of President’s rule.
  • The court said that the President
    of India is not infallible and he, too, can go wrong. Therefore, the
    President’s decision is open to judicial scrutiny.

Days/Awards –
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 10th Civil Services Day

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi on
    21 April 2016 inaugurated the 10th Civil Services Day in New Delhi.
  • During the inauguration ceremony,
    PM Modi called for experiments to bring change in society and creating an
    atmosphere where everyone can contribute.
  • Besides, PM Modi also conferred
    awards to civil servants for excellence in implementation of Priority
    Programmes of the Government of India namely Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna
    (PMJDY), Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), Swachh Vidyalaya and Soil Health Card
    Scheme.
  • This is for the first time that a new category of Excellence in
    implementing a Priority Programme has been added to the Prime Minister’s Awards
    for Excellence in Public Administration.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
  • Raj Kishore Prasad, LDM of
    Allahabad Bank of India, 24 North Paraganas
  • Surendra Chandra Das, West Bengal
    LDM of Union bank of India, Navgaon, Assam
  • Pramod Narayan, LDM of Punjab
    National Bank, Chandigarh

Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)
  • Dr Savita Anand, Principal Resident
    Commissioner of Rajasthan, Bikaner
  • Aishwariya Singh, District
    Collector of West Sikkim, West Sikkim

Swachh Vidyalaya
  • Anantpur district in Andhra
    Pradesh
  • Anantnag district of Jammu and
    Kashmir

International Mother Earth Day observed across the world

  • The International Mother Earth
    Day was on 22 April 2016 observed across the world with the theme ‘Trees for
    the Earth’. This year’s theme sets the goal of planting 7.8 billion trees over
    the next five years.
  • The Day recognises that the Earth
    and its ecosystems provide its inhabitants with life and sustenance.
  • It also aims to raise awareness
    that humans have a collective responsibility to promote harmony with nature and
    to balance the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future
    generations.

World –
Japan successfully flies first stealth fighter jet

  • Japan’s first stealth fighter jet
    successfully took to the skies on Friday as the country joins a select group of
    world military powers wielding the radar-dodging technology.
  • Japan, despite strict
    constitutional constraints on the use of military force imposed after World War
    II, has one of the world’s most advanced defence forces and the development of
    the stealth fighter comes as it faces new security challenges in the form of China’s
    expanding force posture.
  • The domestically developed
    Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin jet took off from Nagoya airport in central Japan on
    its maiden test flight as dozens of aviation enthusiasts, watching the event,
    erupted in applause as it lifted off into the clear morning sky.

Europe became world’s first region to end malaria: WHO

  • The World Health Organization
    (WHO) on 20 April 2016 announced that the European Region became the first in
    the world to have achieved interruption of indigenous malaria transmission. The
    number of indigenous malaria cases in the region dropped from 90712 in 1995 to
    zero cases in 2015.
  • WHO released the figures in World
    Malaria Report 2015.
  • Besides, WHO announced that the
    European Region hit its 2015 target to wipe out malaria, thus contributing to
    the global goal to End malaria for good.

Key highlights of the World Malaria Report 2015
  • The number of malaria cases
    globally fell from an estimated 262 million in 2000 to 214 million in 2015, a
    decline of 18%.
  • The number of malaria deaths
    globally fell from an estimated 839000 in 2000 to 438 000 in 2015, a decline of
    48%.
  • The number of malaria deaths in
    children aged under 5 years is estimated to have decreased from 723000 globally
    in 2000.

Report with respect to India
  • Funding for malaria control is
    lowest in countries with the largest populations at risk, including India and
    Indonesia.
  • In 2014, all countries, except
    India, Indonesia and Nepal, reported delivering sufficient quantities of
    antimalarial medicines (including ACT) to treat all reported cases in public
    health facilities.

Pakistan, China signed agreement to launch a special satellite to
monitor CPEC

  • Pakistan and China on 20 April
    2016 signed an agreement for the launch of a special satellite to monitor the
    development of the 46 billion US dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
    projects.
  • Pakistan Minister for Planning,
    Development and Reform, Ahsan Iqbal on behalf of Pakistan Space and Upper
    Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) and China Great Wall Industry
    Cooperation (CGWIC) President Yin Limping signed the agreement in Islamabad,
    Pakistan.
  • This bilateral cooperation
    between the two nations in space domain would open new arena of socio-economic
    and scientific cooperation. It would give boost to the historic bilateral
    cordial relations in other fields.

Sports –
WADA suspended accreditation of National Anti-Doping Laboratory of
Beijing

  • The World Anti-Doping Agency
    (WADA) on 21 April 2016 suspended the accreditation of the National Anti-Doping
    Laboratory of Beijing. It prohibits the Chinese laboratory from carrying out
    any WADA-related anti-doping activities including all analyses of urine and
    blood samples.
  • The suspension was for up to four
    months with immediate effect, although the laboratory has 21 days to appeal the
    decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Obituaries –
Music legend Prince Rogers Nelson died

  • Pop music superstar Prince Rogers
    Nelson, popularly known as Prince, died on 21 April 2016 at his home in Paisley
    Park in Chanhassen, Minneapolis. He was 57. He was found dead at his home,
    however, the cause of his death was not identified.
  • In a career that lasted from the
    late 1970s until his solo Piano & a Microphone tour in 2016, he was
    acclaimed as a musical prodigy and an artist who shaped his career his way.

Comedian Victoria Wood passed away

  • Famous comedian, singer and
    writer Victoria Wood died on 20 April 2016 due to cancer. She was 62.
  • Born on 19 May 1953, Wood was an
    English comedian, actress, singer and songwriter, screenwriter and director.
    She wrote and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live
    comedy act was interspersed with her own compositions, which she performed on
    piano.
  • Wood also composed and performed
    the theme music for her BBC sitcom Dinnerladies. She was noted for her skills
    in observing culture, and in satirising social classes.


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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 10:16 am