Hello and welcome to exampundit. Here are the important Daily Current Affairs 28 August 2018. These are important for the upcoming IBPS PO, NIACL Assistant, RBI Grade B and IBPS RRB 2018 Exams.
Daily Current Affairs 28 August 2018
Banking and Finance
YES BANK, Rajasthan govt. partner to launch payments wallet ‘Bhamashah’
- YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank has announced its partnership with the Government of Rajasthan to launch Bhamashah Wallet, a simple instant payment digital wallet solution for the state of Rajasthan.
- The Bhamashah wallet, Rajasthan government’s online payment application was launched by Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje. The wallet service was launched as a part of Bhamashah Yojana, a scheme introduced by the Government of Rajasthan to transfer financial and non-financial benefits of governmental schemes directly to women recipients in a transparent way.
- Through the Bhamashah wallet, subsidy disbursements can now be done seamlessly by the Government to the beneficiaries directly in the digital wallets provided to them.
- “YES BANK is pleased to partner with the Government of Rajasthan to further digital payment services for citizens, ease subsidy disbursement process for the government and be an enabler of financial services for the last mile.
Govt, World Bank, EESL ink $300 mn pact to push energy efficiency programme
- The government, World Bank and state-owned EESL on Tuesday inked a $220 million loan agreement and $80 million guarantee pact to push energy efficiency programme in India.
- To be implemented by EESL, the programme will help scale up the deployment of energy saving measures in residential and public sectors, strengthen EESL’s institutional capacity, and enhance its access to commercial financing.
- The $220 million loan, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, has a 5-year grace period, and a maturity of 19 years.
Petroleum Minister launches online portal for common carrier capacity booking
- The Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan on August 27, 2018 launched an online portal to enable easy, efficient and transparent booking of common carrier capacity for natural gas transmission services under GAIL’s pipelines.
- The portal will be the first step to facilitate gas trading on a hub or exchange-traded platform in India.
- The online portal is the first-of-its-kind in the natural gas sector of the country. It will provide gas consumers the facility to register pipeline capacity bookings online.
- It aims to continue the practice of serving on first come-first served basis.
JNPT, Maharashtra, MP and Ministry of Railways sign MoU for Indore-Manmad Railway Line Project
- The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, under the Ministry of Shipping, on August 28, 2018 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Railways, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh for implementation of the 362 km Indore- Manmad New Railway Line Project.
- As of now, containers and other rail traffic from Indore and other Central Indian locations need to follow an indirect route through Vadodara and Surat to reach Mumbai, Pune and ports like JNPT, travelling a distance of 815 km.
- The implementation of the project will be through the Indian Port Rail Corporation Limited (IPRCL) on Joint Venture SPV model.
- A Joint Venture Company will be formed between the Ministry of Shipping or its nominated entity including JNPT with equity share of 55 percent; Maharashtra or its nominated entity; Madhya Pradesh or its nominated entity; and others with equity share of 15 percent each.
- The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will be the main promoter of the project.
- The project is estimated to result in cumulative net economic benefits of Rs 15000 crore in the first ten years of operations.
Google’s payment app for India ‘Tez’ becomes Google Pay
- Readying its digital payment service for India, Tez, for a global roll out, Google on Tuesday renamed the app as Google Pay and introduced new features that could soon help its Indian users get instant “pre-approved” loans from some banks.
- “Building for India has often meant Google building for everyone all around the world,” Caesar Sengupta, Vice-President, Next Billion Users initiative and Payments, Google, said at its annual Google for India event here.
- “At the moment, nothing is changing about the experience in India other than the name,” he said, adding that Google is working with a few of India’s top banks — HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank — to offer pre-approved, instant loans to their customers, right from within Google Pay.
- This feature will roll out to eligible users within the next few weeks, Google said.
- With the roll out of this feature, eligible users will see a notification telling that that they are pre-approved.
- Next, the users would have to decide how much they want to borrow, and how quickly they would like to repay.
Government signs MoU with 6 states for construction of Lakhwar Multi-Purpose Project in Uttarakhand
- Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on August 28, 2018 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh for the construction of the Rs 3966.51 crore Lakhwar Multi-Purpose projects in the Upper Yamuna Basin near Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
- The MoU was signed by Yogi Adityanath (CM of Uttar Pradesh), Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand), Manohar Lal (Haryana), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), and Jai Ram Thakur (Himachal Pradesh).
- The Lakhwar project was initially approved in 1976 but work on the project was suspended in 1992.
- The Lakhwar project envisages construction of a 204 m high concrete dam across river Yamuna near Lohari village in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand with a live storage capacity of 330.66 MCM.
- This storage will provide irrigation for 33780 hectares land and availability of 78.83 MCM water for domestic, drinking and industrial use in the six basin states.
- The project will also generate 300 MW of power.
- The project will be implemented and executed by Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVL).
- Storage created as a result of implementation of Lakhwar project will be shared by the basin States in proportion to their overall annual allocations as given in the MoU signed between the six states in 1994.
India and states
J P Nadda launches logo of Ayushman Bharat Scheme; announces that 29 states and UTs signed MoU for implementation of scheme
- Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, J P Nadda on August 27, 2018 announced that 29 States and Union Territories (UTs) signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of on Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY).
- These states have already started working on implementation of the scheme. The pilot project has started in 16 States and UTs. Other states/UTs will also start pilots before the pan-India launch of the scheme on September 25, 2018.
- The government has given total flexibility to the States to choose their own modes of implementation among Insurance, Trust or Mixed Mode.
- On the same occasion, J P Nadda also launched the logo of the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna.
Government announces Drone Regulations 1.0 for safe commercial usage of Drones
- The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on August 27, 2018 issued the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) or regulations for civil use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) commonly known as drones.
- The regulations were developed after extensive consultations among various stakeholders, and will be effective from December 1, 2018.
- Drones are a technology platform having wide-ranging applications from photography to agriculture, from infrastructure asset maintenance to insurance. Drones range in size from very small and those that can carry multiple kilograms of payload.
- While launching the regulations, the Civil Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu said that the Drone Regulations 1.0 are intended to enable visual line-of-sight daytime-only and a maximum of 400 feet altitude operations of the drones.
- As per the Drone Regulations 1.0, the airspace has been partitioned into three zones- the Red Zone in which flying is not permitted, Yellow Zone that is a controlled airspace; and the Green Zone for automatic permission.
- There are 5 categories of RPAS (drones), categorised by weight. These five categories are – Nano, Micro, Small, Medium and Large.
Vision document on Taj Mahal should take into account pollution in TTZ: SC
- The Supreme Court ruled that the vision document on protection and preservation of the Taj Mahal in Agra should be prepared taking into account issues like pollution in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) and industries operating there.
- The TTZ is an area of about 10400 sq km, spread over the districts of Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.
- A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said authorities should look into the larger perspective while dealing with the issue of protection of Taj Mahal.
Appointments
Satya S Tripathi appointed as Assistant Secretary General & Head of New York Office of UNEP
- Veteran Indian development economist Satya S Tripathi has been appointed as the Assistant Secretary General and Head of the New York Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by UN Chief Antonio Guterres.
- Tripathi, who will succeed Elliott Harris of Trinidad and Tobago, served as Senior Adviser on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at UNEP since 2017.
Sports
Asian Games 2018: Manjit Singh wins gold in men’s 800m, Jinson Johnson bags silver
- India’s gold account opened on Day 10 of the 18th Asian Games with Manjit Singh, who came first in the men’s 800m final with a timing of 1.46.15. Jinson Johnson followed close behind with a timing of 1.46.35 to finish at the second place. The Indians secured the gold and silver medals.
- In the day of silvers, Pinky Balhara also won a silver in the women’s 52 kg final after she lost to Uzbekistan’s Gulnor Sulaymanova by 10-0. This was India’s second medal in Kurash. India’s first medal in the event came through Malaprabha Yallapa Jadav, who picked up bronze following her semifinal defeat.
- Earlier, in the much-awaited women’s singles gold medal match between PV Sindhu and Tai Tzu Yin, Sindhu had to settle for silver after she lost to Yin in straight sets. Despite the loss, Sindhu became the first badminton player to win silver in Asian Games.
World
European Space Agency launches world’s first wind-sensing satellite Aeolus
- European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched wind-sensing satellite named ‘Aeolus’ into orbit on board of Vega rocket from French Guyana.
- It is world’s first wind-sensing satellite dedicated to map Earth’s wind on global scale in particular tropical winds which are very poorly mapped.
- The satellite is named after guardian of wind in Greek mythology.
- It will be placed at altitude of 320km above the Earth.
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