GK & Current Affairs Quiz: April 20, 2018

Notes:
The Facebook (FB) page of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been ranked as the top ranked Facebook pages of Government bodies, ministries and political parties in India. Facebook released the data regarding the popularity of Chief Minister’s Facebook pages and it is based on interactions on the platform which includes total reactions, shares and comments. In this category Yogi Adityanath’s Facebook page is at first position while Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje’s Facebook Page is on second position and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s Page is on third rank. It shows the popularity of UP CM as he is the most sought after person on social media platform.

Notes:
The 2018 Global Malaria Summit was held alongside the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, United Kingdom on April 18 to make game-changing commitments towards beating malaria at a time when efforts to end the preventable disease had stalled. The summit expected the world leaders to renew their financial and political commitments to continue the fight against malaria, which is showing signs of fighting back. Malaria cases rose to 216 million globally in 2016, five million more than a year ago. The summit featured collective commitments worth over $4.1 billion dollars from governments, private sector, philanthropists and international organisations. There was no India representative to participate in the summit because there is no India commitment.

Notes:
As per the database of IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) for April 2018, India is the world’s 6th largest economy with record Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.6 trillion for 2017. The five economies ahead are the United States, China, Japan, Germany and United Kingdom. This is the first time India crossed the $2.5 trillion yardstick used to distinguish between the big economies and the rest if the world. Further, the IMF has said that India is expected to grow at 7.4% in 2018 and 7.8% in 2019, up from 6.7% in 2017. Apart from this, the World Bank has also forecasted India’s GDP growth from 6.7% in 2017 to 7.3% in 2018 and to subsequently stabilise at 7.5% in 2019 and 2020.

Notes:
India has been ranked 10th in the latest Commonwealth Innovation Index (CII- 2018). The index was launched as part of a new Commonwealth Innovation Hub on the sidelines of the 25th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2018). It has been created in partnership with the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII). The purpose of index is to provide a tool that allows member states, organisations and citizens to benchmark themselves against 53 countries of the Commonwealth, with the new innovation hub offering a dedicated online space for Commonwealth countries to showcase what they have to offer and share with other members. The list is topped by UK, Singapore and Canada.

Notes:
Rajinder Sachar (94), the former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, has passed away in New Delhi on April 20, 2018. Son of veteran freedom fighter and former Chief Minister of Punjab Bhim Sen Sachar, he served as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court from August to December, 1985. After retirement, Mr Sachar was associated with rights group, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties. He was also the chairperson of a committee, set up during the UPA government to look into the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India.

Notes:
In a bid to ease the cash crunch, the State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to allow depositors to withdraw cash from its Point of Sale (PoS) devices available with merchants. This “Cash@POS” facility will be available for customers of all banks and can be used in about 80% of SBI’s PoS devices across the country. According to guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, Customer can use SBI & any other bank debit card to withdraw cash up to Rs 1,000 in Tier 3 to 6 & up to Rs 1,000 in Tier 1 & 2 cities per card per day. Presently, the bank will not be charging any fees for these withdrawals.

Notes:
The Union Government has constituted a Defence Planning Committee (DPC) to facilitate comprehensive planning for the defence forces besides focusing on military doctrines to deal with emerging security challenges. It will be chaired by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. Apart from the NSA, the committee will comprise, the foreign secretary, chairman of chiefs of staff committee, the Army, Navy and Air Force chiefs and secretary (expenditure) in the Finance Ministry. The chairman of the DPC can co-opt experts into it depending on requirement. The committee would prepare drafts of national security strategy and doctrines, international defence engagement strategy and roadmap to build defence manufacturing ecosystem. It will also work on strategy to boost defence exports, and prioritised capability development plans for the armed forces. The committee will also focus its energy on development of Indian defence industry and technology advancements. The DPC would submit its draft reports to the Defence Minister according to “given timelines” following which further approvals will be obtained as required.

Notes:
On April 19, Lt Governor Anil Baijal has approved the Kejriwal government’s proposal mandating an hourly compensation of Rs 100 to consumers in case of unscheduled power cuts. As per the proposed policy, power discoms will have to pay their consumers for unscheduled power cuts, after first hour, at an hourly rate of Rs 100. With the LG’s approval, Delhi will become the first city in the country to have a policy to compensate consumers for unscheduled outages. There are three private power discoms including the BSES companies BYPL and BRPL, and the Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) that supply power to the city, barring areas under the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Cantonment. The compensation earned by the consumers will be adjusted against their monthly power bill. In case, the compensation is not paid by the discoms, the consumers can lodge a complaint with the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority (DERC). The amount of compensation in such cases will be Rs 5,000 or five times of the compensation payable, whichever is higher.

Notes:
The first meeting of the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C on 19th April, 2018. The Government of India (GoI) was represented in the meeting by Subhash Chandra Garg , Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs (EA). The main issues discussed were related to increasing of the project pipelines of New Development Bank (NDB) evenly across member countries, expansion of NDB’s membership, the proposal of the South African Presidency for setting up a working group on illicit financial flows and a BRICS Task Force on Public Private Partnership. Issues related to BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) as well as BRICS Bond Fund were also discussed.

Notes:
The first-ever International SME Convention-2018 will be held in New Delhi from 22ndto 24th April. The Ministry of MSME has engaged with over 35 International Trade Development organisations to attract and invite able and willing entrepreneurs and encourage people to people contact with select Indian Entrepreneurs from key sectors of the International counterparts. The convention has specific focus on inclusion of MSMEs in the Make in India program & empowering women entrepreneurs. In it, 150 participants from 31 countries and 400 entrepreneurs from India will participate.