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CURRENT AFFAIRS: DAYS
World Book and Copyright Day
- Every year on 23rd April this day is celebrated to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. It is necessary to recognise the magical powers of books because they generate a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: INTERNATIONAL
UAE adopts new national AI strategy aimed at becoming global leader
- The UAE’s Cabinet has adopted a new ‘National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031’ aimed at positioning the UAE as a global leader in AI.
- The strategy will also seek to develop an “integrated system that employs artificial intelligence in vital areas in the UAE.”
- The strategy includes eight objectives, including establishing an incubator for AI innovations, the employment of AI in customer service, attracting and training AI talent and research capabilities and providing a data-driven infrastructure to support AI experiments.
| USEFUL INFO |
| UAE Capital | Abu Dhabi |
| Currency | Dirham |
| PM | Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum |
Foundation stone laying ceremony of 1st Hindu temple in UAE
- The Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony (Shilanyas Vidhi) of the first traditional Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi.
- Mahant Swami Maharaj, the sixth spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan and the spiritual head of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, will also preside over the foundation stone laying ceremony of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi.
- The first traditional temple in Abu Dhabi will act as a catalyst for the flourishment of humanitarian values and harmony between the two countries. The temple will become a medium to represent India’s identity.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BANKING AND FINANCE
Kotak Bank launches debit card-based e-mandate on NPCI’s API platform
- Kotak Mahindra Bank has announced the launch of an industry-first debit card-based authentication solution on NPCI’s e-Mandate API platform.
- Kotak becomes the first Destination Bank to go live with Net Banking and Debit Card-based e-mandate authentication, the bank said in a statement adding that the capability will enable its customers to create electronic mandates (similar to the erstwhile eNACH with Aadhaar + OTP) via both the Debit Card and Net Banking channels.
- In a first-of-its-kind initiative in the industry, customers can register both physical and e-mandates on a single platform with validation on the mandate fields to remove rejections on account of various reasons.
SBI General launches cyber defence insurance for businesses
- SBI General Insurance has launched a product to protect businesses from financial and reputational losses due to cyber attacks. In the initial phase, the focus will be on SMEs and mid-market businesses.
- This offers protection against the growing threat of cyber breaches and is designed to protect against major insurable cyber exposures like hacking attacks, identity theft, disclosure of sensitive information and business interruption.
- The new insurance plan of SBI General Insurance comes with CyRUSS (Cyber Risk Underwriting and Solution Suite). CyRUSS is a cloud-based tool for commercial cyber polices including risk assessment, ongoing risk management and claim management as well.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
5 Asian tea producers form ATA to boost trade
- Indian Tea Association, China Tea Marketing Association, Indonesian Tea Marketing Association, Sri Lanka Tea Board and Japan Tea Association- the five bodies from five tea growing and consuming countries in Asia- have now come forward to form what is called The Asian Tea Alliance (ATA).
- The whole idea is to boost tea trade from these countries. ATA, which was floated in Guizhou in China, will now work towards enhancing tea trade, cultural exchanges, technology exchanges, promoting tea globally, enhancing global consumption of tea, while creating a sustainability agenda for the future of Asian tea.
- Earlier, Indian Tea Association and China Tea Marketing Association teamed up to promote green and black tea consumption in major tea markets of Europe, the US, Russia and West Asia, besides India and China.
Reliance retail crosses Rs. 1 lakh crore revenue milestone in FY19
- Reliance retail has become the first Indian retail company to clock more than Rs. 1 lakh crore in annual revenues.
- The retail venture of Reliance Industries reported an income of Rs. 1,30,556 crore for 2018-19, 89% more than the previous year’s Rs. 69,198 crore
- Reliance Retail also became the first Indian retailer to cross more than 10,000 stores. It operates 10,415 retail stores in more than 6,600 cities and towns, covering an area of over 22 million sq ft, as on March 31
CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS
IPS Sunil Kumar Gautam awarded with Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Award
- Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, awarded Sunil Kumar Gautam, IPS, Special Commissioner of Police, Operations, Delhi Police with ”Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Award” for the year 2018-19 for his book ”Samvidhan Kavya” (Constitution of India in Poetic form).
- The BPR&D rewards 5 best books of Hindi on Police, Forensic Science, Criminology relatef subjects. Cash prize is also given. Apart from this, books of four other police officers from across the country have also been rewarded.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATION
Twitter Appoints Manish Maheshwari as Managing Director, India
- Twitter India appointed Manish Maheshwari, former CEO of Network18 Digital, as Managing Director for the country operations -nearly eight months after its Country Director Taranjeet Singh quit.
- Balaji Krish, who has been leading Twitter India’s team in the interim, will return to Twitter’s global headquarters in San Francisco to resume his role as Global Head of Revenue Strategy and Operations at Twitter.
Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky wins Ukrainian presidential election
- Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian with no political experience who plays the country’s president on a TV show, has won Ukraine’s presidential election in a landslide, according to a national exit poll.
- The poll showed Zelensky receiving 73% of the vote, sweeping away Ukraine’s incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, who conceded defeat.
| USEFUL INFO |
| Ukraine Capital | Kyiv |
| Ukraine Currency | Ukrainian hryvnia |
Dubai based ‘RAKEZ’ appointed Cricket Champion Ravi Shastri as a Corporate Ambassador
- “Champion of Champions”, Former Cricketer Ravi Shastri appointed as Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) exclusive Corporate Ambassador to the Indian Business Community.
- As brand Ambassador Ravi Shastri may attract more Indian business leaders to set up or expand their operations in UAE through RAKEZ.
- This first-of-its-kind approach is one of the many other initiatives that RAKEZ will be launching in the future to attract more investors from all over the world and boost the economic growth of Ras Al Khaimah.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: RANKING
India ranks 19th in Index of Cancer Preparedness
- India was ranked at 19 out of 28 countries in Index of Cancer Preparedness (ICP) released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
- It was released as part of the report titled “Cancer preparedness around the world: National readiness for a global epidemic”
- Top 3 countries are: Australia (1st), Netherlands (2nd) and Germany (3rd).
- Bottom three are: Saudi Arabia (28th), Romania (27th) and Egypt (26th)
The ICP explores the issue of cancer preparedness through three broad domains:
- policy and planning;
- care delivery;
- Health systems and governance.
India and ICP: Its overall rank was 19th with a score of 64.9. India ranked 17th in cancer policy and planning.
- India has relatively high score of 80.8 and it largely stems from its strong cancer research and tobacco control measures.
- India ranked first for research and third for tobacco control. It ranks 23rd for its national cancer control plan.
- India’s healthcare system was ranked 25th in the index. In its delivery of cancer care, it was ranked 20th with a score of 61.3.
- India’s healthcare infrastructure is the second worst among these countries. It has high standard of clinical guidelines category where it is ranked first. But it falls short on immunization, screening and early detection
CURRENT AFFAIRS: MOU
TCS modernises 1.5 lakh post offices under multi-year deal with India Post
- India’s largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services has deployed an integrated solution for India Post that has helped modernise a network of more than 1.5 lakh post offices in the country.
- The partnership was aimed at equipping India Post with modern technologies and systems to enable it to offer more services to the customers in an effective manner.
- In 2013, the Mumbai-based company had announced receiving an over Rs 1,100- crore multi-year contract from the Department of Posts (DoP) for an end-to-end IT modernisation programme.
BSE ties up with Network Intelligence to provide security services
- BSE, India’s largest stock exchange has entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Network Intelligence, a global cybersecurity services provider to provide cybersecurity services to its members in line with the cybersecurity framework set by SEBI.
- Network Intelligence will be using its own developed platform – BlueScope to offer 24×7 cyber security operations to the members.
- Earlier, BSE had associated with John Chambers’ backed Lucideus to secure stock brokers as per SEBI guidelines using SAFE
- BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) established in 1875, is Asia’s first & now the world’s fastest Stock Exchange with a speed of 6 microseconds
CURRENT AFFAIRS: DEFENCE
INS Kolkata, Shakti to participate in IFR in China
- The Indian Navy ships Kolkata and Shakti are scheduled to arrive at Qingdao in China on April 21 to participate in the International Fleet Review (IFR) as a part of the 70th anniversary celebrations of People Liberation’s Army (PLA-Navy).
- International Fleet Review (IFR) is a parade of naval ships, aircraft, and submarines, and is organised by nations to promote goodwill, strengthen cooperation and showcase their organisational capabilities.
- The Indian Navy would be represented in the Chinese IFR by indigenously built stealth guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata and fleet support ship INS Shakti.
CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS
Kenyan Asbel Kiprop handed four-year doping ban
- The International Association of Athletics Federation Disciplinary Tribunal has banned former Olympic and World 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop for four years.
- Kiprop, the 2008 Beijing Olympics 1500m champion, was tentatively suspended by IAAF’s Athletes Integrity Unit (AIU) in May last year after having tested positive to blood boosting Erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition test in Iten in November 2017.