Important Days:
1. March 18 - International Museum Day is observed across
the world to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of
society. The theme of 2018 was ‘Museums
and Hyper Communication – New Approaches and New Public‘.
Tamil Nadu:
1. Justice Ramalingam
Sudhakar was sworn in as fifth Chief Justice of High Court of Manipur. Justice Sudhakar hails from Panapakkam village in Vellore
district. He graduated with Bachelors’ Degree in Life Sciences from Loyola
College and obtained law degree from Madras Law College. He was enrolled as
advocate in 1983. He was appointed as judge of Madras High Court in 2005 and as
judge of High Court of Jammu and Kashmir in 2016. In 2018, he was
appointed as acting Chief Justice of High Court of J&K.
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National:
1. Northeast Frontier Railway
of Indian Railway has started operating one lease Parcel Cargo Express Train
(PCET) connecting northeastern part of the country to West Coast on fortnightly
basis. The PCET will enable farmers from northeast
to market their lucrative products like tea, betal nuts, pineapple, jute,
horticulture products, cane furniture etc. at retail markets in Mumbai,
Bengaluru, Nagpur, Pune. Its route will cover New Guwahati in Assam to Kalyan
in Maharashtra. It was launched on line of Government’s priority to provide
connectivity to northeast region and empowering local industries of this
region.
2. The India Meteorological
Department (IMD) issued advisory to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa,
Maharashtra and Lakshadweep archipelago (UT) over cyclonic storm ‘Sagar’. It is the first cyclonic storm of season to develop in Indian
waters. The cyclonic storm was developed as low pressure area in Arabian Sea
which gained strength and intensified into depression and later into a cyclone
‘Sagar’.
3. The word ‘AYUSH’ was
adopted in Hindi and English languages for scientific and technical purposes by
the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT). CSTT approved ‘ayush’ word with meaning “Traditional and
Non-Conventional Systems of Health Care and Healing which include Ayurveda,
Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa, Homoeopathy etc”. The decision
follows a proposal from Ministry of AYUSH in this regards. Now the word will be
officially used in all Government communications.
4. India was estimated 211
cases of tuberculosis (TB) per 1,00,000 people in 2016 according to World
Health Statistics 2018 released by World Health Organisation (WHO). Cases reported in India were lower than neighbouring Bangladesh
and Myanmar which recorded 221 and 361 cases respectively in this category.
However, Nepal and Bhutan recorded fewer number of TB cases per 1,00,000
population than India. India has pledged to eradicate tuberculosis
by 2025, five years ahead of global target set by WHO.
5. Nipah Virus (NiV)
infection was detected for the first time in the state of Kerala. Its traces were found in blood and body fluid samples of two
persons who died of viral fever in Kerala’s coastal Kozhikode region. It was
confirmed by laboratory results from National Institute of Virology, Pune. Nipah
virus (NiV) infection is zoonotic disease that causes severe disease in both
animals and humans. Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus are
natural host of the virus.
6. Supreme Court has approved
Centre’s draft Cauvery Management Scheme for smooth distribution of water among
four southern riparian states/UT viz. Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. It ordered Central Government to notify the
scheme before the monsoons.
7. Kishanganga Hydroelectric
Project( 300MW) in Bandipora District of Jammu & Kashmir was inaugurated by
PM Modi . It is 37 m high concrete faced rockfill
dam (CFRD) constructed on Kishanganga River in Jhelum River basin in Bandipore
in Jammu and Kashmir. Its construction was started in 2007 and completed in
2016. It has underground power House with 3 Units of 110 MW capacity each (330
MW). Its all units were synchronised in May 2018. It will provide a free power
of 13% to the state, which will be around Rs. 133 crore per year. He also laid
foundation stone of 1000 MW capacity Pakal Dul Power Project. Pakal dul project
will be largest Hydro Power Project in
J&K on completion. It will be also first storage project in J&K. Its
project cost is shared by Government of India as well as the Government of
J&K. Pakal Dul Dam is proposed 167m concrete-face rock-fill dam (CFRD) on
Marusadar River, a tributary of Chenab River in Kishtwar district of J&K. The
primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation. Its underground
power house has four units each of 250 MW capacity (total 1000 MW).
8. The construction of Rs
6,809 crore Zojila tunnel project in Jammu and Kashmir’s Leh was inaugurated by
PM Modi. It will be India’s and Asia’s longest and
strategic bi-directional road tunnel, which will provide all-weather connectivity
between Jammu and Kashmir’ s Srinagar, Kargil and Leh. Its objective is to
provide safe, fast and cheap all whether connectivity to strategically
important Leh region in J&K which at moment is limited to at best six
months because of snow on mountainous passes and threat of avalanches. It will
reduce time taken to cross Zojila pass from present three and half hours to
just fifteen minutes. It will be situated at altitude of 11,578 feet on
Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway (NH-1A). It consists of 14.150 km long
two-lane bidirectional single tube tunnel with parallel 14.200 km long egress
(escape) tunnel, making it Asia’s longest bidirectional road tunnel.
9. India’s first Centre for
Energy Regulation (CER) was set up by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur
with the help of Government of United Kingdom. The first of its kind centre in India aims at providing
independent advisory on policy and regulatory matters in the power and energy
sector.
10. Under zero-subsidy Unnat
Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) scheme, the State run Energy
Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has distributed over 30 crore light emitting
diode (LED) bulbs across country. The
distribution of 30 crore LED bulbs have led to energy savings of over 38,952
million kWh, annually, amounting to energy savings of Rs. 15,581 crore.
11. e-Visa scheme have
successfully earned Rs1,400 crore as revenue, according to Ministry of Home
Affairs (MHA). e-Visa scheme provides
pre-authorization of visa to foreigners prior to travel to India. The scheme is
implemented by foreigners division of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to improve
efficiency and transparency of various services being provided to foreign
nationals. 19 lakh tourists made use of e-Visa scheme in 2017 and fees are
divided into four slabs of zero, $25, $50 and $75, which were fixed on
reciprocity and depending on nationality.
12. H D Kumaraswamy who heads
the Congress-JDS coalition is set to become the chief minister for a second
time on May 23, 2018 with the resignation of BS Yeddyurappa from CM’s post
after failing to gather the required numbers to form a majority government. Governor Vajubhai Vala has directed Kumaraswamy to prove the
majority on the floor of the House in 15 days but he plans to do it much before.
International:
1. Paraguayan President
Horacio Cartes inaugurated his country's Israel embassy in Jerusalem. With the decision, the nation becomes the third one to
take the controversial step of moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem.
2. An extraordinary summit in
Istanbul, Turkey to discuss recent Israeli violence against Palestinian
protestors in Gaza Strip by the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC). The summit was convened at the invitation
of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
3. World’s first floating
nuclear power station was unveiled by Russia at port city of Murmansk. It will be loaded with nuclear fuel at Murmansk and will be
towed to port of Pevek in autonomous Chukotka region in Russia’s far northeast
in Arctic Circle region. Akademik Lomonosov was constructed by Russian state
nuclear power firm Rosatom. It is named after Russian Academician Mikhail Lomonosov.
It has length of 144 metres and width of 30 metres. It has displacement of
21,500 tonnes and crew of 69 people. For power generation, it has been fitted
with two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion nuclear reactors (each of 35 MW capacities)
together providing up to 70 MW of electricity and 300 MW of heat.
4. The 26th BASIC Ministerial
Meeting of Environment Ministers was held in Durban, South Africa. It was attended by from BASIC countries and Michal Kurtyka of
Poland, next president of Conference of Parties (COP-24) under United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The grouping is a bloc of four
countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China. India was represented by
Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan. BASIC countries decided to preserve
integrity of historic 2015 Paris Agreement, including principles of common but
differentiated responsibilities and equity.
Science and Technology/Defence:
1. According to a new study,
emissions of one of the chemicals that can cause a hole in the ozone layer are
on the rise, despite an international ban on the chemical by the 1987 Montreal
Protocol. The gas,
Trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, is a member of the family of chemicals most
responsible for the giant hole in the ozone layer that forms over Antarctica
every September. According to the researchers, further work is required
to figure out exactly why emissions of CFC-11 are increasing and if something
can be done about it soon.
2. A relay satellite designed
to establish a communication link between earth and a planned lunar probe that
will explore the dark side of the moon was launched by China on 21st May,2018. The satellite, known as Queqiao, or Magpie Bridge, will settle
in an orbit about 455,000 km from earth and will be the world’s first
communication satellite operating there.
3. India has decided to include Artificial
Intelligence in its defence forces with an aim to enhance the operational
preparedness of the armed forces after US, Russia and China. A task force
has been set up under the chairmanship of N Chandrasekaran to finalise the
specifics and framework of the project.
4. India is among hotspots
where overuse of water resources has caused sharp decline in availability of
freshwater according first of its kind study of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Centre by using an array of NASA satellite observations to track global
hydrologic changes. Scientists had used 14 years
of observations from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft
mission, a joint project of NASA and German Aerospace Centre, to track global
trends in freshwater in 34 regions around the world.
5.
A special unit called Bastariya Battalion (numbered 241) to
combat Naxals activities in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh has been commissioned
by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). 241 Bastariya
Battalion comprises total 739 local tribal youths including 198 women
combatants (33% female candidates as per government policy) selected from four
highly Naxal infested district in Chhattisgarh, i.e Bijapur, Dantewada,
Narayanpur and Sukma. This is for first time CRFP has raised special battalion
that includes local representation to enhance combat capabilities in Naxal-hit
area of Bastar district.
6. India successfully
test-fired the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos supersonic cruise missile
from a test range along the coast of Odisha. The missile was test-fired from a mobile launcher stationed at
Launch pad 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on 21st May 2018.
Economy:
1. India is the sixth
wealthiest country in the world with total wealth of $8,230 billion according
to AfrAsia Bank Global Wealth Migration Review. Top 10 wealthiest countries: US ($62,584 billion), China
($24,803 billion), Japan ($19,522 billion), UK ($9,919 billion), Germany
($9,660 billion), India ($8,230 billion), Australia ($6,142 billion), Canada
($6,393 billion), France ($6,649 billion) and Italy ($4,276 billion).
Appointments/Resignations:
1.
Anil Kumar Jha was appointed
as full time Chairman and Managing
Director (CMD) of Coal India Limited (CIL) by the Appointments Committee of
the Cabinet (ACC). He will be in office till January 31, 2020.
2. Senior bureaucrat Amit
Khare (a 1985 batch IAS officer) has been
appointed as the new Secretary of the
Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
3. Rajinder Singh has been
named as the new President of Hockey India. He is
currently the Senior Vice President of Hockey India .He has been chosen
for the post following Mariamma Koshy’s resignation from the post.
Its not march 18 its may 18 International Museum Day
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