Current Affairs Current Affairs January 2019

 The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the following set of approvals. The important Cabinet Approvals are given as follows:
The Cabinet has approved-  1. MoU between India and Australia on the safety in Mines, Testing and Research Station.
2. Regularisation of Pay Scales of below Board Level Executives in NHPC Ltd., North East Electric Power Corporation, THDC India Ltd. and SJVN Ltd. w.e.f. 1.1.97.
3. Revised Cost of Estimates (RCE) for 13 new Central Universities in the States of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir (Two), Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, set up under Central Universities Act, 2009.
4. Expenditure sanction for Integrated E-filing and Centralized Processing Centre 2.0 Project.
5. Recapitalization of Export-Import Bank of India:
  • Issuance of Recapitalization Bonds by the Government of India to the tune of Rs.6,000 crore for capital infusion in Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank).
  • The equity will be infused in two tranches of Rs. 4,500 crore in FY 2018-19 and Rs.1,500 crore in FY 2019-20 respectively
  • The Cabinet also approved an increase in the authorized capital of Exim Bank from Rs. 10,000 crore to Rs. 20,000 crore.
6. Ex-post facto approval for Agreement on the facilitation of visa arrangements signed between India and Maldives.
Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB)

 Malayalam director and screenwriter Lenin Rajendran has passed away at 67. He was a five-time recipient of the Kerala State Film Awards and also received the International Federation of Film Critics Award for the best Malayalam film for his film ‘Makaramanju’. He was also chairman of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation.
Source: New Indian Express

 The Department of Science and Technology (DST) along with Doordarshan (DD), Prasar Bharati launched two science communication initiatives, DD Science and India Science. The initiatives were inaugurated by Union Science & Technology Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan. While DD Science is an one-hour slot on Doordarshan National channel, which will be telecast Monday to Saturday from 5 pm to 6 pm, India Science is a internet-based channel, which is available on any internet-enabled device, and will offer live, scheduled play and video-on-demand services.
Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB)

 Government e Marketplace (GeM) has launched “Womaniya on GeM”, an initiative to enable women entrepreneurs and women self-help groups (WSHGs) to sell handicrafts and handloom, accessories and many other products. The initiative seeks to develop women entrepreneurship on the margins of society to achieve gender-inclusive economic growth. Government e-Marketplace is a 100% government owned company set up under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 
Source: Press Information Bureau

 Asian Cup gold medallist Shakil Ahmed has set up a world record in indoor rowing by completing 1 lakh meters in above-40 years category in Kolkata. Shakil began his record-setting indoor rowing feat in Salt Lake stadium complex and achieved the milestone of covering 1 lakh meters of simulated distance in 10 hours.
Source: News On AIR

 The Parliament of Macedonia has passed the resolution to amend the constitution of the country to rename it as the Republic of Northern Macedonia. The name change will help resolve a decades-long dispute with neighboring Greeceopening the way for Skopje to join NATO and the European Union.
Source: The Guardian

 Private sector ICICI Bank inducted former SBI Managing Director B Sriram and management consultant Rama Bijapurkar on its board as independent director. Both are appointed for 5 years, subject to the approval of shareholders, ICICI Bank stated in a regulatory filing on stock exchanges. Sriram retired as the managing director of IDBI Bank in September 2018. Prior to IDBI Bank, he was the managing director of SBI.
Source: The Economic Times

 Ananth Narayanan has stepped down as CEO of Myntra and Jabong to pursue external opportunities. Amar Nagaram has been named as Head, Myntra and Jabong, reporting to Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group. Amar, who recently moved to Myntra from Flipkart, has been with the group for around seven years and has played a pivotal role in making shopping accessible and affordable on connected devices.
Source: The Hindu Business Line

 The Madras High Court has set up an expert committee to find a solution to root out invasive species of plants from the Western Ghats. The committee shall be headed by Cherukuri Raghavendra Babu, the chairman of the expert committee on invasive species in Chennai National Biodiversity Authority. It has also directed the panel to file a report on the ways to weed out such species within two months. A division bench of justices M M Sundaresh and N Sathish recently decided to constitute the committee on a batch of petitions seeking to restrain the state government from cultivating eucalyptus species in Tamil Nadu for commercial purpose.
Source: Business Standard

 India got its largest startup ecosystem when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated a 1.8-lakh-square-feet facility housing incubation set-ups across a string of segments in modern technology. The Integrated Startup Complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) includes the ultra-modern facilities of Maker Village that promote hardware startups, the BioNest that promotes medical technologies, BRINC which is the country’s first international accelerator for hardware startups.
Source- The Hindu Business Line


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