3 April 2017, Important Daily Current Affairs

Important Current affairs dated 3rd April 2017 for Competitive Exams in India.
Hello Readers, We bring you another issue of current affairs that covers the important news in Current Affairs Today Section.
Current Affairs help in your preparing yourself for the various Competitive Exams in India. UPSCSuccess.com wishes all the readers best of luck. These Current Affairs coverage will help you to Score Good Marks in Competitive Exams such as UPSC, and other PSCs.

Indian Affairs

Finance Bill gets presidential assent, takes effect from April 1

• President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the Finance Bill 2017 to give effect to provisions like bar on cash transactions above Rs 2 lakh and compulsory quoting of Aadhaar for filing tax returns.
• The President was kind enough to give his assent to the Finance Bill before he left for official visit to Assam.
• The tribunals scrapped include the Competition Appellate Tribunal, whose functions will be taken by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
• The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority Appellate Tribunal and the Cyber Appellate Tribunal will be replaced and their functions would be taken over by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).
• Also, the Copyright Board will be dissolved and its functions will go to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board.
• The National Highways Tribunal will be replaced and its functions will be taken over by the Airport Appellate Tribunal while the job of the Employees Provident Fund Appellate Tribunal will be handled by the Industrial Tribunal.

President three-day Visits to West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar

• The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee will visit West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar from April 1 to 3, 2017.

• On April 1, 2017, the President will attend the 52nd Annual Convocation of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in Kolkata as the Chief Guest.
• On April 2, 2017, the President will lay the foundation stone of RabindraBhawan and Haj House at Ranchi.

• On the same day, he will also inaugurate the 44 KmsDeoghar – Basukinath Solar Street Light Project and lay the foundation stone of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) Centre; Employees State Insurance Corporation Hospital and Driver’s Training Centres at Deoghar.

• On April 3, 2017, the President will visit Vikramshila University Monuments and Museum at Vikramshila.  He will also visit Guru ShyamaCharanLahiriPeeth, Gurudham-Bounsi before returning to Delhi.

Source: PIB

Centre sanctions Rs. 98 crore for tourism sector development in Assam

• The Centre has sanctioned 98 crore rupees for the development of the tourism sector in Assam.
• Participating in the Namami Brahmaputra festival in Guwahati this evening, Tourism minister Mahesh Sarma said that Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal did excellent work by organizing the event.
• The minister has announced another two crore rupees from the Centre for the festival. He said that rivers are the resources of the economic progress.

• Tourism minister Mahesh Sarma said that Guwahati is the gateway of the North East. The minister also announced to take step for the development of 12 religious places of Assam including the Kamakhya.

• Earlier, spiritual leader Dalai Lama also visited the Namami Brahmaputra festival and paid tribute to the Brahmaputra.

First bio-gas bus with flat Re 1 fare inaugurated in Kolkata

• Phoenix India Research and Development Group in Kolkata has designed a bus that will run on biogas produced from cow dung.
• The company has tied-up with Ashok Leyland to manufacture the 54-seater bus at a cost of Rs 13 lakh  approximately.
• The first bus will be flagged off on April 7, 2017 and will run between Ultadanga in the north and Garia in the south in Kolkata.
• The ticket will be charged Re 1 for the 17.5 km stretch, which will be the cheapest mode of transport for a passenger in the country.
• Until today, the lowest fare in a Kolkata bus is Rs 6, which goes up to Rs 12 for 17 km ride.The company has planned to launch 15 more buses on different routes in the city with the same base fare.
• The company has got the permission to set up 100 fuel pumps in India. The first pump will come up at Ultadanga.

Uttarakhand hosts 19^th commonwealth forestry conference

• Scientists and experts from 49 member countries of the Commonwealth will gather here on April 3 to participate in a five-day forestry conference, an official said on Saturday. It is for the second time India will host the conference. In 1968, Delhi hosted the event.
• The 19th Commonwealth Forestry Conference at Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute will focus on biodiversity conservation and management, livelihood and economic security from forests, diversification, multiple use and sustainable harvest, forest and climate change.
• Over 500 delegates will share their ideas and researches on ‘Forests for Prosperity and Posterity’ in consonance with Aichi targets of the UN Convention on Conservation of Biological Diversity (UNC-CBD) and Sustainable Development Goals.
• The conference will cover three main agendas- global warming, productivity of forest and ways of increasing forest cover.
• We aim at extracting information and ways of dealing with these issues through this event.
• The event will witness four plenary sessions and altogether 21 technical sessions. There will be a global forestry conclave to deliberate on the role of forestry in implementing international agreements in Commonwealth members and beyond.

International Affairs

Mega-conference of World Parliamentarians hosted by Bangladesh

• The 136^th Mega-Conference of World Parliamentarians has begun in Dhaka on April 1, 2017.
• The conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.
• She will also release a commemorative postage stamp and launch Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) web television.
• Focus : To provide ways and means to end political and economic inequality for upholding democracy and human rights.
• Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi was the keynote speaker during the opening session of the debates held on April 2, 2017.

Banking and Finance

Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) set up separate Enforcement Department

• Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Santosh Kumar Gangwar informed Lok Sabha that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to set up a separate in-house Enforcement Department which will be operational from 3^rd April 2017.

• This Department will be responsible for framing broad policy related to enforcement and take action against registered entities that violate it.

• It will function as centralised department to deal with banks exclusively for enforcement action such as issuing warning or imposing penalty.

Tax Evasion over Rs 5 crore is a non-bailable offence under GST Regime.

• The Central government has decided to make tax evasion of over Rs 5 crore under the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime as a non-bailable offence.

• Earlier, the tax evasion of over Rs 2.5 crore was proposed by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

• This was mentioned in the Central GST (CGST) Bill as, “if the offences relating to taxable goods and/or services where the amount of tax evaded exceeds Rs 5 crore, it shall be treated as cognizable and non-bailable”.

• Cognizable offence – A serious category of offences in respect of which a police officer has the authority to make an arrest without a warrant and to start an investigation with or without the permission of a court.

• The Deputy (or) Assistant Commissioner of CGST and SGST has the power to provide bail to the person arrested under tax evasions.

Awards and Recognition

Dawit Issak to receive UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, 2017

• Dawit Isaak, an imprisoned Eritrean-Swedish journalist has been chosen for the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2017 dedicated to promoting press freedom. The award is to be presented on May 3, 2017.

• Dawit Isaak is a Swedish-Eritrean playwright, journalist and writer, born on October 28, 1964 in Asmara, Ethiopian Empire.

• In 2016 it was won by Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan.

Appointments & Resigns

New Chief Justice of Madras High Court – Indira Banerjee

• Indira Banerjee, former judge of the Delhi High Court has been appointed as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court. The appointment was made by the President of India Shri. Pranab Mukherjee.

• She will sworn in as Chief Justice on April 5, 2017 after taking oath of office from Tamil Nadu governor (in charge) Vidyasagar Rao.

• Indira Banerjee will succeed Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, who was elected to the Supreme Court on February 18, 2017.

•  Banerjee would be the second woman next to Justice Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar who was the Chief Justice from June to November in 1992 to head the charted court.

Tapan Singhel re-appointed Bajaj Allianz General CEO for five years

• Bajaj Allianz General Insurance announced that Tapan Singhel,  Managing Director and CEO has been re-appointed for a further period of five years, with effect from April 1, 2017.

• Singhel has been at the helm of Bajaj Allianz General for the last five years. In a statement, the company said that under his watch, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance emerged as the most profitable private general insurance player in the financial year 2015-16 with a net profit of Rs 564 crores.

• In addition, it recorded the highest profit among all companies in the industry in the nine months ending December 31, 2016.

• Meanwhile, Bajaj Allianz Life has appointed Tarun Chugh as its Managing Director and CEO with effect from April 1, 2017.

• He replaces Anuj Agarwal, who has moved overseas within the Allianz group.

• Prior to this, Chugh was managing director and CEO of PNB MetLife Insurance.

• Chugh has over 22 years of experience in financial services, including nearly 13 years of experience in the Indian life insurance sector.

Vipul takes charge as New Consul General of Dubai.

• Diplomat Vipul, a 1998 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer succeeded Anurag Bhushan and took charge as the new Consul General of Dubai on April 2, 2017.

• Before joining the Consulate at Dubai, he was working at the office of External Affairs Minister of India,Sushma Swaraj.

• He had also served at the India’s diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka and Egypt to bring peace among two nations.

• He also has good command over the Arabic language.

Lenin Moreno to sworn in as the Ecuador President

• Ruling Party of Ecuador, Alianza PAIS candidate Lenin Moreno won the Ecuador’s presidential election held on April 3, 2017.

• He defeated conservative former banker Guillermo Lasso who demands a recount after three exit polls.

• Lenin Moreno was nominated as Presidential candidate by former President Rafael Correa.

• Out of 94 percent of voting acts counted, the National Electoral Council declared Moreno has defeated Lasso by 51 percent to 49 percent.

Science and Technology

A Massive Extra-solar planet discovered using X-ray observations

• A group of scientist from India has discovered indications of a massive planet orbiting a low mass X-ray binary star system.

• The planet was discovered by scientists from Raman Research Institute, Bangalore and University of Delhi. The results of the discovery have been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

• The X-ray binary star system is named as MXB 1658-298.

• These scientists used a technique called X-ray observations which is a new way of detecting extra-solar planet (Exo-planet).

• It is explained that the system is nearly 30000 light years away and the planet is expected to be nearly 8000 times as massive as the earth.

Sports

Miami Open 2017 – An Overview

The 33^rd edition of 2017 Miami Open presented by Itaú was a professional men and women’s tennis tournament being played on outdoor hard courts which took place from March 20, 2017 to April 2, 2017. All men and women events took place at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park, Florida in USA.

Women’s singles champion of India Super Series tournament won by P V Sindhu

• Rio Olympics silver medalist P V Sindhu won championship in India Super Series tournament on April 2, 2017.

• She defeated the Olympic champion Carolina Marin from Spain in straight sets 21-19, 21-16.

• The game took place at Siri Fort Indoor Stadium, New Delhi. This was her 2^nd Super-series title win.

• The men’s championship title was won by Viktor Axelsen from Denmark. He defeated Chou Tien-Chen from Taiwan.

Obituary

Ajey Jhankar – The Noted Scriptwriter passed away

• Ajey Jhankar, the noted author and filmmaker passed away on April 3, 2017. He was born on September 1, 1959 in Pune.

• He served as a Director of MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications Pvt. Ltd from January 2000.He was the writer of Marathi novel “Sarkarnama“.

• In 1998, Jhankar produced the Marathi movie in the name Sarkarnama relating it to his novel.

• He also contributed much for marketing and film industry.Hollywood movie Singularity was based on his novel Drohparv. Jhankar was the co-screenwriter for that film.

• Awards won by film Sarkarnama

• Film-fare Award, 1998, Screen Award, 1998 and Maharashtra State Film Award, 1998.

Pop art pioneer James Rosenquist dies at 83

• Artist James Rosenquist who well known for his pop art movement works, has died in New York, USA . He was 83.

• In 1960s, Rosenquist has worked with Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed a powerful graphic style.

•  His best-known work is  “F-111,” which was made in 1964 and 1965 in part as a protest against American militarism.

• His life and career history was entitled as an autobiography ‘Painting Below Zero: Notes on a Life in Art’

 
 
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