9th April 2017, Important Daily Current Affairs

Important Current affairs dated 9th 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

National children’s Film Festival held in visakhapatnam

• Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu at VUDA Children Theatre inaugurated the three-day National Children’s Film Festival in visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

• More than 40,000 children from Andhra Pradesh are expected to watch CFSI films at this festival. The State Government will provide 12 screens in Vishakhapatnam 24 films will be screened at the rate of daily 3 shows.

• The opening film of the NCFF 2016 will be “Shanu – The Optimist” directed by K.N.T.Sastry and produced by CFSI in 2016 according to Dr. Shravan Kumar, CEO, Children’s Film Society, India.

• The festival will showcase 24 popular CFSI films including Akkineni Kutuma Rao’s “Amulyam” another Telugu film along with CFSI popular films like Bandu Boxer, Bhago Bhoot, Chota Sipahi, Chutkan ki Mahabharat, Ek Tha Bhujang, Gauru, Happy Mother’s Day, Krish, Trish & Baltiboy and Pappu ki Pugdandi.

•  An Exhibition’ on the occasion of 100th Anniversary of Champaran Satyagrah tomorrow in National Archives of India (NAI) Janpath, New Delhi.

• This digital and experiential exhibition strives to connect the essential principles of Satyagrah ‘Jeevan-Chakra’ evolved by Gandhi Ji, with the elements of Swachhagraha, the movement.

• The Champaran Satyagraha changed the dynamics of Indian politics, catapulting Gandhi Ji to the forefront of India’s freedom struggle. For the first time, people of India realized the power of non-violence and passive resistance, based on action.

The Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation launched 352 housing projects in 53 cities 

• This is the First largest private investment initiative in affordable housing

• The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) members to invest over Rs.38,000 cr to build over two (2) lakh affordable houses

• Over one lakh units to be built in Maharashtra, 41,921 houses in National Capital Region, 28,465 in Gujarat, 7,037 in Karnataka, 6,055 in UP

• Cost of construction of these houses to be in the range of Rs.15 lakh to Rs.30 lakh per house

The President announces lucky winners of Digital Payments Promotion Schemes.

•  President picks up the lucky winners from the 100th draw of lots under Digital Payments Promotion Schemes; lauds Aadhar and says India is at the cusp of a digital revolution

•   Digital transactions have gathered momentum giving a fillip to the less cash economy post demonetization thanks to the initiatives taken by the Government. NITI Aayog’s two schemes- Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and the Digidhan Vyapar Yojana for the merchants have played a catalytic role in making it a mass movement.

•  The winners will be felicitated by the Prime Minister on April 14th, 2017 at Nagpur, on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti.

• The two schemes were launched on December 25th, 2016. Under the scheme, daily, weekly and monthly rewards worth Rs. 256 crore has been disbursed to over 16 lakh citizens over the past 100 days for making and accepting small transactions digitally.

• Customers and merchants using RuPay Card, BHIM / UPI (Bharat Interface for Money / Unified Payments Interface), USSD based *99# service and Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service (AePS) have been eligible for wining daily and weekly lucky draw prizes.

• Over the past 100 days, everyday 15,000 consumers have qualified for total prize money of Rs. 1.5 crore. Additionally, 14,000 weekly winners, both consumers and merchants, have received a total prize money of over Rs. 8.3 crore every week.

•  An analysis of digital payments’ users across India reveals that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka have emerged as the top five states / UTs with maximum number of winners. An analysis of winners profiles’ reveals that they are spread across a range of occupational categories including salaried employees, housewives, farmers and daily wage labourers. While majority of the winners were in the age group of 21 to 30 years, there are also a significant number of winners who are above 60 years of age.

Banking and Finance

South Indian Bank & Flyworld Money in pact for transfer of funds

• South Indian Bank has entered into an agreement with Flyworld Money Exchange to facilitate remittances by Indian expatriates in Australia.

• Through this tie-up, NRIs in Australia could enjoy quick and cost-effective remittances to India using the SIB Express facility. Using this facility, NRIs can now remit funds with ease to any commercial bank in India. SIB has a correspondent banking arrangement with National Australia Bank for remittances to India.

• With this agreement, SIB marks the first remittance arrangement with an exchange house in Australia. The new facility will enable the bank to reach the Indian Diaspora in Australia more efficiently.

• Customers as well as non-customers can utilise this facility through the Flyworld Money Exchange across Australia or use the online platform provided by the exchange house to make remittances to India

South Indian Bank
Headquarters: India
CEO: V. G. Mathew

Awards and Recognition

British-Indian educationist named ‘Asian Businesswoman of the Year

Asha Khemka, an Indian-origin educationist in the United Kingdom (UK) has been named the ‘Asian Businesswoman of the Year’ at the 5th annual Asian Business Awards Midlands, which honours the outstanding achievements of local Asian businesses. The award ceremony was held at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham, UK.
Other awardees at 5th annual Asian Business Awards Midlands
Morningside Pharmaceuticals: Asian Business of the Year Award
Kailash Suri – Managing Director of Reel Cinemas: Entrepreneur of the Year
Nishti Ismail – Founder of Nishti’s Choice: Community Champion

Appointments & Resigns

Anuja dhir becomes  first non-white circuit judge at Old Bailey

• The first non-white circuit judge to sit at the Old Bailey.
• Anuja Ravindra Dhir is the youngest circuit judge currently working at Central Criminal Courts in London. She is an Indian origin woman becomes 1^st non-white judge at London Old bailey Court.
• Anuja is the youngest circuit judge working at the court.
• She was born in Dundee Scotland to Indian immigrant parents and Studied at Harris Academy.
• She also won a Gray’s Inn scholarship in London and practiced for 23 years as a prosecutor and defense counsel.
• She had suffered from dyslexic and difficult to read and write.She also studied English and Scots at Dundee University

Smita Sandhane takes charge as MD of Saraswat Co-operative Bank

• Smita Sandhane has taken charge as Managing Director of the Saraswat Co-operative Bank with effect from April 1.

• She is the first woman chief of India’s largest urban co-operative bank.

• Prior to her elevation, Sandhane was the Joint Managing Director of the bank. She has been with the bank since 1982.

• Sandhane has taken over from S.K. Banerji, who retired from the services of the bank on March 31, 2017. Banerji is now an Advisor to the bank’s board.

• According to a bank statement, the new MD has worked across various operational spheres at branches, departments and zones. She has served as Head – Wholesale Banking Department and Head – Planning, Accounts and Stressed Assets.

• She successfully executed the merger and consolidation plans of three other co-operative banks into Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd

Science and Technology

NASA’s Kepler space telescope discover Venus twin around dim star, Kepler-1649

• NASA’s Kepler space telescope have discovered a Venus-like planet orbiting a dim star and located 219 light-years away.

• This new planet is slightly larger than Earth, and it tightly embrace its low-temperature star called Kepler-1649, encircling it every nine days.

• The orbit causes the flux of sunlight reaching the planet to be 2.3 times as great as the solar flux on Earth the solar flux on Venus is 1.9 times the terrestrial value.

• Isabel Angelo, a scientist at SETI Institute, research organization in the U.S said that there are several factors, like star variability and tidal effects .These things make different from Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars.

• Even though it look likes Earth, it is only 40 percent closer to the sun. So its atmosphere and surface temperature are different from planet Earth.

Shri Rajnath Singh inaugurates Web Portal & mobile application named “Bharat ke Veer” 

• Portal enables people to contribute towards family of martyrs

• The portal was launched on the occasion of Valour Day of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

• The portal is an IT based platform, with an objective to enable willing donors to contribute towards the family of a braveheart who sacrificed his/her life in line of duty. The amount so donated will be credited to the account of ‘Next of Kin’ of those Central Armed Police Force/Central Para Military Force soldiers.

• The actor Shri Akshay Kumar was the Guest of Honour during the function.

• The Secretary (Home), Shri Rajiv Mehrishi also thanked actor Shri Akshay Kumar for conceptualizing the idea of this portal and making his contribution to the martyrs’ families.

• The Valour Day is celebrated in remembrance of an act of unparalleled bravery displayed by a small contingent of CRPF personnel, pitted against a full-fledged infantry brigade of Pakistani Army, trying to overrun their post, at Sardar Post, Rann of Kutch, Gujarat on April 09, 1965.

Sports

Indian Olympic Association grants affiliation to Boxing Federation of India

• The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has granted affiliation to the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), ending a long-standing impasse between the two bodies.

• As per the directives of the International Olympic Committee vide their letter dated February 7, the IOA grants affiliation to the BFI subject to ratification by the Executive Council/General Body of the IOA.

• The affiliation ends a logjam that goes back to September last year when BFI took charge of the sport after elections conducted in the presence of International Boxing Association (AIBA) and Sports Ministry observers.

India win 12 medals at Asian Youth Chess Ch’ship

• Indian team ruled the roost at the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Tashkent, where they finished on top with a rich haul of 12 medals, including four gold.

• The gold medal were won by Aakanksha Hagawane (Under-18 Girls), Erigaisi Arjun (Under-14 Open), Jishitha D (Under-14 Girls) and Sahithi Varshini M (Under-10 Girls).
• The silver medal winners were Sai Vishwesh C (Under-18 Open), Jyothsna L (Under-14 Girls), Rakshitta Ravi (Under-12 Girls), B Savitha Shri B (Under-10 Girls) and A R Ilamparathi (Under-8 Open).
• Rohith Krishna S (under-12 Open), Divya Deshmukh (Under-12 Girls) and Tanmay Jain (Under-10 Open) won bronze medals.
• India topped the medal tally with a haul of 12 followed by host Uzbekistan (10).

Lewis Hamilton wins Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix for Mercedes

• Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team bounced back from defeat against Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in Australia, the German failing to present a major challenge this time.

•  Lewis Hamilton has picked title against Sebastian Vettel at the top of the Formula One championship in China.

• Hamilton claimed his fifth win here in Shanghai after leading every lap in the inclement conditions as Vettel, who took the flag in Australia a fortnight ago, recovered from fifth to finish six seconds loose of his title rival.

•  Verstappen finishe his line by third place and Ricciardo settled for fourth place, while Raikkonen led recovering compatriot Bottas in fifth.

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