[CA] Daily News [04-04-2018]

 Around INDIA

# Parliament adjourned for 19th day

# The Supreme Court defended its ruling on SC / ST Act as it only protects an innocent person from arbitrary arrest; the court also questioned the Centre’s flip-flop on the issue and said that it was the centre which said provisions of the Act were being misused

# President Mr.  Ram Nath Kovind, planted a Baobab sapling in the gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

- This sapling was gifted by the University of Madagascar as a gesture of goodwill in return for the Neem tree that the President planted at the University campus in Antananarivo during his State visit to Madagascar in March.

- The Baobab tree has a life span of over 2000 years.

- It is high in medicinal and nutritional properties, quite like the Neem tree.

- The exchange of these plants spotlights the value both India and Madagascar attach to traditional knowledge and medicine in their respective cultures.

# Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has announced ex-gratia payment of Rs. 10 lakh each to the next of the kin of those who were killed in Mosul, Iraq.

# A Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) was signed between the Indian Army and HDFC Bank on the Defence Salary Package. The first MoU between HDFC Bank and the Indian Army was signed in 2011 and was renewed on 13 Mar 2015. The current MoU is tailor made to suit the requirements of serving soldiers, pensioners and families.

# The Information and Broadcasting Ministry withdrew its order, under which accreditation of any journalist found guilty of disseminating “fake news” could be cancelled

# The Ministry of Human Resource Development and the CBSE have decided not to re – conduct the Class 10 mathematics examination anywhere in India

# National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2018

- Released by Ministry of Human Resources and Development

- IISc, Bengaluru retained its position as India’s top ranked university for the third year in a row followed by JNU, Delhi and Banaras Hindu University

- Best Engineering institute: IIT – Madras

- Best Medical institute: AIIMS, New Delhi

- Best Management institute: IIM – Ahmedabad

- Best Law institute: National Law School of India University, Bengaluru

- Best College: Miranda House, Delhi

- Colleges in Delhi and Tamil Nadu excelled in the list
[Click for more details on NIRF 2018 Rankings]

TAMIL NADU

 # Protest for constituting Cauvery Management Board intensified; the hashtags such as #IndiaBetraysTN, #WeWantCMB; #GoHomeOPSnEPS are trending in facebook and twitter

WORLD

# France: rail workers begins strike; commuters across the country faced severe disruptions

# Indonesia: declared a state of emergency around a port (Balikpapan) on Borneo island, after a large oil spill and fire killed four people

# Sri Lanka: Prime Minister, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe to face no-confidence motion today

# Turkey: President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Mr. Vladimir Putin launched the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant (Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant) in the Mediterranean Mersin region.

# USA: designated Milli Muslim League (MML), the political arm of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan led by Hafiz Saeed as a terrorist organization

# The world’s chemical weapons watchdog (OPCW: Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) said it would hold a meeting at Russia’s request to discuss Britain’s allegations that Russia was behind the poisoning of an ex – spy (Sergei Skripal) in England

ECONOMICS

# Reliance’s Payment Bank (Jio Payments Bank) commenced its operations from April 03, 2018 [Bharti Airtel was the first to begin Payments Bank services in Nov 2016 followed by India Post Payments Bank, Paytm Payments Bank, Fino Payments Bank and Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank]

# Union Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu launched digital initiatives by Export Inspection Council (EIC) for ease of export at New Delhi.

# 3rd Annual Meeting of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on the theme of “Enhancing Port and Coastal Infrastructure: A Primer on Potential Areas" was held in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh

SPORTS

 # India’s G. Sathiyan rached a career-best ranking of 46 while A. Sharath Kamal climbed 22 places to be at No. 48 in the latest ITTF rankings.

# 21st edition of Commonwealth Games 2018 starts today in Gold Coast, Australia [Click for more details on Mascot, Symbol, Venue, etc..]