[CA] Daily News [08-04-2018]

 Around INDIA

# Indian Air Force 9IAF) to conduct Exercise GAGAN SHAKTI 2018 along Pakistan and China borders from April 10 – 23, 2018; it will be the biggest ever combat exercise done by IAF

# RH300 Sounding rocket was launched from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

- RH300 sounding rocket was developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space centre (VSSC)

- This is the 21st launch of RH300 sounding rocket. This launch is part of a study done by VSSC under the SOUREX (Sounding Rocket Experiment) programme

# 9th Indian Youth Science Congress was held at Career Point University in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh

 TAMIL NADU

# Government launched “Uzhavan” (meaning – farmer), a mobile application for farmers

- This app allows farmers to have access to nine types of services, including details about their crop insurance, information on farm subsidies, book farm equipment and related infrastructure and receiving weather forecast for the next four days

- The app is available in Tamil as well as in English

  # Governor Mr. Banwarilal Purohit said that politics must be kept outside on his appointment of Vice Chancellor of Anna University

STATES SCAN

# Haryana: Central Government’s “Gobardhan Yojna”, a scheme for managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste into manure and biogas was launched from Karnal; the word “Gobar” in “Gobardhan Yojna” is to be referred as abbreviation of Galvanising Organic Bio Agro Resources

BILATERAL ISSUES

# Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart, Mr. Khadga Prasad Oli jointly inaugurated the Integrated Checkpost at Birgunj, Nepal and witnessed the ground breaking ceremony of a cross border petroleum products pipeline at Mothidari in Bihar’s East Champaran Dt

- Two Prime Ministers comprehensively reviewed the entire spectrum of multifaceted ties between the two countries. They welcomed the growing partnership between the two governments, private sector and at the people’s level. The two Prime Ministers resolved to work together to take bilateral relations to newer heights on the basis of equality, mutual trust, respect and benefit.

- Three separate joint statements on the following key areas of mutual interest were issued:

·        India-Nepal: New Partnership in Agriculture

·        Expanding Rail Linkages: Connecting Raxaul in India to Kathmandu in Nepal

·        New Connectivity between India and Nepal through Inland Waterways

 # President Mr. Ram Nath Kovind to visit energy-rich Equatorial Guinea, Swaziland and copper-rich Zambia from April 07 – 13

- This is Kovind’s third trip abroad since taking office in July and also his third visit to Africa. In October, Kovind travelled to Djibouti and Ethiopia and in March, he visited Mauritius and Madagascar.

ECONOMICS

# NITI Aayog is planning to build National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP) to host and analyse huge amount of data which shall be helpful for citizens to understand spend patterns of the government, consumption trends and the success of various government policies

# India and the World Bank signed a US$ 420 million project to benefit Small and Marginal farmers in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra

SPORTS

  # 3rd day of CWG 2018: India won 2 Gold medals

- Gold: Sathishkumar Sivalingam in Men’s Weightlifting (77 kg)

- Gold: Venkat Rahul Ragala in Men’s Weightlifting (85 kg)

- As of now, India is at fourth place in medals table with (4 G + 1 S + 1 B)

 # Leander Paes became the most successful doubles player in the history of Davis Cup as he combined with Rohan Bopanna to grab his 43rd win in Davis Cup; the Indian duo won the tournament against China and qualified for World Group Play Off