Current Affairs January 17, 2019

In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of January 17, 2019 in Short Notes form for preparation of IBPS, Banking, CLAT, SSC, Railway, UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, TNPSC, MPSC, KPSC and all other competitive examinations of India.

1. Abhinav Shaw (10) has become the youngest gold medallist in shooting at the Khelo India Youth Games 2019 in Pune. He teamed up with Mehuli Ghosh to help West Bengal win the 10m air rifle mixed team event. Delhi's Devanshi Rana bagged gold in Under-21 girls 25m pistol event. In overall medals tally, Home state Maharashtra is leading in Medal tally of the event with 177 Medals including 64 Gold. Delhi is on No. 2 with 121 medals including 47 Gold and Haryana is on No.3 with 110 Medals including 37 Gold.

2. The Government of India (GoI) has constituted a 7-member Group of Ministers (GoM) to boost the real estate sector under the GST regime. Deputy Chief Minister of Gujarat Nitin Patel will be the convener of the GoM. The panel will analyse tax rate of GST and suggest a composition scheme for residential construction units. It will also look into the issue of the legality of inclusion or exclusion of land or any other ingredient in the composition scheme and suggest valuation mechanism. It will also examine various aspects of the GST levy on Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and Development Rights in a joint Development Agreement and suitable model. Currently, GST on the under-construction flats and houses is 12% whereas ready-to-move-in flats with a completion certificate attract no GST. There are also complaints about the builders not passing on the benefit of input tax credit to the consumers. The Council's law and fitment committee will assist the panel. The officers from the Centre and states can also be invited in the committee for inputs, if required.

3. In Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Kamal Nath launched the Rs 50,000-crore farm debt-waiver scheme named 'Jai Kisan Rin Mukti Yojana' on January 16, 2019. It would benefit 55 lakh small and marginal farmers. Under this scheme, Farmers who have registered themselves to pay GST and are paying income tax cannot avail benefits.

4. The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has recently given its approval for the Trishna Gas project of ONGC to extract Natural Gas from Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary (TWS) in Belonia subdivision of Gomati district of Tripura. ONGC has discovered 10-12 gas bearing wells in the sanctuary. The gas extracted from the Sanctuary would be transported to the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) owned 100 MW gas-based thermal power project at Monarchak in Sonamura subdivision of Sipahijala district. The Tripura unit of ONGC would provide Rs 25 crore to the state government for carrying out Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. The NBWL is a statutory organization constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, and is chaired by the Prime Minister. It is an apex body to review all wildlife-related matters and approves projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries. It is chaired by the Prime Minister.

5. Sarfaraz Ahmed, the current captain of the Pakistan cricket team, has set a new wicket-keeping record during the final Test match against South Africa at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on January 13. He took 10 catches in the on-going Test match and surpassed Australia’s Adam Gilchrist and former Indian captain, MS Dhoni, to become the only wicket-keeper captain with the most number of catches in a match. Furthermore, the Pakistani captain has also made another record; taking five catches in each innings of a Test match.

6. On 14th January 14 2019, the 2nd edition of India-Myanmar bilateral Army exercise 'IMBEX 2018-19' has commenced at Chandi Mandir military station in Haryana that houses the headquarters of the Western Command of the Indian Army. The purpose of this joint training event is to train the Myanmar delegation for participation in UN peacekeeping operations. The exercise includes participation of 15 officers from Myanmar Army and 15 officers from Indian Army who shall jointly train for over a period of six days. During the exercise, focus will be on training the Myanmar Army on tactics, procedures, expertise and methodology required by the contingent of the member nations for serving in UN peacekeeping operations.

7. Prof. Sir Michael Atiyah (89), the noted British mathematician has passed away in United Kingdom on 11th January 2019. He was best known for his co-development of a branch of mathematics called topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. His research also involved deep insights relating to mathematical concepts known as "vector bundles". Sir Michael was also a recipient of the Abel Prize (2004) and Fields Medal (1966), and was the former president of the Royal Society in London. He was one of the foremost mathematicians whose work encompassed topology and geometry, and worked with several Indian mathematicians such as Indian-American mathematician Harish-Chandra and Vijay Kumar Patodi, during his career.

8. The Madras High Court has expressed serious concern over the exotic invasive species that have stifled the growth of the native shola forests and grasslands on the Western Ghats. It observed that such species are the second largest cause of biodiversity loss in the world and impose high costs to agriculture, forestry, and aquatic ecosystems. Hence, for this burning issue, the court has constituted an expert committee to suggest ways and means to remove the alien plants species and rehabilitate the forests. Here, a division bench of justices M M Sundaresh and N Sathish passed the interim order on a batch of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitions seeking to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from cultivating eucalyptus trees in Western Ghats for commercial purpose. It has also directed the committee to file a report on the ways to weed out such species within two months. The committee will be headed by Cherukuri Raghavendra Babu, the chairman of the expert committee on invasive species in Chennai National Biodiversity Authority.

9. The State of Palestine has launched the historical phase by presiding Group of 77 (G-77) for 2019 on January 15. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas succeeded Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with a promise to confront "assaults" on multilateralism and a pledge to seek a peaceful two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The decision to elect Palestine as the 2019 Chair of the G77 was taken in September 2018 by the foreign ministers of the Groups' member states. For this, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 2017 adopted a resolution granting the observer-state of Palestine additional rights to act as chair of the G-77. The bloc - which through an expanding membership is now comprised of 134 countries - rotates chairmanship duties each year to different members. The G-77 is the global body's largest intergovernmental organisation of developing countries including India. It is established in 1964 by 77 developing countries in Geneva. It claims to provide the means for the countries of the South to articulate and promote their collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the UN system and promote South-South cooperation for development.

10. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has recently launched ‘Ama Ghare LED’ scheme, under which about 95 lakh families in the State will each get four LED bulbs free of cost. Under the scheme, each beneficiary registered under National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the State Food Security Scheme (SFSS) will be provided four LED bulbs of 9 watt each free of cost. To implement the scheme, the bulbs will be distributed at Panchayat offices as well as PEETHA (People’s Empowerment—Enabling Transparency and Accountability of Odisha Initiative) camps across the state. The beneficiaries will have to produce biometric authentication to get the benefits of the scheme.


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