Current Affairs January 21, 2019

In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of January 21, 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. On 19th January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) in Mumbai, Maharshtra. The state-of-the-art Museum has been built at a cost of over Rs 140 crore. The objective of the Museum is to take its visitors through an absorbing journey of over a century of Indian cinema in a story telling mode with the help of visuals, graphics, artifacts, interactive exhibits and multimedia expositions. The Museum is housed in two buildings - the New Museum Building and the 19th century historic palace Gulshan Mahal in the Films Division campus in Mumbai. The New Museum Building has four Exhibition Halls which encapsulate Gandhi and Cinema, Children’s Film Studio, Technology, creativity and Indian Cinema and Cinema across India. The museum will not only cater to the needs of film critics and enthusiasts but also enthral visitors through visuals, graphics, interactive exhibits and multimedia expositions about India’s century-long cinematic journey.

2. The Government of India (GoI) has approved setting up of three new naval air squadrons in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu as part of efforts to bolster the Indian Navy's overall strength. Besides this, the Central Government has also sanctioned manpower towards manning additional aircraft in existing Dornier Surveillance Squadrons in Kerala and Andaman Islands. A contract for procurement of 12 Dornier aircraft was signed with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) two years back and their delivery is commencing soon. The new Dornier 228 maritime surveillance aircraft to be delivered to the Navy are fitted with improved 'state of the art' sensors and equipment which includes glass cockpit, advanced surveillance radar, optical sensors and networking features. The aircraft will enhance maritime domain awareness of Indian Navy through round the clock sensor based surveillance and provide targeting data in areas of operation to ward off terror and other threats from sea.The addition will further strengthen Indian Navy's efforts at Coastal Security of India's vast coastline of over 7 thousand kilometres.

3. The German parliament has recently adopted a draft law that classifies the North African states of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as well as Georgia as safe countries of origin. The move is meant to deter migrants from those countries and streamline the handling of asylum applications. Once the law is approved by the German Federal Council, asylum procedures for people arriving from these countries will be accelerated. The return procedure of rejected applicants to their home country will also be sped up. According to the German constitution, safe countries of origin are countries in which there is neither political persecution nor inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment. The law has yet to be approved by the German Federal Council.

4. In Sweden, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has been elected for a second term on 18th January 2019 after an agreement was struck between the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals, and Centre Party, and after the Left Party agreed to abstain from voting against Lofven. He is expected to formally present his new government and its full programme on 21st January 2019. It will be one of the weakest administrations in Sweden in 70 years, with just 32.7% of voters having cast ballots for the two parties. Sweden's inconclusive legislative elections in September 2018 had not left either main parliamentary bloc with a majority.

5. After Gujarat and Jharkhand, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved 10% reservation in jobs and educational institutions for economically backward in the general category. The decision was taken at the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. Recently, President Ram Nath Kovind cleared the landmark Constitution (124 Amendment) Bill, 2019 passed by parliament, which will provide 10% reservation in government jobs and college seats for people outside high income brackets. Now, the Act empowers all individuals of the General category whose family’s combined annual income is less than Rs 8 lakh, and who hold less than five acres of agricultural land.

6. In Arunachal Pradesh, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has inaugurated the Diffo Bridge over Diffo river in Lower Dibang Valley district on 18th January 2019. The bridge is 426 mts long Pre Stressed Concrete Box Girder type bridge on Roing-Koron-Paya road in the state. It would provide uninterrupted access between Dibang valley and Lohit valley region of Eastern Arunachal Pradesh and an all-weather Road to the troops deployed on the China Border. The construction work was done by Project Udayak, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in this region.

7. The 7th ASEAN-India Tourism Ministers was held in Ha Long City, Viet Nam on 18th January 2019. Here, Union Tourism Minister of India, K J Alphons co-chaired the Tourism Ministers’ meeting with the Vietnamese minister, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thien. As a follow up to the Summit, the Ministers launched the ASEAN-India Tourism Cooperation Year 2019, and looked forward to enhancing cooperation with a view to increasing two-way tourist visits and promoting greater people-to-people exchanges between ASEAN and India. The Ministers’ meeting agreed to further enhance ASEAN-India cooperation in tourism under the framework of the ‘2012 Memorandum of Understanding between ASEAN and India on strengthening tourism cooperation with intensified efforts and activities. The Tourism Ministers of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand also attended the meeting.

8. India's first PolicyHack for Teachers has been launched by Dell in partnership with the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) and Ignus. As a part of its three-city PolicyHack series, Dell hosted an interactive hackathon where teachers focused on their learning journey. It’s first-of-its-kind hackathon for teachers which will create a platform where teachers, school representatives and a cross-sectional group experts related to education can interact with each other.

9. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad will launch India's first full-fledged B.Tech (Bachelors of Technology) programme in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the academic year 2019-20. The course will have an intake of around 20 students and the admission will be done on the basis of the JEE-Advanced score. The course syllabus will comprise of the study of algorithms from the computer science department, signal processing from the electrical engineering department, robotics from mechanical engineering department and mathematical foundations. The course will also focus on application verticals such as healthcare, agriculture, smart mobility, among many others. The aim here is to produce students with a sound understanding of the fundamentals of theory and practice of AI and machine learning. Globally, US-based Carnegie Mellon University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offer similar courses. It must be noted that IIT Hyderabad already offers an M.Tech programme in Artificial Intelligence-Machine Learning.

10. India’s First Lithium Ion Giga Factory will be build by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and Libcoin. Both the companies are in dialogue to form a world class consortium to initially build 1GWh lithium ion battery plant in India. Its capacity will be scaled up to 30GWh in due course. With this, India has finally taken steps into its energy security and clean energy commitment to the world. This project will bring energy independence by replacing oil imports with abundant renewable. This project also includes “Made by India, for India”, with focus on core-cost components manufactured domestically. It will also create integrated manufacturing ecosystem resulting in self-reliance and lower cost.


Leave a Reply