NATIONAL NEWS Pradhan, UAE minister flag off first consignment of ADNOC crude for India

Transcription

1 NATIONAL NEWS Pradhan, UAE minister flag off first consignment of ADNOC crude for India Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and UAE Minister of State & Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) Group CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber flagged off first consignment of 2 million barrels of ADNOC crude for India. Information about first consignment of ADNOC crude for India: i. In February 2018, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi s visit to UAE, an agreement was signed between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) and ADNOC of UAE, under which ADNOC will store about 5.86 million barrels of crude oil in India s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) facility at Mangalore at its own cost. ii. It is to be noted that ISPRL has built 39 million barrels strategic crude oil storage facility at three locations in India viz. Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Mangalore (Karnataka) and Padur (Kerala). iii. As per the ISPR-ADNOC agreement, ADNOC can sell part of the crude oil stored, to Indian refineries on commercial basis and a certain portion of the storage will be for exclusive use of the Indian government. iv. Mr. Pradhan is on an official visit to United Arab Emirates (UAE). During the course of this visit, he held bilateral meeting with Mr. Jaber to discuss the ongoing cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and explored ways to further enhance the engagement. Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to establish a dedicated web portal for promotion of Audio Visual Services in India The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will set up a dedicated web portal for spreading information on filming locations and production facilities available in India. i. The portal will be of great help to production companies looking to shoot in India to obtain permissions and explore locations in India. ii. It will aid in acceptance of the application for shooting feature films, TV and web reality shows, along with the online payments. iii. It will offer information on locations and link to all state portals. It will capture detailed information related to a particular location, resources or facilities available in a standard format.

2 About Ministry of Information & Broadcasting: Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Shri J P Nadda holds high level review meeting on Vector Borne diseases in Delhi J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired a high level meeting to review the preparedness of various agencies for prevention and management of vector borne diseases, in New Delhi. i. J P Nadda asked the agencies to develop a separate registry for cases originating and being treated in Delhi. ii. He said to focus on active case finding for source identification and reduction of vectors and transmission. iii. He added that there should be no shortage of diagnostic kits, drugs, testing labs, manpower and funds. Govt set to expand Buddhist tourism circuit to 21 more states In a bid to attract more Buddhist tourists from across the world, Central Government has decided to expand Buddhist tourism circuit to 21 more states. i. Buddhist Circuit is among the thirteen thematic circuits under central Government s Swadesh Darshan Scheme. As per earlier plan, it comprised only seven major Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. ii. However, now the circuit will be expanded as Union Ministry of Tourism has identified stupas and viharas in 21 states, around which small intra-state Buddhist zones will be developed. iii. Some of these states are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Goa, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat reached Colombo today on 5-day visit to Sri Lanka On 13th May 2018, Chief of Army Staff General of India, Bipin Rawat arrived at Colombo on a five-day visit to Sri Lanka. i. As a part of his visit, Bipin Rawat will meet the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe. ii. He will also conduct a meeting with the military heads of Sri Lanka. Issues of mutual interest and ways to strengthen military cooperation between India and Sri Lanka will be discussed. iii. Bipin Rawat will inaugurate a communications lab set up near Kandy with the assistance of Indian army.

3 Par panel to look into black money and performance of public sector banks A parliamentary panel of 30 members estimate Committee also known as Continuous Economy committee has been constituted by the speaker of parliament. Veteran BJP leader Mr.MuraliManohar Joshi has been appointed as the chairman of this committee. ii. This committee will focus on the black money and the unaccounted money that was legitimized during the demonetization period as per RBI s report. Also it will look into the performance of public sector bank, import of uranium, preparedness of Indian armed forces, environment and mining activities, among other things related to various ministries in the year Key points: Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee: Mr. MallikarjunKharge. 24 th Governor of RBI :Mr. Urjit Patel Speaker of Parliament : Mrs. SumitraMahajan. INTERNATIONAL NEWS PM Narendra Modi s Nepal Visit Overview i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on an official visit to Nepal on 11th and 12th May, This was PM Modi s third visit to Nepal and the first high-level visit from India since the formation of the new Government in Nepal this year. ii. On May 11, 2018, PM Modi Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Oli jointly inaugurated a direct bus service between Janakpur (in Dhanusa District of Nepal) and Ayodhya (in Uttar Pradesh). iii. On May 11, 2018, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Oli jointly laid the foundation stone of the 900-megawatt Arun III Hydroelectric Power Plant in Tumlingtar area in eastern Nepal. iv. On May 11, 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Foreign Minister of Nepal, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali China s first home-built aircraft carrier begins sea trials On 13th May 2018, China s first domestically developed aircraft carrier began sea trials. i. The aircraft carrier has not been named yet. It is a 50,000-metric tonne vessel. It started off from a shipyard of Dalian Shipbuilding Industry in Liaoning province.

4 ii. This vessel will become China s second aircraft carrier. China commissioned its first carrier the Liaoning in iii. This trial aims to demonstrate the reliability and capability of the ship s propulsion systems. BANKING & FINANCE Fino Payments Bank launches digital suite In a bid to expand its footprint in the digital banking and payments space, Fino Payments Bank has launched a digital services suite. Fino Payments Bank s digital services suite: i. The suite includes BPay app, which was launched in September 2017 for digital transition of customers from assisted to self-service mode. ii. In addition to BPay, the suite includes Unified Payment Interface (UPI), BHIM app,which has proved to be a game changer in peer-to-peer and merchant payments. iii. The suite also includes net banking facility, a Digi Savings Account which can be opened online only by providing Aadhaar number and PAN card and FasTag to make digital payments at national highway toll plazas. Quick Facts about Fino Payments Bank: Incorporated on April 4, 2017 Registered Office Mumbai, Maharashtra Current CEO Rishi Gupta RBI restricts Dena Bank from taking fresh credit exposure and Hiring Dena Bank has announced that Reserve Bank of India has restricted it from taking fresh credit exposure and recruiting new staff. Restrictions on Dena Bank: i. It is to be noted that RBI initiated prompt corrective action against Dena Bank and imposed certain restrictions in May 2017 owing to high net non-performing assets (NPA) and negative Return on Assets. ii. The fresh restriction has been imposed in wake of deteriorated financial performance for the 4th quarter of For fourth quarter ended March 31, 2018, Dena Bank reported a net loss of Rs 1225 crore, which is much wider than the net loss of Rs 575 crore recorded in the same quarter last year.

5 Quick Facts about Dena Bank: Founded in 1938 Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra Current Executive Director Ramesh Singh Tagline Trusted Family Bank BUSINESS & ECONOMY India largest remittance-receiving country in world As per the report RemitSCOPE Remittance markets and opportunities- Asia and the Pacific, India was the largest remittance-receiving country in the world, with migrant workers from India sending home USD 69 billion in i. The RemitSCOPE Remittance markets and opportunities- Asia and the Pacific report has said that the following are the three largest remittance-receiving countries in the world in 2017: India (USD 69 billion) China (USD 64 billion) Philippines (USD 33 billion) AWARDS & RECOGNITION Lata Mangeshkar conferred with Swara Mauli award Singer Lata Mangeshkar was presented the Swara Mouli title by spiritual guru Vidya Narsimha Bharati Swami at her residence in Prabhu Kunj, Mumbai. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY US cancels NASA s carbon monitoring project Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a NASA programme that cost $10 million per year to track carbon and methane was cancelled. i. The Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) programme tracked sources and sinks for carbon and developed highresolution models of earth s flows of carbon. ii. NASA said that, United States has cancelled the CMS project due to budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget.

6 SPORTS Indian U-16 football team wins title in Serbia, beats Tajikistan in final The Indian U-16 football team was crowned champions at the Four-Nation Tournament held in Serbia after they defeated Tajikistan 4-2 in the finals. The four-nation tournament was played between India, Serbia, Tajikistan and Jordan. Liverpool s Salah wins EPL Player of the Season award Liverpool FC and Egypt national football team s forward Mohamed Salah won the English Premier League (EPL) Player of the Season award. Petra wins record third Madrid Open title Czech Petra Kvitova defeated Kiki Bertens 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought battle to win the Madrid Open for a record third time. Hamilton wins Spanish GP, strengthens lead in F1 standings British driver Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes won the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, his second victory in a row after winning the Azerbaijan GP. Red Bull s Max Verstappen came third, followed by Ferrari s Sebastian Vettel of Germany in fourth. Athletics Federation of India decides to implement a strict No-Needle policy at all national camps and training centres The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has decided to implement a strict No-Needle policy at all the national camps and training centres in the country. The Athletics Federation s action comes a month after 20- kilometre race walker KT Irfan and triple jumper Rakesh Babu were sent back home from the recent Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast on charges of possession of needles, in violation of the organisers strict No-Needle policy. In order to the implement this policy; the AFI has formed a three-member committee of coaches, which has been empowered to search the rooms of the athletes. Chief coach Bahadur Singh will head the committee while the other two members will be deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair and chief coach (juniors) Sanjay Garnaik.