February 17-18th, 2018
1. The sixth conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) of India Region to be held in Patna, Bihar.
- Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan inaugurated the two-day event. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is the chief guest at the inaugural session.
- Over one hundred delegates from across the country and abroad including Australia, Britain, Uganda, and Tonga have arrived to participate in this conference.
- The conference will discuss subjects of Parliament’s role in the development agenda and Legislature and Judiciary. The delegates would brainstorm over the role of Parliament and Legislatures in the development agenda, strengthening human rights and evolving innovative practices to meet challenges before the democracy.
2. India and Iran ink nine agreements in different areas.
- The MoUs were signed after bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in New Delhi.
- The fields in which agreements were inked are Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on Income, exemption from Visa requirement for holders of Diplomatic Passports, exchange of instrument of ratification of an extradition treaty.
- Other MoUs were signed in the areas of the lease contract for Shahid Beheshti Port- Phase 1 of Chabahar, medicine and agriculture and allied sectors.
- In addition to these agreements, four other MoUs were signed on the sidelines of the visit between trade bodies of the two countries.
3. 54th Security conference begins in Munich.
- World leaders and Ministers are meeting in Munich to discuss pressing security issues, including North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and the Syrian civil war. The annual Munich Security Conference opened in the southern Germany city.
- US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono are attending the meet.
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the reconciliatory mood being created between North and South Korea through exchanges at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.
4. Swiss professional tennis player Roger Federer becomes oldest No. 1 in tennis history.
- 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer has become the oldest world number one in Tennis history.
- The 36-year old Swiss replaced Rafael Nadal at the top of the standings after recording a win over Dutch Robin Haase in the quarter-finals of the Rotterdam Open at the Netherlands.
- Federer surpassed Andre Agassi, who held the top spot aged 33, in 2003.
5. Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau had arrived India on a seven-day State visit.
- The Ministry of External Affairs said, his visit is aimed at further strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries in key areas of mutual interest including trade and investment, energy, science and innovation, higher education, infrastructure development, skill development, and space.
- Mr. Justin Trudeau and his family visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. In the visitor’s book, Mr. Trudeau termed the visit as wonderful saying that the Taj Mahal is one the most beautiful places in the world.
- India and Canada share a strategic partnership underpinned by the values of democracy, pluralism, equality for all and rule of law.
6. Indonesia signs a deal to buy 11 Sukhoi Su-35 jets from Russia.
- Russia and Indonesia finalized a deal for the purchase of 11 Sukhoi Su-35 multirole fighter jets, Interfax reported citing a military source.
- The contract was signed to replace Indonesia’s outdated F-5 Tiger planes, which had been in use since 1980. Indonesia previously planned to purchase 10 of the jets but later accepted a Rostec proposal for 11 planes.
7. India heading towards joining five trillion dollar economies club, the PM said in Mumbai.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Maharashtra’s first Global Investor Summit ‘Magnetic Maharashtra: Convergence 2018’ in Mumbai.
- The event is organized jointly by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and association with the Confederation of Indian Industry.
- The Prime Minister said that India is on way to join the five trillion dollar economies club in a few years due to consistent efforts of the NDA government.
- Maharashtra Government expects to sign about 4500 MoUs during the three-day summit attracting investment of about 10 lakh crore rupees and will generate 35 lakh jobs. The focus sectors will be textiles, engineering, food processing, defense manufacturing and MSMEs.
- Conceptualized on four main pillars of employment, sustainability, infrastructure, and future industries, the summit will help Maharashtra rise as a trillion dollar economy by 2025.
8. PM Modi unveils foundation plaque for Navi Mumbai International Airport in Mumbai.
- Prime Minister today digitally unveiled the foundation plaque for Mumbai’s secondary airport. At the same event, Mr. Modi inaugurated the fourth terminal of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.
- Mr. Modi said it is his pleasure to inaugurate two important infrastructure projects on the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s birth anniversary.
- The first phase of the project with a minimum passenger handling capacity of about ten million is likely to become operational by December 2019.
- The airport eventually aims to have a minimum capacity of 60 million passengers by 2031 as compared to the 40 million passengers being handled by the existing airport currently.
- Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Union Shipping and Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari were present for the groundbreaking ceremony.
9. India’s Yuki Bhambri has finished as runner-up in the Men’s Singles in the Chennai Open ATP Challenger Tennis Championships.
- In the final in Chennai, he was beaten by top-seeded Australian Jordan Thompson in three sets.
- Yuki Bhambri is the highest ranked men’s singles tennis player from India is now ranked 101 in men’s singles.
- Yuki Bhambri jumped 11 places to stand just outside the top-100 bracket in the men’s singles rankings, following his runner-up finish at the Chennai Open Challenger tournament.
- Bhambri had beaten Thompson in 2015 in the Shanghai Challengers quarterfinals.
10. Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu retains Winter Olympic figure skating gold.
- Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu became the first figure skater in 66 years to win back-to-back Winter Olympic gold medals in the men’s singles event as he won Japan’s first gold medal at PyeongChang Games. He also became the 1,000th gold medal winner in the history of Winter Olympics.
- Hanyu won the title by beating compatriot Shoma Uno and multiple world champions Javier Fernandez of Spain to the second and third spots.
11. Indian Engineer Vikas Sathaye, Awarded Sci-Tech Oscar Award.
- Vikas Sathaye, a Pune-born person has been honored with the Scientific and Engineering Academy Award at the Oscars Scientific and Technical Awards 2018 at Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, California.
- Mr.Sathaye and his team received the award for his contribution towards conceptualization, designing, engineering, and the implementation of the ‘Shotover K1 Camera System’ during his stint at Shotover Camera Systems in Queenstown, New Zealand.
12. Long-serving former Dutch prime minister, Ruud Lubbers, passed away.
- The Netherlands longest-serving prime minister, RuuRuud Lubbers, who led the Netherlands from 1982 to 1994, has died at the age of 78.
- Mr. Lubbers had the longest tenure of any prime minister in the country’s history and guided the Netherlands through economic turmoil to prosperity.
13. SBI launches Global NRI Centre in Kochi, to centralize NRI operations spread across various states and branches.
- The State Bank of India, which has a strong NRI customer base of over 33 lakh, has launched its Global NRI Centre (GNC) in Kochi, Kerala.
- The GNC will be a one-stop customer service center for all Non-Resident Indian (NRI) banking related services.
- To enhance the service experience of NRIs, the bank also launched other services such as Wealth Management, SBI Intelligent Assist, Free Post Box Service, SBI Mingle for NRIs and Remittance facility for US-based customers.
14. China’s Qingdao city eastern Shandong Province to host Shanghai Cooperation Organization(SCO) Summit in June this year.
- The SCO focuses on security-related issues of the region, especially on counterterrorism cooperation.
- India and Pakistan were admitted as full members of the organization at the summit in Astana last year.
- Shandong is the birthplace of many ancient Chinese thinkers, including Confucius. In 2017, its GDP exceeded 7.2 trillion yuan.
- The summit has China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, and Pakistan as full members.
- The current Council of Heads of State consists of:
Almazbek Atambayev (Kyrgyzstan), Emomalii Rahmon (Tajikistan), Shavkat Mirziyoyev (Uzbekistan), Xi Jinping (China), Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Ram Nath Kovind (India), Mamnoon Hussain (Pakistan).
15. National Banana Festival, 2018 held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
- The Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh addressed at the National Banana Festival, 2018 at the Vellayani Temple Ground in Kalliyoor grama panchayat of Thiruvananthapuram.
- India is the largest producer of banana in the world with 29.7 million tonnes from an area of 0.88 million hectares with a productivity of 37 MT/ha.
- Although India accounts for only 15.5per cent in the area, its contribution to the world’s production is 25.58per cent.
Aimbig 