Current Affairs: April 1-2nd, 2018

April 1-2nd, 2018

1. World Autism Awareness Day: 2 April.

• The United Nations General Assembly unanimously declared 2 April as World Autism Awareness Day to highlight the need to help improve the quality of life of those with autism so they can lead full and meaningful lives as an integral part of society.
• The theme for WAAD 2018 is “Empowering Women and Girls with Autism”.

2. Miami Open 2018- Complete List of Winners.

• The Miami Open, sometimes known as the Miami Masters, is an annual tennis tournament for men and women currently held in Florida, the USA.
• American John Isner won his first ever Masters 1,000 title with a victory over German Alexander Zverev in the Miami Open final.
• S. Stephens won in the Women’s singles category.

S.No.	Category	Winner	Runner Up
1.	Men’s Singles	John Isner (USA)	Alexander Zverev (Germany)
2.	Women’s Singles	Sloane Stephens (USA)	Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia)
3.	Men’s Doubles	Mike Bryan (USA) Bob Bryan (USA)	Karen Khachanov (Russia) Andrey Rublev (Russia)
4.	Women’s Doubles	CoCo Vandeweghe (USA) Ashleigh Barty (Australia)	Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic) Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic)

3. ISSF Junior World Cup: Muskan Bhanwala Wins Gold.

• Indian shooter Muskan Bhanwala clinched the gold medal in women’s 25m pistol event at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney, Australia. The 16-year-old Muskan beaten China’s Qin Sihang and Thailand’s Kanyakorn Hirunphoem.
• India thus upstaged China with 22 medals, including nine gold. India has also five silver and eight bronze medals.
• Static Part: Australia:- Capital- Canberra, Currency- Australian Dollar, Prime Minister- Malcolm Turnbull.

4. Mithali Raj Adjudged ‘Sportsperson of the Year’.

• Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj was adjudged ‘Sportsperson of the Year’ while ace shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and P V Sindhu bagged the best senior male and female athletes at the Telangana Sports Journalists Association annual awards for 2017 in Hyderabad.
• Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman presented ‘best coach of the year’ award to Pullela Gopichand, who received this award for the second time in a row.
• Triple Olympian and former national Hockey player N Mukesh Kumar honored with the Lifetime Achievement award at the event.

5. Permanent Indus Commission meet begins in Delhi.

• The Indian delegation for the annual meeting comprises India’s Indus Water Commissioner P K Saxena, a representative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and technical experts, sources said.
• Pakistan’s six-member delegation for the commission’s 114th meeting is being led by Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah.
• The IWT covers the water distribution and sharing rights of six rivers — Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum.
• The treaty specifies that waters from the three western rivers Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab are reserved for Pakistan, while waters from eastern rivers Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas are reserved for India.

6. Film director C.V. Rajendran passes away.

• Tamil film director C.V. Rajendran, who was part of late C.V. Sridhar’s unit and directed a few memorable films like Kalatta Kalyanam, Sumathi En Sundari and Raja starring Sivaji Ganesan and Jayalalithaa and Ponoonjal, died aged 81.

7. Former Manipur CM R K Dorendra Singh Passes Away.

• Former Manipur Chief Minister R K Dorendra Singh passed away in Imphal.
• He was 83. Dorendra Singh had been chief minister of the state four times between 1974 to 1993. Before becoming the chief minister, he was the Speaker of Manipur Assembly.
• Static Part: Manipur:- CM- Nongthombam Biren Singh, Governor- Dr. Najma A. Heptulla.

8. Dhoni, Advani to be conferred with Padma awards.

• Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and billiards champion Pankaj Advani are among the 41 prominent personalities who will be conferred with the prestigious Padma awards of 2018 by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi.
• As many as 84 Padma awards were announced this year.
• The Padma awards list comprises three Padma Vibhushan, nine Padma Bhushan and 72 Padma Shri awards.

9. Kerala lifts their sixth Santosh Trophy Football title.

• Kerala in a thrilling final at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, held their nerves to beat defending champions and 32-time winners Bengal via a penalty shootout.
• Kerala had beaten Punjab 3-2 with an extra time goal to win their earlier Santosh Trophy title in New Delhi in October 2004.

10. India replaces Vietnam to become 2nd Largest Producer of Mobile Phones in the World.

• India is now the second-largest mobile phone producer in the world after China.
• According to the data shared by Indian Cellular Association with the government, annual production of mobile phones in India increased from 3 million units in 2014 to 11 million units in 2017.
• With this, India replaced Vietnam to become the second largest producer of mobile phones in 2017.
• Static Part: Vietnam:- Capital- Hanoi, Currency- Vietnamese dong, President- Tran Dai Quang.

11. Foundation Stone Of Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project Laid In Uttarakhand.

• R K Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, laid the foundation stone of the 60 MW Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project (NMHEP) along with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat in Uttarkashi.
• The Proposed NMHEP is located on the river Tons – a tributary of the Yamuna, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. This run-of-the-river project was allocated to SJVN Ltd by the Government of Uttarakhand.

12. Mangaluru Airport Adjudged India’s Cleanest Airport.

• The Mangalore International Airport has been adjudged the cleanest airport in the country.
• Airport director VV Rao received the award during the 23rd annual day celebrations of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in New Delhi.
• In the survey conducted across 53 airports in the country by AAI, Mangaluru airport was adjudged the cleanest.
• StaticPart: Airports Authority of India:- Chairman- Guruprasad Mohapatra.

13. The USA and South Korea Begin Joint Military Exercise- ‘Foal Eagle’.

• The United States and South Korea began their joint military training exercise named ‘Foal Eagle. More than 11,500 U.S. troops and nearly 300,000 South Korean forces will take part in the four-week exercises.
• Foal Eagle, the largest annual joint military exercise in South Korea, usually runs about two months. Its start was delayed this year at the request of South Korea until after the Winter Olympics.
• Static Part: South Korea:- President- Moon Jae-in|Capital- Seoul.

14. RBI Changes Methodology for Bond Valuation to Check Manipulation.

• In a bid to prevent the possibility of manipulation in the prices of securities, especially government securities (G-Secs), the Reserve Bank of India has changed the methodology used by debt market players, including banks and primary dealers, for their valuation.
• As per a central bank directive, security/bond valuation will be based on the weighted average price of the last half-an-hour of trading on the last trading day of every quarter against the last traded price earlier.
• Static Part: 24th Governor of RBI- Dr. Urjit Patel|Headquarters- Mumbai|RBI was Established on 1st April 1935.

15. Debjani Ghosh Appointed New President of Nasscom.

• Debjani Ghosh, former managing director of Intel South Asia, is the new president of Nasscom. She has replaced R.Chandrashekhar upon completion of his term.
• A big propagator of gender diversity and equal representation in corporate India, Ms. Ghosh was the first woman to lead Intel India and MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology).
• Static Part: Nasscom:- National Association of Software and Services Companies|Chairman- Raman Roy.

16. Kerala to Host Asia’s Largest Startup Conclave.

• Asia’s largest startup ecosystem congregation, Huddle Kerala, will be held at Kovalam.
• The initiative is envisaged to provide a platform for start-ups to pitch their products and interact with a wide array of technology and industry leaders from around the world.
• Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the conclave, being organized by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IAMAI Startup Foundation.
• Static Part: Kerala:- Capital- Thiruvananthapuram|Governor- Palaniswamy Sathasivam.

17. Jana Small Finance Bank Commences Operations.

• Jana Small Finance Bank (formerly Janalakshmi Financial Services) announced the commencement of its banking operations after receiving licenses from RBI.
• To cover its extensive customer base, Jana Bank will initially open 19 branches across 18 States and expand to 200 banking outlets, including the 25% unbanked rural branches by June 2018. It will have 500 banking outlets by 2019.
• Static Part: 1. Ramesh Ramanathan is the chairman of Jana Group.
  2. Ajay Kanwal is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Jana Small Finance Bank.
  3. Jana Small Finance Bank headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

18. SIDBI Foundation Day- Launches ‘Samridhi- virtual assistant’ & ‘ Bankability Kit’.

• SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) has celebrated its foundation day.
• Chairman Managing Director of SIDBI Mohammad Mustafa launched a series of initiatives from its Lucknow bank headquarters.
• A MoU was signed with The New India Assurance Co. Ltd. and two MSMEs were issued insurance policies. Chairman SIDBI also launched ‘Samridhhi- the virtual assistant’ on banks revamped universal loan portal http://www.udyamimitra.in. During the day, a ‘Bankability Kit’ (brought in partnership with Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank) was also launched.
• Static Part: SIDBI:- CEO- D.r Kshatrapati Shivaji|Founded- 2 April 1990| Headquarters- Lucknow.

19. SEBI Doubles Investment Limit of Angel Funds to Rs10 crore.

• Looking to provide an impetus to early-stage start-ups, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) decided to double the investment limit by angel funds in venture capital undertakings to Rs10 crore from the current Rs5 crore.
• The SEBI board has approved amendments to Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) regulations with respect to ‘Angel Funds.’ Further, SEBI would halve the minimum corpus size required for an angel fund to register with it to Rs 5 crore.
• Static Part: SEBI- Securities and Exchange Board of India|Chairman- Ajay Tyagi|Headquarters- Mumbai.