Introduction
Current Affairs is a type of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or ongoing at the time of broadcast. The article Current Affairs September 1st 2018 includes News summary on current events of International, National, Banking, Sports, Awards, Appointments and Obituary importance of September 1st 2018.
International
4th BIMSTEC Summit held in Kathmandu on 30-31 August, 2018
Key Highlights:
- the 4th Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit was held for 2 days in Kathmandu, Nepal.
- The theme of the 4th meeting was “Towards a Peaceful, Prosperous and Sustainable Bay of Bengal Region.
- The Nepalese Prime Minister handed over the chairmanship of BIMSTEC to the President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena.
- On August 28, 2018, 19th Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) of the BIMSTEC was held in Kathmandu.
National
India & Pakistan agree to undertake Indus water treaty tours to work on hydro projects
Key Highlights:
- India and Pakistan agreed to undertake the Indus Waters Treaty tours in the Indus basin on both sides.
- This agreement came after the 115th meeting of the India-Pakistan Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) in Lahore.
- India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory.
- The water commissioners of Pakistan and India are required to meet twice a year.
Static GK:
- Pakistan Prime Minister: Imran Khan.
- Currency: Pakistani Rupee.
- President: Mamnoon Hussain.
Rs 90 bn worth MoU of Indore-Manmad rail line signed by Gadkari, Goyal, MP, Maharashtra
Key Highlights:
- Mou has been signed among the shipping and railway ministries, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra governments for implementation of 90 billion Indore-Manmad rail project.
- Ministry of Shipping or its nominated PSUs including JNPT, will be the main promoter of the project.
- It will have 55% share and Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh will have share of 15 per cent each.
- The tribal sectors of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will benefit from it.
Zokhawthar immigration check-post : 2nd one opened by India in Mizoram along Myanmar border
Key Highlights:
- India opens Zokhawthar immigration check-post in Mizoram along Myanmar border.
- It is the second immigration check-post in Mizoram, after Zorinpui chech post which was opened in 2017.
- It is one of the largest trading centres after the state capital Aizwal.
- Myanmar also opened the land border crossing at Zokhawthar-Rih.
Amethi’s Pindara Thakur village went digital from September 1
Key Highlights:
- Pindara Thakur village in Amethi,Uttarpradesh was made fully digital under Digital India Programme of the Union government.
- It was linked with Wi Fi Chaupal and use of 2 GB free data for 15 days has been made available.
- Union Minister of Textiles Mrs. Smriti Irani inaugurated the ‘Digital India Banking Service’ at the head post office of Amethi.
‘Krishna Kutir’: Home for widows inaugurated in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh
Key Highlights:
- Minister for Women & Child Development, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, and Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Adityanath Yogi inaugurated ‘Krishna Kutir’,
- Its construction was funded by Central Government. It will be managed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh.
- A park will be set up near the home on an area of 4 acres that has been allocated by the district administration. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi had launched the construction Krishna Kutir in 2016.
ICAR organizes two-day conference on Motivating & Attracting Youth in Agriculture (MAYA) in New Delhi
Key Highlights:
- A conference on Motivating and Attracting Youth in Agriculture (MAYA) was held at National Agricultural Science Complex (NASC), in New Delhi.
- The conference was inaugurated by Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR).
- The conference offered an opportunity to discuss various options for attracting youth to agriculture and motivating them towards entrepreneurship in agriculture and related fields.
Banking
Licence of Bhilwara Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank cancelled by RBI
Key Highlights:
- On September 1, 2018, RBI cancelled the licence of Rajasthan - based Bhilwara Mahila Urban Co-operative Bank.
- This was done due to inadequate capital and earning prospects.
- It is thus prohibited from conducting business of banking which includes acceptance of deposits and repayment of deposits.
SBI raised benchmark lending rate by 0.2% after RBI repo rate hike
Key Highlights:
- SBI increased its benchmark lending rates or MCLR by 0.2 percent across all tenors upto 3 years.
- This changes are effective from September 1, 2018.
- This made home, auto and other loans would become costlier.
- It comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked benchmark lending rate called repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent.
Static GK:
- SBI Headquarters: Mumbai.
- Chairman: Rajnish Kumar.
- MD: Arijit Basu.
- Tagline: With you all the way, Pure Banking Nothing Else, The Nation’s banks on us.
Rs. 929.89 Crore approved by World Bank for Shimla’s Water Supply Project
Key Highlights:
- The World Bank has approved a financial assistance of Rs. 929.89 crore for Shimla water supply and sewerage project.
- The assistance will be made as a development policy loan and will be finalized negotiation meeting on October 24, 2018.
Static GK:
- Himachal Pradesh Capital: Shimla.
- Chief Minister: Jai Ram Thakur.
- Governor: Acharya Devvrat.
- National Parks: Great Himalayan National Park, Pin Valley National Park.
India Post Payments Bank – a major initiative towards financial inclusion-launched by PM Modi
Key Highlights:
- The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi launched the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) with capital of Rs 14.35 billion at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.
- It will accept deposits of up to Rs 100,000, offer remittance services, mobile payments/transfers/purchases and other services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third-party fund transfers.
- Deposits exceeding Rs 100,000 will be automatically converted into post office savings account.
- It will use Aadhar open accounts, while a QR card and biometrics will drive authentication, transactions, and payments.
UIDAI relaxes minimum Aadhaar enrolment targets, related deadlines for banks
Key Highlights:
- The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) relaxed Aadhar enrolment targets for banks and extended the deadline to November 1, 2018.
- Banks achieving the target of minimum 8 Aadhaar enrolment/updations per day per branch in the month of November 2018 will be exempted from financial disincentives up to October 2018.
- Also banks which meet the minimum Aadhaar enrolment/update targets shall continue to avail UIDAI’s authentication and eKYC service free of cost.
Sports
Boxing, Hockey, Bridge, Squash
Key Highlights:
- Amit Panghal defeated reigning Olympic Champion Hasanboy Dusmatov from Uzbekistan 3-2 and won gold medal in Men’s 49kg Boxing.
- India won silver medal in the women’s hockey event after it lost 1-2 to Japan in the final. Indian women’s hockey team won gold in the 1982 Asian Games. After that, they haven’t won a gold medal.
- Pranab Bardhan and Shibnath Sarkar pair won gold medal in the men’s Pair Bridge event. They topped the points table in the men’s Pair Bridge event with 384 points. They both hail from Howrah, West Bengal.
- India won silver medal in the women’s squash team event after they lost 2-0 to Hong Kong.
Former India & Tamil Nadu batsman Subramaniam Badrinath retires from all formats of cricket
Key Highlights:
He has played 2 Tests, 7 ODIs and a T20I. He represented the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
He has played cricket for more than 17 years. He has scored 10,245 runs in 145 first-class games at an average of 54.49.
- Former India and Tamil Nadu batsman Subramaniam Badrinath announced his retirement from all forms of cricket at the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) headquarters, in Chennai.
Government approves Indian Kho Kho team’s participation in 1st International Championship
Key Highlights:
- Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (I/C) Col Rajyavardhan Rathore has approved the participation of Indian Kho Kho team at the 1st International Kho Kho Championship in England from 1st to 4th September 2018.
- This approval has been made by relaxing guidelines of the Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry, which specifies that sports disciplines like Kho Kho that are categorised as “Others” will not be eligible for financial support for participating in International events.
- This decision has been made to support the growth of Kho Kho and will also lead to its future mainstreaming at the International level and inclusion in multi-disciplinary sporting events like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Olympics, etc.
Awards
Mumbai neurosurgeon Dr B.K. Misra named for 2018 Dr B.C. Roy National award
Key Highlights:
- Dr B.K. Misra from Mumbai has been named for 2018 Dr B.C. Roy National Award as an Eminent Medical Person of the Year.
- Dr B.K. Misra is the Head of Department of Surgery and Neurosurgery and Gamma Knife Radiosurgery at P.D. Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai.
- He has achieved a lot of firsts like image guided aneurysm microsurgery and first doctor in South Asia to perform gamma knife radiosurgery. He is also the first doctor in India to perform awake craniotomy for brain tumours.
Abhay K the first Indian poet to record poems at Library of Congress
Key Highlights:
- Indian poet-diplomat Mr. Abhay K became the first Indian poet invited to record his poems at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.He was born in a small village in Nalanda district of Bihar.
- The prestigious reading series is called : ‘The Poet and the poem’.
- His poems have appeared in over sixty international literary journals.
Appointments
Binoy Kumar appointed as Secretary in Steel Ministry
Key Highlights:
- Binoy Kumar, IAS (TG:83) was appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India.His appointment follows the previous incumbent, Aruna Sharma’s superannuation on Friday, August 31, 2018.
- He had been posted as Officer on Special Duty in the Ministry since 21st May 2018. Prior to this, he was Special Secretary, Logistics, in the Department of Commerce, where he held additional charge till 31st July 2018.
PNB’s Sunil Mehta has been selected as chairman of IBA
Key Highlights:
- Managing Director and CEO, Punjab National Bank, Sunil Mehta was elected as the Chairman of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for the year 2018-19.
- Madhav Nair, country head and chief executive, Mashreqbank PSC, has been elected as the Honorary Secretary of the association for 2018-19.
- State Bank of India’s chairman, Rajnish Kumar, and Federal Bank’s managing director, Shyam Srinivasan.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi to take charge as Chief Justice of India on October 3
Key Highlights:
- Current Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra will retire on 2nd October 2018. As per convention, the senior-most judge is eligible to be the Chief Justice of India.
- Ranjan Gogoi is expected to retire on November 17 as the Supreme Court judge. He has served as a judge in Gauhati High Court and Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Obituary
Jain monk Tarun Sagar passes away at 51
Key Highlights:
- Jain monk Tarun Sagar died following a long term illness, at Radhapuri temple, in Delhi.
- Tarun Sagar was 51 years old. He was born on 26th June 1967 in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh. His original name was Pawan Kumar Jain.
- His lectures called “Kadve Pravachan” were very popular and he was followed by many people from the Jain community.