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JANUARY

National:

Marking the 69th Republic Daycelebrations, Khadi & Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC) & New DelhiMunicipal Council (NDMC) havelaunched the first ever ‘Khadi Haat’ in thecountry.

Former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel hasbeen named as the new governor ofMadhya Pradesh.

Anandiben Patel

Kolkata has become the first Indian Metroto get a Floating Market. The market willbe located on a water-body with boatsdoubling up as shops.

Maharashtra became the first state in thecountry that has come out with a publiccloud policy, virtually mandating itsdepartments to shift their data storage ontothe cloud.

Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh,took over as Chief of Staff, Western NavalCommand from Vice Admiral RavneetSingh.

Ajendra Bahadur Singh

Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI) introduced a concept of ‘VirtualID’ to further strengthen privacy &security of Aadhaar number holders.

PM Modi inaugurated the projectcommencement of Rajasthan Refinery atPachpadra in Barmer district. This is thefirst oil refinery in the state.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjeeunveiled the official emblem whichhighlights the Ashoka emblem on the topwith the theme of “Biswa Bangla” at thecentre.

Official emblem of West Bengal

National vice-president of the BJP, VinaySahasrabuddhe, who is also the memberof Rajya Sabha has been appointed thePresident of Indian Council of CulturalRelations.

CURRENT AFFAIRS-2018

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Vinay Sahasrabuddhe

Arunachal Pradesh declared opendefecation free ahead of the nationaldeadline of October 2, 2019. MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh,Jharkhand, & Haryana were declared opendefecation free states in October 2017.

The citizen of Assam witnessed therelease of the first draft of NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) containing thefirst batch of 19 million names of genuineIndian citizens in compliance with theSupreme Court ‘s orders.

Election Commissioner Om PrakashRawat was appointed as the next chiefelection commissioner (CEC) of India. MrRawat is the 22nd CEC of India.

Om Prakash Rawat

Senior IPS officer Sudeep Lakhtakia hasbeen appointed as the new DirectorGeneral (DG) of the ‘black cats’ commandoforce NSG.

Sudeep Lakhtakia

India & Vietnam released first ever set ofcommemorative postage stamps to markthe long-term friendly bilateralrelationships between the two countries.

Market regulator SEBI approved theappointment of Vijay Kumar as MD &CEO of country’s largest agri-commodityexchange NCDEX.

Supreme Court collegium recommendedthe name of senior advocate InduMalhotra as the first woman lawyer to bedirectly appointed as a judge of theSupreme Court of India.

Indu Malhotra

Music composer A R Rahman became thebrand ambassador of Sikkim. Thedeclaration was made by Sikkim CMPawan Kumar Chamling.

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A R Rahman

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launched acommon card for rides on public buses &the metro. Delhi is the first city in thecountry to have a common mobility card.

Rajinder Khanna was appointed thedeputy National Security Adviser (NSA).

Rajinder Khanna

Indian Navy launched ‘INS Karanj’, thethird of the six indigenous Scorpene-classsubmarines. The submarine is equippedwith superior stealth features andprecision-guided weapons.

INS Karanj

Armies of India & Vietnam have begun asix-day-long military exercise in Jabalpurin Madhya Pradesh. The exercise named‘VINBAX’ is the first military exercisebetween the two countries.

Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhoslewill be given the ‘Yash Chopra MemorialAward’. She will be the fifth winner ofthe award.

Asha Bhosle

President Ram Nath Kovind inauguratedInternational Dharma-Dhamma conferenceat Rajgir in Bihar. The inaugural sessionwas chaired by Mr Kovind. The conferencewas attended by Sri Lanka’s foreignMinister Tilak Marapana.

Raipur Municipal Corporation inChhattisgarh organised the three-day‘Kachra Mahotsav 2018’. It is India’s firstGarbage Festival.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan washonoured with the 24th Crystal Award atthe World Economic Forum in Davos,Switzerland. He received Award for “hisleadership in championing children’s &women’s rights in India”.

Shah Rukh Khan

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PM Narendra Modi inaugurates the firstPersons of Indian Origin (PIO)Parliamentary Conference in Delhi on theoccasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on9th Jan 2018. In the Conference, thebiggest delegation was from Guyana.

Oxford Dictionaries has chosen ‘Aadhaar’as the Hindi word of 2017. The wordgained popularity due to Aadhaar card,which was in news in 2017.

Bhopal railway station in Madhya Pradeshhas become India‘s first railway stationto have a sanitary napkin vendingmachine. The machine named ‘HappyNari‘, installed by the Railway WomenWelfare Association of Bhopal, dispensestwo sanitary napkins for Rs. 5.

Happy Nari Sanitary Napkin Vending Machine

Environment Minister Harshvardhanlaunched a 2.8 PetaFlop capacity high-performance computer system ‘Mihir’ inNoida. The system will help thedepartment in predicting severe climate-related calamities and warnings forfishermen.

Haryana become the first state in thecountry to launch High-Risk Pregnancy(HRP) Portal.

Reserve Bank of India has announced toissue Rs10 denomination banknotes in the

Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. The newdenomination has motif of Sun Temple,Konark on the reverse, depicting thecountry’s cultural heritage. The basecolour of the note is Chocolate Brown.

New Rs.10 currency note

The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) launched its 42nd Polar SatelliteLaunch Vehicle (PSLV) from the FirstLaunch Pad of Satish Dhawan SpaceCentre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

PSLV Launch

CM of Himachal Pradesh, Jai Ram Thakurlaunched the ‘Shakti’ app for women’ssafety in the state. It is developed by theNational Informatics Centre (NIC) of HPgovt. The main objective is to fight crimesagainst women in the state.

Ministry of Railways launched SmartFreight Operation Optimisation & Real

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Time Information (SFOORTI) App forFreight Managers which provides featuresfor monitoring & managing freightbusiness using Geographic InformationSystem (GIS) Views & Dashboard.

Union Minister of Earth Sciences Dr.Harsh Vardhan dedicated India’s fastest& first multi-petaflops supercomputernamed ‘Pratyush’ to the nation in Pune. Itis established at the Indian Institute ofTropical Meteorology, Pune.

Women & Child Development MinisterManeka Gandhi inaugurated an onlineportal NARI in New Delhi for theempowerment of women. It stands forNational Repository of Information forWomen.

India excluded Pakistan from the list ofSAARC member countries with which itwill be connecting its state-of-the-artNational Knowledge Network (NKN) forsharing scientific databases & remoteaccess to advanced research facilities.

The Matunga suburban station on theCentral Railway (CR) found its way intothe Limca Book of Records for having anall-woman staff.

Matunga All Women Suburban Station

An MoU was signed between NationalHighways & Infrastructure Development

Corporation (NHIDCL) under theMinistry of Road Transport & Highways,& M/S IL&FS Transportation NetworksLtd for construction of the 14.150 kmlong, 2-lane bi-directional Zojila Tunnelin Jammu & Kashmir. This would beIndia’s longest road tunnel & the longestbi-directional tunnel in Asia.

International:Facebook appointed outgoing AmericanExpress CEO Kenneth Chenault to itsboard, making him the first African-American to be on the board.

Kenneth Chenault

The unusual & very efficient whistlelanguage commonly called “bird language”used as a means of communication byvillagers in remote northern Turkeyentered the UNESCO list of IntangibleCultural Heritage.

Saudi Arabia & the United Arab Emirates(UAE) introduced value-added tax (VAT).These are the first two countries in theGulf which have introduced the VATsystem.

Singapore-based Indian-origin businessmanSunny Verghese has been appointed as theChairman of the Geneva-based World

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Business Council for SustainableDevelopment (WBCSD).

Sunny Varghese

India, for the first time, took part in a two-day meeting of the international militarycooperation departments of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation (SCO) inBeijing, China.

Valletta, the capital of Malta, wasofficially named European Capital ofCulture 2018.

Valletta, Malta

India signed an MoU with the UnitedKingdom to enable the return of illegalIndian migrants within a month of theirdetection by authorities abroad.

China became Nepal’s second internetservice provider, breaking India’smonopoly in providing internet access toNepal.

World’s largest Ice Festival ‘InternationalIce & Snow Festival’ was held in Harbin,

China. It is the 34th annual Ice Festivalin Harbin, north-east China.

International Ice & Snow Festival

Nepal has banned solo climbers fromscaling its mountains, including MountEverest, in a bid to reduce accidents.

Mount Everest

Iceland became the first country in theworld to legalise equal pay between men& women.

India has overtaken the US to become theworld’s third-largest steel producer andthe country is now looking to bag thesecond spot from Japan.

India ranked at the 62nd place amongemerging economies on an InclusiveDevelopment Index of World EconomicForum (WEF).

India ranks 177 among 180 countries inthe Environmental Performance Index(EPI) 2018, according to a biennial report

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by Yale & Columbia Universities alongwith the World Economic Forum.

India has joined the Australia Groupexport control regime & has become the43rd Member of that Group. It is aninformal forum which seeks to ensure thatexports do not contribute to thedevelopment of chemical or biologicalweapons.

Business & Finance:Reliance Industries (RIL) became the firstIndian company to cross the Rs.6 lakhcrore mark in market capitalization.

Google has introduced a new app named“Bulletin” that allows anybody to submitstories for and about their communities.

Ministry of Finance announced that“Payments Banks & Small FinanceBanks” will offer social security schemeAtal Pension Yojana (APY) to theirsubscribers.

World Economic Forum (WEF) rankedIndia at 30th position on a globalmanufacturing index. Japan topped theGeneva-based WEF’s first ‘Readiness forthe future of production report’.

Mauritius was the largest source offoreign investment in India (21.8 per centshare at market value), followed by theUS & the UK, according to a census bythe Reserve Bank of India.

Gujarat has topped the logistics indexchart, according to a Report released byUnion Minister for Commerce & IndustrySuresh Prabhu in New Delhi.

The “India-Israel Industrial R&D &Technological Innovation Fund (I4F)”announced in July, 2017, was unveiledthrough a website. Under this, Department

of Science & Technology, India &National Innovation Authority of Israelestablished a 40 million US dollar Fund.

PM Modi & PM Benjamin Netanyahuinaugurated the ‘iCreate Centre’ at DeoDholera in Ahmedabad. iCreate pavesway for the two nations to jointly scriptnew stories of success through innovation.

Sports:Prime Minister Narendra Modi launchedthe first Khelo India School Games atIndira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in NewDelhi.

Sandeep Lamichhane became the firstcricketer from Nepal to land a deal an IPLcontract. He was picked by DelhiDaredevils in the player’s auction.

Sandeep Lamichhane

International Cricket Council (ICC)announced, the 2018 edition of theWomen’s World T20 will be hosted byWest Indies in November 2018.

India beat Pakistan by two wickets to winthe Blind Cricket World Cup 2018 for thesecond time.

Aanchal Thakur made history as she wonIndia’s first ever international medal inskiing. She clinched bronze in the covetedAlpine Ejder 3200 Cup.

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Aanchal thakur

Virat Kohli won the ICC Men’s Cricketerof the year award for the year 2017.

Virat Kohli

Switzerland won their third Hopman Cupas Roger Federer & Belinda Bencic beatGermany’s Alexander Zverev &Angelique Kerber in the finals.

Roger Federer & Belinda Bencic

Vidarbha created history by winning theRanji Trophy for the first time in historywith a thumping nine-wicket win overDelhi at the Holkar stadium in Indore.

Vidarbha Ranji Trophy Team

G Sathiyan became India’s highest-rankedplayer in the latest International TableTennis Federation (ITTF) rankings.

G Sathiyan

Roger Federer won the Australian Open,2018 and became the 1st person in men’stennis to win 20 Grand Slams.

Roger Federer

Sanjay Manjrekar launched hisautobiography named ‘Imperfect’, inMumbai. The book ‘Imperfect’ wasreleased by Dilip Vengsarkar.

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Sanjay Manjarekar

Kerala:Indian Navy has inked an MoU with theCochin Port Trust (CPT), Kerala towardsleasing of 228 metres of berths atMattancherry Wharf for a period of fiveyears. This is the first time such anagreement has been signed between theNavy & CPT.

The Kerala Cabinet Chaired by CMPinarayi Vijayan gave permission toprisoners in Kerala Jails to donate organsto their close relatives.

As per a survey by travel app Ixigo,Kozhikode Railway station in Kerala wasranked the best railway station in Indiawhereas Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi gotthe lowest ratings for cleanliness.

Kozhikode Railway Station

The Kerala StartUp Mission in collaborationwith Zone StartUps has introduced

“Kerala Accelerator Program”, a virtualaccelerator program for 3 months, topromote StartUps.

2-day International Dam Safety Conference-2018 was inaugurated by CM PinarayiVijayan at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.Dam Safety Conferences are held every yearunder Dam Safety Rehabilitation andImprovement Project (DRIP).

Actor Mohanlal and Athlete P.T. Usha weregiven honorary Doctorate of Literature (D.Litt.) by Governor and Calicut UniversityChancellor P Sathasivam in Kozhikode,Kerala.

Mohanlal P T Usha

Indian Institute of Information Technologyand Management –Kerala( IIiTM-K) andBlockchain Education Network (BEN)have planned to jointly setup KeralaBlockchain Academy at Technoparkcampus, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

S Somanath took charge as Director of VikramSarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.

S Somanath

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Dr. V Narayanan has taken charge as theDirector of Liquid Propulsion SystemsCentre at Valiamala, Kerala replacing SSomanath.

V Narayanan

Other Important Issues In Detail1) Padma Awards 2018 -

The President of India has approved theawards for 85 individuals, which includes3 Padma Vibhushan, 9 Padma Bhushan& 73 Padma Shri.

Fourteen of the awardees are women &3 persons have been awardedposthumously.

In sports personalities, former Indiacricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni &multiple world champion cueist PankajAdvani have been conferred with thethird-highest civilian award, PadmaBhushan.

The 2017 World Weightlifting ChampionSaikhom Mirabai Chanu & former AsianGames gold medallist tennis playerSomdev Devvarman have been conferredwith the Padma Shri.

The awards are announced on the eve ofthe Republic Day every year.

Padma Vibhushan Awards(2nd Highest Awards)

Winners Category

Ilayaraja Art(Music)

Ghulam Mustafa Khan Art (Music)

Padma Bhushan Awards(3rd highest Awards)

Winner Category

Pankaj Advani Sport (Billiards/Snooker)

Mahendra Singh Dhoni Sport (Cricket)

Alexander Kadakin(Foeigner/Posthumous) Public Affairs

Ved Prakash Nanda Literature &Education

Laxman Pai Art (Paintings)

Arvind Parikh Art (Music)

Sharda Sinha Art (Music)

Philipose Mar Chrysoto Others(Spiritualism)

Ramachandran OthersNagaswamy (Archaeology)

2) New FDI Reforms Announced by Cabinet -

The Cabinet chaired by PM NarendraModi has approved amendments in FDIPolicy & further liberalized few of thepolicies of FDI.

Highlights of Reforms are-

100% FDI under automatic route forSingle Brand Retail Trading.

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100% FDI under automatic route inConstruction Development.

Foreign airlines allowed to invest up to49% under approval route in Air India.

FIIs/FPIs allowed to invest in PowerExchanges through primary market.

Definition of ‘medical devices’ amendedin the FDI Policy.

3) Disqualification of AAP MLAs –

The Election Commission hasrecommended that 20 MLAs of the AamAadmi Party in Delhi be disqualified asthey held offices of profit while beinglegislators. President Ram Nath Kovindwill make the final decision based on therecommendation.

Background:

In June 2016, the Congress hadapproached the Election Commission,alleging that 21 MLAs of the AAP hadbeen appointed parliamentary secretariesin March 2015. In September 2016, theDelhi High Court set aside theirappointments as parliamentarysecretaries.

What is an ‘office of profit’?

If an MLA or an MP holds a governmentoffice and receives benefits from it, thenthat office is termed as an “office ofprofit”. A person will be disqualified ifhe holds an office of profit under thecentral or state government, other than anoffice declared not to disqualify its holderby a law passed by Parliament or statelegislature.

What are the basic criteria to disqualify anMP or MLA?

Basic disqualification criteria for an MPare laid down in Article 102 of theConstitution, and for an MLA in Article191. They can be disqualified for: a)Holding an office of profit undergovernment of India or state government;b) Being of unsound mind; c) Being anundischarged insolvent; d) Not being anIndian citizen or for acquiring citizenshipof another country.

What is the underlying principle for including‘office of profit’ as criterion fordisqualification?

Makers of the Constitution wanted thatlegislators should not feel obligated to theExecutive in any way, which couldinfluence them while discharginglegislative functions. In other words, anMP or MLA should be free to carry outher duties without any kind ofgovernmental pressure.

4) E-Way Bill –

What is E-way Bill?

E-way is an electronic billing system fortraders who are moving their goods forsale beyond 10 km radius. Under thesystem, transporters carrying goods worthRs 50,000 will be required to get goodspre-registered before transporting themfrom one location to another. While themandatory compliance of inter-state E-way bill may roll-out soon once again,however, the for intra-state, the date isJune 1. States such as Kerala, Rajasthan,Uttarakhand and Karnataka have alreadyimplemented the e-way bill system.

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How E-way bill works?

E-way is valid for all-India movement andtransporters can generate the billelectronically and in self-service mode.Under the system, there is no need to visitany tax office and check post.

Transporters can generate e-way bill onthe official website through the MobileApp, SMS and offline as well.

Transporters can visit the portal‘ewaybill.nic.in’ and generate the e-waybill by registering themselves by givingthe GSTIN.

Those who are not registered can getthemselves registered on the websiteusing Aadhaar or PAN card.

E-way bill can be generated by enteringvehicle number.

In case of breakdown or transshipment,the traders can update the vehicle numberusing the same E-way bill.

Once generated E-way bill, however,cannot be cancelled for 24 hours.

5) Electoral Bonds –

In an attempt to ensure more transparentfinancing of political parties participatingin elections, the government hasannounced the introduction of newelectoral bonds that donors can buy fromthe State Bank of India (SBI). Thepolitical parties who get these bonds canin turn encash them only through adesignated bank account. The bonds willbe available at specified SBI branches for10 days each in the months of January,April, July and October.

About Electoral bonds:

What are electoral bonds? Electoral bondswill allow donors to pay politicalparties using banks as an intermediary.Although called a bond, the bankinginstrument resembling promissory noteswill not carry any interest. The electoralbond, which will be a bearer instrument,will not carry the name of the payee andcan be bought for any value, in multiplesof Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10lakh or Rs 1 crore.

Eligibility:

Electoral bonds, can be given to aregistered political party which hassecured at least 1 per cent vote in the lastLok Sabha or state assembly elections.That party will have to give one bankaccount to the Election Commission andit will have to be encashed within 15 days.

Need:

The electoral bonds are aimed at rootingout the current system of largelyanonymous cash donations made topolitical parties which lead to thegeneration of black money in theeconomy.

6) National Register of Citizens (NRC) –

The much-awaited first draft of theNational Register of Citizens (NRC) waspublished with the names of 1.9 crorepeople out of the 3.29 crore totalapplicants in Assam recognising them aslegal citizens of India. The NRC is beingcompiled following a Supreme Courtdirective to identify illegal immigrants inAssam.

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Background:

Assam, which faced influx fromBangladesh since the early 20th century,is the only state having an NRC, firstprepared in 1951. The Supreme Court,which is monitoring the entire process,had ordered that the first draft of the NRCbe published by December 31 aftercompleting the scrutiny of over two croreclaims along with that of around 38 lakhpeople whose documents were suspect.

What’s the issue?

The NRC was last updated in Assam wayback in 1951. Then, it had recorded 80lakh citizens in the State. Since then, theprocess of identification of illegalimmigrants in Assam has been debatedand become a contentious issue in theState’s politics.

A six-year agitation demandingidentification and deportation of illegalimmigrants was launched by the AllAssam Students’ Union (AASU) in 1979.It culminated with the signing of theAssam Accord on August 15, 1985.

About NRC:

What is it? The National Register ofCitizens (NRC) contains names of Indiancitizens. The NRC was prepared in 1951,after the Census of 1951. It was preparedby recording particulars of all the personsenumerated during that Census.

Facts Related to Current Affairs-

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SAARC- South Asian Association forRegional Cooperation SAARC Secretariatis based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Facebook CEO- Mark Zuckerberg.

The first woman to be appointed as a judgeof the apex court since independence wasJustice M Fathima Beevi in 1989.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) comprises of China, Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan,India & Pakistan. India & Pakistan wereadmitted in 2017 into the grouping.

Valletta is the smallest capital in theEuropean Union. It is located in a fortress& is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In Swachh Survekshan-2017, 434 cities& all the state capitals were ranked. Indorehad emerged as the cleanest city.

Election Commission of India celebratedthe 8th National Voters’ Day across thecountry on 25th January for enhancedparticipation of citizens in the electoralprocess.

Founded on 19 December 1966, AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) has itsHeadquarter in Manila, Philippines.President of ADB is Takehiko Nakao.

Jim Yong Kim is the 12th President of theWorld Bank Group. World BankHeadquarters in Washington DC, USA.

World Economic Forum (WEF), startedin 1971, is headquartered at Geneva,Switzerland. It holds annual meetings atDavos, Switzerland.