18 July 2018 Current Affairs

7th Defence Technology and Trade Initiative : Indo-US delegation meeting on Defence
Cooperation held in New Delhi
On July 18, 2018, The ministry of Defence
announced that Indo-US Bilateral Defence
Cooperation, the 7th Defence Technology
and Trade Initiative (DTTI) meeting was
held between India and the US delegation
in New Delhi.
Objective: Aim to bring focus to the
bilateral defence trade relationship and for
co-production and co-development of
defence equipment.
Key Points:
i. US has designated India as a ‘Major Defence Partner’.
ii. Discussions on the formulation of a Standard Operating Procedure and the Industrial
Security Annex under DTTI was held.
iii. Establishment of Joint Working Groups has been made under DTTI to progress mutually
agreed projects for the armed forces.
• The joint working group under the Air Force is working on the surveillance platform
.
• The Indian Navy joint working group is engaged with US Navy for aircraft carrier
technology cooperation.
• Projects under the DRDO are being worked on by both sides.

First commercial flight in 20 years leaves Ethiopia for Eritrea

The first commercial flight to Eritrea in 20 years

departed from Addis Ababa, in Ethiopa, after
Ethiopia and Eritrea ended their conflict
following a peace process.
i. Ethiopian Airlines said that, flight ET0312 to
Asmara departed Bole International Airport,
following an inauguration ceremony. The
airlines operated two flights within an interval
of 15 minutes.
iii. Eritrea was once a province of Ethiopia. In
1993, Eritrea separated after an independence struggle.
iv. Demarcation of the shared border caused a brutal conflict in 1998-2000, in which 80,000
people were killed.
v. In June 2018, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accepted a 2002 United Nations-
backed border demarcation.
vi. This lead to peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
and Eritrea President Isaias Afwerki declared an official end to the war.

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India ranks 109th in 4G Speed : Ookla
according to a report by online speed testing platform
Ookla, India was at 9.12 Mbps in the 4G speed
category behind neighbors Pakistan (14.03 Mbps)
and Sri Lanka (16.98).
i. India ranks 109th in overall 4G mobile internet
speeds.
ii. Out of the list comprising 124 countries, Qatar
ranked first in the list with 63.22 Mbps average
download speed. Norway stood second in the list with
62.14 Mbps download speed.

Rs 11,336 cr capital infusion in 5 PSU Banks approved by Finance Ministry

The Finance Ministry has approved capital

infusion of Rs 11,336 crore in 5 public sector
banks.
Objective : This infusion was done to enable the
banks to make interest payments on additional
Tier 1 bonds issued by banks.
i. The 5 banks are : Punjab National Bank (PNB),
Andhra Bank , Corporation Bank, Indian
Overseas Bank and Allahabad Bank.
ii. This infusion is a part of the remaining
Rs.65000 crore of infusion under government’s
announcement of Rs.2.11 lakh crore of credit
infusion in banks in 2017.
iii. The infusion is as follows:
Bank name Infusion (in Cr. Rs.)
Punjab National Bank (PNB) 2816
Corporation Bank 2555
Indian Overseas Bank 2157
Andhra Bank 2019
Allahabad Bank 1790

All-Women J&K Bank branch inaugurated by First Lady Usha Vohra

The first all-women branch of Jammu

& Kashmir Bank was inaugurated by
the first lady Usha Vohra at an event
at the Sher-i-Kashmir International
Convention Centre (SKICC), in
Srinagar.
The chairman of the J&K Bank Mr.
Parvez Ahmad, was also present in the
inauguration.
i. 13 women staffers of the inaugurated bank were given badges of distinction by the first
lady.

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ii. Special service given by the bank to women customers include: Pink Gold Saving Scheme,
Pink Platinum Saving Scheme, Special Loan facility for Women Entrepreneurs, Pink Gold
Debit Card and Pink Platinum Credit Card.
iii. These would provide financial inclusion of women, door step facilities to women in remote
areas.

Training of youth on digital skills to be done by Facebook and NSDC jointly

Facebook and National Skill Development

Corporation (NSDC) took joint responsibility to
train youth and entrepreneurs in the country
on digital skills.
i. Through this partnership Ministry of Skill
Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE)
will make use of Facebook’s training on digital
marketing skills in its courses.
ii. Courses will be on : digital marketing, online safety and financial literacy in regional
languages.
iii. Here the trainees will have access to local, domestic and international markets.
iv. They will also have access to Facebook’s Jobs tool to easily search for job openings.

BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) signs agreement to source 100 MW wind power
Power discom BSES Yamuna Power Limited
(BYPL) announced that, it has signed an
agreement to source100 MW wind power that
will help to meet its renewable power
necessities.
BYPL signs agreement to source 100 MW wind
power:
i. The power would be available to BYPL from
the 3rd week of November 2019, for a period of
25 years. It will be available at a competitive tariff of Rs 2.52 per unit.
ii. With this agreement, the two BSES discoms in Delhi will bring in 400 MW of wind power.
iii. Previously, BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) had signed an agreement for 250 MW
wind power and BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) for 50 MW.
iv. Out of the 400 MW wind power, the discoms will start receiving 100 MW from November
2018. Remaining 300 MW will be available from November 2019.

Walmart, Microsoft team up to take on Amazon

On 17th July 2018, Walmart and Microsoft
announced a new 5 year partnership to take
on Amazon in both technology and retail.
i. This announcement was made by Walmart
at the Microsoft’s Inspire partner conference
in Las Vegas.
ii. Walmart said that it is partnering with
Microsoft to use its cloud services. Walmart
will utilise Azure and Microsoft 365 across the
company.
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iii. Also, new projects focused on machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data platforms
will be taken up.
iv. Walmart is Amazon’s biggest retail competitor. Microsoft is Amazon’s biggest cloud
services competitor. This partnership will help both the companies take on Amazon.

Actors Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan ranked in Forbes Top 100 highest-paid entertainers
On July 18, 2018, , Bollywood actors Akshay
Kumar and Salman Khan have ranked in
the Forbes list of top 100 highest-paid
entertainers 2018.
i. Akshay Kumar ranked 76th with earnings
of $40.5M
ii. Salman Khan ranked 82nd with earnings
of $37.7M
iii. The list was made on the basis of the
money the actors earned during the years
2017-2018.
iv. The Top 5 of the list are:
Ranking Person Profession Earning (in USD)
1 Floyd Mayweather Professional boxer 275 m
2 George Clooney Actor 239 m
3 Kylie Jenner Social Media star and 166.5 m
businesswoman
4 Judy Sheindlin Judge /Television personality 147 m
5 Dwayne Johnson Actor and entertainer 124 m

Tata Capital appoints Anil Kaul as Managing Director of Tata Capital Housing Finance
Tata Capital has appointed Anil Kaul as the
Managing Director of Tata Capital Housing
Finance, with effect from 18th July 2018.
i. Anil Kaul succeeds R Vaithianathan. He has
more than 20 years of experience in the
financial services sector and retail lending
business.
ii. He has held senior management positions
at ICICI Bank, ICICI Lombard, Citibank,
Standard Chartered Plc.

Central government renews appointment of Prof Sahasrabudhe as AICTE chairman

The central government has renewed the

appointment of Prof D Sahasrabudhe as the
chairman of the All India Council for Technical
Education (AICTE).
i. The renewal of appointment of Prof D
Sahasrabudhe as AICTE Chairman has been
approved by the Appointments Committee of the
Cabinet till he attains the age of 65 years.

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ii. He was appointed as AICTE Chairman in July 2015. He has held various important
academic, research and administrative positions.

Delhi pacer Parwinder Awana announces retirement from all forms of cricket
On 17th July 2018, India and Delhi pacer Parwinder
Awana announced his retirement from all forms of
cricket.
i. Parwinder Awana had played his last first-class
game in November 2016. He is 31 years old.
ii. He represented Delhi for 9 years. He had played 2
T20 Internationals for India. He also played for Kings
XI Punjab from 2012-2014.
iii. He had played 62 first-class games. He had taken
191 wickets at 29.23. He had appeared in 44 List A
and 61 T20s.

Nelson Mandela International Day – July 18

On 18th July 2018, Nelson Mandela International
Day was observed all over the world.
i. Nelson Mandela International Day 2018 marks
the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela,
who was born on 18th July 1918.
ii. The Nelson Mandela Foundation has dedicated
Nelson Mandela International Day 2018 to Action
Against Poverty.
iii. In 2009, UN General Assembly declared 18
July as Nelson Mandela International Day.
iv. The UN General Assembly also adopted the
revised United Nations Standard Minimum Rules
for the Treatment of Prisoners, and approved that
they should be known as the “Nelson Mandela Rules”.
v. Nelson Mandela is the late President of South Africa. He had spent 27 years in prison in
his struggle against racism, poverty and social injustice.

India bags 9 medals – 4 Silver and 5 Bronze in 7th World Junior Wushu championships
which was held in Brasilia, Brazil

India bagged 9 medals – 4 Silver and 5 Bronze in the

7th World Junior Wushu championships held in
Brasilia, Brazil from July 10-16,2018.
i. The Silver Medals won were by:
About World Junior Wushu Championship :
♦ The World Junior Wushu Championships (WJWC)
is the official world championship event which is
hosted by the International Wushu Federation. It is
held biennially.
♦ The Brazilian Wushu Confederation is responsible
for the organization of the 7th WJWC under the
auspices of the IWUF.
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