Indian maritime day: 5 April
- The National Maritime Day of India is observed on 5 April every year across the country.
- The theme of the National Maritime Day in 2018 is ‘Indian Shipping – An Ocean of opportunity’.
- On this day in 1919 navigation history was created when SS Loyalty, the first ship of The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd., journeyed to the United Kingdom.
UTTAM APP launched for Coal Quality Monitoring
- The Union Minister for Railways and Coal Shri Piyush Goyal launched UTTAM App for Coal Quality Monitoring.
- UTTAM stands for – Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal (uttam.coalindia.in).
- The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL) jontly developed UTTAM which aims to provide an Application for all citizens and coal consumers to monitor the process of Third Party Sampling of coal across CIL subsidiaries.
- UTTAM App ensures accountability, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency in coal ecosystem.
Prime Minister to inaugurate International Energy Forum in New Delhi
- India is scheduled to host the 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting from 10-12th April 2018 in New Delhi.
- Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the Meeting on 11th April 2018.
- Petroleum Ministers from 42 countries would attend the Meeting.
- The biennial IEF Ministerial Meetings are the world’s largest gathering of Energy Ministers who engage in a dialogue on global energy issues.
- The IEF Ministerial meetings are informal dialogues, at both the political and technical levels, aimed to improve policy and investment decisions, and through increased knowledge and experience sharing.
VII Moscow Conference on International Security
- Defence minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, who is on three-day visit to Russia to attend ‘VII Moscow Conference on International Security’ from 03 to 05 April 2018, addressed the II Plenary Session of the Conference on the theme titled ‘Global Security in a Polycentric World’ covering aspects related to current global defence, security and strategic scenario on April 4 in the Russian capital.
- She stated that for India, cooperation with Russia is vital in ensuring stability and security in our shared Eurasian neighborhood, especially in addressing the menace of terrorism.
First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2018-19
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement of 2018-19 on April 5 2018.
- Growth rate: 7.4 percent, Inflation target for the first half of current fiscal: 4.7-5.1 percent, Repo rate: 6 percent, Reverse repo rate: 5.75 percent, MSF: 6.25%, Bank Rate: 6.25%, CRR: 4%, SLR:19.5%
ICICI Bank launches social media-based remittance service for NRIs
- Leading private lender ICICI Bank announced the launch of a service that enables Non Resident Indians (NRIs) to send money to a beneficiary in India using social media platforms like WhatsApp and e-mail.
- Christened ‘Social Pay’, this first-of-its-kind service is available on Money2India (M2I), the bank’s app for remittances.
- This new facility will enable NRIs to send money conveniently to their friends and family.
India won South East Asian Women Handball Championship
- India defeated Bangladesh by 27-10 in a one-sided match to win the fifth South East Asian Women Handball Championship at K.D. Singh Babu Stadium in Lucknow.
- A total of five countries participated in the tournament.
- While Nepal finished as runner-ups in the five-country tournament, Bangladesh settled for the third spot and a bronze medal.
Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu Won India’s First Gold at Common Wealth Games 2018
- World champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu (48kg) secured India’s first gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
- The Indian ended with a score of 196kg (86kg+110kg).
- Earlier, Weightlifter Gururaja bagged India’s first medal (silver) in the 2018 Commonwealth Games with a total lift of 249 kg in the men’s 56 kg event
Agreement Between NPCIL and EDF of France
- Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Electricite de France (EDF) of France have signed an Industrial Way Forward Agreement for implementation of six nuclear power reactor units at Jaitapur, Maharashtra with a total capacity of about 10,000 MW.
- The Evolutionary Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) are evolutionary reactors, whose design has evolved from “KONVOI’ and “N4’ reactors which have been in operation in Germany and France respectively for about two decades.
