April 7 and 8 Current Affairs

STATE

Tamilnadu:

TN CM launches app for farmers

• Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami on April 7 launched ‘Uzhavan’, a mobile app for farmers.The app would provide complete real-time information about agricultural operations and offer nine services, including details on crop insurance.Through the app, the farmers could get weather updates for the next four days and price information about agricultural inputs, it added.
• The app would provide information on subsidies available for schemes under various categories — seeds, machinery, solar pump set, shade net, poly house, pack house, hi-tech nursery, small nursery, new tissue culture lab, anti-bird net, plastic mulching, beehives, pre-cooling chamber, reefer van, mobile vendor cart, low-cost onion storage and mushroom cultivation.

TN: Guide to insolvency code launched

• The book was launched by Sridhanya Foundation. The Centre has constituted NCLT under Section 408 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013) from June 2016. “The NCLT is a powerful tribunal,” Justice N. Kirubakaran, judge, Madras High Court, said after releasing the book Guide to National Company Law Tribunal and Appellate Tribunal authored by CS S. Dhanapal, practising company secretary and insolvency professional.The 768-page book has 7 units, 66 chapters and over 100 flowcharts explaining various provisions and processes.

 KERALA

Global Impact Challenge for eco,education start-ups

• The Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is collaborating with the Singularity University, a Silicon Valley-based think tank, to nurture start-ups in the field of education and environment.
• The tie-up involves the launch of the India edition of the Global Impact Challenge by the Singularity University, under which start-ups will be invited to come up with innovative technology-based solutions that can impact communities.
• The Global Impact Challenge is an annual competition organised by the university partnering sponsors worldwide to spur moonshot innovations using exponential technologies to find solutions to global challenges. It is an open call to those with innovative ideas.

Andhrapradesh:

‘Operation Seshachalam’ gets under way

• In a bid to keep a strict vigil on smuggling of the precious red sanders logs, a joint force of the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) and Police Department have been deployed in the Seshachalam forests in Tirupati .
• Around 600 personnel began a six-day combing operation across the Seshachalam forests, the hotbed for smuggling of red sanders.

Photographic evidence of wild dogs, mouse deer in Kmabalkonda wildlife sanctuary

• The Visakhapatnam Forest Division recorded presence of the endangered species of Indian wild dogs or dhole and country’s smallest descendent of ungulate species known as Indian mouse deer, both listed in Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, in the Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary “with photographic evidence”. Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary in Visakhapatnam is home to several endangered species of fauna

KARNATAKA

Udupi girl sets new Guinness fame

• A nine-year-old girl from Udyavar near Udupi has set the Guinness record for most full-body revolutions maintaining a chest stand position. Tanushree performed 42 full-body revolutions in one minute on April 7.The performance was also recorded. The record used to be held by 13-year-old Mohammed Alsheikh of Palestine, who performed 38 revolutions in a minute on February 8, 2017.

National news

India-Nepal Joint Statement during the State Visit of Prime Minister of Nepal to India

• Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. K.P. Sharma Oli, is on a State visit to India from April 6-8, 2018.On April 7, 2018, the two Prime Ministers comprehensively reviewed the entire spectrum of multifaceted ties between the two countries. They welcomed the growing partnership between the two governments, private sector and at the people’s level. The two Prime Ministers resolved to work together to take bilateral relations to newer heights on the basis of equality, mutual trust, respect and benefit.
• Prime Minister Oli stated that his government attaches high importance to further strengthening friendly relations with India. He expressed the desire of the Government of Nepal to develop bilateral relations in a way so as to benefit from India’s progress and prosperity for economic transformation and development. Prime Minister Modi assured Prime Minister Oli that India remains committed to strengthening its partnership with Nepal as per the priorities of the Government of Nepal.

Takeaways

NEPAL
Prime Minister: Mr. K.P. Sharma Oli
President: Ms.Bidhya Devi Bhandari
Capital: Kathmandu
Currency:Nepalese Rupee
President Kovind in Equatorial Guinea; holds talks with President Obiang in first-ever visit to the country by a President of India

• The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, reached Equatorial Guinea on April 7, 2018, on the first leg of his State Visit to three African nations –Equatorial Guinea, Swaziland and Zambia. This is the first ever visit of a Head of State from India to Equatorial Guinea. The President said that the economies of our two countries are complementary. Equatorial Guinea is endowed with hydrocarbons and mineral resources, and India with human and financial capital and low-cost technical expertise. The full potential of our bilateral engagement is far from realised. India looks forward to partnering with Equatorial Guinea in facilitating government-to-government development cooperation as well as business-to-business contacts.

Takeaways

Equatorial Guinea
President: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
Prime Minister: Francisco Pascual Obama Asue
Capital: Malabo
Currency: Cental African  CFA Franc
32 Indians to contribute in sixth Assessment report on Climate Change

• The Sixth Assessment Report, or AR6, will be completed in 2021 and is likely to be published in 2022. Six of the Indian scientists have been named coordinating lead authors, who will be the group leaders for the chapters assigned to them. Thirty-two Indians, including seven affiliated to foreign institutions, are among the more than 700 experts selected to contribute to the next assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose five similar reports in the past have formed the basis for the global strategy to fight climate change.

International news

Papua New Guinea: 6.5-earthquake         

• A powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea on April 7, the European earthquake monitoring service reported.The very shallow quake was only two kms deep and 93 km southwest of Porgera in the Enga province.Quakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire”, a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.

China launches first ship to bury people at sea

• With shortage of cemeteries in the country, China has launched its first dedicated sea burial ship, which undertook its maiden mission in the northern port city of Tianjin earlier this week.The ship, named Guobin 9, made two trips on the first mission, with a total crew of 380 to scatter the cremated remains of 62 people into the sea. Sea burials have been taking place in China since the 1990s. Most of these burials have used the services of conventional ferries and this is the first time that a customised ship made especially for sea burials has been launched.

 Former Brazilian president Lula surrenders in corruption case

• Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva turned himself into police ending a day-long standoff to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption that derails his bid to return to power. Lula moved out in a convoy of black police SUVs after pushing his way out of the steelworkers union headquarters where he had taken refuge, as militant supporters sought to stop him from surrendering to police.

Dozens reported killed in suspected Syria gas attack

• A chemical attack on a rebel-held town in eastern Ghouta has killed dozens of people, medical services reported. A joint statement by the medical relief organisation Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defence service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 people had died in the attack late on April 7.

Science and Technology:

Rock nitrogen

• Conventional wisdom has always been that nitrogen, a gas essential to plant life on earth, was only available from the atmosphere. However, it emerges that nearly a quarter of it comes from the earth’s bedrock. This nitrogen (26%) in natural ecosystems is sourced from rocks and is referred to as ‘rock nitrogen’. Nitrogen-weathering is a globally significant source of nutrition to soils and ecosystems worldwide and may be playing a role in allowing forests and grasslands to sequester more fossil fuel CO2 emissions than previously thought. But not just any rock can leach nitrogen. Rock nitrogen availability is determined by weathering, which can be physical (such as through tectonic movement), or chemical (such as when minerals react with rainwater).

NASA:Humanity’s first flight to Sun set to launch in July

• Parker Solar Probe will explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere and make critical observations about the physics of stars.NASA’s Parker Solar Probe — humanity’s first mission to the Sun — is undergoing final preparations for its launch scheduled for July 31.
• The spacecraft was flown by the US Air Force to Florida, where it will continue testing, and eventually undergo final assembly and mating to the third stage of the Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle. After launch, it will orbit directly through the solar atmosphere — the corona — closer to the surface than any human-made object has ever gone.

Business news:

CBDT for 2017-2018 notifies new I-T return forms

• The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notified income tax return (ITR) forms for assessment year 2018-19 (financial year 2017-18).For Assessment Year 2018-19, a one-page simplified ITR Form-1 (Sahaj) has been notified,” the CBDT said in a statement. “This ITR Form-1 (Sahaj) can be filed by an individual who is resident other than not ordinarily resident, having income up to ₹50 lakh and who is receiving income from salary, one house property/other income (interest etc.). Further, the parts relating to salary and house property have been rationalised and furnishing of basic details of salary (as available in Form 16) and income from house property have been mandated.

Sports news:

CWG 2018: Sathish Kumar Sivalingam won  gold medal in 77 kg weightlifting

• Sathish Kumar Sivalingam won the third gold medal for India in weightlifting as he lifted 317 kg in total, 144 kg in Snatch and 173 kg in Clean-and-Jerk in Men’s 77 kg weightlifting at Commonwealth Games 2018 in Gold Coast. It is his 2nd consecutive gold medal at Games, as he secured the gold in Glasgow in 2014, as well.

CWG 2018:Venkat Rahul Ragala won 4th gold in weightlifting

• Venkat Rahul Ragala became the fourth Indian weightlifter to claim a gold medal at the ongoing Commonwealth Games.The 21-year-old Rahul, who is a Commonwealth Championships gold-medallist, lifted a total of 338kg (151kg+187kg) to finish on top.

CWG 2018: Ravi Kumar won bronze in men’s 10m air rifle

• Indian shooter Ravi Kumar won the bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.Ravi shot 224.1 to finish third on the podium at the Belmont Shooting Centre.Australia’s Dane Sampson took home the gold medal with 245.0, much to the pleasure of the home fans, while Abdullah Hel Baki of Bangladesh bagged the silver with 244.7.

CWG 2018: Vikas won bronze in weightlifting

• Vikas Thakur added a shade of bronze to Indian weightlifters’ golden run at the Commonwealth Games, claiming the third position in the 94kg category by equalling his personal best in Gold Coast.

CWG 2018: Manika Batra leads India to historic women table tennis gold

• Manika Batra inspired India to a historic gold medal with her stunning singles victories, fashioning an unthinkable 3-1 victory over four-time gold medallists Singapore in the final of the women’s team event at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.