Daily Current Affairs 18th February , 2023

Daily Current Affairs 18 February 2023 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

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NATIONAL NEWS

HP cabinet approves guidelines for scheme for orphans, destitute women
The Himachal Pradesh cabinet in its meeting held in Shimla approved the guidelines for the ambitious ₹101-crore ‘Mukhya Mantri Sukh-Ashray Yojana’.

• Orphans and those staying with their relatives, specially abled children, destitute women and senior citizens would come under the ambit of this scheme.
• The orphan children, referred to as ‘Children of the State’, will be adopted by the government.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Jaishankar unveils bust of Sardar Vallabhai Patel in Fijis capital Suva
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar unveiled Sardar Vallabhai Patel’s bust in India House in Suva where he interacted with a large gathering of members of the diaspora community, External Affairs Ministery’s statement said.

• Addressing the Indian Diaspora in Fiji, Jaishankar stated that the Indian community has achieved its own milestones and is an enormous asset to India, the country where they live, and to the world.

Spain passes law for ‘menstrual leave’, becomes Europe’s first country to give special leave
The Government of Spain passed a Menstrual Paid Leave Law. According to the law, women in the country can take paid leave during their periods. Usually, employees in the country need to submit a medical certificate to take three days long leave. This condition is being relaxed.

• With this, Spain has become the first country in Europe to pass the law. The law exists in very few countries in the world such as Zambia, Indonesia, and Japan. In India, very few states like Kerala have passed the law.

BANKING & FINANCE

SBI launched Amrit Kalash Deposit with increased interest rate
State Bank of India (SBI) has recently launched the SBI Amrit Kalash Scheme, a limited-period fixed deposit (FD) scheme that offers attractive returns for its customers.

• The scheme provides an interest rate of 7.10 percent for ordinary citizens, while senior citizens can avail of an additional 0.50 percent interest, taking their return to 7.60 percent. Furthermore, employees and pensioners of the bank are eligible for an additional 1 percent interest rate.
• The tenure of the SBI Amrit Kalash Scheme is 400 days, during which time investors can deposit their money between February 15, 2023, and March 31, 2023. Customers can open an SBI Amrit Kalash account by visiting the branch of the bank or investing in the scheme through SBI Yono.

APPOINTMENTS

Chetan Sharma step down as Chief Selector of Indian cricket team
Chetan Sharma stepped down as Chief Selector of the Indian cricket team following a sting operation by a private news channel in which he made startling revelations.

• He tendered his resignation to BCCI secretary which has been accepted. He was in Kolkata along with other selection committee members for the Ranji Trophy final between Bengal and Saurashtra to select the Irani Cup team.
• Chetan Sharma was reinstated as the chief selector after India’s bitter-sweet campaign at the T20 World Cup in Australia.

Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar to be new Vice Chief of Army
Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar has been named as the new Vice Chief of Army Staff, while incumbent Lt Gen B S Raju will take charge as South Western Army Commander.

• Lt Gen Kumar has been promoted as Army Commander and appointed as the new Vice Chief of Army Staff. He is serving as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Strategy) in the Army Headquarters at present.
• He has commanded the 59 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion, an Infantry Brigade, and an Infantry Division on the Line of Control. Lt Gen Kumar has also commanded the highly active White Knight Corps. He has held the posts of Additional Director General Military Intelligence and Director General Military Intelligence at the Army headquarters.

AWARDS

Kollam district panchayat wins Swaraj Trophy for the State’s best district panchayat for 2021-22 fiscal
The Kollam district panchayat has won the Swaraj Trophy for the best district panchayat in the State for the 2021-22 financial year.

• The Kannur district panchayat stood second in the rankings. Kollam district, is one of 14 districts of the state of Kerala, India. The district has a cross-section of Kerala’s natural attributes; it is endowed with a long coastline, a major Laccadive Sea seaport and an inland lake. The district has many water bodies.

Other awards:

• The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation bagged the trophy for the best corporation.
• The Mulanthuruthy grama panchayat won the award for the best grama panchayat in the State and Pappinissery and Marangattupilly grama panchayats won the second and third places.
• The award for the best block panchayat went to Perumpadappu, while Kodakara and Nedumangad won the second and third places.
• Tirurangadi won the award for the best municipality, while Wadakkanchery and Sulthan Bathery won the second and third places.
• The Kallikkad grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram won the Mahatma award for the best implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
• The Kollam Corporation won the Mahatma Ayyankali award for the implementation of the Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme (AUEGS).
• Wadakkanchery and Vaikom won the award for municipalities

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

IAF develops ‘Vayulink’ platform for steady jammer-proof communication
The Indian Air Force has come out with an innovative solution that would help pilots to deal with bad weather and also provide them jammer-proof uninterrupted communication with the base station.

• Known as ‘Vayulink’, the data link communication uses the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) that is also known as NAVIC, to send radio communication to the base station when the signals are low, an IAF officer involved in the project said.
• Vayulink is an ad-hoc data link communication system, which when installed in an aircraft, gives position of other aircrafts close by, encrypted traffic data over secured channel.

Space Software Pioneer Antaris announces successful launch of JANUS-1, World’s First Cloud-Built Demonstration Satellite
Space Software Company ‘Antaris’ announced that ‘JANUS-1’, the world’s first cloud-built demonstration satellite completely conceived, designed and built using the company’s end-to-end cloud platform, has successfully reached orbit.

• JANUS-1 rode on the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) SSLV-D2 rocket, which was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre of India under a commercial arrangement with New Space India Limited.
• JANUS-1 is a 6U satellite featuring payload and subsystem technologies from AICRAFT, Morpheus Space, Netra, SayariLabs Kenya, SpeQtral, Transceles, trial, and Zero-Error Systems (ZES).

Velocity launches India’s first ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot – Lexi
India is now home to a ChatGPT-powered AI chatbot called Lexi. Launched by Velocity, a financial technology company, the chatbot helps e-Commerce founders by providing them with business insights in a simplified way. The chatbot has been integrated with Velocity’s own analytics tool, Velocity Insights.

• Velocity insights helps businesses to keep a tab on their market spending, revenues, and so on. It provides founders with necessary business insights, which can be accessed via WhatsApp in the form of a daily business report.
• Now that ChatGPT has been integrated in the same WhatsApp interface, customers will be able to use the AI, Lexi, for answering their queries.

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