Daily Current Affairs 27th April, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 25 April 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Manabasa Gurubara, Chhau, Ravanachhaya find place in Intangible Cultural Heritage list
Manabasa Gurubara, Chhau and Ravanachhaya — the three popular cultural practices from Odisha have been included in the recently-published Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list by the Union Ministry of Culture.

• The list attempts to recognise the diversity of Indian culture embedded in its intangible heritage and aims to raise awareness about the various heritage elements from different states of India.

BANKING & FINANCE

Government declares banking industry as public utility service till October 21
Government has declared banking industry as a public utility service for six months till October 21 under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act.

• Bringing banking services under the provisions of this Act means that the banking sector would not see any strikes by employees or officers during the operation of the law starting from April 21.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS

IIFL Wealth acquires L&T Finance Holdings’ wealth management business for Rs 230 cr
IIFL Wealth Management announced completing the acquisition of 100 percent equity shares of L&T Capital Markets (LTCM) for Rs 230 crore.

• The acquisition was consummated on 24 April after receiving requisite regulatory approvals.
• The LTCM acquisition will further strengthen our offerings and geographical reach besides increasing our assets under management

SPORTS

Olympic medallist Mathias Boe announces retirement from international badminton
Denmark’s ace doubles exponent Mathias Boe, a silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics and 2013 World Championships, called time on his illustrious career.

• In his career spanning two decades, the 39-year-old Danish shuttler has partnered the likes of Michael Jensen, Thomas Hovgaard and Michael Lamp, before striking up a successful long-term combination with Carsten Mogensen
• Mathias was also part of the team that won the Thomas Cup in 2016. They were frequently on the podium at the Superseries events and also won the coveted All England (2011, 2015) twice apart from three straight World Superseries Finals (2010, 2011, 2012) titles

Former Pakistan Captain Sana Mir Announces Retirement From International Cricket
Former Pakistan captain Sana Mir has announced her retirement, bringing to an end a 15-year career that saw her play 226 internationals, including 137 as captain from 2009 to 2017. She had announced a break from international cricket in November last year to recalibrate her future objectives and targets.

• Mir is Pakistan’s third-highest run-scorer in ODIs (1,630), and is among a select group of players to have the double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets in ODIs. She has the rare achievement of having played 100 T20Is.
• The off-spinner is her country’s leading ODI wicket-taker with 151 wickets in 120 ODIs at an average of 24.27, while her 89 women’s T20I wickets from 106 matches are only behind Nida Dar’s 98.

APPOINTMENTS

Govt reshuffles secretary portfolios as it gets battle-ready against covid-19
Health Secretary Preeti Sudan was given a three-month extension to maintain continuity in the government’s coronavirus fight, while Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare was given additional charge of the I&B Ministry.

• Tarun Bajaj, Additional Secretary in the PMO, will be the new Secretary in the Economic Affairs Department, which assists the government in maintaining sound public finances through sustainable, equitable and efficient use of the nation’s economic resources.
• Higher Education Secretary Khare was given additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, while incumbent Ravi Mittal was shifted to the Department of Sports.
• Khare, who has been an old hand in the I&B Ministry, comes in at a time the print media’s finances have been hit hard due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• In a bid to ensure a smooth transition in the Health Ministry, the government appointed Rural Development Secretary Rajesh Bhushan as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Health and Family Welfare Department, indicating he may take over from Sudan after her extended tenure ends.
• Nagendra Nath Sinha will be the new Secretary of the Rural Development Department in place of Bhushan. He is at present Secretary in the Department of Border Management in the Home Ministry.
• Another additional secretary in the PMO, Arvind Kumar Sharma, has been appointed as Secretary in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry.
• In a surprising change, Consumer Affairs Secretary Pawan Kumar Agarwal has been appointed as Special Secretary (Logistics) in the Department of Commerce.
• He has been succeeded by Leena Nandan, a Special Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
• Food and Public Distribution Secretary Ravi Kant has been shifted out as the Secretary, in the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare and has been replaced by Sudhanshu Panday, currently Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce.
• Road Transport and Highways Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan has been shifted as the Shipping Secretary, a post which will fall vacant this month-end upon superannuation of incumbent Gopal Krishna.
• Aramane Giridhar, Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat will be Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in place of Ranjan.
• CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal has been appointed as the Secretary in the Department of Education and Literacy. She is a 1988-batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre.
• Her colleague from the same cadre, Rameshwar Prasad Gupta has been appointed as the Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Gupta is currently Special Secretary, NITI Aayog.
• Pradip Kumar Tripathi, Special Secretary and Establishment Officer in the Department of Personnel and Training, will be Secretary, Ministry of Steel. He is a 1987-batch IAS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre.
• Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Vice Chairman Tarun Kapoor has been appointed as the Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in place of M M Kutty, who retires this month-end.
• Rajesh Verma, the Special Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, will be the new Secretary in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
• Anand Kumar, a 1984-batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, will be the new Culture Secretary. He is at present secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
• Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi will be the new secretary in the ministry Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in place of Kumar.
• Ram Mohan Mishra has been appointed as Secretary, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. He is currently Special Secretary and Development Commissioner, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
• Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, Special Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Culture Ministry, will be Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals.
• Ajay Tirkey will be the Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Niten Chandra has been appointed Additional Secretary, Central Agency Section, Department of Legal Affairs. Chandra is at present Secretary, Central Information Commission (CIC).
• Satbir Bedi, the chairperson of National Council for Teacher Education, will be Secretary, Central Information Commission

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IIITM-K creates “Vilokana” search engine for COVID-19 research
State-run Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management – Kerala (IIITM-K) has developed an AI Semantic search engine to enable researchers to get deeper insights into scientific studies, especially when they need to find an early solution to the COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a large set of complex scientific information.

• Named ‘www.vilokana.in‘, which in Sanskrit means ‘finding out’, the search engine is developed by a team led by A.P. James, Professor at Centre for Artificial General Intelligence and Neuromorphic Systems (neuro GI), IIITM-K, as part of the open science initiative of the research centre.
• The search engine will guide the researchers to the right information very fast. This makes easy the contextual search of information from the vast domain of scientific literature, which is a difficult problem faced by scientists and common people to get deeper insights into scientific studies

China names its Mars mission Tianwen-1 ahead of its planned launch this year
China named its first Mars exploration mission to be launched later this year as Tianwen-1 as it celebrated Space Day to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the country’s first satellite Dong Fang Hong-1 in 1970.

• Aiming to catch up with India, US, Russia and the European Union to reach the red planet, China’s Mars mission plans to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission.

Kerala hospital deploys “KARMI-Bot” robot to serve COVID-19 patients
A government hospital in Ernakulam has deployed a robot to serve food and medicines to coronavirus patients with an aim to reduce risk of infections for doctors and health workers. Malayalam star Mohanlal’s Viswasanthi Foundation donated the autonomous robot to the COVID-19 ward of the Ernakulam government medical college hospital.

• The robot named ‘KARMI-Bot’ will be used to assist patients at the medical college’s COVID-19 isolation ward from Saturday onwards.
• The robot is developed by ASIMOV robotics, a company working under maker village of Kerala start-up mission

OBITUARIES

Ex- NASA Administrator James Beggs passes away
Former NASA administrator James M. Beggs, who led the agency during the early years of the space shuttle program and resigned after the Challenger disaster killed seven astronauts in 1986, died at his home in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 94.

• He served in the agency’s top position from July 1981 to December 1985.
• NASA had more than 20 successful space shuttle missions during Beggs’ tenure. The Washington Post described him as a popular and charismatic figure who was skilled at dealing with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

IMPORTANT DAYS

First official International Delegate’s Day 2020
First, 25 April 2020 is the first time that International Delegate’s Day is observed. Second, the 2020 observance also marks the milestone seventy-fifth anniversary of the San Francisco Conference, an event that laid the foundations of the United Nations.

• United Nation General Assembly has proclaimed 25 April as International Delegates Day to raise awareness of the role of the representatives and delegates of the Member States to the United Nation.

World Intellectual Property Day
Every April 26, we celebrate World Intellectual Property Day to learn about the role that intellectual property (IP) rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity.

• The theme of World Intellectual Property Day 2020 is “Innovate for a Green Future“.

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