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CURRENT AFFAIRS 19TH APRIL 2018

CURRENT AFFAIRS 19TH APRIL 2018

1. India-Wiesbaden Conference 2018 held in New Delhi
  • The Ministry of External Affairs organized the India-Wiesbaden Conference 2018 with the Government of Germany and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in New-Delhi.
  • The title of India-Wiesbaden Conference is ‘Securing Global Supply Chains through Government-Industry Partnerships towards Effective Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1540’.
  • Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) was the industry partner for this event.
2. Bihar has highest rate of crime against SC/STs
  • According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Bihar has the highest rate of crimes against Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe population.
  • As per NCRB data, crime against SC/ST is lowest in West Bengal.
  • Madhya Pradesh reported the highest rate of crime (43.4%) against SCs specifically, while West Bengal had the lowest at 6%.
  • Rajasthan reported the highest rate of crime (12.9%) against STs specifically, while West Bengal had the lowest at 1.6%.
  • Since 2014, crimes against SCs have increased by 1% overall with a sharp rise of 5.5% occurring in 2016. On the other hand, crimes against STs since 2014 have decreased by 3.8% overall with a significant drop of 8 percent in 2015.
3. Amazon launched international shopping from US
  • Amazon has launched an international shopping that will allow customers all over the world to shop more than 45 million items that can be shipped to their country from U.S.
  • It will help customers to shop in 25 currencies. More languages and currencies will be added in 2018.
  • The international shopping feature will display pricing, shipping costs and estimate of import duty.
4. Former US 1st Lady Barbara Bush died
  • Barbara Bush, the former US first lady and literacy campaigner passed away at the age of 92.
  • She was the matriarchal figure of a political family that included two presidents – her husband George HW Bush and son George W Bush.
  • As the first lady from 1989 to 1993, she founded a foundation for family literacy and embraced the cause of universal literacy.
5. POSHAN Abhiyaan- 1st Meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges
  • The 1st meeting of National Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges under POSHAN Abhiyaan was held in New Delhi.
  • This meeting was chaired by Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Dr Rajiv Kumar. Dr VK Paul (Member of Health & Nutrition, NITI Aayog), Amitabh Kant (CEO of NITI Aayog) and other representatives of several ministries of the Central and State Governments also participated in this meeting.
  • POSHAN Abhiyaan set up a council which is the apex body that formulate overall policies, guide and monitor all nutrition based schemes.
  • The POSHAN Abhiyaan aims to reduce the level of under-nutrition and other related problems by various nutrition related schemes.
6. Nabard approved Rs 14,690 crore funding to Rajasthan
  • National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has extended total credit support of Rs 14,690 crore to Rajasthan.
  • Rajasthan is one of the biggest beneficiaries under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) of NABARD, under which NABARD gave concessional loan of Rs 1,851.29 crore to the state government.
  • Among major infrastructure projects bank sanctioned 10 irrigation projects, construction of 1614 roads and 2 rural drinking water supply projects.
7. Smriti Irani launches GNFC’s Neem project in UP
  • Union Cabinet Minister Smriti Irani launched Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GNFC’s) Neem Project in Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh.
  • Under this project, GNFC expects to collect 8,000 to 10,000 MT Neem seeds from Uttar Pradesh which will provide additional income of Rs 12-15 crore for over one lakh rural woman from 2,500 villages in the State.
  • GNFC has been operating Neem Project since 2015 in over 60 districts of five states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
  • It signed MoU with IFFCO to expand this project in 15 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
8. Nepal celebrates Bisket Jatra
  • In Nepal, the famous Bisket Jatra is being celebrated in Bhaktapur and other parts of Kathmandu valley.
  • It is believed that the festival started during Malla dynasty.
  • The 9 day annual festival marks beginning of Nepali New Year and begins four days before the start of New Year.
9. Bhimsain Khurana passes away
  • 82 years old Indian animation pioneer and multiple National Award winner Bhimsain Khurana passed away.
  • Bhimsain is one of the pioneers of parallel cinema movement in India of the 70s.
  • He is famous for path-breaking feature films "Gharaonda" (1977) & "Dooriyaan" (1979) and many TV series.