G.K Current affairs 05 Jan 2019

This post contains important current affairs (National, International, Business and Sports) of 05 January 2019. Very useful to prepare for the General Knowledge section of various competitive and recruitment exams.

• Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL), a public sector miner, launched the social media wall on the YouTube Channel Singareni Siren, Facebook application, Instagram and Twitter handles, all at one place. It aims at bringing together all the social media applications introduced to disseminate information on the developments. The application would incorporate information pertaining to coal production, transport and details of power generation by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)-run plants in addition to welfare activities taken up by the company for the employees as well as those residing in the mining areas. 
• Thyssenkrupp, the German industrial giant, appointed Vivek Bhatia as the Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Thyssenkrupp Industries India. Mr.Bhatia was earlier the CEO - Asia Pacific at Thyssenkrupp AG, driving group activities for all Thyssenkrupp companies in the region. Prior to joining Thyssenkrupp, Mr. Bhatia was earlier with Boston Consulting Group, India.
• IIT Bombay and 7 public sector oil companies inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up Centre of Excellence in Oil, Gas and Energy. The 7 company includes Indian Oil Corp; Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC); GAIL India Ltd; Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL); Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL); Oil India Ltd and Engineers India Ltd. This would link up energy industry and academics to help jointly address energy requirements with new and innovative, indigenous technology.
• Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation's biggest oil firm, announced commission of its first Rs 5,151-crore worth Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import terminal in Ennore, Tamil Nadu. This is the first LNG import terminal IOC has built on its own and will become operational by the end of January 2019. IOC holds 95 per cent stake in the Ennore LNG import terminal. Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) has 5 per cent. The firm is also working on laying a 1,385 km natural gas pipeline originating from the Ennore terminal to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu via Puducherry. Also, branch pipelines will be laid in Madurai, Tuticorin, and Bengaluru to meet the LNG demand.
• PayU India's CEO Amrish Rau joined as the head of financial technology partnerships and investments for Naspers' fin tech business. Nasper is South African parent of PayU. Rau will continue to report to Laurent le Moal the chief executive of PayU, which is headquartered in the Netherlands.

• The mega international food and beverage show 'Indus Food 2019' will be held in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh on 14-15 January 2019. The event is organised jointly by Trade Promotion Council of India and Department of Commerce. The event is a platform to promote India as a strong exporter of food and beverage products to the world. Odisha will participate as a partner state of the event.
  
• The 13th edition of Global Healthcare Summit 2019 is to be held in Hyderabad from July 21 to 24. The summit is organized in partnership with the Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. The organizing chapters of the conference include Osmania, Gandhi, Kakatiya and Telangana Medical alumni, Association of Telugu Medical Graduates of the U.S.A., Gandhi Medical College Global Alliance, and Kakatiya Medical College Old Students' Association. More than 500 physicians are expected to attend the summit. The summit would have an international research competition for which the American Association of Physicians with Indian Origin (AAPI) would work in collaboration with a leading academic medical college in Hyderabad.
• Solar Energy Corporation of India has invited solar power developers to construct 7.5 GW grid connected projects in Leh and Kargil Districts in the state of Jammu & Kashmir under a competitive bidding process. Out of the 7.5 GW capacity, 2.5 GW will be constructed in the Kargil district and 5 GW in Leh district. The tender is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of building 100 gigawatts of solar capacity in the country by 2022.
• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal instructed officials to provide WiFi facilities at a minimum of 2,000 stations as soon as possible. He also called for setting up a single helpline number for all non-security railway complaints by the end of January. Additionally, Point of Sale (PoS) machines will be distributed in all trains to each catering staffer by March 31 to address complaints related to overcharging by the caterer. The government will also replace conventional coaches with modern Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) design coaches in all long distance trains
• Shri Narendra Modi's inaugurated 12 projects worth over Rs. 1500 crore. The 12 projects consisting of eight key development projects related to water supply and tourism and four schemes in Manipur. These include: An Integrated Check Post at Moreh, Imphal, at a cost of over Rs. 125 crores, that will facilitate customs clearance, foreign currency exchange, immigration clearance. the Dolaithabi Barrage Project which completed at a total cost of Rs. 500 crore, the FCI Food Storage Godown at Sawombung that had begun in December 2016, He dedicated to the nation the 400 kV Double Circuit Silchar-Imphal Line that was made at a cost of Rs. 700 crore. A buffer water reservoir at Ukhrul was mentioned which would be helping the citizens till 2035. He inaugurated improved and upgraded water supply for Churachandpur zone which will help the citizens till 2031.
• The government gave out the 6-croreth free cooking gas (LPG) connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) to make available cleaner fuel in every household kitchens. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu handed over papers for an LPG connection to Jasmina Khatoon from Shivpark, Khanpur in New Delhi to mark the 6 crore LPG connections under PMUY. Under the scheme, the government provides a subsidy of Rs 1,600 to state-owned fuel retailers for every free LPG gas connection that they give to poor households. The 5-croreth free LPG connection under the scheme was given to Takrdiran, a resident of Sangam Vihar of the national capital, in August 2018 by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

• Chang'e-4 lunar probe, a Chinese space probe, touched down on the far side of the moon. The probe, which has a lander and a rover, that was launched in December made the soft landing and transmitted the first-ever close-range image of the far side of the moon. It touched down at a targeted area near the moon's south pole in the Von Karman Crater. The purpose of the Chang'e-4 includes astronomical observation, surveying the moon's terrain, landform, and mineral makeup, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment of its far side. The moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate as it orbits our planet, so most of the far side or dark side is never visible to us. Previous spacecraft have seen the far side, but none has landed on it. China's space agency hailed the event as a historic first and a major achievement for the country's space programme.
• The United Nations observed the first official World Braille Day on 4 January. The aim of the day is to raise awareness of the importance of Braille. It also aims to raise awareness about the human rights of visually-impaired and partially-sighted people, The day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in November 2018.
• Pentagon comptroller David Norquist was named acting deputy defence secretary of United States. He has been the department's chief financial officer and comptroller since May 2017. In addition to that, Deputy Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan was appointed to serve as the acting secretary of defence.
• Scientists have developed a device named WAND which stands for "Wireless artifact-free neuromodulation device" that works like a "Pacemaker for the brain" to monitor the brain's electrical activity and potentially deliver fine-tuned treatments to patients suffering from diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's. The most important feature of the device is that it is both wireless and autonomous, which means when it learns to recognize the signs of tremor or seizures then it can adjust the stimulation parameters on its own to prevent the unwanted movements. The device has custom integrated circuits to record the full signal from both the subtle brain wave and the strong electrical pulses.

• Indian cricket team captain, Virat Kohli beats Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar's to become the fastest batsman to score 19000 international runs on the 1st day of 4th Test Match in Sydney against Australia. Virat Kohli crossed 19000 runs mark in 399 innings whereas Sachin Tendulkar took 432 innings to score 19000 runs.

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