Important current affairs of 02 January 2019

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This post contains important current affairs (National, International, Business and Sports) of 02 January 2019.

    ic: Daily Current Affairs - Business

    • India's largest airline IndiGo has become the first domestic airline to have longer range Airbus A321neo (new engine option) plane in its fleet with the first aircraft arriving from the European aviation major Airbus' Hamburg facility in Germany. This is part of its 150-aircraft order. The new aircraft will help the Rahul Bhatia-led airline to fly to Europe, and add destinations in Asia. IndiGo now has 204 planes in its fleet, including one A321neo, 65 A320neos, 126 A320ceos (current engine option), and 12 ATRs. IndiGo at present operates over 1,300 daily flights to 52 domestic and 15 international destinations.
    • Axis Bank announced its Managing Director and CEO Shikha Sharma has retired from the post and Amitabh Chaudhry will be the new managing director and CEO of the bank with effect from January 1, 2019. Chaudhry, the former MD and CEO of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company, was in September named the MD and CEO of Axis Bank for a period of three years.
    • Qatar has withdrawn its membership from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The country had sent an official notification to the OPEC expressing its wish to pull out and to focus on its liquefied natural gas production in December. Qatar has been in OPEC for 57 years. The decision came amid the ongoing diplomatic and economic blockade imposed on the country by its Persian Gulf neighbours and several Arab states.
    • The duty on crude palm oil from Malaysia, Indonesia and other members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was cut to 40% from 44%, while the tax on refined palm oil was cut to 45% from 54% if imported from Malaysia and to 50%, if purchased from Indonesia or other member-nations of Asean. In March 2018, India had raised import tax on crude palm oil to 44 percent from 30 percent and lifted the tax on refined palm oil to 54 percent from 40 percent.

    ic: Daily Current Affairs - National

    • Delhi High Court has allowed that Section 354A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) can be used by transgenders to register complaints of sexual harassment. According to the police, there was a lack of an appropriate penal section under which they could register such a complaint.
    • Growth Outlook for 2019', Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) stated that India will remain the fastest growing major economy with GDP growth estimated to be 7.5% in FY19. The reasons cited for the growth are: Better demand conditions, settled GST implementation, capacity expansion resulting from growing investments in infrastructure and better credit inflow especially in the service sector (that is of 24%). Additionally, CII had suggested the following: only three slabs for GST - a standard rate, a higher rate for demerit goods and a lower rate for some mass consumption items - and the inclusion of fuels, real estate, electricity and alcohol in the ambit of the levy. RBI to have lending restrictions on banks under the PCA (prompt and corrective action) and create a limited special liquidity window to meet emergencies of financial institutions. the digitization of land records.
    • Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) day is observed on 1st January. The DRDO was established in 1958 with just 10 laboratories to enhance the research work in defence sector. Dr. G Satheesh Reddy is the Chairman of DRDO. DRDO works under the Department of Defence Research and Development of Ministry of Defence.
    • Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan launched 'Ujjwala Sanitary Napkins' initiative saying it will go a long way in making Odisha's 2.25 crore women empowered and self-reliant. Under the novel initiative, which will cover 93 blocks in 30 districts of Odisha, oil marketing companies (OMC) will set up 100 manufacturing units at the Common Service Centres (CSC) at an estimated cost of Rs 2.94 crore.
    • A government committee, headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman B V R Mohan Reddy, has advised the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to stop setting up new colleges from 2020 and review the creation of new capacity every two years after that. The panel has also suggested that no additional seats should be approved in traditional engineering areas such as mechanical, electrical, civil and electronics and that institutes should be encouraged to convert current capacity in traditional disciplines to emerging new technologies. This recommendation has been justified on the ground that current capacity utilisation in traditional disciplines is just 40% as opposed to 60% seat occupancy in branches such as computer science and engineering, aerospace engineering and mechatronics. For the same reason, the committee has urged the AICTE to introduce undergraduate engineering programmes exclusively for artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, data sciences, cyber security and 3D printing and design.
    • Justice Thottathil Bhaskaran Nair Radhakrishnan had been serving as the Chief Justice of the combined high court of the two Telugu states since July last year. Telangana High Court came into existence on January 1, 2019 after the bifurcation of the High Court at Hyderabad. Justice Praveen Kumar was sworn in as the acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh HC, which also came into existence the same day.
    • The government of India constituted a committee to suggest recommendations to strengthen the 'Real Estate Regulatory Authority' (RERA) and to remove difficulties in its implementation. It will be headed by the Union Housing & Urban Affairs Joint Secretary, Shiv Das Meena. RERA, which protects the interest of home buyers, empowers states to notify their rules & appoint regulatory authorities.
    • General Manager, South Central Railway, V K Yadav has been appointed the national transporter's senior-most bureaucrat by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Yadav belongs to the 1980 batch of the Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers.

    ic: Daily Current Affairs - International

    • German authorities gave their approval to an US$8 billion (6.30 billion pounds) rail and road tunnel linking Denmark and Germany, despite environmental objections. It is part-funded by the European Union. The 19 km (11.8 mile) Fehmarnbelt link, connecting the Danish island of Lolland to the island of Fehmarn on the German side, was due to be completed in 2024.
    • Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in as Brazil's President in a ceremony at Brazil's National Congress Building. Bolsonaro is a former Army captain and admirer of the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Bolsonaro, 63, was a seven-term fringe congressman who rode a wave of anti-establishment anger to became Brazil's first far-right president since a military dictatorship gave way to civilian rule three decades ago.
    • The United States and Israel officially quit the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the close of 2018. The countries had announced their decisions in 2017 of withdrawing from the agency, accusing it of bias against Israel. America has demanded fundamental reform in UNESCO, which was co-founded by it after World War II to foster peace. Israel joined the agency in 1949. It is best known for its World Heritage program, which designates cultural sites and aims to preserve traditions.

    ic: Daily Current Affairs - Sports

    • The 25-year-old fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah became the highest international wicket-taker across formats in 2018. He took a total of 78 wickets in the calendar year. He led the Indian cricket team to a historic victory in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Bumrah surpassed South Africa's Kagiso Rabada's tally of 77 wickets to reach the milestone. While on the third position is Bumrah's countryman Kuldeep Yadav who took 76 scalps.
    • The Sports Authority of India Director General Neelam Kapur announced that The Sports Ministry has earmarked Rs 100 crore for the funding of athletes under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) for their preparations for 2020 Olympics. Launched in September 2014, TOPS, is a flagship programme of the sports ministry to provide financial assistance to potential Olympic medal winners besides giving the financial assistance to prepare for Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. previous Olympics, World Championships and other major competitions specific to that sport to select a player.

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