VINTAGE

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF APRIL 9^th, 2019

              IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF APRIL 9^th, 2019

1.      London has become the world's 1st city to launch a 24x7 Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), inside which vehicles will have to meet emission standards or face a charge. 

a.       Most vehicles which aren't compliant will have to pay £12.50 for entering the area each day, in addition to the congestion charge, in a bid to tackle air pollution and congestion.

2.      Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is celebrating its 54th Valour Day today. 

a.       On this day (April 9) in the year 1965, a small contingent of 2nd Battalion of CRPF successfully fought and repulsed an attack by a Pakistani Brigade on Sardar Post in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, eliminating 34 Pakistani soldiers and capturing four alive. 

b.       Never in the history of military battles have a handful of policemen fought back a full-fledged infantry Brigade in such a manner. 

c.       In this conflict, six valiant CRPF men also attained martyrdom. 

d.       As a tribute to the brave men of the Force, 9th April is befittingly celebrated as “Valour Day” in the Force.

3.      The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, topped the HRD Ministry's national ranking of higher education institutes.

a.       Bangalore's Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Delhi's Miranda House were adjudged best university and college respectively.

b.       The 4th edition of the Indian rankings based on the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2019 were announced by President Ram Nath Kovind today. 

c.       IISc Bangalore and IIT-Delhi ranked 2nd and 3rd in the overall rankings of higher educational institutions.

4.      India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) cut the lending rates by a marginal 5 basis points across all tenors with effective from April 10, a move which is likely to provide some respite to home loan borrower.

a.       The revised one-year marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) stands at 8.50% down from 8.55% earlier. 

5.      The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has come out with guidelines for banks to set up new currency chests, which include minimum area of 1,500 square feet for strong room.

a.       The RBI said that the new chests should have a processing capacity of 6.6 lakh pieces of banknotes per day. 

b.       It added that for those situated in the hilly/ inaccessible places, capacity should be 2.1 lakh pieces of banknotes per day.

6.      The World Bank has said it expects India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to accelerate to 7.5% in fiscal year 2019-20. 

a.       This would be driven by continued investment strengthening, particularly private-improved export performance and resilient consumption, it added.

7.      Facebook-owned WhatsApp has agreed to comply with RBI norms to store data in servers located within India. 

a.       This comes days after the RBI revealed WhatsApp's UPI-based payments service 'WhatsApp Pay' was still stuck in beta mode for not complying with the data localisation norms. 

b.       Note : The Indian government had come out with the said norms in April 2018.

8.      The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has handed over 6 indigenously built Dhanush artillery guns to the Army. 

a.       Dhanush is the 1st indigenously built 155mm x 45mm calibre long-range artillery gun with a strike range of 38-kilometre.

b.       The gun is equipped with inertial navigation-based sighting system, on-board ballistic computation and an advanced day-night direct firing system.

9.      Google parent Alphabet has beat Amazon to launch one of the 1st commercial drone delivery businesses. 

a.       Alphabet made its first delivery in Canberra tpday after getting approval from the country's civil aviation authority. 

b.       Wing, the company's drone delivery arm, was testing drone delivery in Australia since 2014 and delivered medicines, chocolate to 3,000 homes in the last 18 months.

10. Kerala Congress (M) chief K M Mani (86), former Kerala Finance Minister and the longest serving member of Kerala Legislative Assembly, passed away. 

a.       He represented the constituency of Pala from 1965, becoming the only politician to be elected from the same constituency for 13 consecutive elections. 

11. Bollywood Actor Navtej Hundal, who last portrayed the role of the Home Minister in the Vicky Kaushal starrer 'Uri: The Surgical Strike', passed away. 

a.       In his career, spanning over two decades, the actor featured in films like 'Khalnayak' (1993) and 'Tere Mere Sapne' (1996).

12. Hollywood Actress Nadja Regin (87), who featured in 'From Russia With Love' (1963) and 'Goldfinger' (1964) from the James Bond film franchise, has passed away.

a.       Regin acted in several British TV shows, including 'Danger Man', before founding a publishing house with her sister in 1980.

13. Hockey India today named Australia's Graham Reid as the new chief coach of the Indian men's hockey team.

14. Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Hyderabad) will remain as the standby venue for the Indian Premier League's playoff and the final on May 12 if the impasse with regards to three closed stands at Chennai's Chepauk is not resolved. 

a.       The fit certificate for three stands I, J and K have not been procured from the local municipal corporation since 2012.

15. Wrestler Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 35 to become the new Universal Champion.

16. Spanish tennis player Garbine Muguruza retained the title at the Monterrey Open after former world number one Victoria Azarenka retired in the final.