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  • Current Affairs 19th March 2018

    Updated : 19-Mar-2018

    Current Affairs 19th March 2018 - Important Points

    • Singapore, Paris are world’s costliest cities by - Worldwide Cost of Living report 2018
    • Pune tops in urban governance says - ASICS 2017 report
    • Anti-dumping duty on Ofloxacin import from China imposed by - Government
    • China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi promoted as State Councillor on - 18th March 2018
    • India clinches Nidahas Trophy in last-ball thriller on - 18th March 2018
    • New species of water strider discovered in Nagaland by -  Zoological Survey of India  Team

    Current Affairs 19th March 2018 - Details

    Singapore, Paris are world’s costliest cities by - Worldwide Cost of Living report 2018

    The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Worldwide Cost of Living report 2018 has graded Singapore as the world’s maximum luxurious city for the 5 th conventional year, while Syrian capital Damascus was graded as the world’s economic city.
    The other metropolises that were graded as the most luxurious include Paris and Zurich, which were tied at the 2nd place, after Hong Kong and Oslo, Norway’s capital. The top 10 in the list is largely split among Asia and Europe. South Korea’s capital Seoul is the only metropolis other than Singapore in the top 10 that has managed to hold its ranking from the earlier year.
    Israel’s Tel Aviv, which was graded 34th just 5 years ago, is now the 9 th most luxurious metropolis in the survey.
    US metropolises fall back

    • None of the North-American metropolis was graded among the 10 most luxurious metropolises.
    • The 2 top-graded United States metropolises New York and Los Angeles dropped down this year to the 13th and 14th place respectively from their 9 th and 11 th place past year.
    • Except for one United States metropolis- Boston, all other 16 metropolises surveyed imitate a drop-down in ranking in the modern survey.
    • The result has been broadly credited to the weakening of the dollar against other currencies.
      Asia: Home to world’s most luxurious and cheapest metropolises!
    • While studying the most luxurious metropolises by category, it is interesting that Asian metropolises tend to be the costliest locations for general grocery shopping.
    • However, European metropolises tend to be costliest in the household, personal-care and entertaining sections, with Zurich and Geneva the maximum luxurious.
    • As per to the survey, Asia is home to few of the world’s most luxurious metropolises, but to many of the world’s inexpensive metropolises too.
    • Within Asia, the survey observed that the superlative value for money was obtainable by South Asian metropolises, particularly those in India and Pakistan.
    • The Indian metropolises of New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai and Pakistan’s Karachi presented among the 10 cheapest locations surveyed.
      Conclusion
    • Though South-Asian metropolises traditionally reside in places among the 10 cheapest, they are no longer the cheapest metropolises in the world.
    • Past year the cheapest metropolis label was occupied by Kazakhstan’s business centre, Almaty, which fell in the ranking following a 50 per cent deflation of the national currency, the tinge, after it was permitted to float in August 2015.

    Pune tops in urban governance says - ASICS 2017 report

    Pune was graded 1st among 23 metropolises across India in terms of urban governance quality in the 5th edition of Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems 2017 statement published by Bengaluru non-profit firm, Janaagraha.
    More about ASICS 2017

    • The aim of survey was to calculate preparedness of metropolises to provide high-quality infrastructure and long-term services by assessing metropolis systems.
    • It spans 23 Indian metropolises and aspects in answers to 89 questions. These questions are organised on 4 categories including urban planning and design, urban capacities and resources, transparency, accountability and participation and empowered and legitimate political presentation.
    • These metropolises were marked on a scale of 0-10 related to the policies, quality of laws, institutions and institutional procedures that combined assist govern them.
    • The report addresses 5 main issues, and recommends solutions at local, State and Central government levels.
    • It emphasizes requirement for sharp focus on City-Systems to metropolis governance in our
      metropolises.
      Key Highlights
    • In it, Pune remained at top of the list by scoring 5.1 out of 10 scores for the 1st time.
    • It was followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat with points in range of 4.6-4.5.  Delhi pushed 3 spots about 6-place against 9 th place in 2016.
    • Position of Mumbai decreased-down from 6 th to 9 th in year 2017. The worst performers in ASICS 2017 were Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Patna and Chennai.
    • These established bottom 5 metropolises with points ranging between 3 & 3.3 out of total 10.

    Anti-dumping duty on Ofloxacin import from China imposed by - Government

    The Finance Ministry’s Revenue Department has forced anti-dumping duty on import of pharmaceutical product Ofloxacin used for the treatment of few infections from China. It was forced for 3 years succeeding sanctions of DG Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties to shield domestic manufacturers from below-cost consignments. In its investigation DGAD had observed that Ofloxacin exported to India from China was under its standard value, causing its dumping. It had resulted into material-injury to the local industry.
    More about Ofloxacin

    • Ofloxacin is a fluoroquinolone antibiotic.
    • It is utilised to treat few infections consisting bronchitis, pneumonia and skin, bladder, UTI, reproductive and prostate infections. It kills infection causing bacteria 

    What is Anti-dumping duty?

    • It is an import-charges forced by government on imported goods which have prices fewer than their
      domestic prices.
    • It acts as a protective and counter-import way utilised by a nation under multilateral World Trade Organisation regime to safeguard its domestic manufacturers and market from cheap imports.
    • The charges are focused at making sure a fair-trading activity and forming level field for domestic manufacturers in context to foreign manufacturers and exporters. It differs from item to item and from nation to nation. In India, anti-dumping charge to be charged is suggested by Ministry of Commerce, and Finance Ministry executes it.

    China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi promoted as State Councillor on - 18th March 2018

    China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was promoted to nation’s highest diplomat position of State councillor, on March 18th, 2018. However, Wang will hold his post of China's Foreign Minister. The conclusion was granted at the current annual session of 13th National People’s Congress. Wang had earlier worked as China’s Envoy to Japan and served at the Asia desk of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. 
    Impact of Wang's appointment as State Councillor in Indo-China Relations

    • By far, China and India have encountered 20 talk options on their 3448 kilometres doubtful border. 
    • Both the nations clashed in a war in 1962 and have seen their forces entering into each other’s areas many times.
    • As a State Councillor, now, Wang Yi will be China's significant representative on border talks with India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
    • Previously, Wang was seen banging India during the 73 days armed stand-off at Doklam in the Eastern area of their border in 2017.
    • The stalemate was solved in August 2017.
    • However, during the continuing yearly session of 13th National People’s Congress, Wang smashed a
      constructive tone about Indo-China bonds.

    India clinches Nidahas Trophy in last-ball thriller on - 18th March 2018

    India on March 18th , 2018 pulled off a remarkable chase defeating Bangladesh by 4 wickets in the Nidahas T20 tri-series final match at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
    The outstanding win was achieved as a result of an unbelievable performance by wicketkeeper and batsman Dinesh Karthik who came for batting when the team required 34 runs off the last 12 balls.
    The Turning Point of the Match

    • With five runs required off the last ball of the last over, Karthik played the last ball above the extra-cover for a sixer short, smashing into a stunning win for India.
    • Similar stroke was played by Pakistani legend player Javed Miandad against India, 32 years back in Sharjah.
    • It would be remembered as one of India’s famous last-ball sixes victory.
      Key Highlights of the Match
    • Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and selected to bowl and inviting Bangladesh for batting 1st.
    • Bangladesh batted with a sum of 166/8 in 20 overs with Sabbir Rahman resulting into a run tally with his well-made 77 runs off 8.2 overs.
    • Indian Off-spinner Washington Sundar took 1/20 and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took 3/18 which were outstanding in the Power-Play, bowling 20 dot-balls and granting only 1 boundary among them.
    • The duo of Vijay Shankar gave 0/48 and Shardul Thakur 0/45, however, gave 93 runs between them, granting 10 fours and 4 sixes.
    • Though Sharma gave the Indian team a great start, India lost the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina within the over span of 6 balls in the 3rd and 4th over respectively and slip to 32/2 in 21 balls.
    • Rohit Sharma still, balanced the thrust going and along with K L Rahul scored 51 runs for the 3rd wicket in 6 overs.
    • Rohit Sharma lost his wicket for 56 runs to Nazmul Islam in the 14th over and resulted India required 69 runs off 6.4 overs, letting India’s inexpert middle order batsmen inti panic situation.
    • Dinesh Karthik then came at the beginning of the 19th over and hit Rubel Hossain for 22 runs containing 2 sixes and 2 fours to drop down the equation to 12 runs off the final 6 balls before hitting the final 6 short to finish off an incredible play.

    New species of water strider discovered in Nagaland by -  Zoological Survey of India  Team

    A team of researchers from the Zoological Survey of India have revealed the fresh species of water strider known as “Ptilomera Nagalanda Jehamalar and Chandra” from Intangki River in Peren district, Nagaland. The species is known following the Nagaland state itself. The research were printed in Zootaxa Journal in January 2018.
    New species of Water Strider

    • The fresh species ‘Ptilomera nagalanda Jehamalar and Chandra’ can be simply distinguished from all the known striders with the nonappearance of curly and tangled dark-brown swimming setae and the appearance of silvery-setae on the sub-lateral area of the meso and metanota of the males.
    • This specific species is orange in appearance with black-stripes on the back side and has a pale-yellowish brown front part of the body.
    • The existence of black-stripes on the back side distinguishes this species from other known species of the subgenus Ptilomera. 
    • It has long cylindrical legs and measures approximately 11.79 millimetres.
      Subgenus Ptilomera
    • There were only 5 species of water striders in the sub-genus Ptilomera in India.
    • These comprises Ptilomera assamensis, Ptilomera tigrine, Pltilomera occidentalis, Ptilomera laticaudata and Ptilomera agriodes.
    • With the finding of Ptilomera nagalanda Jehamalar, the number of species of water striders relating to this sub-genus has raised to 6.
    • Ptilomera sub-genus is found in rocky, quick-flowing watercourses and rivers that are not visible to a maximum sunlight only. 
    • Their forward-facing legs are tinier than the middle and rear legs and are utilised to fastening and grasping prey.