Navigate

  • Current Affairs 21st April 2018

    Updated : 21-Apr-2018

    Current Affairs 21st April 2018 - Important Points

    • Make BCCI public body and bring under RTI by -  Law Commission 
    • World Liver Day celebrated on -19th April 2018
    • e-SANAD portal and National Academic Depository integrated by - The Ministry of Human Resource Development
    • Qatar approves draft law on property ownership by non-Qataris on - 19th April 2018
    • Facebook to roll out new privacy choices  from - 18th April 2018
    • Swaziland King changes his country's name to 'Kingdom of eSwatini' on - 19th April 2018
    • GoM recommends uniform road tax structure for vehicles across country  by  -Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways 
    • Deepika Padukone, Virat Kohli among TIME's 100 Most Influential People published on - 19th April 2018
    • Government to roll out initiative for prevention & control of viral hepatitis  by - The Union Health Ministry 

    Current Affairs 21st April 2018 - Highlights

    Make BCCI public body and bring under RTI by -  Law Commission 

    The Law Commission of India has suggested to declare BCCI as a public body. It also suggested Board of
    Control for Cricket in India and it’s all associate cricket associations to be considered under RTI law regime.
    Recommendations of LCI

    • Board of Control for Cricket in India’s monopolistic activities, directly or indirectly, hampers the
      fundamental rights of inhabitants, players, and other officials.
    • Private citizen should be abled to move high court against Board of Control for Cricket in India for any violation of his fundamental duties.
    • Board of Control for Cricket in India has been flying under radar of public scrutiny and fortified
      environment of opacity and non-accountability.
    • It has shaped an impression in minds of general public that corruption and other forms of ill practices are unpleasantly affecting the most popular sports cricket played in India.
    • Board of Control for Cricket in India should be thought responsible, under all situations, for any
      violations of basic human rights of shareholders.
    • Board of Control for Cricket in India exercises ‘state- like’ controls in the regulation of cricket, and therefore, comes under the definition of ‘state’ under Article 12 of the Constitution.
    • Board of Control for Cricket in India practically acts as National Sports Federation and Sports Ministry website should explicitly mention Board of Control for Cricket in India in list of National Sports Federation. This will inevitably bring it within the purview of the Right To Information Act.

    World Liver Day celebrated on -19th April 2018

    The World Liver Day is celebrated annually on April 19th to spread awareness and considerate importance of liver in human body and how liver diseases can be treated. The 2018 theme for World
    Liver Day is ‘Riding New Waves in Liver Diagnosis, Staging and Treatment. According WHO, liver
    diseases are 10th most communal cause of death in India.
    Important Highlights

    • Liver is unique organ in human body and has distinct quality of regeneration.
    • It is the 2nd largest organ and plays an important role in digestive system of our body. Everything our body eats and absorbs passes through the liver.
    • liver fights against infections, eliminates toxins, controls our cholesterol levels, regulates blood glucose, synthesise proteins and releases bile to aid digestion. It has been observed that even 75 percent of liver can be safely detached without any untoward consequences due to its capability
      of regeneration.
    • Therefore, to take care of the liver, one needs to accept a healthy lifestyle and have to eat a balanced diet of proteins, grains, dairy foodstuffs, fruits, vegetables, and fats.

    e-SANAD portal and National Academic Depository integrated by - The Ministry of Human Resource Development

    The Ministry of Human Resource Development has released integration of e-SANAD portal and National Academic Depository in a proposal to make education system more crystal clear in India.
    e-SANAD

    e-Sanad is project focused at online submission and verification of documents with eventual aim to
    extend contact-less, cashless, faceless and paper-less document attestation service. Using it, any type of
    document including personal, educational and commercial can be validated and apostilled. The project
    was intended and being implemented by National Information Centre in management with CBSE, States and Union Territories and Ministry of External Affairs in a phased way.
    National Academic Depository

    • National Academic Depository is 24X7 online store-house of all academic awards including diplomas certificates, degrees, marks detail cards and many more, suitably digitised and lodged by academic boards, educational-institutions, suitability assessment bodies.
    • It makes an easy access to recovery of academic award and authenticates and guarantees its genuineness and safe storage.
    • National Academic Depository encompasses of 2 interoperable digital depositories including NSDL
      Database Management Limited and CDSL Ventures Limited.

    Qatar approves draft law on property ownership by non-Qataris on - 19th April 2018

    Qatar declared the sanction of a draft law on regulating the ownership and usage of properties by foreigners, on April 19th, 2018. The decision was publicized during a Cabinet meeting headed by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani.
    Significance
    The draft law states that non-Qataris might get and utilise properties under specific conditions.
    The law is applicable to land space consisting buildings and residential units, in adding to the disinterest units in residential areas. 
    Current property regime in Qatar for Non-Qataris

    As per to the present property ownership regime in Qatar for Non-Qataris people, they may capitalize and own land, buildings and constructions in three designated projects:
    1.Pearl – Qatar
    2.West Bay Lagoon
    3.Al Khor Resort Project
    The Non-Qataris are also allowed to acquire rights over:
    Real-estate that is rented for a term period of 99 years and is renewable on similar terms.
    Residential complexes for a term period not more than 99 years and in general a right to convey property belonging to another person for its own profit, utility or advantage.
    The law also allows a non-Qatari owners to apply for visas and residency for themselves and their families without any local sponsorship.
    On August 9th, 2017, Qatar permitted visa-free entry to residents of 80 nations including India, Canada, United States and United Kingdom, to become the most open nation in the Gulf region. 
    The initiative was focused at inspiring more people to travel to the country and discover its well-known
    hospitality, cultural heritage and natural reserves.
    In November 2016, Qatar started a free-transit visa that permitted passengers of all nationalities transiting through the nation to reside there for a least of 5 hours up to extreme 96 hours.

    Facebook to roll out new privacy choices  from - 18th April 2018

    Social media massive Facebook declared that it would be rolling out fresh privacy choices in compliance with European Union rules. The alteration will be 1st seen by European inhabitants, on April 18th, 2018.
    The social  network will initiate executing the new privacy measures to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which become active from May 25th.
    New Measures

    • Under the new policy, Facebook subscribers will be asked to review and make decisions about the ads they receive.
    • The subscribers will also be asked to evaluate and choose what to share from the political, religious, and relationship information on their profiles.
    • The subscribers will also be permitted to choose in or out of use of facial recognition technology.
    • Talking on the same, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan and Deputy General Counsel Ashlie Beringer informed that they not only want to comply with the law, but also go outside their obligations to build fresh and improved privacy experiences for everyone on Facebook.
    • Egan and Beringer informed that Facebook subscribers in the European Union will begin seeing the requests the following week so they can make choices before May 25th.
       
      Other Details
    • Facebook would be taking initiatives to comply with the European Union rules that limit ads and public viewing of information for teens.
    • This will mean that there will be no facial recognition for subscribers under the age of eighteen and there would also be a limitation on who can watch certain data shared by them.
    • Further, to comply with GDPR, Facebook will also restrict what it shows to subscribers between the ages of thirteen and fifteen unless they get consent from a parent.

    Swaziland King changes his country's name to 'Kingdom of eSwatini' on - 19th April 2018

    Swaziland’s King Mswati III, Africa’s last absolute monarch, on April 19, 2018 officially changed the name of his country to the ‘Kingdom of eSwatini’. 
    Accordingly, the country, a member of the Commonwealth, will now be known by its historic name of eSwatini, a Swazi language name that stands for ‘place of the Swazi’. The announcement was made during the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the King’s 50th birthday as well as the 50th anniversary of Swazi’s independence from British colonial rule.
    Reason behind change of name

    • According to the last trends, African nations returned to their ancient names on receiving independence.
    • Nyasaland became Malawi, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and Bechuanaland became Botswana. 
    • However, this minute landlocked country of Swazi in the southern Africa did not altered its name after receiving complete independence in 1968 from the Britishers.
    • Moreover, the name ‘Swaziland’ even aggravated the citizens as it is a mix of Swazi language and English. Also, there had been instants when ‘Swaziland’ was jumbled with ‘Switzerland’.
    • Several suggestions for changing the name of nation were proposed in past years; however, it was only in 2015 that the issue was considered by lawmakers.
    • King Mswati III has also mentioned to the nation as the ‘Kingdom of eSwatini’ many times in his speeches, during his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2017 also.
    • Now that the ‘Swaziland’ has been retitled to ‘eSwatini’, this may lead to the rewriting of the nation's constitution.
    • It could also initiate changes for the Royal Swaziland Police Force, the Swaziland Defence Force and the University of Swaziland.
    • Furthermore, nation’s currency may request modifications as all of the nation's notes and coins bear the name of the ‘Central Bank of Swaziland’.
    • The fresh name will have to be recorded with the international unions like the UN, The Commonwealth, African Union and WTO.

    Government to roll out initiative for prevention & control of viral hepatitis  by - The Union Health Ministry 

    The Union Health Ministry has finalised to event out a creativity for prevention and control of viral hepatitis.  The news was shared by Union Health Minister J.P.Nadda through a tweet on April 20th, 2018. J.P.Nadda informed that the National Health Mission has finalised to event out & Integrated initiative for prevention and control of viral hepatitis& with a budget of over 517 crore rupees for a time period of 3 years. 
    Viral hepatitis?
    Viral hepatitis is liver inflammation due to a viral contamination. It may occur in acute or chronic forms.
    The most communal causes of viral hepatitis are the 5 hepatotropic viruses Hepatitis-A,B,C,D and Hepatitis-E. 
    Most common hepatitis types are avoidable and treatable. While Hepatitis-A and Hepatitis-B can be prohibited by vaccination, effective treatments are available for Hepatitis-C.
    Key Highlights 
    Under the initiative, the Health Ministry has finalised to start a state synchronization unit under the state National Health Mission for efficient roll-out of the programme in 26 large and 4 small states.
    The Ministry is also planning to form 50 state laboratories for supporting in diagnosis and training of the district hospitals for screening of hepatitis.
    It aims to scale-up to 100 treatment and 665 testing centres over a period of next 3 years.
     
    The ministry has also planned to begin 15 model treatment centres, which will work as referral centres for diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis-C and contribution in capacity building. 

    Deepika Padukone, Virat Kohli among TIME's 100 Most Influential People published on - 19th April 2018

    The TIME Magazine published the 100 Most Influential People List of 2018 entitling individuals whose time is now, on April 19th, 2018.
    The 2018 list structures the names of 4 self-made Indians- Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone, Indian cricket skipper Virat Kohli, Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal and CEO Microsoft Satya Nadella.
    Flipkart Executive Chairman Sachin Bansal inscribed the profile for Bhavish Aggarwal, while Sachin Tendulkar inscribed for Virat Kohli, Hollywood actor Vin Diesel inscribed for Deepika Padukone and Walter Isaacson, a former Managing Editor of TIME, prescribed for Satya Nadella.
     
    Highlights of the list

    • The list also represents the United States President Donald Trump. 
    • The list of 100 Most Influential People of 2018 have the names of actress Nicole Kidman,Wonder Women's starrer Gal Gadot, Prince Harry and his fiancé Meghan Markle and Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez.
    • The list also represents the Heads of various countries such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Chinese President Xi Jinping, North-Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, Ireland's PM Leo Varadkar and Bangladesh's PM Shiekh Hasina.
    • In the field of sports, the list designates Chloe Kim, who is record- breaker in snowboarding.
    • Astronaut Peggy Whitson also made it to the list this year. Whitson freshly finished her 665th cumulative day in space, which is extra than any other American.
    • 45 people on the list are under 40 years of age-group consisting the youngest designer and actor Millie Bobby Brown.

    GoM recommends uniform road tax structure for vehicles across country  by  -Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways 

    The Group of Ministers established by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has planned One Nation One Tax policy for seamless movement of commercial vehicles across the nation. The two-day meeting of Group of Ministers organised in Guwahati, Assam was attended by transport ministers from UP, Assam, HP, Bihar, Goa, Kerala, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Jharkhand.
    Recommendations of GoM
    1.Uniform road tax for vehicles across states
    It will permit transfer of vehicles from one state to another without imposing road tax. It will have check
    on people registering their automobiles in low-tax states and running them in other states.
    2.Tax Structure Centre has the authorities to decide principles on which motor vehicles tax can be imposed. The unvarying tax should be based on invoice price of automobiles in 3 slabs. 8 per cent tax on vehicles below 10 lakhs, 10 per cent for vehicles costing between 10-20 lakh, and 12 per cent for vehicles more than 20 lakh. Diesel automobiles may have to pay 2 per cent extra taxes, while electric vehicles will be given 2 per cent discount.
    3.National passenger vehicles permit for passenger cars
    There should be national bus and taxi-permit on lines of such permit for goods transport. It will provide
    the much-required fillip to public transport and assist decreasing road congestion and its attendant
    problems.