Current Affairs 24th January 2018

Current Affairs 24th January 2018 - Important Points

• Anandiben Patel sworn in as Governor of Madhya Pradesh on - 23rd January 2018
• Global Centre for Cybersecurity launched by WEF on - 24th January 2018
• US Senate confirmed Jerome H Powell as Chairman of Federal Reserve on - 24th January 2018

Current Affairs 24th January 2018 - Details

Anandiben Patel sworn in as Governor of Madhya Pradesh on - 23rd January 2018

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party politician and former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel was on January 23rd, 2018 took oath as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Hemant Gupta regulated the swear of office to Patel at a ceremony organized at the Raj Bhawan in Bhopal.

Anandiben Patel has succeeded Ramnaresh Yadav, who had retired from the position in September 2016. Meanwhile, Gujarat Governor Om Prakash Kohli was handling the additional charge as the MP Governor. Patel worked as the CM of Gujarat from 2014 to August 2016. She accepted the position when incumbent Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. She was later replaced by Vijay Rupani, who took over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat in December 2017.
More about Anandiben Patel

• Anandiben was proposed to the Rajya Sabha in 1994.
• She participated her 1st assembly election in 1998 from Mandal and worked as the Minister of Education in the Keshubhai Patel Ministry.
• She worked as a school teacher of Mohniba Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad, Gujarat for thirty years starting from 1968.
• She represented India at the 4th World women’s Conference at Beijing.
• In 2014, Patel was established as Chief Minister of Gujarat following the parliamentary polls.
• In 2016, Patel resigned from the position on the basis that she became 75 years old. According to an unwritten rule formed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP party leaders more than the age of 75, required to quit the executive position in the government.

Global Centre for Cybersecurity launched by WEF on - 24th January 2018

The World Economic Forum (WEF) launched the Global Centre for Cybersecurity to safeguard the world from hackers and growing data breaches on 24th January 2018. The centre will be helping to bring all the stakeholders together in warding off cyber criminals.

Important Highlights on Global Centre for Cybersecurity

• Headquartered in Geneva, the centre will be becoming operational from March 2018.
• In the beginning, the centre will be reaching out key industry players and G-20 countries to make this platform a success for dialogue and real-time action on cyber threats.
• It will be an excellent opportunity to safeguard verticals like automotive and health care where wireless connectivity is the key.
• It will be establishing an independent cyber library of best practices and will strengthen cyber resilience and robustness.
• It will be acting as a think-tank, especially in determining future cybersecurity scenarios.
• It will be assisting regions which are less cyber developed in establishing their national/regional cyber strategy and certification in cyber preparedness.
• It will also be consolidating and advance the implementation of all existing cyber-security initiatives.

US Senate confirmed Jerome H Powell as Chairman of Federal Reserve on - 24th January 2018

The United States Senate confirmed the appointment of Jerome H Powell as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States on January 24th 2018.

His appointment was approved by the Senate by vote of 85 to 12, as Powell was supported by a majority of Democrats and nearly all of the Republicans. Powell was nominated in November 2017 by President Donald Trump for the post.

Powell will be replacing Janet Yellen, whose term is ending in February 2018. Yellen was appointed by President Obama in 2014 and has been the first woman to hold the same position. Powell has been serving on the Federal Reserve's board since 2012. Before joining Fed back in 2012, he served as a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center which is a Washington think tank.

Powell will oversee an economy in which unemployment is at 4.1 percent, job growth is steady but restrained and inflation lies below the Federal Reserve's targets. The economy faces growing inequality and workers saw only limited wage gains during the long and slow recovery from the Great Recession during 2008.