Important Current Affairs 13th November 2017

Important Current Affairs 13th November 2017

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Current Affairs 13th November 2017: GLOBAL NEWS

PM visits IRRI, Mahaveer Philippine Foundation

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), at Los Banos, in Philippines. 
●    IRRI is a premier research organisation dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science; improving the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers; and protecting the rice growing environment for future generations. 
●    The Prime Minister reviewed a photo exhibit showcasing flood tolerant rice varieties; drought tolerant rice varieties; salinity tolerant rice varieties; and IRRI's work with women farming cooperatives. 
●    The Prime Minister undertook a symbolic groundbreaking for a new plot for submergence tolerant rice varieties. 
●    He unveiled a plaque to mark the inauguration of the Shri Narendra Modi Resilient Rice Field Laboratory. 
●    He presented two Indian rice seed varieties to the IRRI gene bank. 
●    During the course of the visit, the Prime Minister interacted with several Indian scientists working at IRRI. 

Current Affairs 13th November 2017: NATIONAL NEWS

Northeast to get India's first ever 'Air Dispensary': Dr Jitendra Singh 

Northeast is all set to get India’s first-ever "Air Dispensary" based in a helicopter and the Union Ministry of Development of Northeast (DONER) has already contributed Rs. 25 crore as part of the initial funding for this initiative.
●    Disclosing this here yesterday after a meeting with the representatives of Aviation Sector and helicopter service/Pawan Hans, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, for quite a few months, the DoNER Ministry had been exploring the idea of introducing a helicopter based Dispensary/OPD service in such far flung and remote areas, where no doctor or medical facility was available and the patient, in need, also did not have any access to any medical care. 
●    The proposal put forward by the Ministry of DoNER, he said, has been accepted and is in the final stages of process in the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation.
●    The Union Ministry of Northeast/DoNER, Dr Jitendra Singh said, is keenly pursuing the proposal so that by the beginning of 2018, this could be the Union Government’s gift to the people of Northeast.
●    Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that even today, nearly 1/3rd of India’s population did not have access to proper hospital bed care, as a result of which, poor patients living in remote areas remained deprived of crucial medical care. 

Shri J P Nadda inaugurates the ‘Transport Ministers` Forum on Road Safety’ 

“All sectors including the health sector need to be fully engaged in responsibility, activity and advocacy for preventing accidents”. 
●    This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare at the ‘Transport Ministers` Forum on Road Safety’ organised by International Road Federation (IRF), here today.
●    Shri Nadda further said that the political commitment and a will to achieve can bring about significant and rapid decline in road injuries and requires planning at all levels, capacity creation, involvement of all sectors and good data.
●    Transport Ministers from eight countries along with Shri Yudhvir Singh Malik, Secretary (RT&H), Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Mr. Jean Todt, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety and Mr. Kiran K. Kapila, Chairman, IRF, Geneva, were also present at the occasion.
●    While emphasizing on the need to have a National Trauma Care Policy for road accident victims, Shri Nadda said that the possibility of novel methods of quick relief through airlifting such as Air Ambulances and providing relief in remote areas, well equipped Mobile Clinics etc., should be explored. 

Union Home Minister reviews measures to check cyber crimes in financial sector 

Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of all agencies concerned and representatives of relevant states here today to review the progress of the decisions taken during the meeting taken by him on September 19, 2017 for curbing the financial sector frauds emanating from the usage of cards and e-wallets in particular.
●    Union Home Minister was informed that in pursuance of the decisions taken in the meeting taken by him on September 19, 2017, an Inter Ministerial Committee on Phone Frauds (IMCPF) has been constituted in the Ministry of Home Affairs on September 28, 2017. 
●    The Committee under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary MHA and members from other stakeholder organisations namely Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Department of Financial Services, Department of Telecommunication, Reserve Bank of India and law enforcement agencies held its first meeting on October 24, 2017 and discussed various nature of phone frauds taking place in India and the steps to be taken by the various stakeholder organisations in order to curb such instances.
●    Union Home Minister reviewed the measures contemplated such as:
●    Big data analysis by involving IIT Delhi for identification of perpetrators of phone frauds in order to prevent duplication across e-wallets.
●    Providing of additional information in SMS/email alerts to customers from banks or e-wallet companies, as part of customer alert mechanism to include names of beneficiaries of any financial transaction wherever necessary for better traceability and cross checking on the part of the victim.

Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore releases the India Youth Development Index and Report 2017 

Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore here today released the India Youth Development Index and Report 2017.  
●    The objective of constructing the India Youth Development Index (YDI) 2017 is to track the trends in Youth Development across the States. 
●    The Index enables recognizing the high and low performing states, identifies the weak domains and informs the policy makers the priority areas of intervention for youth development in the states.
●    The Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD), Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, an Institute of National Importance has come out with Youth Development Index and Report 2017. 
●    This is a pioneering attempt made by the Institute in 2010 which it followed up with the India Youth Development Index in 2017. 
●    Constructing Youth Development Index for the year 2017 was done using the latest definition of youth as used in National Youth Policy – 2014 (India) and World Youth Development Report of Commonwealth (15 – 29 years) as well as using the Commonwealth Indicators in order to facilitate Global comparison. 
●    In the India Youth Development Index 2017, the first five dimensions are retained same as that of Global YDI. 

Companies curtail operations in NCR post NGT's pollution directive

Coca-Cola, Dabur, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India and Perfetti Van Melle suspended operations at their manufacturing plants in the National Capital Region after the National Green Tribunal banned industrial activity in and around New Delhi to curb intense smog conditions. 
●    Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest two-wheeler maker, said production at its plant was partially affected. 
●    Manufacturing at many plants was halted on Friday or Saturday and some units stopped work even though they had not breached emission limits. 
●    The NGT hearing on the matter is expected on Tuesday. 
●    Coca-Cola, the country’s largest beverage maker, suspended manufacturing at four of its plants in the NCR in compliance with the NGT guidelines.
●    Dabur, which makes ayurvedic medicines at its Sahibabad plant, confirmed it had voluntarily shut production. 
●    It was not immediately clear how the production closures would affect sales. 
●    There is unlikely to be a major impact on sales since this is not peak season for Coca-Cola, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified. 

Idea, Vodafone India to sell tower business to ATC Telecom Infrastructure

The Kumar Mangalam Birla led Idea Cellular and Vodafone Plc.'s Indian unit Vodafone India have separately agreed to sell their respective standalone tower businesses in India to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited (ATC TIPL) for an aggregate enterprise value of ₹7850 crore (US $1.2 billion).
●    Both companies jointly own about 20,000 towers with tenancy ratio of 1.65x as of June 30, 2017, said a company statement, adding that Vodafone will get ₹3850 crore while Idea Cellular will get its share of ₹4000 crore from the transaction.
●    Both Vodafone India and Idea as customers, and ATC TIPL as a mobile network infrastructure provider, have agreed to treat each other as long-term preferred partners, subject to existing arrangements. 
●    The parties will work together to further the expansion of high speed mobile networks in India, the statement added.
●    Idea will sell its entire stake in its tower unit Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Limited (ICISL) to ATC TIPL, while Vodafone India will sell a business undertaking that owns towers to ATC TIPL.

 

Essar Steel's production decreased by 15 percent

Since its introduction to Essar Steel, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has reduced its production by 15 percent.
●    The production was 15.7 lakh tonnes in the first quarter of the current year, which is 13.3 lakh tonnes in the second quarter.
●    With less production, the cost of raw material costs increased due to the company's profit.
●    Gas prices stood at 10.16 dollars per 10 lakh British thermal unit in November, which was 7.4 per million British thermal unit in June this year.
●    Under the leadership of the State Bank of India, banks started the filing process against Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel and Electrosteel in June and sent the three to NCLT under the purification and bankruptcy code IBC.