Important Current Affairs 13th September 2018 English

Important Current Affairs 13th September 2018   

 (International News)

Cabinet approves MoU between India and Brunei Darussalam 

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Brunei Darussalam on Cooperation in the operation of Telemetry Tracking and Telecommand station for satellite and launch vehicles, and for cooperation in the field of Space Research, Science and Applications. The MoU was signed in New Delhi on 19th July 2018.
Benefits:
The MoU enables India to continue to operate, maintain and augment its ground station meant for supporting India’s launch vehicle and satellite missions.  This will also help India to share its experience and expertise in space activities through training of officials and students from Brunei Darussalam on space technology applications.

(National News)

LK Advani renominated as Chairman of Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha
BJP leader L K Advani was renominated as Chairman of Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha. He was renominated by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. L K Advani represents Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency from Gujarat.
It formulates Code of Conduct for members and suggest amendments to it from time to time. It also oversee moral and ethical conduct of Members. It examines complaints related to any unethical conduct by members of Lower House of Parliament. It can also initiate suo motu investigation into matters related to unethical conduct of a member and make recommendations, as it may deem fit.

Government makes demat mandatory for issue and transfer of shares
Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has mandatory for unlisted public companies to issue new shares or transfer of all shares in dematerialised or demat (i.e. in electronic form) form beginning October 2, 2018. With this, major benefits of dematerialisation of securities will now be available to unlisted Public companies.
Facts
The Companies Act 2013, provides for government to mandate that as in case of listed public companies other classes of public companies should also issue securities only in dematerialised form. MCA’s latest step is seen as measure for further enhancing transparency, investor protection and governance in the corporate sector.

Cabinet approves Policy Framework to Promote and Incentivize Enhanced Recovery Methods for Oil and Gas
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the Policy framework to promote and incentivize Enhanced Recovery (ER)/ Improved Recovery (IR)/ Unconventional Hydrocarbon (UHC) production Methods/techniques to improve recovery factor of existing hydrocarbons reserves for augmenting domestic production of oil and gas. The ER includes Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR), Unconventional Hydrocarbon (UHC) production methods include Shale oil and gas production, tight oil and gas production, production from oil shale, gas hydrates and heavy oil.

Haryana signs MoU with Indian Oil for an ethanol plant

The Haryana government on September 10 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to set up an ethanol plant in Panipat with an outlay of over Rs. 900 crores. The initiative at village Bohali with a proposed capacity of 100 kilolitres of ethanol per day will manage crop residue and prevent straw burning before the upcoming paddy season, an official release said.

NITI Aayog, Intel and TIFR collaborate to set up a Model International Center for Transformative AI (ICTAI)
NITI Aayog, Intel, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) announced on 7th September that they are collaborating to set up a Model International Center for Transformative Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI) towards developing and deploying AI-led application-based research projects. This initiative is part of NITI Aayog’s ‘National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence’ Discussion Paper that focuses on establishing ICTAI in the country through private sector collaboration.