Important Current Affairs 27th October 2018 English

National

First Regional Review Meeting for “Sustainable Sanitation” Held In Nagpur

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of India, in coordination with the Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Government of Maharashtra, organized the first in a series of regional review meetings on Sustainable Sanitation today.

The regional review was held in Nagpur, attended by State Secretaries in-charge of rural sanitation, Mission Directors, and other State Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) officials, including representatives from 25 districts from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.

The regional meeting follows the official kick-start of the workshop in New Delhi on 24th October 2018, where the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation interacted with State SBM officials to review and communicate the various message of the Quality and Sustainability Mission. The series of sustainability regional workshops which will take place across the country have been scheduled within the next month to cover all States and Union Territories. Current locations include Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Nainital (Uttarakhand), Guwahati (Assam) and Kolkata (West Bengal).

Days and Dates

72nd Infantry Day Celebrations

To commemorate the selfless dedication to duty by Indian Army’s gallant Infantrymen, a wreath laying ceremony was organised at ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’. General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Army Staff, along with senior officers, laid wreaths in a solemn ceremony.

Infantry celebrates 27 October each year as Infantry Day to commemorate the first Infantry action post independence. In response to the threat posed to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our Nation, on this day in 1947, the leading elements of the Indian Army from 1st Battalion of the SIKH Regiment air landed at Srinagar and gallantly fought the raiders aided by Pakistan Army. This bold action by the Indian Army and indomitable courage displayed by the Infantrymen reversed the tide of events and thwarted the adversary's nefarious designs.

Appointments

Sanjay Kumar Mishra appointed interim director of Enforcement Directorate

The Central Government has appointed Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra as interim director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for three months.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cleared his name as interim chief of the agency on the last day of Karnal Singh’s tenure.

A 1986 batch IRS Officer of the Income Tax cadre, Mr. Mishra has been appointed as Principal Chief Director of ED and given charge of the Director of ED for three months.

Economy and Banking

Storing data locally since October 15: Visa

Payments major Visa said it has begun storing data of local users within India, signalling partial compliance with the mandate of the Reserve Bank, which has been steadfast in its demand that all payments companies — global and local — retain transaction data of Indian users on local servers.

Visa has also submitted a status update to RBI, including a plan on how it will tweak its existing global processing systems to fully comply with the requirement to store data only in India.

While Visa has been retaining data of Indian users locally from the day of the RBI deadline, it continues to process the data outside the country. India had over 1 billion debit and credit cards as of August 2018, according to RBI. Nearly 98% are debit cards issued by Visa, Master-Card and local player RuPay. Around 40 million credit cards are in circulation in the country.

International News

Lankan President Suspends Parliament As Crisis Deepens After PM Sacked

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday suspended parliament, deepening political turmoil after he sacked the country's prime minister.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was sacked by the president late Friday, had earlier called for an emergency session of parliament so he could prove his majority.

The parliament had been due to meet again on November 5 to unveil the 2019 annual budget.