Important Current Affairs 29th January 2019

International News

World Steel Association Report
The World Steel Association has released a Report highlighting various trends related to the Industry, they are:

•    China is the largest producer of crude steel and it accounts for more than 51 per cent of global production. China’s share has been increased from 50.3 per cent in 2017 to 51.3 per cent in 2018.
•    The production in China increased by 6.6 per cent from 870.9 MT in 2017to 928.3 million tonnes (MT) in 2018.
•    India has replaced Japan as the world’s second-largest steel producing country.
•    The Steel production in India increased by 4.9 per cent from 101.5 MT in 2017 to 106.5 MT in 2018.
•    The global crude steel production increased by 4.6 per cent from 1,729.8 MT in 2017 to 1,808.6 MT in 2018.
•    Other countries in the Top 10 list of steel producing nations include US at United States, at the 4th position as the country produced 86.7 MT of crude steel in 2018, South Korea (72.5 MT, 5th place), Russia (71.7 MT, 6th), Germany (42.4 MT, 7th), Turkey (37.3 MT, 8th), Brazil (34.7 MT, 9th) and Iran (25 MT, 10th).

Australia Day: January 26 

Australia celebrates 26th January as Australia Day which marks the landing of the First Fleet, a convoy of 11 ships carrying convicts, at Port Jackson in 1788. It also marks the founding of the colony New South Wales.

How the Australia Day came into being?
On the 30th anniversary of the founding of the colony in 1818, the Governor of New South Wales celebrated the day with a 30-gun salute and a holiday for all government employees.

Initially, the celebrations were confined to New South Wales. The first founding day was celebrated on 1838, 50 years after the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales. By 1926, almost all states of Australia were celebrating the Australia Day and it was being referred to as Anniversary Day in New South Wales.

From 1946, January 26 was celebrated as Australia Day all over the country with the public holiday.
 

National News

Two Day International Stock Taking Conference on Tiger Conservation inaugurated in New Delhi 

The 3rd Stock Taking Conference on Tiger Conservation was inaugurated in New Delhi today. Third in a series of Stock Taking Conferences, this is the second to be held in India after 2012 and is expected to have wide ranging discussions on the status of the Global Tiger Recovery Program (GTRP) by the 13 tiger range countries besides deliberations on combating wildlife trafficking.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who is also the Chairman of the National Tiger Conservation Authority said on the inauguration that conservation of tigers is a duty which has to be meticulously pursued and more innovative ways needs to be devised so that we can better the targets adopted by tiger range countries in 2010 at St. Petersburg, Russia. “The New India that we envisage is not only for humans but for every aspect including wildlife”, said Dr. Vardhan.

National Conference on “Prison Design” to begin in Visakhapatnam 

The first ever National Conference on “Prison Design” will begin in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh tomorrow (29th January 2019).   The two-day conference is being hosted by the DG Prison, Andhra Pradesh on the behalf of State and is being   sponsored by the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D).  

The Deputy Chief Minister (Home & Disaster Management), Andhra Pradesh, Shi N. Chinarajappa will inaugurate the National Conference.  This conference aims to provide a platform to the Sr. Police officers, Prison officers and Architects from Prison Department and Police Housing Corporation to meet and deliberate upon on the various issues relating with planning, Design and Constructions of prison keeping in view the safety and security need as well as administrative ease of day to day functioning of the prison.  The idea of conference is also to incorporate new construction technology, Information and Communication Technologies and modern safety and security gadgets in Prison Administration, besides ensuring conducive living environment in a holistic sense.

Atal Setu of Goa 

Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar inaugurated the “Atal Setu” on the Mandovi river in Goa.
The important features of the bridge are:

•    It is a four-lane 5.1-km long cable-stayed bridge connects state capital Panaji with north Goa.
•    This four-lane bridge weighs at 2.5 lakh tonnes is equivalent to the weight of 570 Boeing aircraft.
•    The bridge has been built by 1 lakh cubic metres of high strength, high performance concrete enough to fill 40 Olympic size swimming pools.
•    13,000 tonnes of corrosion resistant reinforcement steel, 32,000 square metres of structural steel plates and 1,800 kilometres of high tensile pre-stressing strands have gone into making the bridge.
•    The bridge utilizes 88 high tensile strength cables in the state-of-art single place harp type cable stay system and a real-time force monitoring mechanism.

Steel Ministry to set up Safety Directorate 

Ministry of Steel,Government of India, held its Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting in Goa today chaired by the Minister of Steel, Chaudhary Birender Singh. The issues discussed atthe meeting were mining activities of CPSEs under Steel ministry and safety in Steel Plants.

At the end of the Parliamentary Consultative Committeemeeting, the Steel Minister addressedmedia persons and emphasized the importance of safety in the production of iron and steel which is a complex and hazardous activity.The Minister said that recognising the need to prevent injuries and accidents and provide a healthy working environment and also guard against all possible hazards and risks, it has been decided to set up a Safety Directorate which will become operationalsoon. This directorate will oversee the safety standards in the steel industry. Steel Minister said both its CPSEs, Steel Authority of India Limited and RashtriyaIspat Nigam Limited(RINL), have comprehensive safety policies.

Union Minister Patnaik launches Rs 1,100 crore Infra projects in Ganjam district 

Shri Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for 231 projects worth Rs 715 crore and inaugurated 48 projects in the Ganjam District of Odisha. Some of the Major Projects inaugurated by Naveen Patnaik are a 10-bedded geriatric ward (Rs 40 crore), bleaching store (Rs 29.64 crore), district vaccine store (Rs 79 crore) and Construction of OPD for eye department at the district headquarter hospital and city hospital. Foundation stone for various projects was laid during the visit of Naveen Patnaik including Railway over the bridge at Jagannathpur and Ambapua with an estimated cost of Rs 30 and Rs 35 crore respectively and 9 Major Rail project (Rs 113.51 crore). Foundation stone was also laid for the development of infrastructure of 11 tourism projects costing Rs. 4.78 crore in the district.
 

appointments

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh appointed as Regional Director WHO SOUTH EAST Asia

Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh appointed Regional Director for World Health Organization South-East Asia, for a second five-year term. Her second term of office will begin on 1 February 2019. She is the first woman to become Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Region Previous year, Thailand became the first in Asia-Pacific to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. 
About World Health Organisation (WHO) Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland 
Head: Tedros Adhanom 
Founded: 7 April 1948