1. New Solar Lighting Device Surya Jyoti Launched
a. Union Government has recently launched a low cost micro solar device called Surya Jyoti to provide a reliable access to electricity to the people of urban and rural region.
b. The department of Science & Technology developed this device.
c. The device has the capacity to save around 1750 million units of energy while adopted to around 10 million houses.
d. This form of clean energy will help us to reduce about 12.5 million ton of CO2 equivalent.
2. Recommendations of 14th Finance Commision on fiscal deficit approved
a. The Recommendations on Fiscal Deficit Targets and Additional Fiscal Deficit to States made by the 14th Finance commission received a green signal from the Union government.
b. 3% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is approved as the fiscal deficit threshold limit.
c. The 14th Finance Commission provided additional margin of 0.5% over and above the normal limit of 3% in any year to the state which has a favourable debt-GSPD ratio & interest payments revenue ratio in the previous two years.
d. The States will not get any benefit of additional borrowings for 2015-16 as the year is already completed.
e. States have the option of availing any unutilised fiscal amount only in the following year but within the FCC award period.
f. The unutilized fiscal space as compared to fiscal deficit limit of 3% of GSPD will be reckoned to calculate the unutilized borrowing space.
3. Oil PSUs allowed to have independent crude import policy
a. With an aim to improve the operational efficiency, central government has approved the independent crude import policy for Public sector oil companies on their commercial requirements.
b. This decision will replace the current crude import policy and provide the oil companies with independent, efficient & flexible policies of their own.
c. The current policy was approved in 1979 by which the companies like Indian Oil Corporation was allowed to source crude only from national companies of oil producing nations.
d. With the new policy the contract to import oil will be extended to the major oil companies across the globe.
e. In 2001, union government has conferred substantial powers to Maharatna & Navratna companies to grant autonomy in various operational, financial and investment matters.
4. National Energy Efficient Agriculture Pumps & Fan Programme launched
a. Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy has launched two schemes in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
b. National Energy Efficient Agricultural Pumps Programme will benefit farmers with five star rated new energy efficient agricultural pumps. These pumps will help saving about 30% energy by 2019
c. Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) of Andhra Pradesh has launched the National Energy Efficiency Fan Program as a joint venture with PSUs under the Union ministry of power.
d. It will provide the energy efficient ceiling fans which will help to save about 700/- rupees per year by saving energy.
5. OROP received ex facto approval from Union Government
a. One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme received ex facto approval from union government.
b. The implementation of OROP will be effective from 1st July, 2014. It will enhance the pension for the pensioners/ family pensioners of Defence Forces.
c. Pension will be re-fixed for pre 1st July 2014 pensioners retiring in the same rank and with the same length of service as the average of minimum and maximum pension drawn by the retirees in the year 2013.
d. The family of pensioners including war widows and disabled pensioners will also be benefitted with OROP.
6. Funding of exports to Iran through Export Development Fund of Exim Bank approved
a. Union government gave a green signal to increase the framework agreement between Exim Bank of India and the consortium of Iranian banks led by Central Bank of Iran.
b. This agreement was made to purchase the goods and services from India by utilizing the Export Development Fund (EDF).
c. Under this agreement, two contracts of export of steel rails by STC & the Chabahar Port Development Project were given a nod. This agreement will promote India’s export with Iran and develop the bilateral partnership between these countries.
7. Global report on Diabetes released by WHO
a. With a theme of ‘Beat Diabetes’, World health organization has released the global report on diabetes on the World Health Day.
b. As per this report, around 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014 compared the 108 million in 1980.
c. In last few decades, diabetes has rapidly increased in low and middle income countries than the high income countries. It has caused around 1.5 million deaths in 2012.
d. Most of the people affected with diabetes have the Type 2 diabetes which is also observed in adults as well as in children too.
e. Countries across the globe are recommended to take action in line with the objectives of the WHO Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) Global Action Plan 2013 – 2020.
f. The findings of WHO’s Global Report on Diabetes is in concurrence with a study published by the Lancet journal.
8. National Hydrology Project Approved by Union Government
a. Union government has recently launched the National Hydrology project with a total outlay of Rs. 3679.7674 crores.
b. The funds allotted for this project will be utilised for National Hydrology Project (NHP) and National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC).
c. The National Hydrology project will help to gather the Hydro-meteorological data which will be stored and analysed on a real time basis. This data will be accessed by any user at the state, district or village level.
d. This project will improve the forecasting of flood from 1 day to at least 3 days, assessing the surface and groundwater resources in river basin, reservoir operations through seasonal yield forecast, drought management , designing the SW & GW structures, interlinking of rivers & fulfilling the objectives of Digital India.
9. National Summit on Family Planning was concluded in Delhi
a. With the theme ‘New Choices, New horizons’, National Summit of Family planning was concluded in New Delhi by Union health and Family Welfare Minister.
b. The summit finalized a 360 degree information, education and communication (IEC) plan for enhanced awareness regarding various issues surrounding family planning in the country.
c. It also launched the new packaging for contraceptive Nirodh, Techno Managerial guidelines for injectable contraceptives & a mobile app for Mission Indradhanush.
d. In this summit, Amitabh Bachchan was also appointed as the brand ambassador and anchor for the new IEC campaign.
e. Tamil Nadu state was awarded for its efforts towards postpartum sterilization, Madhya Pradesh state was awarded for its contribution towards PPIUCD services. Awards for Male Sterilization and female sterilization were received by Bihar & Himachal Pradesh respectively.
10. Kento Momota bagged the Yonex Sunrise India Open Badminton Title 2016
a. Yonex Sunrise India Open Badminton title 2016 was bagged by Japanese player Kento Momota in Male category & Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the female category.
b. Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia received the Men’s doubles titles whereas Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan emerged victorious in women’s doubles.
c. The mixed doubles title was grabbed by Chinese pair of Kai Lu and Huang Yaqiong.
11. Fabfurnish was acquired by Future Group
a. Rocket Internet’s Online furniture platform FabFurnish was acquired by Future Group for 20 crore Rupees. It is the Future Group’s first ever acquisition of an e-commerce portal.
b. The Future Group will bring its furniture business under the FabFurnish brand making it the biggest home furnishing and decor business in India.
c. Future Group is a private Indian company in the indian retail and fashion sector associated with popular supermarket chains like Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar & lifestyle stores like Brand Factory.
12. Supermassive Black Hole discovered by NASA
a. A supermassive black hole weighing around 17 million times to the weight of Sun is discovered by the astronomers of NASA in the centre of a galaxy situated in sparsely populated area of the universe.
b. This supersized black hole is situated in the centre of a massive elliptical galaxy called NGC 1600. This black hole is about 200 million light years from earth in the direction of constellation Eridanus.
c. It has the capacity to push away around 40 billion stars like our sun which is comparable to eject the entire disk of our Milky Way galaxy.
d. This discovery was published in the journal ‘Nature’.
13. Amitabh Coomar appointed as CEO of GoJavas
a. Amitabh Coomar is appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Logistics firm GoJavas.
b. He was appointed after the former Chief Operating Officer left the company.
c. Amitabh Coomar has previously served in the Indian Army for around 12 years. He also worked as a Divisional Manager, Brand Marketing, at ITC, Kolkata.
14. Emraan Hashmi’s book The Kiss of Life launched
a. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has launched the book authored by Emraan Hashmi called ‘The Kiss of Life: How a superhero and my son defeated cancer’.
b. The book talks about the times in Emraan Hashmi’s life when his six year old son Ayaan fought with cancer and succeeded.
c. Emraan Hashmi has co authored this book with Bilal Siddique. The book is published by Penguin India in three different languages.
15. Hashim Thaci sworn as Kosovo’s new president
a. The leader of Democratic Party of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci has recently sworn as country’s president.
b. He was elected for this post on 26th february 2016 and succeeded the previous president of the country, Atifete Jahjaga.
c. He was the first ever prime minister of Kosovo & later foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in Isa Mustafa’s government.
d. Hashim Thaci was the one who declared Kosovo’s independence from Serbia in 2008.
16. International Roma Day celebrated
a. International Roma Day was celebrated on 8th April, 2016 across organization for Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
b. On this day the Romani people from all over the world will remember and pay respects to the Romani victims during the 2nd World War.
c. The International Roma Day was declared on 8th April, 1990 during the 4th World Roma Congress of the international Roma union.
d. 8th April was chosen to commemorate the event of first Roma congress which was held in london on 8th April, 1971.
17. Nguyen Xuan Phuc becomes new prime minister of Vietnam
a. Nguyen Xuan Phuc will become the country’s 8th prime minister after the approval of National Assembly of Vietnam.
b. He will succeed Nguyen Tan Dung who was removed from his office on 6th April, 2016 after completing his two terms as country’s Prime Minister.
c. Phuc had served the country as its Deputy Prime Minister for five years and as governor of central province of Quang Nam.