Exam Power: 24 April 2018 Today Current Affairs

Exam Power: 24 April 2018 Current Affairs

National Panchayati Raj Day is observed as 24 April

The nation celebrates the National Panchayati Raj Diwas (24th Aril) as this date marks a defining moment in the history of decentralization of political power to the grassroots level. 

Activities of PM Modi on NPRD 2018:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Mandla in Madhya Pradesh on the National Panchayati Raj Day. He launched the Rashtriya Gramin Swaraj Abhiyan, at a public meeting, and addressed Panchayati Raj representatives across the country, from Mandla.

Background:

The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 that came into force with effect from 24th April 1993 has institutionalized Panchayati Raj through the village, Intermediate and District level Panchayats.

The impact of the 73rd Amendment in rural India is very visible as it has changed power equations irreversibly.

Accordingly, the Government of India decided in consultation with the States to celebrate 24th April as National Panchayati Raj Day. Ministry of Panchayati Raj organizes National Conference on 24th April every year to commemorate the National Panchayati Raj Diwas.

Diu Smart City first city in India to run on 100% renewable energy during daytime

• Diu has become the first Smart City in India to run on 100% renewable energy during the daytime.
• Until last year, Diu was importing 73% of its power from Gujarat.
• It now has a 9 MW solar park spread over 50 hectares of rocky barren land. Also, solar panels have been installed on the roof tops of 79 government buildings.
• Diu is saving about 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
• Due to low-cost solar energy, residential power tariffs have been cut by 10% last year and 15% this year.

Bengal’s Digambarpur is India’s best Gram Panchayat

Bengal has once again topped in the country with Digambarpur Gram Panchayat (GP) bagging the Centre’s award for the best GP in the country. Besides this, some more Gram Panchayats in districts including Purulia, Birbhum and Burdwan have also been awarded special prizes for certain achievements.

A survey was conducted to find out the best Gram Panchayat in the country and in a letter to the state government the Ministry of Panchayati Raj has stated that Digambarpur GP at Patharpratima block in South 24-Parganas has come up as the best out of 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats in the country.

Manipur’s Karang is India’s first cashless island

Karang, a small lake island in Manipur, has become the country’s first cashless island.

The Union ministry of electronics and information technology under its Digital India programme announced Karang as the first cashless island in India on Friday. Confirming it, deputy commissioner M Harekrishna of Bishnupur district said the island fulfilled the Centre’s necessary criteria.

The Karang island is located in the middle of Loktak, the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India.

The campaign was held from January 9 to 12. Karang Island Boat Association and Panthoibi Khoyol Standard Association extended help in holding campaigns on cashless transactions.

Winners Of 1st Print Biennale India 2018 Given Away Awards In New Delhi

Lalit Kala Akademi organised the award ceremony of the '1st Print Biennale India 2018 (PBI)' in New Delhi.

The Chief Guest of the programme was Ms Sujata Prasad, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Culture.

Arup Kumar Kuity (Andhra Pradesh), Satya Narayana Gavara (Andhra Pradesh), Preya Bhagat (Uttar Pradesh), Purvi Parmar (Gujrat) and Sonal Varshneya (Uttar Pradesh) were given the award in the 1st PBI

Paytm Payments Bank claims to have 100M KYC registered wallets

Paytm Payments Bank claims that it now has over 100 million KYC-registered wallets — which includes both complete and minimum KYC (know your customer).

This development comes even as there have been indications in the digital paymentsindustry of a sharp fall in mobile-wallet users as customer authentication did not take off.

Paytm Payments Bank, where flagship company One97 Communications holds 49% and Vijay Shekhar Sharma directly owns the other 51%, claims that of over 100 million KYC completed, 76 million have been done through biometrics.

India Won 8th South Asian Judo Championship

India won 8th South Asian Judo Championship held in Lalitpur, Nepal.

On the concluding day of the championship, Indian women and men won team events.

Keeping the unbeaten streak, Indian women whitewashed the championship by beating host Nepal by 5-0 in the final of team events. 

Indian men also won the team championship. They defeated Pakistan by 3-2 in the final.

Earlier Indian women grabbed all 7 gold medals in the individual category while men bagged 3 gold and 3 bronze medals.

India topped the medal tally winning 10 Gold and 3 Bronze medals in the individual category. Host Nepal remained second and Pakistan got third place. 

Canada will host the world’s female foreign ministers

Canada will host the world’s small but growing band of female foreign ministers for talks ahead of this year’s UN General Assembly, Canada’s Chrystia Freeland announced Sunday. Freeland opened a meeting in Toronto of G7 foreign ministers with a session, co-hosted by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, dedicated to her women counterparts.

Alongside the male chief diplomats from most of the G7 major industrialized powers, were female ministers from Ghana, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, Guatemala and Colombia. Freeland said she and Mogherini had decided to host talks on September 21 and 22 ahead of UNGA just for these “inspiring” female foreign ministers.  “We are sure that such an initiative will give rise to some very constructive discussions,”

Sources :- Nation. PIB,The Hindu, Economics Times