Current Affairs 29th and 30th July 2018: Daily GK Update

• John Mathai was the first Railways Minister of Independent India. 

i. Invest India and the UAE Minister for Artificial Intelligence (AI) signed an MoU for India – UAE Artificial Intelligence Bridge in New Delhi. This partnership will generate an estimated USD 20 billion in economic benefits during the next decade for both countries. 

ii. The MoU was signed in the presence of Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu and H.E. Ahmad Sultan Al Falahi, Minister Plenipotentiary – Commercial Attache, UAE Embassy at the India leg of GovHack series of World Government Summit. 

Static/Current Takeaways Important for SBI PO/Clerk Exam 2018- 

• The UAE Capital- Abi Dhabi, Currency- UAE dirham.

i. The National Green Tribunal formed a monitoring committee on the cleaning of the Yamuna River. The tribunal headed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson A K Goel directed the committee to develop an action plan on the same and submit it by September 2018 and submit a detailed report on the issue by December 31, 2018. 

ii. The green panel has appointed retired expert member B S Sajwan and former Delhi chief secretary Shailaja Chandra as members of the committee. 

i. The Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development &Entrepreneurship  Dharmendra Pradhan laid the foundation stone for permanent campus of National Skill Training Institute (NSTI) for Women at Mohali, Punjab. This is the first NSTI Institute for Punjab and only one of its kind in India which is exclusively for women.  

ii. The Minister also launched a unique Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) which would admit differently abled persons as well, also a first of its kind in India at Mohali. He a launched India’s first in-phone guide and mobile application “Go whats That”  in Chandigarh. 

i. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched projects worth 60,000 crore rupees at the ground-breaking ceremony in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. 

ii. The ceremony was held to implement 81 of the 1,045 MoUs signed at the Uttar Pradesh Investors’ Summit. The projects launched will create about 2.1 lakh jobs across the state. 

i. With a view to resolve the stress and revive such assets, the Government has decided to set up a High-Level Empowered Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary, Pradeep Kumar Sinha with representatives from the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal and the lenders having major exposure to the power sector.

ii. The Committee would look into the various issues with a view to resolve them and maximise the efficiency of investment including changes required to be made in changes required in the provisioning norms/Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Asset Restructuring Company (ARC) Regulations and any other measures proposed for revival of stressed assets so as to avoid such investments becoming NPA. 

i. Assam released the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), seven months after it released the first draft on 1 January 2018, which included 1.9 crore names out of a total applicant pool of 3.29 crore. The recently released list, however, left our 40.07 lakh people wherein 2.89 crore people were found eligible out of 3.29 crore applicants.

ii. What is the NRC?

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is the list of Indian citizens of Assam. It was prepared in 1951, following the census of 1951.

• The United Nations Secretary-General- Antonio Guterres, Headquarters- New York, the USA, Established in- 1945. 

13. ONGC Presented With INFRA Icon Award

• ONGC is the world’s second largest exploration and production (E&P) company.
• Chairman & Managing Director- Shashi Shanker.
• Registered Office- New Delhi.