Daily Current Affairs, 05th April 2018

1)  Cabinet Approves Protection Of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018

•The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018 for better protection and promotion of human rights in the country.

Salient Features of the Bill are as follows:

•It proposes to include “National Commission for Protection of Child Rights” as deemed Member of the Commission;
•It proposes to add a woman Member in the composition of the Commission;
•It proposes to enlarge the scope of eligibility and scope of selection of Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission as well as the State Human Rights Commission; and
•It proposes to incorporate a mechanism to look after the cases of human rights violation in the Union Territories.
•It proposes to amend the term of office of Chairperson and Members of National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commission to make it in consonance with the terms of Chairperson and Members of other Commissions.

2)  Russia Starts Building Turkey's 1st Nuclear Power Plant

•The Turkish Atomic Energy Authority (TAEK) was awarded a construction licence for Akkuyu NPP, Turkey's first nuclear power plant, which is being built in Mersin province, in southern Turkey. JSC Akkuyu Nuklear is the Russian-owned company which is responsible for the project.

•The USD20 billion project to build the four-unit, 4800 MWe plant is part of Erdogan's '2023 Vision' marking 100 years since the founding of modern Turkey and is intended to reduce the country's dependence on energy imports. The plant is expected to meet about 10% of Turkey's electricity needs. 

3)  Himanta Biswa Sarma Elected BAI President

•Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was unanimously elected the Badminton Association of India (BAI) President during its annual general body meeting in Goa.

•Ajay Kumar Singhania was elected the Secretary General of BAI. Mr Sarma had taken over as the interim BAI President in 2017 after the demise of Akhilesh Das Gupta. He will serve for four years.

4)  1st Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement Released By RBI

•On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation at its meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.0%.

•Consequently, the Reverse Repo Rate (RRR) under the LAF remains at 5.75%, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.25%. India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth marginally upward to 6.6% from 6.5% in the first advance estimates. GDP growth in 2017-18 at 6.6 percent was lower than 7.1% in 2016-17.

•Retail inflation, measured by the year-on-year change in the CPI, fell from a high of 5.1% in January to 4.4% in February due to a decline in inflation in food and fuel. CPI inflation excluding food and fuel remained unchanged at 5.2% for the third consecutive month in February, after rising from its trough in June 2017. 

5)  Subrata Bhattacharjee Appointed As Next Ambassador Of India To Serbia

•Subrata Bhattacharjee has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Serbia.

•He is an IFS poffice of 1989 batch. He is currently Joint Secretary in Ministry of External Affairs

6)  CWG 2018: Mirabai Chanu Wins India’s First Gold Medal

•Weightlifter and current world champion Mirabai Chanu has clinched India’s first gold medal of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Mirabai Chanu becomes the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games 2018.

•After finishing with the best lift of 86 kg in the snatch round, the 23-year-old finished with a total score of 196 points. Chanu is competing in the 48 kg category. The 23-year-old also set Commonwealth Games records in both Snatch (86 kg) and Clean and Jerk (110 kg) categories.