Daily News

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Rathore replaces Irani as I&B Minister in Cabinet rejig

In a portfolios reshuffle, Smriti Irani was replaced with Rajya Vardhan Rathore as Information & Broadcasting Minister, as well as Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal, will be looking after the Finance Ministry (additional charge) till the time FM Arun Jaitley is not fit enough to handle the assignment.

Did you Know

Rajya Vardhan Rathore is also the Union Minister of Sports and Smriti Irani is the Union Textile Minister.

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Gender bias caused ‘excess’ deaths of girls under 5: Lancet study

According to a study in the online, open access, peer-reviewed journal Lancet Global Health There have been 2,39,000 “excess deaths” per year of girls under the age of five in India, and 29 out of 35 States contributed to this mortality. That works out to about 2.4 million deaths in a decade, and the additional deaths were found in 90% of districts in the country.

The researchers calculated the difference between these two numbers in 46 countries that consistently did not have a problem with gender discrimination.

Did you Know

Excess mortality is the difference between observed and expected mortality rates in both genders.

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Article 35A case for statute Bench

The Supreme Court will examine fervent pleas for a five-judge Constitution Bench to decide whether special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir is unconstitutional.

According to Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, Centre will make submissions on the constitutionality of Article 35A of the Constitution which gives the State Legislature carte blanche to decide who all are the “permanent residents” of the State and grant them special rights and privileges in public sector jobs, acquisition of property within the State, scholarships and other public aid and welfare programmes, which gives Jammu and Kashmir special status.

Did you Know

Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order i.e. The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954.

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Lt-Gen. S. Sangwan is Assam Rifles chief

Lieutenant-General Sukhdeep Sangwan, an alumnus of the Chennai-based Officers Training School, took charge as the 20th Director-General of Assam Rifles.

He replaces Lt. Gen. Shokin Chauhan, who was the helm of the Indian subcontinent’s oldest paramilitary force, for almost two years. Lt. Gen. Sangwan has participated in Operation Blue Star, Operation Vijay, and Operation Parakram.

Did you Know

The Assam Rifles is the oldest paramilitary force of India, it was formed in the year 1835.

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PM headed for Sochi to meet Putin

According to Ministry of External Affairs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold an informal summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on May 21. For the purpose of exchanging views on international matters in a broad and long-term perspective with the objective of further strengthening their special and privileged strategic partnership. National developmental priorities and bilateral matters will also be discussed.

Did you Know

Vladimir Putin recently took Oath of Office for Fourth Term as Russian President and India and Russia are working on a roadmap to get around the new US sanctions regime that seeks to deter countries from buying Russian weapon systems.

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U.S. opens New Embassy in Jerusalem

The US officially relocated its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by opening its new embassy in Jerusalem. It has become the first country to dedicate an embassy at the disputed city which is claimed as a capital by both Israeli and Palestinian people.

Israeli dignitaries and guests attended a ceremony in Jerusalem to open the U.S. Embassy following its relocation from Tel Aviv.

Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they hope to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Did you Know

US, Guatemala, and Paraguay are the countries that have opted to shift their embassies in Israel to Jerusalem.

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DoT approves merger of Bharti Airtel and Telenor India

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has approved the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel.

The Supreme Court last week rejected DoT’s petition for the security deposit of around Rs 1,700 crore from the companies and directed it to approve the merger. The guarantee included Rs 1,499 crore for one-time spectrum charge for the radio waves allocated to Airtel without auction, and over Rs 200 crore for spectrum payment which Telenor must make.

The merger will bolster Airtel’s spectrum footprint in seven telecom circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.

Did you Know

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa, it is the first operator to launch 4G services.

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South Indian Bank Q4 net rises 51% to ₹114 cr.

South Indian Bank’s fourth-quarter net profit rose 51% to ₹114.10 crore from ₹75.55 crore in the year-earlier period, their focus on retail, MSME, and agriculture is consistently delivering improvement in the operating performance of the bank as the operating profit for the year stood at ₹1,481 crores.

The bank’s gross non-performing assets stood at 3.59% as on March 31, 2018 (2.45%) while net NPAs were 2.60% (1.45%).

Did you Know

South Indian Bank Limited is a major private sector bank headquartered at Thrissur in Kerala, India. SIB was the first scheduled Bank in the private sector in Kerala to get the license under section 22 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 from and the First bank in the private sector to start an Industrial Finance Branch in March 1993.

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RBI bars Allahabad Bank from giving fresh loans

According to RBI norms, Allahabad Bank had breached the first risk threshold for capital which is breach of either CAR or common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio, barring it from extending fresh loans, under its prompt corrective action (PCA) framework, after the lender fell short of minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) requirement.

The bank’s CAR was 8.69% as on March 31, 2018, against the regulatory minimum requirement of 9%.

Did you Know

Allahabad Bank is a nationalised bank with its headquarters in Kolkata, India. It is the oldest joint stock bank in India.

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Heena Sidhu bags gold at International Shooting Championship.

Heena Sidhu clinched the gold medal while compatriot P Shri Nivetha settled for bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol at the International Shooting Competitions of Hannover (ISCH)

She was tied with France’s Mathilde Lamolle on 239.8 points. She won the tie to win the gold ahead of Mathilde.

The finish marks a strong build-up to next week’s ISSF World Cup in Munich.

Did you Know

The ISSF Munich World Cup will be held from May 22 to 29.

Heena Sidhu had won a gold in the women’s 25m pistol event in Gold Coast and a silver in 10 metre air pistols.

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Eminent theoretical physicist Sudarshan aged 86,dies

Theoretical physicist Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan, a former director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, who did pioneering work in a variety of areas like elementary particle physics, quantum field theory, and quantum optics, between the 1950s and 1970s died at the age of 86 in Texas, USA

He was honored with several prestigious awards like ICTP Dirac Medal, Padma Vibhushan (2007), Padma Bhushan, Majorana Prize, TWAS Prize, Bose Award (1977) and C V Raman Award (1970).

Did you Know

E.C.G Sudarshan challenged Albert Einstein’s theory that nothing with mass can travel faster than light, He developed a quantum representation of coherent light later known as Sudarshan Glauber representation.

He was recommended for the Nobel Prize for Physics nine times but never awarded.