25-26.03.18 APSC (Assam) Current Affairs

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ASSAM

  • Assam electricity tariff to fall by 14 paise/unit from April

 

  • Power tariff in Assam will fall by about two per cent from next month with the regulatory body announcing a cut in energy charges.

 

  • The energy charges have been reduced by 20-30 paise per unit. The Commission has marginally increased the fixed/demand charges for most categories. This has resulted in an overall decrease of 2 per cent (14 paise/unit) as compared to the existing tariff.

 

  • AERC said the cut in energy charges for Jeevan Dhara segment will be 10 paise, while it will be cut 50 paise for public lighting for every unit consumed.

 

  • However, fixed charges were not raised for 2-3 categories as the rates were already higher than that of other segments.

 

  • AERC said that after final adjustment for 2016-17 and considering the standalone revenue requirement for 2018-19, the cumulative revenue surplus worked out to Rs 109.56 crore, the benefit of which has been passed on to the consumer by revising the tariff with effect from April 1, 2018.

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

  • Government nominates J S Rajput as Representative to the Board of UNESCO

 

  • The Government of India has decided to nominate Professor J S Rajput, former Director NCERT, as India’s representative to the Executive Board (EXB) of UNESCO.

 

  • Professor J S Rajput is an eminent educationist with rich experience in various fields including UNESCO.

 

  • The EXB has a four-year term of office and 58 seats.

 

  • The executive board is one of the constitutional organs of UNESCO and is elected by the General Conference.

 

 

·        India U-16 Win Hong Kong Football Tournament

 

  • The India U-16 team emerged champions in the Jockey Cup International Youth Invitational Football Tournamentwith a victory over Hong Kong U-17 in the final in Hong Kong.
  • The tournament was a U-17 event where India fielded their U-16 National Team.
  • This was the team’s third consecutive victory in as many days. The team was coached by Bibiano Fernandes.

 

·        SWIFT Introduces Universal Real-Time Payment Tracking

 

  • SWIFTannounces the extension of its GPI Tracker to cover all payment instructions sent across the network, enabling GPI banks to track all their SWIFT payment instructions at all times, and giving them full visibility over all their payments activity.
  • The Tracker, which has been available since May 2017, enables banks that have signed up to the service to track their GPI payments in real-time.

 

 

 

NATIONAL

 

  • West Bengal tops the list of states with most number of beggars

 

  • The government has come out with the total number of beggars in the country. As per the data released by Union ministry of Social Justice, there are around 4 lakh beggars in total.

 

  • The highest number of beggars, 81,000, are in West Bengal.

 

  • West Bengal is followed by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar at number two and three respectively.

 

  • Lakshadweep, a union territory, has only two people begging for their livelihood.

 

  • UIDAI set to introduce face authentication feature from July 1

 

  • The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is all set to make face authentication available alongside iris or fingerprint scan as means of verifying Aadhaar users from July 1, 2018.

 

  • The UIDAI, which is in-charge of the 12-digit identifier Aadhaar, in January had announced that it will introduce face authentication feature to help those who run into problems in biometric authentication due to old age, hardwork or worn-out fingerprints.

 

 

·        Asias Largest Tulip Garden In Srinagar Opens For Visitors

  • Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was opened for visitors in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir.
  • It is recognized as the Asia’s largest tulip garden.
  • This year, 12.5 lakh tulip bulbs of 48 varieties were sown in the garden by the floriculture department.
  • Apart from the tulips, 40,000 hyacinth bulbs have also been planted.

 

  • 5th India Maize Summit 2018

 

  • Maize production in India has seen a boom in recent years which has been possible due to increase in area as well as productivity.

 

  • This was stated by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Radha Mohan Singh at the inaugural event of the 5th India Maize Summit 2018 at FICCI, New Delhi.

 

  • Delivering the inaugural address, Shri Singh said that during 1950-51, India produced only 1.73 MT, which has reached 25.89 MT in 2016-17 and is expected to cross 27 MT in 2017-18.

 

  • The average productivity in India is 2.43 ton/ha.