16 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs for Competitive Exams – Daily GK Digest

Read Latest Current Affairs 2018  for All Competitive Exams like UPSC, State Civil Services like – RAS, PMPSC, TNPSC, IAS, RRB etc. Our Daily Current Affairs Digest will also help for aspirants preparing for banking exams IBPS PO Clerk, SBI, RBI in current affairs sections.You can keep track of all your old posts month wise – All Current Affairs Post Month Wise .   Our current Affairs Bulletin includes articles from National Events, New Government Schemes and initiatives, New Appointments along with important international affairs, Sports, Business, Banking Current Affairs, Science and Tech which are useful for all government job aspirants and private Job aspirants.

Current Affairs National

Pune tops in improved quality governance

• Pune has emerged as the top city to show improvement in quality of governance, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
• The other cities that came in the top five include Kolkata,Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat. 
• While Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Patna and Chennai constituted the bottom five cities, said the survey conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and WHO sign an Agreement for enhanced cooperation in the health sector 

• The Union health ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) inked an MoU for enhanced cooperation in the health sector.
• The agreement was signed and exchanged between Joint Secretary (Health Ministry) Lav Agarwal and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, in the presence of Union Health Minister J P Nadda.
• Tedros complimented the government of India on the initiatives taken to expand universal health coverage through the Ayushman Bharat programme.

NCRB launches Mobile App useful for Citizens on its 33rd Inception Day 

• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) celebrated its 33rd Inception Day on Wednesday and released “Citizen Services” Mobile App.
• Shri Rajiv Jain, Director, IB was the Chief Guest and Dr. A.P. Maheshwari, DG, BPR&D was the Guest of Honour on this occasion.
• NCRB has introduced a Mobile App template, which is a bouquet of 9 police related services, for the citizen. 
• These services will provide smooth interface between Citizens and Police. 

IATA partners with civil aviation ministry in India

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Tuesday said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the National Aviation University to enhance human resource availability in India’s aviation industry.
• The understanding among other provisions also provides for developing closer academic cooperation between IATA and National Aviation University

PM Narendra Modi inaugurates 105th Indian Science Congress in Manipur

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 105th Indian Science Congress at Manipur University on Friday.
• The Vice-chancellor of Manipur University, Prof Adya Prasad Pandey earlier told reporters that the Science Congress will be held for the first time in the state and will be attended by some 5000 delegates comprising of scientists, scholars and corporate officials from different parts of the country and other countries.

Current Affairs Business and Economy

Exports up 4.5% in Feb to $25.8 billion

• Continuing the positive growth path, India’s exports grew by 4.5% in February to $25.8 billion, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said. 
• Imports, too, rose by 10.4% to $37.8 billion during the last month, leaving a trade deficit of $12 billion. 
• The country’s merchandise exports are showing continuous positive growth, Teaotia told reporters.

Paytm launches gold savings, gifting services under wealth management offering

• Mobile application based financial services platform Paytm has announced the launch of two new services – Gold Gifting and Gold Savings Plan as part of its wealth management offering, Paytm Gold.
• The company said customers can now send 24k 999.9 purity gold to each other instantly – offering them a convenient gifting solution.

GST one of the most complex, has second highest tax rate

• The goods and services tax (GST) implemented by the Narendra Modi government from 1 July last year is one of the most complex with the second highest tax rate in the world among a sample of 115 countries which have a similar indirect tax system, the World Bank said in a report.
• India’s GST structure has five tax slabs of 0, 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%.

Current Affairs Sports

Indian Wells tennis semifinals

• Roger Federer defeated Chung Hyeon 7-5, 6-1 to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday night and equal his career-best start of 16-0 from 2006.
• Venus Williams defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semifinals at the same event where she first broke out as a 16-year-old qualifier in 1997.

Current Affairs World

Oklahoma to become first U.S. state to use nitrogen gas for executions

• Oklahoma plans to start using nitrogen gas for executions, officials said on Wednesday, in what would be the first such method of capital punishment in the United States.
• The state is turning to nitrogen after it and other states became unable to acquire drugs required for lethal injections because of opposition from manufacturers to their products being used for capital punishment.
• Nitrogen is an odorless and tasteless gas that makes up about 78 percent of the air humans breathe but causes death when inhaled without any oxygen.

Angela Merkel elected for 4th term as German chancellor

• Germany’s parliament elected Angela Merkel for her fourth term as chancellor on Wednesday, putting an end to nearly six months of political drift in Europe’s biggest economy.
• Lawmakers voted 364-315 to re-elect Merkel, Germany’s leader since 2005, who ran unopposed. 

Trump announces Larry Kudlow as his new chief economic adviser

• US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that Lawrence Kudlow will be his new chief economic adviser and chairman of the national economic council.
• Kudlow, a prominent Republican economic analyst, will succeed Gary Cohn, who resigned earlier this month.

Current Affairs Miscellaneous

Apple blocks Iran from App Store

• Apple has blocked access to its App Store for users in Iran, the media reported.
• The Cupertino-headquartered giant does not sell its products or operate its App Store in Iran and now it has blocked all the traffic coming from the country and also from accessing its App Store in any capacity.

Google Assistant is now available in Hindi language

• Google on Thursday announced the integration of Hindi language in Assistant. Google Assistant in Hindi is now available for devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above.
• Google Assistant was previously available in Hindi but only on the company’s messaging app Allo. 

Also Read Complete Month GK Post :

Month March, 2018

1. 15 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
2. 14 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
3. 13 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
4. 12 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
5. 11 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
6. 6-10 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
7. 5 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
8. 4 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
9. 3 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
10. 2 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs
11. 1 March 2018 GK and Current Affairs