04 January 2018 Current Affairs
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Pak Navy successfully tests missile in Arabian Sea
The Pakistan Navy demonstrated its ability to respond to any aggression by conducting a test fire of a cruise missile – Harba Naval Cruise Missile, which is a surface-to-surface anti-ship missile, from its newly commissioned Fast Attack Craft (Missile), PNS Himmat, off Karachi in the North Arabian Sea.
Israel passes law requiring super-majority to relinquish control over Jerusalem
Israel’s parliament passed a law requiring a supermajority to relinquish control over any part of Jerusalem, a move that could hamstring the city’s division in any future peace deal. The amendment bars the government from ceding Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem without approval of at least 80 of the legislature’s 120 members. But the law itself can be overturned with a simple majority, making it largely symbolic. The law also permits the government to remove outlying Palestinian neighborhoods from the city.
Bharat Biotech’s Typbar-TCV: WHO approves Indian typhoid vaccine for global use
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has given its pre-qualification to Typbar Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TVC) developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech for global use. Typbar TCV is world’s first typhoid vaccine clinically proven to be administered to children from six months of age to adults, and confers long-term protection against typhoid fever. It has been evaluated in Human Challenge Studies at Oxford University.
APGVB introduces Desktop ATMs in Rural India
The Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank (APGVB) has operationalised its first desktop ATM in Telangana. The mini-ATM within the branch premises will facilitate customers to withdraw small amounts. At the same time, regular bank account holders can withdraw money and do other banking activities. With these ATMs, there will be no need for separate ATM rooms, so there is no security issue. This initiative is the biggest under the SBI and among the best regional rural banks (RRBs).
Sushma Swaraj embarked on tour of 3 Southeast Asian Nations
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj left on a 5-day visit to three South East Asian countries – Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. On the first leg of the visit, Ms Swaraj will reach Thailand and will hold an official meeting with Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai. During the visit to Indonesia, Ms Swaraj will co-chair the 5th meeting of India-Indonesia Joint Commission. In Singapore, the External Affairs Minister will inaugurate the Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas of ASEAN countries. She will have bilateral meetings with the leaders in Singapore.
Nation-wide cleanliness survey ‘Swachh Survekshan’ launched
The nation-wide cleanliness survey ‘Swachh Survekshan’ was launched across India on 4 January 2018. The main objective of the survey is to evaluate the achievements in the cleanliness level in Urban areas. Deemed as the world’ biggest survey, it will be conducted in over 4,000 cities with a population of more than 40 crores. It will run till 10 March 2018.
4 January: World Braille Day
World Braille Day is celebrated every year on January 4th to commemorate the contribution of Louis Braille for blind people of the world. He invented a reading and writing system which helped blind people in learning and reading. The day marks the importance of teaching and providing equal opportunity to blind people and highlights the problems faced by them. The Braille system is a representation of letters and symbols within a grid in rows. The inventor, Louis Braille created the system after he went blind at the age of five due to an accident.