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CURRENT AFFAIRS DETAILS

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1 YouTube To Invest $25 Million In Countering Fake News

Google-owned video-sharing platform YouTube has announced it will invest $25 million to fight fake news -- especially for the urgent coverage of breaking news -- on its platform for over 1.8 billion monthly active users.

The investment will be part of the Google News Initiative (GNI), first introduced in March by the tech giant, to help the media and to deal with fake news.

"We''re establishing a working group with news organisations and experts from around the world to help us develop new product features, improve the news experience on YouTube and tackle emerging challenges," said Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer at YouTube, in a blog post late on Monday.

"News organisations including Vox Media, Jovem Pan and India Today are early members of the working group. We''re looking forward to having more join as we convene the group in the coming weeks," added Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer.

11-Jul-2018 News in Details
2 Smt. T. Latha takes charge as MD and CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank Limited

Smt. T. Latha takes charge as MD and CEO of Dhanlaxmi Bank LimitedSmt. T. Latha has taken charge as MD & CEO of the Bank w.e.f July 2, 2018 in place of G. Sreeram who has retired from the office on July 01, 2018 on completion of his tenure.

Smt T Latha has 35 years of banking experience with Punjab National Bank across a host of roles and responsibilities including Branch Management, Regional Management and National Level Credit Management handling a portfolio of approximately INR 40,000 crores.

As a General Manager in Punjab National Bank, Smt. T.Latha was in charge of credit operations dealing with large corporate credits including consortium accounts of Rs 50 crore and above.

As Deputy General Manager, Smt T.Latha was in charge of Mumbai and Trichy circles of Punjab National Bank.

She has handled Finance, Credit, Strategic Business Development, People Management, NPA Resolution and Audit and has received many awards across her 35 year career with Punjab National Bank.

Smt T.Latha is a MBA holder in finance and post graduate in MA literature. She has also passed the Limited Insolvency Exam and CAIIB.

11-Jul-2018 News in Details
3 India women's coach Tushar Arothe resigns

Less than five months before the Women's World T20, Tushar Arothe has stepped down as the head coach of the Indian women's team, soon after reports of discord within the team had surfaced after their Asia Cup loss. Although he cited "personal reasons" as the primary reason for resigning, Arothe revealed strained relations with some of the Indian players, who he said need to step out of their "comfort zone" for a better future of Indian women's cricket.

Arothe's resignation comes on the heels of India's loss in the final of the Asia Cup last month, to Bangladesh by three wickets. Immediately, reports of alleged discord between Arothe and some of the high-profile players surfaced.

Those speculations gained further weightage after Arothe last week met BCCI officials including Diana Edulji, the former India women's captain, who is part of the the Committee of Administrators (CoA). The BCCI accepted Arothe's resignation, which he tendered on Monday evening.*

Arothe's resignation coincides with the completion of two skills-specific camps he had been overseeing at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru since June 30. Before leaving for his home town Baroda, Arothe emphasised while he "had one of the best support staff to work with", he hoped the players showed "more intent" to take on challenges to "move to the next level."

11-Jul-2018 News in Details
4 Govt sets noise standards for airports across India

The Union environment ministry has issued a notification setting noise standards for all airports across the country. The limits, however, exclude defence aircrafts, and those that are landing and taking-off.

The notification, issued on June 18, states that noise standards within the overall boundary for various airports are equivalent and applicable as ‘Industrial Zones’. “The noise limits specified shall replace and supersede the ambient air quality in respect of noise limits of existing zones: silence, residential, and commercial areas,” the notification read undersigned by Dr. A Senthil Vel, scientist, ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) that termed the Environment (Protection) Amendment Rules, 2018.

The rules state that busy airports — a civil airport with more than 50,000 aircraft movements per year (take-off or a landing) – should not exceed noise levels beyond 75 dB(A) Leq (decibels) during the day time (6am to 10pm) and 65 dBA during the night (10pm to 6am). All other airports — an airport having more than 15,000 but less than 50,000 movements annually — should not exceed levels beyond 65 dBA during the day and 60 dBA during the night. Proposed airports however, are excluded so far.

10-Jul-2018 News in Details
5 WhatsApp publishes full-page ads in newspapers, lists 'easy tips' to fight fake news

As rumours on WhatsApp continue to spread unchecked, the messaging app owned by social media giant Facebook Inc on Tuesday published a full-page advertisement in Indian newspapers with tips to fight fake news. 

This comes a week after the US-based social media platform said the government, civil society and technology companies need to work together to fight fake news, misinformation, and hoaxes.

WhatsApp has shared several “easy tips” to find out if the information in the message is true or not. Among 10 tips, the first one is to understand if the message is a forward. The company has suggested looking for other sources of the same information, leaving groups to control what you read, questioning information that may upset you among other tips. 

10-Jul-2018 News in Details
6 India, South Korea sign 5 MoUs in S&T

India and South Korea have signed five MoUs in the field of Science & Technology. Union Minister for Science & Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan and his South Korean counterpart, Mr. You Young Min signed three MoUs for (i) Programme of Cooperation 2018-21; (ii) Establishment of Future Strategy Group; (iii) Cooperation in Biotechnology & Bioeconomy. The MoU on Establishment of Future Strategy Group was signed by Indian Science & Technology and Commerce Ministers, while on the Korean side, it was signed by Science and ICT and Trade Ministers.

Two other MoUs were signed between Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and South Korean National Research Council for Science & Technology and IIT Mumbai and Korea Institute of Science &Technology, to further accelerate future-oriented cooperation in their respective sectors. The MoUs were signed at the conclusion of the 4th India-Korea Science & Technology Ministers Steering Committee Meeting.

In the area of biotechnology, New Delhi and Seoul have agreed to extend cooperation in health and medicine, agro-fishery products developed with the adoption of biotechnology; environment-related challenges and developing environmental and energy sectors through bio-technology, big data biotechnology; bio-research resources; synthetic biology, genome editing and microbiomes, etc.

The Ministers also agreed to establish a Future Strategic Group, which will build a collaborative platform that can utilize the potential of both the countries towards fostering innovation and create impact which is of social and economic good. To begin with, both sides will be co-funding collaborative enterprise-led joint R&D projects covering (i) Digital Transformation (ii) Future Manufacturing (iii) Future Utilities and (iv) Health Care.

Both countries renewed the Programme of Cooperation in the field of Science and Technology for 2018-21 to augment the cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation.

10-Jul-2018 News in Details
7 Asian Games 2018: Sreejesh to lead Indian hockey team as Rupinder returns

Hockey India on Monday announced the 18-member men's squad for the upcoming Asian Games 2018, which is slated to begin in Jakarta and Palembang from August 18.

Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will continue to led the Indian side as Indian forward Akashdeep Singh has made a return to the squad after being sidelined due to an injury.

Meanwhile, experienced drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh has also been named in the squad after being rested for the Champions Trophy.

10-Jul-2018 News in Details
8 Brexit Secretary David Davis resigns

David Davis, who has been leading UK negotiations to leave the EU, has quit his role as Brexit Secretary

He told the BBC that he was no longer the best person to deliver the PM's Brexit plan - agreed by the cabinet on Friday - as he did not "believe" in it.

He said the "career-ending" decision was a personal one but he felt the UK was "giving away too much and too easily" to the EU in the negotiations.

Mrs May said she did not agree but thanked him for his work.

The resignation is a blow to Mrs May as she seeks to win over Eurosceptic MPs to her proposed Brexit vision, which would form the basis of the UK's position in on-going talks with the EU.

10-Jul-2018 News in Details
9 England v India: Rohit Sharma's unbeaten century ensures T20 series win for visitors

Rohit Sharma made a stunning 100 not out to help India beat England by seven wickets in the third Twenty20 and secure a 2-1 series victory.

England, batting first, could manage only 87 runs from the final 10 overs to post 198-8 in Bristol, despite Jason Roy's 67 from 31 balls.

Rohit shared an 89-run stand with Virat Kohli and accelerated in the final overs to put India in control.

He and Hardik Pandya closed out the match with eight balls to spare.

It was the highest successful run chase by any team against England in an international T20.

09-Jul-2018 News in Details
10 SAMSUNG SETS UP THE WORLD'S LARGEST MOBILE FACTORY IN NOIDA

In front are open fields with grazing cattle, to the left are under-construction residential societies and to the right is its existing facility — this where Samsung has set up what is the world's largest mobile factory.

Not China or South Korea — and certainly not the US — the tag of housing the world's largest mobile factory has straight away put Noida on top of the world manufacturing map when it comes to consumer electronics.

The new 35-acre Samsung Electronics facility at Sector 81 in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South Korean President Moon Jae-in landing together at a quickly-prepared helipad adjacent to the factory to officially inaugurate it on Monday.

One of the first electronics manufacturing facilities set up in the country in the early 1990s, the plant started by manufacturing TVs in 1997. The current mobile phone manufacturing unit was added in 2005

In June last year, the South Korean giant announced a Rs 4,915 crore investment to expand the Noida plant and, after a year, the new facility is ready to double production.

The company is currently making 67 million smartphones in India and with the new plant being functional, it is expected to manufacture nearly 120 million mobile phones.

Not just mobiles, the expansion of the current facility will double Samsung's production capacity of consumer electronics like refrigerators and flat-panel televisions, further consolidating the company's leadership in these segments.

09-Jul-2018 News in Details