Current Affairs

Uday Kotak redesignated as MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank

The board of directors of Kotak Mahindra Bank has redesignated Uday Kotak as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 May, 2018. Mr. Kotak was earlier executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director.

"The Board of Directors has re-designated Mr. Uday Kotak as Managing Director & CEO with effect from 1 May 2018, in line with good governance practice," the bank said in the notification to the exchanges.



Paytm Tap Card Launched, Allows Offline Payments in Less Than a Second

Paytm has launched a new payment mode, Tap Card, that it is promoting as India's first "truly offline payments solution."

It is a card that uses NFC to transfer money on company-authorised Point of Sale (PoS) terminals, and is aimed at non-Internet users.

The Paytm Tap Card uses enables safe and convenient digital payments with the help of NFC, completely offline at  PAYTM -issued PoS terminals in under a second, the company says. To make payments, users can add money from their Paytm account by scanning the QR code on the Tap Card and by authenticating it at any of the add value machines (AVM). It also addresses any network-related concerns at the consumers' or merchants' end.



Rafael Nadal beats Stefanos Tsitsipas to win 11th Barcelona Open title

World number one Rafael Nadal produced an imperious display to win his 11th Barcelona Open title with a 6-2 6-1 win over Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Nadal, 31, who won his 400th clay-court match to reach the final, claimed two rapid breaks to take the first set in 40 minutes against the 19-year-old.

World number 63 Tsitsipas, playing the Spaniard for the first time, succumbed in 77 minutes.

Nadal has won 19 successive matches, and 46 consecutive sets, on clay.



Google marks Dadasaheb Phalke's birthday with Doodle

Google on Monday dedicated its creative doodle to mark the 148th birth anniversary of the father of Indian Cinema Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke.



Maharashtra government signs MoU with British Council on education and cultural collaboration

MUMBAI: The government of Maharashtra on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British Council to strengthen educational and cultural cooperation between the two nations, the organisation said.

The announcement comes at a time when the UK's international culture and educational arm completes seventy years of its existence in India and on the heels of PM Narendra Modi's visit to London.



Sikkim's Pawan Chamling Becomes India's Longest-Serving Chief Minister

GUWAHATI:  Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling became the longest-serving chief minister of any state as he completed 25 uninterrupted years in office. He broke the record of former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who held office for 23 years.

The founding president of the ruling Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) became chief minister in December 1994.

With the slogan "New Sikkim, Happy Sikkim", he launched policies and programmes to transform the state.



Snap’s second-generation Spectacles are more grown up — and more expensive

Given Snap’s struggles in hardware, it’s fair to ask why the company is trying again. The reason is that hardware has the potential to be a much better business for Snap than software does. It enables new services, it can be sold at healthy profit margins, and it’s harder for competitors to copy.

Hardware is extremely difficult to do well — but if Snap can pull it off, hardware could help the company chart a profitable path forward. (It lost $720 million last year.)



Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in agree to denuclearise Korean peninsula: Highlights of the Panmunjeom Declaration

North Korean premier Kim Jong-un, in a historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, agreed to end a six-decade-long war and vowed to denuclearise the Korean peninsula.

Leaders of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) held an Inter-Korean Summit Meeting at the 'Peace House' at Panmunjeom on 27 April, 2018. In an event keenly watched by the whole world, including 80 million Korean people, the two leaders declared that there a new era of peace has begun as they vowed to deepen people-to-people interaction amid the two Koreas.



World Day for Safety and Health at Work

This year, the World Day for Safety and Health at Work (SafeDay) and the World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) are coming together in a joint campaign to improve the safety and health of young workers and end child labour.

The campaign aims to accelerate action to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 8.8 of safe and secure working environments for all workers by 2030 and SDG target 8.7 of ending all forms of child labour by 2025. Achieving these goals for the benefit of the next generation of the global workforce requires a concerted and integrated approach to eliminating child labour and promoting a culture of prevention on occupational safety health (OSH).



Next "Informal" Meet In India, PM Invites China's Xi Jinping: 10 Facts

  1. Seeking to make the informal summit an annual affair, PM Modi said he would be happy to host President Xi for another such round of talks in India next year.
  2. In his remarks at the delegation-level talks, PM Modi emphasized the global leadership role the "two major powers" India and China could play.
  3. "In the last 1600 years, the economies of India and China have contributed about 50 per cent of the global economy," said PM Modi. President Xi stressed that "a good China-India relationship is an important and positive factor for maintaining peace and stability in the world".
  4. PM Modi proposed a five point agenda for bilateral ties - common vision, better communication, strong relationship, shared thought process and a shared resolve.
  5. On Saturday, both leaders are expected to spend more time together in one-on-one talks with just interpreters accompanying them.
  6. PM Modi and President Xi will walk along the banks of the East Lake and take a ride on a boat together in an effort to try and cement the strong chemistry they had developed in earlier summit meetings.
  7. There may not be any joint statement at the end of the talks and neither side wants to be bogged down by outstanding issues which remain a thorn in equations between the two nations. 
  8. The visit comes months after a standoff involving Indian and Chinese forces at Doklam when the two armies stood eyeball-to-eyeball for 73 days in the high altitude area claimed by Bhutan but occupied by China. 
  9. India has concerns about its sovereignty being affected by the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Beijing has also blocked India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and has avoided declaring Masood Azhar a globally designated terrorist.
  10. "Our talks were extensive and fruitful. We deliberated on stronger India-China relations as well as other global issues," Modi tweeted at the end of the first day of talks.