Current Affairs

Home Expo India 2019 begins

The 8th edition of Home Expo India 2019 began at India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida on Tuesday. 

It covers sectors with maximum thrust and growth potential in home decor, furnishing, furniture, flooring and textiles. About 500 companies in permanent marts will be exhibiting their collection under these categories.  The three-day exhibition has been organized by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts. 

Textile Ministry in a release said, handicrafts exports during the year 2018-19 was to the tune of 26 thousand 590 crore rupees registering a growth of 15.46 per cent over the previous year.



Tiger Woods clinches his fifth Masters

Golfer Tiger Woods clinched his fifth Masters and a 15th major title, ending 11-year wait for a major title after overcoming career-threatening back problems. There were raucous celebrations around the 18th green as 43-year-old Woods finished with a two-under-par 70 to win on 13 under, one clear of fellow Americans Dustin Johnson,
Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka. 

Overnight leader Francesco Molinari's hopes sunk with two double bogeys on the back nine and he had to settle for a share of fifth on 11 under. Today's thrilling victory puts the former world No.1 just three majors behind the all-time record of Jack Nicklaus.



Prajnesh Gunneswaran rises to career-high ranking of 80

In tennis, continuing his good run, India's Prajnesh Gunneswaran achieved a career-high ranking of 80 in the latest ATP rankings released on Monday. 

The 29-year-old from Chennai, who broke into the top 100 in February this year, improved two places to become the sixth highest in terms of singles ranking in the history of Indian tennis. 

Prajnesh had reached the third round of Indian Wells in his maiden appearance at an ATP Masters event. 

He had also made it to the third round of an ATP 1000 Tournament for the first time in his career at the BNP Paribas Open early this year.

Prajnesh had also entered the main draw of Miami Open to rise to 81 last month.

Another Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan dropped 16 spots to slip out of the top 150. He is now at the 157th position.



NDA is fully committed to fulfilling dreams, aspirations of people of the country: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that NDA is fully committed to fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of people of the country. In an exclusive interview to DD News, Mr Modi said that for the five years the focus was on meeting the needs of people, and the next five years will be spent fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of people of India. 

Prime Minister asserted that NDA govt is committed to the welfare of farmers. Mr Modi said that government launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to provide an assured income support to the small and marginal farmers. 

Prime Minister also said that India has emerged as a major global power during last five years in a multi-polar world scenario. Mr Modi said, India believes in working with everyone for the good of all.



World War II bomb defused in Frankfurt, hundreds evacuated

Some 600 people have been evacuated from their homes in the old city of Frankfurt so specialists could remove a World War II-era bomb that was discovered in the Main River.

Firefighters had discovered the American 250-kilogram (550-pound) bomb during diving training in the river on Tuesday.

Even more than 70 years after the end of the war, bombs and other munitions still turn up regularly in Germany, a testament to the ferocity of the fighting in World War II.



Jharkhand: CRPF jawan, three Maoists killed in encounter

One Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and three Maoists were killed in an encounter in Giridih district of Jharkhand on Monday morning, reported news agency PTI.

Officials said an AK-47 rifle, three bullet magazines and four pipe bombs were recovered from the site. A search operation in underway



India, ASEAN vow to step up ties in maritime sector, boost connectivity

India and ASEAN have resolved to strengthen ties by deepening cooperation in the maritime sector and boosting connectivity.

The two sides made the affirmations at the 21st ASEAN-India Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) held here on April 11-12, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

The meeting was co-chaired by Vijay Thakur Singh, SOM Leader and Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, and Busaya Mathelin, SOM Leader and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thailand.

The ASEAN-India SOM reviewed the strategic partnership and its future direction. It assessed the progress of cooperation under all three pillars — political-security, economic and socio-cultural, the MEA said.



Kerala former Additional Chief Secretary D Babu Paul dies at 77

Former Additional Chief Secretary of Kerala, D Babu Paul died early Saturday at a private hospital here. He had been admitted to the hospital last Friday for heart-related ailments.

Babu Paul, a noted administrator and writer, was 77 and leaves behind a son and daughter. His wife had predeceased him in 2000, family sources said.



Twins study reveals impact of space travel on astronauts

Scientists have found no long-lasting, major epigenetic differences in astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and his twin brother, Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth. Epigenetic changes involve chemical "tweaks" to DNA that can influence gene activity, but the changes don't affect the underlying genetic code itself. The changes affect when and how a gene is read, or expressed, for its protein-encoding instructions.
 
Andrew Feinberg from the Johns Hopkins University in the US said that the study is the dawn of human genomics in space and they developed the methods for doing these types of human genomic studies to draw conclusions about what happens to humans in space.
 
Scientists have long monitored and studied the physiological effects of space travel on astronauts. However, most of these astronauts travel on spaceflight missions of six months or less, not the longer missions required to travel to Mars or elsewhere. Feinberg noted that studying identical twins -- who, by nature, have the same genetic material -- was an important and rare opportunity to compare physiological and genomic changes when one twin went into space and the other remained on Earth.



VRC launched to boost indigenous warship design capabilities

A new state-of-the-art, Virtual Reality Centre (VRC) to provide a major boost to indigenous warship design capabilities of the Navy was inaugurated by Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba in New Delhi on Friday. 

Speaking on the occasion, Lanba said the project will facilitate collaborative design reviews for continuous interaction between designers and end-users to improve design and ergonomics onboard warships.   
  
The Navy said in a statement that the VRC at the Directorate of Naval Design would   provide impetus to "self-reliance and greater fillip" to warship construction under the 'Make in India' initiative of the Indian government.