Today Current Affairs | Latest Affairs 21st January 2018

Latest Current Affairs Jan 21 2018

This Day in History – January 21

Quick Read – Jan 21 Current Updates

Detail Read – Jan 21 Current Updates

Quick Read – Current Affairs Jan 21

National News

Have complete information about National News by reading below Current Affairs Jan 21.

111 women were felicitated by President Ram Nath Kovind for their work in their respective fields.

• President Ram Nath Kovind felicitated 111 women for their remarkable journey as “first ladies” in their respective fields.
• Beno Zephine, India’s first 100% visually-impaired person to join the Indian Foreign Service was among the awardees.
• She passed the civil services examination with a rank of 343 in the coveted foreign service. She is currently serving in the Indian embassy in Paris.
• Women and child development ministry had organized the event at Rashtrapati Bhawan, where the “first ladies” were felicitated.
• The event saw India’s first woman bartender, the first coffee taster and the first train driver and first woman porter and the first woman detective.

Lockheed Martin proposes to manufacture F-16 fighter jets in India.

• American aerospace and defense major Lockheed Martin has proposed to manufacture F-16 fighter jets in India.
• With this deal, Indian industry will become a part of the world’s largest fighter aircraft ecosystem.
• F-16 provides the path to business relationships with Lockheed Martin, the only company in the world that has designed, developed and produced operational fifth generation fighter aircraft.
• Technology improvements will also continue to flow between the F-16, F-22 and F-35 for decades, at a fraction of the cost to F-16 operators.
• The platform provides unmatched opportunities for Indian companies of all sizes, including micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and suppliers throughout India, to partner with Lockheed Martin.
• The aircrafts will get modern avionics, modernised cockpit, advanced weapons, longer range with conformal fuel tanks, auto ground collision avoidance capability, and an advanced engine with an extended service life.

India became a member of export control regime Australia Group.

• India has become a member of export control regime Australia Group which checks proliferation of chemical and biological weapons.
• This is the third group India has joined after Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and Wassenaar Arrangement.
• The government said that India had joined the Australia Group (AG) on January 19, 2018 following the completion of internal procedures for joining the Group.
• The Group decided to admit India as the Group’s 43rd participant through a consensus decision.
• Australia Group works to counter the spread of materials, equipment and technologies that could help development or acquisition of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) by states or terrorist groups.

International Affairs

Latest International Current Affairs Jan 21 Updates from around the globe. 

World Economic Forum (WEF) to kick off in Davos on Monday.

• The annual World Economic Forum (WEF) to kick off in the Swiss resort of Davos on Monday.
• PM Narendra Modi will participate in theeveny along with 130 participants from India.
• “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World” is the theme of the forum this year.
• More than 3,000 world leaders from the diverse segments such as business, art, academia, politics and civil society will be part of the event.
• Modi will be accompanied by six union ministers — Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, M J Akbar and Jitendra Singh.
• US President Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is also expected to attend the event.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK PM Theresa May and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau are among the other dignitaries.

Island volcano in Papua New Guinea erupts.

• An island volcano in Papua New Guinea erupted on Sunday, sending plumes of steam and ash into the air.
• Thousands of people have been evacuated from islands surrounding Kadovar Island.
• Flights nearby have been canceled due to the risk posed by ash plumes and ships were warned to stay away from the island.
• Experts warned last week that seismic activity beneath the volcano meant that a major eruption could be imminent.
• Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has said support for evacuations are underway and he has warned northern coastal communities to be alert for possible tsunamis.
• Kadovar is off the northern coast of New Guinea, the larger island that includes Papua New Guinea’s capital, Port Moresby.
• Papua New Guinea sits on the “Ring of Fire,” a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific that has frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Business News

Check out the latest trending business Current Affairs Jan 21 updates by reading the news.

Tata Group to merge 5 private equity units into a single $1bn fund.

• The Tata Group is combining its private equity (PE) business into a single big fund.
• Tata Capital runs five funds worth over $1 billion — making it the largest corporate-sponsored PE franchise in the country.
• A growth equity fund ($250 million), healthcare fund, innovations fund and special situations fund are the other four operations that make up Tata Capital’s PE platform.
• Praveen Kadle, current CEO and MD of Tata Capital since its formation, will be leaving this April.
• ICICI Bank veteran and ex-True North partner Rajiv Sabharwal, will be replacing him.
• Tata Opportunities Fund has invested in Uber, Ginger hotels, Tata Sky, Shriram Properties, Varroc Engineering and TVS Logistics.
• Tata Capital Growth Fund has invested in Janalakshmi Financial Services and Star Health Insurance among others.

ONGC buys government’s stake in HPCL for Rs 36,915 crore.

• State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) announced acquisition of government’s entire 51.11 per cent stake in oil refiner HPCL for Rs 36,915 crore.
• ONGC will pay Rs 473.97 per share for 77.8 crore shares of the government in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL).
• EY, ONGC’s own valuation adviser had put HPCL’s valuation at Rs 475 a share plus a premium for getting the controlling stake. Citi put the price at Rs 500 per share.
• Finance Ministry said that the Government of India has entered into an agreement with ONGC today for strategic sale of its 51.11 per cent equity share-holding in HPCL at a consideration of Rs 36,915 crore.
• In this process, ONGC has acquired significant mid-stream and downstream capacity and will attain economies of scale at various levels of operations.
• With a turnover of Rs 2,13,489 crore and profit of Rs 6,502 crore during 2016-17, HPCL ranks at 384th position in Fortune Global 500 and 48th place in Platts 250 Global Energy Companies.

Wipro headcount falls, to focus on local hiring.

• Wipro‘s total headcount at the end of December fell due to the impact of automation which makes basic jobs redundant.
• It had 162,553 employees on December 31, compared to 163,759 on September 30.
• It giant has increased hiring in the NITs and IITs.
• Govil explained the criteria to hire in the current age is a candidate’s aptitude to learn and learning agility.
• “The concept of hiring has now changed to re-skilling.
• The company said it has also stepped out hiring in its overseas markets with 55% of its US employees being local, up from 36% twenty months ago.
• The number is as high as 95% in Latin America and 66% in continental Europe.
• Wipro is hiring talent at entry level, grooming them and then aiming to create local leadership.

Sports Updates

Current Affairs Jan 21 is bringing you with Records, titles and other updates from the world of sports.

`Dabbawalas’ of Mumbai ran the Mumbai Marathon.

• Mumbai’s famed `dabbawalas’ participated in the Mumbai Marathon on Sunday  to promote their recently launched `Roti Bank’ initiative.
• “Roti Bank” is an initiative by the dabbawalas to avoid food wastage. Under it, the dabbawalas have set up a dedicated call centre where people can inform if they have excess food.
• It would be collected and distributed to homeless people who otherwise would have starved on that day.
• Members of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association (MDA) took part in the marathon to sensitise people about the initiative.

FC Goa defeats Kerala Blasters 2-1 in ISL.

• FC Goa beat Kerala Blasters FC’s 2-1 in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL).
• Ferran Corominas scored his 10th goal of the season in the seventh minute while another Spaniard, Edu Bedia, secured the winner in the 77th minute after CK Vineeth had drawn his team level in the 29th minute.
• The win gave FC Goa 19 points from 10 matches but they continue to be placed fourth on the table.

Vladimir Kramnik defeats Viswanathan Anand.

• Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was defeated by Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament, in Netherlands.
• The Italian opening by the Indian became very complicated when Anand decided to keep his king in the middle of the board and Kramnik showed deep understanding in finding the right man oeuvres.
• Anand slipped to joint sixth spot from his overnight joint second position.
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan stretched his lead to a full point after his third straight victory in the tournament.
• Anand, on four, shares the sixth position along with Sergey Karjakin of Russia.
• Indian masters – B Adhiban played out a draw with Maxim Matlakov of Russia to inch his tally up to 1.5 points.
• In the challengers section, grand master Vidit Gujrathi was again held to a draw by Lucas Van Foreest of Holland.

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