Daily Current Affairs, 08th February 2018

1)  5th South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference Held In New Delhi

•The Fifth edition of South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference was held in New Delhi. It was hosted by Public Procurement Division (PPD) of Ministry of Finance and All India Management Association (AIMA).

•It was held under auspices of South Asia Region Public Procurement Network (SARPPN), which is sponsored and facilitated by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank. The theme this edition of the conference was “Public Procurement and Service Delivery”.

2)  Arunachal Pradesh CM Lays Foundation Stone For Rhododendron Park

•Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prema Khandu laid the foundation stone for Rhododendron Park in Tawang.

•He also carried out plantation drive of different varieties of Rhodos. Tawang is home to 50+ different varieties of Rhodos.

3)  First Ever Chat Based Job Search App 'Empzilla' Launched

•The first ever of its kind in the country chat-based job search mobile app 'Empzilla' is being launched that will do away with existing limitations of employers and job seekers making selection process quick and cost-effective.

•The mobile app gets the conversation between employers and job seekers going in seconds and the latter can chat with the potential employers.

4)  HAL Develops First Hawk-I Flight

•The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has developed the first flight of Hawk-i with indigenous Real Time Operating System (RTOS). Hawk-i is the first indigenous RTOS developed in India from scratch and certified by Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC). 

•The RTOS is the system software which provides a standard run-time environment for real-time applications execution in a safe and reliable manner.

5)  Bermuda Becomes 1st Country In World To Abolish Same-Sex Marriage

•Bermuda has become the first country to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage. Bermuda’s governor John Rankin approved a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry, despite a supreme court ruling last year authorising same-sex marriage.

6)  RBI To Link Base Rate With MCLR

•The Reserve Bank of India will link the base rate with the MCLR from 1st of April 2018 to ensure expeditious transmission of its policy rate to borrowers. The RBI had introduced the Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rates (MCLR) system with effect from 1st April 2016, the Central bank observed that a large proportion of bank loans continue to be linked to Base Rate.

•According to the RBI Deputy Governor NS Vishwanathan, it has been decided to harmonize the methodology of determining benchmark rates by linking base rate to MCLR as it is more sensitive to policy rate signals.