Daily Current Affairs, 28th December 2018

1) 12th Annual ISDSI Conference Held in Mumbai

•SPJIMR hosted the 12th Annual Indian Subcontinent Decision Sciences Institute (ISDSI) Conference at SPJIMR, Mumbai. The theme of this international conference is “Data-Driven Decision Making in the Digital Age”.

•The main objective of this conference is to provide a platform for academicians, researchers and practitioners to disseminate research, providing insights into the challenges, opportunities, emerging strategies and analytical tools in the domain of decision making.

2) Maharashtra Launches Vajpayee International Schools For Rural Students

•Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched the ‘Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Schools’ for students in rural areas.

•Initially, 13 Zilla Parishad (ZP) schools would be part of the international board and it would be expanded in the coming years.

3) 41st Meeting of Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee Held in New Delhi

•The 41st meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee was held in New Delhi. In the meeting, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of another 3,10,597 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). 

•A total of 864 projects with a project cost of Rs 14,662 crore with central assistance of Rs 4,658 crore has been approved in the meeting held under the Chairmanship of Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

•The cumulative number of houses sanctioned under PMAY(U) now is 68,54,126. Uttar Pradesh has been sanctioned 1,08,135 houses while the sanction for Karnataka is 1,05,502 affordable houses. 

4) National Children’s Science Congress Begins In Bhubaneswar

•Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated 26th edition of National Children’s Science Congress in Bhubaneswar in which as many as 800 students from ten Asian and seven Gulf countries are participating.

•This year’s theme is ‘Science, Technology and Innovations: For clean, green and healthy nation’. It is for the second time that the National Children’s Science Congress is being organized in Odisha. Earlier, the mega event was held in 2015. 

5) India Announces INR 4,500 Crore Assistance To Bhutan

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs. 4,500 crore financial assistance to Bhutanfor its 12th five-year plan after holding wide-ranging talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering. The new five-year plan of Bhutan began in 2018 and will continue till 2022.

6) Nepal Caps Expenditure Of Its Citizens In India

•Nepal imposed a monthly limit on the amount of Indian currency its citizen can spend in India. A spokesperson of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) stated that a Nepali citizen would be unable to spend more than INR 1 lakh per month while paying for goods and services in India.

•The decision was taken to address the country’s current account deficit. The policy applicable to prepaid, credit and debit cards of Nepali banks came into effect.

7) Ministry Signs MoU To Develop A Mobile Audio Guide App For 5 Iconic Sites

•K J Alphons, Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism, handed over a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme to Resbird Technologies for development of a mobile Audio Guide App for five iconic sites.

•The five iconic sites for which the mobile Audio Guide App is to be developed are Amer Fort (Rajasthan), Kaziranga (Assam), Colva Beach (Goa), Kumarakom (Kerala) and Mahabodhi Temple (Bihar).

8) Madhya Pradesh’s Divya Patidar Joshi Crowned Mrs. India 2018 Title

•The Mrs. India My Identity Beauty Pageant 2018 finale was held in Delhi and Divya Patidar Joshi was crowned with the prestigious honor.

•Hailing from Madhya Pradesh’s Ratlam, Divya won the crown of Mrs India this year from among 24 promising contestants. She won all the rounds of Beauty with Brain contest along with Best Cat Walk title.