04th April 2017 :- The Hindu and PIB Daily Current Affairs

1)African envoys seek U.N. probe into Noida attacks:-

Background : African Nationals Who have came to India for the Purpose of Study were beaten up badly by a mob in Greater Noida.

What the African Envoys said:- The African envoys said that the attacks on African nationals in Greater Noida should be investigated by the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations.

They have also accused India of not taking “sufficient and visible deterring measures”.

About UN HRC (Human Rights Council):-The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations System inter-governmental body responsible for promoting and protecting human rights around the world.

The UNHRC is the successor to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR, herein CHR), and is a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly.

The General Assembly established the UNHRC by adopting a resolution on 15 March 2006, in order to replace the previous CHR.

• The UNHRC addresses human rights-related situations in all UN member states. 

• The UNHRC also addresses important thematic human rights issues such as freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, women's rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.

2)IISc India’s best educational institution in HRD ministry’s NIRF rankings:-

Background:- National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India, to rank all institutions of higher education in India.
The NIRF was approved by the MHRD and launched on 29 September, 2015.

The results of the first round of rankings were released on 4 April 2016.

Ranking For 2017:-

Source : MHRD

Source: Livemint

Miranda House College in Delhi was ranked 1 in College Category.

IIM-A was the best Business/Management Institute but overall was Rank 17.


3)Defence Ministry nod to buy Barak missiles:- The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) of the Defence Ministry on Monday approved the purchase of Barak surface-to-air missiles (SAM) for the Navy.

About Defence Aquisition Council:- The DAC, is defence ministry’s highest decision making body for capital acquisitions.
It is Presided over by the Defence Minister.

BARAK Missiles are Purchased from Israel.

4)Kishori Amonkar passes away:-
Who was she:- Renowned Hindustani classical Khyal singer.

She was recognised as one of the foremost singers in the Hindustani tradition(Khyal Singer) and as an innovative exponent of the Jaipur gharana.

Some of the gharanas well known for singing khyals are:- Agra, Gwalior, Indore, Jaipur, Kirana, and Pattiala.

Khayal was popularized by Niyamat Khan (a.k.a. Sadarang) and his nephew Firoz Khan (a.k.a. Adarang), both musicians in the court of Muhammad Shah Rangila.

5)Global initiative launched to fight fake news:-A global alliance of tech industry and academic organisations unveiled plans on Monday to work together to combat the spread of “fake news” and improve public understanding of journalism.

The News Integrity Initiative will launch with $14 million from Facebook, the Ford Foundation, Mozilla and others, based at the City University of New York’s journalism school, which will coordinate research, projects and events.

***Key Point to Remember is that it is launched by Facebook along with others.

6)The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee visited Vikramshila University Monuments and he said that he will talk to Prime Minister for the Revival of the University.

Some Facts:- Vikramashila was established by King Dharmapala (783 to 820) of the Pala Dynasty. in response to a supposed decline in the quality of scholarship at Nalanda.

It was destroyed by the forces of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji around 1200.
It is in Bhagalpur District , Bihar.

7)South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Finance Ministers Meeting in New Delhi:-

Wikipedia

About SASEC:-The South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Program, set up in 2001 when four countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal—agreed to a program of cooperation to accelerate economic growth in the subregion.

Adhering to the same purpose, the Maldives and Sri Lanka joined SASEC in 2014.

Myanmar is the newest Member of the SASEC Family which was welcomed by Arun Jaitley in this years (2017) SASEC Meet.


Some Other Works of this Group :- It has adopted the SASEC Operational Plan, 2016-2025, which defines the strategic objectives and operational priorities in transport, trade facilitation, and energy, as well as for economic corridor development.

Questions:- 

1)What is Hyperloop?
2)Google Lunar Prize
3)Transparency Internation?