18th January 2018 The Hindu and PIB Daily Current Affairs

1) Supreme Court: Khap Panchayats, parents, etc. can't interfere in marriage of adults

It also said that any kind of attack and interference (especially in intercaste marriages) is "absolutely illegal"

Central Government is asked to control such attacks and ban Khap Panchayats.

Khap Panchayats are caste/community organisations representing clan/group of clans.

2) Defence Acquisition Council(DAC) simplified Make-II procedure

Make-II procedure: prescribes guidelines to develop & manufacture defence equipment through Indian industry

Aim: To encourage participation of private sector in defence design & production and give boost to "Make in India" programme in Defence sector

How simplified?

-Government control will be minimal in production
- Defence Ministry can accept suo motu proposals from industry and also allow start-ups to develop equipment for armed forces
- Minimum qualification criteria to participate in "Make-II" relaxed: Credit rating conditions are removed and financial net worth criteria is reduced

3) Xian Smog Tower: China builds world's biggest Air Purifier:

• Its height is more than 100 meter.
• It is built to find low cost method to artificially remove pollutants from atmosphere such as PM 2.5, Nitrates,Sulphur dioxide, etc

Working:

Polluted air is sucked into glasshouses of tower and then heated by solar energy.

The hot air moves through multiple cleaning filters and decrease air pollution.

It will be capable of purifying the air for small-sized city.

4) World Environment Award,2018 [ Energy Globe World Award]

It is the international award in field of environment instituted by Energy Globe Foundation.

Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences has won in 'Fire' category: It is the only Indian institute to get awarded.

5) Presidency University (earlier College) in Kolkata to have its own museum

• University is 200 years old.
• It will showcase the history of the institution since its inception in 1817 as Hindu College
• It will showcase rare documents of Dr. Amartya Sen (his paper:Bigyaponer Authority); attendance records of scientist JC Bose, physicist SN Bose; rare copy of Newton's Principia Mathematica

6) Maharashtra is the 1st state to unveil Public Cloud Policy:

It virtually mandates state government departments to shift their data storage onto cloud.

This will result in additional private sector investments for cloud industry as government is one of the biggest creators and consumers of data.