Current Affairs 22 January 2018 1. Om Prakash Rawat Appointed as New Chief Election Commissioner ● Om Prakash Rawat appointed as new Chief Election Commissioner of India. ● Mr Rawat, who is currently an Election Commissioner, will succeed the outgoing Achal Kumar Joti. ● Ashok Lavasa, a former finance secretary and an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1980 batch, has been appointed as an Election Commissioner, to fill up the vacancy left behind by Mr Rawat in the three-member poll panel. ●
Sunil Arora is currently the other Election Commissioner.
2. PM Modi leaves for Davos to attend World Economic Forum ● Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Davos, Switzerland to attend the 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. ● Modi will be the first prime minister to represent India at the forum in over 20 years. The last visit by an Indian prime minister to Davos was in 1997 when Deve Gowda led the Indian delegation. ● Under the theme “Creating a shared future in a Fractured World”, the meeting aims to set an agenda to address political, economic and Social challenges of recent times. Important points: World Economic Forum ➢ Headquarters: Cologny, Switzerland ➢ Founder: Klaus Schwab ➢ Founded: 1971
3. Anandiben Patel appointed as the new Governor of Madhya Pradesh ● Former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel appointed as the new Governor of Madhya Pradesh.
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The President of India is pleased to appoint Anandiben Patel to be the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office.
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76-year-old Patel was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2014, when incumbent Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister, in August 2016, when she resigned the post.
4. MeitY launches new Cyber security initiative ● The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) launched Cyber Surakshit Bharat - an initiative to strengthen cybersecurity. ● Launched in association with National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and industry partners at an event here, this initiative is the first public-private partnership of its kind and will leverage the expertise of the IT industry in cybersecurity. ●
Cyber Surakshit Bharat will be operated on the three principles of Awareness, Education and Enablement.
5. Raipur organises nation’s first Kachra Mahotsav ● The Raipur Municipal Corporation in Chhattisgarh has organised the city’s first garbage festival. It is the first Kachra Mahotsav in India. ● The aim of the festival to increase awareness, use the waste generated in the city creatively and to showcase multiple techniques for reusing things that are labelled as garbage.
Important points: Chhattisgarh ➢ Capital: Raipur ➢ Chief Minister: Raman Singh ➢ Governor: Balram Das Tandon
6. Sushma Swaraj inauguration of Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK)
● The Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) at Karaikal in the Union Territory (UT) of Puducherry was inaugurated by Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Hon’ble Minister for External Affairs. ● The POPSK at Karaikal is the 60th POPSK to have become functional since the launch of the scheme in January 2017. ●
The POPSK at Karaikal is the first POPSK to
become operational in the UT of Puducherry.
7. Telangana, Tokyo body sign MoU for municipal waste incineration ● The Telangana government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Clean Authority of Tokyo in connection with municipal solid waste incineration. ● They will exchange knowledge in municipal solid waste incineration facilities and make an effort to realize human resource exchanges in view of technical cooperation in the future.