Current Affairs, April 2018

30th April, Current Affairs:

• Varanasi is selected for the next Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which will be held in the month of January, 2019.

27th April, Current Affairs:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in China on a two-day visit. He has met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the capital of the Chinese province of Hubei.
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stepping over the border to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Kim Jong-un became the first North Korean leader to cross the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone into South Korea.

26th April, Current Affairs:

• Thirteen children were killed and several others critically injured after a school van carrying them was rammed by a train at an unmanned crossing at Behpurva in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh.

25th April, Current Affairs:

• India is ranked 138 in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index. Norway topped the list for the second year in a row.

23rd April, Current Affairs:

• Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the Opposition’s impeachment notice against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra.
• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) becoming the first Indian company to breach market capitalisation (m-cap) of $100 billion.

22nd April, Current Affairs:

• Earth Day 2018 is celebrated today.
• Sitaram Yechury has been unanimously re-elected as the CPM's general secretary.
• World's oldest Person Nabi Tajima dies in Japan at the age of 117.
• Barcelona scores 5-0 against Sevilla to win the 30th Copa Del Rey Trophy.
• Indian golfer Rahil Gangjee became the third Indian after Jyoti Randhawa and Jeev Milkha Singh to win a Japan Tour title. Rahil Gangjee on Sunday clinched the Panasonic Open title.

21st April, Current Affairs:

• Civil Services Day is observed today in India.
• Time magazine unveiled its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. It includes of 45 women and 45 people under the age of 40. Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella were also included in the list.

20th April, Current Affairs:

• Bengaluru FC defeated East Bengal 4-1 to win the inaugural Super Cup football tournament in Bhubaneswar.

19th April, Current Affairs:

• Miguel Diaz-Canel formally elected as the Cuba’s new President after Raul Castro is stepping down from Cuba's presidency. He will become the first non-Castro to lead the island in six decades.
• Maharashtra now becomes open defecation-free state, having provided access to toilets to all its residents. In October 2017, the state declared its urban areas as ODF and now, rural Maharashtra has followed suit.

17th April, Current Affairs:

• The New York Times and New Yorker magazine have won a joint Pulitzer Prize. This year, Kendrick Lamar becomes the first non-classical or jazz artist to be given the Pulitzer Prize for music.

15th April, Current Affairs:

• The 2018 Commonwealth Games concluded today. India finished 3rd in the Medal Tally with 66 medals, including 26 Gold at Gold Coast, Australia. Australia tops the list with a total of 198 medals including 80 Gold medals.

14th April, Current Affairs:

• Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian javelin thrower to claim a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, with 86.47m in the final.

13th April, Current Affairs:

• The 65th National Film Awards announced today. Vinod Khanna was honoured with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award. Sridevi won Best Actress National Award for the movie MOM. Best Actor National Film Award went to Riddhi Sen for the Bengali film Nagar Kirtan.
• Assamese film Village Rockstars won Best Feature Film and also the National Film Awards for Best Editing and Best Location Sound.
• Anish Bhanwala became India's youngest ever gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games at the age of 15 years. He won gold medal in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Gold Coast, Australia.

12th April, Current Affairs:

• ISRO successfully launches IRNSS-1I navigation satellite which is carried into space by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket's 'XL' variant.
• Indian badminton star Kidambi Srikanth became world No. 1 in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings after replacing Denmark's Viktor Axelsen.

11th April, Current Affairs:

• 257 people died after an Algerian military plane crashed near an airbase outside the capital Algiers.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates 16th International Energy Forum in New Delhi.
• The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has decided to hold the Asia Cup cricket tournament in the United Arab Emirates which was previously schedule in India. BCCI will be hosting the event in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

8th April, Current Affairs:

• Kings XI Punjab opener KL Rahul scores the fastest fifty in 14 balls in the Indian Premier League (IPL) history in a match against Delhi Daredevils.

7th April, Current Affairs:

• World Health Day is observed today.
• Leander Paes became the most successful doubles player in Davis Cup history after he recorded his 43rd career doubles win in a match played against China.
• The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League starts from today with the first match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium.

6th April, Current Affairs:

• International Day of Sport for Development and Peace 2018 is observed today.
• Mithali Raj became the most capped player in women's ODI cricket. Till now she played 192 One Day matches.

5th April, Current Affairs:

• Bollywood actor Salman Khan sentenced to five years in jail by Jodhpur court for killing blackbucks while on a film shoot in Rajasthan 20 years ago.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its bi-monthly monetary policy keeping the repo rate unchanged at 6% and the reverse repo rate at 5.75%.
• Weightlifter P Gururaja wins the first medal for India in the 21st Commonwealth Games. He wins silver in the men's 56kg category. Indian weightlifter Mirabai Chanu wins India's first gold medal in the ongoing Commonwealth Games in the women's 48kg.

4th April, Current Affairs:

• Prince of Wales inaugurates the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Australia's Gold Coast. The Indian contingent consisting of over 200 athletes was led by flag-bearer PV Sindhu.

3rd April, Current Affairs:

• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru tops in the HRD Ministry’s rankings of national institutes for 2018. IIT Madras recognised as the best Engineering institution while Miranda House, New Delhi recognised as the best college in the country.

2nd April, Current Affairs:

• Delhi becomes the first city in India to initiate sales of BSVI-compliant fuel in order to combat the rising levels of air pollution.
• India is now the second largest mobile phone producer in the world after China, as per information shared by Indian Cellular Association. As per information shared, annual production of mobile phones in India increased from 3 million units in 2014 to 11 million units in 2017.
• The mortal remains of 38 Indians killed by the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq in 2014 arrived in Delhi on an IAF C17 aircraft.

1st April, Current Affairs:

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has lost contact with GSAT-6A, which was launched last Thursday aiming to provide mobile communication facilities.