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1 Current affairs for today (21) IAS ACADEMY-RICE India China to take part in Brahmaputra festival The five-day Brahmaputra river festival titled Namami Brahmaputra’ organised by the BJP-led government in Assam, will witness significant participation from China. According to the event organisers, described as the “biggest river festival of India,” various other countries such as Vietnam and Singapore are also attending. The Brahmaputra, 2,900 km long, is an international river with 918 km of it flowing in India, 1625 km in China and 337 km in Bangladesh. The festival will begin on March 31 with an event scheduled to be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee. The festival which will be celebrated in 21 districts will have eight road-shows in various cities as well as two international road-shows. It will also showcase indigenous sports, local food, handicrafts as well as film festivals. The festival will conclude on April 4. Assam govt to make Sanskrit compulsory The Assam govt have decided to implement Sanskrit compulsory till Class VIII only after having “general consensus” and removing “practical difficulties”. More mothers under the knife than before In India, there has been an 8.7 percentage jump in C-section deliveries in 2015-16 compared to 2005-06. While such deliveries went up across all states, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Manipur saw an increase of more than 10 percentage points. Paid maternity leave extended to 26 weeks Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has welcomed the Parliament nod to the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Women working in the organised sector will now be entitled to paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from 12 weeks. The bill will benefit about 1.8 million women.

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Current affairs for today (21) IAS ACADEMY-RICE

India

China to take part in Brahmaputra festival

The five-day Brahmaputra river festival titled ‘Namami Brahmaputra’ organised by the BJP-led government in Assam, will witness significant participation from China.

According to the event organisers, described as the “biggest river festival of India,” various other countries such as Vietnam and Singapore are also attending.

The Brahmaputra, 2,900 km long, is an international river with 918 km of it flowing in India, 1625 km in China and 337 km in Bangladesh.

The festival will begin on March 31 with an event scheduled to be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The festival which will be celebrated in 21 districts will have eight road-shows in various cities as well as two international road-shows. It will also showcase indigenous sports, local food, handicrafts as well as film festivals.

The festival will conclude on April 4.

Assam govt to make Sanskrit compulsory

The Assam govt have decided to implement Sanskrit compulsory till Class VIII only after having “general consensus” and removing “practical difficulties”.

More mothers under the knife than before

In India, there has been an 8.7 percentage jump in C-section deliveries in 2015-16 compared to 2005-06. While such deliveries went up across all states, such as Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Manipur saw an increase of more than 10 percentage points.

Paid maternity leave extended to 26 weeks

Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya has welcomed the Parliament nod to the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Women working in the organised sector will now be entitled to paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from 12 weeks. The bill will benefit about 1.8 million women.

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The new law will apply to all establishments employing 10 or more people, and the entitlement applies only up to the first two children. For the third child, the maternity leave entitlement will only be for 12 weeks

NIO finds a new canyon system close to Kovvada coast

Scientists of CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Visakhapatnam has found three new canyons forming a major canyon system in the depths of Bay of Bengal close to Kovvada in Srikakulam district.

The finding has been evading them since the last 50 years, and for the first time they have clearly mapped the ocean floor between Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam by sending over 32 high density beams to the depths of the sea

The new canyon system is very huge and probably formed by the river Kandivalasa. The depth of the canyon varies from about 90 metres from the starting point to about 2,500 metres at the deepest point, and it extends to about 50 to 70 km deep into the sea and the width varies from 50 metres to two km.

As per the findings, the depth is more than the Grand Canyon, which is about 1,857 metres. The most interesting part of the fact is most of the canyons in the ocean system across the world act as channels for depositing sediments in the shelf region i.e. the more the deposit, the more are the chances of finding hydro-carbons.

Kolkata’s solar project in EKW under shadow

A proposal to set up a solar power harvesting centre on Dhapa, a part of the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), is awaiting the approval of the West Bengal government which is keen to project Kolkata as a ‘green city.’

However, this proposal may run into hurdles as it involves change in land-use plan of the fragile EKW eco-system. Vegetable farming has been undertaken here for decades and presently an estimated 40% of the city’s vegetables come from these areas.

The proposal is to utilise the unhindered sunshine in this area to generate 1.5 MW of solar power, without disturbing the vegetable-growers. The panels would be mounted on steel structures around 10 feet above the ground of the vegetable-patches in a staggered manner. The project also aims at conserving water by controlling evaporation from the fields. This would be a pilot-project with a scalability potential of 100 MW.

Scheme to link rivers

Rajasthan SP chief Pandit Ramkishan has asked the BJP-led State government to accelerate its scheme to interlink rivers in order to address the severe water crisis in Bharatpur.

While welcoming the plan to interlink rivers to dissolve water crisis, he said the work should be started without any further delay. The former MP is leading a peaceful agitation for the last 10 years to demand water for Bharatpur.

World

Pakistan’s first-ever woman foreign secretary takes charge

Tehmina Janjua assumed charge as Pakistan’s new foreign secretary, becoming the first woman in the history of the country to assume the position.

Janjua replaced Aizaz Chaudhry, a career diplomat who has taken up charge as Pakistan’s new ambassador to the United States. She was long considered a favourite for the position.

Having joined the Foreign Service in 1984, Janjua’s experience has mainly been in multilateral diplomacy.

She served as Ambassador of Pakistan to Italy from December 2011 to October 2015.

Among her other overseas postings are stints at the UN in New York and Geneva.

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Janjua has not served on a major territorial desk at the headquarters, except for a year-long posting at the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe desk at the start of her foreign service career.

China grants preliminary approval to 38 new Trump trademarks

China has granted preliminary approval for 38 new Trump trademarks, a move that offers a potential business foothold for President Donald Trump’s family company and protects his name in a country notorious for counterfeiters.

The trademarks cover everything from hotels and golf clubs to bodyguard and concierge services, public documents show.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers in China applied for the marks in April 2016, as Mr. Trump railed against China at campaign rallies, accusing it of currency manipulation and stealing U.S. jobs. Critics maintain that Trump’s swelling portfolio of China trademarks raises the possibility of conflicts of interest.

China’s Trademark Office published the provisional approvals on Feb. 27 and Monday .

If no one objects, they will be formally registered after 90 days. All but three are in the president’s own name

Nike to launch ‘hijab’ for Muslim women athletes

Nike Inc. will launch a ‘hijab’ for women Muslim athletes early next year. The head covering, marketed under the “Pro Hijab” brand, is designed to allow athletes to observe the traditional Islamic practice of covering the head without compromising performance.

Made from a lightweight, flexible material, the hijab is expected to hit stores shelves in early 2018, Nike said in a statement.

Scientists reveal yellow taxis are safer than other colours

Yellow taxis are 9 per cent less likely to be involved in accidents than blue ones The research came from an analysis of yellow and blue taxis in Singapore The higher visibility of yellow makes it easier for drivers to avoid getting into accidents with them, so

yellow taxis have a lower accident rate If all of the taxis from Singapore's largest taxi firm were switched from blue to yellow, 917 fewer

accidents would occur per year

India slips in human development index

India slipped down one place from 130 to 131 among the 188 countries ranked in terms of human development, says the 2016 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

India’s human development index (HDI) value of 0.624 puts it in the “medium human development” category, alongside countries such as Congo, Namibia and Pakistan. It is ranked third among the SAARC countries, behind Sri Lanka (73) and the Maldives (105), both of which figure in the “high human development” category.

World’s top three

The world’s top three countries in HDI are Norway (0.949), Australia (0.939) and Switzerland (0.939).

What is HDI

The HDI is a measure for assessing progress in three basic dimensions of human development:

a. long and healthy life, b. access to knowledge, c. access to a decent standard of living.

Public health spending

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The report says 1.5 million people worldwide still live in multidimensional poverty.

South Asian levels

54% of them concentrated in South Asia. While poverty fell significantly from 1990 to 2015, inequalities sharpened in the region.

South Asia also had the highest levels of malnutrition in the world, at 38%, and the lowest public health expenditure as a percentage of the GDP (1.6%, 2014).

India’s public health expenditure was even lower, at 1.4% of the GDP.

Child malnutrition also declined by 10 percentage points from 2015, and there was a modest gain in infant and under-five mortality rates.

The report praised India’s reservation policy, observing that even though it “has not remedied caste-based exclusions”, it has “had substantial positive effects”. It pointed out that “in 1965, for example, Dalits held fewer than 2% of senior civil service positions, but the share had grown to 11% by 2001”. The HDR also hailed the national rural employment guarantee programme as a “prime example” of “combining social protection with appropriate employment strategies”.

The report noted with approval India’s progressive laws, especially the Right to Information, National Food Security, and Right to Education Acts.

It commended the Indian grassroots group Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan for popularising social audits of government schemes.

Gender disparity

Noting that women, on an average, have lower HDI than men across the world, the report pointed out that the largest gender disparity in development was in South Asia, where the female HDI value is 20% lower than the male value.

In South Asia, gender gaps in entrepreneurship and labour force participation caused an estimated income loss of 19%. “Between their first and fifth birthdays, girls in India and Pakistan have a 30% to 50% greater chance of dying than boys,” the report noted.

While India’s HDI value increased from 0.428 in 1990 to 0.624 in 2015, it still had the lowest rank among BRIC nations. However, its average annual growth in HDI (1990-2015) was higher than that of other medium HD countries

Scientists discover five new sub-atomic particles

Scientists using the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator have discovered a new system of five particles all in a single analysis.

The uniqueness of this discovery is that observing five new states all at once is very rare, researchers said.

The LHCb experiment is one of seven particle physics detector experiments collecting data at the Large Hadron Collider accelerator at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research).

The collaboration has announced the measurement of a very rare particle decay and evidence of a new manifestation of matter antimatter asymmetry, to name just two examples.

The new particles were found to be in excited states a particle state that has a higher energy than the absolute minimum configuration (or ground state) of a particle called Omega-c-zero.

Sparrows nearing extinction due to lack of emotional connect: conservationist

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The house sparrow that was declared the ‘State Bird of Delhi’ in 2012 is edging towards extinction due to the lack of an emotional connect.

March 20 is observed as World Sparrow Day in 2010.It was inferred that “mindless urbanisation” was leading to a loss of the birds’ natural habitats.

They need a human touch

Sparrows are losing not just their natural habitats but also the essential human touch they need and thrive upon.

“The current generation is so much surrounded by technology that they have forgotten about nature. The indifference caused by a lack of emotional connect has pushed these birds to the edge of extinction,” Mr. Dilawar, who also founded Nature Forever Society for India (NFSI), a non-profit organization to conserve house sparrows, told PTI.

Other factors

The conservationist also attributed the depleting population of sparrows to the increased use of packed food, insecticides in farming, and changing lifestyles, resulting in an inadequate availability of food for the birds.

“Earlier women used to clean grain outside their houses and sparrows would have plenty of food from there. Also the severe use of insecticides in farming is killing sparrows’ primary food source in insects and grains,” Mr. Dilawar has said.

According to him, sparrows are also rendered homeless due to the “matchbox-styled” architecture that makes it difficult for the birds to locate pockets to build nests.

No cavities, no home

Unlike pigeons that can make nests on ledges, sparrows need cavities to build their nests. Since the new matchbox style buildings don’t have cavities, sparrows are now homeless

Founded in 2005, NFSI works actively to spread awareness for bird conservation, besides distributing bird feeders and nest boxes to solve to some extent the scarcity of food and nests.

To track the number of sparrows in the area, the institution also observed a three-day ‘Great Sparrow Count’ starting March 18, during which birdwatchers uploaded bird counts in their respective localities on to a common database

Chinese archaeologists discover huge underwater treasure

Chinese archaeologists have recovered more than 10,000 gold and silver items that sank to the bottom of a river in southwestern Sichuan Province over 300 years ago.

The items included a large amount of gold, silver and bronze coins and jewellery as well as iron weapons such as swords, knifes and spears,.

The characters carved in the gold and silver utensils are still clear and the embossed patterns on the jewellery show exquisite craftsmanship. The treasure site, located in the intersection of Minjiang River and its branch Jinjiang River, is 50 km away south of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province.

It is believed that in 1646, peasant uprising leader Zhang Xianzhong was defeated in the area by Ming Dynasty (1368—1644) soldiers while attempting to transfer his treasure to the south. About 1,000 boats loaded with money and valuables sank during the skirmish.

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Sichuan launched the exploration project in January when the dry season arrived. Several water pumps were used to drain water away day and night.

Hundreds of meters of the river bed appeared after archaeologists dug five meters down, where they found the relics.

Aadhaar to be must for IT returns

The NDA government has proposed to make Aadhaar mandatory for individuals to apply for a PAN (Permanent Account Number) card and file income tax returns from July 1 this year.

The Centre made it mandatory for beneficiaries to quote their Aadhaar number to avail themselves of benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana for skill development, and the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers.

The Centre had identified 31 schemes in which the Aadhaar could be made mandatory. Notifications have been issued in recent months by departments to make Aadhaar compulsory for getting subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act, jobs under the MGNREGA and pension benefits under the Employees’ Pension Scheme.

CBSE moots uniform test patterns from Class 6-8

Close on the heels of making Class 10 examination mandatory again, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has set the ball rolling for putting in place a uniform pattern of examinations and assessment from Classes 6 to 8.

What’s the plan

Aims

To increase the confidence of students to start preparing for Class 10 Board examination, the CBSE has decided to implement a uniform system of assessment, examination pattern and issue of report cards for classes six to eight also on the same pattern.

To ensure not just ease of migration of students from one to another of the 18,688 CBSE-affiliated schools in India, but also ease students' difficulties in taking admission in a new school.

It wants the uniform format to be implemented from the 2017-18 session.

Projects

There will be a calibrated increase in load in the annual exams as per a pre-decided scheme.

In the yearly exam in Class 6, the significant topics of term-1 will have a 10% weightage. The term-1 weightages in the yearly exam will go up after this: 20% in Class 7 and 30% in Class 8.

This gradual upward calibration of the load will prepare the students for the higher effort the Class 10 board examination requires.

The grades awarded for Classes 6 to 8 will range from A1 to E (needs improvement). But in Class 9, E grade will mean “fail”. The reason: the RTE Act has a no-detention policy till Class 8.

OSCAR 2017 at a glance

The biggest night of Hollywood, the 89th Academy Awards was celebrated reverberating the biggest and best names in the movie business.

The award ceremony was held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

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Best Actress in a Leading Role - Emma Stone for 'La La Land'

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Casey Affleck for 'Manchester By The Sea'

Best Director - Damien Chazelle for 'La La Land'

Best Adapted Screenplay - Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for 'Moonlight'

Best Original Screenplay - Kenneth Lonergan for 'Manchester By The Sea'

Best Original Song - 'City Of Stars' from 'La La Land' by Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Best Original Score - Justin Hurwitz for 'La La Land'

Best Cinematography - Linus Sandgren for 'La La Land'

Best Live Action Short - 'Sing' by Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy

Best Documentary Short - 'The White Helmets' by Orlando Von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

Best Film Editing - John Gilbert for 'Hacksaw Ridge'

Best Visual Effects - Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R Jones and Dan Lemmon for 'The Jungle Book'

Best Production Design - David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco for 'La La Land'

Best Animated Feature - 'Zootopia' by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer

Best Animated Short - 'Piper' by Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer

Best Foreign Language Film - 'The Salesman' by Asghar Farhadi

Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Viola Davis for 'Fences'

Best Sound Mixing - Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace for 'Hacksaw Ridge'

Best Sound Editing - Sylvian Bellemare for 'Arrival'

Best Documentary Feature - Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow for 'O J: Made In America'

Best Costume Design - Colleen Atwood for 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them'

Best Makeup and Hairstyling - Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson for 'Suicide Squad'

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) - Mahershala Ali for 'Moonlight'

Meal for Rs. 5 to urban poor in Madhya Pradesh budget

Meal for Rs. 5 to the urban poor, pension to widows and Seventh Pay Commission benefits to employees were key highlights of Madhya Pradesh’s Budget for 2017-2018

Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya presented a Rs. 1,85,564.27-crore budget, which goes to the polls in 2018, with a revenue surplus of Rs. 4596.40 crore

He hiked VAT on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) sold for fuelling at Indore and Bhopal airports, thus making the air travel dearer from these two cities.

J.S. Deepak is India’s WTO ambassador

Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak has been appointed as country's permanent representative to World Trade Organization (WTO).

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Mr. Deepak will take over his new assignment from June 1, 2017 and till then he will be Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Department of Commerce in the Ministry of Commerce.

Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Deepak, a 1982-batch IAS of UP cadre, had handled WTO and other international agencies.

Weapon locating radar for army

The Army received an indigenous weapon locating radar (WLR), named ‘Swati’, from the DRDO. The organisation also handed over a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) recce vehicle and NBC treatment drugs to the Army.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the export potential (of the WLR) would be explored only after the Army’s requirement is fulfilled.

‘Swati’ has a range of 50 km, which brings all artillery guns presently in service worldwide under coverage. Four systems are currently in operation and another 30 are on order for the Army.

Haryana wants Indus Valley renamed as Sarasvati civilisation

Seven months after water was released into a largely dry channel that was dug up to revive the “lost” Saraswati. The Haryana Sarasvati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB) has decided to rename the Indus Valley civilisation as the Sarasvati river civilisation since the “river is no more a myth, its existence is a reality”.

The largest Harappan site Rakhigarhi and the oldest Bhirrana are both in Haryana. The state government is restarting excavation at Kunal in Fatehabad district. Officials maintained that the archaeological sites are along the banks of what used to be the river Saraswati

Prashant Bhardwaj, Deputy Chairman of the HSHDB, said, “We passed a resolution on the concluding day of the conference held during the Sarasvati Mahotsav to rename the Indus civilisation as the Sarasvati civilisation. There are 1097 sites in India associated with the Indus Valley civilisation, while in Pakistan there are only 70 to 80 sites.”

India ranks 122 in 2017 World Happiness Report India ranked at 122 out of 155 countries in the World Happiness Report 2017 published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network on the eve of International Day of Happiness (20 March). The rankings are based factors such as inequality, life expectancy, GDP per capita, public trust (i.e. a lack of corruption in government and business), and social support. Together they are used to generate a happiness score of country on a scale from 1 to 10.This year it is fifth such report since the first was published in 2012.

Key Highlights of report

10 Happiest Countries: Norway (1), Denmark (2), Iceland (3), Switzerland (4), Finland (5), Netherlands (6), Canada (7), New Zealand (8), Australia (9) and Sweden (10).

5 Saddest Countries: Rwanda (151), Syria (152), Tanzania (153), Burundi (154) and Central African Republic (155).

The entire top ten were wealthier developed nations. But the report mentioned that money is not the only ingredient in the recipe for happiness. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and those hit by conflict were ranked lower.

India was placed behind the majority of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, apart from war-ravaged Afghanistan (141). In the previous edition of the report, India ranked 118.

Eight SAARC nations: Pakistan (80), Nepal (99), Bhutan (97), Bangladesh (110) and Sri Lanka (120). Maldives did not figure in the report. BRICS Countries: Brazil (17), Russia (56), China (79), South Africa (116) and India (122).

India ranks 87th on energy architecture performance: WEF

India has marginally improved its position to 87th place on a global energy architecture performance index ,a rank improved three places from 90th last year. But still ranks among the worst for pollution.

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The toppers

Switzerland topped the annual list released by Geneva- based World Economic Forum (WEF) Norway, Sweden, Denmark France in the top five.

According to the findings, the world's biggest energy consumers struggle to take leading positions on the index as they grapple with inherent challenges of their large, complex energy systems and are outperformed by more nimble economies. Bahrain is ranked the lowest at 127th.

India has some of the lowest scores in the EAPI for CO2 emissions from electricity production and PM2.5 levels (117th and 123rd, respectively).

The report, developed in collaboration with Accenture Strategy and launched today at the European Commission, ranked 127 countries based on their ability to provide energy across three dimensions of the 'energy triangle'. Being compiled since 2013, the Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI) is a composite index that focuses on tracking specific indicators to measure the energy system performance of 127 countries. It has 18 indicators defined across the three sides of the 'energy triangle' -- economic growth and development, environmental sustainability, and energy access and security.

Chennai team taps Algorithm to read Indus Script

Ronojoy Adhikari of The Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Satish Palaniappan, from Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, have developed a “deep-learning” algorithm that can read the Indus script from images of artefacts such as a seal or pottery that contain Indus writing.

Scanning the image, the algorithm smartly “recognises” the region of the image that contains the script, breaks it up into individual graphemes (the term in linguistics for the smallest unit of the script) and finally identifies these using data from a standard corpus. In linguistics the term corpus is used to describe a large collection of texts which, among other things, are used to carry out statistical analyses of languages.

The algorithms come under a class of artificial intelligence called “deep neural networks.” The deep neural network mimics the working of the mammalian visual cortex, known as convolutional neural network (CNN), which breaks the field into overlapping regions. The features found in each region are hierarchically combined by the network to build a composite understanding of the whole picture.

The process consists of three phases: In the first phase, the input images are broken into sub-images that contain graphemes only, by trimming out the areas that do not have graphemes. The grapheme-containing areas are further trimmed into single-grapheme pieces. Lastly, each of these single graphemes is classified to match one of the 417 symbols discovered so far in the Indus script.

Indus valley script

The Indus valley script is much older than the Prakrit and Tamil-Brahmi scripts. However, unlike the latter two, it has not yet been deciphered because a bilingual text has not yet been found.

A bilingual text has in many other cases aided archaeologists in understanding ancient scripts, for example, the Rosetta stone. This stone which was found in the eighteenth century carries inscriptions of a decree, issued in 196 BCE, in three parts, the first two in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic and the Demotic scripts, while the bottom is in Ancient Greek. Since the decree was the same, the Rosetta stone provided the key to deciphering Hieroglyphs. For the lack of such a “Rosetta stone,” the Indus script remains undeciphered today.

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It is a major effort to even build a standard corpus of the language and decode the writing on existing artefacts and map them to this standard corpus. The most widely accepted corpora of Indus scripts was brought together by the efforts of Iravatham Mahadevan, noted Indian epigraphist, from the 3,700 texts and 417 unique signs collected so far

Study on fish reveals key to cure blindness

Scientists have discovered a chemical in the zebra fish brain that helps reveal how it regrows its retina, a finding that can potentially cure blindness in humans.

The findings showed that the levels of GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid), a neurotransmitter, best known for its role of calming nervous activity, drop when the unique self repair process kicks in.

Thus, blocking the chemical (GABA) could lead to new treatments for AMD (age-related macular degeneration), the most common cause of blindness and and retinitis pigmentosa.

The structure of the retinas (the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye) of fish and mammals are basically the same and a reduction in GABA might be the trigger for retinal regeneration.

In the study, the scientists injected drugs that kept GABA concentrations in the retinas of newly blinded fish at a high level,

They found that doing so suppressed the regeneration process.

After injecting an enzyme that lowers GABA levels in normal fish, they found that the Muller glia (retinal cells) began changing and proliferating, the first stage in the regeneration process.

The Muller glia (which in fish play a key role in regeneration) is a special type of adult stem cell.

When regeneration is triggered in zebra-fish, the Muller glia begins proliferating and then differentiating into replacements for the damaged nerve cells.

The algorithm trying to read the scripts through scanning

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News at a glance

o 40,000 MW - the new capacity for the scheme for development of solar parks and ultra mega solar projects, recently revised by the government. The capacity of the solar park scheme has been doubled from 20,000 MW after considering the demand for additional solar parks from the states. The solar parks and ultra mega solar power projects will be set up by 2019-20 with financial support of Rs.8100 crore from the centre. Production of 64 billion units of electricity per year will lead to abatement of about 55 million tonnes of carbon every year. All states and union territories are eligible for benefits under the scheme which is up to Rs.20 lakh per megawatt or 30% of the project cost.

1% - the proposed Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on ecommerce companies under the Goods and Services Tax(GST) as decided recently by the GST Council. The GST council also approved the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST). The government plans to roll out GST from July 1, 2017.

M3 - the latest avatar of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) which the Election Commission is looking to ramp up its production ahead of the 2019 Loksabha polls. The plans are to replace all pre 2006 EVMs with M3-the more sophisticated machine with built in self diagnostics, minimal chances of machine failure and the ability to shut the moment any tampering effort is made. The M1 and M2 are the older versions of the EVM with M1 being kept out of use. The first EVM was used in 1982 by poll election and came to be used on a larger scale starting in 1992.

30th June 2017 - the deadline set by government for the people to get biometric identification document-Aadhaar. The government has made Aadhaar mandatory to avail of benefits under nearly three dozen central schemes apart from the midday meal scheme at schools and Sarv Siksha Abhiyan. People should apply for card by 3oth June and till then other documents will be sufficient to get the benefits.

58% - the percentage of the Indian kids below five years are anaemic as per the recently released family health survey (NFHS 4). This means that they suffer from insufficient hemoglobin in the blood, leaving them exhausted, vulnerable to infections and possibly affecting their brain development. The survey which was carried out in 2015-16 covered six lakh households, also showed that around 38% of children in the same age group were stunted,21% were wasted and 36% underweight. Kids with low weight relative to their height are considered wasted, those with low height relative to age are stunted and those with low weight relative to age are underweight.

2017-23 - the period for which India launched its latest plan to phase out a key refrigerant, hydrochloroflurocarbon (HCFC), under its efforts to end the use of ozone-depleting substance (ODS) that harm the environment and human wealth. Though the plan is meant for the period 2017-23 , the goal is to phase out consumption and manufacturing of HCFC by 2030. HCFCs are currently used in sectors including refrigeration, air-conditioning and foam manufacturing. India being a signatory of Montreal Protocol in 1987 has successfully phased out CFCs and halo well in time. After phasing out HCFCs, India will have to work on to phase out Hydro fluorocarbon(HFC). Though HFC is not an ODS, it has climate-damaging potential. India has to phase out HFC by 85% by 2047 over the 2024-26 level(baseline).

INS Viraat - the longest-serving aircraft carrier which was decommissioned from the Naval dockyard in Mumbai recently. It was commissioned in 1959 and had worked with the British Royal Navy and the Indian Navy.

‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ - the Indian film which won the audience award at Glasgow Film Festival recently. Director Alankrita Shrivastava received the award from ‘Doctor Who’ star David Tennant during the fest’s closing ceremony. This film was in the news after it was denied release in India by censor board. The film, which stars Ratna Pathak Shah and Konkana Sensharma in key roles, resolves around the lives of four Indian women seeking more from life than docile domesticity.

DFS - it stands for Double Fortified Salt will be distributed in Uttar Pradesh to help end anaemia. The DFS augments iodised salt with iron, vital to countering anaemia. Professor Levente Diosady, an emeritus professor in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at University of Toronto, is the man behind the salt.

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2% - the number of world millionaires which are in India as per the recently released Knight Frank Global Wealth Report 2017. As per the report India was sixth in 2016 in terms of growth rate in the number of ultra high net worth individuals(UHNWI) and is likely to move up to third rank over the next decade out of 89 countries. In the last 10 years, India added about 500 new UHNWIs annually and over the next decade this number is expected to double with 1,000 new additions every year.

40% - the percentage increase witnessed in institutional births in all Empowered Action Group (EAG) states(Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand) and Assam, according to the National Family Health Survey-4. A rise in the number of institutional deliveries is crucial as it helps reduce maternal and infant mortality, besides ensuring better health for women and children in the long run. Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry are the best states in institutional birth with 99.9% while Rajasthan is worst at 29.6%.

26 weeks - the weeks of paid paternity leave, which will now be granted to women working in the organised sector which is up from earlier 12 weeks, a decision which will benefit around 1.8 million women. The law will apply to all establishments employing 10 or more people and the entitlement will be for the first two children. For the third child, the entitlement will be 12 weeks. With this, India becomes the country with the third highest maternity leave. Canada and Norway grant 50 weeks and 44 weeks respectively as paid maternity leave. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by Lok Sabha recently. Rajya Sabha had passed it in August last year. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 protects the employment of women during the time of her maternity and entitles her full paid absence from work to take care of her child.

Among other things, the bill provides for 12 weeks of maternity leave to a woman who legally adopts a child under three months of age and a commissioning mother (defined as a biological mother) who uses her egg to have a surrogate child.

The bill also requires every establishment with 50 or more employees to provide creche facilities within a prescribed distance. The woman will be allowed four visits to the creche a day. This will include her interval for rest.

The Finance Bill, 2017

The Lok Sabha has recently signed off on the Finance Bill, 2017, and as it turns out, not a lot of people are its fans.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Finance Bill, 2017 is being strongly opposed by the opposition parties of RSP, TMC and BJD. The Opposition has termed the introduction of the amendments as "back-door" legislating and taking away right of Parliament to frame law.

A few things about the Finance Bill, 2017:

1. The Finance Bill, 2017 came along with a number of new legislation, and was passed on March 22.

2. One of the new legislation that is not being appreciated is that Income Tax officers can now raid homes without having to provide any reason for it.

3. Earlier, Section 132 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, made it mandatory for tax authorities to have "reasons to believe" that the person in question had undisclosed assets, and/or was unwilling to disclose information the IT department needed, which gave them the reason to hold a raid.

4. According to the Finance Bill, 2017, any property of the person in question can be "provisionally seized" during a raid. Originally, the IT Act, 1962, only gave the authorities the right to seize assets that were "the subject of the raid".

5. The Bill also give the IT officers the right to raid a property where a charity event is taking place. They can also demand information they need to conduct the surveys.

6. You will now need your Aadhaar card for filing your income tax returns. It will also be mandatory to link your Aadhaar card to your PAN card, or the latter will become invalid after July 1, 2017.

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7. With the Finance Bill, 2017, people can make use of the 'electoral bonds' to donate to political parties anonymously.

8. The Bill has also removed the cap of how much one (or a company) can donate to a political party.

9. As per the bill, the Centre can choose the members of the tribunals through a gazette notification.

10. The Finance Bill, 2017 also brings down the threshold limit of cash payments from Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 2 lakhs.

FDI policy easing in select sectors in the works

The government is expected to soon announce relaxations in the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in certain sectors, including single brand retail.

The further liberalisation in the FDI policy is aimed at providing better business environment by removing impediments, an official said.

The easing of the policy will be on the lines of the announcements made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Budget for 2017-18.

The government last year relaxed FDI norms in over a dozen sectors, including defence, civil aviation, construction and development, private security agencies, real estate and news broadcasting.

Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal recently stated that the government will consider the demands made by foreign retailers for allowing non-food items such as homecare products under the policy. A proposal to increase FDI limit in print media to 49 per cent from 26 percent is also under consideration.

A proposal to allow 100 per cent FDI through the automatic route in single brand retail is also under consideration with a view to attracting more global players in the sector.

How FDI is crucial

Foreign investments are considered crucial for India, which needs around $1 trillion to overhaul its infrastructure such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth.

Foreign investments will help improve the country’s balance of payments situation and strengthen the value of the rupee against global currencies, especially the US dollar.

FDI inflows into India firmed up by 22 per cent to USD 35.85 billion during April-December 2016.

EKW is in great stress

Environmentalists and civil society activists have indicated legal action against the government following West Bengal Environment Minister Sovan Chatterjee’s comments.

Mr. Chatterjee, who is also the Kolkata Mayor, had last month stressed on the need to “properly utilise” the vast lands lying vacant in the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW).

The environmentalists expressed apprehension that his comment was an attempt to “legalise illegal constructions” in the EKW, which is shrinking fast. They also alleged that a large section of the wetlands has already been encroached upon.

Ecological significance of EKW

The EKW, located in the eastern fringes of the city, spans an area of 12,500 hectares.

It is a low-lying area comprising several shallow ponds.

The wetlands are of extreme ecological significance to Kolkata since a large portion of the city’s sewage falls into the wetlands, which acts as natural purification system.

The sewage-fed ponds are also used to farm fish.

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About 20,000 fishermen are dependent on the wetlands.

The EKW was declared a Ramsar site in 2002; the only such site in the State and one of the 26 in the country. The environmentalists said construction in the area is also prohibited under the East Kolkata Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Act, 2006.

No camps within 100m of ganga: NGT

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday have prohibited all camping activity from Shivpuri to Rishikesh along the Ganga which fall within 100 meters of the river (riparian buffer).

The roughly 50 km stretch between Shivpuri to Rishikesh is a hub of eco-tourism and river rafting.

The bench relied on various studies conducted by the Uttarakhand government and the Wildlife Institute of India. As per the studies, of the total 56 beaches, 33 beaches were recommended for camping while 23 beaches were not. Out of the 33 sites recommended for beach camping, three fall outside 100 meters, eight sites are wholly within 10 meters while the remaining 22 sites are partially within the limit imposed by the NGT.

New clone of MRSA identified in Kerala aquatic environment

A new clone of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is exclusive to Kochi, has been identified. The new clone, christened ‘t15669 MRSA’, is unique to seafood and the aquatic environment of Kerala.

Scientists at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi, identified the new clone while assessing the prevalence of MRSA in seafood and the environment. The study team comprised V. Murugadas, Toms C. Joseph, K.V. Lalitha and M. M. Prasad, all researchers at the Institute.

MRSA can lead to diseases ranging from milder form of skin infections, boils, furunculosis to life-threatening septicemia and bacteraemia from post-surgical contamination. The situation turns worse given their resistance to wide range of drugs, warned the researchers.

The emergence of MRSA has been identified as a health concern globally since the 1960s. However, little information is available on the prevalence of MRSA and its clonal characteristics in seafood and the aquatic environment.

If the new clone, which is currently low in concentration in the Kochi geographical area, gets established and becomes widely prevalent then it can reach the seafood chain starting from the fish landing centres to the retail outlets very frequently.

The presence of MRSA in fish meant for human consumption is a potential health hazard for food handlers. The fingerprinting of MRSA can be useful for tracing local source and spread of MRSA isolates in a defined geographical area

Difference between PSLV and GSLV

Both PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) are the satellite-launch vehicles (rockets) developed by ISRO. PSLV is designed mainly to deliver the “earth-observation” or “remote-sensing” satellites with lift-off mass of up to about 1750 Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits of 600-900 Km altitude.

The remote sensing satellites orbit the earth from pole-to-pole (at about 98 deg orbital-plane inclination). An orbit is called sun-synchronous when the angle between the line joining the centre of the Earth and the satellite and the Sun is constant throughout the orbit.

Due to their sun-synchronism nature, these orbits are also referred to as “Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” which enables the on-board camera to take images of the earth under the same sun-illumination conditions during each of the repeated visits, the satellite makes over the same area on ground thus making the satellite useful for earth resources monitoring.

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Apart from launching the remote sensing satellites to Sun-synchronous polar orbits, the PSLV is also used to launch the satellites of lower lift-off mass of up to about 1400 Kg to the elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle with first and third stage using solid rocket motors and second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines. It also uses strap-on motors to augment the thrust provided by the first stage, and depending on the number of these strap-on boosters, the PSLV is classified into its various versions like core-alone version (PSLV-CA), PSLV-G or PSLV-XL variants.

The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication-satellites to the highly elliptical (typically 250 x 36000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The satellite in GTO is further raised to its final destination, viz., Geo-synchronous Earth orbit (GEO) of about 36000 Km altitude (and zero deg inclination on equatorial plane) by firing its in-built on-board engines.

Two versions of the GSLV are being developed by ISRO. The first version, GSLV Mk-II, has the capability to launch satellites of lift-off mass of up to 2,500 kg to the GTO and satellites of up to 5,000 kg lift-off mass to the LEO. GSLV MK-II is a three-staged vehicle with first stage using solid rocket motor, second stage using Liquid fuel and the third stage, called Cryogenic Upper Stage, using cryogenic engine.

Due to their geo-synchronous nature, the satellites in these orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth, thus avoiding the need of a tracking ground antenna and hence are useful for the communication applications.

INDIA

India's very own GPS is ready with seventh navigation satellite launch

India’s own navigational system will be called NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation). The seventh and final satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, the IRNSS 1G, was launched into a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit with a perigree (nearest point to earth) of 284 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 20,657 km.

The satellite was launched on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which took off from the Sriharikota launch pad at 12.50 p.m.

With this launch, the IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is now complete. This will allow the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to focus on the process of designing front end chips which will receive the navigational signals sent out by the satellites.

The system will be similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS) operated by the United States with 24 satellites and the Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou systems of Russia, Europe and China respectively.

All satellites will undergo stabilisation testing and verification of their performance over the next few months before being pushed into use, according to ISRO officials.

An area of 1,500 km from Indian boundaries will be covered under the navigational system. The Prime Minister invited other countries to make use of this system as well. “We have seven neighbours who rely on technology provided by other countries. They can use Indian services if they want,” he said in a video message addressed to ISRO engineers.

With an accuracy of better than 20 m being claimed by ISRO, the navigation system will be offered as an open or Standard Positioning Service and a superior, coded military Restricted Service.

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New India programme

Addressing the nation through the 30th edition of his monthly radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the Prime Minister appealed for united action by citizens to build a ‘New India’

Key facts

New India is neither a government programme, nor is it the manifesto of a political party, nor is it a project.

New India is the clarion call of 125 crore countrymen. It is the essence of the emotions of the 125 crore Indians wanting to come together to create a

magnificent (Bhavya) India

India to redefine blindness to meet WHO stipulation

The government is set to change a four-decade-old definition of blindness to bring it in line with the WHO criteria and ensure the Indian data on blindness meets the global estimates.

As defined under the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB), a person unable to count fingers from a distance of six metres is categorised as “blind” in India, against the WHO’s stipulation of three metres.

The need for change:

According to Promila Gupta, NPCB Deputy Director-General, by the current definition, we project a higher figure of blind people from India at any international forum. Thus India gets presented in a poor light compared to other countries

Moreover the data India generates under the programme cannot be compared with the global estimates as other countries are following the WHO criteria

Beach fest for differently abled from March 31

The event Beach Fest2017 to be held at Candolim beach from March 31 to April 9 was organised to announce UMOJA’s first online travel platform

Key facts

BeachFest2017 is a novel initiative to provide wheelchair users and their families an opportunity to enjoy a completely-accessible experience on the beaches of Goa.

The point is travel platform for the differently abled should be seen as a business opportunity; only then will stakeholders put up ramps, other disabled-friendly infrastructure, accommodation.

The festival also aims to raise awareness of UMOJA’s online petition to the Goa government to make at least one beach easily accessible to the differently abled

VaranasitohostG20’sFWGmeet

Varanasi, spiritual hub of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, is going to host G20 working group meeting to deliberate on current global economic situation.

The working group will deliberate for two days from Tuesday on the policy options that countries can pursue to counter the important development challenges on the ghats of Varanasi.

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About G-20

The G-20 Framework Working Group (FWG) is one of the core working groups of G-20. The mandate of FWG is to deliberate on the challenges facing the global economy and the policy options that countries can use to address these challenges.

India along with Canada has been co-chairing this group. One important focus of this meeting will be to deliberate on the inclusive growth agenda of G-20 and to formulate a framework that will enable countries to help frame country specific inclusive growth policies.

Top officials from IMF, World Bank, OECD and the ADB are also expected to be present during the meeting.

Hosting of G20 meeting at Varanasi indicates that the Modi government want to bring the city on the global map.

The third G-20 FWG meeting under the G-20 German Presidency is being co-hosted by economic affairs department and RBI. The first two G 20 FWG meetings under the G-20 German Presidency have already been held at Berlin in December 16 and at Riyadh in February 17. This would be the fourth occasion that India is hosting FWG meeting.

WORLD

Facebook, Instagram ban developers from using data for surveillance

To curb spying by authorities and other law enforcement agencies, Facebook has banned developers from using data obtained from them to provide tools that are used for surveillance.

In a post on Monday, social networking giant that also own Instagram explained that over the past several months they had taken enforcement action against developers who created and marketed tools meant for surveillance, in violation of their existing policies.

According to a report in the Guardian on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has praised the policy reform saying that written policies must be backed up by rigorous oversight and swift action for violations.

UNICEF: 2016 was the worst year yet for Syrian children

According to the report, at least 652 children were killed in the last year, making 2016 the worst year for Syria's children since verification of child casualties began in 2014.

Of that number, 255 children were killed in or near a school in 2016, UNICEF said.

The number of child fatalities in 2016 was at least 20 percent higher than in 2015. At least 647 children were also reported injured, including Majed.

There were also at least 338 attacks against hospitals and medical personnel.

According to the report, at least 88 percent of explosive remnants are a life-threatening hazard, and 75 percent of incidents involving explosive weapons occurred in densely populated areas, including eastern Aleppo.

Aside from the child fatalities, UNICEF also recorded that more than 850 children were recruited to fight in the conflict, double the number recruited in 2015.

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Chinese, Turkish troops to take part in ‘Pakistan Day’ parade

Chinese and Turkish troops will for the first time take part in the ‘Pakistan Day’ parade to be held in Islamabad next week. It is for the time that foreign troops are taking part in the ‘Pakistan Day’ parade.

The armed forces parade accompanied by the exhibition of military hardware and cultural floats are the key highlights of annual celebrations on March 23 to commemorate the ‘Lahore Resolution’ of 1940 that vowed to set up a separate country.

The parade is organised by Joint Staff Headquarters which oversees the three armed forces of Pakistan and soldiers from the army, navy and air force take part in it.

The parade was started in 2015 after a gap of seven years when it was kept suspended due to the threat of militancy.

Pakistan set to conduct its first census in 19 years

Pakistan is set to conduct its first national census in 19 years which will begin on Wednesday with the assistance of over 200,000 troops.

The census would be conducted with the assistance of over 200,000 troops.

At least one soldier will accompany each civilian enumerator going from house to house to enlist the number of households and individuals living there.

The soldiers will not only provide security but help in verification of data collected by the enumerators.

The first phase will start from March 15 and conclude on April 15. After a ten day gap the second phase will start from April 25 and conclude on May 25.

Rs 18.5 billion have been allocated for the census. Moreover, there will be imprisonment of six months and Rs 50,000 fine if wrong information is given.

Islamabad last conducted a census in 1998, which recorded a national population of approximately 180 million at that time.

INDIA

Aadhaar cannot be mandatory for welfare schemes: Supreme Court

The government cannot make Aadhaar mandatory for extending benefits of its welfare schemes, the Supreme Court said on Monday. The government, however, cannot be stopped from using Aadhaar in other schemes like opening of bank accounts, the court added.

A 7-judge Bench has to be set up to hear the pleas challenging Aadhaar, but right now it is not possible, the apex court noted.

FIFA 2017 U-17 World Cup: Air too toxic, so no games after Diwali for Delhi

Delhi will not host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup matches after Diwali, as the governing body of world football is worried about how the players will cope with poor air quality in the national capital.

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When is the game

Diwali falls on October 19 and Delhi’s last match will be on October 16 in the double-header Round of 16 games. The quarterfinal knockout games, which are scheduled to be held on October 21 and 22, have been allotted to Goa, Kochi, Guwahati and Kolkata.

According to the official schedule released Monday, the semifinals will be held in Guwahati and Navi Mumbai, on October 25, and the final at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on October 28.

The tournament schedule was finalised following a seven-day visit to India by FIFA officials, who inspected venues at Kolkata, New Delhi, Guwahati, Margao, Kochi and Navi Mumbai. Delhi will host six group games and two Round of 16 matches.

What’s the reason?

FIFA’S head of events, Jaime Yarza, confirmed that post-Diwali pollution was the reason why Delhi would not host any of the knockout games.

In 2016, post-Diwali air pollution in Delhi was the worst in the past five years with a few parts of the capital recording PM-10 concentrations of up to 1,900 micrograms per cubic metre in the first week on November. The acceptable limit is 100 micrograms per cubic metre.

Besides, air quality was placed in the “severe” category for 10 days in a row.

Apart from firecrackers, Delhi’s pollution levels rose due to crop residue burning in Haryana and Punjab, and unfavourable weather conditions, such as low wind speed.

‘Emerging Artist’ award for Odia artist

Odisha-based installation artist Sitaram Swain has been chosen as the “Glenfiddich’s Emerging Artist of the Year 2017.”

Facts:

The sixth recipient of the honour, Mr Swain will represent India at the Glenfiddich Artists in Residence (AiR) programme where he will spend three months at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Scotland with seven artists from around the world.

It is Mr Swain’s out of the box concepts and his way with domestic objects to exemplify social issues through his art, that make him stand out. The artist believes that there is a sublime quality of social relevance in day to day objects.

Labour code to provide social security cover to all workers

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has proposed a labour code which will provide social security cover to the entire workforce in the country, including self-employed and agricultural workers.

according to a ‘draft code on Social Security and Welfare’ proposed by the Labour Ministry, Even households employing domestic help will also have contribute towards schemes including provident fund and gratuity for the worker. Factories employing even a single worker will have to contribute towards social security benefits, as per the proposal.

Every working person in the country will be covered under the social security code whether she belongs to the organised sector or the unorganised sector. For the first time, the scheme will cover agricultural workers along with self-employed people and target to provide social security benefits to 45 crore workers

A National Social Security Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, has been proposed to streamline and make policy on social security schemes related to all the Ministries.

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Other members would include: Finance Minister, Labour Minister, Health and Family Welfare Minister along with employer and employees’ representatives. The council will co-ordinate between central and State governments, monitor the implementation of social security schemes, regulate funds collected under various social security schemes, among others, according to the proposed labour law.

The proposed code will cover “any factory, any mine, any plantation, any shop, charitable organisations” and all establishments or households employing casual, part-time, fixed-term, informal, apprentice, domestic and home-based workers.

All such establishments or factories will be liable to pay compensation if they fail to contribute towards the social security schemes of the workers.

The total contribution to be made by employers towards Employees’ Provident Fund and Employees’ State Insurance Scheme is proposed to be capped at 30% of the workers’ income. At present, employers contribute 31.5% of the workers’ income towards these schemes. According to the proposed code, self-employed workers will contribute 20% of their monthly income towards provident fund, pension and other related schemes. Self-employed workers will also include “a person who takes land on share cropping or any other form of rent, and tills the same using his own or family members’ labour.”

All the entities whether factories or households will have to register their workers through an Aadhaar-based registration system

Moreover social security benefits unclaimed for five years will be confiscated by the government

Pinarayi launches small finance bank

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala has launched ESAF Small Finance Bank, Kerala’s first private sector bank since the country’s Independence, in Thrissur.

The bank proposes to offer an interest rate ranging from 5.75% to 9% for term deposits of varying maturities. For savings deposits, the rates vary from 6% to 7%, based on the outstanding balance in the account. For senior citizens, 0.05% will be applicable for term deposits.

The bank, promoted by ESAF Microfinance and Investments (P) Ltd., is planning to open 85 branches in the first year, of which RBI approval has been obtained for opening 15 branches on the inaugural day.

All the branches will be full-fledged retail branches and will start functioning from next week at major centres such as Edapally, Palakkad, Pala, Thiruvalla, Kattapana, Perinthalmanna, and Kozhikode.

It is also planning to open branches in metros such as Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad in the first year.

Four border ‘haats’ will be set up in Mizoram

Four border haats will be set up in Mizoram to facilitate border trade with Myanmar. Border Haats would be established at Hnahlan, Vaphai, Zote and Pangkhua in Mizoram. Four more Border Haats will also be established in Myanmar at Darkhai, Leilet, Fartlang and Thau billages. Ten of the 14 proposed elephant corridors identified to facilitate unhindered movement of jumbos and prevent their inbreeding have been found viable for restoration in Odisha.

Odisha, houses 70% of the total elephant population in eastern India, is witnessing frequent human-elephant conflicts with 423 elephants perishing since 2011-12 and 421 humans deaths reported during the same period.

Elephants move long distances in search of food and require substantial areas to support their ecological needs. The wildlife wing of the State forest department says habitat loss, expansion of human habitation and fragmentation of traditional elephant corridors have forced elephants to split into a number of metapopulation.

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To protect elephant habitats, the State government had identified 14 corridors having a cumulative length of 421 km and a total area of 870.6 sq km.

Odisha has three elephant reserves namely Mayurbhanj, Mahanadi and Sambalpur. Mayurbhanj reserve is quite rational with compact and contiguous forest patches. Other two elephant reserves, Mahanadi and Sambalpur, are too restricted. Keonjhar, another major elephant area, is hit by mining, while south Odisha is not in a good shape

Plastic Rs. 10 notes in five cities soon

Five cities across the country with diverse geographical and climatic conditions will be the first to start using plastic bank notes of ₹ 10 denomination, with the Centre approving a field trial. The notes are considered to be cleaner than paper currency, will last longer and are difficult to counterfeit.

Parliament had told in February 2014 about a plan to print one billion plastic notes of Rs.10 denomination for a field trial. The cities selected at the time were Kochi, Mysuru, Jaipur, Shimla and Bhubaneswar. But now, it’s not clear if the same cities will be considered for the upcoming field trials as the junior Finance Minister was silent on the locations.

UGC stops funds to JNU centre

A University Grants Commission letter to Jawaharlal Nehru University on Thursday, saying that it would not fund its Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion after the12th Plan, has taken academics teaching social exclusion across universities by surprise.

Established in about 35 Central universities since 2007, the Centres for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy are dedicated spaces for research on Dalits, tribes and minorities.

Council approves all five draft bills for GST

With the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Council approving the remaining two draft bills namely UTGST (Union Territory GST) and SGST (state GST), all the five enabling draft bills stand approved to enable a likely rollout of the new indirect tax regime by July 1.

With the final approvals, the legislative exercise stands complete and July 1 is the tentative date of GST’s implementation.

The draft bills now need to be approved by the Cabinet and tabled in Parliament’s ongoing budget session.

Meanwhile, the SGST draft law will have to be approved by the legislative assemblies of Delhi and Puducherry.

The UTGST draft law is for the union territories like Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which do not have legislative assemblies.

The new indirect tax regime also has nine set of rules and regulations, out of which the Council has already approved five namely, registration, payment, refunds, invoices and returns.

After March 31, the Council will take up the exercise of fitment of various commodities in the GST tax slabs i.e. 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 15 per cent and 28 per cent

The officials have already started the fitment process, which will be put up for discussion and approval before the Council.

The cess on sin (tobacco products) and luxury goods has been capped at 15 per cent by the Council.

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19 new Post Office Passport Seva Kendras announced

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Department of Posts (DoP) has decided to open another 19 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) in four states.

Out of the 19 POPSKs of the third batch, Goa will get one, Punjab and Uttarakhand will have three each and the rest 12 will go to Uttar Pradesh.

Ten POPSKs in Asansol (West Bengal), Kavaratti (Lakshadweep), Kota (Rajasthan), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Raiganj (West Bengal), Rourkela (Odisha), Salem (Tamil Nadu), Udhampur (Jammu & Kashmir) and Vidisha (Madhya Pradesh) are already operational, taking the total number of POPSKs in the country to 12.

The pilot projects for this joint venture between the two were inaugurated on January 25 in Mysuru in Karnataka and at Dahod in Gujarat.

Following the success of these pilot projects, the MEA and the DoP announced 56 POPSKs (in the first batch of expansion) and eight in the second batch announced in February in the various States of the country.

The total number of the planned POPSKs has now reached 85.

UP Election Results - Analysis

There are enough reasons to grumble against the so called secular parties, because in the name of secularism, for long, they have taken people for a ride.

The Bhujan Samaj party that represents the aspiration of the schedule caste and the marginalized section of the society has a poor record of performance as the main opposition party in UP.

The BSP has not created any ripples to turn the tide in its favour during the five years of the SP rule. The party was not able to convince the voters that it is a better alternative to the SP. Perhaps what it believed was power will come to it default as they are the only claimant in the rotational politics in UP.

The BSP did not took any lessons from Tamil Nadu where such ideas dis not worked for the opposition DMK in the last year election in the southern state.

As far as Samajwadi party is concerned, it was again banking on the secular votes and was confident that after the tie-up with the Congress, they will again come back to power.

Last time people voted SP for Mulayam Yadav and not for his son. Akhlish, was thrust on the people and was blooded into politics by his father. However, after his rebellion against his father, the UP CM lost his image among the silent voters. The result is a big no for Akilesh on for his personal impropriety.

Samajwadi party again tried to harp on secularism but the party happens to be a family based grouping and all its leaders are interrelated with each other by family ties. The infighting within the SP has further tarnished the party’s image.

The five years of the Samajwadi party rule had nothing to showcase to impress the people to vote it again. The anti-incumbency factor was heavily loaded against the party. People’s verdict is a big rejection to the SP rule.

As far as Congress is concerned, this party was out of race even before the elections were announced. It has lost its electoral base significantly and in this election it was trying cash on the moment by backing Akhlilesh, faction. The results proved that it was backing a losing horse.

As far as BJP is concerned, its victory is for alternate choice of governance. The people’s expectation is that the BJP will provide better governance and concentrate of the developmental agenda of the state.

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In sum and summery, the UP’s mandate is for change. People have voted the BJP to go rule with the adage ‘Sab ka Sath sab ka vikas,” and not to pursue any communal agenda.

India safe, but can do more for tourists- UNWTO

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Madrid-headquartered U.N. agency which promotes responsible, sustainable, and universally accessible tourism, sees India as a safe country for tourists.

Social media’s role

UNWTO have stressed on the country’s and the stakeholders of tourism industry ignorance in the social media in promoting tourism and helping vacationers shortlist destinations

UNWTO had commenced steps to network destinations and help them develop. Through proper networking, issues such as waste management, water management, and erosion of beach and sand dunes could be addressed. China had already gone ahead with the networking process as mooted by the UNWTO.

The world forum (UNWTO) has rolled out Tips for a Responsible Traveller (#TRAVELENJOYRESPECT) to make travel rewarding for tourists, for the people they meet, and the places they visit.

2017 as ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’

In connection with observing 2017 as ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’, the UNWTO would bring out reports on contribution of tourism to development and the relation between tourism and sustainable development goals.

The three-day Regional Commission for Asia Pacific and South Asia will be held from May 15 in Dhaka.

Praise for Kumarakom

Lauding the Responsible Tourism (RT) initiative in Kerala, the UNWTO officials said the Kumarakom RT project was popular and Kerala was always seen as a green and responsible destination.

Features of Digital Locker - Allowing citizens to sign up for a Digital Locker account via web based portal or mobile app, Allowing accessing of documents from issuers using document references available in the Digital Locker account, Allowing access to requesters to access issued documents by providing document references are the services which will be offered by the Digital Locker Portal which is being set up the government. The government is planning to give license to public and private agencies to provide Digital Locker Services for which the government has set up The Digital Locker Authority which will provide licenses to Digital Locker Service Providers (DLSPs). The first Digital Locker service Provider called as Digi Locker (https:www.digilocker.gov.in) was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 1st July 2015. In July 2016, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology notified Information Technology (preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016 under Information Technology Act (2000) and further amendments rules on 8th Feb.2017. As per provisions of these rules government has planned to issue licences to public and private agencies for Digital Locker Services.

Major points of the new definition of ragging - Any act of physical or mental abuse on the ground of colour, race, religion, caste and ethnicity; Any gender specific abuse; Any abuse related to sexual orientation, appearance, nationality, regional origins, linguists identity, place of birth, place of residence or economic background are the major points of the new definition of ragging which were issued by AICTE recently. The notification holds for all engineering and technical colleges-government, government-aided and private-across the country. This is the first expansive definition of ragging by AICTE after it came out with asset of rules in 2009 to check the widespread menace.

Main features of The Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme Budgetary - Allocation of Rs.600 crore for 3 years, Annual outlay of Rs.200 crore are the main features of The Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme which will be implemented from April 1, 2017. The scheme will provide assistance for setting up and upgrade of infrastructure projects with “overwhelming exports linkages” such as border haats, land customs stations, quality testing and certification labs, cold chains, trade promotion centres,

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dry ports, export warehousing and packaging, special economic zones, ports and airports. It will provide grant-in-aid up to half of equity being put in by implementing agencies, with a ceiling of Rs.20 crore per project and 5% of the grant approved will be used appraisal, review and monitoring.

35 - the number of clusters, accounting for half of all freight movement, which have been identified for building multimodal logistics parks (MLPs) to improve transportation and warehousing in the country. Out of this, 15 would be developed across Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The proposed parks would reduce transportation cost by a tenth for industries in the 35 clusters, enabling freight movement on higher sized trucks and rail. Locations for development of MLPs have been prioritized based on the level of production and consumption activity in a particular city, as measured by freight flows, quality of road and rail connectivity to there and its importance in international trade, he said. National Highways Authority of India would be the nodal agency for development of the first set of MLPs. It would form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with state governments. Within the SPV, states are expected to provide land for the MLPs.

News at a glance

Pathogens: The number of families of bacteria that are present today that pose the greatest threat to human health is 12. According to the WHO which recently published the first-ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens", to guide and promote research and development of new antibiotics has inferred this point. The Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) said that list was drawn up as part of its efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines. According to the global health body, the list is divided into three categories according to the urgency of need for new antibiotics: critical, high and medium priority.

The most critical group of all includes multi-drug resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat in hospitals, nursing homes, and among patients whose care requires devices such as ventilators and blood catheters. They include Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and various Enterobacteriaceae (including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus).

The second tier which includes antibiotics of high priority includes for Enterococcus faecium, which is vancomycin-resistant, Staphylococcus aureus which is methicillin-resistant, Helicobacter pylori which is clarithromycin-resistant, Campylobacter spp which is fluoroquinolone-resistant, Salmonellae which is fluoroquinolone-resistant, Neisseria gonorrhoeae which is cephalosporin and fluoroquinolone-resistant.

The third tier which includes medium priority includes Streptococcus pneumoniae which is penicillin-non-susceptible, Haemophilusinfluenzae, which is ampicillin-resistant and Shigellaspp which is fluoroquinolone-resistant.

Solar Probe Plus - the celestial body to which the NASA plans to send its first robotic spacecraft next year is slated to get within six million kilometers of the blazing star to probe its atmosphere. The unmanned spacecraft ‘Solar Probe Plus’ which will travel to the sun will have special heat tubes called thermal radiators that will radiate heat that permeates the heat shield to open space, ‘so that it does not go to the instruments’. The mission will hopefully unveil why the surface of the Sun called the photosphere is not hot as its atmosphere called the corona.

FORPHEUS - it stands for ‘Future Omron Robotics Technology for Exploring Possibility of Harmoniseda Utomation with Sinictheoretics’, is the name of the first robot table tennis tutor developed in Japan which made its entry into the Guinness World Records recently. It is easily able to act as a coach thanks to cutting-edge vision and motion sensors it can use to gauge movement during a match.

Trappist-1 - the name of the planetary system that has been discovered by NASA recently. A NASA telescope has detected the first known system of seven earth-size planets around a single star. This exoplanet system, is named for the ‘Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope’ (TRAPPIST) in Chile. The planets have no real names. They’re only known by letters, ‘b’ through ‘h’. ‘A’ refers to the star itself.

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SPARSH - the life size model of a green building which was inaugurated in India recently. Launched by the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA), SPARSH has been designed to enhance the user experience of a "green building". According to a statement by the GRIHA Council, SPARSH "is an effort to bring an economically viable and structurally sound green building option to the masses. The cost of building a structure of any size on the SPARSH platform would be much less than the cost of traditional building of an equivalent size with similar amenities". GRIHA, developed by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) together with the New and Renewable Energy Ministry, has been endorsed as the national rating system for green buildings in India in 2007. It is an indigenous green building rating system developed specifically to suit Indian climate and construction practices.

Dabfi - it stands for ‘Digital Asset and Blockchain Foundation of India’ is the name of the body that will work as a self-regulatory organisation for Bitcoin start-ups. Bitcoin start-ups Zebpay, Unocoin, Coinsecure and Searchtrade have jointly launched Dabfi, with the aim of orderly and transparent growth of the virtual currency market. They have appointed Nishith Desai Associates, an international law firm, to develop self-regulation norms for the segment.Dabfi will prepare self-regulatory regimes for trading of bitcoins and other block chain-based digital assets, and, standardise Know Your Cusotmer and anti-money laundering norms for member companies.It is to also build credibility and create awareness about the benefits and risks, liaise with regulators and get clarity on taxation, attract investment and set up incubators to promote start-ups, build global relations and actively engage with the global community in this regard.And, create a public website and regularly print reports on and around bitcoins and block chain, the body said. Bitcoin is not yet legally recognised in India.

Tropex - it stands for The Theatre Readiness Operational Exercise, is the name of a month-long naval exercise put to test the combat readiness of the Navy, the IAF and the Army with over 45 ships and 70 aircraft taking part which was completed recently. It started on January 24 and concluded on February 23. It was conducted along the Western seaboard. Tropex, in complete coordination with the Army and the Indian Air Force, took place in phases to test the various facets of war-fighting and joint combat capabilities of the armed forces. The previous edition of the exercise was conducted in January 2015.

Thamirabarani - the river of Tamil Nadu which was in the news recently after the Madras High Court order allowing Pepsi and Coca Cola to draw water from this river for their bottling plants for manufacturing soft drinks. In opposition to this order a large number or persons stood in knee deep water in the river to express their ire. The protesters also shouted slogans against the state government for not taking necessary steps to prevent the carbonated water companies from drawing water from Thamirabharani, when the farmers in the was facing acute water shortage for their farming activities. The Thamirabarani River is a perennial river that originates from the famous Agastyarkoodam peak of Pothigai hills of the Western Ghats, above Papanasam in the Ambasamudram taluk. It flows through Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts of the Tamil Nadu state of southern India into the Gulf of Mannar.

World Bank - the international organization whose CEO Kristalina Georgieva visited India recently. She praised India’s Prime Minister Narendra’s Modi decision to ban high-value banknotes as part of efforts to stamp out corruption which she said will have profound and positive impact on India’s economy.

12th - it is the rank of India in holding of the US government securities at the end of 2016, with exposure of $118 billion. With holdings of $1.09 trillion, Japan remained the largest holder of these securities followed by China with exposure to the tune of $1.06 trillion.

Liveability Index - the index which was recently introduced for India taking a leaf out of international practice of rating cities on liveability. Beginning with 100 smart cities, the liveability index would rank all Indian cities on 77 parameters including how they fare in terms of grievance redressal of citizens, pollution, availability of water and power, online citizen services, upkeep of historical buildings, increase in tourists footfalls, crime rate, extent of crimes recorded against women, children and elderly, availability of traffic surveillance system and education. Presently Hyderabad is the most liveable city, but ranks 139 globally. Vienna has been topping the survey for the past 4 years.

IFC - the World Bank arm which is planning an aggressive foray into startups at Series-a level, as part of its recent push towards early-stage investing in India. As part of the programme, IFC will invest between $1-3 million in early stage focused venture funds and accelerators. Till now, it has backed more mature startups like Byju’s, Lenskart, Bigbasket and Blackbuck, with ticket sizes upwards of $5 million at Series-B stage and onwards.

Rs.20lakh - the amount of gratuity which will now be exempt from taxes for private sector employees after the Centre decided to amend a law and bring them at par with central government staff. Currently,

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private sector employees can get tax exemption up to Rs.10 lakh in gratuity after five years of continuous employment.

4.5% - the percentage of India’s population which is suffering from depression, which is similar to global percentage, which stands at 4.4%, as per the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) data. The number of people in India suffering from depression is roughly about 5,66,75,969. Also,3% of India’s population(3,84,25,093) is living with anxiety disorder. Depression is ranked by WHO as the single largest contributor to global disability and anxiety disorders is ranked 6th.India also has the highest cases of depression in the WHO’s South East region(WHO-SEAR)- Pakistan(4.2%), Bhutan (4.2%) etc.

CAL - it stands for Cold Atom Laboratory, which NASA is planning to create at the International Space Station (ISS) to provide new insights into gravity and dark matter. Inside that box, lasers, a vacuum chamber and an electromagnetic knife will be used to cancel out energy of gas particles, slowing them until they are almost motionless. CAL instruments are designed to freeze gas atoms to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero- more than 100 million times colder than depths of space. The suite of instrument is set to ride to space in August 2017 aboard the SpaceXCRS-12.

Qatar Airways - the airlines which is planning to launch India’s first foreign-owned airline. Qatar Airways is planning to tie up with Qatar government’s investment arm, Qatar Investment Authority to launch this airline which will be first fully foreign-owned airline after the Indian government allowed 100%FDI in this sector in June 2016. While the foreign carriers will be required to have up to 49% stake, they can get a foreign partner, like sovereign wealth fund or an institutional investor, and not look for an Indian partner to put in the remaining 51%.

Jupiter - the planet whose moon Europa will be probed by NASA’s ‘Europa Clipper’ which is set to be launched in 2020. The ultimate aim of Europa Clipper is to determine if Europa is habitable, possessing all three of the ingredients necessary for life: liquid water, chemical ingredients and energy sources sufficient to enable biology. Europa has long been a high priority for exploration because it holds a salty liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust.

Intel - they will buy Israeli car tech firm Mobileye for more than $15 billion (14 billion euros), in a deal signalling the US computer chip giant's commitment to technology for self-driving vehicles. The deal worth approximately $15.3 billion was the largest ever cross-border acquisition for an Israeli tech firm. It comes with Intel and Mobileye previously collaborating with German automaker BMW to develop self-driving cars. Intel and Mobileye expect to combine to become a global leader in "autonomous driving" that could provide the technology at a lower cost.

Army Chief to be honoured in Nepal

The Chief of the Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat, will be conferred the honorary title of General of the Nepalese Army during his ongoing visit to the Himalayan country.

The Title:

The President of Nepal, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, will confer the title of “Honorary General of the Nepalese Army” to Gen. Rawat at an investiture ceremony.

General Rajendra Chettri, the Chief of the Nepalese Army, was conferred the title of “Honorary General of the Indian Army” on February 3 during his first visit to India after assuming office.

Reciprocal tradition

This tradition, a reciprocal arrangement to honour each other’s Army chiefs with the honorary titles, has been continuing uninterrupted since it began in 1969.

Supreme Court bans sale of BS-III vehicles from April 1

Supreme Court has ordered a freeze on the registration and sale of BS-III fuel compliant vehicles by “any manufacturer or dealer” on and from April 1, when the next level and environmentally friendly BS-IV fuel emission standards are scheduled to kick in.

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New fuel ‘cleaner’

The court had pointed out that the new fuel was “cleaner” and the oil refineries had spent about Rs. 30,000 crore since 2010 to produce it. The court further prohibited registration of vehicles meeting BS-III standards on and from April 1

Loksabha passes GST bills after marathon debate

In a historic step towards implementing a new, consolidated indirect tax regime from the proposed date of July 1, the Lok Sabha has passed four Bills, relating to the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), following a marathon nine-hour debate.

The bills passed

The Lower House passed the following bills:

Central GST Bill, The Integrated GST Bill, The GST Compensation Bill, The Union Territory GST Bills. The fifth legislation, the State GST Bill, will need to be passed by the Assemblies of each of the States

and the Union Territories with legislature.

INDIA

Travel goes tag-less at seven airports

Domestic and international passengers will not have to face the hassle of getting luggage tags stamped by security personnel for hand-baggage’s at seven major airports as the Centre has decided to discontinue the practice from April 1.

What are the airports:

These airports are Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi and Ahmedabad

Advantages of the system

The new system will help to speed up security check and give CISF personnel more time for checking suspected luggage

Constitution Bench to hear triple talaq pleas on May 11

The Supreme Court on Thursday fixed May 11, 2017 for hearing pleas challenging validity of triple talaq.

The SC further said that a Constitution Bench will hear the matter.

Earlier, the SC said it had to examine if personal law practices like the triple talaq were the "fundamental traits" of the minority religion.

The Board had contended that concern and sympathy for women lay at the core of polygamy. That it was a better option for a “barren” wife to allow her husband to marry a second time than let him indulge in a “mistress”.

Sign language dictionary to release in India soon

The government is all set to come up with the country’s first-of-its-kind dictionary that aims to bring together various sign languages used by people with speech and hearing impairments.

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The Indian Sign Language (ISL) dictionary, which is being developed by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), has so far compiled 6,032 Hindi and English words and corresponding graphic representations of signs. The dictionary is being developed in both print and video formats

Awanish K Awasthi, Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, said that 50 lakh hearing-impaired people and 20 lakh speech-impaired people in the country will get a uniform language from the dictionary.

It will contain graphic representations of popular signs used by the hearing impaired and will also include regional variations. Apart from that, it will have legal, technical and medical terms.

Green nod for Neutrino project suspended

The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal has suspended the Environmental Clearance (EC) granted to the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) that was to come up in Theni and asked the project proponent to make a fresh application.

During the arguments, the Tribunal was informed that the Madhikettan Shola National Park in Idukki district of Kerala was just about 4.9 km from the proposed project site and the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border was just a kilometre away, making it a Category ‘A’ project.

The MoEF had called it a Category ‘B’ project, for which an Environmental Impact Assessment is not necessary, but the department processed it as an additional measure, a source said.

However, under the guidelines laid down by the Ministry, any project that falls within 5 km from an inter-State boundary or within a notified national park or a sanctuary has to be considered a Category ‘A’ project that involves a number of processes before an EC is granted, the source said.

Since it was near a national park, the INO was also asked to get clearance from the National Board for Wildlife. Taking into account these new facts, the Bench disposed of the petition and asked the INO to make a fresh application.

The claim is that the site is within 4.9 km of the Madhikettan Shola Natural Park. This is very close to the guideline limit of 5 km. So we have to verify that the project actually falls within this distance.

Internships may soon be a must for technical degrees

The All-India Council for Technical Education, the regulator for maintaining norms and standards in technical education has set the ball rolling to make internships a mandatory part of technical education in the country.

Institutions providing technical education are asked to arrange for internships for 75% of their students. In other words, while the onus would first be on the technical educational institutions to put in place systemic arrangements to facilitate internships, it would soon transform into a regime where the onus would also be on the students to intern somewhere to become eligible for the degree.

Vast purview

The purview of the AICTE is vast: it covers programmes of technical education, including training and research, in engineering, technology, architecture, town planning, management, pharmacy, applied arts and crafts, hotel management and catering technology, etc.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development under which the AICTE is an autonomous institution has also been in the loop regarding this change.

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India, Nepal renew fuel supply pact

India and Nepal have renewed the supply agreement between Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) for another five years.

Key Facts

According to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas:

The renewed agreement is an umbrella document between the two parties which apart from detailing the supply of petroleum, oil and lubricant products

It also puts in place an institutional mechanism for cooperation in the areas of additional services and technical assistance between the two

Supplies to Nepal from India have been meeting the petroleum product requirements since 1974.

Both countries are at present working toward further deepening engagement in the oil and gas sector, including construction of petroleum product Motihari-Amlekhgunj Pipeline.

WORLD

Archaeologists shine light on life in the time of Christ

The Israel Antiquities Authority has offered a rare glimpse into its storerooms, where staff said recent archaeological discoveries have cast new light on life in the time of Christ.

The event was organised ahead of the upcoming Christian holiday of Easter, which marks the resurrection of Jesus following his crucifixion.

Among finds from the first century discovered around Jerusalem and the Galilee, where the Bible says Jesus lived and preached, are vases, cooking utensils, a wine press, nails used in crucifixions, jewellery and ossuaries.

Bangladesh to mark genocide day

Bangladesh had observed March 25 as ‘Genocide Day’ from this year, recognising the “atrocities” committed by the Pakistan army on civilians 46 years ago.

The Bangladesh cabinet has taken the decision in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The proposal was forwarded by the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs.

The then Pakistani military ruler Gen Yahia Khan ordered a brutal crackdown on protesters in Dhaka on March 25, 1971, after refusing to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose Awami League party won the 1970 general election.

IBM launches tech to send weather alert without Internet

IT major IBM has announced the launch of a technology that will send weather alerts to users even in limited or no Internet connectivity.

‘Mesh Network Alerts networking technology’ is designed to notify of potential severe weather events or disasters even in areas with limited Internet connection, or cellular networks are disrupted due to an outage.

The mesh network technology links other nearby phones to extend the signal to help keep citizens connected and informed.

Mesh Network Alerts can help send notification of an upcoming disaster that could help people and their families stay safe.

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Peer-to-peer technology converts mobile devices into links within the mesh network, allowing devices to ‘talk’ directly to each other without using cell tower infrastructure.

Each smartphone becomes a node that stores the message and securely passes it to the next nearest device, creating a daisy chain to reach more devices and remove the need for a cellular network.

While other mesh networks use hot spotting, IBM and The Weather Company chose not to turn devices into individual access points to avoid excessive battery drain

Developed by IBM researchers, the breakthrough mesh technology is available via The Weather Channel app in India.

The Weather Channel is a business unit of IBM.

India home to 101 billionaires, Mukesh Ambani tops list: Forbes

India is home to world’s fourth highest number of billionaires with Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani leading the club of more than 100 super rich Indians, according to a new list released by Forbes magazine.

The Forbes list of the ‘World’s Billionaires’ 2017 consists of 2,043 of the richest people in the world who have a combined net worth of $7.67 trillion, a record 18% increase over the past year.

India is home to 101 billionaires, the first time it has more than 100 super rich individuals.

There are nearly 20 people of Indian-origin who have made fortunes in various nations across the world, led by UK-based Hinduja brothers ranked 64th with $15.4 billion net worth, Indian-born tycoon Pallonji Mistry, who controls the 152-year-old Mumbai-headquartered engineering giant Shapoorji Pallonji Group at the 77th spot with $14.3 billion net worth and petrochemicals major Indorama co-founder Sri Prakash Lohia at the 288th spot with $5.4 billion net worth.

Ambani, 59, leads the pack of Indian billionaires, coming in at the 33rd position with a net worth of $23.2 billion. His younger brother Anil is ranked 745th with a net worth of $2.7 billion.

Next on the list of Indian billionaires is ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal on the 56th spot with a net worth of $16.4 billion.

Only four Indian women in the list

The list includes only four women billionaires from India, led by Savitri Jindal and her family at the 303rd position with a net worth of $5.2 billion

Smita Crishna-Godrej from the Godrej clan is ranked 814th followed by Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (973) and Leena Tewari (1030), chair of USV India which specialises in diabetic and cardiovascular drugs.

Also making the list is Wipro chairman Azim Premji (72), Adani group founder Gautam Adani (250), Bajaj Group chair Rahul Bajaj (544), investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (939), Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy (1161), chairman emeritus of Dabur Vivek Chand Burman (1290), Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani (1290), Wockhardt chair Habil Khorakiwala (1567), Mahindra group chief Anand Mahindra (1567), property tycoons Niranjan and Surendra Hiranandani (tied at 1678) and Yes Bank head Rana Kapoor (1795).

Founder of mobile wallet Paytm Vijay Shekhar Sharma is ranked 1567 with his net worth of $1.3 billion.

Making his debut on the list at 814th spot is Acharya Balkrishna, friend of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who holds 97% stake in the fast-growing consumer goods firm Patanjali Ayurveda. His net worth is $2.5 billion.

The top three

The list has been topped by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the fourth year in a row. He has been the richest person in the world for 18 out of the past 23 years.

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos added Rs. 27.6 billion to his fortune, now worth $72.8 billion. He moved into the top three in the world for the first time, up from number five a year ago.

U.S. President Donald Trump is ranked 544th on the list with his net worth of $3.5 billion.

Forbes said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg moved up to number five for the first time, after his fortune raised $11.4 billion in 12 months.

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