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10th March 2017 – Current Affairs Today

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National Current Affairs

Rs.1,66,000-crore Rajasthan Budget 2017-18

  • The Budget is based on the government’s vision document mission 2020. It aims at a happy Rajasthan and a happy Rajasthani.
  • Estimated Revenue Deficit for 2017-18 without effect of UDAY is Rs. 1528 crore. And with effect of UDAY is Rs. 13528 crore.
  • Estimated Fiscal Deficit for 2017-18 is Rs. 24753.53 crore which is 2.99% of GSDP.
  • Estimated total revenue receipts for 2017-18 Rs. 130162 crore.
  • Estimated own tax revenue for 2017-18 Rs. 59455 crore which is higher by 16.16%
  • Estimated own tax revenue for 2017-18  was 8.34% of GSDP

India and Belgium sign Protocol amending the India-Belgium Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and Protocol

  • India and Belgium has signed an agreement to amending the existing Agreement and Protocol between the two countries for avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income
  • The protocol will broaden the scope of the existing framework of exchange of tax related information which will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two countries
  • It will enable mutual assistance in collection of taxes

Tamil Nadu Launches Rs 1580 cr Housing Scheme

  • The project is estimated at Rs 1,580 crore and will be implemented by the state government with financial assistance from the Center.
  • For the current fiscal 2016-17, concrete houses will be constructed for 50,170 beneficiaries in town panchayat limits.

International Current Affairs

Hawaii Becomes First State to Sue Over Trump’s Revised Travel Ban

  • Hawaii has become the first state to file a lawsuit against Donald Trump’s revised travel ban on 6 Muslim majority countries.
  • Trump’s new executive order was signed on March 6, 2017 and it bars new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shuts down the US refugee program. It doesn’t apply to travelers who already have visas.
  • The new order keeps a 90-day ban on travel to the US by citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen but exempts Iraq. It replaces the previous order that was issued on 27 January and comes into effect on March 16, 2017.
  • Hawaii is concerned about the new order since 20 percent of the people are foreign-born, 100,000 are non-citizens and 20 percent of the labor force is foreign-born so a ban would have a harmful impact on the states functioning.

Mega Cultural Festival ‘India by the Nile’ Begins in Egypt

  • The fifth edition of the mega cultural festival ‘India by the Nile’ (IBN) began in Cairo. It is the largest foreign festival in Egypt.
  • The IBN Festival is organized by India to showcase Indian culture, arts music, dance, theatre, food, cuisine and Yoga & well being to build a long lasting relationship between the two ancient civilizations.
  • The 2017 festival is exceptional one as India is celebrating 70 years of independence as well as 70 years of diplomatic relations with Egypt in 2017.

Business & Economy

EPFO extends Digital Life Certificate submission through Jeevan Pramaan Patra

  • Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation(EPFO) has extended the last date of submission of Digital Life Certificate through Jeevan Pramaan Patra up to 31st March 2017 from 28th February 2017.
  • Another one month time was given to pensioners because many pensioners failed to submit Aadhaar authenticated Jeevan Pramaan as life certificate for continuation of drawal of pension.
  • In case a member has not been allotted an Aadhaar Number, a copy of the Aadhaar Enrolment ID slip is required to be attached for settlement of claims under EPS, 1995, namely for pension processing and monthly pension payments.

SBI says minimum balance penalty needed to offset Jan Dhan account costs

  • SBI recently announced that penalty for non-maintenance of Minimum Average Balance(MAB) from April 1, 2017. Government asked SBI to reconsider charges.
  • The SBI has made it mandatory for savings accounts in metropolitan areas to maintain a minimum balance of Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000 in urban areas, Rs 2,000 in semi-urban areas and Rs 1,000 in rural areas, from April 1.
  • These charges will be based on the difference between the minimum balance required and the shortfall. For metropolitan areas, if the shortfall is greater than 75 per cent then the charges would be Rs 100 plus service tax.

RBI Will Soon Introduce New Rs 10 Notes with More Security Features

  • Reserve Bank of India notified that it is soon going to issue Rs 10 denomination notes with enhanced security features for circulation.
  • RBI also notified that all the banknotes in the denomination of Rs 10 issued in the past will also continue to be legal tender.
  • The note will be in the Mahatma Gandhi series-2005 and carry inset letter ‘L’ on both number panels.
  • Numerals on both the panels will be in ascending size from left to right.
  • The first three alpha-numeric characters (prefix) will remain constant in size.

NTPC commissions 45 MW of Bhadla solar plant 

  • Indian Public Sector Undertaking company National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has commissioned of 45 MW solar capacity at Bhadla in
  • Last month, NTPC had commissioned 115 MW capacity out of the 260 MW Bhadla solar power project. NTPC has planned capacity addition of about 1,000 MW through renewable resources by 2017.
  • NTPC intends to become a 130-GW company up to 2032 with a with diversified fuel mix and a 600 billion units company in terms of generation.

Google acquires Kaggle for undisclosed amount to boost data play

  • Google has announced to acquire a start-up Kaggle which hosts a number of data scientists for an undisclosed amount at the Cloud Next 2017 conference
  • Kaggle and Google Cloud will continue to support machine learning training and deployment services while offering the community the ability to store and query large datasets.

Awards

Konkani Writer Mahabaleshwar Sail Receives Saraswati Samman 2016

  • Noted Konkani author Mahabaleshwar Sail has been honored with the 2016 Saraswati Samman for his novel ‘Hawthan’.
  • Mahabaleshwar Sail received a cash prize of 15 lakh and a citation as a part of the honor.
  • The bi-lingual writer has written four Marathi dramas and seven Konkani novels till date. He has also written five short stories and a novel in Marathi.

Viola Davis Conferred With Harvard’s Artist of the Year Award 2017

  • The popular actress, producer, director has also won Oscar for the best supporting actress, Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and British Academy of Films and Television Arts awards for her role of Rose Maxson in
  • She also won her second Tony Award for the 2010 Broadway revival of the play.
  • Previous winners of Harvard’s Artist of the Year Award include Matt Damon, Quincy Jones, Salma Hayek and Andy Garcia and Shakira.

People in News

Ford Foundation appoints Pradeep Nair as regional director for India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka

  • He will lead the global non-profit grant-making organisation’s operations in New Delhi, serving the three countries.
  • Earlier, as director of President Bill Clinton’s Climate Initiative in India, Nair helped to grow the regional chapter of the global cities network, chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
  • He also had previously served as the India country director of the US-based Institute for Sustainable Communities, where he established the organisation’s India office and was instrumental in forming strong relationships with the government of India, the private sector, and NGO communities across Asia.

Veteran journalist Arvind Padmanabhan passes away

  • Veteran journalist Arvind Padmanabhan, Executive Editor at IANS, has passed away after suffering massive cardiac in New Delhi.
  • He was extensively admired in the journalistic circle for the thoroughness he displayed in reporting.
  • He had a long stint with IANS, joining the India Abroad newspaper that was then part of the wire service in 1999 as in-charge of its Business Section.His career extended with the PTI, The Times of India and
  • He took charge of the Business Bureau of the wire service and then growing to become, first, the Business Editor of IANS and then the Bureau Chief.

Science & Technology

INS Tillanchang commissioned at Karwar

  • INS Tarmugli and INS Tihayu are the first two ships of the WJFAC class and were commissioned in 2016 and are based at Visakhapatnam.
  • INS Tillanchang will be based at Karwar under the operational control of the Flag Officer Commanding, Karnataka Naval Area.
  • The ship is designed to take on both conventional and asymmetric threats.
  • The ship consists of 30 mm main gun and a number of light, medium and heavy machine guns to undertake operations at sea.
  • It is projected to be an ideal platform for missions like Coastal and Off-shore Surveillance, EEZ Control, Law Enforcement as well as non-military missions such as Search and Rescue, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.

Himachal launches mobile app Mera Hunar HP for job-seekers

  • Himachal Pradesh government has launched mobile app and website titled ‘MeraHunar HP’ or ‘My Talent’ to help skilled and semi-skilled workers find jobs.
  • The mobile app will connect prospective employers with job aspirants as the latter’s resume will contain addresses and contact numbers.
  • This initiative will foster the skill development scheme and be of great help to pass-outs of industrial training institutes also make available real time employment data of the state.

IBM Researchers Creates World’s Smallest Magnet to Store Single Bit Data

  • IBMhas created the world’s smallest magnet using a single atom which can store one bit of data on it.
  • Currently, hard disk drives use about 100,000 atoms to store a single bit.
  • The ability to read and write one bit on one atom may lead to developing significantly smaller and denser storage devices in future that can store the entire iTunes library of 35 million songs on a device.
  • The invention can allow people and businesses to store 1,000 times more information in the same space and one day make data centers, computers and personal devices radically smaller and more powerful.