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National News
Delhi Government bans all forms of Chewable Tobacco
- Department of Food Safety releases a notification stated that unpackaged products of chewable tobacco, too, are covered under the ban.
- The ban will be in place for one year.
Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences signs MoU with PSU
- Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) and Educational Consultants India Limited, a central PSU, jointly signed a MoU
- They will work in areas of education and human resource development.
- Will engage for academic collaborations and exchanges.
- EdCIL will provide financial support for organizing research projects and conferences.
- EDCIL offered books worth over Rs 5 lakhs to around 9000 tribal students from class I to class V of KISS on the occasion.
Kerala celebrates Harvest Festival
- Believers across the state are visiting temples, performing special pujas and exchanging gifts to mark the occasion.
- Vishu is the start of the Hindu Malayalee’s New Year.
India, US to collaborate on tackling offshore tax evasion
- Continued collaboration and sharing of experience in tackling offshore tax evasion and avoidance, including joint tax audits and tax examination abroad.
Google extends free internet service through WiFi to 10 railway stations
- The formal launch will be started in Bhubaneswar.
- Free WiFi service now extended to 10 railway stations as a part of its tie up with Railtel.
- Pune, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Ranchi, Raipur, Vijayawada, Kacheguda (Hyderabad), Ernakulum Jn (Kochi) and Vishakhapatnam are the other stations.
- Free WiFi service was launched first at Mumbai Central in January 2016
Law to increase workers’ bonus faces fresh hurdles
- Government’s attempt to appease the working class by paying higher bonus under a 2015 law has been stayed in eight states by the High Courts.
- The Act doubled the statutory bonus paid to employees and made more workers eligible for bonus by raising the salary ceiling under the law from Rs.10,000 a month to Rs.21,000 a month.
National Agriculture Market
- E-platform aims to provide more options to farmers to sell their produce and is part of implementation of the roadmap for doubling income of the farmers by 2022.
Gram Uday Se Bharat Uday Abhiyan
- Campaign was launched on the 125th birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar at his birthplace.
- Aim of this campaign is to make nationwide efforts to strengthen Panchayati Raj and through it, boost social harmony in the villages, promote rural development and foster farmers’ welfare & livelihoods of the poor.
International
Fairness for Children report released by UNICEF
- presents an overview of inequalities in child well-being of the European Union (EU) and the organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Pakistan, China kick off joint air exercise
- Exercise will enhance the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and China.
- Strategic partnership has been further strengthened through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, infrastructure development and routine joint military exercises.
El Salvador declares drought emergency for first time ever
- Central American country of El Salvador has declared a water shortage emergency
- The first drought emergency in its history.
- Water shortages in recent weeks. River and water reserve levels have reached a critical state.
Microsoft sues US government over data requests
- Microsoft Corp has sued the US government for the right to tell its customers when a federal agency is looking at their emails.
- The lawsuit argues that the government is violating the US Constitution by preventing Microsoft from notifying thousands of customers about government requests for their emails and other documents.
- Microsoft’s suit focuses on the storage of data on remote servers, rather than locally on people’s computers, which Microsoft says has provided a new opening for the government to access electronic data.
Business and Economy
NDB sanctions $250 million for India’s renewable energy scheme
- Loan from the BRICS’s China basedNew Development Bank (NDB) which gave a$250 million funding to Canara Bank for a renewable energy project.
- Development Bank has approved four green renewable energy projects from India, China, Brazil and South Africa entailing Bank financing of $811 million.
RBI cuts maturity of masala bonds to three years
- The term”Masala Bond” is used to refer to rupee-denominated borrowings by Indian entities in overseas markets.
- Minimum maturity period for the rupee-denominated bonds issued overseas reduced to three years from the previously stated five years.
Union Government imposes anti-dumping duty on N-Butyl Alcohol
- Normal Butanol exported from the EU, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the U.S. was found to be below its normal value.
- N-Butyl Alcohol is a chemical used in fermentation of sugar
Chennai’s Freshdesk acquires Social Engagement Tool Airwoot
- The fifth acquisition of Freshdesk.
- Other previous acquisitions include 1CLICK, a live video chat platform, Frilp, a social recommendation app, Konotor, a mobile first user engagement platform, and Framebench, a platform for creative collaboration.
- New Delhi-based Memetic Labs Technologies, the creators the Airwoot
- It is a SaaS-based helpdesk product to manage customers over social media
People in News
Ukraine appoints Groysman as new Prime Minister
- MPs voted to approve Groysman’s appointment and accept the resignation of his predecessor, Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
- He was voted in by MPs 257 to 50 as the 16th Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Susmita Pande as National Monument Authority (NMA) Chairperson
- Appointed as the new chairperson of the National Monument Authority (NMA) for a three-year term.
- Would succeed Himanshu Prabha Ray, the professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
British playwright Arnold Wesker died
- He had Parkinson’s disease.
- Produced more than 40 plays, as well as books of essays, poetry and short stories,
- Work also included children’s fiction and a first novel, Honey, which was published in 2005.
- His plays have been translated into up to 20 different languages and performed worldwide
Punjab lokpal Justice J.S. Sekhon passes away
- Had been fighting cancer for more than a year.
- Started his career as a lawyer at the Ferozepur district and sessions court
- Before being elevated as high court judge he worked as district and sessions judge in several courts of the state.
Hero group co-founder Satyanand Munjal dies at 99
- Popularly known as ‘mahatma’ Satyanand Munjal for being devoted to several social causes related to the Arya Samaj.
Sports
Paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh, Manika Batra book Rio 2016 Olympic berths
- Indian Paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh and Manika Batra booked their Olympic tickets by winning their respective groups in the Asian Qualifiers in Hong Kong.
- No other country from the region participating in the South Asian Zone qualification event,
- Competition was restricted to the Indian paddlers alone.
AIBA names Mary Kom as ambassador for World Championship
- Manipuri boxer MC Mary Kom has been named as one of the brand ambassadors of the forthcoming World Championships by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
- Kazakhstan capital of Astana will host more than 300 of the world’s top female boxers for the AIBA Women’s World Championships.