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National News
Green Signal to Kanpur Metro Project, Senior Citizen Policy
- The policy will come into effect from 1 April 2016
- Social welfare department has been made the nodal agency for this new policy.
- Policy reserves 25 percent seats in these old age homes for the BPL families
- Will be provided free residence and food
- Declared to raise monthly pension from Rs.300 to Rs.400.
India’s First Education Focused Accelerator Program Started at MIT, PUNE
- Eduglid has been set up by Maharashtra Institute of Technology at Pune.
- Edugild will conduct two batches every year.
- Start-ups will receive seed funding worth Rs. 15 lakh in return for a minority stake.
Jammu & Kashmir adopts new Industrial policy
- New industrial policy to attract an investment of 2000 crores every year.
- The policy will hold good for 10 years.
- The new policy was framed by the Industries and Commerce department
Maharashtra passes Prohibition of Social Boycott bill
- Move to strengthen the laws against discrimination
- Social boycott is prohibited and its commission shall be an offence.
- Maximum punishment for social boycotting will be 7 years in prison or fine up to 5 lakh rupees or both
International Children’s Film Festival for the North East Region starts in Gangtok
- The Festival is named “The Golden Elephant”
- Has been organized by the Children’s Film Society of India.
- Children films from the country and abroad are to be screened
- Workshops on film making, storytelling and creative writing will be held
MoU Signed Between M/O Tourism and Ecotourism Society of India
- Take commitments towards Responsible and Sustainable tourism.
- The ESOI will prepare a 10-year Road Map for advocacy and certification under the Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India.
- 13 workshops have been conducted across the country in this context
Anti-Corruption Bureau setup in Karnataka
- To provide a transparent and efficient administration.
- ACB will be a statutory authority to investigate graft offences
- Under the direct supervision of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR)
- ACB will have no power to initiate a probe on decisions taken or recommendations made by public servants, without prior permission from the appointing authority.
- An Inspector General of Police (IGP) rank officer will head the vigilance cell within ACB
- ACB will be headed by an Additional Director General of Police-rank officer.
- It will have an IGP rank officer, 10 superintendents of police and a 322-member force.
Supreme Court asks Centre to frame rules for child adoption
- Asked the center to put in place a “credible mechanism” for intra and inter-country adoption of children.
- New mechanism should lay down rules and regulations similar to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
International
China to set up an International Maritime Judicial Centre
- To handle territorial disputes.
- China has been consistently fighting with its neighbors in Maritime borders in South China Sea.
- Creating multiple overlaps with areas claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan
UNESCO & CJ Welfare signs agreement to launch Rainbow Ruby animation program
- Organizations involved: UNESCO, CJ Welfare and Varkey foundation
- Agreement was signed during the 2016 Global Education and Skills Forum hosted by the Varkey Foundation
Myanmar Elects its First Civilian President
- Htin Kyaw is the first civilian president in over fifty years of military rule
- He is a close ally of Aung Sang Suu Kyi who cannot hold the constitutional post herself.
Business and Economy
ICICI Bank Ties up with Ferrari for co-branded Credit Card
- Ferrari Credit Card comes on the Visa platform in two variants
- Offers customers a host of offers including an all-expenses-paid trip for top spenders to Italy
- Includes a Scuderia Ferrari watch as a joining gift.
- Benefits include discount on Ferrari branded products at the Ferrari Store in Ferrari base Maranello and merchandise sold online at the Ferrari Store and Myntra.com
- Beneficiaries also gets complementary access to domestic airport lounges in the country
- A ‘buy one, get one free’ offer on bookings done on com platform.
Kotak Mahindra Group ties up with Canada Pension Plan
- To launch a $525 million fund to invest in the stressed asset market in India.
- Canadian pension fund manager will have the option to invest up to $450 million in this partnership
Glenmark gets final FDA nod for migraine relief drug
- Principal approval to manufacture and market therapeutically equivalent of Endo Pharmaceutical’s Frova tablets used to treat migraine headaches in America.
- The approved product has an estimated market size of $87.8 million over 12 months.
Govt Bans More Than 300 Combination Drugs
- Includes two widely used cough syrups, and Vicks Action 500 being sold without government approval.
- Banned medicines include the codeine-based cough syrups Phensedyl and Corex. Phensedyl is made by U.S. drug maker Abbott Laboratories
- Its sales are estimated to make up more than 3 percent of Abbott’s $1 billion India revenue.
Science and Technology
Europe and Russia launched Exo-Mars to explore the Red Planet
- Europe and Russia launched an unmanned spacecraft, named ExoMars 2016 to explore if life once existed on the Red Planet and possibilities for the same.
- Joint endeavor between European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.
Earthquake Warning System Installed at Haryana Govt’s Building
- The only building in India to have an Earthquake Warning System installed onsite.
- Around 26 countries in the world have this technology already.
- This system can save lives by giving alert of a future earthquake well ahead of time.
Wikipedia Developing Speech Engine for Visually Impaired Users
- Wikimedia Sweden has partnered with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden to develop the crowd-sourced speech engine
- Project aims to provide access to Wikipedia and other wikis to people with reading difficulties or visual impairment.
- The service will initially be available in Swedish language.
- Researchers will begin developing the engine for Swedish, English, and Arabic, which they aim to complete by September 2017.
Environment and Ecology
February breaks global temperature records
- February broke 100 year old temperature records by a ‘shocking’ amount.
- This is according to data released by NASA.
- data shows the average global surface temperature in February was 1.35C warmer than the average temperature for the month between 1951-1980
- This has led scientists to declare a ‘climate emergency‘.
People in News
Nobel Prize winner Lloyd Shapeley passes away
- World famous Mathematician, Economist and Nobel laureate
- He was the creator of the game ‘So Long Sucker’
- He also worked as a professor at the University of California from 1981 till his death.
Renowned British author Anita Brookner passes away
- She was highly regarded as a stylist
- Her novels explore themes of emotional loss and difficulties associated with fitting into society, and typically depict intellectual, middle-class women.
- She was awarded with Man Booker prize in 1984 and had won James Tait Black Memorial in 2010.
Awards
Jagran Group CEO and Dainik Jagran editor chosen IAA Editor of the Year
- Jagron Group CEO and the Editor of Dainik Jagran, Sanjay Gupta has been chosen as the Editor of the Year
- Chosen at the fourth Indian Advertising Association Awards in Mumbai.
Sports
Delhi lift Llyod Pro-Am Championship trophy
- One of the finest and most prestigious golf tournaments for the top executives across India.
- Delhi defeated Mumbai in the finals.