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National News
New policy for women
- Women and Child Development MinisterManeka Gandhi drafted the New Policy for Women to deal the issues against the Women
- Dealing with issues related to housing, single women and cybercrime against of women
World’s largest Single Rooftop Solar Power Plant inaugurated
- World’s largest single rooftop stretch of 42 acre solar power plant of 5 Mwcapacity was installed in India
- Investment: Rs 82 Crore (2012) to Rs. 10,000 Crore
- Project at: Beas in Punjab
Trial run of Delhi Metro’s new ‘driver-less’ train
- country’s first driverless-metro train was tested on track in the capital
- will increase the Delhi metro’s frequency to 90 seconds instead of the current average of two minutes.
- rain brought from South Korea, It has wi-fi, USB ports, charging points, LED and LCD screens and backrest near the wheel-chair area.
Joint issue between Department of Posts and UN Postal Administration
- Memorandum of Understanding was inked between Department of Posts and United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in February this year for HeForShe stamp
- Stamps were printed in the form of sheet of 20 se-tenants and Miniature Sheet of two stamps.
- UN Women HeForShe campaign is a unity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity
Tatkal window for faster patents to startups
- Tatkal windowto fast-track patent proposals. Start-ups bynew applicants that fills the criteria allowed to use this route for obtaining faster clearances.
- move is to streamline the patent regime also for expeditious clearance of applications by start-ups
- plans to significantly cut down the time period for granting of patents to one-and–a-half yearsfrom the existing five to seven years.
NK Singh to head panel on review of FRBM roadmap
| anel Members | Designation | Appointed as |
| NK Singh. | MP and Ex Revenue and Expenditure Secretary. | Head |
| Arvind Subramanian | Chief Economic Advisor | Members |
| Sumit Bose. | Ex-Finance Secretary | Members |
| Urjit Patel. | Reserve Bank Deputy Governor | Members |
| Rathin Roy. | NIPFP Director | Member |
- committee will submit its report by October 31 this year
States asked to convert 3,784 urban areas into statutory Urban Local Bodies
- necessary for planned and coordinated infrastructure development, enhancement of revenues and efficient delivery of services to citizens leading to overall growth of economic activities.
- Census Town is an area with urban characteristics like a minimum population of 5,000, at least 75% of the male main working force engaged in non-agricultural activities and population density of at least 400 persons per sq.km
- Statutory Town is one with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee.
Bonded labour rehab to be made Central sector scheme
- scheme proposes to increase the Budget provision from 5 crore to about 47 crore per annum.
- male bonded labourer would get a financial assistance Rs 1 lakh, while a child or woman would of get Rs 2 lakh. This would go up to Rs 3 lakh in case of a differently-abled or physically challenged bonded labourer.
International
United Nations released World Cities Report 2016
- India is planned to add300 million new urban residents by 2050 and it is required to build Climate Friendly cities to deal the challenge of accommodating the needs of the Population growth
- Urged the Government of India to build 100 new citieswith low infrastructure, denser and low energy to avoid the addition of Greenhouse gases
- Contribution of urban areas more than 60 per centof the GDP and an extra 300 million new urban residents are projected by 2050
UNICEF and EU Launch #Emergency Lessons Campaign
- #Emergency Lessons campaign on education in countries like Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.
- Social media-driven public awareness campaignaimed at reaching 20 million Europeans and emphasising the vital role of education for children.
Oil-for-drugs deal likely with crisis-hit Venezuela
- India has proposed an oil-for-drugs barter planwith cash-strapped Venezuela to recoup millions of dollars.
- payment mechanism would allow Venezuela to repay some of the amount owed with oil.
Business and Economy
RBS to close retail banking operations in India
- Will shut its banking operations in India having given up on efforts to find a buyer
- to reduce its international operations to 13 countries from the current 38.
- It has less than 400 employeesin India and 10 retail branches.
Five associate banks to merge with SBI
- merger would create a banking behemoth with a balance sheet size of Rs.37 trillion
- The Banks to be merged with the SBI are,
1.State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur,
2.State Bank of Hyderabad,
3.State Bank of Mysore,
4.State Bank of Patiala,
5.State Bank of Travancore,
6.Bharatiya Mahila Bank Limited.
NTPC partners with Coal India Limited
- to revive plants of the Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL).
- joint venture company will take up the resumption of FCIL plantsat Sindri in Bihar and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh by setting up an ammonia urea plant at each location.
Ola signs MoU with govt. to benefit ‘Safai Karamcharis’
- to focus on building a sustainable framework by supporting entrepreneurship, skill development training and self-defence courses for Safai Karamcharis and Scavengers.
- partnership has the potential to generate synergies that will result in a better future for driver entrepreneurs by creating sustainable careers and livelihoods for them.
- initiative is in line with Ola’s mission to up-skill drivers and createan ecosystem that is conducive for them to grow as entrepreneurs
People in News
Andre Brahic, discoverer of Neptune’s rings, dies
- French astrophysicist Andre Brahic has died of cancerin Paris, at the age of 73.
- became a specialist in exploring our solar system with the help of the NASA Voyager andlater US-Europe Cassini unmanned missions in 1980s.
Nitin Prasad as New Head of Shell India
- will fill the shoes of the incumbent Yasmine Hilton whoretires in September this year.
- currently the cluster general manager for lubricants sales and marketing for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Barco Appoints Rajiv Bhalla as MD for India
- Belgium based visualization technology leader Barco has announced the appointment of Rajiv Bhallaas managing director for India
- Rajiv has more than 22 years of experiencein senior leadership in technology organizations such as Thomson Consumer Electronics, Microsoft, etc
Science and Technology
India successfully test fires its indigenously developed Prithvi-II missile
- as part of a user trial by the army from a launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in
- Missile have a strike range of 350 km also capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheadsand is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines
- DRDO developed Prithviis India’s first indigenously-built ballistic missile.
- One of the five missiles under the country’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.
Google launches group-sharing app Spaces on iOS, Android
- Group-Sharing App Spaces to letout users easily share content and commentary, group-messaging style, on any topics they wish.
- it is simple to find and share articles, videos and imageswithout leaving the app, since Google Search, YouTube, and Chrome come built on.
Hypersonic test flight promises to shrink world
- Hypersonic technology was recently successfully tested in the Australian desert by a joint S.-Australian military research team.
- The research team sent a scramjetattached to a rocket booster to an altitude of 172 miles (278km) at Mach 7.5 – or seven times the speed of sound.
- Scramjet is a supersonic combustion engine that uses oxygen from the atmosphere for fuel, making it lighter and faster than fuel-carrying rockets.
Sports
England cricketer Joe Root bags top three England cricket awards
- Joe Roothas been honored with England’s Test and One Day International Cricketer of the year during England Cricket Board Annual Awards
- England women’s cricketer of the year award for the maiden time: Somerset’sAnya Shrubsole
- Women’s player of the year: Charlotte Edwards
Environment & Ecology
Rare sighting: Brown bears spotted in Kargil
- Eight Himalayan brown bears sighted in Kargil’s Drass Sector, where the 1999 war had bring about destruction with their habitats.
- It is first ever sighting of a group of bears. No such sighting has ever been reported from J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where these animals are distributed.
- Himalayan brown bear is also known as the Himalayan red bear and Isabelline bear. In the IUCN listof ‘vulnerable’ category animals the bear is included.