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National News
Cabinet approves signing the Paris Agreement
- Adopted at the 21st Conference of Parties held in Paris in last December.
Gold Finial unveiled at Humayun’s Tomb
- 18 feet tall Finial at Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi as part of the ongoing conservation effort.
- Tomb is a UNESCO World Heritage Site one of three in the capital has reinstated with a gold crown.
- Humayun’s Tomb is model of the 18-feet tall structure weighs about 300-kg finial made of 4 percent pure copper and plated with 3.5 kg of 24-carat gold.
Visit to Nagaland by Union Minister for Science and Technology
- Inaugurated DBT created Biotech Infrastructure facility at ICAR- National Research Centre on Mithun, Jharnapani.
- Inaugurated Twinning Network Project on Chemical Ecology of North Eastern Region at Nagaland Science and Technology Council.
Government merges Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan with Khelo India
- Urban Sports Infrastructure Scheme (USIS)
- National Sports Talent Search Scheme (N-STSS)
- Rs 140 crore allocated for the above projects in the current budget.
MoU on Youth Exchange Programmes with foreign countries
- Support exchange of ideas and values amongst youth of different countries and help in developing international view among the youth.
- Will pave the way for people-to-people contacts, these Programs promote peace and understanding and strengthen friendly relations between countries.
MoU between India and Bhutan on Technical Cooperation
- Technical cooperation in the field of capacity building, benchmarking and bilateral exchange in infrastructure engineering.
Ceasefire in Nagaland extended by one year
- Agreement targets to bring lasting peace in the state of Nagaland with the involvement of Naga people.
- Both the sides agreed that the ceasefire will follow Ceasefire Ground Rules (CFGR) as mutually ratified
- CFGR will subject to mutual review and amendment with the involvement of both the parties.
India to Purchase 145 M777 Howitzers
- 145 M777 Howitzers for $750 million to prepare the Mountain Strike Corps.
- Decision to buy ultra-light Howitzers produced by UK based BAE Systems under the Make In India
- Under Make in India initiative BAE Systems had tied up Mahindra as its business partner for its proposed in-country assembly, integration and test (AIT) facility for the M777 Howitzer.
Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojana notified
- Haryana government has notified the Affordable Plotted Housing Policy 2016 for low and medium standard towns
- To achieve the goal of providing houses for all which will facilitate creation of additional affordable housing in these towns.
Unauthorized places of worship insult to God.
- Supreme Court has expressed anguish over inaction of authorities for allowing the existence of unauthorized places of worship on roads and pavements across the country
- Court has warned chief secretaries of states and Union territories of serious consequences if they did not comply with its orders directing removal of such religious structures
Most of rural India still opts for open defecation: NSS report
- nation-wide rapid survey was conducted during May-June 2015, concurrently with the 72nd round of the NSS
- 1% of people in rural India choose open defecation compared to 7.5% in urban India.
- Survey was to track the government’s flagship program, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
Trading bloc to India: cut tariffs
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has asked India to agree to eliminate tariffs on most products quickly
- Or else, India has to leave the talks on the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
New PF withdrawal norms on hold
- A complete and unconditional rollback of new PF norms that barred employees from withdrawing their provident fund corpus before retirement.
- Previously, employees had been allowed to withdraw the total EPF amount before retirement for medical emergencies, to fund children’s marriage or while changing jobs.
- Under the norms that now stand reversed, employees could withdraw their own share of PF savings along with the interest on them.
International
India ranked at 133 on World Press Freedom Index
- Shows the levels of freedom that journalists, News Organizations enjoy in the country
- India gains at 133 among 180 countries in the recent annual meeting of World Press freedom Index
- Finland is in first place for the sixth consecutive year. Netherlands and Norway follow.
Business and Economy
Health insurance cards distributed in Punjab
- Issued 303074 pre-active cashless Farmers Health Insurance Cards under Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojna in the maiden phase of project.
- Scheme enables farmers and their families to get health cover up to Rs 50,000 for their treatment and compensation of Rs 5 Lakhs in case of death
IFMR Capital initiates first capital market transaction for MUDRA
- Joint initiative would facilitate accelerated impact on the sector by leveraging MUDRA’s capital and risk appetite.
- Securitization transaction Mjolnir IFMR Capital enabling Mudra to invest Rs 50 crore in the A (-) rated senior tranche of securitized MSME loan portfolio of Janalakshmi Financial Services.
- Short term transaction with tenure of 1.5 years. Which in turn will gain exposure to over 100 high quality MFIs and NBFCs in the Nation.
US think tank launches India-US trade initiative
- To generate American support for continued economic engagement in India and to forge collaboration on issues of trade and commerce,
- Tremendous potential for the future in a number of sectors including renewable energy, infrastructure, smart cities, IT services, digital economy, and defense
People in News
Obama nominates Indian-American Geeta Pasi as US envoy to Chad
- At present the Director of the Office of Career Development and Assignments in the Bureau of Human Resources at the Department of State.
- Career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counsellor. She served as US Ambassador to Djibouti from 2011 to 2014.
Laos appoints new president, prime minister
- Communist Party Chief Bounnhang Vorachit was appointed as the country’s new president
- Foreign minister Thongloun Sisoulith as the prime minister
Ajith Kumar as Rubber Board Chief
- A 1994 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre
- The post has been lying vacant since August 2014.
BCCI appoints Rahul Johri as CEO
- Johri was executive vice-president and general manager for South Asia at Discovery Network.
- He will be responsible for the stakeholder management and building robust strategies for further promoting the sport.
- Appointment is in line with the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee.
Silicon Valley’s Legendary ‘Coach’ Bill Campbell Dies
- Former Ivy League football coach
- Management guru for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and other Silicon Valley luminaries
Science and Technology
Russia Test-Fires ‘Iskander’ Tactical Ballistic Missile
- Live-fired a cruise missile from the Iskander tactical missile against a simulated enemy’s command post at a distance of around 200 km.
- Missile systems are capable of hitting both small-size and large-area targets at a distance of up to 500 km
Awards
2016 Pulitzer Prize Winners
- Awarded for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition in United States
- Public Service – Associated Press
- Breaking News Reporting – Los Angeles Times Staff
- Investigative Reporting – Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune
- Explanatory Reporting – T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project
- Local Reporting – Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner of the Tampa Bay Times
- National Reporting – The Washington Post Staff
- International Reporting – Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times
- Feature Writing – Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker
- Commentary – Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe
- Criticism – Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker
Sports
Hockey India decides to withdraw from Sultan of Johor Cup
- National junior team to withdraw from the annual Sultan of Johor Cup to be held this year due to injury concerns.
- Junior World Cup is to be held in India in December
- Hockey India considers there is little time to recover in case of an injury.