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CURRENT AFFAIRS JUNE 2017 1) Driver’s Training Institute and a Secondary School under the SMARTGRAM Initiative AT Dhaula Gurugram in Haryana. 2) is a World leader in milk production for the past 15 years and this achievement is primarily due to the contribution of smallholder dairy farmers, milk producers, milk processing and marketing organisations and various other stakeholders involved. 3)PRITHIVI II LAUNCHED IN JUNE 2017 BY DRDO FROM test range in Odisha.It has a strike range of 350 km, was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur It is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target with precision and accuracy. Prithvi (Sanskrit: pṛthvī "Earth") is a tactical surface-to-surface short- range ballistic missile (SRBM) developed by DRDO of Indiaunder the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP of 1983). It is deployed by India's Strategic Forces Command. 4) SOIL HEALTH CARD- Soil Health Card, a revolutionary scheme, was initiated for farmers and it has made a huge difference to farming and farm produce. It has helped in increasing the productivity and reduced the cost of production. Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had inaugurated the scheme on February 19, 2015, in Suratgarh, Rajasthan. Soil Health Card provides information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients for improving soil health and its fertility. This also gives farmers information about the nature of the soil. 5) Science City’ to be developed in Haryana by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) under Ministry of Culture. 6) An MoU was signed between National Skill Development Corporation and Bird Academy on the 1st of June 2017 in New Delhi, with regards to skilling of unemployed youth in the aviation and aerospace Sector. The Bird Group established its educational arm in 1998 to meet the growing demand for internationally competent human resource. The Courses have been conceptualized with a view to provide an in-depth understanding and technical skills in the field of Aviation, Travel & Tourism, Information Technology and Hospitality Management involving Soft Skill Training, IATA Consultant and Foundation Course, Airport Handling and IATA Cargo Courses, Computerized Reservation System, Automated Ticketing, GDS Fares & Ticketing and Aviation Law and Dangerous Goods Regulation courses. 7)B Sai Praneeth won Thailand Open badminton. 8) GSLV Mk III is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.GSLV Mk III is designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of GSLV Mk II. GSLV-Mk III is the

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY heaviest but shortest rocket ever made by ISRO which is capable of carrying heavy payloads. 9) World Environment Day on 05 Jun 2017 marks three years of the launch of Green Initiatives Drive of Indian Navy. The past three years have seen a unified approach by rank and file in Indian Navy towards pursuance of green goals. The energy optimisation measures in IN cover its entire spectrum – operations, infrastructure and maintenance. World Environment Day is a global initiative of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 2017 Theme: Connecting People to Nature. 2017 Host Country: Canada. Canada is seeking to use World Environment Day to showcase to the world the beauty of its natural environment on land and water. Since 1987, World Environment Day has been hosted by different countries. 10)6TH June-20th Anniversary of BIMSTEC celebrated. 11)Central Govt in Health and Family Welfare launched the ‘Skill for Life, Save a Life’ initiative. ndia enjoys a demographic dividend as more than 65% youth are below the age of 35 years and the Government is determined to seize this opportunity by providing adequate skills and employability to the youth for a strong foundation for continued and sustainable growth. ‘Skills for Life, Save a Life’ Initiative’ aims to upscale the quantity and quality of trained professionals in the healthcare system. Under this initiative various courses are planned to be initiated targeting specific competencies for healthcare professionals as well as for general public. 12) Mr. J.S. Deepak, WAS APPOINTED asAmbassador/Permanent Representative of India to the World Trade Organization 13) Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is undertaking two initiatives in skill development under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM): (i) Placement linked skill development program called DDU-GKY which allows skilling and assured wage employment. (ii) Skill development through 587 Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETI) in the country, which provides skilling, thereby enabling the trainee to take bank credit and start his/her own Micro-enterprise. 13)Union Health Ministry launched Vatsalya – Maatri Amrit Kosh’, a National Human Milk Bank and Lactation Counselling Centre at the Lady Hardinge Medical College 14)In SCO summit as Astana India and Pakistan admitted as members of SCO. SCO is the political and security grouping headquartered in Beijing. It was founded in 2001. The full members of the organization are , , , , and . The groupings main objective is military cooperation between the members. The grouping also works towards intelligence-sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia. China founded this grouping, called the Shanghai Five, in 1996. It comprised Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. In 2001 Uzbekistan was invited to join it and the SCO was officially born. After the Astana Summit Declaration in 2005,

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SCO has emerged as a regional security organization. 15) NITI Aayog has launched SATH, a program providing ‘Sustainable Action for Transforming Human capital’ with the State Governments. The vision of the program is to initiate transformation in the education and health sectors. The program addresses the need expressed by many states for technical support from NITI . 16) In pursuance of India’s Act East policy, Indian Naval Ship Sahyadri is on an overseas deployment to the South East Asia and Southern Indian Ocean 17) 6 fundamental principles to achieve the goal of Ujwal Bharat. These are SULABH (Accesible Power), SASTI (Cheap Power), SWACHH (Clean Power), SUNIYOJIT (Well Planned Infrastructure; Preparing India for the Future), SUNISHCHIT (Assured Power for All) and SURAKSHIT (Empowering each Citizen of India with Transparent Governance and Securing their Future). 18) The Anti- Guided Missile Nag was successfully flight tested today in the desert ranges of Rajasthan.The capabilities of the top attack ATGM Nag is unique in nature and in today’s mission it successfully destroyed the target. The test has been carried out by DRDO Scientists of the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Missile Complex at Hyderabad, DL Jodhpur, HEMRL and ARDE at Pune. 19) India to be Co-Partner Country in ANUGA - an international business platform for Food Industry to be held in Cologne, ANUGA - an acronym for Allgemeine Nahrungs Und Genußmittel Ausstellung ( General Food and Non essential Provisions Exhibition) is the world’s biggest and most important trade fair for Food and beverage trade. It takes place biennially (every 2 years). ANUGA 2017 is the 34th edition. ANUGA offers an extensive supporting programme with Lectures, Special exhibition and attractive industry events ANUGA is the leading export platform with 7,189 exhibitors from 109 countries with over 85% of Exhibitors from abroad. 20) Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) for farmers for the year 2017-18. This will help farmers getting short term crop loan up to Rs. 3 lakh payable within one year at only 4% per annum. The Government has earmarked a sum of Rs. 20,339 crore for this purpose.The interest subvention will be given to Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Private Sector Banks, Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) on use of own funds and to NABARD for refinance to RRBs and Cooperative Banks.The Interest Subvention Scheme will continue for one year and it will be implemented by NABARD and RBI. 21)Two Metros opened Namma Metro at Bengaluru and another at Kochi. Kochi metro project became the first metro in the country which connects rail, road and water transport facilities and completed in fastest phase. 22)Kidambi Srikanth won Indonesian Open Badminton title.It is his third Super Series title. Srikanth had previously won Super Series titles in India and Chinahe Indian shuttler defeated the World and Olympic champion from China, for the first time in six meetings, in the men’s singles final to lift the $750,000 Australian Open Superseries crown in Sydney also.

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23) National Mission on Cultural Mapping of India commenced at Goverdhan Block, Mathura District,. This Mission is part of the ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ umbrella. Ministry of Culture launched it in the year of commemoration of the birth centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, who hailed from Mathura. 24) Union Govt launched the Startup India Virtual Hub, an online platform for all stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India to discover, connect and engage with each other. 25)Third International Yoga Day celebrated on 21st June.PM participated at Lucknow.UN proclaimed it in 2014 and being celebrated from 2015.Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. The word ‘yoga’ derives from Sanskrit and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness.Theme for 2017 was Yoga for Health. There is a broad variety of yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga. The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre- Vedic Indian traditions; it is mentioned in the Rigveda.Patanjali is considered as Father of Yoga. Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga is at New Delhi. 26)TECHNOPROM is Make in Russia program. 27) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy between Ministry of AYUSH of the Government of Republic of India and the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine of the Government of Democratic Socialist Republic of signed. 28) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space between India and was signed. 29) Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G), rural Uttarakhand and rural Haryana have declared themselves as the 4th and 5th Open Defecation Free (ODF) States of India. The two today joined the league of Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala, which were the first three states to be declared ODF. Nationally, the sanitation coverage has increased from 42% to over 64% in just two and a half years since the launch of SBM. 30) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, and Ministry of the Presidency and of Administrative Modernization, Government of Portuguese Republic, for ‘Cooperation in the field of Public Administration and Governance Reforms’ signed. 31)ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C38 successfully launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites today from Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the thirty ninth consecutively successful mission of PSLV. PSLV-C38 lifted off at 0929 hrs (9:29 am) IST, as planned, from the First Launch Pad. After a flight of about 16 minutes, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 505 km inclined at an angle of 97.44 degree to the equator

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(very close to the intended orbit) and in the succeeding seven and a half minutes, all the 31 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV in a predetermined sequence beginning with Cartosat-2 series satellite, followed by NIUSAT and 29 customer satellites. The total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV now stands at 48. One of the 30 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C38 was the 15 kg NIUSAT, a University/Academic Institute satellite from Nurul Islam University, Tamil Nadu, India. The remaining 29 co- passenger satellites carried were international customer satellites from USA (10), United Kingdom (3), Belgium (3), Italy (3), Austria (1), Chile (1), (1), Finland (1), France (1), (1), (1), (1), Lithuania (1) and Slovakia (1). 32)PM visited the Champalimaud Foundation in Lisbon. The Champalimaud Foundation is a private biomedical research foundation. It provides cutting-edge cancer treatment, and supports "ahead of the curve" cancer research. It offers a new holistic approach to medical care, that integrates day to day treatment with research and innovation in a green environment, closely linked to nature. 33) Government constitutes a committee to prepare the final draft of National Education Policy UNDER Dr Kasturirangan. The other important past committees in Education includes Radhakrishnan Commission (1948-49) on higher education; Mudaliyar Commission (1952) on secondary education and the Kothari Commission (1964-66). 34) Election Commission of India (ECI) is launching a ‘Special Drive in Facebook to enrol left out electors, with a special focus on first time electors from 1st July , 2017 , so as to move in the direction of Commission’s motto that 'NO VOTER TO BE LEFT BEHIND’ 35)29th June- 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Professor P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata was celebrated. Indian Statistical Institute started by Prof. Mahalanobis imparts high quality education.His birthday is celebrated as national Statistical Day.Second 5 year Plan was his brainchild. 36)Union Govt approved the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) at campus of National Seed Research and Training Center (NSRTC) in . Under the proposal, a Centre of Excellence in Rice Value Addition (CERVA) will be set up in Varanasi. 37) Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today chaired his twentieth interaction through PRAGATI - the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely ImplementationPRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation). PRAGATI is a unique integrating and interactive platform. The platform is aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments. It was launched in 2015. 38) 8th edition of the greatest carnival of Theatre in the World will take place in India for the first time ever from February 17 – April 08,

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2018 simultaneously in various cities across the country. The first country to host the Theatre Olympics was Greece in 1995 39) , Shri Pranab Mukherjee graced a special function organized to launch the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the midnight of June 30- July1, 2017 in the Central Hall of Parliament 40) India Mobile Congress 2017 (IMC 2017) will be held as a three day event from 27th to 29th September 2017 in New Delhi. T his is the first time India is all set to host its own mobile mega show. The Indian telecom market is the second-largest in the world after China. India has a total subscriber base of over 1.18 billion subscribers. It will see the participation of government bodies, Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), telecom equipment manufacturers, handset manufacturers and app providers. 41) NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be launched in the summer of 2018 to explore the sun’s atmosphere. The purpose of the launch will be to study sun’s outer atmosphere and to understand how sun works. The name of the probe initially called the Solar Probe Plus has been renamed as the Parker Solar Probe in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker. This is the first time NASA has named a spacecraft after a living person. This will be NASA’s first mission to the sun and its outermost atmosphere corona. The mission is scheduled to end in June 2025. 42) Telangana has launched a digital wallet named T-Wallet for people to make public and private financial transactions 43) has tendered his resignation as BCCI administrator citing personal reasons. Ramachandra Guha was one among the four administrators appointed by the Supreme Court on January 30 to run the affairs of BCCI. The four member committee was headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai. The other two members are managing Director of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) Vikram Limaye and former Indian women Diana Edulji. 44)India and Russia have decided to hold the first tri-Services exercises, named ‘Indra-2017’, this year. Both the countries have also decided to begin joint manufacturing of frigates and co-production of Kamov-226 military helicopters. 45) From July, Odisha will commission the ambitious Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) to warn the vast population residing along its 480 km-long coast in the event of the occurrence of natural disasters like a tsunami or a cyclone. Andhra Pradesh is also reportedly developing such system to alert the people in case of natural calamities. 46) President Donald Trump has announced that the United States is set to withdraw from the historic 2015 Paris Accord as the accord was hurting his country and economy very badly. However, he has said that he is open for a “new transaction” on terms that are fair to the US. 47) The second Scorpene-class submarine is ready for surface sea trials. INS Khanderi, the second Scorpene class submarine has been built at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai, . It is the second of the six submarines being built at MDL in collaboration with France’s DCNS as part of

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Project 75 of Indian Navy.I NS Khanderi has been named Khanderi, after the Island fort of Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji which played had vital role in ensuring their supremacy at sea in late 17th century. Khanderi is also name for Tiger Shark. 48) Under Project 75 India will construct 6 next generation diesel submarines with Air Independent Propulsion System (AIP) technology for the Indian Navy by 2022. The project is built with assistance and technology transfer from DCNS of France under deal signed in October 2005. The first of the series INS Kalvari is completing sea trials and will be commissioned shortly. The other four submarines are expected to be launched at nine-month intervals after the INS Khanderi. 49) Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has developed a wireless technology called ‘AmbuSens‘ for remote monitoring of condition of those patients who are ferried in ambulances. 50) India has been ranked 137th in the Global Peace Index 2017, which ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. In Last year’s index, India was ranked 141st. This is the eleventh edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI). The index is compiled every year by the Sydney-based think tank Institute for Economics and Peace. 50) SEBI has formed a Committee on Corporate Governance under the chairmanship of Uday Kotak, the executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank. The move is aimed at improving the standards of corporate governance of listed companies. 51) SEBI is the statutory regulator for the securities market in India established in 1988. It was given statutory powers through the SEBI Act, 1992. SEBI’s headquarters is in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SEBI’s mandate is to protect the interests of investors in securities, promote the development of securities market and to regulate the securities market. The Key functions of SEBI are as follows: Regulating stock exchanges and other securities markets; Registering and regulating the working of intermediaries who are associated with securities markets in any manner; Registering and regulating the working of venture capital funds and collective investment schemes including mutual funds; promoting and regulating self-regulatory organizations and prohibiting fraudulent and unfair trade practices relating to securities markets. 52) Shashi Shekar Vempati has been appointed as the CEO of Prasar Bharati based on the recommendation of the three-member committee headed by Vice President 53) Ireland’s Fine Gael party has elected a 38 year old Leo Varadkar as prime minister of Ireland Leo Varadkar has earned the distinction of becoming Ireland’s first gay prime minister. He will also be the youngest person ever and the first from an ethnic minority background to become the Prime Minister of Ireland.His father is from Mumbai. 54) NASA is all set to launch the world’s first ever mission devoted for studying neutron stars. NASA will launch the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, or NICER, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.

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55) World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects (GEP) has projected a growth rate of 7.2% for India in the financial year 2017 as against 6.8% growth in 2016. Also, the bank in its report expects India’s growth rate to remain at 7.5% in 2018 and 7.7% in 2019. 56) 2017 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) titled ‘The Age of Focus‘ has placed India at the top position among 30 developing countries on ease of doing business in the retail sector. China is second. GRDI is annually published by London-based business consultancy A T Kearney. 57) Indian Shuttler B Sai Praneeth has clinched Thailand Grand Prix Gold title by defeating Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 58) has struck a major deal with China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) for developing a 1,200 MW Budhigandaki Hydroelectric Project, which will be the biggest hydro project in Nepal 59) Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and UAE have suspended their diplomatic ties with . Qatar is home to a major US military base, a sprawling al-Udeid Air Base, which is home to the US military’s Central Command hosting 10,000 troops 60) Habibganj railway station in the suburbs of Bhopal will become country’s first railway station to be redeveloped in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode The operation and maintenance of the railway station has been given to Bhopal- based Bansal Group for a period of eight years 61)India’s First Rural LED programme to be implemented by Andhra in 7 select Dts. The project will be carried out by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) functioning under the Ministry of Power 62) National Board of Wildlife has approved Rutland Island in South Andaman to be the site for the country’s long-range missile test facility 63) According to the Animal Discoveries 2016, New Species and Records, brought out by the Zoological Survey of India and Plant Discoveries 2016, by the Botanical Survey of India, 499 new species have been discovered from various parts of the country last year. The new species are known to occur in the four biological hotspots of the country, namely, the Himalayas, the northeast, the Western Ghats and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. As per the Animal Discoveries 2016, the number of animal species in the country for the first time has crossed one lakh to number 1,00,693. 64)Vijaya bank is to develop as many as 100 digital villages in various States across the country as part of its initiative to promote digital banking among the rural population. At present, Vijaya Bank is the only public sector financial institution to develop digital villages with focus on rural population. Already, the bank has developed 5 villages into Digital Villages. In the Digital Villages, the bank would offer Internet, free Wi-Fi connectivity, mobile payment facilities, ATM cards, online banking and will carry out a door-to-door campaign to educate the villagers. 65) will join other global celebrities like Dravid, Beckham, Novak Djokovic, Academy Award winning American actor Mahershala Ali, British racing driver Lewis Hamilton and Australian actor Hugh

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Jackman for UNICEF’s ‘Super Dads’ campaign that highlights the critical role played by fathers in children’s early development. Super Dads’ initiative is a part of UNICEF’s #EarlyMomentsMatter campaign that aims to increase understanding of how a child’s environments and experiences in early childhood can shape their future health, well being, ability to learn etc. 66) Sher Bahadur Deuba,70, has been elected as Nepal’s Prime Minister for the fourth time 67) state government has planned to replace textbooks meant for Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board with the ones published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) with an aim to bring the curriculum of UP Board at par with the CBSE. 68) The world’s first hybrid ‘aeroboat’ which has been built by an Indo- Russian joint venture has been unveiled at a start-ups event organized by Russia’s state-run Skolkovo Foundation. 69)A ccording to UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2017, India continues to remain as a favourite destination for FDIIndia is third followed by USA and China. 70) Scientists have discovered the hottest known exoplanet, designated KELT- 9b which is warmer than most stars in the universe. The study has been published in the journal Nature. The planet orbits a massive star KELT-9 every day and a half. The planet’s day-side temperature is 4,326 degree Celsius and is only 926 degree Celsius cooler than the Sun. The planet is located 650 light years from Earth and sports a giant, glowing gas tail like a comet. 71)BRICS grouping has established a one million dollar fund for boosting media cooperation in the five-nation grouping. 72) Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda has been conferred the WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award for global tobacco control.India is second largest user of tobacco after China. 73)WHO PROTOCOL FOR ANTIBIOTICS- WHO has divided the drugs into three categories — access, watch and reserve.C ommonly used antibiotics will be placed under the ‘access’ category. WHO has recommended that the antibiotics in this category be made available at all times antibiotics which are slightly potent will be placed under ‘watch‘ category. WHO recommends that the drugs coming under this category be prescribed less to avoid further development of resistance The highly potent drugs which should be used only as a last resort will be placed under the ‘reserve’ category. WHO recommends that these drugs be used only when all other alternatives failed such as life- threatening infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria. 74) Rohan Bopanna has won his maiden title along with his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski by winning the French Open mixed doubles trophy. This is Bopanna’s maiden Grand Slam title at French Open. With this title win he has become only the fourth Indian to clinch a major, The other three being , and who all have won Grand Slam trophies for India French Open also known as Roland Garros is a premier clay court championship

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75) Preaident gave assent to ed the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Bill 2017, and thus legalising kambala 76) Sahithi Pingali, a twelfth grader from Bengaluru will get a minor planet in Milky Way named after her as a reward for developing an integrated mobile phone app and lake monitoring kit to monitor pollution in water bodies. 77) ‘Selfie with Daughter’ campaign was started in village Bibipur, Jind, Haryana by a former Sarpanch Sunil Jaglan in June 2015. The aim of the ‘Selfie with Daughter’campaign is to motivate society to feel proud to be parents of a girl child which in turn is expected to have a positive impact in improving the child sex ratio 78)India and the UN Office for South-South Cooperation have launched a partnership fund to promote sustainable development projects across the developing world. The India-UN Development Partnership Fund was launched on occasion of the World Oceans Day at a special ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of India to the UN. 79) Government has awarded a Rs 1,600-crore contract for constructing 109-km road connecting Paletwa river terminal to Zorinpui in Mizoram border as a part of the $484-million Kaladan multi-modal transport (KMTT) projects in which will offer connectivity to Mizoram. 80) International Olympic Committee has approved a number of new events for the 2020 Tokyo Games.Now 321 events as against 306 in 2016. The new additions inlcude a mixed 4x400m relay along with 14 other events such as 3-on-3 basketball, the mixed relay, mixed swimming, mixed team archery, BMX freestyle etc. In addition, Mixed triathlon will also be included in the Tokyo games for the first time. Further, a mixed team event for judo will be included. 81) India’s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves have increased by $2.404 billion to touch a lifetime high of $381.167 billion in the week that ended on June 2. The increase was due to increase in foreign currency assets (FCAs). 82) Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia has lifted the the Women’s Singles crown. To win her first grandslam. ’s Rafael Nadal has defeated Swiss third-seeded Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6- 3, 6-1 to win his record 10th French Open title. 83) EU and France have granted of 3.5 million euros to three Indian cities- , Kochi and Ahmedabad as part of the EU’s commitment under the Paris Climate agreement to curb emissions and promote sustainability in these cities. 84) Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2018 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, have featured in the top 200 global universities. 85) Arunachal Pradesh chief minister has demand for a separate time zone for the northeastern states to improve work efficiency and save electricity in the region. According to him, several daylight hours are getting wasted as government offices opens only at 10am and closes as early as 4pm. 86) Project Jal Sanchay’, a water conservation model which is successfully adopted in Nalanda district of south-central , has been chosen for the

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY national award for excellence in the national rural employment guarantee programme 87) Indian shooters and Heena Sidhu have clinched the gold medal in mixed team 10m air pistol event of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) held at Gabala, 88) According to a recently released CRY Report on child labour, more than 8 lakh children between the age group of 5 and 6 years in India are engaged in child labour.UP,Bihar and Maharashtra tops the list. 89) Panama has established formal diplomatic ties with China and broke all of its relationship with Taiwan in a move that is seen as a victory for China in its drive to isolate Taiwan from the rest of the world. China claims Taiwan as its own territory. 90) SEBI has allowed options trading on futures contract of commodities. However, the capital market regulator has allowed the commodity derivatives exchanges to initially launch options on futures of only one commoditySEBI has put in place strict eligibility criteria for the commodity exchanges to start trading in options contract of commodities. SEBI will allow options trading on futures contract of only those commodities that are among the top five in terms of the total trading turnover value of previous 12 months. Further, the average daily turnover of underlying futures contract of such commodities in the previous 12 months should be minimum Rs200 crore for agricultural and agri-processed commodities, and Rs1,000 crore for other commodities 91) Exercise Australia-India (AUSINDEX) was first conducted off the East Coast of India in September 2015. AUSINDEX-17 will be the second overall bilateral drill between Indian Navy and Royal Australian Navy. 92) Mission Retro-Fitment is an ambitious program of the ministry or railways to upgrade the level of furnishing & amenities in the coaches of . The refurbished coaches will have better furnishing, aesthetics & amenities and better safety features which are aimed at providing a safe and comfortable travel to the railway passengers. Under Mission Retro- Fitment, 40,000 coaches will be refurbished and retrofitted in the next five years. 93) Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has have signed the joint venture agreement to jointly set up the world’s largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. 94) Israeli author David Grossman has won the Man Booker International Prize for his novel “A Horse Walks Into a Bar“. David Grossman has become the first Israeli author to win the Man Booker International Prize. Man Booker Prize is world’s most prestigious English-language literary award. It was launched in 1969 and presented by the Man Group. The international edition of the Man Booker Prize was introduced in 2005. From 2016, the prize is awarded for a single work of fiction that has been translated into English and published in the United Kingdom. 95) Neeru Chadha has been elected as first Indian woman to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS).

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96) According to the ‘One Family at a Time’ study conducted by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Indians working across the world had sent home USD 62.7 billion in 2016 making India the top remittance-receiving country surpassing China. 97) China has launched its first X-ray space telescope to study black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts. The telescope weighing 2.5 tonne was sent to the space using China’s Long March-4B rocket. The satellite was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Black hole refers to the remains of a supergiant star that has collapsed into itself. It is so dense and has a gravitational field so intense, that light itself cannot escape from it. Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. They are spherical, compact objects that are about the size of a large city but contain more mass than that of the sun. Scientists are using pulsars to study extreme states of matter, search for planets beyond Earth’s solar system and measure cosmic distance. 98) India’s Cricket Captain has created a record by becoming the quickest batsman to score 8000 runs in one-day international cricket beating ’s AB de Villier’s record 99) Justice Bhagwati introduced the concepts of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and absolute liability to the Indian judicial system. Passed away. 100) India has won its re-election to the UN’s principal organ ECOSOC for 3 years. 101) In the Global Innovation Index 2017, co-authored by Cornell University, INSEAD and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), India has moved up 6 places to reach 60th place among 130 countries emerging as the top- ranked economy in Central and South Asia..Switserland and Swedon tops the list. 102) Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who is hailed as the father of German unification has passed away. 103) World’s largest festival of light, music and ideas, Vivid Sydney has entered into Guinness World Book of Records.It was the ‘Largest interactive lighting display 104) India and Afghanistan are set to operationalize their first air-freight corridor in the coming days. The first flight will be operated by Ariana Afghan Airlines, which is the Afghanistan’s national carrier 105) World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed every year on June 17 to promote public awareness to combat desertification as notified by UN General Assembly in 1994. This year theme Our Land. Our Home. Our Future“ Desertification refers to degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub- humid areas due to an array of factors. The direct impact of desertification is reduced biodiversity. The reasons are many such as climatic changes such as drought, or human such as overgrazing. Desertification is a major economic, social and environmental problem of concern to many countries in all regions of

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY the world. In 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) adopted a Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD). 106)Govt inaugurated Know India Programme (KIP) for NRI and PIO youth with a view to provide them with an exposure to the country of their originKnow India Programme is an initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs for the Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) between the age group of 18 to 30 years. The Know India Programme is a three-week orientation programme 107) China is planning to send mini-ecosystems comprising of potato seeds and silkworm eggs to the Moon by next year. The move is aimed at studying how the organisms develop in Moon. 108) NASA’s Orion Spacecraft which has been designed to carry astronauts to deep space destinations like Moon and Mars has successfully carried out a series of tests to test its critical safety systems. 109)ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) completes 1000 earth days in orbit. Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched into space on November 5, 2013, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C25. 109) Lockheed Martin and India’s Tata Advanced Systems have signed a pact to produce F-16 fighter planes in India. 110) Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace hotel has acquired an ‘image trademark‘ under the Trademark Act of 1999, making it is the first building in the country to acquire intellectual property rights protection for its architectural design 111) Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune has become the first recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for outstanding contribution to promotion and development of Yoga. Yoga Award was instituted at the 2nd International Day of Yoga celebrations at 112) China has unveiled world’s first train that runs on a virtual track making use of sensor technology instead of metal rails. The new trains are non-polluting as they are battery powered. The train is capable of reaching a top speed of 70 kmph and can travel a distance of 25 km by just charging for 10 minutes. The train which is only about 32 metres long can carry up to 307 passengers. 113) Operation Swarn (‘gold’)“-Revamping Rajdhani and 114)In May 2017, first high-speed premium train between Mumbai and Karnali in Goa was launched. The train has a lot of facilities like LCD screen on every seat, improved interiors, coffee vending machines, automatic doors, fire repression system, bio-vacuum toilets, attendant call buttons, reading LED lights and free Wi-Fi connectivity. The railways have also launched a new series of fully air-conditioned express trains like Humsafar, Mahamana and Gatimaan for overnight travel. The has features like CCTV cameras, coffee vending machines, fire and smoke detection systems, new interiors with comfortable seats. The Mahamana Express has ladders for climbing to upper berths, snack tables for side berths, windows with powered Venetian blinds and roller blinds, LED lights as berth indicators, LED reading lights, fire extinguishers and electrically operated chimney in the pantry car, among others.

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115)UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed Russian diplomat Vladimir Voronkov to head the newly established UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT), despite growing tensions between the US and Russia 116) This year, India and Russia are celebrating 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between them. Joint cooperation in science and technology was one of the important pillars of the bilateral relationship between both the countrie 117) According to the World population Prospectus: The Revision released by the United Nations, India with 1.3 billion inhabitants would surpass China’s population of 1.4 billion by 2024, to become the World’s populous country. 118) The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) became the first municipal corporation in the country to tap money through municipal bonds in 14 years. The AA+ rated PMC’s municipal bonds raised Rs 200 crore at 7.59 per cent rate at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). This is the first-ever mobilisation of debt capital by a municipal corporation on the BSE BOND platform. This will also be the first issuance since the publication of ‘Issue and Listing of Debt Securities by Municipalities Regulations, 2015’ by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). 119) Department of Science and Technology has launched VAJRA (Visiting Advanced Joint Research) Faculty scheme that enables NRIs and overseas scientific community to participate and contribute to research and development in India. on 8th January 2017, during the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention, Prime Minister had announced IT 120) NASA has launched world’s lightest satellite weighing only 64 grams designed by 18-year-old boy Rifath Sharook from Tamil Nadu. The tiny satellite has been named as KalamSat after the former President APJ Abdul Kalam. KalamSat is a 3-D printed satellite. This is the first time that 3-D printing technology is used to make satellites. 121)West ’s has received the highest prize in United Nations Public Service Award for the state government’s Kanyashree Prakalpa (Girl Child) scheme in The Hague, . 122) Indian Army is considering doing away with the colonial-era Sahayak System and considers recruiting civilian staff in peace stations. Sahayaks or buddy system is a system in which a soldier is attached to officers to help them carry out their responsibilities. Sahayaks are attached to Officers and Junior Commissioned Officer. The duties of Sahayaks include protecting the officers, maintaining their weapons and equipment among others. 123) NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has found rocks at the edge of Endeavour Crater that might have been a lake of liquid water 124) World Bank has cleared a USD 250-million loan to aid the Skill India mission. The loan amount would be used for making Indian youth more employable through reskilling. SIMO will be a six- year programme in support of National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2017-23). Under the programme, persons in the age group of 15-59 will acquire skill training irrespective of their employment status

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125) Satellite-based chip systems developed by ISRO will be used to alert road users at unmanned level crossings about approaching trains. These chips will also help the railways in tracking train movement on a real-time basis. Initially, on a pilot basis the ISRO-developed integrated circuit (IC) chips will be installed in the Mumbai and Guwahati Rajdhani trains. Hooters will be installed at 20 unmanned level crossings on Rajdhani routes for Guwahati and Mumbai. 126) Nashik’s army doctor Srinivas Gokulnath and Nagpur’s doctor Amit Samarth has created history by becoming the first Indians to complete the 4,900-km Race Across America (RAAM) in the solo 18-59 age category. RAAM is considered as the toughest cycle race in the world. It is about 30 percent longer than the Tour de France and the riders have to pedal over 400 km a day to finish the race in 12 days. The riders are allowed to rest for only a couple of hours a day. 127) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the first foreign leader to have a White House dinner after the US President Donald Trump assumed power. 128) The US has cleared the sale of Guadian Unmanned Aerial Systems to India. The drones would help India to keep a closer watch over the strategically important Indian Ocean. 129) has taken over as president of the International Economic Association (IEA). Basu will serve a three-year term as the President. 130) The world’s first ATM (automated teller machine) celebrates its 50th anniversaryThe ATM machines were the brainchild of Scottish inventor Shepherd-Barron. The first ATM was opened on June 27, 1967, by Barclays Bank in Enfield, north London. English actor Reg Varney became the first person to withdraw cash from the first ATM machine. At present, there are over 3 million cash machines across the globe. Around 70,000 cash machines are present in the UK alone. The World’s most northerly ATM machine is present at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway. The most Southerly ATM is situated at the McMurdo station of the South Pole. 131). European Union’s competition watchdog has fined Google a record 2.42 billion euro for breaching the anti-trust rules by illegally favouring its shopping service. 132) Indian Army has finally received its first batch of bullet-proof helmets. The helmets were manufactured by Kanpur-based MKU Industries 133) Odisha is set to become the first state in the country to open a blood bank for cattle. 134) China has launched its most powerful naval destroyer, the Type 055, at the Shanghai port. The naval destroyer is one among the largest warships in the world 135) Petya Ransomware is part of a new wave of cyber-attacks and has infected computer servers across the world. Petya is a ransomware, similar to the Wannacry ransomware. However, it is a variation of the WannaCry cyber- attack. It follows the WannaCry’s pattern and locks up the computer data and cripples the Enterprise services in the corporate sector. Researchers are yet to

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY find who is responsible for this attack. The ransomware demands $300 Bitcoins as ransom to unlock computer’s files 136) NASA has reached a major milestone in developing a quieter supersonic passenger jet that is capable of safely travelling over land. 137) India has contributed $ 100,000 to the UN Trust Fund for International Cooperation in Tax Matters (the UN Tax Fund). The fund is aimed at helping the developing countries to actively participate in the discussion of tax issuesUN Tax Committee is a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ESOSOC). The UN Tax Committee offers guidance on current issues such as double taxation treaties, transfer pricing, taxation of the extractive industries and taxation of services. It also strives to promote international tax cooperation among national tax authorities 138)PM has inaugurated the centenary celebrations of Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. The Prime Minister has also released the coin and postal stamp in the honour of Shrimad Rajchandraji on his 150th birth anniversary at Abhay Ghat. Shrimad Rajchandraji was the guru to Mahatma GandhiSabarmati Ashram otherwise called as Gandhi Ashram, Harijan Ashram, or Satyagraha Ashram is located on the banks of the River Sabarmati. Sabarmati Ashram served as one of the residences of Mahatma Gandhi for twelve long years. The ashram has been declared as a national monument by the Indian government. Gandhiji started the Dandi march also called as Salt Satyagraha from Sabarmati Ashram on 12 March 1930 139) Shrimad Rajchandra is a Jain poet, philosopher, scholar and reformer born in the year 1867 in Vavania near Morbi. His mother was a Jain and father a Vaishnava Hindu. He was the spiritual guide to Mahatma Gandhi. He is known for his teachings on Jainism. He has written a large number of letters and commentaries and also translated some religious texts. He got into fame by performing Avdhan, a memory retention and recollection test which gained him popularity 140) US has issued new criteria for visa applicants from six Muslim countries. These countries were Iraq, , Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and . Besides, the order had also suspended US Refugee Admissions Programme for 120 days and indefinitely barred entry of refugees from Syria 141) UNESCO has named Sharjah as the World Book Capital for 2019. Sharjah was chosen for its efforts to make books accessible to its entire population. Sharjah is the 19th city to be named as World Book Capital by the UNESCO.New Delhi was made Capital in 2003. UNESCO has been annually designating a city as World Book Capital City beginning with the designation of Madrid as World Book Capital City in 2001. For designating a city, UNESCO invites the International Publishers Association, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, and the International Booksellers Federation to nominate and take part in deciding the World Book Capital. The designation of a city does not include any financial prize, it rather acknowledges the programmes followed by the city dedicated to books and reading.

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142) SIERRA ODC building in Coimbatore.has been recognised as the world’s second highest ranking Green Building. The building has scored 103 points out of 110 under LEED certification. Green Buildings are designed and operated to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment. The green buildings efficiently use energy, water, and other resources, protects occupant health, improves employee productivity, and reduces waste, pollution and environmental degradation. Besides a Green Building has tremendous environmental benefits and provides a better place for the occupants to live and work in 143) US has decided to sell one C-17 transport aircraft to India It is manufactured by Boeing also includes one Missile Warning System, one Countermeasures Dispensing System, one Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Transponder and precision navigation equipment. 144) Germany has legalised same-sex marriage in line with a host of other European countries Many European countries have a same-sex marriage law. In the countries like Norway, , Denmark (excluding the Faroe Islands), Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, France, the UK (except Northern Ireland and Jersey), and the Republic of Ireland civil marriages are legally recognised. But in Austria and Italy, only civil partnerships are permitted. 145) Asian Development Bank has committed USD 10 billion to support infrastructure building and to cater to the immediate development needs of less-developed States in India. 146) Anti-hunger activist Ankit Kawatra has been awarded the Queen’s Young Leaders Award for 2017 by Queen Elizabeth 147) 31st anniversary of the signing of the historic Mizo peace accord on June 30, 1986, was celebrated in Mizoram 148) Reliance Jio Infocomm has launched the Asia-Africa-Europe (AAE-1) submarine cable system. It is claimed to be world’s longest 100Gbps technology- based submarine system.

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GST IN BRIEF The Goods and Services Tax (GST), India's biggest tax reform since Independence, was rolled out past midnight on 30th June at a gala event organised in the Parliament's Central Hall.. Conceived on the principle of 'one nation, one tax, one market', the tax that subsumed 17 central and state levies. The movement of goods will now become much simpler across the country and cheaper as the new regime replaces the old system, where a product was taxed multiple times and at different rates. Full form of GST is Goods and Services Tax .It is a single indirect tax for the whole nation, one which will make India a unified common market. It is a single tax on the supply of goods and services, right from the manufacturer to the consumer. France was the first country to introduce GST system in 1954. More than 140 countries have implemented the GST. The Genesis of GST occurred during the previous NDA Government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government when it set up the Asim Dasgupta committee to design a model for GST. The GST Bill was introduced in Lok Saba in 2009 by erstwhile UPA government but they failed to get it passed. The NDA government introduced a ‘slightly modified’ version of the GST Bill in the Parliament and both the Houses passed it as 101st amendment to Constitution. PRINCIPLES OF TAX SUBSUMATION The various Central, State and Local levies were examined to identify their possibility of being subsumed under GST. While identifying, the following principles were kept in mind: Taxes or levies to be subsumed should be primarily in the nature of indirect taxes, either on the supply of goods or on the supply of services. Taxes or levies to be subsumed should be part of the transaction chain which commences with import/ manufacture/ production of goods or provision of services at one end and the consumption of goods and services at the other. The subsumation should result in free flow of tax credit in intra and inter-State levels. The taxes, levies and fees that are not specifically related to supply of goods & services should not be subsumed under GST. Revenue fairness for both the Union and the States individually would need to be attempted.

CENTRAL TAXES TO BE SUBSUMED IN GST On application of the above principles and various papers which have been released in this regard, it is deduced that the following Central Taxes should be, to begin with, subsumed under the Goods and Services Tax: Central Excise Duty (CENVAT) Additional Excise Duties The Excise Duty levied under the Medicinal and Toiletries Preparations (Excise Duties) Act 1955 Service Tax Additional Customs Duty, commonly known as Countervailing Duty (CVD)

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Special Additional Duty of Customs – 4% (SAD) Surcharges and Cesses levied by Centre are also likely to be subsumed wherever they are in the nature of taxes on goods or services. This may include cess on rubber, tea, coffee, national calamity contingent duty etc. Central Sales Tax to be phased out.

STATE TAXES TO BE SUBSUMED IN GST Following State taxes and levies would be, to begin with, subsumed under GST: VAT / Sales tax Entertainment tax (unless it is levied by the local bodies) Luxury tax Taxes on lottery, betting and gambling State Cesses and Surcharges in so far as they relate to supply of goods and services Octroi and Entry Tax Purchase Tax

TAXES WHICH ARE NOT TO BE SUBSUMED GST may not subsume the following taxes within its ambit: Basic Customs Duty: These are protective duties levied at the time of Import of goods into India. Exports Duty: This duty is imposed at the time of export of certain goods which are not available in India in abundance. Road & Passenger Tax: These are in the nature of fees and not in the nature of taxes on goods and services. Toll Tax: These are in the nature of user fees and not in the nature of taxes on goods and services. Property Tax Stamp Duty Electricity Duty

GST RATES-The GST Council, headed by Jaitley and of which all states Finance Ministers are members, has approved four main tax slabs -- 5 per cent, 12 per cent, 18 per cent and 28 per cent that aims to lower tax incidence on essential items and to keep the highest rate for luxury and demerits goods. The lowest rate of 5 per cent will be on items of mass consumption which are used particularly by common people. The second and third category of standard rates of 12 and 18 per cent will accommodate most of the goods and services. The fourth slab of 28 per cent is levied mainly on white goods such as refrigerators, washing machines etc Exemptions under GST: Under GST, the government has fixed GST rates on 1,211 goods and 500 services in the range of five to 28 per cent. Certain items such as alcohol, petrol, diesel and natural gas will be exempt under the GST. In addition to these, the GST Council has also classified certain items under the 0 per cent tax rate,

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY implying that GST will not be levied on them. This list includes items of daily use such as wheat, rice, milk, eggs, fresh vegetables, meat, fish, sindoor, bindi, stamps, judicial papers, printed books, newspapers, bangles, handloom, bones and horn cores, bone grist, bone meal, kajal, children's' picture, drawing or colouring books, human hair. FEATURES OF 122ND AMENDMENT BILL/ NOW 101ST AMENDMENT i. Confers simultaneous power upon Parliament and the State Legislatures to enact laws for goods and services ; ii. Subsuming of various Central indirect taxes and levies such as Central Excise Duty, Additional Excise Duties, Service Tax, Additional Customs Duty commonly known as Countervailing Duty, and Special Additional Duty of Customs; iii. Subsuming of State Value Added Tax/Sales Tax, Entertainment Tax (other than the tax levied by the local bodies), Central Sales Tax (levied by the Centre and collected by the States), Octroi and Entry tax, Purchase Tax, Luxury tax, and Taxes on lottery, betting and gambling; iv. Dispensing with the concept of ‘declared goods of special importance’ under the Constitution; v. Levy of Integrated Goods and Services Tax on inter-State transactions of goods and services; vi. GST to be levied on all goods and services, except alcoholic liquor for human consumption. Petroleum and petroleum products shall be subject to the levy of GST on a later date notified on the recommendation of the Goods and Services Tax Council; vii. Compensation to the States for loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of the Goods and Services Tax for a period of five years; vii. Creation of Goods and Services Tax Council i.e GST Council Art 279 A to examine issues relating to goods and services tax and make recommendations to the Union and the States on parameters like rates, taxes, cesses and surcharges to be subsumed, exemption list and threshold limits, Model GST laws, etc. The Council shall function under the Chairmanship of the Union Finance Minister and will have all the State Governments as Members. viii)Abolition of Article 268A Service Tax added through 88th amendment 4 ACTS PASSED IN GST BY Union 1)Central GST 20Integrated GST 30UT GST 4)Compensation to States

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CURRENT AFFAIRS JULY 2017 1)1ST July:Chartered Accountants Day Celebrated.

2)VAM MAHOTSAV: Van Mahotsav began in 1950, with a tree plantation drive, in which national leaders participated. The festival of tree plantation was started by Dr. K.M. Munshi, the then Union Minister for Agriculture and Food to create enthusiasm among masses for forest conservation and planting trees. The festival was simultaneously celebrated in other states in India. Van Mahotsav is usually observed in the first week of July every year and is celebrated on different days in different parts of India. The objective behind celebrating Van Mahotsav is to keep local people involved in plantation drives and spread environmental awareness.

3)NEW CEC: Shri Achal Kumar Joti has assumed charge as the 21st Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, succeeding Dr. Nasim Zaidi.He was IAS Officer of Cadre.

4) Jigyasa, a student- scientist connect programme was officially launched in the national capital today. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has joined hands with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) to implement this programme. The focus is on connecting school students and scientists so as to extend student’s classroom learning with that of a very well planned research laboratory based learning.

5) Scheme for IPR Awareness – Creative India; Innovative India’ has been launched by Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.The Scheme aims at raising IPR awareness amongst students, youth, authors, artists, budding inventors and professionals to inspire them to create, innovate and protect their creations and inventions across India including Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 cities as well as rural areas in the next 3 years.

6) The First edition of WINGS 2017 – “Sab Uden, Sab Juden”- Expanding Regional Connectivity was hosted in New Delhi by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

7)Jammu and Kashmir joined GST in First week of July after the Act came in India from 1st July 2017. 8) Ashiana Annexe’ in Dehradun Annexe of the Presidential Retreat ‘Ashiana’ at Dehradun comprises of twelve low cost dwelling units which have been constructed to accommodate officers and staff of Rashtrapati Bhavan during Presidential visits to 'Ashiana'

9)Ahemedabad is declared as World Heritage City by UNESCO. This makes the walled city of Ahmedabad the first city in India and the third in Asia to be inscribed to the World Heritage List. In the past 3 years alone, India has managed to put five built heritage sites on the world heritage list of UNESCO. India now has overall 36 World Heritage Inscriptions with 28 Cultural, 07 Natural and 01 Mixed site. While India stands second largest in number after China in terms of number of world heritage properties in ASPAC (Asia and Pacific) region, it is overall seventh in the world. Founded in 15th century, the

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY walled city of Ahmadabad, on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati river, presents a rich architectural heritage.

10)NAVAL EXERCISE MALABAR: Naval co-operation between India, US and Japan epitomises the strong and resilient relationship between the three democracies. The MALABAR series of exercises, initiated in 1992 between the Indian and US Navies, have steadily grown in scope, complexity and participation into a multifaceted exercise with the participation of Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF).Held in July 2017.

11)11TH July World Population Day: Mission Parivar Vikas will focus on 146 high fertility districts in 7 states with high TFR. Under this, specific targeted initiatives shall be taken for population stabilisation through better services delivery”. This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare at a function organised by Jansankhya Sthirita Kosh (JSK) to mark the World Population Day. World Population Day was established by the then Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1989.

12) PRAGATI - the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.

13) 8th edition of the greatest carnival of Theatre in the World will take place in India for the first time ever from February 17 – April 08, 2018 simultaneously in various cities across the country. 14) Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee Rural Football Tournament at Mackenzie Park Football Ground in Murshidabad district of

15)SKILL INDIA MISSION: Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) here today celebrated the second anniversary of Skill India Mission on the World Youth Skills day. 100 GST training centres, 51 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras and 100 Yoga training centres were inaugurated on the occasion. SKILL INDIA Mission is the brainchild of Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. It was during his presence, MSDE had launched the SKILL INDIA Campaign on the occasion of the first ever World Youth Skills Day on 15th July 2015.

16) Book ‘Future of Indian Universities: Comparative and International Perspectives’ WRITTEN BY Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen

17) Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) is conducting jointly with the US, the second edition of United Nations Peacekeeping Course for African Partners (UNPCAP-02) in New Delhi from 17 July to 04 Aug 2017.

18) National Bamboo Mission renamed as National Agro-Forestry & Bamboo Mission (NABM) is being implemented as per the set objectives and targets of the Mission. As per available reports 3,61,791 ha. area have been covered in forest & non-forest land, 91,715 ha. area taken up for improvement of existing stock for higher productivity (forest & non-forest areas) under the Mission against targets of 3,62,848 ha., 69,410 ha. Respectively 19) As a part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 (NEMMP 2020), the Government of India formulated a scheme namely Faster Adoption and

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Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric vehicles in India [FAME-India] for a period of 6 years,

20)SESSIMIC ZONES: Earthquake - prone areas of the country have been identified on the basis of scientific inputs relating to seismicity, earthquakes occurred in the past and tectonic setup of the region. Based on these inputs, Bureau of Indian Standards [IS 1893 (Part I):2002], has grouped the country into four seismic zones, viz. Zone II, III, IV and V. Of these, Zone V is seismically the most active region, while zone II is the least. Broadly, Zone - V comprises entire northeastern India, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, part of North Bihar and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Zone - IV covers remaining parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Sikkim, Northern Parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, parts of Gujarat and small portions of Maharashtra near the west coast and Rajasthan. Zone – III comprises Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep islands, remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, Parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. Zone - II covers remaining parts of country

21) The entry into force of the WTO-Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on 22nd February, 2017 is a major milestone for the global trading system.

22)Women in Army:The induction of Women Officers is based on the organizational requirement, fighting efficiency, combat effectiveness and functionality of the Army.Presently, women are inducted in Indian Army as Officers through Short Service Commission (SSC). Women Officers are inducted in Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, Army Education Corps, Judge Advocate General Branch including Engineers, Signals, Intelligence and Electrical & Mechanical Engineering branches. They have also been granted option for Permanent Commission in Judge Advocate General (JAG) Department and in Army Education Corps (AEC) of Army.

23) “India will be hosting the 5th Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) in 2017, one of the world’s largest conference on Cyber Space and related issuesThemed on Cyber4All: An Inclusive, Sustainable, Developmental, Safe and Secure Cyberspace, the GCCS 2017

24)July 23rd:Birth annieversary of both Bal Gangadhar Thilak and Chandrasekar Azad.

25) Project ‘Mausam’ is the initiative of Ministry of Culture to be implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the nodal agency with research support of the National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Museum as associate bodies. This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’–collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural, commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean. It also aims to promote research on themes related to the study of Maritime Routes. Main objective of the project is to inscribe places and sites identified under Project Mausam as trans-national nomination for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

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26) V.O. Chidambaranar Port has bagged National Award for Excellence in Cost Management for the year 2016 from ‘The Institute of Cost Accountants of India’ under the category “Transportation and Logistics”.

27)Recent Criterion for Passport: i) that the applicant is a citizen of India; (ii) that the applicant has not been, at any time during the period of five years immediately preceding the date of his application, been convicted by a court in India for any offence involving moral turpitude and sentenced in respect thereof to imprisonment for not less than two years; (iii) that proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the applicant are not pending before a criminal court in India; (iv) that a warrant or summons for the appearance, or a warrant for the arrest, of the applicant has not been issued by a court under any law for the time being in force or that an order prohibiting the departure from India of the applicant has not been made by any such court; and v) that the applicant has never applied for/ or been granted political asylum by any foreign country.

28) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has informed that Supervisory Colleges have been setup for the following six Scheduled Commercial Banks which have sizeable international presence:- State Bank of India, ICICI Bank Ltd., Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank Ltd. and Punjab National Bank. The objectives of the colleges are to enhance information exchange and cooperation among supervisors, to improve understanding of the risk profile of the banking group and thereby facilitate more effective supervision of internationally active banks.

29) The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an international event of military music performance undertaken by the Armed Forces. In fact, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is the largest tattoo performed in the world in the majestic, sprawling stretch of Edinburgh Castle Esplanade, Scotland. Indian Navy particfipated in it.

30) The Tank Biathlon commenced with the opening ceremony of International Army Games at Alabino Ranges, Russia on 29 July 2017. Nineteen nations with three crews each are competing with each other in the Stage I individual races to qualify for the Stage II which will be a relay race. Top twelve teams will be selected for Stage II relay race out of which top four teams will qualify for the final stage relay race scheduled on 12 August 2017.

31)CORE SECTORS in India, there are eight core sectors comprising of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. The electricity has the maximum weight of 10.32% followed by Steel (6.68%), Petroleum Refinery (5.94%), Crude Oil production (5.22 %), Coal production (4..38) Cement (2.41%), Natural Gas production (1.71 %) and Fertilizer production (1.25%)...

32) Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Textiles India 2017, India’s first ever mega textiles trade fair at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.. India’s textiles sector is one of the oldest industries in Indian economy dating back several centuries. Even today, it is one of the largest contribution of 5% to GDP....and 14% to IIP.Second largest employer after Agriculture and 100% FDI is alloerd.

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33) K K Venugopal as the new Attorney General of India. He will be 15th Attorney General of India...QUALFN-He must be a person qualified to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court or an eminent jurist, in the opinion of the President. 34) Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has inked MoU with National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) for redevelopment of 10 railway stations.They are Tirupati, Nellore, Puducherry, Sarai Rohilla (Delhi), Madgaon, Lucknow, Gomtinagar, Kota, Thane (New) and Ernakulam..

35) National Biopharma Mission, a first ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India..inaugrated.. Under this mission, the ministry also launched Innovate in India (i3) program to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the Sector. i3 is a flagship program of the Government of India in collaboration with World Bank. It is committed to make India a hub for design and development of novel, affordable and effective biopharmaceutical products and solutions

36) Four-time FIFA World Cup winner Germany won maiden FIFA Confederation Cup Football title by defeating Copa America Champion Chile by 1-0 goals AT Russia..

37) Carrie Lam was sworn in as the first female Chief Executive (CE) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR.. an autonomous region under China..

38) The foundation stone of the country’s biggest Global Skill Park was laid in Bhopal jointly by Union Minister of State for Skill Development and State of MP signed.

39) The Prevention of cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 by the Governor of Karnataka legalising Kambala. Approved by President.

40)New Delhi-based The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) was ranked second among world’s best climate think tank by the International Centre for Climate Governance.

41) Senior IPS officer Sanjay Kumar was appointed as Director General (DG) of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)... NDRF is India’s elite disaster mitigation combat force established under The Disaster Management Act, 2005. It was established in 2006 and is headquartered at New Delhi under MHA>

42) A joint military training exercise Maitree 2017 between Indian Army and Royal Thailand Army commenced at Bakloh in Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh

43) Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has inked an agreement with four private banks and Bank of Baroda for the purpose of collection of PF amounts... This is the first time the EPFO has roped in private banks, namely, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

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44) As per the updated FIFA world football rankings, the Indian national football has managed to secure the 96th spot moving up four places . 45) Manpreet Kaur(women shot put) and Govindan Laxman (Men 5,000 meteres) has managed to win gold medals on the opening day of Asian Athletics Championships held at Kalinga Stadium of Bhubanaeswar.

46)India has been ranked 23rd out of 165 nations in the second Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) that measures the commitment of nations across the world . 47).. Tata Steel Ltd has bagged Prime Minister’s trophy for ‘Best Performing Integrated Steel Plant’ in the country for the performance years 2014-2015 and..2015-16

48)India and have decided to construct a bridge over Mizoram’s Khawthlangtuipui river (also known as river) to facilitate trade and improve Communication.

49) 12th G20 Summit held in Hamburg, the leaders of the G20 countries has agreed for taking concrete steps to stop funding of the terror activities...

50)India’s Harinder Pal Sandhu has defeated Rhys Dowling of Australia 11-8 12-10 11-4 to lift South Australian Open squash title.

51) India has planned to invite the ten leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as Chief Guests for 2018 Republic Day celebrations...

52) According to RBI, India’s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves have increased by $4.007 billion to touch a record high of $386.539 billion on 30th June.

53)India will soon join Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC), a newly- constituted forum of central bankers and experts working towards promotion of a ... a robust and transparent foreign exchange (Forex) market. The committee has been set up under guidance of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS)...

54)Govt on the occasion of Guru Purnima launched four major digital initiatives in to push e-education. They are Swayam, Swayam Prabha, National Academic Depository and National Digital Library..

Through Swayam Prabha, the government would air new content of four hours every day. It would be repeated six times a day. The content is mainly for students from Class IX to XII and those who are preparing for admission into IITs. Through Swayam, government plans to offer 2,000 courses in one year through the online platform. These courses are meant for people who could not complete their studies due to some reason or are not able to afford it. The courses, however, will not include engineering, pharmacy, nursing and other technical courses. National Academic Depository: It is a digital depository of academic awards for authenticating all certificates issued by institutions. NAD will directly

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY integrate with Boards/Universities which issue Certificates which will be verified, authenticated, accessed and retrieved in a digital depository for purpose of employment, higher education, and loans.. National Digital Library: It is a large online library containing 6.5 million books. It provides free access to many books in English and the Indian languages.

55) Union Government has merged the Ministries of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to form the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.Now we havr 51 Ministries as against 17 in 1947.

56) Union Finance Ministry has launched Aaykar Setu, a new tax payer service module. The new e-initiative literally means taxpayer’s bridge and will be available to android phones...

57) India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, for the first time will import crude oil from the United States

58) Okinoshima Island, Japan’s men-only island was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site.

59) Tamil Nadu has reported its first case of Zika virus in a 27-year-old man from a village in Krishnagiri district Zika virus is vector borne disease transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same mosquito that transmits dengue. It is also found that, sexual transmission of Zika virus disease is possible..There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available to treat Zika. The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites and clearing stagnant water where mosquitoes breed..

60) Union Government has saved around Rs 57,000 crore in 2016-17 through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme under which subsidies are given directly to .beneficiaries.

61) Karnataka Government has constituted a nine-member committee to study the possibility of designing a separate state flag..

62) Rajasthan has become the first State in the country to lay down the minimum educational qualifications for contesting elections to village cooperative..Societies. The minimum qualifications for the primary committee members will be class VIII, for district-level committees, it will be class X and graduation for State Level Committees

63) 5 States and a Union Territory (UT) have formally adopted the Centre’s Government e-Marketplace (GeM) initiative. They are Andhra Pradesh, , Gujarat,Telengana, Arunachal and Puduchery. GeM is an Online Market platform to facilitate procurement of goods and services by various Ministries and agencies of the Government. It aims to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement of goods and services and eliminate corruption... It functions under Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries...

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64) NASA’s unmanned spacecraft Juno has successfully peered into the Jupiter’s giant storm known as the Great Red Spot...

65)Govt has given its approval for the Joint Interpretative Notes (JIN) on the Agreement between India and Bangladesh for the Promotion and Protection of Invetments. • The JIN includes interpretative notes to be jointly adopted for many clauses. • It includes the definition of investor, definition of investment, exclusion of taxation measures, Fair and Equitable Treatment, National Treatment and Most Favoured Nation treatment. • It also includes the interpretations of expropriation, essential security interests and Settlement of Disputes between an Investor-and a Contracting Party. 66) Indian captain (34) scripted history by becoming first player in the history of women’s ODI cricket to score more than 6000 career runs. She also became all-time leading run-getter in women’s ODI...

67) Indian Railways has launched RailCloud, a virtual server with an inbuilt security system that will enable faster connectivity at a reduced costRail Cloud works on popular Cloud Computing system. Cloud computing is an emerging technology for faster and on demand commensurate deployment of server resources which results in reduced cost...

68) Scientists from University of Cambridge, UK have discovered the smallest star in the universe. It has been named as EBLM J0555-57Ab.... The star was identified by SuperWASP, a planet-finding experiment run by several universities. It was detected when it passed in front of its larger parent star, forming an eclipsing stellar binary system....

69) A state-of-the-art, indigenously developed S-band doppler weather radar (DWR) of India Meteorological Department (IMD) was commissioned at Palluruthy Cochin. It has been manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) based on the indigenous technology provided by ISRO. Doppler weather radar is an observational tool for monitoring and predicting severe weather events such as hailstorms, thunder storms, cyclones and tornados. It uses the Doppler effect by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target to produce velocity data. This data helps in analyzing object.’s motion by altered the frequency of the returned signal. It mainly gives information about wind velocity and also about precipitation. ...

70) Doppler effect: It is an increase (or decrease) in the frequency of sound, light, or other waves as the source and observer move towards (or away from. Each other...

71) Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) will establish India’s first Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) at Patent Information Centre Punjab.

72). The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has passed a slew of directions, measures, fines, and strict deadlines to rejuvenate River Ganga..It declared ‘No-Development Zone’ along an area of 100 metres from the edge of the river

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY in the stretch between Haridwar in Uttarakhand and Unnao in UP. This zone must be turned into green belts .. 74) Union Government has set up Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management (DGARM), a new wing to provide intelligence inputs taking action against tax evaders. It has been set up will be under the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC). It will also do big data analytics for taxmen for better policy formulation/.

.75) Maharashtra is the first state in the country to formulate a law to punish social boycott. Through Maharashtra Social Boycott Act. The Bill terms social boycott as a crime and says anybody indulging in it would face imprisonment maximum upto 3 years and a fine of 1 lakh rupees or both. It disallows social boycott of any individual or groups by caste panchayats or groups of individuals or gavki or by its members or by social or economically influenced persons. ... 76)India has been ranked low 116 out of 157 nations on the 2017 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Index and Dashboard report released by Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Bertelsmann Stiftung.... Top Countries in 2017 SDG Index: Sweden (1st), Denmark (2nd), Finland (3rd), Norway (4th), Czech Republic (5th), Germany (6th), Austria (7th),

77) SARASWATHI A team of Indian astronomers have identified previously unknown, extremely large supercluster of galaxies located in the direction of constellation Pi...

.78) The World Youth Skills Day is observed globally on 15 July every year to raise awareness about the importance of investing in youth skills development...

79) Indian Railways has launched India’s first solar powered diesel multiple unit (DEMU) broad gauge train. It is 1600 Horse Power (HP) train with all solar POWERED Coaches.. The train will run from Sarai Rohilla in Delhi to Farukh Nagar in Haryana....

80) India and European Union (EU) have established Investment Facilitation Mechanism (IFM) for EU Investments in India...

81)india ranked third in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Government at a Glance 2017 report.... Indonesia and Switzerland with 80% people having trust in their government rank first and second respectively. Whereas 73% of Indians trust their cent.

82) India’s Sundar Singh Gurjar (21) won gold medal in the men’s javelin throw event at World Para Athletics Championships held in London, United Kingdom...

83) Raipur’s Swami Vivekananda Airport was ranked first in Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) Survey among 49 airports in the country.

84) India’s Harinder Pal Sandhu (28) won the Victorian Open squash tournament held in Melbourne, Australia..

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85) United States House of Representatives has passed an amendment to National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA), 2018, a $621.5 billion defence expenditure FOR DEFENCE COOPERATION WITH India.

86) WIMBLEDON 2017

MENS SINGLES-Roger Federer of Switzerland won 8th title defeating Marin Clic of Croatia. WOMEN SINGLES-Garbine Muguuwaza of Spain won defeating Venus Williams. She became the first player to beat both Williams’ sisters in a Grand Slam final as she roared past Venus to win her maiden Wimbledon crown MENS DOUBLES-Lukasz Kubot Poland and Marcelo Melo Brazil WOMEN DOUBLES-Ekaretina Marakova and MIXED DOUBLES: Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis.

87) Tata Motors has unveiled country’s first Bio-CNG (bio-methane) bus...

88) Britain’s first woman Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill was elected to Home Affairs Select Committee in the UK Parliament..

89) India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India (SBI) launched SBI Realty, a dedicated portal that will help home buyers to choose flats from its .. 3000 approved projects in the country.

90) United States Navy successfully tested the world’s first-ever active Laser Weapons System (LaWS)....

91) Lok Sabha passed the Indian Institute of Information Technology Public Private Partnership (IIIT-PPP) Bill, 2017 to allow 15 IIITs established on a PPP model to grant degrees and get statutory status. The bill also seeks to grant institute of national importance status to IIITs on the lines of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs)....

92) Union Environment Ministry approved three projects for climate change adaptation in three states viz. Rajasthan, Gujarat and Sikkim for funding under .. NAFFC. Sikkim: The investment aims to address the issue of water security which are directly identified as climate resilience building interventions under the SAPCC Rajasthan: It aims to bolster water security in villages under the Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan. It aims to enhance the adaptive capacity of villages by making them self-reliant in terms of water requirement.... Gujarat: The project seeks enhance the adaptive capacity of natural resource dependent communities to climate change in targeted villages of Kachchh d...

93) Former Bihar governor Ram Nath Kovind was elected as India’s 14th President. He will be only the second Dalit leader after K R Narayanan since Independence.He is first from UP also.

94) Union Cabinet has extended the second phase of the Bharat Net project that forms the backbone for the Union government’s Digital India initiative.

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95) Union Government released the 76 point National Trade Facilitation Action Plan Aims of the action plan: Transform cross border clearance ecosystem through efficient, transparent, risk based, co-ordinated, digital, seamless and technology driven procedures supported by state-of-the-art sea ports, airports and land borders..

96) Indian Navy’s second LCU (landing craft utility) Mark IV L52 ship built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited (GRSE), Kolkata, was formally launched.

97). The landmark India-Japan civil nuclear agreement came into force. India-Japan Agreement for Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy was signed in Tokyo during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Japan in November 2016.

98)India’s first dedicated space observatory AstroSat along with other space and earth-based observatories have detected a massive coronal explosion on Proxima Centauri, sun’s closest star neighbour....

99) PROXIMA CENTAURI t is group of stars which hosts an Earth-like habitable planet — Proxima Centaur b — orbiting within (Proxima Centauri) its habitable zone. It is a cool dwarf star located around 4.25 light years away from the Earth. It was discovered in 2016....

100) President Pranab Mukharjee inaugurated the bicentenary (200th) celebration of Paika Rebellion (1817) of..Odisha. Paiks were the traditional landed militia of Odisha, used to perform policing functions. They owned rent- free land that was given to them for their military service to Kingdom of Khurda. However they were forcefully usurped their land rendering them landless by the policies of British East India Company. Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar, the military chief of the King of Khurda, led army of Paikas forcing the East India Company forces to retreat..

101) Govt launched Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), a pension scheme exclusively for senior citizens aged 60 years and above..It will be available from May 4, 2017 to May 3, 2018. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has been given the sole privilege to operate the scheme. This scheme provides an assured return of 8% per annum payable monthly for 10 years on single lumpsum premium ranging from Rs. 150000 (minimum) to Rs..7.5 Lakhs maximum..

102) India’s Karamjyoti Dalal has won bronze medal at the World Para Athletics Championships 2017 in the discus-throw.

103) Ministry of Rural Development will launch Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY), a sub-scheme under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livlihood Mission.It aims to provide an alternative source of livelihood to members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) by facilitating them to operate public transport services in backward areas. AGEY will provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services like e-rickshaws, 3 and 4 wheeler motorised transport vehicles to remote villages. These transport vehicles will

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY connect villages with key services and amenities including access to markets, education and health for the overall economic development of India.

.104) DAY-NRLM is a poverty alleviation scheme implemented by Union Ministry of Rural Development. It was launched as NRLM in 2011 but was succeeded by Deendayal Scheme in 2016.

105).. United States (US) Navy officially inducted USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78), the world’s largest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Naval Station Norfolk Virginia.

106) England’s women’s cricket team won 2017 ICC World Cup title by defeating India by 9 runs at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London... It was its fourth win.This is India’s second final loss.

.107) Researchers San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia, Spain have discovered novobiocin compound that could be used as a potential drug to fight the Zika Virus.

108).Indian Shuttler H S Prannoy won the 2017 Yonex US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament title..

109) Govt approved sale of government’s 51.11% stake along with management control in HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum) to ONGC.

110) According to the Country Report on Terrorism released by the US State Department, India witnessed third highest number of terrorist attacks in 2016, more than Pakistan.The six countries that faced highest number of terrorist attacks in 2016 are Iraq (2,965 terrorist attacks), Afghanistan (1,340), India (927), Pakistan(734), Philippines (482), Nigeria (466)....

111)Yashpal passed away. He was was known for his contributions to the study of cosmic rays, as well as for being an institution-builder. He was also one of the leading science communicator.

112) Union Ministry of Rural Development launched Aarambh mobile app for performance based maintenance contracting and community contracting for maintenance of Roads.

113) Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has banned the use of stapler pins in tea bags from January 2018..

114). The world’s first full—scale floating wind farm is being built off the coast of Scotland in the North Sea. The wind farm, known as Hywind

115) JULY 26- 18th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas was celebrated across India to commemorate the success of Operation Vijay..

116) Reliance Defence and Engineering Limited (RDEL) launched the first two Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels (NOPVs) — Shachi and Shruti at their shipyard in Pipavav Gujarat. NOPVs are primarily patrol ships to undertake surveillance of

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY the country’s vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). They also undertake operational tasks such as anti-piracy patrols, maritime security of offshore assets, fleet support operations, coastal security operations, and protection of shipping

117) International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its July World Economic Outlook (WEO) Update has retained India’s projected GDP growth rate at 7.2% for 2017- 18, ... However, update projects that India’s growth would accelerate to 7.7% in 2018-19....

118)New Labour Code on Wages Bill consolidates the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 and the Equal Remuneration Act 1976.

119) Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has adopted three Codex standards for black, white and green pepper, cumin and thyme. For the first time.

120) (NABARD) has signed an Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA) with the Green Climate Fund (GCF).. NABARD becomes the first Indian organisation to get Direct Access Entity status of the GCF.... GCF is a fund within the framework of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to assist developing countries in adaptation . and mitigation practices to counter climate change. It was formally established by a UNFCCC decision in Durban, South Africa in December 2011..

121)CHITTOKONG BRICS countries-Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa have agreed to work together to ensure stable employment and better quality of life for their people..

.122) India’s Ajay Singh has won bronze medal in the 2017 Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships held at Kathmandu

123).. NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog has approved 6 transport proposals of the transport ministry exploring options to improve public transport. It includes high-tech mass rapid transportation technologies such as metrino, hyperloop, pod taxis, stadler buses, hybrid buses andfreight rail road.

124) Tax authorities of the BRICS- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have signed BRICS Taxation Cooperation Memorandum to establish a mechanism..for taxation cooperation

125) Supreme Court has ruled that the police cannot arrest the accused without conducting a preliminary inquiry under dowry harassment cases...

126) Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has resigned from his post after the Supreme Court disqualified him in the Panama Papers case. This is the third time Nawaz Sharif has been unable to complete his term in the chief executive’s office....

127 )JULY 28 World Hepatitis Day is being observed every year on July 28

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY around the world by World Health OrganisatioNn This year the theme of the Day is – “Eliminate Hepatitis”....

128) Lok Sabha passed the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017 by voice vote. The Bill declares the IIMs as institutions of national importance..

129) Union Ministry of Earth Science has launched India Quake application on the occasion of its foundation day. The mobile app has been developed by the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) for automatic dissemination of earthquake parameter (location, time and magnitude after occurrence of earthquake.

130) Union Ministry of Earth Science has launched Sagar Vani, an integrated information dissemination system on the occasion of its foundation Day...It is an integrated information dissemination system that will serve the coastal community, especially the fishermen community with the advisories and alerts towards their livelihood as well as their safety at Sea.. .. 131) Former Union Minister Ashwani Kumar was conferred with the Japan’s imperial decoration ‘Order of the Rising Sun’ award for his contribution to fostering Japan-India ties....

132)29th JULY-INTERNATIONAL TIGER DAY: The goal of observance of the day is to promote the protection and expansion of the wild tigers habitats and to gain support through awareness for tiger conservation special programmes are being organized all over the globe by many international organisations including the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), the FAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) etc. organized events. International Tiger Day was founded in 2010 at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit. The summit had issued St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation. With aim to double population by 2022..

133) NATIONAL Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has received final nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to function as the Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU) and operate the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).. BBPS is an integrated bill payment system offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes and providing instant confirmation of payment. The BBPS initiative aims to provide a major push to digital payments as. it is a big step forward in formalizing the bill payment system in the country... . 134) Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) has become the world’s first completely ‘green’ Metro system for adhering to green building norms for its residential colonies.

135) (DRDO) has rolled out Muntra, India’s first unmanned, remotely operated tank at its Chennai lab... It has been launched in three variants Muntra-S, Muntra-M and Muntra-N for surveillance, mine detection and reconnaissance in areas with nuclear and biological threats. It is also likely to be used in Naxal-hit areas.

136) China has successfully produced natural gas from methane hydrate, also known as “flammable ice”, in an experimental project in the South China Sea

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137)According to OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026 report, India is the world’s third-biggest exporter of beef. Brazil was ranked as the world’s top beef exporter and Australia ranks second.

138) Sri Lanka has signed a US $1.1 billion deal to sell a 70% stake of the strategic Hambantota deep-sea port to China. Hambantota port is a deep- water port in the southern tip of Sri Lanka. It sits close to busy east-west shipping lanes connecting Europe and Asia..

139)United Nations (UN) World Day against Trafficking in Persons is observed every year on July 30 to raise awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims, and promote and protect their rights..

140) Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER), Thiruvananthapuram have developed gelator that can suck up oil and congeal it.

141) Haryana food and drugs administration department has banned flushing/mixing of liquid nitrogen with any drink or food article..

142) Jiyo Parsi Publicity Phase-2, Maharashtra It aims at containing the declining trend of population of the Parsi community and reverses it to bring their population above the threshold level..

CURRENT AFFAIRS AUGUST 2017 1) An autonomous Research Council, namely, Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) is working under the Ministry of AYUSH as the apex body for Research and Education in the field of Yoga and Naturopathy.The CCRYN has set up a Central Research Institute at Rohini, Delhi. Further, the Governing Body of CCRYN has decided to establish five more Research Institutes in the country. The Government has approved establishment of Post Graduate Institutes for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy at Nagmangla (Karnataka) and Jhajjar (Haryana) 2) Recognising the importance of data protection and keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has, on 31st July 2017, constituted a Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice B N Srikrishna, Former Judge, and comprising of members from Government, Academia and Industry to study and identify key data protection issues and recommend methods for addressing them. 3) Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has amended Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 by mandating Mass Emission Norms, Bharat Stage-IV from 1st April, 2017 all over India for four wheeled vehicles vide notification GSR 643(E) dated 19th August, 2015, for three wheeled vehicles vide GSR 487(E) dated 12.06.2015 and for two wheeled vehicles vide GSR 431(E)

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY dated 04.07.2014. As per the notifications, the Mass Emission Standards for Bharat Stage IV shall come into force all over the country in respect of all the three category of vehicles manufactured on or after the 1st April, 2017. As per Hon’ble Supreme Court decision dated 29.03.2017, “All the vehicles registering authorities under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 are prohibited for registering such vehicles on and from 1st April, 2017 that do not meet BS-IV emission standards, except on proof that such a vehicle has already been sold on or before 31st March, 2017”. 4) ISRO and NASA are working towards realisation of NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission by 2021.In NISAR mission, NASA is responsible for development of L-band SAR and ISRO is responsible for development of S-band SAR. The L & S band SAR will be integrated with ISRO’s spacecraft and launched on-board India’s GSLV. The total cost of the project includes ISRO’s work share cost of about Rs. 788.00 Cr and the cost of JPL’s work share of about USD 808 million. After the launch in 2021, the plan of action includes (i) calibration of instruments & validation of data products; (ii) development of science acquisition plan; (iii) development of data processing procedures & applications; and (iv) conduct of outreach activities in research institutes & academia

5)WHOLE SALE PRICE INDEX Government has revised the base year of All- India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2004-05 to 2011-12. The revision of the base year of the macroeconomic indicators is a regular exercise to capture structural changes in the economy and to improve the quality, coverage and representativeness of the indices. The base year revision of WPI has aligned the series with the base year of other macroeconomic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The new series of WPI has the following salient features and improvements over the old series: • The revised basket of WPI and its weighting structure conform to the structure of economy in 2011-12. • The number of items in the basket has increased from 676 to 697 and the number of price quotations has increased from 5482 to 8331. • New series of WPI does not include indirect taxes. This is in consonance with international practices and will make the new WPI conceptually closer to Producer Price Index. • A new “Food Index” is compiled to capture the inflation in food items. • Seasonality of fruits and vegetables has been updated to account for more months as they are now available for longer duration. • Item level aggregates for new WPI are compiled using Geometric Mean (GM) instead of Arithmetic Mean.

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6) The second edition of "Samvad"- Global Initiative on Conflict Avoidance and Environment Consciousness, is being organised in Yangon on 5th August. 7) Smt. Sharbati Devi, a 103 year old widow, today visited the PM's residence, and tied a Rakhi on Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi's wrist on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. Smt. Sharbati Devi lost her brother about 50 years ago, and would always miss him, especially on Rakhi. Her son wrote to the Prime Minister and subsequently, the Prime Minister invited Smt. Sharbati Devi and her family to his residence today. Smt. Sharbati Devi was extremely delighted to meet the PM and tie a Rakhi. They had a wonderful interaction today. 8)7th August-3rd national Handloom Day celebrated.at Gauhati. 9) NITI Aayog has selected Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Karnataka to improve healthcare delivery and key outcomes in these States. In Education, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Jharkhand have been selected for support to better learning outcomes 10)President of India hosted an ‘At Home’ reception for freedom fighters on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement 11)9th August-Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today addressed district collectors across the country via video-conference, on the theme of “New India – Manthan.” The first-of-its-kind interaction with district collectors marked the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement, and is aimed at catalysing “New India – Manthan” at the grassroots level. 12)Asram Schools-Constructed for Scheduled Tribe students. 13) India and US will be co-hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Hyderabad from 28-30 November, 2017. 14) Sitaram Kedilaya called on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today, after the successful completion of Bharat Parikrama Padyatra undertaken by him. According to Shri Kedilaya, he had embarked on the Bharat Parikrama Yatra on 9th August 2012 from Kanyakumari and completed the journey at Kanyakumari on 9th July this year. 15)Thiru Prasoon Joshi is appointed as Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification in an honorary capacity from 11th August, 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. 16) To take forward the initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for a New India movement from 2017 - 2022, a Sankalp Se Siddhi (Attainment through Resolve) Programme was organized at Sri Ramalinga Sowdambigai College of Science and Commerce, Onappalayam, Coimbatore on 12 August, 2017. 17) Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2017

S. No. Name of the Awardee discipline

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1. Shri Devendra Para Athlete 2. Shri Sardar Singh Hockey

(ii) Dronacharya Awards 2017

S. No. Name of the Awardee Discipline 1. Late Dr. R. Gandhi Athletics 2. Mr. Heera Nand Kataria Kabaddi 3. Mr. G.S.S.V. Prasad Badminton (Lifetime) 4. Mr. Brij Bhushan Mohanty Boxing (Lifetime) 5. Mr. P.A. Raphel Hockey (Lifetime) 6. Mr. Sanjoy Chakraverthy Shooting (Lifetime) 7. Mr. Roshan Lal Wrestling (Lifetime) 18) Dhyan Chand Award

S. No. Name (S/Shri) Discipline 1 . Mr. Bhupender Singh Athletics 2. Mr. Syed Shahid Hakim Football 3. Ms. Sumarai Tete Hockey

19) NITI Aayog will launch the Mentor India Campaign, a strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor students at more than 900 Atal Tinkering Labs, established across the country as a part of the Atal Innovation Mission. CEO NITI Aayog, 20) Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana" The objective of PMKSY is to supplement agriculture, modernize processing and decrease Agri-Waste.

Financial Allocation:PMKSY with an allocation of Rs. 6,000 crore is expected to leverage investment of Rs. 31,400 crore, handling of 334 lakh MT agro-produce valuing Rs. 1,04,125 crore, benefit 20 lakh farmers and generate 5,30,500 direct/ indirect employment in the country by the year 2019-20.

Impact: • The implementation of PMKSY will result in creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet.

• It will provide a big boost to the growth of food processing sector in the country.

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• It will help in providing better prices to farmers and is a big step towards doubling of farmers’ income. • It will create huge employment opportunities especially in the rural areas. • It will also help in reducing wastage of agricultural produce, increasing the processing level, availability of safe and convenient processed foods at affordable price to consumers and enhancing the export of the processed foods. 21)Union Govt has given in-principle approval for Public Sector Banks to amalgamate through an Alternative Mechanism (AM). The decision would facilitate consolidation among the Nationalised Banks to create strong and competitive banks.

Salient features:The salient features of the approval Framework for Consolidation of Public Sector Banks are as follows:

The decision regarding creating strong and competitive banks would be solely based on commercial considerations. The proposal must start from the Boards of Banks. The proposals received from Banks for in-principle approval to formulate schemes of amalgamation shall be placed before the Alternative Mechanism (AM). After in-principle approval, the Banks will take steps in accordance with law and SEBI’s requirements. The final scheme will be notified by Central Government in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India. 22) A 101-member Indian Police contingent has returned with a record breaking haul of 321 medals from the World Police & Fire Games held in USA 23) NITI Aayog announces winners of the Women Transforming India Awards 2017 The awardees were selected after a rigorous process by an eminent jury comprising P.T. Usha, track and field Olympian; Pooja Thakur, Wing Commander, Indian Air Force; Nirupama Rao, Former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador, Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog; Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog and Yuri Afanasiev, UN Resident Coordinator. Laxmi Agarwal: Attacked in 2005 in broad daylight at the age of 15, Laxmi Aggarwal is today a champion of violence against women. She has filed public interest litigations in India’s highest court to restrict the sale of acid. Safeena Husain: The founder and executive director of Educate Girls, a non- profit organization working for girls’ education, Safeena Husain has worked to bring education to some of India’s most backward districts.

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Kamal Kumbhar: Broke free from the shackles of poverty and a suffocating marriage to create a micro-enterprise network, enabling women like herself to realise their dreams of a brighter tomorrow. Subasini Mistry: After losing her husband at a young age, Subasini Mistry saved for two decades to build a hospital for the needy. : Is the first female amputee to scale the highest mountain in the world. Jamuna Tudu: Along with her band of women activists, Jamuna Tudu has conserved 50 hectares of forest land around her village in Jharkhand, taking on encroachers with little more than bows and arrows and courage. 24) Border Security Force (BSF) signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The MoU will enable NSDC to provide skill training to retired and retiring BSF personnel, as well as to the population residing in the border areas... 25) 19th round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) meetings and other related meetings were held in Hyderabad. 26) The new bilateral Agreement on Trade, Commerce and Transit between India and Bhutan came into force from July 2017. The new agreement aims to further strengthen the bilateral trade relations between both countries.. 27) Ustad Hussain Sayeeduddin Dagar, one of the foremost exponents and custodian of the venerable Dhrupad tradition of Hindustani classical music passed away in Pune. Dhrupad is a genre in Hindustani classical music. It is one of oldest forms of compositions in classical Indian music. Dhrupad is a Sanskrit name, derived from words dhruva (permanent) and pad (verse) and in combination it means “pillar”.... The roots of Dhrupad are ancient and it is mentioned in Natyashastra (200 BCE – 200 CE). It is also described in other ancient and medieval Sanskrit texts, such as Bhagavata Purana... 28) Supreme Court has imposed ban on use of five harmful heavy metals like lithium, antimony, mercury, arsenic and lead in the manufacturing of firecrackeas they cause air pollution... 29) Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected the 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan 30) Arvind Panagariya (64) has resigned as Vice Chairman of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog... 31) Union Government has launched e-Rashtriya Kisan Agri Mandi (e- RaKAM) portal to provide a platform for farmers to sell agricultural produce.. e-RaKAM is a digital initiative that aims to bring together the farmers, PSUs, civil supplies and buyers on a single platform to ease the selling and buying process of agricultural products. It has been developed by state-run- auctioneer MSTC Limited and CRWC (Central Railside Warehouse Company) Ltd

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32) According to recently released report-ICT Facts and Figures 2017, India and China are home to 39% of the 830 million young people worldwide who use the internets. 33) World Bank has allowed India to construct Kishanganga, Ratle hydroelectric power facilities on tributaries of the Jhelum and Chenab rivers with certain restrictions under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan which was brokered by the World Bank (then the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development).It relates to sharing or river waters of Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum between the two countries.... 33)SEBI has set up a committee on ‘fair market conduct’. It will be headed former law secretary T K Viswanathan 34) Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal to extend proxy voting to Non- Resident Indians (NRIs) and overseas Indians. Currently, only service personnel are permitted to vote proxy. 35)Features of Bankibg Regulation Amendment Bill 2017. Initiating insolvency proceedings: It will enable the Central government to authorize the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct banking companies to resolve specific stressed assets by initiating insolvency resolution process. These proceedings will be under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016... Issuing directions on stressed assets: It empowers RBI to issue directions to banks for resolution of stressed assets from time to time.... Committee to advise banks: It enables RBI to specify committees or authorities to advise banks on resolution of stressed assets. RBI will appoint or approve members on such committees.... Applicability to State Bank of India (SBI): It inserts provision to make above provisions applicable to the SBI and its subsidiaries and also Regional. Rural banks. 36) Israel has launched its first environmental research satellite named as Venus (Vegetation and Environment Monitoring New Micro-Satellite... It is a joint venture between the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and its French counterpart CNES. It was launched on board of Arianespace Vega launcher from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. 37)Qatar enacted Law making permanent residency available to some non- citizens. 38) Maharashtra Government has launched two online portals MahaDBT and MahaVASTU to streamline the process of direct benefit transfer (DBT) and to bring transparency.Maharashtra is first State to enact such legislation. 38) Union Government has proposed to establish an additional 14 new AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Science) under various phases of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) in different parts of

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY the country.... 39)India’s first private sector missile sub-systems manufacturing facility Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS) plant was inaugurated near Hyderabad,.. 40) Union Government is going to launch AGRI-UDAAN Food and Agribusiness Accelerator 2.0 programme in an attempt to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture. It will mentor startups and help them connect with potential investors. .. 41) High Level Committee set up under Jus SriKrishna to review the Institutionalization of Arbitration Mechanism in India has submitted its report to the Union Law Ministry... 42)India has signed a loan agreement with China led-Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for financing of $329 million for Gujarat Rural Roads Project. 43) Union Finance Ministry has launched second exchange-traded fund (ETF), named Bharat 22. It will help to speed up Government’s disinvestment programme to raise a record Rs 72,500 crore in the FY 2018.... 44) Indian Railways has signed its first EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contract with Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for electrification of railway lines . 45) Rajiv Kumar is the new vice-chairman of National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog... He is a senior fellow at public policy think-tank Centre for Policy and Research (CPR)... 46) Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed senior IAS officer from Gujarat S. Aparna as Executive Director of the World Bank... she will represent the constituency of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for three years... 47)Union Govt launched ‘Tele-Law’ scheme in Bihar. The portal will connect the citizens from rural areas to have access to legal consultation with the help of para-legal volunteers (PLVs). It will enable people to seek legal advice from lawyers through video conferencing. 47) Union Home Ministry has merged three-decade old National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) with Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD).. 48) India and Iran have expressed commitment for early completion and operationalisation of Chabahar Port besides strengthening bilateral ties Chabahar port is strategically located in the southeastern Sistan- Balochistan province, on the Gulf of Oman, near Iran’s border with Pakistan. 49)Union Govt has declared entire Assam state as a disturbed area under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act for one more month,

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50) 2030 Water Resources Group (2030WRG) has decided to help the Maharashtra Government to raise $270 million from the Green Climate Fund (GCF).. 51) Justice Dipak Misra (63), senior-most judge of the Supreme Court as the next Chief Justice of India. He will be 45th CJI and succeeds Justice JS Kheha. He will have tenure of over 13 months till October 2018. He will be the third person from Odisha to be appointed the CJI, after Justices Ranganath Mishra and GS Pathak. 52)Union Govt has started the process of shutting down Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), over 100-year-old government procurement arm, in this. Field. 53) Union Ministry of Shipping is planning to expand Logistics Data Bank (LDB) project to the country’s southern region. So far, it had covered only the western region. The LDB project was launched at the Port (JNPT), Mumbai in July 2016, making it first port in India to provide this service. Later its operations were expanded to the container terminals at Adani Port Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), Mundra and Adani Hazira Port — both in Gujarat.. It has helped to cut the overall lead time of container movement as well as reduced transaction costs that consignees and shippers incur. It also has has aided importers and exporters in tracking their goods in transit. It is billed as a major ‘ease of doing business’ initiative aimed at boosting In... India’s foreign trade and ensuring greater transparency 54) India was ranked last at 43rd position in 2017 Global Retirement Index (GRI) published by French asset management company Natixis Global..It is based on four factors viz. the material means to live comfortably in retirement (Material Well-being); access to quality health services (Health); access to quality health services (Health); access to quality financial services to help preserve savings value and maximize income (Finances) and a clean and safe environment (Quality of Life 55) As the Swachh Bharat Mission approaches the third anniversary of its launch by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation today launched a third party verification survey report to take stock of the progress already made by the Mission in rural India. Highlights of this week are: 1)More than 24 States have prepared their Swachhta Action Plan for the week to reinforce their swachhta efforts by innovative methods and with community engagement. 2)On 12 August, 2017, MDWS and MoWR, RD & GR will jointly announce 24 Ganga Grams from five States, Uttarakhand (3), UP (10), Bihar (4), Jharkhand (5) and West Bengal (2) to make them Aadarsh Ganga Gram.

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3)30 SwachhtaRaths will be launched at on August 12, 2017 in the presence of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Shri Tomar. 4. Swachhta Raths will also be launched in other parts of the country 56) India has ratified the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (or Doha Amendment) that commits countries to contain the emission of greenhouse.gases. 57) International Biodiesel Day (IBD) is celebrated every year on August 10 in a bid to create awareness about non fossil-fuels (Green Fuels)... 58)Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch a full-fledged niche Earth observation (EO) satellite — called the Hyperspectral Imaging Satellite. 59) Uttar Pradesh Government has launched Namami Gange Jagriti Yatra, an awareness drive along banks of Ganga River to maintain cleanliness. Of Ganga. 60)Govt is going to launch Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY), a sub-scheme under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NR... AGEY will help to provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services to connect remote villages with key services and amenities. such as access to markets, education and health for the overall economic development of backward rural areas 61)15th edition of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) ministerial meeting was held in Kathmandu, Nepal 62) Commodity derivatives bourse Multi Commodity Exchange Ltd (MCX) has received markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) approval to launch India’s first gold options contract.. 63) International Youth Day is observed across the world on 12 August to draw attention to a given set of cultural and legal issues surrounding youth... he theme for this year is ‘Youth Building Peace‘. 64) Odisha government and social networking giant Facebook has launched ‘She MeansBusiness’ programme to train women entrepreneurs in the state.... 65) Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has launched a nationwide campaign Gaj Yatra to protect elephants. It was launched on the occasion of World Elephant Day observed on August 12... 66) India-ASEAN Youth Summit began in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh to commemorate 25th anniversary of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)–India dialogue partnership in the ongoing year. 67) Scientists from US have developed the world’s first plant-based Zika vaccine that may be more effective, safer and cheaper than other vaccines

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY against... the mosquito-borne Zika virus.... The vaccine was developed using proteins derived from Tobacco plant... 68) India and Russia for first time are going to conduct Indra tri-services exercise, involving their armies, navies and the air forces in October 2017. 69).. Indian Ocean Naval Symposium’s (IONS) maiden International Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX) will be held in November 2017 in the Bay of Bengal under the chairmanship of Bangladesh... IONS is a regional forum of Indian Ocean littoral states launched by India in February 2008. It is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region . 70) India is going to host the next steering committee meeting of the proposed 1,814 kilometre-long Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline 71) Union Cabinet has approved a new policy for expanding and regulating metro rail services in cities across India. This is the first such policy document prepared by the Centre since Metro Rail operations began in Delhi in 2002. 72) Union Cabinet has approved creation of a single corpus fund non- lapsable known as Madhyamik and Uchchtar Shiksha Kosh (MUSK).. Under it, all proceeds of secondary and higher education cess will be credited and utilised for the government’s schemes in education sector... 73) The population estimation of Asian elephant in India is around 27,312. The census was conducted between March and May 2017 by the Asian Nature ConservATION 74) According to the 2017 Global Liveability Report compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Australian city Melbourne is the most liveable city. IN THE WORLD. 75) Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has launched the “Harit Diwali, Swasth Diwali” campaign.. Its aim is to reduce adverse environmental conditions especially pollution in the country after post Diwali celebrations... 76) A six-member all-woman team of the Indian Navy will set sail to circumnavigate the globe on the sailing vessel INSV Tarini. This is the first- ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-woman crew.... The expedition has been aptly titled ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama 76) World Humanitarian Day (WHD) is observed every year on 19 August to recognize work of humanitarian personnel and those who have lost their lives. 77) China launched its first cyber (internet) court specialising in handling internet-related cases in the e-commerce hub of Hangzhou, 78) Union Ministry of Home Affairs launched digital police portal under Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems Project (CCTNS)... The portal is a smart policing initiative of the Government to provide services to

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY citizens and aid efficient police investigationIt will help in realising Government’s dream of ‘Minimum Government Maximum Governance’ 79) Indian Navy’s second CU (landing craft utility) Mark IV L52 ship was commissioned at Port Blair, capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 80) Karnataka Government has launched clouding seeding Project Varshadhari in Bengaluru under which an aircraft will spray chemicals to induce rainfall.. The experimental project aims to condense small water particles by clouds (size less than 10 microns) to droplets of 50 microns, which can constitute rains. The flight for cloud seeding – BQ-100 Beechcraft will spray Silver Iodide, Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride to condense the water particles 81) Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat programme The programme aims to provide a comprehensive and inclusive report card for children covering all age groups and children of different abilities. Its main objective is to make students, teachers and parents aware about the importance of good health and fitnes... and encouraging 60 minutes of play each day. 82) The seventeenth Meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) was held in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of the Union Minister FSDC is super regulatory body for regulating financial sector which is a vital for bringing healthy and efficient financial system in the economy. The idea to create it was first mooted by the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms in 2008.... 83) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) deepen bilateral cooperation in telecom and broadcasting regulation.... 84) Supreme Court of Indian has declared Islamic practice of instant divorce through triple talaq as unconstitutional, illegal and void and not protected ... by Article 25 (freedom of religion) of the Constitution.... 85)Indian scientists have discovered Nasikabatrachus bhupathi, a new species of frog that has a snout-shaped nose, just like a pig in West Ghats... 86)Govt is going to establish National Sports Museum at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. It will be first of its kind sports museum in India... 87) Union Cabinet has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Nepal for starting construction of a new Bridge over Mechi River at India Nepal Border. Mechi River: It is a trans-boundary river flowing through Nepal and India. It originates in the Mahabharat Range in Nepal. It is tributary of Mahanand.. 88) Odisha Government has launched a grid-connected rooftop solar programme through net-metering system at the State Secretariat in capital city of Bhubaneswar. 89) Karnataka Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with software giant Microsoft India to develop a unique “farm price forecasting modelThe farm price forecasting model will use latest IT tools in

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY a bid to help farmers, administrators and other stakeholders to understand market behaviour in advance. It will be a “multi-variate” platform that will take into consideration various factors beyond conventional supply-demand equati... equation while forecasting prices of crops.... 90) The nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar in a landmark unanimous decision has declared right to privacy under Art 21 as Fundamental Right. . 91) Software giant Microsoft has launched Project Brainwave, a deep learning acceleration platform for real-time artificial intelligence (AI). 91) Union Government has appointed Ashwani Lohani as the new Chairman of the Railway Board. 92) Union Civil Aviation Ministry has eased several norms of Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN), a flagship regional flying scheme UDAN Scheme aims at providing connectivity to un-served and under-served airports of the country through revival of existing airstrips and airports. It aims to develop the regional aviation market and make flying affordable. It is applicable on flights which cover between 200 km and 800 km... 93) Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has constituted a Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for India’s Economic Transformation.. 18- member panel will be headed by Dr. V. Kamakoti of IIT Madras... 94) Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in the Union Commerce Ministry has banned duty free imports of gold, silver items from .... 95) Finance Ministry has imposed a five year anti-dumping duty on Sodium Nitrite imports from China... 96) PV Sindhu won the silver medal in 2017 World Badminton Championship held at Glasgow, Scotland. 97)Union Govt launched country’s first Videsh Bhavan by assimilating all Regional Passport Offices and allied departments under a single roof at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai 98). Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences inaugurated the Ocean Forecasting System for Indian Ocean countries Comoros, Madagascar, and Mozambique.... 99) International Day Against Nuclear Tests was observed across the world on 29 August 100) Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) has granted geographical indication (GI) status to Gobindobhog rice, a speciality from Burdwan district of West Bengal. Gobindobhog variety of rice is a short grain, white, aromatic, sticky rice having a sweet buttery flavor. It derives its name from principal ingredient usage in preparation of offerings to Govindajiu, the family deity of Setts of Kolkata... 101)Union Govt is going to launch Deep Ocean Mission by January 2018 to

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY spur research activities in ocean science and develop technology to harness ocean resources.... 102) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has opened world’s first low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank in Oskemen in Kazakhstan 103) Delhi Police has launched YUVA – a skill development programme under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY‘YUVA’ initiative aims to connect with youth by upgrading their skill as per their competencies. 104). National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has suggested establishment of a judicial performance index (JPI) to check delay in finalisation of cases in lower judiciary.... 105) (MoU) between India and Myanmar for conservation of earthquake- damaged pagodas at Bagan, Myanmar.. signed. 106) Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail (74) was bestowed with prestigious Saraswati Samman 2016. He was awarded for his novel “Hawthan about Goa. 107) Union Ministry of Science and Technology is planning to create FarmerZone, a collective open-source data platform for smart agriculture... This platform aims to cater all needs of farmer from dealing with climate change, weather predictions and soil, water and seed requirements... It will connect farmers and scientists, government officials, economists and representatives from global companies who work in the big- data and e-commerce space to bring about technology-based localised agri- solutions. . 108) National Nutrition Week will be observed throughout the country from 1st to 7th SEPTEMber. The theme of for year 2017 is “Optimal Infant & Young Child... Feeding Practices: Better Child Health“.... 109) World’s largest and powerful X-ray laser- European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) was unveiled in Hamburg, Germany. 110) Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, a two-day annual conference of senior tax administrators was held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. ... 111)Tmt Nirmala Sitharaman (58) became first full time woman Defence Minister of India after she was promoted to the Union Cabinet... Previously PM Indhra held the Ministry as PM. 112) Swedish defence and security company SAAB and Indian conglomerate Adani Group have announced collaboration in defence manufacturing entailing billions. of dollars of investment.

CURRENT AFFAIRS SEPTEMBER 2017 1) Shri Arora, 1980 batch IAS officer from Rajasthan cadre, took over as new Election Commissioner in Election Commission. Achal Kumar Jothi present Chief Election Commissioner is 17th CEC. Om Prakash Rawat is another member.

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2) Environment Ministry will launch an environment awareness initiative, under which an online environmental quiz competition named “Prakriti Khoj” – an Environment Quiz to be conducted at the national level on Teacher Day. 3) Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar in 2016-17 to is recognize, inspire and celebrate excellence in water, sanitation and hygiene practices in schools. 4) A new Youth Sports Centre to be built at Alipur, Delhi. 5) September 5th is Teachers Day in India which is birthday of Shri S.Radhakrishnan former President of India. October5th is International Teachers Day. 6) Xiamen Declaration 2017 was made by BRICS to adopt a comprehensive approach in combating terrorism including countering radicalisation and blocking terror financing sources. 7)9th and 10th September-Government of India is organising an event “North East Calling” under its Destination North East series of this year. The purpose of the event is to promote the art, culture, heritage, cuisine, handicrafts, business and tourism of North East India. The event will showcase all activities and products of North-East and it coincides with the 16th Anniversary of Ministry of DoNER. 8)PM of India visited the Ananda Temple, at Bagan in Myanmar. This is a Buddhist temple built in the early 12th century. It is the second largest temple in the entire Bagan region. The Archaeological Survey of India has carried out structural conservation and chemical preservation work of this temple. Restoration work is being carried out after damage during the earthquake last year. 9)Tmt Nirmala Sitaraman took charge of First Regular Woman Defence Minister of India.Smt Indhra Gndhi held it when she was Prime Minister.First Defence Minister in independent India was Baldev Singh. 10)India’s indigenously developed 3rd generation Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), Nag has been successfully flight tested twice by DRDO on 8-9-2017 against two different targets in the ranges of Rajasthan. 11)Prime Minister addressed the students' convention on the theme of ‘Young India, New India', on occasion of 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago address and Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya's centenary celebrations, on September 11, 2017. 12)12th Annual Bilateral Summit of India and Japan held at Gandhinagar/Ahemedabad.Agreement for Byllet train between Ahemedabad and Mumbai signed. The train will cover distance of over 508 km from Sabarmati (Gujarat) to Bandra (Mumbai, Maharashtra) in around 2.58 hours at high speed of 320 kph from the existing 7-8 hours. In case of rapid high-speed, it will cover the distance in 2.07 hours. It was also decided to have 4 Undustrial Cities with Japan help in Gujarat,Rajasthan,Andhra and Tamilnadu. 13)Regional Research Institute of Homeopathy opened in Agartala. 14)Three inter linking projects will be started Ken-Betwa Linking Project, Damanganga- Pinjal Link Project and the Par-Tapi-Narmada Link projects.

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15) 2-day Regional Conference on Good Governance and Replication of Best Practices on September 14-15, 2017 held at Goa. 16) Operation Insaaniyat A humanitarian crisis arose in Bangladesh due to heavy influx of refugees from neighbouring Myanmar. The government of India has decided to assist Bangladesh in this crisis by sending relief material. The Indian Air Force was tasked to airlift the relief material from India to Bangladesh. 17)15th September-Prime Minister has saluted engineers on Engineers' Day. The Prime Minister also paid tributes to Bharat Ratna, Shri M. Visvesvaraya, on his birth anniversary. 18) Exercise Yudh Abhyas - 2017, a joint military exercise between Indian and US armies commenced at Washington 19) Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) was awarded the “Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar” for the year 2016-17 in the category of ‘B’ region for autonomous bodies and boards, for its excellent implementation of the Official Language. For 11th Consecutive time. 20)Singapore to set up Skill Centre in North East. 21) Sadbhavana tour was organised by the 109 Infantry Brigade of the Indian Army with an aim to develop trust among and reignite the minds of youth towards national integration. As part of this tour, these youth are visiting Srinagar, Delhi, Lansdowne, Rishikesh and Dehradun. 22)First ‘BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise- 2017’ (BIMSTEC DMEx- 2017) will be conducted by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as the lead agency from October 10-13, 2017 in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). This Exercise will be a platform for sharing Best Practices on all aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), strengthening regional response and coordination for Disaster Management among the BIMSTEC member countries. 23) The 6th Edition of the 4-day international textile and apparel fair, 'VASTRA' was organized in Jaipur 24) Sahkar Sammelan is occasion of the birth centenary celebrations of Shri Laxmanrao Inamdar.He limbed the principle of cooperative movement. 25) A multi-agency exercise was conducted on the banks of Hussain Sagar Lake as the final event of ‘Pralay Sahayam’ in Hyderabad . The event demonstrated efforts of all central and state agencies, National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and the Armed Forces towards jointly tackling an urban flooding scenario in Hyderabad. 26) 14th Shailikaar Prabhakar Samman award to Anuradha Prasad. The award was instituted in memory of well-known Hindi writer, journalist and freedom fighter, Pt. Kanhaiya Lal Misra ‘Prabhakar’. 27)PENCIL portal of Union Govt to tackle Child Labour. 28) Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana –“Saubhagya” to ensure electrification of all willing households in the country in rural as well as urban areas. 29) Minister of Tribal Affairs Shri Jual Oram inaugurated the National Workshop organized by TRIFED on “Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor Forest

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Produces (MFP) scheme – Taking it to the next level for a Fair and Equitable Deal to the Tribals” 30) 5 G TECHNOLOGY India is at the cusp of a next generation of wireless technology 5G. 5G has been conceived as a foundation for expanding the potential of the Networked Society. A digital transformation brought about through the power of connectivity is taking place in almost every industry. The landscape is expanding to include massive scale of “smart things” to be interconnected. Therefore, the manner in which future networks will cope with massively varied demands and a business landscape will be significantly different from today.The economic benefits from the 5G technology are also quite immense. As per the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Committee on Digital Economic Policy, it has been stated that 5G technologies rollout will help in,a) Increasing GDP b) Creating Employment c) Digitizing the economy.

31) Ministry of Shipping has issued a notification renaming Kandla Port Trust as Deendayal Port Trust with effect from 25th of September, 2017. Kandla Port, located on the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, is one of the twelve major ports in the country. 32) Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) of the Ministry of Women & Child Development has started a monthly “Jan Sampark” program to enable the public to have interaction with its officials and staff for seeking information related to Adoption as well as flagging their concerns. 33) The growth of eight core sectors slowed to 2.4% in July 2017 due to contraction in output of crude oil, refinery products, fertiliser and cement. Thes... eight sectors had witnessed 3.1% growth in July 2016.... Core sectors or industry can be defined as the main industry of the economy. In most countries, particular industry qualifying to be the core industry... are said to be the backbone of all other industries. In India, there are eight core sectors comprising of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. The electricity has maximum weight of 10.32% followed by Steel (6.68%).. 32). India and China have jointly submitted proposal to World Trade Organisation (WTO) calling for elimination of most trade-distorting farm subsidies by d.DEVELOPED Nations. 33) Noted economist Rajiv Kumar took over as the Vice-Chairman of NITI AAYOG. 34) Senior IAS officer Rajiv Mehrishi was appointed as the next Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. He will succeed Shashi Kant Sharma... 35) The world’s largest and powerful X-ray laser- European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) was unveiled in Hamburg, Germany... 36) Union Ministry of Science and Technology is planning to create FarmerZone, a collective open-source data platform for smart agriculture by using biological research and data to improve lives of small and marginal farmers.

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37) National Nutrition Week will be observed throughout the country from 1st to 7th September. The theme of for year 2017 is “Optimal Infant & Young Child... Feeding Practices: Better Child Health“ 38) 2017 Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, a two-day annual conference of senior tax administrators was held. At Delhi. 39) Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has approved constitution of 13-member Empowered Steering Committee (ESC).It will shape and influence India’s preparation for multi-disciplinary events, including 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. 40) SAUNI Yojana is multipurpose project that aims to solve water problems of parched Saurashtra region of Gujarat.Link-4 of Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Scheme (SAUNI) Yojana in Rajkot district, Gujarat.... 41) 12th edition of India-Nepal joint military exercise- Surya Kiran XII was held at Nepal Army Battle School (NABS) in Saljhandi, Nepal.... 42) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has added HDFC Bank, the second largest private sector lender of country in list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks... SIBs are perceived as certain big banks in country. Since country’s economy is dependent upon these banks, they are perceived as ‘Too Big To Fail (TBTF)’. There are two types of SIBs: Global SIBs, identified by BASEL committee on banking supervision and Domestic SIBs; identified by central Bank of Country. 43) Namami Gange programme is an ambitious flagship programme of Union Government aiming at integrating various efforts to clean and protect River Ganga in comprehensive manner. 44)Jharkand nGovt passed anti conversion Law called Religious Freedom Bill 2017. 45) People’s Bank of China (PBC), central bank of China has banned individuals and organisations from raising funds through initial coin offerings (ICO) saying that practice constituted illegal fund-raising... 46)NITI AAYOG launched National Nutrition Strategy aimed at Kuposhan Mukt Bharat. It intends at bringing nutrition to centre-stage of National Development Agenda... 47) Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched two new free contraceptives Antara and Chayya in 10 states under Mission ParivarVikas,.. 10 states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, Delhi and Goa... 48) Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) has launched Diksha Portal (diksha.gov.in) for providing digital platform to teacher to make their lifestyle more digital. 49) National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has constituted Expert Task Force to provide major thrust to job creation by enhancing Exports 50) Seventh edition of India-Sri Lanka joint maritime naval exercise SLINEX 2017 was held near Vishakhapatnam . 51) India’s zero-subsidy UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable Lighting for All) Scheme was launched in Melaka State of by Efficiency Services

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Limited.. Each household in Melaka state will get 10 high quality 9-watt LED bulbs, at subsidised rate almost half price offered in market.. UJALA-The main objective of scheme is to promote efficient lighting, enhance awareness on using efficient equipment which reduce electricity bills and preservation. 52) Indian Institute of Science (IISc) retained top position among Indian Universities in the Times World University Rankings 2018... but under 250-300 rank.Oxford University got First rnk. 53) India’s first Hyperloop project will come up in Andhra Pradesh, connecting its city centres, Vijayawada and Amaravati.. Hyperloop Technology is brainchild idea of technology entrepreneur Elon Musk who dubs it as fifth mode of transportation. It is system of magneticallylevitating capsules (pods) that are sent at high speeds through low-pressure tubes. It envisages tube modular transport system.. Hyperloop is two-to-three times faster than fastest high- speed rail and claimed to have speeds even greater than commercial air travel. .54) Senior IAS officer Inder Jit Singh was given the additional charge of post of Chairperson of National Authority Chemical Weapons Convention... It acts as national focal point for effective bond with Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and other State Parties... 55) Viveck Goenka, chairman and managing director of Express Group was unanimously elected as Chairman of Press Trust of India (PTI)...N Ravi elected as Vice Chairman. 56) International Literacy Day (ILD) is being observed every year on 8 September to emphasize the importance of literacy to individuals, society and communities.Organised by UNESCO. 57) Parali I island, one of biodiversity-rich uninhabited islands part of Lakshadweep has disappeared due to coastal erosion and another four such islands.. areshrinking fast. 58) Indian Army has finalised plan to induct women in military police. The plan is seen as major step towards breaking gender barriers in force... 59)India has refused to be a part of Bali Declaration adopted at conclusion of World Parliamentary Forum on Sustainable Development held in Bali, Indonesia 60) Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises has extended the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME)-India scheme by six months to promote electric and hybrid vehicles.... The FAME India scheme was launched in 2015 under National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) with an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles in the country. Its objective is to provide fiscal and monetary incentives for adoption and market creation of both hybrid and electric technologies vehicles in the country. 61) Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) is all set to become a Maharatna company. Presently it is having Navratna status.... 62) , a water-poor country that is 90% desert, has launched Sahara Forest Project near the southern port city of Aqaba... The project seeks to demonstrate innovative application of technology to revolutionize our land systems in a way that benefits the climate, people, and businesses. It is funded

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY by Norway and European Union.... 63) World number one Rafael Nadal (Spain) won the 2017 US Open title in men’s single category.... Women’s singles: (US) won the title by defeating Madison Keys (US) by 6–3, 6–0 score... Men’s doubles: Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) and Horia Tecau () pair won the title by defeating Spanish pair of Feliciano López and Marc López.. 64) Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries has set up Contact@DGFT, an online service facility for effective resolution of foreign trade-related issue..of importers and exporters. 65) International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named two mountain ranges on icy dwarf planet Pluto as Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes after Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. 66)New species of edible freshwater fish in Pampa river in Pathanamthitta, Kerala. It has been named as Labeo filiferus .. 67) India’s first all-women crew circumnavigation expedition named as Navika Sagar Parikrama was flagged off by Defence Minister.. The expedition will be covered in five legs, with stop-overs at 4 ports viz. Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands and Cape Town South Africa. 68) Union Finance Ministry is planning to launch ‘Project Insight’ from October 2017 to monitor high value transactions and detect tax evaders using technology with a view to curbing circulation of black money.. 69) London has topped in the 2017 Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) among 92 financial centres released by the Z/Yen and China Development Institute.Mumbai ranked 60. 70) United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously passed new set of tougher sanctions against North Korea over its sixth and most powerful nuclear Hydrogen bomb. 71) India’s first state of art virology laboratory was inaugurated at Dr. Anjali Chatterjee Regional Research Institute for Homoeopathy in Kolkata, West Bengal Kolkatta. 72) Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has published first of its kind compendium titled Fauna of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve.

73) Telangana Forest Department for first time has re-introduced ‘mouse deer’ in the forests of Nallamalla in Amrabad Tiger Reserve. 74)Union Govt has launched “Wood is Good” Campaign under Partnership for Land Use Science (Forest-Plus).... It was launched on sidelines of two-day conference on “Sustainable landscapes and forest ecosystems: Theory to Practice” in New Delhi... The purpose of campaign is to promote wood as climate-friendly resource and substitute to materials like steel and plastic as it is carbon neutral unlike others materials which leave carbon footprint in their production. 75) INDRA 2017 in October 2017... Joint military exercise of India and Russia to be held at Russia.

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76) India is planning to launch major connectivity initiative, connecting Chennai with key Russian port Vladivostok via sea route with an aim to harness natural resources from Northeast Asia and Western Pacific region.... 76) India ranked low 103rd out of 130 countries surveyed on World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Human Capital Index ...Last Yar it was 103.Norway is lowest.India is last in BRICS countries. 77) ASEAN Computer Emergency Response Team Incident Drill (ACID) was recently held in Hanoi, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh City in 78) Union Home Ministry will soon grant citizenship to nearly one lakh Chakma and Hajong refugees, who came from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and living in India for last 5 decades. 79) India and Japan have agreed to ink open sky arrangement to allow airlines from both countries to operate unlimited number of flights.. 80) SEPTEMBER 16TH International Day for Preservation of Ozone Layer (or World Ozone Day) ... Designated by UN Genal Assembly in 1994. 81) International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has downgraded conservation status of snow leopard from “endangered” to “vulnerable”.. Snow leopard (Panthera uncial) is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia- including Himalayas, and Russia’s remote Altai ... Endangered Species: According to IUCN, species are considered ‘endangered,’ if they are fewer than 2,500 and experiencing high rate of decline.... Vulnerable Species: Species are fewer than 10,000 and its population has declined at least 10% over three generations.... 82)India and Japan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up India Japan Act East Forum to enhance connectivity and promote developmental activity in North East. 83) India’s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves have crossed $400 billion mark for the first time. The increase was due sharp rise in foreign currency asset... The components of India’s FOREX Reserves include: Foreign currency assets (FCAs), Gold, Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and RBI’s Reserve position with Inte... 84) Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MHUA) has ordered review of Floor Space Index (FSI) and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) norms in mega cities of country.... FSI is ratio of building’s total floor area to size of piece of land on which it is built.... 85) P V Sindhu (World no. 4) won women’s singles title at 2017 Super Series badminton tournament. .. beating Nozomi Okuhara... of Japan. Sindhu became first Indian to win Korea Super Series crown. It was overall her third super series title of her career. She had won 2016 China Super Series Premier and India Super Series and Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold this season.... 86)PM dedicated interstate multi-purpose Sardar Sarovar Dam (Narmada dam project) at Kevadia, Gujarat.It was vision of Sardar Patel.It is the highest dam ever built in India and second biggest concrete gravity dam in world Four Indian states, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Rajasthan will receive water and electricity supplied from the dam

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87)Senior IPS officer Rajni Kant Mishra (58) as new Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal... 88) Jharkhand Government has launched Shaheed Gram Vikas Yojana aimed at developing villages of freedom fighters in the state. It was launched from Ulihatu Village, birth place of freedom fighter Birsa Munda.... Under this scheme, villages of many tribal freedom fighters will be developed and their habitants will be provided basic amenities. ... 89) Senior IPS officer YC Modi is Director-General (DG) of National Investigation Agency (NIA). He will succeed Sharad Kumar. 90) Law ministry has approved Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2017 to empower government to confiscate property of economic offenders and defaulters who... abscond and flew out of India. It defines fugitive economic offender as any individual against whom warrant for arrest in relation to economic offence has been issued and person has. Fled. 91) Commemorative coins of Rs 100 and Rs 10 denomination were released on the occasion of 101st Birth Centenary of noted Carnatic musician... Dr MS Subbalakshmi. 92) India’s ambitious Zero Hunger Programme through interventions in farm sector will be launched on occasion of World Food Day (October 16) with focus onagriculture, nutrition and health in a symbiotic manner... 98) International Day of Peace is observed across the world on 21 September to acknowledge efforts of those who have strived to end conflict and promote peace. This day is also observed as a day of ceasefire... 99) Union Government is hopeful that strategic Chabahar Port in Iran will be operational by end of 2018. Iran is expected to send application to EXIM Bank... 100)India is collaborating with Russia to build Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. It will be first initiative under an India-Russia nuclear deal to undertake atomic energy projects in third countries. It will also be India’s first atomic energy venture abroad... 101) Indian Coast Guard (ICG) commissioned two high-speed interceptor boats C-433 and C-434 boats at the Dighi Port in Mumbai, Maharashtra.... 102) India’s first electric bus service was launched at Rohtang Pass area in Himachal Pradesh. It is first of its kind electric bus service for tourist spot in India and first in world at an altitude of 13,000 feet.... 103) India’s first ingenuously built INS Kalavari submarine was handed over to Indian Navy by state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai,... This is Indian Navy’s first new conventional submarine in two decades.... NS Kalavari is first of six Scorpion class submarines built in India under Project-75.. 104) Scientists from University of Manchester have created world’s first ‘molecular robot’ — millionth of a millimetre in size.... 105) Hindi film Newton, a black comedy on foibles of democracy to represent India in Best Foreign Language category at 90th Academy Awards (Oscars)... 106) (NITI) Aayog and International Road Federation (IRF), Geneva have signed Statement of Intent (SoI) to cooperate in field of Intelligent Transportatio.. System

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107) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased corporate bond investment limit for foreign investors by taking out Masala bonds (rupee-denominated bonds) from ambit of total debt investment limit. They will be considered as part of External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs). 108) State Bank of India (SBI) along with FTSE Russell, global index and data provider launched FTSE SBI Bond Index series at London Stock Exchange (LSE). It is India’s first bond index series for overseas investors.. 109)NITI AAYOGS SATH programme is for Assam. 110)Indian Coast Guard’s (ICG) new interceptor boat V-409 was launched in Mangaluru, Karnataka by Bharathi Defence and Infrastructure Limited (BDIL).. 111). Eminent Scientist and Bharat Ratna Prof C.N.R. Rao was awarded 2017 Von Hippel Award, the highest international prize in materials research. He is first Asian to receive it. 112)PM has constituted Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). The five member of council will be headed by Niti Aayog member Dr Bibek Deboy 113) DRUZBA 2017 (Friendship-2017), a joint military exercise between special forces of Pakistan and Russia was held in Minralney Vody, Russia. 114) INS Tarasa (T94), the fourth and last ship in series of Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC) was commissioned into Indian Navy at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. It is an improved variant of Car Nicobar-class high-speed offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) built indegenously by Kolkata (West Bengal) based Garden Reach Kolkatta. 115) ISRO’s globally acclaimed Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) also known as Mangalyaan completed three years in Martian orbi.t 116) World Tourism Day (WTD) is being observed every year on 27th September to raise awareness about importance of tourism.. 117) India was placed at 40th spot among 137 countries in World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2017-18. India has slipped by one.. position.Switzerland is First. 118) Cabinet has approved signing of Interbank Local Currency Credit Line Agreement and Cooperation Memorandum relating to Credit Ratings by Exim Bank with member banks under BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism... 119) World Rabies Day is observed every year on 28 September across the world to raise awareness about rabies disease and its preventable measures. The 2017 theme is ‘Rabies: Zero by 30’... 120)28th SEPTEMBER 13th Formation Day of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was celebrated across the country. The theme of this year’s Formation Day was SchoOL Safety. 121) Scientists have successfully detected gravitational waves for fourth time coming from merger of two massive black holes. It was for first time, waves were simultaneously detected by US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational- wave Observatory (LIGO) and Italy-based Virgo detectors. 122) Gujarat will become first big state to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) equipped with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)..

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123)An expert committee headed by former Lok Sabha secretary general TK Viswanathan to deal with cybercrimes especially online hate speech has submitted its report 124) India has registered a significant decline of 8% in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in 2016. IMR in India has declined by three points from 37 per 1000 to 34 per 1000 125)The third India International Science Festival (IISF-2017) will be held in Chennai 126) The International Translation Day was observed by United Nations for first time on 30 September 2017.... 127) Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to launch Relief 123 service to provide disaster management in India..

CURRENT AFFAIRS OCTOBER 2017 1) Fertilizer Cooperative, KRIBHCO will be conferred the Swacchata Award. 2)Union Govt naugurated the 3rd annual ‘Women of India Organic Festival’ at Dilli Haat (INA), It will be held till October 15, has on display India's most varied offerings of organic products ranging from food, wellness, personal care, home improvement, kitchen composters and solar products by nearly 530 participants. For most women, this is the first time that they are travelling to Delhi from remotest parts of the country. 3) Union Govt constituted National Backward Classes Commission to examine the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes. The terms of reference of the Commission are as under (i) to examine the extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes or communities included in the broad category of Other Backward Classes with reference to such classes included in the Central List; (ii) to work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within such Other Backward Classes; and (iii) to take up the exercise of identifying the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the Central List of Other Backward Classes and classifying them into their respective sub-categories. The Commission is headed by Retd CJ of High Court Rohini woth 4 more members. 4)OCTOBER 2-On the International Day of Older Persons, every year since 2005 the mass awareness event “Walkathon” is being held at India Gate. National Institute of Social Defense (NISD) and Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. The theme for this year is “Stepping into the Future: Tapping the Talents, Contributions and Participation of Older Persons in Society”... It was instituted by United Nations General Assembly by adopting resolution 45/106 in December 1990 b) This day is also International Day of Non Violence.UN adopted it from 2007.

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY c)It is also World Habitat Day he theme for this year was ‘Housing Policies: Affordable Homes’. UN adoted it from 1985. 5) In order to protect the rich aquatic biodiversity of river Ganga from escalating anthropogenic pressures, development of a Turtle sanctuary in Allahabad along with a River Biodiversity Park at Sangam have been approved under Namami Gange programme. 6)Rashtriya Sanskrit Mahostav was held at Ahemedabad. 7) ‘4th Dialogue of Civilizations’ is being jointly organized by the Archaeological Survey of India, Ministry of Culture and National Geographic in New Delhi from 8th to 15th October, 2017The theme of the Conference is “Technology and Civilization 8)Govt launched the Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) at Vadnagar in Gujarat, today. Through this programme, Government of India aims to reach each and every child under two years of age and all those pregnant women who have been left uncovered under the routine immunisation programme. 9) Vayoshreshtha Samman – a scheme of National Awards for senior citizens According to the last census, the population of senior citizens in our country was approximately 10.5 crore, which was about 8.5% of our total population. The average life expectancy has increased in recent decades due to improvement in health services and other reasons. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the number of senior citizens will be approximately 19% of our total population. 10) National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management for the year 2017 was awarded to Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak who is the founder of Sulabh International and has developed and implemented, on a pan India scale, a low cost and appropriate toilet technology popularly known as the Sulabh Shauchalaya system. Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, set up in Delhi in 1995, has instituted the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management. 11)Govt have , approved two new World Bank supported schemes of Rs. 6,655 crore - Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) and Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE). SANKALP is Rs 4,455 crore Centrally sponsored scheme including Rs. 3,300 crore loan support from World Bank whereas STRIVE is a Rs. 2,200 crore - central sector scheme, with half of the scheme outlay as World bank loan assistance. SANKALP and STRIVE are outcome focused schemes marking shift in government's implementation strategy in vocational education and training from inputs to results. They will boost Skill India Mission. 12) Anupam Kher, veteran cine star, has been appointed as Chairman of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. Shri Kher succeeds Shri Gajendra Chauhan. 13) Odisha Government is creating 1.2 lakh acre land bank across state for allocation to industrial sector in order to avoid repeat of Posco fiasco..

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14) India received first ever shipment of US crude oil of 1.6 million barrels, purchased by state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Paradip Port in Odisha 15) NOBEL MEDICINE-2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall (72), Michael Rosbash (73) and Michael W. Young... for discovering molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm.. Circardian Rhythm is 24 hour cycle in physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. It influences such... biological functions as hormone levels, sleep, body temperature and metabolism.... They used fruit fly as model oprganism. 16) Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple in Madurai (Tamil Nadu) was adjudged as the cleanest iconic place in country under Swachhta Hi Seva. The temple earned top slot from among 10 iconic places selected by Ministry of Drinking Water. It houses 14 gopurams (gateway towers), ranging from 45–50m in height and tallest is southern tower, 51.9 metres high…It was built by Pandiyas. 17) Global Wildlife Programme (GWP) Conference was r held in New Delhi... It was jointly hosted by Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), World Bank and United Nations Development Programme. ... Theme Peoples’ participation in wildlife conservation” 18)Ministry of Environment has unveiled third National Wildlife Action Plan for 2017-2031 to chalk out future road map for wildlife conservation. The key focus areas of this plan includes integration of climate change into wildlife planning, conservation of coastal and marine ecosystem, mitigation of human-wildlife conflict, focus on wildlife health among others.... 19)Ministry of Environment has launched SECURE Himalaya, a six-year project to ensure conservation of locally and globally significant biodiversity, land and forest resources in high Himalayan ecosystem spread over four states viz. Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Sikkim It aims at securing livelihoods, conservation, sustainable use and restoration of high range Himalayan ecosystems.... 20) Researchers including from India have developed low-cost, rapid diagnostic test consisting of pan-dengue strip for diagnosing Zika and dengue viruses nd differentiating four serotypes of dengue virus. Zika and dengue both belong to same viral family, which are called flaviviruses. They are two close. Mosquitoes of same family. 21) NOBEL PHYSICS PRIZE awarded to three American scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for their decisive contributions to the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory) detector and the observation of gravitational waves. LIGO is world’s largest gravitational wave observatory. It comprises two enormous laser interferometers located thousands of kilometers apart. It helps to detect and understand the origins of gravitational waves. The Interferometers used in LIGO work by merging two or more sources of light to create interference pattern, which can be measured and analyzed

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22) Russia launched Sibir (Siberia), the world’s largest nuclear-powered icebreaker ship built under Project 22220 into the water at the Baltic Shipyard n St Petersburg. Sibir is second of three icebreakers of new class of biggest nuclear powered icebreakers... Sibir is powered by two next generation RITM- 200 nuclear-reactors. These reactors will be supplied with nuclear be produced by the TVEL fuel company. Russia is only country in world that produces nuclear- powered icebreakers. ... 23) Karnataka Government has launched Mathru Poorna Scheme to meet nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women in rural areas of state... 24) World Health Organization (WHO) has appointed Dr. Soumya Swaminathan (58) as one of two deputy directors genera.First Indian. 25)National Waterway 4 launched-over -has total length of 2890 km... 26)Institute of Company Secretaries of India celebrated Golden Jubilee. 27) Rajnish Kumar (59) is the new chairman of State Bank of India (SBI). His name was recommended by Vinod Rai-led Bank Board Bureau.. 28) NOBEL CHEMISTRY 2017-Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson . for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution.... Cryo-electron microscopy is specific type of electron microscopy based on principle of forming three- dimensional (3D) image by collecting and combining thousands of projections of biomolecules. Using it, researchers can now freeze mid-movement of bio molecules and can visualise processes they have never seen. 29)Tourism Ministry has launched nationwide ‘Paryatan Parv’ to showcase cultural diversity of country and reinforce the principle of ‘Tourism for All’. Components are Dekho Apn Desh,Tourism for All,Turism and Governance. 30) Mass Embryo Transfer programme in indigenous breeds under National Mission on Bovine Productivity Scheme.... ETT is one of the most important reproductive biotechnologies where male and female genetic material can be utilized for faster improvement of livestock It has revolutionized breeding strategies in Bovines as tool to optimize genetic improvement in cattle. Using it, embryos of higher genetic merit indigenous bovines such as Sahiwal, Gir, Red Sindhi, Ongole, Deoni and Vechur are being transferred in to surrogate cows... 31)NOBEL LITERATURE_Japanese-born English novelist Kazuo Ishiguro... It was given for his works that are of great emotional force which uncovers the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world 32)NOBEL PEACE PRIZE-Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN…It is a global civil society coalition of 468 partner organizations from 101 countries working to promote adherence to and full implementation of Treaty... on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 33) Gauri Lankesh awarded a prestigious Reach All Women in WAR (RAW in WAR) Anna Politkovskaya Award... 34)Uday Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance gave its report.

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35) GST Council has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to make the composition scheme more attractive and revisit the goods and services tax rates on GST under Hemant Biswas Assam’s Finance Minister. 36) Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme has received 260 applications from foreign scientists of whom 70 will be shortlisted... The scheme is meant to attract top international talent to country’s research and development (R&D) ecosystem... 37)NAMSMI GBHA- Projects approved Pollution abatement Works-Sewage management-Treatment of drain using bioremediation-Pollution inventorization, assessment and surveillance Project. 38) American economist Richard H. Thaler has won 2017 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioural economics. 39)OCTOBER 10-President of India inaugurated 5th edition of India Water Week (IWW) with theme “Water and Energy for Inclusive Growth” in New Delh. 40) India was ranked 8th out of 100 countries on a list of most valuable nation brands..Last year 7th rank.Measured by Brand Finance’s... survey.First USA and second China. 41) Rajasthan became first state in the country to incorporate skill development programme in higher education. 42)OCTOBER 11- International Day of Girl Child.Theme-Empower Girls.Instittued by UNO on 2011 on the resolution of Canada. 43) India’s first Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) under Hybrid Annuity Mode will come up in Haridwar (Uttarakhand) and Varanasi 44) The first-ever meeting of newly-constituted Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister (EAC-PM) was held at NITI Aayog.Created in September 2017 with 5 members and Vivek Oberoi member NITI AAYOG is Chairman.identified 10 themes. 45)USA has withdrawn from UNESCO along ith Israel. 46) MITRA SHAKTHI-India’s joint military exercise was held in Pune. 47)French lady Audrey Azoulay (45) was elected as new Director General of UNESCO –. 48)IIT Madras-World’s largest Combustion research centre inaugurated. 49) Day two of the India International Science Festival (IISF) in Anna University campus at Chennai saw the making of a new Guinness World Record for the Largest Biology Lesson. One thousand forty nine (1049) students participated in the record breaking session. 50) Patna University celebrated 100 th year as it was set up on 1st October 2017. 51) Grammar of Anarchy-Speech of Dr Ambedkar on last day of Constituent Assembly before adaptation-25th November. 52) In order to provide strategic development to the horticulture sector, so as to increase farmers income, a pioneer project called CHAMAN, has been launched three years back by the Government. This project is being implemented by Mahalanob is National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC) using remote sensing

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY technology and is likely to be completed in March 2018. This was told by the Shri Singh in New Delhi today during a presentation on CHAMAN. 53)Indra the first ever Tri Services Joint Exercise between Indian and Russian Armed Forces was conducted in the Eastern Military District of Russia from 19 to 29 Oct 2017.It will serve towards strengthening mutual confidence and interoperability as well as sharing of the best practices between the armed forces of both the countries. The joint tri-service exercise will be a demonstration of the increasing commitment of both nations to address common challenges across the full spectrum of operations 54) Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, dedicated first ever the All India Institute of Ayurveda, in New Delhi, to the Nation 55) In an attempt to end Gender bias in women against women, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is undertaking an online campaign IamThatWoman Through the campaign, the Ministry seeks to highlight the various aspects of women standing 'by' and 'for' women. Ministry of WCD has urged people to shun stereotypes associated with women harming other women. Twitter and Facebook users have been encouraged to tag and share stories of omen helping women with a photograph and post online with the hashtag IamThatWoman. 56) Jaipur and Srinagar Airport got First and Second rank respectively in the category of 2-5 million passengers in ACI-ASQ Survey 57) Police Commemoration Day is observed on October 21st every year. The day commemorates the sacrifices of ten policemen while defending our borders with China in 1959. Indian Police personnel were responsible for manning the 2,500 mile long border of India with Tibet until the autumn of 1959. 58) Kidambi Srikanth won Demark open Badminton 59)22nd October BSF Half Marathon-2017 - in the memory of martyrs was flagged-off by the Minister of State for Youth Affairs 60)Union Govt appointed Shri Dineshwar Sharma, former Director of Intelligence Bureau, as the Representative of Government of India to initiate and carry forward a dialogue with the elected representatives, various organizations and concerned individuals in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. 61)In pursuance with India’s ‘Act East Policy’, Indian Naval Ship Sukanya under the command of Commander SA Deodhar, NM arrived at Belawan Indonesia to participate in the 30th edition of CORPAT (Coordinated Patrol) and 3rd Bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy and the Indonesian Navy. The exercise is aimed to foster closer maritime ties with countries located on the rim of the Indian Ocean. 62)President addressed joint session of Karnatka Legislature on ists 60th anniversary. 63) US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Prime Minister 64) Each day of the “Paryatan Parv” organised by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with other Central ministries, State governments and Stakeholders from 5th to 25th october 2017 was full of activities

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65)Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has decided that this year the Vigilance Awareness Week would be observed from 30th October to 4th November, 2017. The theme of the week would be “My Vision-Corruption Free India” 68) Seven shortlisted companies were given ‘Letters of Intent’ for fourteen monuments under ‘Adopt a Heritage Scheme’ of Ministry of Tourism at the closing ceremony of ‘Paryatan Parv

SBI Foundation shortlisted for the adoption of - o Jantar Mantar, Delhi. 2. TK International Limited shortlisted for the adoption of - o Sun Temple, Konark o Raja Rani Temple, Bhubaneshwar o Ratnagiri Monuments, Jajpur, Odisha 3. Yatra Online Pvt. Limited shortlisted for the adoption of: o Hampi, Karnataka o Leh Palace, Jammu & Kashmir o Qutub Minar, Delhi o Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra 4. Travel Corporation of India Ltd. shortlisted for the adoption of: o Mattancherry Palace Museum, Kochi o Safdarjung Tomb, Delhi 5. Adventure Tour Operator Association of India shortlisted for the adoption of : o Gangotri Temple Area and Trail to Gaumukh o Mt. StokKangri, Laddakh, Jammu and Kashmir 6. Special Holidays Travel Pvt. Ltd. (With) Rotary Club of Delhi shortlisted for the adoption of Agrasen ki Baoli, Delhi 7. NBCC shortlisted for the adoption of Purana Quila, Delhi. 66) First International Consumer Protection Conference on “Empowering consumers in new markets” for the South, South East and East Asian Countries was held on 26 to 27 October 2017 in New Delhi 67)28th October-150th birth anieversary of Sister Niveditha celebrated. 68) World Bank, released the Ease of Doing Business (DB) Report, 2018.Indias rank came to 100 from 130 last year.Totally 190 countriesvare weighed. DB Report is an assessment of 190 economies and covers 10 indicators which span the lifecycle of a business. The table below provides a comparison of this year’s and last year’s report. India has improved its rank in 6 out of 10 indicators and has moved closer to international best practices (Distance to Frontier score). The credit for this significant improvement is credited to the mantra of “Reform, Perform, Transform” given by the Prime Minister, wherein a strong leadership has provided the political will to carry out comprehensive and complex reforms, supported by a bureaucracy committed to perform. 69) Carnatic vocalist T M Krishna won 30th Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for 2015 -16 for his services in promoting and preserving national integration in the country.... The award was instituted in 1985 by Congress on its centenary year celebrations. It is conferred every year on October 31 for

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY promoting national integration. 70)Indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare stealth corvette INS Kiltan was commissioned an into the Indian Navy at the Eastern Naval Command (Naval Dock... Vishakappattinm. It is India’s first major warship to have a superstructure of carbon fibre composite material resulting in improved stealth features, lower top weightand maintenance costs. About 81% of the ship is indigenous and it is well equipped to fight in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) warfare conditions 71) The world’s first negative emissions plant under the CarbFix Project to turn atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into stone has begun operations in Hellishedi islands 72) India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) of India on has signed an investment agreement worth $1 billion with Abu Dhabi Investment .Authority. 73) Ministry of Defence (MoD) is expecting to raise three new tri-service agencies in field of cyber warfare, space and special operations shortly.. 74)International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (IDEP) is observed every year on October 17.. 75) Largest commodity bourse Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) launched India’s first commodity options in gold... Options are an instrument that gives buyer right to buy or sell an underlined at present price on a future date. They are of two types: puts (right to... sell) and and calls (right to buy).... 76)American George Saunders won the 2017 Man Booker Prize, a high-profile literary award for his first full-length novel “Lincoln in the Bardo”.... 77) Hans Joachim Schellnhuber from Germany won 2017 Blue Planet Prize... t is the world’s most prestigious award for pioneers in environmental science and often considered as Nobel Prize for environmental research. It carries prize of 50 million yen (about $450,000) and is handed over in presence of Japan’s Imperial Prince... 78) Govardhan Eco Village, set up by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Wada taluka of Palghar district, Maharashtra has won ... the Green Platinum Award...Green Platinum Award is instituted by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII... 79) Sunny Verghese, co-founder and Group CEO of Singapore-based Olam International was appointed as the new chairman of World Business Council for Sustainable Development.First Asian. 80)Indian-American Gitanjali Rao (11) won the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for inventing a quick, low-cost test to detect lead- contaminated water. 81)India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) have signed the IBSA Trust Fund Agreement that seeks to fight poverty in developing countries... 82)PM inaugurated first phase of Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off) ferry service between Ghogha in Bhavnagar district and Dahej in Bharuch district in the Gulf of of Cambay, Gujarat. It is South Asia’s first world class Ro-Ro ferry service..

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83) Sri Lankan Coast Guard has commissioned Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) SURAKSHA gifted by India at Colombo port. It is first OPV of Sri Lankan Coast Guard. 84) India’s new chancery complex opened at Baridhara diplomatic enclave in Dhaka,... 85) Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has become largest passenger cars exporter from India . 86) World Development Information Day (WDID) is observed every year on October 24 to draw attention of world to development problems and necessity of strengthening international cooperation to solve them..UNCTD launched it. 87) United Nations Day is observed every year on 24th October to mark anniversary of entry into force of UN Charter in 1945. ... 88) Paika rebellion (Paika Bidroha) of 1817 will be named as First War of Independence against British Rule in history books from next academic session... Paiks were traditional landed militia under Gajapati rulers of Odisha. They used to perform policing functions and owned rent-free land that was givento them for their military service to Kingdom of Khurda. However they were forcefully usurped their land rendering them landless by the policies of British East India Company. 89)Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended 40% reduction in carbon emissions in telecom networks by 2022-23 considering 2011-12 as the base year in order to make telecom sector greener. 90) Japan’s ruling coalition of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito party led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won an overwhelming victory in general elections. 91) Real Madrid’s Portugal striker Cristiano Ronaldo was named as the 2017 Best FIFA Men’s Player for a second straight year at the 2017 . 92) INSV Tarini carrying all-women crew members of Navika Sagar Parikrama, India’s first ever circumnavigation expedition of globe by all-women crew entered west Australian port of Fremantle....It started from Goa. 93) World Polio Day is observed annually across world on 24 October to create awareness about the hazards of the crippling Polio disease..Initiated by Rotary International. 94) Ministries of Power and Textiles have joined hands under SAATHI (Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile technologies to Help small Industries) initiative. Under this initiative, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a PSU under Ministry of Power, will procure energy efficient powerlooms, motors and rapier kits in bulk and provide them to small and medium Powerloom units at no upfront cost.. 95) BharatMala Pariyojana... Union Government has announced to build 83,677km of roads, highways, greenfield expressways and bridges with investment of Rs.6.92 lakh core in next five years i.e. by 2022 to further optimise efficiency of movement of goods and people across the country. It also includes first phase of new umbrella programme BharatMala Pariyojana that involves construction of 34,800 km highways by 2022....

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96) Union Government has announced Bank Recapitalisation Plan to infuse Rs. 2.11 lakh crore ( $32.4 billion) capital over next two years into public sector banks (PSBs) and prioritised financing support for MSMEs in 50 clusters. . 97) Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas launched Start-up Sangam initiative to develop new business models, marketing plans, technology and innovations in heavy oil and gas industry sector by supporting 30 start-ups.Rs 320 Crores allotted. 98) India’s passport was ranked 75th among 94 countries in recently released Global Passport Power Rank 2017. India was ranked three notches better than ts previous ranking. According to this index, Singapore has world’s most powerful passport, making... 99) Geologists for the first time have discovered 152 million-year-old fossil of Ichthyosaur, an extinct marine reptile in in Kutch desert region of Gujarat 100) The Infantry Day in observed every year in India on 27 October to commemorate supreme sacrifices made by Indian Army’s infantry against Pakistan... at Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. 101) Indian Railway’s first set of solar plants with total capacity of 5 megawatt peak (MWp) was launched on roof tops of Hazrat Nizamuddin, New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Stations 102) (72) was honoured with the 2017 Hridaynath Mangeshkar Award .103) 14th South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation in Law (SAARCLAW) Conference was held in Colombo. 104) The first phase of national optic fibre network christened as Bharat Net project will be completed by December 2017, thus providing internet access to.10000Gram Panchayats.It is Union’s Rural connectivity programme. 105) Larsen and Toubro (L&T) handed over offshore patrol vessel (OPV) named “Vikram” to the Indian Coast Guard. It is country’s first-ever such defence vessel to be built in private workshop. 106) Kidambi Srikanth (World no. 8) won French Open Superseries badminton 107) United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has announced that India will host next Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animal(CMS) Conference of Parties 13 (CMS COP13) in year 2020. CMS COP is also known as a Global Wildlife Conference... 108) England won 17th edition of FIFA U-17 World Cup by defeating Spain 109) The world’s first hybrid electric tram powered by hydrogen fuel cells was launched in China’s Tangshan city.. 110) According to the Global TB Report 2017 released by World Health Organisation (WHO), India has topped list of seven countries, accounting for 64% of the over 10 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases worldwide in 2016. 111)Article 35A of the Constitution empowers J&K legislature to define permanent residents (PR) of state. It was added through Constitution (Application toJammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954 issued under Article 370 112)Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day) is observed every year across India on 31 October to commemorate birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhai Patel...

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CURRENT AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2017 1)First Global Clubfoot Conference to be held in India, and being organised by CURE International India Trust in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and other partner institutions. Held at Delhi. Clubfoot is one of the most common orthopaedic birth defects. It can cause permanent disability if not treated early. This affects the child’s mobility and confidence. Inevitably, education and schooling suffer – and the child cannot fulfil his or her potential.. The irony is clubfoot is curable. It is estimated that over 50,000 children are born annually in India with clubfoot. The exact reasons for this congenital disability are not fully known. Till recently most children who suffered from clubfoot needed to be treated surgically. This was expensive for parents and traumatic for both the children and their families. Access to surgery was also difficult in rural areas. As such, many received no treatment. They were left to a lifetime of disability and stigma. 2)NTPC plant in Raebareli. Met with accident. 3) The maximum age of joining under NPS-Private Sector (i.e. All Citizen and Corporate Model) from the existing 60 years to 65 years of age. 4)21st Meet of World Health Congress held at Delhi.Organised by World Federation 5)2nd November -A fourteen day joint training exercise “PRABAL DOSTYK – 2017” between the Indian Army and the Kazakhstan Army commenced today with the Opening Ceremony at Bakloh, Himachal Pradesh. 6) All four wheel motor vehicles sold on or after 1st December 2017 will have FASTags fitted on them by the manufacturer of the vehicle FASTag is device that employs Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for making toll payments directly from prepaid or savings account linked to it. It is affixed on the windscreen of vehicle and enables the commuter to drive through toll plazas, without stopping for cash transaction.. 7) Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha today launched a Pan India scholarship program for school children called Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana to increase the reach of Philately. Under the scheme of SPARSH (Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude & Research in Stamps as a Hobby), it is proposed to award annual scholarships to children of Standard VI to IX having good academic record and also pursuing Philately as a hobby through a competitive selection process in all postal circles. 8) Chief of the Army Staff presented the President’s Colours to two Battalions of the MARATHA Light Infantry - 23 MARATHA Light Infantry and 24 MARATHA Light Infantry at the MARATHA Light Infantry Regimental Centre, Belgaum on 03 Nov 17 9)World Fodd India 2017 inaugurated at New Delhi. President of Armenia H.E. Mr. Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister of Latvia H.E. Mr. Maris Kucinskis, Dy. Minister for Economic Development, Italy; Mr. Peter Bleser, Vice Minister, Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture, Germany; Mr. Esben Lunde Larsen, Minister of Environment and Food, Denmark were present on the occasion. 10) World Youth Forum, held at Sharam El Shiekh, Egypt.

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11) KAKAMIGAHARA (Japan): Goalkeeper Savita produced a stunning save in a tense shootout as India won the Asia Cup to secure qualification in next year's hockey World CupIt is after 13 yeas from 2004 India won women Hockey Asia Cup. 12) FIPSPHYSIOCON 2017”, Conference on Human Physiology - VII Congress of Federation of Indian Physiological Societies (FIPS) along with XXIX Annual Conference of the Physiological Society of India (PSI) organised by Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Science (DIPAS) of DRDO was inaugurated at Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute (VPCI), University of Delhi. 13) won her fifth Asian Boxing Championships title by beating Korea’s Hyang Mi Kim.She won nGold for the 5th time.She is a tribe from Manipur. 14)9th November –Uttarkand Foundation Day was celebrated. 15) Blue Economy is a catalyst in India's progress: Nitin Gadkari . Blue Economy is sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, 16) Shilpostav- 2017” is the annual fair of artisans from across the country, belonging to the weaker sections of the society and held every year. 17)In World Bank’s recently released Doing Business (DB) Report 2018 titled as ‘Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs’,.India ranks at 100.It moved from 130 of last year. Its score also increased from 56.05 in 2017 to 60.76 in Doing Business 2018... 18)SEBI is planning to bring Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) under its existing legal framework.... CO is an unregulated means of crowd funding for project via use of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, DASH, Litecoin, Z- cash etc... It is like an equity initial public offer (IPO) where right of ownership or royalties of project is offered to investors in form of digital coins in exchange for legal tender or other cryptocurrencies 19) Girish Karnad will be honoured by Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement Award 2017 at literature festival’s annual awards.. 20) Heena Sidhu won 10-metre air pistol gold medal at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships held in Brisbane... 21) 45 member contingent of Indian Air Force (IAF) will participate in exercise ‘Blue Flag-17’ held in Israel. Blue Flag is bi-annual multilateral exercise 22) Mass attacks of ransomware called Bad Rabbit were observed recently in Russia. The BadRabbit attack mainly had affected Russia but also caused flight .. delays at Odessa airport in southern Ukraine and disrupted electronic payments in Kiev metro 23) India has made an offer to share intelligence of maritime movements in the Indian Ocean in real-time with 10 Indian Ocean littoral states.... 24) Uttar Pradesh State Cabinet has approved Blackbuck Conservation Reserve in trans-Yamuna belt near Allahabad. It will be first of its kind conservation in India 25) India was ranked low at 108th position out of 144 countries in Global Gender Gap Index 2017 released as part of World Economic Forum’s (WEF)

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... four indicators (i) Educational attainment, (ii) Health and survival, (iii) Economic opportunity and (iv) Political empowerment... 26) Geographical Indication Registry (GIR) has given Geographical Indication (GI) tag traditional Etikoppaka toys (Etikoppaka Bommalu) from Andhra Pradesh... These traditional toys are made by artisans in Etikoppaka village located on banks of river Varaha in Visakhapatnam district of the state... 27) Hindi Litterateur Krishna Sobti (92) was awarded the 53rd Jnanpith Award for the year 2017 for her path-breaking contribution to Indian literature. She is 8th woman to receive it. 28).. Goa Government has signed trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and Nobel Media, Sweden to host Nobel Prize Series-India in February 2018... The company develops and manages programs, productions and media rights of Nobel Prize within the areas of digital and broadcast media, . 29) Sri Ranganathaswamy temple at Srirangam in Tamil Nadu has won UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for cultural heritage conservation programme in the Awards of Merit category.First temple to win from Tamilnadu. 30)Govt has extended period of Coastal Berth scheme of flagship Sagarmala Programme for three years upto March, 2020. 31) International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has released ‘The Paradise Papers’, a global investigation... on blackmoney depoits/huge investments 32) Botanists have discovered new species of wild banana named Musa paramjitiana in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.. It has been name in honour of Paramjit Singh, director of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI... 33) India’s second Technology and Innovation Support Centre (TISC) will be established at Centre for Intellectual Property Rights ( Chennai 34)Chennai is included in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO’s) Creative Cities Network for Contribution in Music.... It was among 64 cities from 44 countries that were designated as UNESCO Creative Cities.... With inclusion of these cities, total count of UNESCO Creative Cities Network has now gone up to 180 cities in 72 countries.... Earlier Jaipur (added as City of Music) and Varanasi (City of Crafts and Folk Art)... added in the List. 35) Olive Ridley turtles have started arriving in large at Gahirmatha beach in Odisha 36) India was re-elected as member of executive board of UNESCO 37)Govt approved appointment of Second National Judicial Pay Commission (SNJPC) for subordinate judiciary.It will be headed by Justice (Retd) J P.Venkatrama Reddi, former Judge of Supreme Court.. 38)Indhra Gandhi National Tribal University is at Amar kantak Madhya Pradesh. 39) 11th Nvember-Birthdays of JB Kripalani and Moulana Abul Kalam Azad.

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40)PM of India visited International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), at Los Banos, in Philippines. IRRI is a premier research organisation dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science; improving the health and welfare of rice farmers and consumers; and protecting the rice growing environment for future generations. He also inaugurated Rice Field Lab named after Mr Modi there. 41)MANILA- 31st ASEAN Meet held at Manila Philiphines. 42)14th NOVEMBER National Child Awards include the National Child Awards for Exceptional Achievement that give recognition to children with exceptional abilities and outstanding achievements in the fields of innovation, scholastic achievements, sports, arts, culture, social service and music; National Awards for Child Welfare to institutions and individuals for their outstanding work in the field of child welfare; and the Rajiv Gandhi ManavSeva Awards to individuals for their outstanding contribution towards service for children. 43)15th November 2017-Statehood Day of Jharkand celebrated. 44) National Anti-profiteering Authority created under GST .It is headed by a senior officer of the level of Secretary to the Government of India with four Technical Members from the Centre and/or the States, is one more measure aimed at reassuring consumers that Government is fully committed to take all possible steps to ensure the benefits of implementation of GST in terms of lower prices of the goods and services reach them. 45) Joint Indo-Bangladesh Training Exercise SAMPRITI 2017, which is being conducted at Counter Insurgency & Jungle Warfare School, Vairengte in Mizoram culminated 46) In an initiative to bolster bilateral relations with friendly foreign countries and navies in the Indian ocean region, INS Sarvekshak, a hydrographic survey ship of Southern Naval Command, arrived Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania on 15 Nov 17 for undertaking joint Hydrographic Survey along with the Tanzanian Navy. 47) With a view to foster and reinforce the spirit of Communal Harmony, National Integration and pride in vibrant, composite culture and nationhood, the “Qaumi Ekta Week” (National Integration Week) will be observed all over the country, from the 19thto 25th November, 2017. 48)19th NOVEMBER –World Toilet Day celebrated. 49) Hausla 2017, a festival to celebrate children living in Child Care Institutions ended with a closing ceremony of colourful cultural performances by the children themselves in New Delhi 50) National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has named Debjani Ghosh its president-designate..She is first woman President of Assn. 51) Joint Interpretative Declaration (JID) between India and Colombia regarding existing Agreement for Promotion and Protection of Investments.. signed. 52) NATIONAL TESTING AGENCY to conduct entrance exam for higher educational Institutions created. It will be society registered under Indian

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Societies Registration Act, 1860...It will be chaired by an eminent educationist appointed by Ministry of Human Resource Development.. 53) National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). The programme will cover all the Rural Population across the country.... will be continued co- terminus with 14th Finance Commission cycle till March 2020... 54) Union New and Renewable Energy Ministry has commissioned 1.5 MW Small Hydro Power (SHP) Plant in Biaras Drass, Kargil area of Jammu & Kashmir..It is first project to be commissioned under Prime Minister’s Ladakh Renewable Energy Initiative.... 55) Haryana became India’s first state to treat Hepatitis-C patients of all categories through oral medicine... 56) Urdu was declared second official language in Telangana... 57) Pankaj Advani won 2017 IBSF World Billiards Championship held at Doha.. 58) World Pneumonia Day is observed globally every year on November 12.First observed in 2009. 59) Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was held in Da Nang, Vietnam. The theme of summit was ‘Creating New Dynamism, Fostering a Shared Future 60) India is overtaking China to become world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic Sulphur Dioxide 61) Indian Railways has launched Project Saksham, country’s largest time- bound “upskilling” exercise for its employees to boost their efficiency...It aims to upgrade the skillsets of 13 lakh-strong workforce of Indian Railways with a single drive spanning nine months. It will start in January 2018 to September . 62).. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided not to pursue a proposal to introduce Islamic banking in India. 63) World Diabetes Day was observed every year across the world on 14 November to raise awareness about diabetes. 64) Governments of Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal conducted joint security exercise named ‘Sagar Kavach’ to further tighten the existing coastal security mechanism. 65) 10th South Asia Economic Summit (SAES-2017) was held in Kathmandu, Nepal .. 66) RBI Governor Urjit Patel was appointed to Financial Stability Institute Advisory Board (FSAB) or Bank of International Settlement (BIS) 67) Ministry of Railways has advanced target for 100% completion of installing human waste discharge free Bio-toilets in coaches to December 2018. .. Bio- toilets in association with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). 68) Madhya Pradesh has partnered with Nagaland and Manipur under Ek Bharat- Shreshtha Bharat Yojana to strengthen cultural relations between them. 69) The first ever Namami Barak festival was held at Silchar in Assam.. 70) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has launched a next-generation satellite called the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) into . space

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71) Health ministers, NGOs, and private sector representatives from 120 countries have adopted Moscow Declaration on the sidelines of the first WHO Global.. Ministerial Conference. The declaration calls for eliminating additional deaths from HIV co-infection by 2030 and achieving synergy in coordinated action against Tuberculosis and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). India is among signatories to the declaration.. 72) Manmohan Singh (85) was selected Indira Gandhi Prize for peace, disarmament and development for his leadership... 73) India’s Manushi Chhillar (20) was crowned coveted Miss World crown for the year 2017... Win came after 17 ears when Priyanka Chptra won in 2000.She is from Haryana and it was held in China. Ms Chhillar is sixth Indian woman to win the coveted title of Miss World. Reita Faria was first Indian woman to claim title back in 1966, followed by Aishwariya Rai Bachchan (1994), Diana Haydon (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999) and Priyanka Chopra (2000)... 74) Girish Karnad (79) was conferred with 2017 Tata Literature Live Lifetime Achievement Award... 75) Union Government has signed a guarantee agreement for IBRD/CTF loan of US $98 million and Grant Agreement for US $2 million for Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project with World Bank... 76) World Fisheries day is celebrated every year on November 21 throughout world.India becomes second largest fish producing country in the world "Letter of Permit" or "L.O.P." system implemented for fishing in the Indian E.E.Z has been rescinded since January 2017: Overall fish production registers an increase of approximately 18.86% in comparison to the last three years & inland fisheries sector registers a growth of 26%: Union Agriculture Minister Combining the production of all types of fisheries (capture and culture), the total fish production in the country reaches at about 11.41 million tonnes in 2016-17: Shri Singh

77) The first India-Myanmar Bilateral Military Exercise 2017 (IMBAX 2017) was held at Joint Warfare Centre at the Umroi Joint Training Node in

Meghalaya. . It was conducted by Army’s RED HORNS DIVISION under aegis of GAJRAJ CORPS.... 78)DHALVEER BHANDARI- re-elected to the fifth and the last seat of the world court INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE.after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election.Normal term is 9 years. Elected by General assembly and SecurityCouncil. Mr. Bhandari and Britain’s Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election to the ICJ. Britain’s withdrawal from the election to the prestigious world court would mean that there will not be a British judge on the UN’s most powerful court for the first time in its history. 79) The International Festival of India features a Country of Focus every year. Through this category, prominent films made by the country of focus are screened at IFFI Goa 2017. This year Canada was made Country of Focus. 80) Fulfilling the demand of more than three old decades of local public of Kirandul for running of an “Express Train” in their area, Indian Railways has

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY extended the existing special train between Visakhapatnam-Jagdalpur upto Kirandul (in Dantewada District of Chhattisgarh State) 81) Rashtrapati Bhavan will now be open for public viewing for four days in a week - Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - from tomorrow (November 23, 2017) between 0900 hrs. to 1600 hrs. except on Gazetted Holidays. 82)Govt has approved India's Membership for European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) Membership of EBRD would enhance India's international profile and promote its economic interests. Access to EBRD's Countries of Operation and sector knowledge.India's investment opportunities would get a boost.It would increase the scope of cooperation between India and EBRD through co-financing opportunities in manufacturing, services, Information Technology, and Energy.Hqrs is London. 83)15th Finance Commission constituted- 14th FC recommendation from 1st April, 2015. The Commission submitted its Report on 15th December, 2014. The recommendations of the 14thFinance Commission are valid upto the financial year 2019-20. In terms of Constitutional provisions, setting up the 15thFinance Commission, the recommendations of which will cover the five years commencing on April 1, 2020, has now become due. 84) IAF has successfully fired the BrahMos air version anti shipping missile from its frontline Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft off the Eastern Coast. The launch from the aircraft was smooth and the missile followed the desired trajectory before directly hitting the ship target.The air launched BrahMos missile is a 2.5 ton supersonic air to surface cruise missile with ranges of more than 400 kms. The IAF is the first Air Force in the world to have successfully fired an air launched 2.8 Mach surface attack missile of this category. The integration on the aircraft was very complex involving mechanical, electrical and software modifications on aircraft. The Brahmos is supersonic cruise missile developed by joint-venture between Russia’s Mashinostroyenia and India’s Defence Research and Development Org... .85) Government has constituted a Task Force to draft Direct Tax Code with CTBT Chairman as Convenor. The Terms of Reference of the Task Force is to draft an appropriate Direct Tax Legislation keeping in view: (i) The direct tax system prevalent in various countries,(ii) The international best practices.(iii) The economic needs of the country and(iv) Any other matter connected thereto. 86) Exclusive "Rural Livelihood" scheme for the Northeast. The unique scheme under the title “North East Rural Livelihood Project” is being supported by the World Bank and will primarily benefit the tribals and the lower socioeconomic groups, including women, in the North-Eastern Region (NER). To begin with, four states, - Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and , will be taken up for helping the tribal and even the non-tribal lower groups living in remote areas. The project is aimed at assisting over 10,000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) and benefit about three lakh poor households. 87) National Law Day-2017 will be celebrated jointly by the Law Commission of India and NITI Aayog on 25th-26th November

88)President of India conferred the 3rd ICCR Distinguished Indologist Award on Professor Hiroshi Marui of Japan

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89) Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA) was launched in Manipur. Saubhagya is a scheme launched to achieve universal household electrification in all parts of the Country at a cost of Rs. 16,320 crore 90) INSV Tarini entered Lyttelton port (New Zealand) today during it’s maiden voyage to circumnavigate the globe. This is the first-ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The vessel is skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi, and the crew comprises Lieutenant Commanders Pratibha Jamwal, P Swathi, and Lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta. 91) Ms. Mirabai Chanu won gold at the World Weightlifting Championship. 92) Pankaj Advani won his 18th world title in the recently concluded IBSF World Snooker Championship. 93) Union Finance Ministry has granted Infrastructure Status to Logistics sector under Transport and Logistics.It will help logistics sector to get credit at competitive rates and on long-term basis with enhanced limits. It will also give access to larger of funds as external commercial borrowings (ECB), longer tenor funds from insurance companies and pension funds. ‘ 94)Annual Sangai Festival was celebrated in the northeastern state of Manipur. It is grandest festival of the state to promote Manipur as a world class tourism. Ras Leela’, state’s classical dance form along with various other folk dance performances like Bamboo dance, Maibi dance, Kabui Naga dance, Lai Harao. dance, Khamba Thoibi dance etc. which will be showcased at the festival.... Indigenous sports such as martial arts- Thang Ta (a combination Spear and Sword skills), Mukna Kangjei (game that combines hockey and wrestling), Yubi... Lakpi (game played with greased coconut like rugby) and Sagol Kangjei- Modern Polo (believed to have evolved in Manipur) will be also showcased festival.T he festival is named after state animal, Sangai, the critically endangered brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur’s Keibul Lamjao National Park. 95) India ranked 51st among 63 countries on the IMD Talent Rankings in terms of ability to attract, develop and retain talent. In previous rankings, India..ranked 54th. 96) The first ever North East Development Summit (NEDS) 2017 was held in Imphal, Manipur...by India Foundation. 97) Government will soon initiate a comprehensive ‘safe city’ plan for women in eight cities for women in eight metropolitan cities. in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Hyderabad..It will serve as robust emergency response system and provides police-verified public transport will come into place. In the meeting... 98) Government launched new all-in-one mobile application called UMANG with an aim to make Government services accessible on mobile phone of the citizens... 99) Shubhangi Swaroop became the first-ever female pilot to be inducted into the Indian Navy. She will soon fly Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft...She is native of Barailey in UP.

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100) India has sent proposal to the United Nations (UN) for declaring the year 2018 as ‘International Year of Millets’. 101) Lakhs of migratory birds have made their way to Chilika Lake (Odisha) Major bird congregations were spotted in wetlands of Nalabana Bird Sanctuary inside Chilika and Mangalajodi... 102)The ordinance omits bamboo (taxonomically a grass) grown in non-forest areas from definition of trees. The omission, thereby exempts it from requiring permits for felling or transportation of bamboo grown in non-forest areas... However, bamboo grown in forest areas continues to be governed by provisions of Indian Forest Act.. 103)Ministry of Home Affairs conducted Multi State Mega Mock Tsunami Exercise 2017 along the entire East Coast in 31 coastal districts across four States. 104)State Bank of India launched country’s first integrated lifestyle and banking digital service platform named YONO (acronym for ‘You Only Need One’).... Customers can avail 14 categories including booking and renting cabs, entertainment, dining experience, travel and stay etc... 105) Communal Harmony Campaign Week was observed from November 19- 25, 2017 by National Foundation for Communal Harmony 106) India’s Ritu Phogat from Haryana has won Silver medal in Under-23 Senior World Wrestling held in Poland.... 107) 12th meeting of Standing Committee of Inter-State Council was held in New Delh..to discuss recommendations on Punchi Commision on State Central Relations. Apart from Home minister s Chairman the committee consists of 5 union cabinet ministers and 9 chief Ministers... 108) Gopi Thonakal created history by becoming first Indian man to win Asian Marathon Championship. held at Dongguan in China.. 109) ISRO is set to launch first solar mission Aditya-L1 in 2019. The mission is a joint venture between ISRO and physicists from various institutes including Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bengaluru),. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai) and Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (Pune)..The mission aims to put 1,500-kg heavy class Aditya-L1 satellite into halo orbit around Lagrangian point L1, a point between Sun and Earth. ... Objectives of mission Study dynamic nature of sun’s outer most layers, the corona and the chromosphere, and collect data about Coronal Mass Ejections ... Study on origin of solar storms and their path through the interplanetary space from the Sun to the Earth. The studies will also focus on collection of information for space weather prediction. 107) Scientists from New Zealand have developed world’s first artificial intelligence politician named SAM. It was created by Nick Gerritsen, entrepreneur. 108) 2017 International Multilateral Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX) was held in Bangladesh from November 26 to 28 2017.... It s taking place under the aegis of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS)..

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The IONS is regional forum of Indian Ocean littoral states launched by India Navy in February 2008. It is voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of littoral states of Indian Ocean Region (IOR) by providing an open and inclusive forum for discussion of regionally relevant maritime issues... 109) South Africa’s Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters (22) was crowned Miss Universe at pageant held at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas,... Second South nAfrican to win title. 110) Shaktikanta Das, Former Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) is appointed as India’s G 20 Sherpa till December 31, 2018 for Development Track of G20. 111)PM Modi and US President Donald Trump’s advisor and daughter Ivanka Trump jointly inaugurated 8th annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Hyderabad. The theme for 2017 GES is “Women First, Prosperity for All” Primaryt Focus areas are are Digital Economy and Financial Technology, Health Care and Life Sciences, Energy and Infrastructure, and Media and Entertainment... 112) Badri Narain Sharma as Chairman of National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) under Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Sharma is 1985 batch IAS of Rajasthan. 113) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI ) has upheld the basic principles of an open and free internet in its recommendations on net neutrality.. Net neutrality means that telecom service providers must treat all internet traffic equally, without any regard to the type, origin or destination of . the content or the means of its transmission. Proponents of net neutrality hold that all traffic on internet should be treated equally i.e. service providers should allow access to all content without favouring any particular product or website. 114) North Korea successfully launched Hwasong-15, a new type of nuclear- capable intercontinental ballistic missile.. It is North Korea’s most powerful ICBM that can reach entire eastern US seaboard and Washington.

CURRENT AFFAIRS DECEMBER 2017 1)FISHING SECTOR-India is second largest fish producer in the world. Overall fish production has increased from 0.75 million tonne of 1950-51 to 11.41 million tonne in 2016-17. Besides, this sector provides employment and livelihood support to more than 15 million people of in the country. India achieved about 19% growth rate during 2014-17 in overall fish production: 2)HORNBILL FESTIVAL-Celebrated in Nagaland.It is also called Festival of Festival and celebrated on State formationDay December 1st in 1962. Hornbill Festival is the perfect showcase of rich Naga culture and traditions, preserved over the years in the form of music, dance and food. The Hornbill Festival at Kisama and the International Music Festival represent the diversity of Naga society.

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3)NATIONAL NUTRITION MISSION-Cabinet approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18. The proposal consists of · mapping of various Schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition · introducing a very robust convergence mechanism · ICT based Real Time Monitoring system · incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets · incentivizing Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) for using IT based tools · eliminating registers used by AWWs · introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) · Social Audits · setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres, involving masses through Jan Andolan for their participation on nutrition through various activities, among others. 4)OCKHI STORM -The severe cyclonic storm ‘OCKHI’ over Lakshadweep area and adjoining Southeast Arabian Sea.It was named by Bangladesh. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) started the tropical cyclone naming system in 2000. Cyclones in the North Indian Ocean basin are named by the Indian Meteorological Department and the first tropical cyclone was named in 2004 as Onil (given by Bangladesh).Eight north Indian Ocean countries — Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, gave eight names each which was combined into a list of 64 names. One name from each country is picked in an order to name the cyclonesPrevious storm MORA named by Thailand attacked North East. 5)December 1 WORLD AIDS DAY-Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day.. Government and health officials, non- governmental organizations, and individuals around the world observe the day, often with education on AIDS prevention and control. is one of the eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization Week, World Tuberculosis Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Malaria Day and World Hepatitis Day The theme selected by World Health Organization (WHO) for year 2017 is ‘Right to health‘.. 6) INDIA IN IMO India has been re-elected to the Council of the International Maritime Organization [IMO] under Category “B” at the 30th session of the Assembly of the IMO held in London.Unl9ke previous times win as unopposed, this time India defeated mUAE and Britain. 7) Pt Ramnarayan Sharma National Ayurved Award. It was instituted by the Ramnarayan Vaidya Ayurved Research Trust in 1982. It honours an eminent Ayurvedic scholar every year. The Award consists of a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, a silver idol of Lord Dhanwantari and a citation.

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th 8)15 Finance Commission: Former Expenditure and Revenue Secretary NK Singh will chair the Fifteenth Finance Commission.Former Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and adjunct professor of Georgetown University Anoop Singh will be its full- time members. Chairman of Bandhan Bank Ashok Lahiri and NITI-Aayog member Ramesh Chand will be part-time members.IAS officer Arvind Mehta will be the Secretary to the Commission. 9)AKASH MISSILE- Surface to Air Missile AKASH with indigenous radio frequency seeker against target Banshee, has been successfully launched from the Launch Complex-III at ITR Chandipur This missile is being inducted into Army as Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM). This is the first Surface to Air Missile with indigenous seeker that has been test fired. With this success, India has achieved the capability of making any type of Surface to Air Missile. 10)CUNPK-The opening ceremony of the Indian UN Peace Keeping Training by Mobile Training Team of CUNPK was conducted on Monday (Dec.04) at the Vietnamese Centre for Peace Keeping located at Thaach Hon, Hanoi. 11) INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE-In terms of its Framework Agreement, with ratification by Guinea as the 15th country on 6th November 2017, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) will become a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization on 6th December 2017. The ISA, headquartered in India, has its Secretariat located in the campus of National Institute of Solar Energy, Gwalpahari, Gurgaon, Haryana. The ISA is an Indian initiative, jointly launched by the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and the President of France on 30th November 2015 in Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21, the UN Climate Conference. It aims at addressing obstacles to deployment at scale of solar energy through better harmonization and aggregation of demand from solar rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. As of date, 46 countries have signed and 19 countries have ratified the Framework Agreement of ISA. 12)Dr Ambedkar International Centre being inaugurated at New Delhi. 13)VOC PORT- created a new record for single day handling of cargo yesterday, when it handled 36,526 Metric Tonnes of thermal coal at the berth NCB-I from the vessel MV. Asian Champion. 14)POWER SUPPLY-Union Govt said 24x7 Power is a Fundamental Right of every citizen of the country and all States will have to ensure that by March 2019. 15)BODHI PARVA three days ‘Bodhi Parva: BIMSTEC Festival of Buddhist Heritage’ in New Delhi 16) Yeraringan' Award CONFERRED on MS Swaminathan 17) INS Kalvari is a diesel-electric attack submarine that has been built for the Indian Navy by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited. It is the first of six such submarines that will be inducted into the Indian Navy, and represents a significant success for the "" initiative. The project has been undertaken with French collaboration. 18) World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference (MC) ended today in Buenos Aires Argentina . Although it ended without a Ministerial Declaration or any substantive outcome, the unanimous view was that it was

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY extremely well-conducted with complete openness and transparency and the process afforded everyone ample opportunity to express their views. 19) Financing Agreement for IBRD loan of USD 250 million (equivalent) for the “Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Project” was signed with the World Bank. 20) NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission will launch the Atal Tinkering Lab’s Community Day on Friday, 15th December, 2017. The day will mark the Community Drive Initiative in which 25 young Mentors will engage with more than 200 students who are not enrolled in the formal education system. 21)Second World Telugu Conference held in Hyderabad,First held 42 years ago by CM Vengal Rao 22) President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, laid the foundation stone of the Nyaya Gram project of the High Court of Allahabad 23)PM dedicated the Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project to the Nation in Aizawl, Mizoram. 24) After China, India is the second largest producer of horticultural crops and fruits. The Agriculture Minister said it today at the World Orange Day 2017 event in Nagpur. 25)Govt to set up the first ever National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) in Vadodara to skill its human resources and build capability. 26) Subsequent to signing of India-Bangladesh civil nuclear cooperation agreement on 08.04.2017, Department of Atomic Energy's Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) signed an inter-agency agreement for GCNEP to extend technical/consultancy and capacity building support to BAEC for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project (RNPP) in Bangladesh being set up with Russian collaboration. 27) Begumpur Masjid and Sarai Shahji have been declared as monuments of National importance. 28) 39 countries identifie under Project ‘Mausam’ Project ‘Mausam’ is the initiative of Ministry of Culture to be implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the nodal agency with research support of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Museum as associate bodies. This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’ – collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural, commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean. The main objective of the project is to inscribe places and sites identified under Project Mausam as trans-national nomination for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. 29) An exhibition entitled ‘The 100th Birth Anniversary Exhibition and Celebration: DHANRAJ BHAGAT (1917-1988).’ has begun in National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi Eminent sculptor Padmashri Dhanraj Bhagat was born in 1917 in Lahore. He is undoubtedly one of the major sculptors in the Indian modern art movement.

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30) Mobile Application “R-MITRA” (Railway Mobile Instant Tracking Response & Assistance) has been launched by Eastern Railway for security of passengers, especially women passengers, in Kolkata and suburban areas of the Zone. 31) India and Spain have signed Techno-commercial agreement to provide institutional mechanism for mutual cooperation in field of urban transport and for .. construction of the three Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS). Three RRTS corridors Delhi-Meerut Smart Line, Delhi – Panipat Smart Line and Delhi – Alwar Smart Line have been prioritised for implementation in the first phase.... RRTS is first of its kind project in India, with design speed of 180 kmph. It will use state-of-the-art technologies for track structure, stock and signalling system. The three RRTS corridors will significantly reduce travel time between important NCR towns. On completion, RRTS will emerge as fastest, comfortable and safe mode of transport in NCRDelhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor will be first corridor to be implemented 32) 7th edition Kathakar: International Storytellers Festival was held at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi 33) India was awarded certificate of commendation for its effort to combat illegal wildlife trade by Convention on International Trade in Endangered of Wild SpeicesFauna and Flora (CITES).... 34) Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly has unanimously passed Kapu Reservation Bill, 2017 to provide 5% quota in education and employment. . Kapu community has 27% population in Andhra Pradesh.. 35) Telangana Government is going to set up the world’s first Information and Technology (IT) Campus for differently-abled persons at Hyderabad. 36) The first phase of Iran’s Chabahar port (Shahid Beheshti Port) which holds significant strategic and economic importance for India was inaugurated.. It is Iran’s only oceanic port located on the Gulf of Oman, southeast of Iran near Pakistani border. It has been jointly developed by India, Iran and .Afghan. 37) Government has launched Noxeno, a nasal foreign body removal device developed by start-up InnAccel Technologies Private Limited,.Bengakuru. 38) has launched its own cryptocurrency called Petro to circumvent US-led financial sanctions.... President Nicolas Maduro has approved the creation of BlockchainBase observatory to oversee development and rollout of new cryptocurrency... Crypto Currencies or Virtual Currencies are type of unregulated digital money that is neither issued by central bank/public authority, nor is necessarily attached to fiat currency, but is used and accepted among the members of specific virtual community... They are capable of being transferred, stored or traded electronically. Cryptocurrencies are founded as peer-to-peer (P2P) electronic payment system. 39) South Korea and United States have launched Vigilant Ace, their largest- ever joint aerial drills. ... 40) International conference on climate change was held in Nepal.... Its purpose was to draw attention towards adverse effects of global warming in Hindu Kush mountain range

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41) Union Environment Ministry has allowed NGT Chairperson to “constitute a single-member bench” in “exceptional circumstances. 42) Madhya Pradesh Assembly has unanimously passed Dand Vidhi (Madhya Pradesh Sanshodhan) Vidheyak, 2017 that will see rapists of girls 12 years or belowbelow being hanged till death... 43) United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have formed new economic and partnership group named Joint Cooperation Committee... 44) International Solar Alliance (ISA) became treaty-based international intergovernmental organization on 6th December 2017 one month after Guinea became 15th country to ratify it. ISA is first treaty-based international government organisation to be based in India... 45) National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has set up three member committee to study the matter to give minority status to Hindus in 8 states where their population is less than 50%. Lakshadweep (2.5%), Mizoram (2.75%), Nagaland (8.75%), (11.53%), J&K (28.44%), Arunachal Pradesh (29%), Manipur (31.39%), and Punjab (38.40%... 46) Time magazine has named ‘the silence breakers’ as its Person of the Year for 2017... 47) India and Israel have jointly set up a centre for excellence in floriculture at Thally in Krishnagiri district.. 48) Union Government has constituted high-level committee headed by NITI Aayog Chief Executive Amitabh Kant to address problem of Non-performing assets . 49) Intergovernmental Committee for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage under UNESCO has inscribed ´KumbhMela´ on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. KumbhMela is held every four times every 12 years at four different locations across central and northern India... Kumbh Mela is held every third year at one of four places by rotation: Haridwar, Allahabad, Nashik and Ujjain... The first written evidence of the Kumbha Mela is mentioned in Bhagvat Purana... Another written evidence of Kumbha Mela is in works of Huen Tsang, who visited India in 629–645 AD, during reign of Harsha. UNESCO has listed 11 elements from India in its Representative List:

S. No. Inscribed Item in Year 1. Kutiyattam, Sanskrit Theatre 2008 2. The Tradition of Vedic Chanting 2008 Ramlila - the Traditional Performance of 3. 2008 the Ramayana 4. Novruz 2009 Ramman: religious festival and ritual 5. 2009 theatre of the Garhwal Himalayas, India 6. Chhau dance 2010

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Kalbelia folk songs and dances of 7. 2010 Rajasthan Mudiyettu, ritual theatre and dance 8. 2010 drama of Kerala Buddhist chanting of Ladakh: recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in the trans- 9. 2012 Himalayan Ladakhregion, Jammu and Kashmir, India Sankirtana, ritual singing, drumming and 10 2013 dancing of Manipur Traditional brass and copper craft of 11 utensil making among the Thatheras of 2014 Jandiala Guru, Punjab, India 50) International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) is observed annually across the world on December 9.It was instituted by UN General Assembly (UNGA) by passing resolution 58/4 of October 31, 2003 The theme for year 2017 is “United against corruption for development, peace and security”.. 51) Kacheguda Railway Station in Hyderabad has become the first energy- efficient ‘A1 Category’ railway station in India.It attained the 100% energy- efficient status by replacing 1312 conventional lights with light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, 12 air conditioners (ACs) with energy efficient inverter type ACs and 370 ceiling fans with Brushless DC Electrical (BLDC) motors energy-efficient fans. 52) India’s ‘first’ mobile food testing laboratory enabling on-the-spot food safety tests was launched in Goa. .. 53) Hindi scholar and writer Mamta Kalia (77) was chosen for Vyas Samman 2017 for her novel “Dukkham Sukkham”.... Vyas Samman award was instituted by KK Birla Foundation in 1991. It is awarded annually to outstanding literary work in Hindi authored and published i n past 10 years by an Indian citizen. The award carries monetary award of Rs.3.5 lakh, a citation and a plaque.... 54) India was declared free from infective Trachoma, a contagious bacterial infection of the eye. . 55) World Human Rights Day (WHRD) is observed every year on December 10 to commemorate adaptation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.. The theme for this year is ‘Let’s stand up for equality, justice and human dignity’ On this day in 1948, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) had adopted and proclaimed Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot.. in Paris 56) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has signed an implementation agreement with German firm GIZ GmbH for technical cooperation in implementation of transport projects in Coimbatore, Bhubaneshwar and Kochi.... 57) Eminent scientist and father of DNA fingerprinting in India passed away He was one of the leaders instrumental in making DNA

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY fingerprinting mainstream in India, both at level of research as well as for forensic application 58) Aadivasi Mahotsav 2017 was held in Raipur, Chhattisgarh to display the rich and diverse tribal traditions of the State. 59) ASEAN–India (Association of Southeast Asian Nations-India) Connectivity Summit (AICS) was held in New Delhi. The theme of summit was ‘Powering Digital... and Physical Linkages for Asia in the 21st Century’... 60) China started trial operations of world’s biggest automated container terminal at Yangshan Deep Water Port in Shanghai. 61) Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) launched first NIC-CERT, a setup of National Informatics Centre (NIC) to prevent and predict cyber-attacks on government utilities.. 62) Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched ‘LaQshya’ Initiative and mHealth: Safe Delivery Application on the occasion of Universal Health Care. UHC Day is observed every year on 12 December to commemorate first unanimous United Nations resolution .I t is safe delivery mobile application for health workers who manage normal and complicated deliveries in the peripheral area. 63) India’s first Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) will be coming to Andhra Prades 64) India and Australia held their first ‘2+2 dialogue’ in New Delhi and highlighted need to maintain Asia-Pacific region as a “free” and “open” zone... 65) Sri Lanka has formally handed over its southern strategic port of Hambantota to China on 99-year lease. Two Chinese firms managed by China Merchants Pvt will own and manage port. 66) Rajasthan has become the first state in India to launch free email addresses in Hindi for its residents. 67) Union Government has framed a scheme to set up 12 Special Courts for a year to fast-track the trial of criminal cases against 1,581 MPs and MLAs. ... Two special courts will handle cases against 228 MPs and remaining 10 courts will be set up in 10 states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Karnataka Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal 68) National Medical Commission Bill- The bill is aims at bringing reforms in medical education sector of the country which has been under scrutiny for corruption and unethical practices.It r eplaces existing apex medical education regulator Medical Council of India (MCI) with National Medical Council (NMC), a new body to ensure transparency. It provides for constitution of four autonomous boards entrusted with conducting undergraduate and postgraduate education, assessment and accreditation. The commission will have 25-members including Chairman and Member Secretary. It will have 12 ex-officio members and 11-part-time members. 69) Union Cabinet has decided that Government will borne Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges on transactions up to Rs. 2,000 made through debit cards, BH.IM or Aadhar enabled payment systems.

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70) Union Cabinet approved the establishment of International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOO),. At Hyderabad. 71) Meghalaya became first state in country to operationalize The Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017, a law that makes social audit of government programmes and schemes a part of government practice. 72) Karnataka High Court has struck down 2014 amendment rules that mandated pictorial health warnings to cover 85% of tobacco product packaging . 73) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has discovered eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star which is 2545 light-years far from Earth. It was dubbed as Kepler-90i. The eight planet was discovered by Researchers Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg by applying Google’s machine-learning technology to data collected by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. 74) According to UN World Migration Report (2018) Indian diaspora is world’s largest, with slightly more than 15.6 million people from India living overseas.It constitutes 6% of the total number of international migrants (people living outside the country of their birth), which was estimated at 243 million .More in UAE,US. 75) India is planning to host meeting of World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries in February 2018 to muster support for food security and other issues. 76) The traditional festival of Losar was celebrated in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir to mark the beginning of New Year in this Himalayan region. .. 77) National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog is planning to set up Methanol Economy Fund worth Rs 4,000-5,000 crore to promote production and use of the clean fuel. 78) Southern Command of Indian Army conducted major army exercise called ‘Hamesha Vijayee’ in deserts of Rajasthan from December 16 to 22, 2017. The purpose of the exercise was to evaluate capability of armed forces to strike deep into enemy territory in an integrated air-land battle. 79)Govt launched DARPAN – “Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” Project to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve “financial inclusion” of un-banked rural population. 80)Govt launched ‘Ganga Gram’ – a project for sanitation based integrated development of all 4470 villages along the River Ganga, at a multi-stakeholder sammelan 81) The two-day Regional Conference on Good Governance and Replication of Best Practices concluded in Guwahati 82) Cool Travelling’ in ‘Air Conditioned local train’ , as First Ever Broad Gauge Air-conditioned AC EMU suburban train consisting of 12-car (12 coaches) fitted with Indigenous 3-phase Propulsion system of Ms BHEL on Mumbai Suburban Section of Western Railway was introduced on Monday, 25th December,2017.

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83) After scaling of Mt Everest in 2005, IAF launched a unique and unprecedented series of mountaineering expedition 'Mission Seven Summits' with an aim to fly the tricolour and the IAF flag on the highest peaks in every continent. IAF has promoted adventure activities among its personnel. In 2011, a women's expedition scaled Mt Everest successfully and in 2017 a joint IAF-BSF women camel expedition covered 1386 Km distance along western border in 47 days. IAF is also committed to the cause of environment and in Sep this year, IAF expedition to Mt Stok Kangri, restored the environment at base camp. 84) Seventy years since the constitution of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, the total installed capacity of nuclear power in India has reached 6,780 MWe, comprising 22 nuclear reactors. Nuclear is a clean, environment friendly base load source of power available 24X7. It also has huge potential which will ensure long term energy security of the country in a sustainable manner. Therefore nuclear energy is an important component of the country’s energy mix and is being pursued along with other sources of energy in an optimal manner. 85) regained the World Rapid Chess Championship title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In the final, Anand beat Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev to reclaim the title he had won in 2003. 86)Indian Navy in collaboration with Sri Lankan counterpart has successfully completed second phase of joint oceanographic survey conducted off the South Western Coast of SriLanka. The aim of the joint survey was to update all navigational charts covering the southern Sri Lankan waters with the latest hydrographic data. 87)Commission to examine OBC status-Commission headed by retired Chief Justice of Delhi High Court G. Rohini was constituted under Article 340 of Constitution with approval of President 88) India has inked Financing Agreement with World Bank for International Development Association (IDA) Credit of US $125 million (equivalent) for Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement Operation (STRIVE) Project.... The objective of project is to improve access to quality and market- driven vocational training and apprenticeships Result areas for project include Improved Teaching and Learning Improved and Broadened Apprenticeship Training. Improved Performance of Industrial Training Institutes. Increased Capacities of State Governments to Support Industrial Training Institutes and Apprenticeship Training.... 89) 11th edition of Naseem-Al-Bahr (Sea Breeze) 2017 Naval exercise between India and Oman was held at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Wudam in Oman.... 90) India and Myanmar signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at developing Myanmar’s Rakhine state. 91) MEA) has launched SAMEEP (Students and MEA Engagement Program). It is an outreach mission that aims to take Indian foreign policy and its global engagements to students across country and also to look at diplomacy as a career option. Its name was crowd-sourced through the My Gov portal and out of 550 suggested entries..

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92) India was selected as Chair of Ad Hoc Committee on Review & Reforms to look into various issues pertaining to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme Angolia is Vice Chairman. Kimberley Process is joint initiative of governments, industry and civil societies to stem flow of ‘conflict diamonds’, rough diamonds used by rebel groups to finance wars against legitimate governments. It is also described in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. India is one of thethe founding members of KPCS. At present, KPCS has 54 members representing 81 countries including EU with 28 members. 93)India’s first and only design university World University of Design (WUD) has opened its campus at Sonipat, Haryana. 94) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently had initiated prompt corrective action (PCA) measures against Bank of India (BoI) in the view of its high non- performing assets (NPAs) and insufficient capital.. The objective is to facilitate banks to take corrective measures in timely manner including those prescribed by the RBI in order to restore their financial health. It also provides opportunity to RBI to pay focused attention on such banks by engaging with management more closely in those areas 95) China’s home-grown AG600, also known as ‘Kunlong’, the world’s largest amphibious aircraft took off took off from the southern city of Zhuhai 96)Former wicketkeeper of India Saba Karim (50) was appointed as the new General Manager (GM) of Board of Control for (BCCI).... 97) Karnataka’s Tirthahalli taluk has come under the grip of Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), also known as monkey fever. It is tick-borne viral diseases caused by Kyasanur forest disease virus (KFDV), a member of the virus family Flaviviridae, which also causes dengue and yellow fever. It is endemic to South Asia and was first detected in 1957 in Kyasanur Forest of Karnataka.. Symptoms: High fever with headache, followed by haemorrhagic symptoms such as bleeding from nose, throat and gums. It also causes gastrointestinal bleeding, muscle stiffness, tremors, absent reflexes and mental disturbances. 98) Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh are top contributors among states and Union Territories in the first five months since the rollout of the GST from 1st July. 99) Good Governance Day (GGD) is celebrated every year in India on December 25 to mark the birthday anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Started from 2014. 99) Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is going to roll out Condonation of Delay Scheme to provide a three-month window for defaulting companies and their director to submit their annual filings. 100) Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched pilot project ‘Blue Flag’ to develop and enhance standards of cleanliness on beaches. The ‘Blue Flag’ is a certification by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that a beach, Marina or sustainable boating tourism operator, meets its stringent standards. Its purpose is to enhance standards of cleanliness,

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY upkeep and basic amenities at beachesUnder the pilot project, each of coastal state/UT was requested to identify and nominate a beach, which is to be funded through ongoing Integrated Coastal Management Programme (ICMP). 101) Uttar Pradesh Government launched ‘Prakash hai to vikas hai’ Scheme, a free household power connection scheme for the poor in the state.. 102) Uttar Pradesh government has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korea on to enhance cooperation in the field of tourism, skill development, culture and farming... 102) 25th edition of National Children Science Congress (NCSC-2017) was held Gandhinagar. 103)President inaugurated Andhra Pradesh Fibre Grid project, aimed at providing affordable high-speed internet service to every household in the state at a nominal. It is also termed as Triple Play2 Services envisages to provide internet, television and telephone services to more than one lakh households in the state at.. a nominal price. 104) Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced to launch 31 satellites, including India’s Cartosat-2 series earth observation space craft in a single mission onboard on January 10, 2018.

CURRENT AFFAIRS JANUARY 2018

1) PMINDIA website is now available in 11 regional languages namely Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu in addition to English and Hindi. 2)SN BOSE- 125th birthday celebrated. Bose is known for working with Albert Einstein on the Bose-Einstein Condensate and as namesake of the boson, or “God particle.” Several Nobel Prizes were awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson and the Bose-Einstein Condensate. Bose was never awarded a Nobel Prize, despite his work on particle statistics, which clarified the behavior of photons and "opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory," according to physicist Jayant Narlikar, who said Bose's finding was one of the top 10 achievements of 20th-century Indian science. 3)NEW IITs Pursuant to the Budget Announcements 2014-15 and 2015-16, six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been established at Palakkad (Kerela), Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), Jammu (J&K), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Dharwad (Karnataka) and Goa. The Academic Session of IITs at Palakkad and Tirupati started in 2015-16 and that of remaining four in 2016-17 from their temporary campuses. Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher education, located in India.[1] They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as institutions of national importance alongside National Institutes of Technology. The first IIT was set up in Kharagpur in 1951, and soon later in Bombay, Madras, Kanpur and Delhi. An IIT was then established in Guwahati

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PRABHA IAS IPS COACHING ACADEMY in 1994. The University of Roorkee was converted to IIT Roorkee in 2001. Eight new IITs were set up in Gandhinagar, Jodhpur, Hyderabad, Indore, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Ropar, and Mandi in 2008-09. Today we have 23 IITs. 4)KHELO INDIA SCHOOL GAMES Government of India has decided to award 2018-22 broadcast rights of Khelo India School Games (KISG) to Star Sports Starting from 31st January 2018, these annual games will include a variety of sports – gymnastics, badminton, hockey and more. Revamped Khelo India aims to inculcate a nationwide culture of sports through a grassroots sports revolution, and KISG is an important aspect of this strategy. This is in line with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision for India’s youth. A grassroots sports revolution will help India become a sporting powerhouse in the coming years. 5)Govt is going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sri Lanka for cooperation in areas of traditional systems of medicine & Homoeopathy. 6)January 31st Triple Lunar Eclipse-.There hasn't been a triple line-up like this since 1982 and the next won't occur until 2037. .A blue moon is the second full moon in a month. A supermoon is a phenomenon, when moon appears slightly bigger (about 10 per cent or more) and a little brighter than normal. .A total lunar eclipse is when earth comes exactly between the sun and the moon and the earth's shadow falls on the moon. .During a total lunar eclipse, some of the sun's rays get refracted through the earth's atmosphere and strike the moon, which thereby takes on a low brown red glow. Therefore, it alternatively also referred to as blood moon 7) The mandate of the Ministry of Culture is to protect, preserve & promote various forms of folk art and culture throughout the country and to meet this objective, the Government of India has set up seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at Patiala, Nagpur, Udaipur, Allahabad, Kolkata, Dimapur and Thanjavur. These ZCCs engage cultural troupes from different States to participate in the major festivals under National Cultural Exchange Programme (NCEP). Under Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat (EBSB) matrix, a Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav was organized from 7th to 13th October, 2017 in various cities of Gujarat viz. Ahmedabad, Vadodra, Rajkot, Somnath and Dwarka. 8) New AIIMS in Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) being set up. 9)NUCLEAR REACTORS- India presently ranks third in number of reactors under construction after China and Russian Federation (based on the placement of first pour of concrete) and seventh in number of reactors in operation. 10) A Committee of Experts (CoE) was constituted by Ministry of Defence under the chairmanship of Lt Gen (Retd) DB Shekatkar to recommend measures to enhance combat capability and rebalance defence expenditure of the armed forces. 11)RAINFALL DISTRIBUTION The analysis of 115 years of monsoon rainfall data suggests that there is no long term change or trend in the monsoon rainfall averaged over the country.

a. Even though, there are no changes in the all-India rainfall, there are significant changes in annual rainfall in some meteorological sub-divisions. Rainfall over Kerala, East Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura (NMMT) show decreasing

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trends. However, rainfall over coastal Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir show an increasing trend. b. There is a general tendency of increasing frequency of extreme rainfall (heavy rainfall events) over India, especially over the central parts of India during the southwest (June- September) monsoon season. c. There is no evidence of global warming on the observed changes in annual or seasonal rainfall over India. However, there is growing evidence suggesting that increasing frequency of extreme rainfall is due to global warming. d. The climate change assessment made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that in future, frequency of extreme rainfall may increase over India due to increase in global warming. e. However, there are NO other long term changes/trends in rainfall over India which can be attributed to global warming. The Indian Monsoon is found to be a stable system.

12)SPACE MISSIONS In April 2016, seven satellite constellation for Navigation system NavIC was established.

• In August 2016, first experimental mission of Scramjet engine towards realisation of Air Breathing system was successfully tested. • In February 2017, 104 satellites were placed in a single launch. • In May 2017, South Asia satellite was launched, which was a gift to neighbouring countries. • In June 2017, GSLV Mk-III was launched successfully carrying GSAT 19 communication satellite. • In June 2017, Cartosat satellite was launched successfully by PSLV C-38

13) Based on the recommendations of the Cadre Review Committee, the Central Government has sought views of all States / UT Governments on the proposal for creation of All India Medical Services. 14) The allocation for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes have been worked out keeping the percentage of allocation by the Ministries/Departments prescribed as per the guidelines of Dr. Narendra Jadhav Committee constituted by the erstwhile Planning Commission. 15) The Jagriti Yatra is a 15-day long national train journey that covers 8,000 km across the length and breadth of the country. It aims to create awareness and encourage nation building though building enterprise 16) Now, the subscribers’ base under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) has reached more than 80 Lakhs and growing at a good pace. 17) To address the issues of women safety including in public spaces and public transport, Government of India has selected eight metropolitan cities namely, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow in the meeting of ‘Steering Committee’ 18)9TH JANUARY The 1st PIO-Parliamentarian Conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister of India. Prime Minister said that PIOs (Persons of India Origin) are like permanent ambassadors of India and partners for India's development, who have an important position in the Action Agenda till 2020, drafted by the NITI Aayog.

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19) Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated Aanchal Thakur on winning India’s first international medal in skiing at FIS International Skiing Competition in Turkey. 20) Dr. Sivan K, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC )is Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman Space Commission vice Dr. A.S. Kiran Kumar, with a tenure of three years, from the date of assumption of charge of the post. He also had played key role in developing indigenous Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) MK II and was part of team that ideated on Swadesh. 21)12th January-National Youth Festival on birthday of Swami Vivekananada. The Festival is organised by Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt. of India in collaboration with State Govt. of Uttar Pradesh at Gautam Buddha University, Gautam Budh nagar, Greater Noida from 12th to 16th January, 2018.This is the first time that the National Youth Festival is being organized in NCR This is the 22nd National Youth Festival. The 1st National Youth Festival was held in 1995 in Bhopal.The Theme of the Festival is ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’, to capitalize on the demographic dividend of young India, to capture the vibrancy and fresh perspective of youth and to pledge to accomplish the Goal of New India. 22) President of India, , inaugurated the 4th International Conference on Dharma-Dhamma at Rajgir, 23) We are marking the 25thanniversary of the ASEAN-India Dialogue Partnership. The month of January is a celebration of India-ASEAN relations. India’s Republic Day, January 26, leaders from all 10 ASEAN countries will be chief guests at the ceremonial events in New Delhi. And today this conference stands testimony to the abiding friendship and shared values of India and ASEAN – as well as to the spiritual heritage and knowledge that belongs to both the sub-continent and to Southeast Asia. It issued joint statement titled Delhi Declaration after the plenary session focusing on counter-terrorism, identity security, military cooperation, and bilateral financial support.... 24) An expert team of IAF mountaineers had successfully scaled highest peaks of six different continents earlier and had recently embarked upon its culminating expedition to Mt Vinson in Antarctica to complete Mission Seven Summits. A five member team led by Gp Capt RC Tripathi VM(G) was flagged off by Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa PVSM AVSM YSM VM ADC, Chief of Air Staff, on 08 Dec 17. 25) ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its forty second flight, successfully launched the 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Remote Sensing Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites today from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This flight is designated as PSLV-C40.The 11 kg INS-1C and the 100 kg class Microsat, the two Indian co-passenger satellites of Cartosat-2, are also being monitored and controlled from ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The 28 international customer satellites belong to Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and the USA. So far, PSLV has successfully launched 51 Indian satellites and 237 customer satellites from abroad. 26) Economic Democracy Conclave’ organised by Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini at Thane, Maharashtra, inaugurated. 27) 10th Global Forum for Food & Agriculture from 18-20 January, 2018 held at Berlin. The theme of this year’s event is “Shaping the future of livestock – sustainably, responsibly, efficiently”.... 28) Long Range Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile, Agni-5, was successfully flight tested for its full range today at 0953 hrs from Dr Abdul Kalam Island,

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Odisha. This was the fifth test of the Missile and the third consecutive one from a canister on a road mobile launcher. All the five missions have been successfulAgni-5 is three-stage solid propellant nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), indigenously developed by the Defence Research (DRDO) Unlike other missiles of Agni series, Agni-5 is most advanced missile having new technologies incorporated with it in terms of navigation and guidance.. warhead and engine. It is also a fire and forget missile, which once fired cannot be stopped, except by interceptor missile which only US, Russia and Israel have.... 29)21st January-Statehood Day of Manipur,Meghalaya and Tripura-Formed in 1972. 30) Senior-most Election Commissioner, Shri Om Prakash Rawat is appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner in the Election Commission. Ashok Lavasa, IAS(Retd.) (HY:80) is also appointed as the Election Commissioner 31) INSV Tarini entered Port Stanley (Falkland islands) today during it’s maiden voyage to circumnavigate the globe. This is the first-ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The vessel is skippered by Lieutenant Commander Vartika Joshi. 32) The Government of India is pleased to take note that the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has made its First investment on 22nd January 2018.. NIIF has partnered with DP World to create an investment platform for ports, terminals, transportation and logistics businesses in India. The platform will invest in opportunities in the ports sector, and beyond sea ports into areas such as river ports and transportation, freight corridors, port-led special economic zones, inland container terminals, and logistics infrastructure including cold storage. 33)PM Modi attended World Economic Forum annual Meet at Davos.Last it was attended in 1997 by Shri Deve Gowda.Shri Modi delivered lecture on Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World 34)Blind Cricket-India team won the recent 2018 Blind in Sharjah, UAE, beating Pakistan. 35)24th January-National Girl Child Day t is celebrated to promote the girls position in the society to make their living better among society people. It is very necessary to remove different types of social discrimination and exploitation that girls generally face in their life. To increase the awareness about the necessity of the girls right in the society, various political and community leaders speech to the public about the girls right for the equal education and fundamental freedoms. 36)25th January-National Voters Day celebrated. 37) ASEAN India Commemorative Summit. Held at New Delhi.Celebrated 25 years of Indo Asean partnership. It highlights the importance of our Strategic Partnership, placing ASEAN at the centre of India’s Act East Policy. Ramayana, the ancient Indian epic, continues to be a valuable shared legacy in ASEAN and the Indian subcontinent.We have organised a Ramayana Festival with troupes from ASEAN countries, to showcase our common cultural treasure through this great epic. 38) Prime Minister’s Shram Awards for the year 2016 to be awarded to 50 workers employed in the Departmental undertakings and PSU’s of the Central and State Governments and Private Sector units employing 500 or more workers. Although, the total number of Shram Awards conferred this year are 32 but the number of workers receiving the Awards are 50 including 3 women. 34 workers from Public Sector and 16 workers from Private Sectors have won the

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Awards.Shram Awards are given in four categories namely ‘Shram Ratna Award’, ‘Shram Bhushan Award’, ‘Shram Vir/Shram Virangana’ and ‘Shram Shree/Shram Devi Awards’. 39) In a first, the Republic Day parade in 2018 will be attended by 10 heads of state from ASEAN or Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional grouping of 10 Southeast Asian countriesThe chief guest at India's first Republic Day on January 26, 1950 was the President of Indonesia, and since then, five other Southeast Asian leaders have chief guests at the Republic Day parades.10 Leaders who attended are Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia Lee Hsien Loong, the third can current Prime Minister of Singapore Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of Vietnam Dato Sri Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia General Prayut Chan-o-cha, a retired Royal Thai Army officer and current Prime Minister of Thailand Aung San Suu Kyi, State Councillor of Myanmar Rodrigo Duterte is the President of Philippines, Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Sultan of Brunei Thongloun Sisoulith, the Prime Minister of , Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia has been in office since 1985 40) Bharat Parv’ event being organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India at the Red Fort, Delhi from 26th to 31st January, 2018 is generating a patriotic mood and promoting the rich cultural diversity of the country. People in large number are visiting it. 41) Inflation in the country continued to moderate during 2017-18. Consumer Price Index(CPI) based headline inflation averaged 3.3 per cent during the period which is the lowest in the last six financial years. 42) Government of India and the World Bank signed a $100 million Loan Agreement that is expected to promote rural enterprises, facilitate their access to finance, and create employment opportunities for youth, particularly women, in selected blocks of Tamil Nadu across 26 districts, directly benefitting over 400,000 people. 43) Botanical Survey of India (BSI) scientists have discovered two new species of ginger named Hedychium chingmeianum and Caulokaempferia dinabandhuensis in North East India. 44) Vidarbha cricket team won 2017 tournament. It is Vidarbha’s first Ranji Trophy title...In final helad at New Delhi it defeated New Delhi. 45)Syed Mustaq Ali 20 Overs cricket was won by Delhi defeating Rajasthan in final held at Kolkatta. 46) Arunachal Pradesh was officially declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) state. It is second State from Northeast, after Sikkim and overall fifth state after Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Haryana to be declared ODF state.. 47) Scientists have discovered new species of frog named Mewa Singh’s night frog (Nyctibatrachus mewasinghi) in Kozhikode’s Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary,. 49) Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) became first countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to introduce Value Added Tax (VAT) for the first . time to increase revenues from Oil Reserves. 50) NASA is going to launch Parker Solar Probe in 2018 to explore the sun’s outer atmosphere. It has been designed and built by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. It is named after solar astrophysicist Eugene Parker. This is first time NASA named craft after living person. 51) India and Pakistan have exchanged list of their nuclear installations and facilities with each other under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack gainst

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Nuclear installations. This is the 27th consecutive exchange of such list. From 1992. 52) GAIL India Ltd has commissioned India’s second largest rooftop solar power plant in Uttar Pradesh. At PATA. India’s largest rooftop solar plant was commissioned in December 2015 by Tata Power Solar in Amritsar, Punjab... 53). Senior diplomat Vijay Keshav Gokhale (58) as Foreign Secretary, highest post for a diplomat in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). He will have a... a two-year term and shall succeed S Jaishankar, who completes his extended tenure in January 2018... 54) Scientists have discovered a new species of blind fish named Schistura larketensis inside a cave in East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya 55) Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) of Union Government has given its approval to Karnataka government for purchase of electric vehicles (EVs) under FAME India subsidized Scheme. The state will purchase 40 electric buses, 100 four wheelers and 500 three wheelers at maximum of 60% subsidy under the scheme.... Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) India was launched in 2015 under the National Electric Mobility Mission (NEMM... aims at promoting eco-friendly vehicles in the country. It is being administered by the Heavy Industries Ministry. 56) Parliament has passed Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Bill, 2017.. BC was enacted by the Parliament in 2016 to find time-bound resolution for ailing and sick firms, either through closure or revival, while protecting creditors. It prohibits certain persons from submitting resolution plan in case of defaults. These include: (i) wilful defaulters, (ii) promoters or management of the company if it has outstanding non-performing debt for over year and (iii) disqualified directors, among others.. 57) China has successfully developed new underwater surveillance network.It is based on network of platforms — buoys, satellites, surface vessels and underwater gliders — that gather data from Western Pacific, South China Sea and. Indian Oceans. 58)NABARD ACT Bill allows Union Government to increase capital of NABARD from Rs. 5000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore. Further, it allows Union Government to increase even above Rs 30000 with approval of RBI. Union Government alone must hold at least 51% capital share of NABARD.... 59) Defence Ministry has given its final approvals for the procurement of 131 Barak missiles for Indian Navy and 240 precision-guided munitions (PGM) for Indian Air Force (IAF) together estimated at Rs.1,714 crore.... The 240 KAB-1500 PGMs will be procured from Rosoboronexport of Russia at a cost of Rs.1,254 crore.... Barak is from Israel. 60) Union Government has announced details of electoral bonds for political funding that can be routed by donors to political parties.... Electoral bonds will be bearer instrument in nature of promissory note and an interest-free banking instrument. These can be redeemed only through the... registered accounts of a political party in a prescribed time frame. It aims at rooting out current system of largely anonymous cash donations made to.. political parties which lead to generation of black money in the economy.... Denominations: Electoral bonds can be purchased for any value in multiples of Rs.1,000, Rs.10,000, Rs.10 lakh, and Rs.1 crore from any of the specifie d branches of State Bank of India.

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A citizen of India or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond. .. The purchaser is allowed to buy electoral bonds only on due fulfilment of all extant KYC norms It will not crry the name of payee. 61) World Health Organisation (WHO) has given its pre-qualification to Typbar Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TVC) developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech for global use... 62)Union Govt approved construction, operation and maintenance of 2-lane bi- directional Zojila Tunnel on Srinagar-Leh section connecting NH-1A in Jammu and Kashmir.. 63)Union Govt approved implementation of Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) for capacity augmentation of navigation on 1,380-km Haldia-Varanasi stretch of National Waterway 1 in Ganga. 63) Union Finance Ministry has launched 7.75% Savings (Taxable) Bonds, 2018 scheme to help citizens invest in a taxable instrument.. Bonds will be issued at par i.e. at Rs.100.00 They will be issued for minimum face value amount of Rs.1,000 and in multiples thereof..without maximum ,imit. The Bonds will have maturity of 7 years carrying interest at 7.75% per annum payable half- yearly. The Bonds will be issued in demat form (Bond Ledger. 64)Judge Salary Hike-Bill proposes to hike the salary of Chief Justice of India (CJI) to Rs.2.80 lakh a month and that of judges of Supreme Court and Chief Justices of High Courts to Rs. 2.5 lakh a month. It increases salary of Judges of High Courts to Rs.2.25 lakh a month. The salary hike will come into force with effect..1-1-2016 65) The three-day annual Flamingo Festival was held at Pulicat lake and Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary in Sullurpet mandal. Flamingo Festival is held every year.. Pulicat Lake is the second largest brackish water lake or lagoon in India after Chilika Lake. 66) India’s fastest and first multi-petaflops (PF) supercomputer named Pratyush(means Sun) was unveiled at Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology 67)Haryana become first state in the country to launch High-Risk Pregnancy (HRP) portal... The portal will help in early identification of high-risk pregnant cases up to grass-roots level and ensures their timely referral to civil hospitals It will help in increasing pace of decline in Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Still Birth Incidenc 68) Union Government has announced completion of first phase of BharatNet project after successfully laying optical fibre cables (OFC) in more than 1 lakhgram panchayats.. BharatNet project forms backbone for Digital India initiative. It aims to bring high speed broadband to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) through optical fibre network. 69) Saudi Arabia has approved India’s plan to revive the option of ferrying Haj pilgrims via sea route to Jeddah. In this regard, The practice of ferrying Haj pilgrims between Mumbai and Jeddah by waterways was stopped in 1995... 70) Union Defence Ministry has sanctioned raising of Territorial Army (TA) battalion comprising ex-servicemen of Indian Army as part of its mission to clean the Ganga by 2020. It has been named as Composite Ecological Task Force 71) Supreme Court has stayed Karnataka High Court order reducing size of pictorial warnings on packages of tobacco products to 40% of the package space from 85% to 40% 72)Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) is celebrated every year on January 9 to mark the contribution of Overseas Indian community in the development of

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IndiaThe day celebrated every year since 2003. It was chosen to commemorate the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India in 1915. ... This year’s PBD celebrated ASEAN-Indian partnership and was themed Ancient Route, New Journey... 73) Gujarat has topped among 22 states in the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS) index Punjab has acquired second position followed by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Among the Union Territories, Daman & Diu occupied top slot.. followed by Delhi and Chandigarh. 74) Mumbai’s Matunga station on Central Railway (CR) has entered the Limca Book of Records as first all-women station in India.. with 41 women staff. In 1988, Indian Railways’ Mumbai region set new records in women’s empowerment with Surekha Bhosale-Yadav becoming first woman train driver ..\ 75) Committee of Governors submitted its report ‘Rajyapal –VikasKeRajdoot: Catalytic Role of Governors as Agents for Change in Society’... 76) Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has commissioned Charlie-435, a state-of-the- art patrol vessel at Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry. 77) Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) looking into issues of girl’s education has recommended free and compulsory education for girls up to postgraduate level. 78) Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has introduced two-tier security feature viz. Virtual ID and Limited KYC to address privacy concerns.... Virtual ID will be random 16-digit number that can be generated from UIDA’s website and give for various purposes, wherever Aadhaar number is necessar... Limited KYC It was introduced to address issue of storage of Aadhaar number within various databases... 79)KEY AMENDMENTS ON FDI 100% FDI for Single Brand Retail Trading (SBRT) under automatic route. 100% FDI under automatic route in Construction Development. Foreign airlines allowed investing up to 49% in Air India under government approval route. FIIs/FPIs allowed investing in Power Exchanges through primary market. Definition of ‘medical devices’ amended in FDI Policy.. 80) Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is planning to create its own cyptocurrency, JioCoin. 81) Supreme Court collegium led by Chief Justice of India (CI) Dipak Misra has unanimously recommended name of senior advocate Indu Malhotra for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court. With this, she becomes first woman lawyer from the country to be directly elected for post of judge of judge of the Supreme Court. Overall she will be seventh woman judge in SC... 82) Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has refused to allow captive breeding of Chiru (Tibetan antelopewhose underfur is used for making famous shahtoosh shawls.... Chiru for long time have been hunted for their underfur, which is renowned for its quality which is traditionally woven into an extremely fine fabricto make Shahtoosh shawls.... 83) Election Commission (EC) has constituted 14 member committee headed by Umesh Sinha to suggest changes to Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act) in view of social media expansion... 84) Norwegian fertiliser giant Yara International has announced completion of its acquisition of Tata Chemicals’ 1.2 million tonnes per annum production capacity urea plant at Babrala in Uttar Pradesh.... 85) The iconic Teen Murti Chowk in central New Delhi was renamed as Teen Murti-Haifa after Israeli City Haifa ... Teen Murti Chowk was named to mark role of the three cavalry regiments. The three bronze statues at Teen Murti represent

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Hyderabad, Jodhpur and Mysore... Lancers who were part of 15 Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade in British Indian Army. In World War I. The brigade had carried out victorious assault on fortified city of Haifa also known as Battle for Haifa on September 23, 1918, during World War I... 86) According to wealth index released on basis of data from fourth round of National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4) Delhi is richest state and Jain wealthiest community in the country 87) Researchers from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have discovered a new species of moth, scientifically named Elcysma Ziroensis from Talley Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh. It is a wildlife sanctuary as well as a bio-diversity hotspot located in Arunachal Pradesh. It is situated at altitude of 2400 metres with rivers likePange, Sipu, Karing and Subansiri flowing through the Reserved Forest and Sanctuary. Talley is plateau.. 88) National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) unveiled India’s first agricultural-commodity options in Guarseed.. 89)India International Exchange (India INX) has listed the Indian Railway Finance Corporation’s (IRFC’s) green bonds on its debt listing platform-Global Securities Market (GSM)... Bonds basically are debt instruments which help issuer to get capital while the investors receive fixed income in the form of interest. In case of Green Bonds, the issuer gets capital from the investors only if investment (capital) is being raised to fund green projects relating to renewable energy or emission reductions etc.. 89) Indo-US joint military exercise ‘Vajra Prahar’ will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle in third week of January . Its objectives are to Share best practices between two armies. Develop joint strategies by sharing expertise of conducting operations in a counter-insurgency and counter- terrorism environment. Capitalise on rich repository of experiences of each other armies... 90) The biennial search and rescue exercise between Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Japan Coast Guard (JCG) was held near Chennai, Tamil Nadu in Bay of Bengal 91) Sikkim Government has allowed people from state to forge fraternal ties with trees.The purpose of this move is to preserve trees by encouraging people to forge relationship of brotherhood or sisterhood with trees through tradition practice locally known as Mitini or Mith/Mit.... 92) Odisha Government has launched Mukshyamantri Kalakar Sahayata Yojana (MMKSY) to provide financial assistance to the literature and cultural artists 93) NITI Aayog has launched first course on Sustainable Urban planning using remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) at IIT Kanpur’s outreach Centre at Noida. 94) Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has decided to end Haj subsidy from this year... Supreme Court in May 2012 had directed that Haj subsidy should be done away gradually by 2022. 95) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu inaugurated iCREATE facility at Deo Dholera Village in Ahmedabad,...It is an independent Centre established with an objective of facilitating entrepreneurship through blend of creativity, innovation, engineering, product ... design and leveraging emerging technologies. It main purpose is foster innovation to deal with major issues such as food security, water, connectivity. cybersecurity, IT and electronics, energy, bio-medical equipment and devices etc...

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96) Maharashtra Government has approved 1% reservation for orphans in government jobs d education for orphans in the state under general category. 97) Maharashtra became first state in country to unveil Public Cloud Policy that virtually mandates state government departments to shift their data storage into Cloud. 98) China has constructed Xian smog tower, an experimental air purifying tower touted to be the world’s biggest at height of over 100 meters. 99)India is setting up of $350 million Solar Development Fund for financing solar projects under the International Solar Alliance (ISA..Announced at first ever ISA outreach programmes ‘International Solar Alliance Forum’ held in Abu Dhabi’s World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2018... 100) India’s first automatic Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) will be commissioned by March 2018 in Odisha. The project aims to establish fool-proof communication system to address existing gaps in disseminating disaster warning up to community level.. 101) Maharashtra Government has approved Nanaji Deshmukh Krishi Sanjivani Yojna, a Rs.4,000-crore project aimed at promoting climate-resilient agriculture.... 102) Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) has crossed one crore mark in antenatal check-ups. It was launched in 2016 to ensure comprehensive a nd quality antenatal checkups to pregnant women across country. It has provided quality antenatal checkups to pregnant women on the 9th of every month. 103) Mangalajodi Ecotourism Trust in Odisha has won prestigious United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Award .It is owned and managed venture promoted by RBS Foundation India and Indian Grameen Services on banks of Chilika Lake in Odisha.. 104)India was admitted as the 43rd member of the Australia Group, an informal bloc (group) of countries that keeps a tight control over exports of substanc... The inclusion will help to raise India’s stature in the field of non- proliferation, though it is not signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and help in acquiring critical technologies. India is first South Asian nation to become its full-time member of Australia Group. 105) Mauritius was largest source of foreign investment (FDI) in India.... (21.8% share at market value) followed by USA, UK, Singapore and Japan. Singapore (19.7%) was major ODI destination, followed by Netherlands, Mauritius and USA. 106) Government has approved 2018 as National Year of Millets to boost production of the nutrient-rich millets and the sunrise agri industry involved in it.. 107) Union Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs (MoHUA) launched the Liveability index to rate 116 Indian cities. aims to measure quality of life in 99 smart cities, capital cities and those with a population of over one millionIt will be funded by the World Bank and ranking of these cities is expected to be ready by June 2018.... 108) Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched Cyber Surakshit Bharat initiative to strengthen cybersecurity ecosystem in India in line Government’s vision for a ‘Digital India’. It was launched in association with National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and industry partneners 109) President Ram Nath Kovind has felicitated 112 exceptional women achievers at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. These women achievers ‘FIRST

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LADIES’ are those who are first to set milestone of achievement in their respective fields... : first Indian woman to reach the Mount Everest summit; : first woman to win a medal at the Paralympics; Priya Jhingan: First Cadet to join the Indian Army; P V Sindhu: Olympic silver medallist Nicole Faria: winner of the Miss earth title; : Olympic medal winning weightlifter Karnam Malleswari : First Indian woman to scale Mt Everest for fifth time. Chhavi Rajawat: India’s first woman Sarpanch Diana Edulji: First ODI captain of the first ever Indian Women’s Cricket Team. 110)Ministry of Home Affairs has launched official anthem for “Bharat Ke Veer” sung and composed by singer Kailash.Kher. 111) The first International Dam Safety Conference-2018 was held in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram . 112) Noted scientist S Somanath took charge as Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram. 113) India was ranked 81st among 118 countries in 2017 Global index of talent competitiveness (GTI) list..Top=Switzerland is followed by Singapore and US. European countries dominate top ranks, with 15 out of the top 25 places.. 114) India was ranked at 62nd place among emerging economies on Inclusive Development Index (IDI-2018) released by World Economic Forum (WEF)... Norway was again remained world’s most inclusive advanced economy, while Lithuania again topped list of emerging economies. 115) Edappadi K Palanichamy received UNESCO Award of Merit awarded to the iconic Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple in Tiruchirapalli..It was awarded by UNESCO Asia Pacific region for the reconstruction activities undertaken in temple without in least affecting its traditional splendour and Vedic rituals. 116) Senior scientist Dr V Narayanan has assumed charge as Director of ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) 117) JANUARY 25TH Election Commission of India (ECI) celebrated 8th National Voters’ Day across nation for enhanced participation of citizens in electoral process..It was initiated in 2011 to commemorate the foundation day of the Election Commission of India (ECI) which came into existence on 25th January 1950 118) Ministry of Science & Technology has announced four new schemes to promote young scientists and researchers in the country. They are Teacher Associateship for Research Excellence (TARE) Scheme, Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellowship, Distinguished Investigator Award (DIA) and AWSAR (Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research)... 119) SARAS PT1N, the new upgraded version of indigenous transport aircraft SARAS developed by National Aeronautics Laboratory (NAL) successfully maiden flight in Bengaluru, Karnataka... The primary objective of the test was to evaluate system performance that will be collected in about 20 flights. The data collected from this shall beused to freeze the design of production version aircraft... 120) Chinese scientists for first time have successfully cloned two identical long-tailed macaques (monkeys), named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua using same technique for making cloned sheep Dolly. 121) President awarded India’s highest peacetime military decoration Ashok Chakra (31) posthumously to Indian Air Force (IAF) Garud commando Corporal

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Jyoti Prakash Nirala. He had laid down his life after gunning down two terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. He is the third Ashok Chakra for the IAF and its first for Ground combat. 122) World Economic Forum (WEF) has launched new Global Centre for Cybersecurity in a bid to safeguard world from hackers and growing data breaches... Its mandate are Consolidate existing cybersecurity initiatives of WEF. Establish independent library of cyber best practices. Help partners to enhance knowledge on cybersecurity. Work towards an appropriate and agile regulatory framework on cybersecurity. Serve as laboratory and early-warning think tank for future cybersecurity scenarios.. 123) Rotavac became first Indigenously developed vaccine from India to be pre-qualified by World Health Organisation (WHO). It means that vaccine can be sold internationally to several countries in South America and Africa... So far, several vaccines from India have been pre-qualified by WHO, but Rotavac is first vaccine entirely developed locally to get this status in safety and efficacy. 124) India-Japan Smart Grid Pilot Project was inaugurated Panipat, Haryana to solve the various complications faced by the power distribution sector.. 125) India has announced to host informal Ministerial meeting of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in March 2018 in New Delhi to muster support for issues and also help to multi-lateral process.. 126) Kolkata, capital of West Bengal became first metro city in India to get floating market The aim of floating market is to rehabilitate over 200 shopkeepers from nearby market that was demolished for the widening of Eastern Metropolitan Bypasss. The market will host at least 114 boats, each one accommodating two shops. ... 127) Punjab Government has launched Mahatma Gandhi Sarbat Vikas Yojna (MGSVY) for the welfare of the downtrodden citizen across the state. 128)Asha Bhosle (84) was chosen for fifth edition of Memorial Award for her outstanding contribution to the Hindi film industry... The award also carries a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh. The list of previous recipients of award include melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and actors , Rekha, and Shah Rukh Khan. 129) World Leprosy Day is observed internationally every year on last Sunday of January month to raise global awareness of Leprosy. This year it was observed on n28th January 2018. 130) Noted agricultural scientist and pioneer of India’s Green Revolution, Gurcharan Singh Kalkat. Died. 131) Swiss tennis player Roger Federer (World No. 2) has retained his Men’s Singles title by winning 2018 Australian Open... Women’s Singles: Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) won women’s Singles title in 2018 Australian Open by defeating Simona Halep..Romanai Men’s Doubles: Oliver Marach (Austria) and Mate Pavić (Croatia) pair won the title. Women’s Doubles: Tímea Babos (Hungary) and Kristina Mladenovic (France).. Mixed Doubles: Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) and Mate Pavić (Croatia... defeating Tímea Babos (Hungary) and Rohan Bopanna (India) 132) Republic Day Parade 2018 best tableau award won by Maharashtra and best marching contingent award by Punjab Regiment Contingent..

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Best marching contingent Among Three Services: Punjab Regiment (1st). Among para-military and other auxiliary forces: Indo-Tibetan Border Police 133) Parliamentary Group has decided to confer Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards to five Members of Parliament. They are Dr Najma Heptulla: She is former... Rajya Sabha MP and was selected for this award for the year 2013. Hukumdev Narayan Yadav: He is Lok Sabha MP and was selected for this award for 2014. Ghulam Nabi Azad: He is Rajya Sabha and was selected for this award for the year for 2015. Dinesh Trivedi: He is Lok Sabha MP and was selected for 2016Bhartruhari Mahatab: He is Lok Sabha MP and was selected for 2017... Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was established in 1992 by Shivraj Patil who was then the Speaker of Lok Sabha.... 134)India-Vietnam Bilateral Army Exercise (VINBAX-2018) was conducted at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. 135) Himachal Pradesh Government has launched Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) project to promote organic farmin 136)Journalists and social activists celebrated 238th anniversary of India’s first newspaper the Hicky’s Bengal Gazette. 29 January is also celebrated Hicks Day to pay tributes to the fighter-journalist James Augustus Hicky who is considered as founder of journalism in India.. 137) Bengali actor (83) was awarded France’s highest civilian award, Legion d’Honneur 138)As per World Steel Association (WSA), India has overtaken US to become the world’s third largest steel producer in 2017... China has remained world leader. Followed by Japan. 139) NITI Aayog member Dr Vinod Paul became first Indian to be awarded prestigious IhsanDoğramacı Family Health Foundation Prize by World Health Organisatin. 140) Indian Navy has launched Scorpene submarine INS Karanj at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL), MumbaiIt the third Scorpene class submarine built by MDL under ambitious Project 75 of the Indian Navy.... 141) India and Pakistan have extended agreement of Thar Link Express, second solitary rail service between both countries for three more years .. Thar Link Express is Indian portion of international passenger train operated weekly by Indian Railway using its own coaches and locomotives, between .Jodhpur and Munabho. 142) According to New World Wealth Report, India was ranked sixth in list of wealthiest countries with total wealth of US $8,230 billion in 2017... (1st, total wealth held US $ 64,584 billion), China (2nd, $24,803 billion), Japan (3rd, $19,522 billion), United Kingdom (4th, $9,919 billion), German.y (5th, $9,660 billion), France (7th, $6,649 billion), Canada (8th, $6,393 billion), Australia (9th, $6,142 billion) and Italy (10th, $4,276 billion)

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