1st Sept to 15 th Sept

AWARDS & HONOURS

An Indian-origin Sikh migrant driver in Australia, Tejinder Pal Singh, was named ‘Australian of the Day’ for feeding the homeless in Darwin for the past three years.

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2014 on Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar received the award on behalf of the organization. The award, instituted in 1995 by Union Government as a part of the 125th birth anniversary celebration of Mahatma Gandhi, is awarded annually to individuals and institutions for their contributions towards social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods.

Bollywood actor Anupam Kher was conferred with the Honoured Guest of Texas award for his contribution to the cinema and the world of art.

Indian-American Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri was selected for the prestigious 2014 National Humanities Medal. The first National Humanities Medal was awarded in 1996. Since then, there have been 175 recipients, 163 individuals and 12 organisations, including this year's. Jhumpa is an Indian-American author who was born as Nilanjana Sudeshna but goes by her nickname (or in Bengali her "Daak naam") Jhumpa. Her debut short story collection 'Interpreter of Maladies' won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and her book 'The Lowland' was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University.

The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), London conferred G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, with the Society's 2015 Silver Medal for work contributing to major advances or contributions in aerospace. RAeS is the world's only professional body dedicated to the entire aerospace community. Established in 1866 to further the art, science and engineering of aeronautics, the Society has been at the forefront of aerospace ever since. The Royal Aeronautical Society has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1909, when Wilbur and Orville Wright came to London to receive the Society's first Gold Medal.

Haryana Government won the Skoch Order-of-Merit national award for implementing 6 e-Governance and IT initiatives in the state. Haryana Government has notified 163 e-Governance services which would be delivered to the citizens at their doorsteps with a view to provide time-bound and hassle-free services. The Skoch Order-of- Merit national award is bestowed upon top performing government organisations and private organisations working with the government. It is given by Skoch Consultancy Services Private Limited, a strategy and management consulting firm founded in 1997, and recognises the best practices and governance models that aim for excellent and efficient implementation of programmes and services delivery.

India won the top UNESCO prize 'Award of Excellence' 2015 for the remarkable conservation efforts of the majestic Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple in Kerala. The Award of Excellence for the conservation of Sree Vadakkunnathan Temple, Thrissur, won this year's top prize in the Asia Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was announced as one of the winners of the United Nations Champions of the Earth award in recognition of her country's initiatives to address climate change. UNEP noted that Bangladesh is one of the world's most populated countries, with over 159 million people. It is also one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The award cited among other initiatives, the progressive Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan of 2009, which made the South Asian nation the first developing country to frame such a coordinated action plan. Bangladesh is also the first country to set up its own Climate Change Trust Fund, supported by nearly USD 300 million of domestic resources from 2009-2012. The award also noted that the Bangladesh government currently earmarks 6 to 7 per cent of its annual budget - some USD 1 billion - on climate change adaptation, with only 25 per cent of this coming from international donors.

BUSINESS & CORPORATE

Bazmi Husain was appointed as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of ABB India Ltd. with effect from January 2016, reporting to ABB’s CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. Currently, Hussain is working as Managing Director of ABB in India.

The World Federation of Exchanges (WEF) announced that the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has the highest number of listed companies in the world - a total number of 5689 companies were listed with the BSE by the end of June 2015. However, out of 5689, only one company was a foreign company. Shanghai stock exchange of China (having 1070 companies) was at the top in terms of value of share trading. BSE was established in 1855 and is considered as the oldest exchange in Asia.

State-run BSNL announced to offer a minimum broadband speed of 2 mega bit per second (Mbps) from October 1 onwards to its customers, at no extra cost. The company currently offers a minimum speed of 512 Kbps and the move is part of its efforts for revival. BSNL is losing customers in mobile as well as landline to private operators. The company lost about 1.78 crore wireless and over 20 lakh wireline subscribers between March 2014 and March 2015. The losses for the firm stood at Rs 7,600 crore.

Rakesh Sharma took over as Managing Director and CEO of Bengaluru-headquartered Canara Bank. Before being appointed by the Government to head Canara Bank, Sharma was the MD and CEO of Lakshmi Vilas Bank since March 2014, where, in a short span of 18 months, he helped the private sector lender excel in all parameters. Canara Bank reported a 41 per cent drop in net profit for the April-June quarter at D479 crore over corresponding the period last year on higher provisioning.

Ratan Tata backed online automobile classifieds portal, Cardekho.com is acquiring Times Internet owned auto portal Zigwheels. In September 2014, CarDekho had acquired IbiboGroup’s Gaadi.com, for an undisclosed amount. With this new acquisition, Jaipur based GirnarSoft, the parent company can now count CarDekho.com, BikeDekho.com, PriceDekho.com, Gaadi.com, and soon Zigwheels under its unbrella, to compete with the likes of Cartrade.com and Carwale.com, as well as with multi-category classifieds sites, such as Quikr and Olx. Zigwheels’ traffic is estimated at 8 million monthly visits while CarDekho registers around 25 million monthly visits along with Gaadi.com. CarDekho is also planning to double its workforce by hiring 1,000 more people this year. It was founded by brothers Amit and Anurag Jain, both IIT-Delhi alumni, and the company had received its first institutional round in 2013 by Sequoia Capital.

Doha Bank announced its tie up with the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group to generate business opportunities in the Gulf Cooperation Council nations and India. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Doha Bank has a robust presence in the financial services, telecom, infrastructure, entertainment, power, healthcare, and defence industries. The scope of the partnership will strengthen Doha Bank’s presence in India and the bank’s strategic role in trade finance, banking, and financial services across the region and in creating business opportunities between GCC and India.

Dr Reddys Laboratories and US-based medical nutrition company PanTheryx announced a multi-country supply and licensing agreement. According to a press release issued by PanTheryx, the agreement grants Dr Reddys the exclusive rights to market and distribute PanTheryxs nutritional intervention, DiaResQ, for infectious diarrhea in India, Nepal, Russia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Jamaica, and select LATAM markets. Dr Reddys will market the product in India and Nepal under the "Reliqua" brand. DiaResQ helps promote intestinal repair and boost natural immune defenses, resulting in the restoration of normal digestive function. Reddys Co-chairman and CEO G V Prasad said this innovative product will address a significant unmet need in the area of diarrhea.

Seven Indians featured in Forbes Asia's ninth Heroes of Philanthropy list, highlighting most noteworthy contributions to philanthropy from 13 countries across Asia Pacific. Of them, four are co-founders of Infosys, one of India's largest information technology (IT) services company. Kerala-born entrepreneur Sunny Varkey, who in June pledged about half of his USD 2.25 billion dollar fortune to charity as part of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet-led Giving Pledge initiative, topped the list of philanthropists in the region. Dubai-based Varkey is founder of GEMS Education, a chain of 70 private schools in 14 counties. Infosys co-founders Senapathy Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani and S D Shibulal featured on the list for their individual contributions to the health and education sectors. Another Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's son Rohan was on the list for donating a whopping USD 5.2 million to Harvard University Press for promoting ancient Indian literary classics. The other two Indian philanthropists were brothers Suresh Ramakrishnan and Mahesh Ramakrishnan, both London-based entrepreneurs and founders of Whitcomb & Shaftesbury Tailors on London's Saville Row. The brothers donated USD 3 million for training of more than 4,000 people in tailoring across India. Beneficiaries include the 2004 tsunami victims and "ill-fated" women.

Vinod Dasari was appointed as President of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex Industry body representing leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India.. Dasari is the Managing Director of Ashok Leyland.

A milestone was achieved at Port Blair’s Veer Savarkar International Airport after a Kolkata flight of budget carrier SpiceJet made the first ever night landing by a civil airliner at the airport. The airport was recently upgraded with improved runway, lighting and navigation systems to allow commercial night flying.

BILLS / ACTS / COMMITTEES / SCHEMES / POL ICIES

 The Ministry for Water Resources constituted a seven-member committee led by former Planning Commission member Mihir Shah to restructure the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) to encourage optimal development of water resources in the country. With most Indian rivers found to be polluted as per a Central Pollution Control Board assessment, the move holds the potential to help revive rivers in a big way.

 Union Government decided to provide additional 50 days of unskilled manual work in the financial year 2015-16 in drought-hit areas under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.

 Union Cabinet approved 6 percent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) pensioners, effective from 1 July 2015. The total DA will now go up to 119 percent from 113 per cent benefitting about 50 lakh government employees and 56 lakh pensioners.

 Shares of various Jewellery retailers rose on BSE after Union Cabinet gave its approval for introduction of Gold Monetization Scheme, as announced in the Union Budget 2015-16. Gold Monetization Scheme (GMS) would benefit the Indian gems and jewellery sector which is a major contributor to India's exports. In fiscal year 2014-15, gems and jewellery constituted 12% of India's total exports and the value of gold items alone was more than $13 billion. The new scheme consists of the revamped Gold Deposit Scheme (GDS) and a revamped Gold Metal Loan (GML) Scheme. The revamped GDS and the GML Scheme involves changes in the scheme guidelines only. The risk of gold price changes will be borne by the Gold Reserve Fund that is being created. Under the revamped GML Scheme, a gold metal loan account, denominated in grams of gold, will be opened by the bank for jewelers. The gold mobilized through the revamped GDS, under the short-term option, will be provided to jewelers on loan, on the basis of the terms and conditions set-out by banks, under the guidance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). When a gold loan is sanctioned, the jewelers will receive physical delivery of gold from refiners. The banks will, in turn, make the requisite entry in the jewelers' gold loan account. The interest rate charged on the GML will be decided by banks, with guidance from the RBI.

 The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the Sovereign Gold Bonds Scheme (bonds will be issued on payment of money and would be linked to the price of gold). The purpose of the scheme is to reduce the demand for physical gold and to shift part of the estimated 300 tons of physical bars and coins purchased every year for investment into Demat (Dematerialised) gold bonds.

 In a significant decision for the oil and gas sector, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for shifting to a revenue sharing model for the auction of 69 marginal fields of ONGC and Oil India. Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the move to a revenue sharing model is a paradigm shift from the prevailing profit sharing contract regime and could be implemented for future oil fields too. It will be applicable for all future hydrocarbon fields that will be auctioned.

 Rajasthan became the first state in the country to submit State Annual Action Plan under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) targeting universal coverage in respect of water supply connections and sewerage connections to all urban households in the state. The State Government proposed projects under these two categories worth Rs.1,087 cr for approval by the Union Urban Development Ministry during the current financial year.

ECONOMY & FINANCE

 The Reserve Bank of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 'Supervisory Cooperation and Exchange of Supervisory Information' with the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). With this agreement, RBI seeks to promote greater co-operation and share supervisory information among the authorities.

 The Global Investors Meet 2015 was held in Tamil Nadu to attract investors to invest in the state. The first-of-its-kind investor’s summit in Tamil Nadu, the meet was aimed at targeting investment commitment of 1 lakh crore rupees. Over 5000 delegates including from foreign nations attended the two- day summit, from 9 September to 10 September 2015. This event sought to realize the State’s vision of inclusive growth through investment inflows, growth in employment, balanced regional development and environmentally sustainable long term development. Nine countries registered themselves as partner nations for this mega investment event.

 The Union Cabinet approved a proposal to allow 100 pct foreign direct investment without any further required approvals for companies to set up independent ATM networks for banks. The move is aimed at expanding the government’s financial inclusion agenda and attract more investments in the sector. Companies such as Muthoot Finance, Srei Infrastructure Finance and Vakrangee Software, install and operate indepedent ATM networks and are called White label ATM operators. Currently White Label ATM operators need government approval to bring in foreign investments. This required some processing time and projects were consequently delayed, dissuading investors from investing in such critical areas. White Label ATM operators can be set up by companies who are not in the banking sector, and need to have a minimum net worth of Rs 100 crore as per the latest financial year’s audited balance sheet, which is to be maintained at all times. Also, if the entity is engaged in any other 18 Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) activities, then the foreign investment in the company setting up WLA, shall also have to comply with minimum capitalization norms for foreign investments in NBFC activities. Besides, FDI in the WLAO will be subject to specific criteria and guidelines issued by RBI.

 The Union Cabinet approved much awaited spectrum trading guidelines that will allow telecom companies to buy and sell spectrum. This is expected to help address the problem of shortage of spectrum, leading to better quality of services for mobile phone users. The decision comes close on heels of the government allowing companies to share airwaves in the same band so as to reduce call drops. Presently, spectrum can be acquired by companies only through government auctions. Industry has been demanding clarity on these guidelines for a long time.

 India and Belarus set a trade target of $1 billion to achieved by 2018.This target was decided at the Seventh Session of the India-Belarus Inter-Governmental Commission that was held in Belarus capital Minsk. Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman co-chaired the Seventh Session of the India-Belarus Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation. The Belarusian delegation was led by Vitali Mikhailovich Vovk, the Minister for Industry in the Government of Belarus.

 World's 20 largest economies, including India launched W20, an engagement grouping of women leaders, to push for gender inclusive global economic growth. The G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, , India, Indonesia, Italy, , Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, , Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. The

Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for global economic and financial cooperation that brings together the world's major advanced and emerging economies, representing around 85 per cent of global GDP.The G20 started in 1999 as a meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.

 State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) bought a 15 per cent stake in Russia’s second- largest oil field Vankor from Rosneft for about 1.35 billion US dollars. In this regard, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) the overseas investment arm of ONGC signed agreements to buy 15 per cent stake in the Vankor oil field located in East Siberia.

 The government notified the merger of commodities market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with Sebi with effect from September 28. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech, had announced the merger of FMC with the capital market regulator Sebi to strengthen the regulation of commodity futures market. A unified regulator for commodities and capital markets will help streamline monitoring of commodity futures trading and curb wild speculations. In the wake of a Rs 5,500-crore payment crisis at the National Spot Exchange Ltd, FMC was brought under Finance Ministry in 2013. Currently, there are three national and six regional bourses for commodity futures in the country. The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) had recommended that Sebi, IRDA, PFRDA and FMC should be merged into a single entity into a unified financial agency (UFA).

 The Union Cabinet gave its approval to the Marginal Fields Policy (MFP) for the development of hydrocarbon discoveries made by national oil companies. These discoveries could not be monetized for many years due to isolated locations, small size of reserves, high development costs, technological constraints and fiscal regime. The new policy will open the competitive bidding for 69 oil fields which have been held by ONGC and OIL for many years, but have not been exploited. The exploration companies will be able to submit bids for exploiting these oil fields. These oil fields have not been developed earlier as they were considered as marginal fields, and hence were of lower priority. With appropriate changes in policy, it is expected that these fields can be brought into production. Significant changes have been made in the design of the proposed contracts, keeping with the principle of 'Minimum Government Maximum Governance'. The earlier contracts were based on the concept of profit sharing and under the profit sharing methodology and it became necessary for the government to scrutinize cost details of private participants which led to delays and disputes. However, under the new regime, the government will not be concerned with the cost incurred and will receive a share of the gross revenue from the sale of oil, gas and other petroleum products. The licence granted to the successful bidder will cover all hydrocarbons found in the field. Earlier, the licence was restricted to one item only (e.g. oil) and separate licence was required if any other hydrocarbon was discovered and exploited. The new policy for these marginal fields also allows the successful bidder to sell at the prevailing market price of gas, rather than at an administered price. This decision is expected to stimulate investment as well as higher domestic oil and gas production.

 In a big relief to foreign institutional investors, the government accepted recommendation of a high level panel (headed by Law Commission of India chairman Justice AP Shah ) that minimum alternate tax (MAT) should not be imposed on overseas portfolio investors retrospectively. Foreign investors have invested about $20 billion in Indian stocks in the past year and $28 billion in bonds. MAT has been levied on all companies except those in infrastructure and power sectors, since late 1980s. Historically, foreign investors have not paid this tax because it was believed that only Indian companies were subject to it. In 2010, a tax tribunal ruled that MAT was not applicable to companies that don't have a permanent

establishment in India. In 2010, Mauritius-based investment firm Castleton Investment approached the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) to get confirmation that it was not required to pay MAT on a transaction it wanted to execute. However, AAR in 2012 ruled that even foreign companies are subject to MAT. FIIs had argued that MAT is applicable only to domestic companies that had their base in India. By virtue of not being established in India, they should be "exempted". FIIs also contend that there was inconsistency in the application of MAT as ever since it was introduced, FIIs were always exempted from it and hence, arbitrary application should be avoided. After FIIs started getting notices for MAT payments, the stock market had reacted adversely on concerns that foreign investors may pull out in a big way.

 Union Government released 2,000 crore rupees to Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), 1995 as its contribution for the year 2015-16. This contribution is in addition to the 250 crore rupees contributed by the government as grant-in-aid in the EPS in order to provide minimum pension of 1,000 rupees to pensioners under the scheme.

PEOPLE IN NEWS

A K Jha was given additional charge of interim Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited. Presently, he is NTPC’s Director (Technical) and will be interim CMD for three months from September 1, 2015.

Music composer Aadesh Shrivastava , who was battling a cancer relapse, passed away at the age of 51. Aadesh is best known for his work in films like Chalte Chalte, Baghban and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. His last project as a music composer was recently released Welcome Back.

Senior Congress Leader and former Member of Parliament Balkrishna Ramchandra Wasnik died at the age of 86. He had represented two constituencies of Vidarbha in Parliament namely Bhandara (in 1957 and 1962) and Buldhana (1980). Wasnik was a dedicated activist worked for developments of the Dalits and other underprivileged sections of the society.

Former Chief Minister of Goa Dr Wilfred de Souza passed away at the age of 88. He had served as Goa CM for three times and was the key politician to bring Congress to power in Goa in 1980.

Renowned American playwright and director Frank D Gilroy passed away at the age of 89. In 1965, he won prestigious Pulitzer Prize for theatrical adaptation of his play “The Subject Was Roses”.

Hormusji N Cama, Director of Bombay Samachar and Riyad Mathew, Director of Malayala Manorama, were respectively elected Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively of the Press Trust of India. Mr. Cama, whose daily is the oldest continuously-published newspaper in India from 1855, succeeds Mahendra Mohan Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of the Jagran Prakashan.

Indra Nooyi, CEO of food and beverage giant PepsiCo is the sole Indian-origin executive in 2015 edition of Fortune’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. India-born Nooyi was placed at second position in this year’s list and has moved up by single position from her previous third position in year 2015. This edition of the list was topped by General Motors CEO Mary Barra. She heads United States largest auto-maker and it is her second year as head.

J Manjula was appointed as the Director-General of the Electronics and Communication Systems cluster of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). With this, Manjula became the first woman DG of DRDO.

Indian-American Jagdeep Grewal was sworn-in as the first woman postmaster of Sacramento city in California. With her swearing-in, Sacramento got a female postmaster after a span of 166 years.

John P Connell, best known as the star of the daytime drama “Young Dr. Malone,” died at the age of 91.

L C Goyal was appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Indian Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO). Prior to this, he retired as the secretary of the Union Home Ministry. ITPO is the nodal agency of the Union Government under the aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Industry for promoting country's external trade.

Queen Elizabeth II, on 9th September 2015, became the longest-reigning Monarch of Britain and the longest- reigning female monarch in history surpassing the previous record held by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. At present, Queen Elizabeth II (88 years old) is world’s oldest living monarch.

After a gap of 32 years, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan became the first tamilian to lead the opposition of in the Sri Lankan parliament. A Amirthalingam of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) was the only other tamilian to hold the position. He was the leader of the opposition between 1977 and 1983.

Renowned water policy expert Ramaswamy R. Iyer passed away. Mr. Iyer was known for producing a rich body of commentary on water policy and environmental issues. His last held position was that of an honorary research professor at the Centre for Policy Research at New Delhi. Mr. Iyer served as Secretary of Water Resources in the central government and was instrumental in drafting India’s first National Water Policy in 1987.

Agriculture expert Ramesh Chand was appointed as new member of the Niti Aayog. Chand is the third member to join the government's think tank which has replaced the erstwhile planning commission. The Aayog, which is headed by eminent economist Arvind Panagariya, has two other members—economist Bibek Debroy and former DRDO chief V K Saraswat. Chand's appointment came at a time the Modi government is keen to revive the agriculture sector and reaffirm its commitment to farmers.

SPORTS

Ace golfer Anirban Lahiri became the first Indian to qualify for the prestigious President’s Cup. He will be part of the International Team in the 2015 championship. The championship is scheduled to be held at Incheon in South Korea between 2 October and 4 October 2015.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly selected South African city Durban as the host for the XXII Commonwealth Games. With this, South Africa became the first country from Africa to host the games in its 85 years history.

Flavia Pennetta of Italy won the US Open Women’s Singles title by defeating in the finals. With this win, Pennetta became the oldest woman in the Open era to become a champion for the first time.

Leander Paes and Swiss won the US Open Mixed Doubles Title 2015.

Lewis Hamilton of Britain and Mercedes racing driver won the 2015 Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix title.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia won the US Open Men’s Singles title when he defeated in the finals. For Djokovic, it was a second US Open singles title and a 10th Grand Slam singles title.

India's star Sania Mirza bagged her second consecutive Grand Slam title of the season, and fifth overall, as she won the US Open women's doubles with Swiss partner Martina Hingis. The top-seeded Indo-Swiss team outplayed the fourth seed team of and in the final.

Australia all-rounder Shane Watson retired from Test cricket. The 34-year-old played in 59 Test matches, scoring 3,731 runs at an average of 35.19 and taking 75 wickets at 33.68. Having made his debut in 2005, he played in five Ashes series

Virat Kohli , the Indian cricket team’s Test captain, was named co-owner of International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) franchise UAE Royals. UAE Royals was set up last year as one of IPTL’s franchises by a group of investors called Ventures. The group was led by “passionate tennis fans” including Sachin Gadoya, co-founder and managing director of travel website Musafir.com, and his friends Sawan Ravani, Rahul Saharia, Kaushal Majithia, Chirag Vora and Kunal Bansal. IPTL, promoted by tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi, will be played across five countries in Asia. The other teams are Manila Mavericks, , Micromax and Japan Warriors. The tournament will be played between 2 December and 20 December this year.

MISCELLANEOUS

World

 Malcolm Turnbull was sworn in as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating Tony Abbott in an internal party leadership ballot.

 India and Indonesia signed a pact for repatriation of wanted prisoners and cooperation in all criminal matters including gathering evidence. Under the agreement, India will execute summons to an accused person or to any person requiring to attend and produce documents or a search-warrant issued by an Indonesian court. While, Indonesia will reciprocate with similar action, if there is any request from any Indian court.

 Russia dismissed as "populist" a French proposal to limit the use of the veto at the UN Security Council and said it would oppose it. France has launched an initiative to persuade the other four Security Council permanent members - Britain, China, Russia and the United States - to refrain from using their veto when action is required to address a mass atrocity. It was the first time that Russia had come out so clearly in opposition to restricting the use of the veto, which some blame for the lack of effective measures to end the war in Syria.The French proposal gained traction after Russia and China used their veto power last year to block a resolution asking the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes committed in Syria.

India

 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha announced to set up Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation to implement the Union Government’s Bharatnet scheme. The corporation will be established at an estimated cost of 3000 crore rupees and will oversee the linkage of 12524 villages in the state through optical fibre network.

 First Telangana Language Day (Telangana Bhasha Dinosthavam) was observed on 9 September 2015. The day was observed to commemorate the birth anniversary of noted poet Kaloji Narayana Rao, who was called people’s poet.

16th Sept to 30 th Sept AWARDS & HONOURS

M.R. Poovamma and Babita Kumari were conferred with prestigious Arjuna Award 2015 for their individual achievements in sports. M.R. Poovamma has been conferred with this award for her contributions in Athletics and Babita Kumari in the field of Wrestling.

A 15-year-old Indian-American teen was selected by the White House for the prestigious Champions of Change award for empowering the community by imparting Internet coding through her non-profit organisation. Swetha Prabakaran, whose parents immigrated from Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli in 1998, is among eleven young women selected by the White House as 'Champions of Change'. She is the founder and CEO of Everybody Code Now!, a non-profit body working to empower the next generation of youth to become engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.

PepsiCo Chairman Indra Nooyi and Hindustan Times Group chairperson Shobhana Bhartia were presented with the 2015 Global Leadership Award of the US India Business Council, for their commitment to driving a more inclusive global economy and their roles as women leaders.

Eminent Urdu litterateur Shamim Hanfi was conferred the Jnangarima Manad Alankaran by Bharatiya Jnanpith . The Urdu scholar is best known for his books on criticism like "Jadidiyat ki Falsafiyani Asas," "Ghazal Ka Naya Manzarnama" and "Infiradi Shaoor aur Ijtemai Zindagi." He has also been a freelance columnist for various Urdu and Hindi newspapers and periodicals, besides writing features and plays for radio and television. Founded earlier this year, the Jnangarima Manad Alankaran award recognises the contribution of writers in Indian languages.

Indian-origin author Sunjeev Sahota is among the half a dozen authors short-listed for the prestigious 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction . Sahota, who was adjudged the Granta Best Young British Novelist 2013, competes with fellow Briton Tom McCarthy, Jamaican Marlon James, US-based Anne Tyler and Hanya Yanagihara and Nigerian Chigozie Obioma for his second book “The Year of the Runaways” which deals with the experience of illegal immigrants from the Indian subcontinent in Britain. This is the second year that the prize, first awarded in 1969, is open to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English and published in Britain. Previously, the prize was open only to authors from Britain and the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) received the SKOCH Award for smart governance for its initiatives on UAN programme and transformation of social security agenda in India. It is the 5th Award won by EPFO in the last two years for its initiatives for the welfare of various stakeholders.

Afghan refugee teacher Aqeela Asifi, who has dedicated her life to bringing education to refugee girls in Pakistan, won the 2015 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award . Aqeela Asifi, 49, is being recognised for her brave and tireless dedication to education for Afghan refugee girls in the Kot Chandana refugee village in Mianwali, Pakistan – while herself overcoming the struggles of life in exile. Despite minimal resources and significant cultural challenges, Asifi has guided a thousand refugee girls through their primary education.

Eminent Hindi writer Dr Kamal Kishore Goenka was conferred with prestigious 24th Vyaas Samman for year 2014 , in recognition of his work ‘Prem chand ki Kahaniyon ka Kaal Kramanusaar Adhyayan’. It is a critical analysis of the work Hindi literature’s doyen Munshi Premchand.

BUSINESS & CORPORATE

Didi Kuaidi Joint Co., China’s largest taxi-hailing company, invested an undisclosed amount in Ola, as the two firms joined hands to fight Uber Technologies Inc., a common competitor. The partnership between the two comes at a time when taxi companies across the globe are looking to forge an alliance against their marquee rival Uber. Beijing-based Didi Kuaidi was formed by the merger of two of the main taxi firms in China—Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. Didi Kuaidi serves 200 million Chinese users and holds 99% of China’s taxi-hailing market. Didi Kuaidi is backed by China’s e-commerce giants—Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd, and is the second most valuable company in China after smartphone seller Xiaomi Corp. With its financial muscle, Didi Kuaidi has been bankrolling many international taxi-hailing companies to stem the fast pace of expansion of Uber across the globe. In India, Uber is a distant second to Ola, claims to have roughly 250,000 drivers on its technology platform that connects drivers and passengers, doing 750,000 rides a day across 100 cities. Uber says it is growing 40% a month, with roughly 150,000 drivers on its platform in 22 cities.

Forbes released the Forbes list of richest Indians. The list contains names of 100 wealthiest people of India with a collective wealth amounting to 345 billion dollars. Industrialist Mukesh Ambani retained the tag as India’s richest for the ninth year in a row with a net worth of 18.9 billion dollar. The list include names of four women who have a collective wealth of 9.2 billion dollar- Savitri Jindal (Chairperson of the OP Jindal group), Leena Tewari ( Chairperson of generic drugs maker USV Pharma group), Indu Jain (Chairperson of India's largest media group, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd group) and Vinod Gupta (wife of Havells founder Qimat Rai Gupta).

Google teamed up with Indian Railways to provide free Wi-Fi at 500 railway stations in a short time. The plan will initially start with 100 busiest railway stations. Later, the facility will be extended to the remaining stations. The project will make Internet hot-spots available to more than 10 million people just with the first 100 stations online. This will make it the largest Wi-Fi project in the country.

NDTV group's digital arm NDTV Convergence signed around Rs 100 crore deal with content recommendations engine Taboola to power its entire network of desktop and mobile sites. NDTV, which has been working with Taboola for over a year, has signed the strategic deal for three years. Taboola will as the exclusive, multi- platform content discovery partner across all its properties. In addition to providing advertisers with an option to now target the premium NDTV audience through native content marketing, Taboola will also work with NDTV to increase user engagement. NDTV Convergence owns and operates the flagship portal, www.ndtv.com and all other digital properties of the Group. and has over 60 million unique visitors every month.

Under its ambitious plan to explore renewable energy sources, public sector Neyveli Lignite Corporation set up its first 10 MW solar power plant at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu. The 10 MW solar photo voltaic project at Neyveli, set up at a cost of Rs 74.60 crore, is the first renewable energy project commissioned by Neyveli Lignite Corporation.

For collaboration in maintenance, repair and overhaul category, the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence Ltd signed a strategic pact with Emirates Defence Industries Company (EDIC). The two companies agreed to jointly explore the opportunity for manufacturing and building capabilities in defence vehicles, aviation and associated areas, defence equipment and armament manufacturing, defence electronics, commercial and naval ships besides Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of military equipment and platforms. Reliance Defence Limited (RDL), established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure Limited (RIL), has 11 subsidiaries in niche segments of the sector. EDIC is the premier integrated national defence services and manufacturing platform from the .

Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned following the revelation that the firm manipulated US diesel car emissions tests. VW announced setting aside €6.5bn (£4.7bn) to cover the costs of the scandal. The world's biggest carmaker admitted that it deceived US regulators in exhaust emissions tests by installing a device to give more positive results. The company said that it affected 11 million vehicles worldwide.

Wipro was selected as a member of the global Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) - 2015 for the sixth year in succession. Wipro is included in both the DJSI World and Emerging Markets Indices. A total of 1,845 companies were assessed from around the world of which 317 were chosen as the DJSI World constituents for the year 2015- 16. The IT Services sector saw 76 companies participating globally of which 8 were selected for the World Index. DJSI is a leading global indicator tracking the financial performance of companies across all industries that outperform on Sustainability. The selection was done on the basis of an exhaustive, rigorous evaluation of Wipro's sustainability performance on several dimensions spanning economic, environment and social sustainability -- a few examples are Climate Change Performance, Corporate Governance, Innovation, Labor Practices and Digital Inclusion.

BILLS / ACTS / COMMITTEES / SCHEMES / POLICIES

 The Rajasthan Assembly passed separate Bills providing five per cent reservation to Gujjars and other communities under Special Backward Classes (SBC) and 14 per cent to Economically Backward Classes (EBC) of unreserved categories. The House also passed resolutions requesting the state government to make efforts to get the Bills — Rajasthan Special Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutes in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Bill 2015 and Rajasthan Economically Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutes in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Bill 2015 — included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. With the passing of the Bills, the State exceeds the 50 per cent limit of reservation laid down by the Supreme Court as the reservation under Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBC categories remains unchanged. Vasundhara Raje-led previous BJP government had in 2008 passed a Bill providing 5 per cent reservation to SBC and 14 per cent to EBC but it was stayed by the High Court. This time the government decided to bring in separate Bills for both the categories.

 An expert committee was formed by the government to examine various issues related to age relaxation, eligibility, syllabus and pattern of civil services examination to select IAS and IPS officers. Based on the report of the committee, further changes in the civil services exam pattern will be contemplated with the primary objective of providing a level-playing field to aspirants from diverse streams of curriculum like mathematics, engineering, medicine or humanities. The panel was formed as follow-up to the decision taken by the government in May this year to form such a committee. The panel will be headed by former Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer B S Baswan and consist of leading academicians, technocrats and senior bureaucrats.

 Government think-tank NITI Aayog constituted an expert group on land leasing, headed by former CACP chairman T Haque. The 10 member committee will have representation from Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Maharashtra, Assam, Rajasthan and Meghalaya The terms of the reference of the expert committee are to review the existing agricultural tenancy laws of states, including hilly states and schedule areas, to examine the distinctive features of land system in erstwhile zamindari, ryotwari and mahalwari areas. Besides, it would suggest appropriate amendments, keeping in view the need to legalise and liberalise land leasing for much needed agricultural efficiency, equity, occupational diversification, and rapid rural transformation. It will also prepare a model agricultural land leasing act in consultation with states.

 Madhya Pradesh State Government constituted a one-member Commission to probe the Petlawad explosion incident. Retired High Court judge Justice Aryendra Kumar Saxena was appointed as the Chairman of the Commission . A massive blast caused by mining explosives stored in a building ripped through a crowded area in Petlawad town in Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh took place on September 12, 2015. At least 89 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in the Petlawad explosion.

 Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Shri Nitin Gadkari launched the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification & Maintenance) Policy, 2015 .The aim of the policy is to promote greening of Highway corridors with participation of the community, farmers, private sector, NGOs, and government institutions. The Green Highway Policy will help in making India pollution free. It

will also help in curtailing the number of road accidents in India. The vision of the policy is to provide dignified employment to local people and communities.

 In line with the 'Digital India', a knowledge portal for dissemination of detailed information on Indian Railways was launched by railway minister Suresh Prabhu. Indian Railway Knowledge Portal is an initiative of the National Academy of Indian Railways and has aggregated most of the available knowledge about Indian Railways at one location by linking websites, documents for dissemination of knowledge on the public transporter.

 Rajasthan Assembly passed the Rajasthan Vexation Litigation Prevention Bill, 2015 by voice vote. The objective of the bill is to prevent filing of baseless cases and to check the misuse of law for personal benefits. With this Rajasthan became the fifth state in India after Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Madhya Pradesh to pass such a legislation.

ECONOMY & FINANCE

 London-based business daily Financial Times (FT) released Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) data for the period January – June of 2015. As per the data, India in the first half of 2015 surpassed China to emerge as the most-favoured destination for FDI. India received 31 billion dollar of foreign capital inflows through FDI during January-June 2015 while China with 28 billion dollars is placed at number two position. India and China are followed by the US with 27 billion dollars at third place.

 Union Minister of State for Coal, Power and New and Renewable Energy, launched ‘Access to Clean Cooking Energy and Electricity - Survey of States Report’. The report provides a first of a kind multi- dimensional evaluation of the state of energy access in India. It highlights that about 300 million Indians rely on kerosene for lighting, and more than 800 million relying on traditional biomass and that the access to modern forms of energy is still a significant barrier to our development.

 Fourth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement 2015-16 was announced. Against the backdrop of deflationary tendencies-lowering inflation and decelerating nominal GDP-in the economy, the monetary policy cut the repo rate, the rate at which RBI lends to commercial bank, by 0.50 percent from 7.25 percent to 6.75 percent with immediate effect. As a result, the reverse repo rate, the rate at which RBI borrows from commercial banks, stands adjusted to 5.75 percent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 7.75 per cent. However, the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of scheduled banks was kept unchanged at 4 percent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL).

 Ministry of Finance on the behalf of Government of India signed a loan Agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for US $ 123.51 Million as Infrastructure Development Investment Program for Upgrading Tourism Infrastructure and Services in States of Punjab, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh .

 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced relaxation in norms that allow banks to upgrade credit facilities extended to borrowing entities upon a change in ownership, only if the ownership has been changed outside Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme (SDR). The relaxation will offer more flexibility to banks to bring in a change in ownership of borrowing entities which are under stress due to operational/ managerial inefficiencies despite substantial sacrifices made by the lending banks.

 National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) released the data of 68th Round on Status of Education and Vocational Training in India. This report is based on the employment and unemployment survey conducted in the 68th round of NSS during July 2011 to June 2012. As per the report :-

 18.2 percent of households in rural areas and 5.9 percent in urban areas do not have a single literate member in the age-group 15 years and above who could read and write a simple message with understanding.

 Among persons of age 15 years and above, only 2.4 percent had technical degrees or diplomas or certificates. The proportion was 1.1 percent in rural areas and 5.5 percent in urban areas.

 Among persons of age 15-59 years, about 2.2 percent reported to have received formal vocational training and 8.6 percent reported to have received non-formal vocational training.

 The data poses a serious challenge for the Skill India Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government which aims to train about 40 crore people by 2022.

 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered growth projections for India for the current fiscal to 7.4 per cent, from the 7.8 per cent earlier, citing weak monsoon, poor external demand and inability of the government to push economic reforms in Parliament.Though ADB, in its update on Asian Development Outlook (ADO), retained the consumer inflation forecast for India at 4 per cent (plus/minus 0.2 per cent), it cautioned that a possible increase in prices of crude oil in the international market could have adverse implications for prices.

 The labour ministry agreed to significantly enhance insurance benefits under the Employees Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) Scheme of the retirement fund body EPFO. The proposed new limit is Rs 6 lakh, an over 66% from the current limit of Rs 3.6 lakh. The ministry also agreed to do away with the mandatory requirement of continuous employment of one year under current employer before being eligible for insurance benefits. The move is likely to give incentive to 4 crore subscribers of the scheme to stay put in the EPFO and comes at a time when the BJP-led NDA government is working towards making the National Pension System (NPS) as an alternative to EPFO, thus threatening the existence of the EPFO.

 Reserve Bank of India granted in-principle licence for small finance banks to ten entities. The name of the applicants that were granted the licence include- Au Financiers, Capital Local Area Bank , Disha Microfin, Equitas Holdings, ESAF Microfinance and Investments, Janalakshmi Financial Services, RGVN (North East) Microfinance, Suryoday Micro Finance, Ujjivan Financial Services and Utkarsh Micro Finance. The in- principle approval granted by RBI will be valid for a period of 18 months. Small Finance Banks will be similar to the existing commercial lenders and will undertake basic banking activities of accepting deposits and lending to unserved and under-served sections. The maximum loan size and investment limit exposure to single and group obligators cannot be more than 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its capital funds, respectively.

 Government of India decided to appoint CANBANK Venture Capital Fund Ltd. (CVCFL) as the implementation agency which will house the Electronics Development Fund. The Electronic Development Fund (EDF) is set up as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information Technology (IT). The EDF would take minority participation in Seed Funds, Angel Funds and Venture Funds dedicated in this area.

PEOPLE IN NEWS

Alexis Tsipras , leader of Greece's Radical Left Syriza party, was sworn in as prime minister after his party's win in the recent general elections. The 41-year-old Leftist leader took a civil oath instead of a religious oath to "serve the laws, the constitution and the interests of Greek people" to form the government for second time in 8 months.

Government appointed NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya as the Sherpa for G-20 talks, replacing Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. As per the practice, the Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission used to be the Sherpa for G-20 talks. During the a decade long UPA regime, former Deputy Chairman of the Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia was the sherpa for G-20 talks. The next G20 Leaders' Summit is scheduled on November 15-16 at Antalya in Turkey in November this year.

Ashok-Alexander Sridharan became the first Person of Indian Origin (PIO) to be elected as the mayor of Bonn in Germany. Sridharan also became the city’s first mayor from an immigrant background.

Veteran cricket Marathi commentator Bal Pandit passed away in Pune at 89. He is considered as pioneer of cricket commentary in Marathi.

E Sreedharan, the Principal Advisor to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and popularly known as Mtero Man, was invited to the United Nations' High Level Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport (HLAG-ST). The service is for a period of three years. He has been conferred with Padma Shri (2001), Padma Vibhushan (2008) and French Government’s Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (2005).

British-American romance novelist Jackie Collins passed away in United States at 77. In her four decades of writing career, she had written more than 32 novels, all of them had appeared on The New York Times bestsellers list. She was honoured with Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2013.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), passed away at 75. Dalmiya was involved with the BCCI for more than three decades and had started his journey as its treasurer in 1983 before becoming its secretary.

Renowned Classical dancer Kalamandalam Sathyabhama died. She was regarded as a doyen of Mohiniyattam and was well-known for her experimental reforms in this classical dance form.

Malcolm Turnbull was sworn-in as Australia’s new Prime Minister. He became the 29th Prime Minister of the country and succeeded Tony Abbott after defeating him in internal party leadership ballot of the ruling centre-right Liberal Party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ireland in September 2015. He is the first Prime Minister of India to visit Ireland in 59 years. During his visit, Modi held discussions with Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland; the two nations agreed to develop closer partnership & cooperation. They also agreed to chart out a roadmap for collaboration in the digital world. India sought Ireland’s support for India’s membership of the NSG and other international export control regimes.

Dr. P Sivakumar was elevated as Distinguished Scientist with immediate effect by the Union Defence Ministry Ministry. He was promoted in recognition of hisdiligence and dedication in self-reliance effort for defence combat vehicle systems and sub-systems presently, he is serving as Director of Combat Vehicles Research and

Development Establishment (CVRDE) Avadi, Tamil Nadu. He has been instrumental in developing various critical systems for the Indian armed forces.

S K Sharma, Member Irrigation of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), was given the charge of Chairman of the board. Sharma, who took over the charge, replaced A B Agrawal who was Chairman for a period of about five years.

Sherif Ismail was sworn-in as the new Prime Minister of Egypt. He will succeed Ibrahim Mehleb who had resigned from office following a corruption scandal involving his cabinet minister.

After remaining headless for almost a year, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights(NCPCR) appointed Stuti Narain Kacker, a 1978 batch IAS officer, as its Head. Kacker retired as Secretary from Disability Affairs, in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. She was heading the management committee of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).

Meghalaya Governor V. Shanmuganathan was given additional charge of Manipur following death of incumbent Syed Ahmed.

Renowned Hindi poet Viren Dangwal passed away at the age of 68. Viren Dangwal was one of the leading Hindi poets. HIs famous poem collection “Dushchakra me Shrista” had earned him prestigious Sahitya Academy award in 2004.

SPORTS

India’s Ajay Jayaram won silver medal in 2015 Badminton tournament in the Men’s singles category, when he lost to World no. one Cheng Long of China. Ajay Jayaram is currently ranked 32nd in the world.

India’s ace shooter Gurpreet Singh won silver medal at 2015 Asian Air Gun Championship held in New Delhi. The gold medal in the 10 metre Air Pistol event was bagged by Boroujeni Safari of Iran.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain won 2015 Japanese Grand Prix title of Formula One, earning his overall eight victory of the season. Lewis Hamilton has won highest number as compared to any other British driver in the history of Formula One.

India’s ace cueist Pankaj Advani won 2015 IBSF World Billiards Championship in Adelaide, Australia. It was his overall 14th World title.

Indo-Swiss tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won women’s doubles title of 2015 Guangzhou Open Tennis Tournament by defeating Chisese pair of Shilin Xu and Xiaodi You.

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel from Germany won 2015 Singapore Grand Prix of Formula One, earning his third victory of the season 2015.

Former Indian Cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly was appointed as President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).

Baseball legend Yogi Berra from United States passed away at 90.He is one of only five players to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award for three times and is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in baseball history.

MISCELLANEOUS

World

• A first-of-its-kind conference on the contemporary relevance of the 'Bhagvad Gita' was held in London, during which Indian and British experts came together with an aim to seek answers to the "innumerable questions that exercise and confound all of us today."

• China successfully launched a new model of carrier rocket the Long March-11 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the north-western province of Gansu. The launch of Long March-11 was China’s eighth launch in 2015.

• The 193-Member United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) formally adopted the “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is an agenda for people to end poverty in all its forms. It is composed of 17 goals and 169 targets to wipe out poverty.

India

• The Maharashtr a government will observe the year 2017 as 'Visit Maharashtra Year' to promote tourism in the state, the state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said after launching its international tourism promotion project, Maharashtra International Travel Mart 2015 (MITM), in Mumbai.

• The Telangana and Chhattisgarh governments inked a power purchase agreement for supply of 1000 mw of power. This power supply arrangement will be for 12 years and in addition to 1000 mw of power supply agreement inked by the two States earlier.