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Syndicate Bank Exam 2018 Current Affairs

Syndicate Bank Exam 2018 Current Affairs

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Contents

Topic Page Number MOU/Agreement Countries 3 MOU Industry/States/Others 3-5 Appointments and Resignations 5-8 Awards and Recognitions 8-12 Conference and Summits 13-16 International News 17-20 National News 20-29 State News 30-37 Finance and Banking News 37-42 Business News 42-43 Economy News 43-47 Science & Technology 47 Defence News 47-49 Sports News 49-50 Committees 50-56 Rankings of Countries 57-58 Rankings (Persons and Organisations) 58 Loans from Banks 58-59 Deadlines 59-60 Books and Authors 60 Obituaries 61-63 Nobel Prize Winners 63 Important Days(Jan-March) 63-65

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MOU/Agreement Countries

India Agreement on restoration of normalcy and development of the Rakhine State, from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims recently fled following incidents of violence against the community. Russia Russia will assist India to set up a national crisis management centre in the country to handle disaster and other emergency situations. India Mauritius India will offer technical support and advisory services in implementing DigiLocker service in Mauritius. Myanmar For the return of over six lakh Rohingya Muslims who had fled to Bangladesh to escape a violent crackdown by the Myanmar military.

MOU Industry/States/Others

Organizations/Institutions Purpose Skill Development Maruti Suzuki They have signed an agreement to impart training to youth Ministry and enhance their employment potential. YES Bank European Investment Bank They will co-finance $400-million funding for renewable power generation in the country. Samsung India UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Partnership is to launch 360 video and virtual reality (VR) Gandhi Institute of content of two magnificent Indian heritage sites, the Sun Education for Peace and Temple in Konark, Odisha and Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Sustainable Development) Pradesh. Samsung Axis Bank Smartphone manufacturer Samsung launched its Bill Payments on its flagship payments service, Samsung Pay in partnership with Axis Bank. Allahabad Bank National e-Governance Agreement for utilizing the latters Information Utility Services Limited (NeSL) Services envisaged under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Federal Bank LuLu Exchange (Abu Dhabi- MoU is to leverage blockchain technology for cross-border based) remittances Sohan Lal HDFC Bank and IndusInd The tie-up is to improve the farmers access to post-harvest Commodity Bank credits at affordable interest rates Management (SLCM) AU Small Finance Sahaj e-Village MoU for extending its banking service in remote areas Bank through Business Correspondent Agent (BC) model. Sahaj e-Village Limited is a venture initiative of SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited (SIFL) that has been bridging the digital divide between urban and rural India under the flagship of NeGP of the Government of India. Hike Messenger Airtel To embed its Total service on mobile phones under the latters Mera Pehla Smartphone programme. Taxi aggregator Uber Ministry of Road Transport As part of its ongoing efforts to encourage road safety and Highways awareness, Uber will be jointly promoting road safety messaging on the Uber app and social media through Ministry

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of Road Transport and Highways co branded materials and mediums. Paytm Payments Bank Paytm Payments Bank, a digital bank which provides zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions, partnered with the Mumbai Association, the pioneers of home-cooked food delivery. HDFC Bank Rajasthan Govt. Under this partnership, HDFC Bank will team up with the state government to provide end-to-end solutions like current accounts, credit cards and other solutions to startups under its SmartUp programme. Indian Institute of India Post Payments Bank Under the agreement, IICA has been entrusted with the key Corporate Affairs responsibility of capacity building of IPPB through training of (IICA) its officials/employees The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and State Bank of India (SBI) jointly signed an MoU with non-government organisations (NGOs) from West Bengal for financing of 2,500 Joint Liability Groups (JLGs), or informal credit group of farmers. National Small SME Corporation For exchange of information and cooperation in areas such as Industries policies to aid development of small and medium businesses Corporation (NSIC) (SMBs) in the two countries. Axis Bank NGO Srijan The bank partnered through an initiative called Buddha Fellowship Programme to help nurture talent for the development sector. AU Small Finance Life Insurance Corporation The bank will offer Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Bank (LIC) of India (PMJJBY) under the agreement.

Bank of Baroda Invoicemart Tie up is to discount invoices for MSMEs. Buyers and sellers registered on the marketplace will now be able to access funding from Bank of Baroda. Yes Bank Amplus Energy Solutions The pact is for strategic tie-up to co-finance projects in the solar energy space in India. Federal Bank Hedge Equities Ltd Partnership for providing Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) services to NRIs. Punjab National Bank National Scheduled Castes They tied up to provide financial assistance for economic Finance and Development empowerment of persons belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC) Corporation (NSFDC) families living below Double Poverty Line (DPL). Paytm Payments Induslnd Bank To introduce a facility to create a fixed deposit when the Bank customer balance exceeds Rs. 1 lakh at the end of day in Paytm Account Nearby Technologies Yes Bank To provide Aadhaar- enabled cardless and pinless ATM service called PayNEARBY by which customers can deposit or withdraw money at retailers place. Punjab National Bank Action Construction For augmenting tractors/agricultural implements financing to Equipment Ltd (ACE) the farmers across the country through PNBs branch network Yes Bank Innovation Centre Denmark To bring fintech innovations and startups from Denmark to India (ICDK India) India, and facilitate entry of Indian startups to the region. Reliance General YES Bank A comprehensive bancassurance-corporate agency

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Insurance agreement has been signed between the two. Paytm ICICI Bank To jointly launch Paytm-ICICI Bank Postpaid, the most seamless way to access interest-free short-term digital credit. Karnataka Bank Boston Consulting Group MoU for transformation initiatives of banks. Project - KBL (India) Pvt Ltd Vikaas – was launched for same.

Appointments and Resignations

Name Post Institution Rahul Gandhi President Indian National Congress (With this, Sonia Gandhis 19-year tenure as party president has come to an end.) Uma Shankar Executive Director Dr. A. Surya Prakash Chairman Prasar Bharati Board Rajinder Khanna Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) Vijay Keshav Gokhale Foreign Secretary of India India He will replace S. Jaishankar AB Mathur Central Government has appointed AB Mathur as the interlocutor on their behalf to hold talks with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA). T S Tirumurti Secretary (Economic External Affairs Ministry, India Relations) BJPs Sanyukta Bhatia will be the first woman to hold the Lucknow Municipal Corporation Mayors post in 100 years after the Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act came into being in 1916 The Union Agriculture Ministry has roped in actor for television advertisements to promote the governments flagship agriculture schemes like soil health card and crop insurance. Besides soil health card scheme, the actor will promote Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana and others. Salil S. Parekh Chief Executive Officer Infosys and Managing Director Vijay Rupani Chief Minister Gujarat Nitin Patel Deputy Chief Minister Gujarat Jairam Thakur Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh Justice U.D. Salvi Acting Chairperson National Green Tribunal (NGT) Michel Coulomb Head of Sales Apple has appointed him for its operations in India. Narinder Batra President Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Anandiben Patel Governor of Madhya Pradesh Om Prakash Rawat Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India Ashok Lavasa Election Commissioner (EC) of India

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S Selvakumar Chairman and Managing Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd Director (CMD) (SPMCIL) Usha Ananthasubramanian Chairman Indian Banks Association (IBA) She (MD and CEO, Allahabad Bank) has become the first woman chairman of IBA S Somnath Director Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) Dilip Chenoy Director General Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) Sudeep Lakhtakia Director General National Security Guard (NSG) Ajendra Bahadur Singh Chief Staff, Western Naval Command Vijay Kumar Managing Director and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange CEO (NCDEX) Dilip Asbe Managing Director and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) CEO Sunny Verghese (Singapore-based Chairman Geneva-based World Business Council for Sustainable Indian-origin businessman) Development NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has been granted an extension of his tenure until June 30, 2019. The Supreme Court collegium has recommended the name of senior advocate Indu Malhotra as the first woman lawyer to be directly appointed as a judge of the apex court. Actress Kajol, an active supporter of eradicating preventable deaths from hygiene-related issues, has become an advocacy ambassador for a Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative. Actress Dia Mirza UN Environments Goodwill Ambassador for India Hasmukh Adhia Finance Secretary India Nirmala Sitharaman President Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) Shaktikanta Das Indias G 20 Sherpa She is former Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs Judge International Court of Justice (ICJ) Snehlata Shrivastava Secretary General Lok Sabha RBI Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed to the Financial Stability Institute Advisory Board or the Bank of International Settlement (BIS). Ambassador Youth World Championships Vikas Seth Chief Executive Officer Bharti AXA Life Insurance Sudhanshu Jain Chief Financial Officer Paytm Payments Bank (PPB) Sethurathnam Ravi Chairman (BSE) Y.C. Modi Director-General National Investigation Agency (NIA) Ira Joshi Director-General Doordarshan News Ajay Bisaria Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Navtej Sarna Indian Ambassador to He was supposed to retire November 2017 end, has the US been given a year extended. Neelamani N. Raju Karnatakas first woman Director General and Inspector General of Police

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Kenneth Juster US Ambassador To India S Y Qureshi Ombudsmen to formulate the AIFF Constitution within eight weeks. Tulsi Gabbard Chairperson World Hindu Congress 2018 Debjani Ghosh 1st woman President National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) Pradeep Singh Kharola Chairman and Managing Air India Director (CMD) B.N. Sharma Chairman National Anti-profiteering Authority – which is under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Act Actor Trisha Krishnan UNICEF celebrity She is the first actor from the South Indian film advocate for child rights industry to receive this honour, which was previously bestowed upon celebrities like , , Khan and . AVPS Chakravarthi Ambassador World Packaging Organisation Professor Abdool Karim Ambassador UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV Hardayal Prasad Managing Director & SBI Card Chief Executive Officer Neelam Kapur Director-General Sports Authority of India (SAI) First independent International Cricket Council (ICC) Board female director (She is PepsiCo Chairman and CEO) Brand Ambassador Muthoot Group K Sivan Chairman Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Music maestro AR Rahman Official brand ambassador of Sikkim Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has been roped in by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation -BMC to promote cleanliness in Mumbai as part of the Swachh Survekshan 2018. Ellie Goulding Global Goodwill She is British singer-songwriter Ambassador for UN Environment Henrietta Fore (from US) UNICEF Head Appointed by United Nations Kumi Naidoo (from South Africa) Secretary General Amnesty International Audrey Azoula Head United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Jerome H Powell Chairman Federal Reserve, central bank, USA. Powell will replace Janett Yellen Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose resigned. Viorica Dancila Prime Minister First Female PM of Romania. Soumeylou Maiga Prime Minister Mali Sauli Niinisto President Finland George Weah President Liberia. He is a retired footballer

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Sebastian Pinera President Chile George Weah President Liberia Constantino Chiwenga Vice President Zimbabwe Uhuru Kenyatta President Borut Pahor President Slovenia Emmerson Mnangagwa President Zimbabwe Abdul Hamid President Bangladesh Nicos Anastasiades President Cyprus National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar retired from the post after completing his five-year tenure in December 2017. RESIGNATIONS: Airtel Payments Bank chief executive Shashi Arora has quit the company after a recent controversy surrounding Indias largest telecom operator and its payment banks alleged violation of rules on using Aadhaar for its electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) verification process. Robert Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 and once proclaimed that only God will remove me, resigned as president Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned

Awards and Recognitions

Award Name Person/Institution Extra Knowledge India won award for putting high effort to combat Illegal Wildlife Trade Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal was conferred with V Shantaram Lifetime achievement award at the 15th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films. Miss Supranational 2017 Miss Korea Jenny Kim Miss India USA 2017 Shree Saini Mr India 2017 Jitesh Singh Deo He is from Lucknow Mrs India contest (21-34 years) Mayanka Patel Mrs India contest (21-34 years) Poonam Gaur Miss World 2017 Manushi Chillar Indias Manushi Chillar won the coveted Miss World 2017 pageant held in China, 17 years after won the title in 2000. Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters She is from South Africa Miss International 2017 Kevin Lilliana She is from Indonesia Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Former PM Manmohan Singh Disarmament and Development General Insurance Company of the Apollo Munich Health Year Insurance Company Veteran actors , and film director K. Raghvendra Rao have bagged the NTR National Film Awards for 2014, 2015 and 2016. Jnanpith award 2017 Sobti He is an eminent Hindi Litterateur Rashtriya Bal Kalyan Award Anand Kumar President Ram Nath Kovind awarded this years Rashtriya Bal Kalyan Award to

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Super 30 founder Anand Kumar for his contributions in the field of teaching and education. Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Girish Karnad Achievement Award 2017 Best film at International Film Festival 120 Beats Per Minute It is a French film, directed by Robin of India (IFFI) Campillo. 3rd ICCR Distinguished Indologist Hiroshi Marui He is a Professor from Japan. award 2017 DSC Prize for South Asian Anuk Arudpragasam He is from . He won for the book Literature - The Story of a Brief Marriage Mother Teresa Memorial Award for United Nations High Social Justice, 2017 Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Time magazines 2017 Person of the silence breakers The silence breakers — the women Year behind this years #MeToo movement against sexual harassment in America won the award Vyas Samman for year 2017 Mamta Kalia For her novel Dukkham Sukkham Mother Teresa Memorial award for Actress Priyanka Chopra She has taken up the cause of fighting Social Justice for the rights of refugees and displaced people as a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador People for the Ethical Treatment of Actress Anushka Sharma Animals (PETA) 2017 Person of the Year Award First ever Smita Patil memorial award Actress Rekha Given for her contribution in the film industry. National award-winning actor Smita Patil passed away in 1986. National Design Award G. Satheesh Reddy He is Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri and Director General, Missiles and Strategic Systems. Yeraringan Award Prof M S Swaminathan 31st Moortidevi Award for 2017 Joy Goswami (Bengali Poet) It is the first time the award will be given to a Bengali poet. 24th Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Samudra Manthan – Caring Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust Organisation of the Year award UNESCO Award of Merit Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu First Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Award Bihar Chief minister Nitish for Probity in Public Life Kumar First Ladies Award Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Titled the First Ladies awards, it was an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to honour women

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who are the first to set a milestone in their respective fields. Ideal Chief Minister award Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik memorial award Asha Bhosle She will be the fifth winner of the award. US Documentary Grand Jury Award Kailash Satyarthi He got the award for his documentary, titled Kailash. Janakavi P Sawlaram award Actor Sudhir Dalvi Grand Collar of the State of Palestine Prime Minister Narendra Modi In a special recognition of the Prime Minister Narendra Modis contribution to relations between India and Palestine, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conferred the Grand Collar of the State of Palestine on him after the conclusion of the bilateral meeting. Times Power Woman 2017 award Shabnam Asthana Sahitya Akademis Bhasha Samman Shesh Anand Madhukar He is Magahi writer WHOs prestigious IhsanDogramaci Vinod Paul Family Health Foundation Prize Geospatial World Excellence Award- Odisha State received award for successful IT 2018 application for tracking of mineral production, dispatch and value accrued on real-time basis through its i3MS web- based software International Young Chef Olympiad Lai Jia Yi from Malaysia Olympiad concluded in New 2018 Golden Peacock Award 2017 for Reliance Industries (RIL) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives

List of winners of Zee Cine Awards 2018:

 Best actor male- for .  Best actor female- for Mom.  Best director- for .  Best film- Golmaal Again.  Extraordinary franchisee award- Baahubali.  Global icon award- Priyanka Chopra.  Best script award- for Bareilly Ki Barfi.  Best music director- for .  Best male playback Singer- for Humsafar.  Best action director- Sham Kaushal for .

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Grammy Awards 2018

 Album Of The Year: Bruno Mars  Song of the Year: Bruno Mars, Thats What I Like  Record Of The Year: Bruno Mars, 24K Magic  Best Pop Solo Performance: Ed Sheeran, Shape of You  Best Pop Vocal Album: Ed Sheeran, Divide  Best Dance Recording: LCD Soundsystem, Tonite  Best Music Film: The Defiant Ones  Best Childrens Album: Feel What U Feel, Lisa Loeb  Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media: La La Land  Producer of the Year, Classical: David Frost

63rd Awards 2018

 Best Film —  Critics Award for Best Film — Newton  Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female) — for  Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male) — for Hindi Medium  Critics Award for Best Actor (Male) — for Trapped  Critics Award for Best Actor (Female) — for Secret Superstar  Best Director — Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for Bareilly Ki Barfi  Best Debut Director — Konkona Sensharma for  Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male) — Rajkummar Rao for Bareilly Ki Barfi  Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) — for Secret Superstar  Best Dialogue — Hitesh Kewalya for  Best Screenplay — Shubhashish Bhutiani for Mukti Bhavan  Best Original Story — Amit Masurkar for Newton  Best Actor (Male) in a Short Film — Jackie Shroff for Khujli  Best Actor (Female) in a Short Film — for Juice  Peoples Choice Award for Best Short Film — Anahut  Best Short Film (Fiction) — Juice  Best Short Film (Non Fiction) — Invisible Wings  Best Music — Album for  Best Playback Singer (Male) — for Roke na ruke naina – Badrinath Ki Dulhania RECOGNITIONS

 Sixteen-year-old Mohamad Al Jounde from Syria was awarded the International Childrens Peace Prize for his efforts to ensure the rights of Syrian refugee children.  On the eve of Christmas celebrations, international sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik created the worlds biggest sand Santa-face with the message world peace on the Puri beach of Odisha.

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 Superstar Salman Khan has once again maintained the top spot in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list for the second consecutive year.  Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has reached a record high in terms of the amount of wealth owned by a single person. The net worth of Bezos reached a whopping $105.1 Billion, as per Bloombergs Billionaire Tracker. This ranks Jeff Bezos as the richest person of all time.  Previously, the spot was held by Microsoft founder , who has been left behind by the Amazon genius for the third time now.  The first all-women station in India, Matunga on Central Railway (CR) in Mumbai, manned by a staff of 41 women, has entered the Limca Book of Records.  Ravi Menon, the Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has been named the best central bank governor in Asia-Pacific for 2018 by UK-based magazine The Banker.  Calicut University conferred honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) on actor and athlete P T Usha at a special convocation ceremony.  Legendary Bengali actor was presented Frances highest civilian award, Legion dHonneur.  CEO of ICICI Bank was named the most powerful woman in India as she ranked 32nd in Worlds 100 Most Powerful Women list by Forbes. This years list is topped by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  With a net worth of $38 billion, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani has topped Forbes annual list of Indias 100 richest tycoons of 2017. He is followed by Wipros and Hinduja family.  Tata Power Solar has won Dun & Bradstreet – Everest Infra Awards 2017 under Infrastructure Project category for commissioning Indias largest solar project under Domestic Content Requirement for NTPC at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.  The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam, the sacred shrine temple has won the UNESCO Asia Pacific Award of Merit 2017 for cultural heritage conservation following the massive renovation and restoration work .  Indian short film The School Bag, which tells a story based in Pakistan, has won the Best Short Film Award at the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal (SAFFM). The film is directed by Dheeraj Jindal.  Shri Harmandir Sahib also known as Golden Temple and the Darbar Sahib has been awarded as the most visited place of the world. The holy Sikh Shrine is situated in Amritsar, Punjab. It is surrounded by a Sarovar which is fed by river Ravi. Book of World Records, London Awards Harmandir Sahib as the Most Visited Place of the World.  Indias Ambani family has topped the Forbes list of Asias 50 Richest Families for the first time, with a net worth of $44.8 billion.  Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan honoured with personality of the year award at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.  Indias foreign-language Oscar hopeful Newton bagged two wins at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Brisbane, with Rajkummar Rao winning the best actor, and writer Mayank Tewari and director Amit V. Masurkar grabbing the best screenplay honour.  In a first, a woman has been inducted as a pilot in the Indian Navy. Shubhangi Swaroop, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, will soon be flying Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft.

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Conference and Summits

Summit Place . Extra Knowledge India will host a meeting of WTO member countries in February 2018 to muster support for food security and other issues. 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial meeting New Delhi, India . To be held in April, 2018 First summit of the International Solar Alliance India . To be held in March, 2018 World Economic Forum Summit Davos, Switzerland . India-ASEAN business and investment conference New Delhi . Bharat Parv Red Fort, Delhi The prime objective of the event is to generate a patriotic mood, promote the rich cultural diversity of the country and to ensure wider participation of the general public. National Meet on Grassroot Informatics- VIVID 2018 New Delhi Theme: Cyber Security and Innovation 2018 International Conference on Unani Medicine New Delhi Theme: Integration of Unani System of Medicine in Mainstream Healthcare First ever International Kala Mela New Delhi . 7th India Energy Congress New Delhi International Conference on DemetriosGalanos and New Delhi . His Legacy First Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Parliamentary New Delhi Conference Informal WTO Ministerial gathering New Delhi Will be held in March 2018 Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education New Delhi (CABE) 3rd edition of the geo-political conference, Raisina New Delhi Dialogue 26th World Book Fair New Delhi Main Theme: Environment and Climate Change Asean-India Connectivity Summit (AICS) New Delhi Theme: Powering Digital and Physical Linkages for Asia in the 21st Century 15th Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral meet New Delhi . Japan-India Act East Forum New Delhi . India-Australia-Japan trilateral meeting New Delhi . First meeting of 15th Finance Commission New Delhi Shared Value Summit 2017 New Delhi . 14th Inclusive Finance India Summit New Delhi . First Ever International Conference on AYUSH and New Delhi Wellness Arogya 2017 Bodhi Parva BIMSTEC Festival of Buddhist New Delhi . Global Partnership Summit 2017 New Delhi .

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International Conference on Sports Medicine and New Delhi . Sports Sciences SAICON 2017 World Conference on Vedas, Vishwa Ved Sammelan New Delhi . First ever Nordic-Baltic youth film festival New Delhi . Island Development Agency (IDA) Meet New Delhi . Three-Day International Conference – New Delhi FIPSPHYSIOCON 2017 Global Clubfoot Conference New Delhi . 21st World Congress of Mental Health New Delhi World Food India 2017 New Delhi . 1st Heli Expo India and International Civil Helicopter New Delhi Conclave-2017 India Disaster Response Summit New Delhi Jointly by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Facebook Asean-India business and investment summit New Delhi To be held in January 2018 36th International Geological Congress (IGC) New Delhi To be held in year 2020 Leadership Summit New Delhi Seminar on cyber security in the context of Indian New Delhi Navy Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) New Delhi Theme – Cyber4All: A Secure and Inclusive Cyberspace for Sustainable Development 12th North East Business Summit New Delhi 15th Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response New Delhi Team (APCERT) Conference South Asia Regional Training and Technical New Delhi It was Interim Meeting of the Assistance Center (SARTTAC) Meet Steering Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)s South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) 42nd World Congress of the International New Delhi Theme - Military Medicine in Committee of Military Medicine (ICMM) Transition: Looking Ahead. Consultative Workshop on New National Policy on New Delhi Biofuels 12th meeting of the Standing Committee of Inter- New Delhi State Council (ISC) International Seminar on Indian Space Programme: New Delhi Trends and Opportunities for Industry International Tourism Mart Guwahati, Assam . Regional Conference on Good Governance and Guwahati, Assam . Replication of Best Practices 25th National Children Science Congress Gandhinagar, Gujarat The theme of the Congress was Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development

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3rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of Mumbai, Maharashtra To be held in June 2018. AIIB The theme of the meeting will be Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration. Indian Science Congress Imphal, Manipur To be held in March 2018 India International Seafood Show (IISS) Goa . Science Film Festival of India Goa The festival is titled SCI-FFI Goa. Nobel Prize Series India 2018 Goa 32nd Surajkund crafts mela Faridabad, Haryana . Global Investors Summit Advantage Assam Guwahati, Assam Arts Festival (KGAF 2018) Mumbai, Maharashtra Theme: Hara Ghoda 7th Annual India Golf Expo Bengaluru, Karnataka International Plastics Exhibition, PlastIndia Gandhinagar, Gujarat Kachra Mahotsav 2018, Indias first Garbage Festival Chhattisgarh . International Conference on Wild Silk Moths Guwahati, Assam Asia Steel International Conference Bhubaneswar, Odisha To be held in February, 2018 First International Dam Safety Conference-2018 Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram () First ever international martial arts games Srinagar, Jammu and To be held in October, 2018 Kashmir India-Israel Business Summit Mumbai India-UK Createch Summit Mumbai To be held in February, 2018 19th India International Watch & Clock Fair Samaya Mumbai Bharati 2018 International Dharma- Dhamma conference Rajgir, Bihar 18th All India Whips Conference Udaipur, Rajasthan 9th International Youth Sailing Competition Krishnapatnam Port in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh 100th Indian Economic Association conference Guntur, Andhra Pradesh 3rd World Telugu Conference Hyderabad, Telangana International Sweet Festival Hyderabad, Telangana 78th Indian History Congress , West Bengal India International Coffee Festival (IICF) Bengaluru, Karnataka Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017 Hyderabad, Telangana Theme - Women First, Prosperity for All Skill Seeds International MSME and Startup Expo Hyderabad 2017 20th International Childrens Film Festival Hyderabad International Symposium to Promote Innovation & Jaipur, Rajasthan Research in Energy Efficiency (INSPIRE 2017) 12th Biennial International Conference & Exposition Jaipur, Rajasthan

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of Society of Petroleum Geophysicists (SPG) Asian Bankers Association (ABA) Mumbai Hosted by State Bank, with the theme of Asias turn to transform. 1st Tribal Entrepreneurship Summit Dantewada, Chhattisgarh Sangai International Festival Manipur First ever North East Development Summit (NEDS) Imphal, Manipur 2017 Nobel Prize Series — India 2018 (Science Impacts Goa Life) Indias first Military Literature Festival Organic World Congress – 2017 Greater Noida International conference on climate change Kathmandu, Nepal SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit Sochi, Russia Ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council Japan 11th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Buenos Aires, Conference (MC11) Argentina UNWTO/UNESCO World Conference on Tourism and Muscat, Oman Culture: Fostering Sustainable Development Global Forum for Food & Agriculture Berlin, Germany APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit Da Nang, Vietnam Theme - Creating New Dynamism, 2017 Fostering a Shared Future 2017 UN Peacekeeping Defence Ministerial Vancouver, Canada Conference International Energy Agency (IEA) Ministerial Meet Paris, France 23rd Conference of Parties (COP-23) to the United Bonn, Germany India Pavilion at COP 23 was also Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change inaugurated there. (UNFCCC) Indias theme for COP 23 is Conserving Now, Preserving Future World Youth Forum 2017 Sharm El sheikh, Egypt International Conference on Ramayan Circuit and Janakpur, Nepal Mithila-Awadh Relations ASEAN Summit 2017 Manila, Philippines East Asia Summit 2017 Manila, Philippines South Asia Economic Summit Kathmandu, Nepal 1st WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending TB Moscow, Russia The conference was themed in Sustainable Development Era Ending TB in the Sustainable Development Era: A Multisectoral Response. 13th Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers Meeting Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar

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International News

 The UN has approved a $286 million cut in its annual budget for the next year, a 5% historic reduction in spending.  The UN General Assembly has decided to mark the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandelas birth by holding a high- level meeting focusing on world peace ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders in September 2018. The summit will be called Nelson Mandela Peace Summit.  The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions against North Korea in response to its latest launch of a ballistic missile that Pyongyang says is capable of reaching anywhere on the U.S. mainland.  For the first time, WHO will add gaming disorder to its International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The ICD — a diagnostic manual thats published by the WHO — was last updated 27 years ago, in 1990.  World Health Organisation has declared Gabon a polio-free country, given the lack of new reported or suspected cases in the central African country. Now the disease is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan  China started trial operations of the worlds biggest automated container terminal – the Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port  Chinas domestically developed AG600, the worlds largest amphibious aircraft, performed its maiden flight on 24th December.  The worlds longest glass bridge, located in Chinas Hebei province, was opened for the public.  Google will open a research lab focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Beijing — its first such centre in Asia - Google AI China Centre.  Russia will create Independent Internet for BRICS Countries.  The word populism has been announced as Cambridge Dictionarys Word of the Year 2017. The dictionary defined populism as political ideas and activities that are intended to get the support of ordinary people by giving them what they want.  The Oxford English has come out with its Word of the Year, and its a word called — youthquake. Oxfords definition is as follows: A significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.  The online dictionary, Merriam-Webster has dubbed feminism its word of the year, meaning it is the most- searched word on Merriam-Websters website. Feminism can be defined as the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes; organized activity on behalf of womens rights and interests.  British authorities have named Mount Hope as the countrys new highest peak. Hope, which is sited in the part of the Antarctic claimed by the UK, was recently re-measured and found to tower above the previous title holder, Mount Jackson.  Saudi Arabias Ministry of Culture and Information has announced that commercial cinemas would be allowed to operate in the Kingdom as of early 2018. They will be re-opened after 35 years.  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced the creation of a new virtual currency Petro in a bid to ease the countrys economic crisis.  US President Donald Trump has recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, breaking nearly 70-year-old US policy. The US has become the first country to recognise the status of Jerusalem which is claimed as the capital by both Israel and Palestine.  Australia has become the 26th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.

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 For the first time ever, a foreign nation has appointed a woman to be its ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Belgium has done this and the womans name is Dominique Mineur.  Frances parliament has approved a law banning all exploration and production of oil and natural gas by 2040 within the country and its overseas territories. The French government claims the ban is a world first.  French sailor Francois Gabart broken the record for sailing around the world alone, circumnavigating the planet in just 42 days and 16 hours.  Switzerland unveiled the 52 million-Swiss franc ($52.6 million) project running from Schywz to the mountain village of Stoos.  Norway became the worlds first country to shut down national broadcasts of its FM network by completing its transition to digital radio.  The central bank of Pakistan gave its green signal to using the Chinese currency, Yuan, for bilateral trade with China. The decision came just a day after US President Donald Trump vowed to stop all aid to Islamabad.  Unesco has accepted the Turkeys endangered bird language of Black Sea villagers as an endangered part of world heritage in need of urgent protection.  Saudi Arabia and the have introduced Value Added Tax (VAT) for the first time.  Israel has filed notice to withdraw from the UNESCO alongside the United States. Israel has blasted UNESCO in recent years over the organisations criticism of Israels occupation of East Jerusalem and its decision to grant full membership to Palestine in 2011.  A new law making it illegal to pay men more than women has taken effect in Iceland. The legislation makes Iceland the first country in the world to legalise equal pay between men and women.  On the occasion of the 69th Republic Day, the Indian Mission in Nepal handed over 30 ambulances and six buses to various hospitals and non-profit charity organisations.  In a bid to safeguard the world from hackers and growing data breaches — especially from nation-states — the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced a new Global Centre for Cybersecurity. Headquartered in Geneva, the centre will become operational from March.  Valletta, the capital of Malta officially named European Capital of Culture 2018. Valletta will share the title with Leeuwarden, a city in the Netherlands.  Underwater archaeologists and divers in Mexico have announced that they found a passage connecting two underwater caves, creating what they say is the worlds largest flooded cave.  According to official data released, Chinas economy grew a forecast-beating 6.9 per cent in 2017, picking up steam for the first time since 2010 despite its battles against a massive debt and polluting factories.  In an attempt to fight air pollution, China has constructed an experimental air purifying tower, touted to be the worlds biggest at a height of over 100 meters (328 feet).  India, for the first time, took part in a meeting of the international military cooperation departments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Beijing, China, since joining the bloc last year.  India has extended a fresh financial assistance of USD 45.27 million for upgrading Kankesanthurai (KKS) Harbour in northern Sri Lanka into a commercial port and strengthening the countrys efforts to become a regional maritime hub.  India has contributed $50,000 to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterress Office of Envoy on Youth to help with its mission of involving young people in the world bodys goals.

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 The worlds largest solar-thermal power plant has been given development approval by the South Australian government. Construction on the 150-megawatt Aurora plant, to be built by utility-scale solar power company SolarReserve, will begin in 2018 at an estimated cost of $509 million.  Iran has banned teaching the English language in primary schools, calling the subject a cultural invasion.  The United Arab Emirates has made a record by opening the worlds longest zip line, measuring 2.83 kms in length. Guinness World Records officials certified the zip line in Ras al-Khaimah.  Canadas Upper House of Parliament has passed a bill to modify the countrys national anthem in a bid to make it gender-neutral. The words thy sons command in the second line of the anthem will be replaced with all of us command.  The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the worlds smallest rocket with the ability to put a micro-satellite into orbit, following a failed attempt and several postponements over the last year.  Rwanda has become the first low-income country to provide universal eye care for its 12 million population.  Sri Lanka celebrated its 70th Independence Day (4 February 2018). It was on this day in 1948 that Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, gained independence from 133 years of British colonial rule.  Nepalese tea has finally received an international trademark, over 154 years after cultivation began in the country.  Dubai International, DXB, has retained its position as the worlds number one airport for international passengers for the fourth consecutive year with annual traffic for 2017 reaching 88.2 million passengers.  Bermuda has become the first country to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage, in what critics have called an unprecedented rollback of civil rights by the British island territory.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the first Hindu temple in the United Arab Emirates capital, which is home to a huge Indian diaspora.  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz who inaugurated the prestigious National Heritage and Culture Festival Janadriyah in Riyadh, at which India is the guest of honour country.  Dubai witnessed 15 percent growth in tourist arrivals from India in 2017, hosting 2.1 million visitors, retaining top spot as the source market.  PM Narendra Modi visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Philippines and inaugurated Shri Narendra Modi Resilient Rice Field Laboratory.  Ayodhya Mahotsav, depicting the cultural heritage of the temple town, would be staged in Seoul and Gimhe cities of South Korea next year. In return, a Korea Festival will be held in Lucknow and Ayodhya.  India has pledged to contribute about USD 2.87 million to Afghanistan in its latest financial assistance to the neighbouring country.  Developing countries will receive $540 million to continue their work in phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals, according to UN Environment Programme (UNEP).  Fake news, a term heavily popularised by US President Donald Trump, has been named the word of the year by Collins dictionary due to its widespread use around the world. It was found that the use of this word registered a 365 per cent rise in the last 12 months. Fake News - false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting. Last year, term selected was – BREXIT.  US grants $500k to promote religious freedom in India, Sri Lanka  United Nations hosts first talks on use of killer robots in Geneva  A Curtain Raiser Event for the Founding Ceremony of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was held in Bonn, Germany.

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 Sarajevo Haggadah, the 14th- century richly illuminated Hebrew manuscript, which was brought to Sarajevo through the efforts of Jews fleeing persecution in Spain, has been included in UNESCOs Memory of the World Register.  Kazakhstan is changing its name to Qazaqstan as part of a transition from Cyrillic to a Latin-based script. A national commission will be set up to oversee the transition, which will be completed by 2025.  A female bottlenose dolphin named Nana, thought to be around 47 years old, has died at a Japanese aquarium  A five-ship Indian naval training flotilla, based in Kerala is on a visit to Sri Lanka to foster bridges of friendship between the two countries and expose their trainees to foreign waters.  China unveiled one of the worlds coolest library with more than one million books to readers. It is located in the Binhai Cultural District in Tianjin, China.  China has unveiled Asias largest artificial island-building ship.  China has launched worlds first all-electric ship that can travel up to 80 km with 2000-tonnes cargo after a two- hour charge.  China, which on its way to emerge as a Space Superpower, has claimed be the first nation to make contact with alien life using the worlds largest radio dish.  Guinea becomes new member of International Solar Alliance  Typhoon Damrey arrives in Vietnam  Nepal inaugurated a bridge built with Indias financial assistance of USD 430,626 on the Kaligandaki river near China border.  Nepal scraps 1200-MW Budhigandaki Hydroelectric project with China  Nepal Electricity Authority, NEA has signed a joint venture agreement with a Chinese company to construct 750 MW West Seti hydropower Project.  Scientists have developed the worlds first artificial intelligence politician that can answer a persons queries regarding local issues such as policies around housing, education and immigration. The virtual politician, called SAM, was created by Nick Gerritsen, a 49-year-old entrepreneur in New Zealand.  Syria has officially signed up to the Paris Agreement, leaving only the United States as the only country to reject the global climate-rescue pact.  The Saudi Ministry of Trade and Industry declared that Yoga has been listed under sports activities. National News  Russias Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited India.  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is back in power for the sixth straight term in Gujarat and also it has won the Himachal Pradesh Elections. With this, the party now controls 19 of the 29 states.  The Union Cabinet approved a Bill that makes instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat a criminal offence and a Muslim husband resorting to instant talaq can be jailed for up to three years. This Bill will adjudicate all cases of instant triple talaq across the country except Jammu and Kashmir.  At least 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be taking part in the 2018 Republic Day celebrations as chief guests.  In a bid to give users timely updates from verified users such as celebrities and organisations directly from the source, Google announced the launch of Posts feature in India.  The government informed the Lok Sabha that it had so far infused a capital of Rs 51,858 crore in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) under its Indradhanush Plan since 2015-16.

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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Ockhi affected Lakshwadeep, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to take stock of situation, and met affected people. There he announced a relief package of Rs 325 crore for all 3 states and ex- gratia assistance of Rs. 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.  The government has approved setting up of a total 42 Mega Food Parks in the country to create modern infrastructure for food processing.  The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi has approved setting up of National Nutrition Mission (NNM) with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18.  India won the election to the Council of International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in Category-B which represents the developing countries and countries with largest interests in international sea-borne trade.  Centre announced Rs 90,000 crore for improving roads and national highways in the Northeast in the next two to three years to facilitate better connectivity.  The Government has decided to make additional market borrowing of only 50,000 crore in the remaining period of the current fiscal year to meet expenditure.  Keen to strengthen bilateral relations even more, Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on a six- day visit along with the largest business delegation that has ever accompanied an Israeli premier on an overseas tour.  India has missed the 2017 deadline that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced for elimination of Kala Azar (black fever) in his Budget speech last year. In fact, endemic blocks have increased from 61 to 68 in 17 districts of Bihar and Jharkhand.  The Ministry of Women and Child Development has developed web portals TrackChild and Khoya-Paya to track the missing and found children. The TrackChild Portal is implemented in association with various stakeholders including Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Railways, State Governments/UT Administrations, Child Welfare Committees, Juvenile Justice Boards, National Legal Services Authority, etc. and the Khoya-Paya has been integrated as a citizen corner on TrackChild portal.  Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi launched a web portal, NARI, which will provide information on all government schemes for women. Users can log on to www.nari.nic.in to access information on different programmes offered by various state governments as well as the Centre. Gandhi also unveiled a website for NGOs called e-SAMVAD, an interactive portal allowing NGOs to contact the ministry and share their feedback, suggestions, grievances and their best practices.  Union Government has launched the Cyber Surakshit Bharat Yojna to strengthen cyber security. It will be operated on the three principles of awareness, education and enablement.  Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot launched 100 accessible websites for Divyangs. These 100 government websites are now divyang friendly.  The Centre has sanctioned projects over 10,000 crore rupees in the North East for better network connectivity. 2 MoUs have been signed to cover the uncovered areas in the North East including Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.  The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has approved the construction of 1.12 lakh more affordable houses for urban poor under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). Under PMAY(U), the government targets to provide houses to all urban poor by 2022. Currently, the shortage of houses is pegged at 1.2 crore. Later in the month, Ministry approved the construction of 5,45,090 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) with an investment of Rs. 31,003 cr with central assistance of Rs. 8,107 cr.

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 The goeet has appoed ₹, oe fo poidig iteet oetiity to people i all ga pahayats under BharatNet project.  Centre released Rs 24,500 crore to compensate states post GST. Karnataka got maximum compensation from the Centre at Rs 3,271 crore, followed by Gujarat (Rs 2,282 crore) and Punjab (Rs 2,098 crore).  The Centre has sanctioned 1250 crore rupees for the development of transport sector of Assam.  Home Ministry has released 167 crore rupees to nine states with international border for the development of infrastructure in forward areas. States - Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal.  The home ministry has released Rs 174 crore to six states having an international border for development of infrastructure in forward areas. States - Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.  The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a new skill development scheme (Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)), covering the textile sectors entire value chain excluding spinning and weaving in the organised sector, from 2017-18 to 2019-20 at an outlay of Rs 1,300 crore.  Government launched project DARPAN- Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for a New India in New Delhi. DARPAN will provide low-power technology solution which will enable each of around 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers. It is targeted to complete the project by March 2018.  Ministry of Environment and Forests has launched a pilot project named Blue Flag for beach cleanup and development. The objective of the project is to enhance standards of cleanliness and upkeep basic amenities at beaches.  Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched first NIC-CERT, a setup of National Informatics Centre to prevent and predict cyber attacks on government utilities.  With the motto to improve labour room quality, the government has launched LaQshya, a safe delivery mobile application for health workers who manage normal and complicated deliveries in peripheral areas.  India has announced a development assistance of $25 million for Myanmars Rakhine State, from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims recently fled following incidents of violence against the community.  The centres ambitious Ganga Gram Project, aimed at holistic development of villages situated along the bank of the holy river, was launched in New Delhi.  A new LIGO gravitational wave detector to measure ripples in the fabric of space and time is set to be built in India by 2025, in collaboration with universities from across the globe.  Madame Tussauds has debuted in Delhi, with 50 wax models of Indian and international celebrities. Waxworks of Bollywood actors, sports stars, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and father of the Indian nation Mahatma Gandhi are on display at the museum. The Delhi centre is the 23rd museum for Madame Tussauds.  An online platform, electronic-Human Resource Management System (e-HRMS), has been launched for central government employees to apply for leave and access their service-related information.  Agriculture Ministry launched Livestock Disease Forewarning –Mobile Application (LDF-Mobile App).  Nirmala Sitharaman has launched a start-up incubation centre called the Centre for Entrepreneurship Opportunities and Learning (CEOL) in Mangaluru, Karnataka.

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 To combat climate change, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has approved a regional project on Climate Resilience Building among Farmers through Crop Residue Management under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC).  India will be establishing a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology (CEIT) at Al Azhar University, Egypts highest religious authority and one of the worlds most eminent seats of Sunni Muslim learning.  Cyclone Ockhi hit southern Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep  Government of India increased the budget of Agricultural Education by 47.4% this year as compared to the financial year 2013-14.  Indias Kumbh Mela (held in Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik) has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.  Centre offers Rs 2.5 lakh for every inter-caste marriage with a Dalit  With 19 countries ratifying its framework agreement, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) headquartered Gurugram became the first treaty-based international government organisation to be based in India. Australia is the 19th member to join ISA.  In the World Energy Access report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA), IES has said that India will achieve electricity for all by early 2020s.  India has been admitted as the 42nd member of the Wassenaar Arrangement, a global export control regime.  Kacheguda Railway Station (in Hyderabad) under the South Central Railway (SCR) has earned the unique distinction of being the first Energy Efficient A1 Category Railway Station on Indian Railways.  The waste management system being implemented in Keralas coastal town of Alappuzha, often called the Venice of East, has been recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of the five models across the world for fighting the pollution menace.  A Public Procurement Portal MSME Sambandh was launched by the government for MSME in New Delhi.  India has been declared free from infective Trachoma which is a contagious bacterial infection of the eye. It causes inflamed granulation on the inner surface of the lids.  With an aim to bring foreign policy to the masses the External Affairs Ministry has come up with an initiative – SAMEEP – Students and MEA Engagement Programme. Under this MEA officials will talk to students to help them better understand foreign policy.  UN Women in collaboration with Facebook inaugurated a two day event in Mumbai titled We The Women to empower and recognise the magnificent contribution of women in our society.  The Union Cabinet approved the Ministry of Railways transformative initiative to set up the first ever National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) in Gujarats Vadodara.  Indias first pod taxi project is going to get completed. The pojeted ₹,-crore pod taxi scheme — also known as Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) — is a dream project of Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, and the NHAI has been mandated to execute it on Delhi-Gurgaon pilot corridor (12.3 km) from Delhi-Haryana border to Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon on a PPP (public-private partnership) basis.  India has provided medical assistance worth about $1 million to Yemen in response to a request from the Yemeni government.  Patanjali has been ranked as Indias most trusted Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Brand by the Brand Trust Report India Study 2017 and has been announced as the most attractive brand in India.

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 The Indian Navy in collaboration with the Sri Lankan navy successfully completed the second phase of the joint oceanographic survey conducted off the South Western Coast of Sri Lanka.  The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has launched month long Saksham 2018 (Sanrakshan Kshamta Mahotsav).  The Union Health Ministry launched the nations first digital Online Oncology Tutorial Series, which aims to train doctors across the country in early detection, prevention, palliation, rehabilitation and treatment of various cancers.  Union Information Technology and Electronics Ministry launched the Stree Swabhiman Initiative to ensure and maintain perfect health for Women and maintain Health Hygiene. Under this initiative, Common Service Centres (CSC) will provide access to affordable, reliable and modern (eco-friendly) sanitary napkins (menstrual pads) to adolescent girls and women in rural areas.  The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has planned to set up a Social Media Communication Hub that would help it keep a tab on trending news in districts and gather feedback on the Centres flagship schemes.  People with autism, mental illnesses, intellectual disability and victims of acid attacks will now get quota in central government jobs.  Government has sought views and suggestions of people from all walks of life to move ahead on the idea. The government has launched MyGov platform where it invites citizens, members of civil society, journalists, students, teachers, police officers, government employees, Parliamentarians, academics experts, bureaucrats, social media influencers, think tanks and all other interested people to give their considered view on the subject.  Environment Minister Harshvardhan launched a 2.8 PetaFlops capacity high-performance computer system Mihir in Noida. The system will be able to predict weather and climate accurately.  Union Minister of Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan dedicated Indias fastest and first multi-petaflops supercomputer to the nation in . The supercomputer named as Pratyush meaning the Sun, is established at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.  Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar released the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) for the year 2016-17 in New Delhi. According to this survey, the number of students enrolling for higher education in India saw a marginal 0.7 per cent increase in 2016-17.  India has excluded Pakistan from the list of SAARC member countries with which it will be connecting its state-of- the-art National Knowledge Network (NKN) for sharing scientific databases and remote access to advanced research facilities.  India and Vietnam released first ever set of commemorative postage stamps to mark the long-term friendly bilateral relationships between the two countries.  India has offered to enhance rural connectivity in fellow Association of Southeast Asian Nations during the ASEAN- India Commemorative Summit. PM Modi proposed the ASEAN countries declare 2019 as the ASEAN-India Year of Tourism.  India has joined the Australia Group export control regime and has become the 43rd Member of that Group. It is an informal forum which seeks to ensure that exports do not contribute to the development of chemical or biological weapons.  Government announced the list of nine new Smart Cities, which have emerged winners in Round 4. These nine cities are, Silvassa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Erode in Tamil Nadu, Diu in Daman and Diu, Bihar Sharif in Bihar, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Kavaratti in Lakshadweep.

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 The Hindi Word of the Year as announced by Oxford Dictionaries for 2017 is AADHAAR. Aadhaar also becomes the first Oxford Dictionaries Hindi Word of the Year.  For the first time, a vaccine conceived and developed from scratch in India has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation. The Rotavac vaccine, developed by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited last year, was included in Indias national immunisation programme.  Maitre-2 a second passenger bus to Kolkata via Dhaka is started from Agartala, Tripura, to give a boost to the trans- border relationship between India and Bangladesh.  The I4Fund Call for Proposal was announced with the joint launch of the website and the unveiling of the brochure by the two PMs (Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu). The India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund (I4F) was announced in July, 2017.  The Jewish community marked Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Mumbai visit with the launch of Namaste Shalom, a regular monthly magazine on bilateral relations between the two friendly nations.  The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) decided to enable Face Authentication in fusion mode on registered devices by July 1, so that people facing difficulty in other existing modes of verification such as fingerprints, iris, and one-time-password (OTP) could easily authenticate.  According to National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), recently released by the ministry of health and family welfare, Jains are the wealthiest religious community in India. Delhi and Punjab are the richest states. Bihar is the poorest.  The central government has advised the nation not to use a national flag made of plastic and asked all the states and union territories (UTs) to ensure strict compliance of the Flag Code in view of the Republic Day celebration ahead.  In major changes liberalising foreign direct investment in key sectors, the Union Cabinet approved 100 per cent foreign investment in single brand retail trading (SBRT) and construction development and decided to open up Air India for FDI up to 49 per cent.  In a major digital initiative to help plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations, Railways have launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation and Real Time Information, SFOORTI, App for freight managers.  In an attempt to address security and privacy concerns around leakage of Aadhaar numbers and data, the Unique Identification Authority of India introduced two new measures – virtual ID and limited KYC. The virtual identity or virtual ID will be a random 16-digit number mapped to the Aadhaar number of a citizen, and will come with an expiration date. The VID will not be duplicable by agencies performing authentication of Aadhaar number, and hence will ensure safety of the Aadhaar number.  External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and s Minister of Foreign Affairs Lyonpo Damcho Dorji on Friday jointly unveiled the Special logo for the Golden Jubilee celebrations in New Delhi and Thimphu through video-conference.  In a first in independent Indias history and a first for the Supreme Court of India, four judges addressing the media, appealed to the nation to save their institution if they wanted democracy in the country to survive.  Airpocalypse II, a report by environmental NGO Greenpeace India shows Delhi to be the most polluted and Hassan in Karnataka to have the cleanest air.  India has contributed an additional $1 million to the India-UN Development Partnership Fund earmarked for South- South cooperation.

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 The Cete has eleased ₹, oe to States ad uio teitoies ude the speial assistae to sheduled castes sub plan till January end of the current fiscal.  The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the implementation of the Prime Ministers Research Fellows (PMRF) scheme with an outlay of Rs 1,650 crore for seven years beginning 2018-19.  The central government has approved a project to abate pollution of river Sal at Navelim in Goa at an estimated cost of Rs 61.7 crore.  In its Meeting held on 18th January, 2018, the GST Council had recommended reduction of GST rate on services by way of admission to Amusement Parks including theme parks, water parks, joy rides, merry-go-rounds, go-carting and ballet from 28% to 18%. These services hitherto attracted GST @ 28%.  Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched Green Good Deeds campaign. The campaign launched by the ministry aims to sensitise the people and students, in particular, about climate change and global warming.  Power Ministry launched a web-based monitoring system and a fly-ash mobile application. It will act as an interface between producers and consumers. The ASH TRACK Mobile App will manage 200 million tonnes of fly ash by tracking coal-based power plants situated within 100 km and 300 km from given location and availability of fly ash.  India has joined Ashgabat Agreement on the establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor between the Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.  Indian Railways all new 12,000 horsepower electric locomotive — being produced in collaboration with Alstom of France and which can run at speeds of up to 120 kmph — would be rolled out in March when French President Emmanuel Macron visits India.  The government has made Permanent Account Number (PAN) mandatory for any entity conducting financial tasatios of ₹. lakh o more. Adding that an Aadhaar-like identity number is being developed for enterprises, the government said PAN will also be used as a Unique Entity Number for non-individuals from April 1.  The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy under its scheme Development of Solar Cities has approved/sanctioned 60 Cities including 13 Pilot and 5 Model Cities up to 12th Five-year Plan period.  The government launched the Start-up-India ranking framework to help the Startup India initiative to drive economic growth of the country.  Laying emphasis on building infrastructure along the Indo-Pak and Sino-India borders, the government has satioed ealy ₹ oe to the BSF ad the ITBP fo ostutio of ukes ad speial liate- controlled huts in forward areas.  On January 20, Mumbai airport (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport) created a new world record for single-runway operations by handling 980 arrivals and take-offs in 24 hours, or almost one flight every minute!  Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu were the top rankers in NITI Aayogs latest Health Index report which has, for the first time, attempted to establish an annual systematic tool to measure and understand the heterogeneity and complexity of the nations performance in the health sector.  India first country to partner with Facebook on disaster response.  The ₹ uey ote completed 100 years on 30 Nov, 2017, after the first note, which was printed in England, was issued on November 30, 1917 in India. The note was launched because the silver used fo ₹ ois as eig used to ake eapoy opoets duig Wold Wa I. Notaly, he the ote as issued, ₹ as euialet to .g of silver. Since 1917 to 2017, there have been 125 different One Rupee notes that have been issued for circulation with different serial numbers and signatures.

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 The Union Cabinet approved Indias membership for European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a move which will help it obtain funding in various areas including services and manufacturing.  Government approved new scheme called Mahila Shakti Kendra and expanded the umbrella scheme Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women for a period 2017-18 to 2019-20.  Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2017 was held in Hyderabad between November 28 and November 30. This years Summit highlighted the theme Women First, Prosperity for All. Mitra, a made-in-India robot developed by Bengaluru-based Invento Robotics, declared the start of GES 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US First daughter Ivanka Trump inaugurated the event by pressing a button on the bot.  Government launched a new mobile app — UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) which will allow citizens to access Government services on a single platform. App has been developed by SpiceDigital.  Under Ek Bharat-Shreshtha Bharat Yojana, Madhya Pradesh has been made partner of Manipur and Nagaland.  Ministry of Human Resources Development has launched a Digital Signature campaign on Constitution Day affirming faith in Indian Constitution and to generate awareness on fundamental duties enshrined in the Constitution.  The Centre approved setting up of Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendras across 115 most backward districts of the country for reaching out to rural women and facilitating skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition.  The government has given the go-ahead for setting up Indias first mega coastal economic zone (CEZ) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Maharashtra as part of a plan to develop 14 such industrial clusters to spur manufacturing and generate jobs.  The Ministry of Finance increased the maximum age of joining the National Pension System (NPS) from the existing 60 years to 65 years under NPS – Private Sector (i.e. all citizen and corporate model).  Goa ranks top, Bihar at bottom of Gender Vulnerability Index released by Child development NGO Plan India.  According to a joint study by Assocham and EY, India is home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world.  Railways has launched the main arch of the worlds highest bridge on the River Chenab in Jammu and Kashmirs Reasi district which will provide direct connectivity to the Kashmir valley.  The Inter-State Council, which is mandated to investigate and advise on disputes between states, has been reconstituted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman and six Union ministers and all chief ministers as members. According to a gazette notification, the Union ministers who will be members of the reconstituted council are Rajnath Singh (home), Sushma Swaraj (external affairs), Arun Jaitley (finance), Nitin Gadkari (road transport), Thaawar Chand Gehlot (social justice and empowerment) and Nirmala Sitharaman (defence).  Cabinet approved extension of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) as RKVY- for fiscals 2017-18 to 2019-20. The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied sector Rejuvenation (RKVY- RAFTAAR) will incentivise states in increasing allocations to agricultural and allied sectors to boost farm output. The financial allocation of the scheme will be Rs 15,722 crore.  Power and New & Renewable Energy Ministry, launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana – Saubhagya Web Portal.

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 World Food India 2017 - launched Nivesh Bandhu, an Investor Facilitation Portal. Karnataka was the focus State. Chef Sanjeev Kapoor was named brand ambassador for World Food Indias Food Street. Germany, Japan and Denmark were partner countries to World Food India, while Italy and the Netherlands were the focus countries.  A Pan India scholarship program for school children called Deen Dayal SPARSH Yojana has been launched by the government to increase the reach of Philately. SPARSH (Scholarship for Promotion of Aptitude & Research in Stamps as a Hobby)  Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has constructed the worlds highest motorable road in the cold desert of Ladakh.  Tata Steel has established Indias largest Coke Dry Quenching (CDQ) facility, capable of handling 200 metric tonnes per hour, at its state-of-the-art steel plant at Kalinganagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur district of Odisha.  The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) in its document called New India @2022 anticipated a New India by 2022 that will be free from poverty, dirt, corruption, terrorism, casteism and communalism  The government made installation of FASTag, a rechargeable card that uses passive radio frequency identification (RFID ) technology to debit toll charges automatically, mandatory for all four-wheel automobiles sold from December 1.  The government has more than tripled the maximum amount that a central government employee can borrow from the government to Rs 25 lakh, from Rs 7.50 lakh earlier.  India sets Guinness Record for cooking 918 kgs of Khichdi at the World Food India 2017 event.  The Indian Institute of Management (IIMB) opened its campus to an Israel Centre which is aimed at becoming a bridge of academic collaboration between India and Israel.  India has pledged an additional USD 100 million towards the UN partnership fund, significantly scaling up its support to sustainable development projects across the developing world.  Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Railways & Coal launched Grahak Sadak Vitaran App benefitting customers of Coal India Limited (CIL) lifting coal through road mode.  Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi launched SHe-box (sexual harassment electronic box), an online portal for registering complaint related to sexual harassment in non-government and government organisations.  Unesco, the UN cultural organisation, has included Chennai in its list of Creative Cities for its contribution to music. Chennai is the third Indian city on the list of UNESCO Creative Cities list after Jaipur and Varanasi.  Google Arts and Culture unveils its first lab experiment in India in Mumbai.  A new passenger train between West Bengal and Bangladesh, Bandhan Express, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina via video conferencing. The train will connect Kolkata to Khulna in Bangladesh. This will be the second train to run between the two countries after Maitree Express that runs between Dhaka and Kolkata.  Northeast to get Indias first air dispensary.  Number of pilgrims visiting the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir limited to 50,000 a day, to avoid any mishap.  WCD Ministry to hosted Hausala 2017 to Celebrate Child Rights Week from 16-20 November 2017.  The government has launched phase 2 of BharatNet to connect 1.5 lakh gram panchayats with high-speed broadband by March 2019. Phase 1 of BharatNet set to complete by the end of 2017.  Railways to start 9-month upskilling exercise named Project Sakshamfor employees in January

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 The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced $1 million to create awareness about Tuberculosis (TB) to help India in its fight against the disease. The move would support Prime Minister Modis ultimate goal of securing a TB-free India by 2025.  Worlds first Sanskrit 3D film Anurakthi was among the main attraction in 3D category at the International Film Festival of India in Panaji in Goa.  Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar launched the Jai Kisaan App, a farmer engagement app packed with features and functions to fulfill the needs of the farmers community in India.  The Eastern Railways has pressed Indias first Swarna Rajdhani rake - Sealdah – New Delhi Rajdhani . Indian Railways decided to upgrade Premium Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains under Project Swarna.  Tata Power Solar has commissioned Indias first rooftop solar car port at Unity One mall in Rohini, Delhi.  Bombay Stock Exchange Institute Ltd. (BIL), has signed an MoU with DLT Labs in Mumbai to set up the countrys first state-of-the-art Block Chain Lab in an institution.  Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has collaborated with app-based taxi aggregator Ola to launch the countrys first electric charging station at one of its petrol/diesel stations in Nagpur.  Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has sent a proposal to United Nations for declaring 2018 as International Year of Millets to raise awareness among consumers, policy makers, industry and research sector.  Sri Lankan PM Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in Bengaluru on 4 day visit to India.  A biographical film on the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal titled An Insignificant Man was finally released on November 17, 2017. The film has been directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vina Shukla.  A two-day Korea festival showcasing Koreas rich art, culture and heritage was inaugurated by Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) Executive Vice President Min Hong Min at the Ambience Mall in Gurugram, Haryana.  According to the state-wise analysis of state of women entrepreneurship in the country by Sheatwork, a knowledge hub for women entrepreneurs, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of women entrepreneurs in India, followed by Kerala and West Bengal

FROM BUDGET 2018:  According to Union Budget 2018-19, the government will develop two defence industrial production corridors. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the first corridor will link Chennai and Bengaluru and will pass through Coimbatore and several other industrial clusters.  The Union Budget tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has allotted Rs 771.54 crore for electrification of 881 km of rail network in West Bengal.  The development of 800 MW advanced ultra super critical thermal power plant project got Rs 100 crore for next year from the Department of Heavy Industry with a target to finalise the turbine design, as per 2018-19 budget papers.  The union government has allocated Rs 5,252 crore in the Union Budget 2018-19 for railway projects in the state as against the states demand for Rs 6,500 crore.

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State News

Andhra Pradesh  President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Naval Maritime Aircraft Museum in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh featuring the maritime patrol aircraft Tupolev-142M, which served the Navy for almost three decades.  The Andhra Pradesh Government in association with the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is planning to establish a centre of excellence for children with learning differences as well as a gaming for e-learning hub. It will be the first of the its kind in India and in Asia-Pacific region.  Indias first Electronic Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) will be coming to Andhra Pradesh.  Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu declared 2018 as Telugu promotion year.  The Andhra Pradesh Government and the Canton of Zurich have signed a letter of intent, to promote mutual prosperity and development.  Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched the e-Pragati CORE platform, which will be a common portal for all citizen services online.  The Andhra Pradesh Government and the NITI Aayog have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Amaravati to develop an online dashboard for the 115 most backward districts in the country.  The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to hold the first-of-its-kind, one-day Pelican Festival at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on Kolleru.

Arunachal Pradesh  Arunachal Pradesh has been declared Open Defecation Free. It has become the second state in the North East after Sikkim to achieve the status with the declaration of Upper Subansiri, Siang, and Changlang districts as officially Open Defecation Free.  Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu inaugurated the World War II Memorial Museum in the states Changlang district bordering Myanmar.  Etikoppaka toys of Andhra, popularly known as Lakkapidathalu, have received Geographical Indication by the Registration of Geographical Indication, categorised in class 20 of the toys category.  The Araku valley near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh hosted the first edition of its Hot Air Balloon Festival.

Assam  In a bid to add more dynamism to Assam governments initiatives of financial inclusion and bringing all sections of the people under the ambit of banking sector and cashless transaction, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal ceremonially launched the Chah Bagichar Dhan Puraskar Mela 2017-18.  Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi released a postage stamp on legendary footballer Dr Talimeren Ao during his birth centenary. Ao was instrumental in popularising football in Assam. He was captain of the Indian football team in their first official match in the 1948 London Olympics.  The first ever Namami Barak festival was held at Silchar in Assam.  In Assam, Uruka was being celebrated on 13th January 2018 on the eve of Bhogali Bihu, the post-harvest festival.

Bihar  Bihar government has launched Safe City Surveillance Scheme for keeping the crimes against women in check.

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 Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar laid foundation stones for more than 100 projects worth Rs 700 crore in Nalanda district as part of his state-wide Vikas Samiksha Yatra.  Bihar government has banned manufacture, distribution, sale, purchase, display, and advertisement of electronic cigarettes in the state. Anyone violating the ban will attract a jail term of up to 3 years, the government notification stated.  Sonepur cattle fair, considered as Asias largest such, kicked-off in Bihar.  The Bihar government gave its nod for setting up a State Ayush Society to give a boost to alternative medicine in the state.

Chhattisgarh  Jokapatha village, a tribal village in Chhattisgarhs Balrampur district has got electricity connection for the first time. The village had been deprived of power supply since independence.  The Union Government sanctioned Rs 696 crores to eight Naxal affected districts of Chhattisgarh for three years under its Special Central Assistance Scheme.

Delhi  Dr Ambedkar International Centre inaugurated by PM Modi in New Delhi.  The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has launched a new scheme for the poor that will allow them to buy meal for Rs 10 from the civic bodys kiosks during the day.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu attended a ceremony at the Teen Murti Memorial in Delhi to mark the renaming of Teen Murti Chowk as Teen Murti Haifa Chowk.  Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal launched a common card for rides on public buses and the metro. Delhi is the first city in the country to have a common mobility card.  Mobile App 311 was launched by Delhis Lt Governor Anil Baijal. It is a mobile application of the three municipal corporations of Delhi (MCD) that was launched in a bid to enhance engagement of citizens in resolution of grievances and improvement of civic services in the city.  The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in collaboration with the Environmental Sanitation Institute and Tata Trusts, has developed a Sanitation Park which was inaugurated in Delhi.  Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd installed the Nobel Memorial Wall at Rajiv Chowk metro station for the seventh consecutive year.  The Delhi government signed a twin city agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government for strengthening cooperation in the fields of e-governance, transportation, climate change and smart city.

Gujarat  Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a unique world-class hospital at the Swaminarayan Gurukul Vidyapeeth Pratisthanam in Ahmedabad.  The Animal Husbandry department of Gujarat government has banned all voluntary animal care and non- government organisations working under the Karuna Abhiyan to operate in residential areas during the Uttarayan festival this year.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on a visit to India, have inaugurated the iCreate centre in Ahmedabads Deo Dholera Village.  Gujarat has topped a perception-based index of mobility of goods and efficiency of logistics chain, closely followed by Punjab and Andhra Pradesh.

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 Amaazia, Indias first Cartoon Network branded amusement park, will open in Surat, Gujarat in the first quarter of 2019.

Haryana  Haryana Government launched the Bhavantar Bharpai—a scheme through which the state government would compensate farmers for price deficit for vegetable produce.  Haryana (with 69 per cent score) has topped the list in the ease of doing business rankings, according to government data. It is followed by Telangana (68.46) and Gujarat (67.74).  Indias first and only design university, World University of Design opened it campus at Sonipat, Haryana. WUD is Indias first university dedicated to education in the creative domain.  The Haryana tourism department disclosed that Uttar Pradesh would be the theme state for the 32nd Surajkund International Crafts Mela, which would be organized at Surajkund, Faridabad from February 2 to 15. Apart from all other states, about 24 countries would also participate in it.  The Haryana government has decided to form a non-banking financial company (NBFC) — Haryana State Financial Services Limited — to act as an in-house treasury manager for efficient management of surplus funds of State public enterprises and autonomous bodies.  Haryana has achieved the distinction of becoming the first state in the country to launch high-risk pregnancy portal.  The Haryana government has launched the Gobardhan Yojana to provide for the sale of organic manure and cow urine with an aim to benefit farmers.  The Haryana government announced lifetime monthly pension to the Hindi satyagrahis and those from the state who were jailed during the Emergency in 1975, hiked financial assistance to veterans of the Second World War (WW-II) and their widows, and provide 10-hour power supply to the agriculture sector.  Haryana first state to treat Hepatitis-C patients with oral medicine  Gurugram to have North Indias biggest butterfly park  Worlds biggest toilet pot model was unveiled at Marora, popularly known as the Trump village, in Mewat region, near Gurugram, Haryana on the World Toilet Day in a bid to create awareness towards sanitation and use of toilets.  The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the International Gita Mahotsava-2017 in Kurukshetra, Haryana.

Himachal Pradesh  Cabinet approved the establishment of an AIIMS facility in Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, at a cost of Rs 1,351 crore.  Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur launched the Shakti app, which comes with a panic button, for womens safety here. The app was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Himachal Pradesh government.  In a significant decision after taking over as Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur announced setting up of a 24×7 helpline, called Gudiya, for women. He said special women cells would be created in all three police ranges in the state to deal with crime against women.  Himachal Pradesh hosted the International Lavi Fair at Rampur Bushahr in Shimla district. The 300-year-old Lavi fair is an important trade event between India and Tibet.

Jammu & Kashmir  Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir is celebrating Losar Festival from today (19th December 2017).  Cleared the Rs 6,808.69 crore strategic Zojila Tunnel project to provide all-weather connectivity to Kargil and Leh in Jammu and Kashmir which remain cut off from the rest of the country during the winter season.  First power plant under PM Ladakh scheme commissioned in Biaras Drass of Kargil in Jammu & Kashmir.

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Jharkhand  Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das launched Saubhagya Yojana, a programme that would provide electricity to all the 29,376 villages in the state.

Karnataka  Karnatakas capital city Bengaluru has become the first Indian city to have its own logo. The logo was designed by a design start-up and uses both English and Kannada alphabets.  The Karnataka government announced that Karnataka International Travel Expo (KITE) will be held from February 28, billing it as the largest B2B travel event in the country.  According to a survey conducted by Amazon Indias Annual Reading Trends Reports for 2017, Bengaluru has emerged as the most well read city in India, while Mumbai and Delhi stands at second and third position, respectively.  The President of India Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the 88th Mahamastakabhisheka Utsav of Lord Gomateshwara in Hassan district of Karnataka.

Kerala  Indias largest floating solar power plant inaugurated at the Banasura Sagar dam in Wayanad district, Kerala.  The Kerala government came out with a new Ordinance raising the minimum age for liquor consumption from 21 to 23.  Kerala government launched She Pad, a scheme to distribute free sanitary napkins to girl students from classes VI to XII in government and aided private schools affiliated to the state school board.  The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), common platform of 21 countries including India and geographically bordering Indian Ocean, is to set up a Centre of Excellence in Kochi. hHeadquarters of IORA is located at Ebene, Mauritius.

Lakshadweep  India is all set to get its first runway on a sea bridge soon, as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has been given a nod to extend Lakshadweeps Agatti Airport.

Madhya Pradesh  As part of the Ekatm Yatra, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan flagged off a mobile museum, showcasing various aspects of the life of Adi Shankaracharya, from the home of the saints mother near Kochi, Kerala.  The Madhya Pradesh government launched a mobile application pollution metre to spread awareness against pollution in the western part of the state.

Maharashtra  The countrys first AC local left Borivali station for its maiden journey to Churchgate in Mumbai on 25th December, 2017.  Comprising about 24 per cent of the total cess collections of Rs 30,224 crore under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Maharashtra and then Uttar Pradesh are the top contributors among states and Union Territories in the first five months of the rollout of the GST regime.  One launched the first mobile security product, SecuCare app to make commuters more secure. With the help of this app, a commuter can click pictures or make videos which will get directly transmitted to the Central Security Control Room.

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 The Maharashtra government launched `Balasaheb Thackeray Shaheed Sanmaan scheme, under which family members of martyrs would be provided jobs with the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC).  Railways Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the Railways will set up a coach factory in Maharashtras Latur district. The new coach plant will create an industrial ecosystem in the drought-prone region boosting shift from agriculture to industry.  Maharashtra government has approved Ghodazari in Chandrapur district as a new wildlife sanctuary in the state.  The Maharashtra government has decided to set up a Transgender Welfare Board to protect their Constitutional and human rights. This will make Maharashtra the first Indian state to have such a board.  The restored Royal Opera House, located at Mumbais Charni Road, has received the Award of Merit from the 2017 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. The building, which was closed to the public in 1993 and reopened in 2016, was restored by architect Abha Narain Lambah.  The Maharashtra government has set up a seven-member committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sudhir Shrivastava to recommend ways to stop the custodial deaths.  Maharashtra government, in a bid to become plastic-free state from March 2018, has banned packaged water bottles in Mantralaya and other government offices.

Manipur  Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh inaugurated a two-day India-Myanmar media interaction programme in Imphal.

Meghalaya  Meghalaya became the first state in India to operationalise a law that makes social audit of government programmes and schemes a part of government practice after the state government launched The Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017.

Nagaland  President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Hornbill Festival and State Formation Day celebrations of Nagaland in Kisama.  Nagaland scripted history when it became the first State in the Northeast to launch Point of Sale (POS) facility for electricity bill payment, where the mode of payment will be cashless.

Odisha  Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik unveiled the logo and mascot for the Hockey Mens World Cup 2018 at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.  The Centre has recognised Odisha as champion state for recording highest growth in exports during 2016-17.  Eastern Indias first compressed natural gas (CNG) stations inaugurated at Chandrasekharpur and Patia in Bhubaneswar, Odisha to supply CNG to vehicles.  CM Naveen Patnaik launched an online platform, Odisha e-Hospital Management Information System (OeHMIS), to provide efficient and hassle-free health services to the public.  Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has launched the Mukhyamantri Kalakar Sahayata Jojana (MMKSJ) – an assistance scheme for Artists in the state. Around 50,000 artists will be benefited from this.  The 12th International Film Festival on Art and Artist began in Odisha where Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called upon filmmakers to come forward to work on documentaries and biopics on the literary souls.  Indias first plant to convert coal to synthetic gas is to be set up in Odisha under the supervision of state-run gas transmission utility GAIL.

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 The annual Balijatra festival was inaugurated at the Gadagadia ghat in Cuttack on the banks of river Mahanadi.  Odisha government launched a scheme - Fish Pond Yojana - to boost fish production in the state with a budgetary provision of 96 crore rupees.  The Odisha government will launch a massive vaccination drive to combat killer Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in 13 districts of the state.  Odisha government has launched a new scheme, Nabakrushna Choudhury Seccha Unnayan Yojana worth Rs 635 crore to provide irrigation facility to about 55,000 hectare of agricultural land across the state.

Punjab  Punjab Chief Minister launched Mahatma Gandhi Sarbat Vikas Yojana, to release benefits and aimed at the inclusive growth of the distressed sections of the society.

Rajasthan  Fino Payments Bank has signed up Rajasthan governments Rajcomp as its corporate business correspondent to give banking services to people in the state.  Japan has decided to offer a grant worth 8.4 million Yen for the construction of a vocational training centre for poor women and youth in Rajasthans Baran district.  Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to offer free e-mail address in Hindi to its residents. The facility —[email protected] (in Devanagari script) — will lead to millions of new users who are not comfortable with English e-mail ids.  The third edition of international spice conference will be held at Jaipur, Rajasthan from February 4-7.  Minister of State (IC), for AYUSH, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik laid the foundation stone for Central Research Institute (CRI) in Jaipur, Rajasthan.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Rs 43,129 crore big-ticket refinery project in Barmer and said it will change the economic landscape of Rajasthan.  The Centre has sanctioned Rs 275 crore for establishing a Global Centre for Security and Counter-Terrorism in Jaipur, Rajasthan.  Rajasthan government has launched Dishari — an educational mobile application that provides free study materials for youths preparing for competitive examinations.

Tamil Nadu  India and Israel are coming together to set up a centre for excellence in floriculture at Thally in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.  Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the Centres plan to set up a defence manufacturing innovation centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.  Indias Second Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) Established in Chennai. 1st at Punjab.

Telangana  The Telangana Government announced a move to set up an exclusive innovation hub on the lines of T-Hub for women called WE-Hub, backing it with an exclusive Rs. 15-crore fund.  Telangana government will set up Worlds first Information Technology (IT) campus for persons with disabilities that will focus on creating employment opportunities for them.  Internet for every household in Telangana by December 2018  Telangana created history by becoming the first state in the country offering free power to farmers 24 hours a day.  Telangana governments prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) has finally got the green nod.

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 Union Cabinet approved the establishment of an International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography in Hyderabad by Unesco.  Telangana government has announced to launch a mobile application Urban Genie which will enable citizens in urban areas across the state to find certified technicians and workers.  Hyderabad once again launched a drive to turn Hyderabad into Beggar Free city which was earlier put to halt after rumors that the drive was initiated because of US president Donald Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump to the city.  The Telangana government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Clean Authority of Tokyo in connection with municipal solid waste incineration.  Telangana government has inaugurated countrys first National Park for people with special needs in Hyderabad.  Trademark Hyderabadi dishes biryani, baghare baingan, and seviyan have all made their way into India postage, with the Department of Post issuing stamps with photos of the same.  Telangana declared Urdu as the states second official language. First official language is Telugu.

Uttar Pradesh  Uttar Pradeshs Shamli district has been included in the national capital region, taking the total number of districts in the NCR to 23.  UP has become the first State to endorse the Central governments draft bill that makes instant triple talaq a cognisable and non-bailable offence.  UP government has launched a free household power connection scheme Prakash hai to vikas hai for the poor in the state to mark former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees birthday on 25th December.  UP government has proposed a Gita Research Institute for the study of the Bhagavad Gita which will be set up in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.  The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, laid the foundation stone of the Nyaya Gram project of the High Court of Allahabad in Allahabad.  The official Logo and tagline for Allahabad Kumbh Mela 2019 were released in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The logo comprises of temples, seers, a kalash & a Swastika. The tagline for Kumbh Mela 2019 is Chalo Chalo Chalo, Kumbh Chalo. It will be held in Allahabad.  A three-day international bird festival will be held at the Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh from February 9 with nearly 200 leading ornithologists expected to attend.  Agra Municipal Corporation has released a logo of Smart City Agra, showing the Taj Mahal and a peacock feather.  Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated the long-awaited Mahesra over bridge at Sonauli-Gorakhpur National highway (NH80). The bridge would connect Gorakhpur and other east UP districts to Nepal.  In Uttar Pradesh, State government in association with UNICEF launched massive door to door campaign DASTAK to eradicate deadly Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and Japanise Encephalitis disease in the state. The war cry of DASTAK is Darwaja khatkhatao, AES aur JE ko bhagao.  Uttar Pradesh cabinet decided to make Indias first conservation reserve for black buck in Allahabads Meja.  With an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 491 on the 500-point scale, Varanasi has become the most polluted Indian city among 42 cities, according to data from Central Pollution Control Board. 2nd - Gurugram.  Uttar Pradesh tops in opening new PMJDY accounts after demonetisation.

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Uttarakhand  The National Green Tribunal (NGT) reiterated its 2015 order banning the use, sale, manufacturing and storage of plastic items in the pilgrimage towns of Haridwar and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.  The Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,500 crore for three years to promote organic farming in Uttarakhand. This is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modis vision of developing Uttarakhand as an organic state which he spelt out during his visit to Kedarnath last year.

West Bengal  West Bengal Green University Bill 2017 for setting up an environmental studies university at Hooghly district. With this it has become the first state in India to setup green university.  West Bengal Govt. aoued a life isuae of ₹ lakh eah fo pilgis isitig the state fo the upoming Gangasagar fair, the second biggest pilgrimage fair after Kumbh.  The West Bengal government launched its official emblem, conceptualised and designed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The state emblem – the Biswa Bangla logo with Ashoka Pillar of the national emblem – would be used in all the official works and documents of the Bengal government from now on.  The ninth edition of Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival is set to host multifarious sessions on various critical issues in the country after 70 years of its Independence. Theme - India @70.  Kolkata is now witness to a floating market, the first of its kind across any metro. The market, as the name suggests, will be located on a water-body with boats doubling up as shops.  The West Bengal government has negotiated with the World Bank to avail subsidy to buy 130 electric buses for plying in Kolkata, Asansol and Durgapur. The World Bank has agreed to provide a subsidy of Rs seven lakh per bus.  West Bengal got GI (Geographical Indication) tag for rosogolla. Both WB and Odisha had applied for it. After this, Odisha government has announced that it would apply for the tag for Odishara Rasogolla soon.

Finance and Banking News  The World Bank announced that it will stop financing oil and gas exploration and extraction from 2019, seeking to boost the global economys shift to cleaner energy.  Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) announced that India is the first country where the Bank has committed more than $1 billion of financing.  The government has engaged private lender ICICI Bank to enable online payments at 470 mandis integrated with national portal of electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).  Cete has puped i apital of ₹, oe i eak puli seto aks - Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Uco Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Dena Bank and Central Bank of India. These banks are kept under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) in last 10-11 months. The capital is provided to help them meet their equity requirements and enable them to resume normal business.  Indias first home-grown high purity gold reference standard – the Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya (BND-4201) – was launched at the India Government , Mumbai. BND-4201, which is the reference material for gold of 9999 fineness (gold that is 99.99 per cent pure), will be beneficial to the consumers and public at large to ensure purity of gold.  GOI has decided, Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) applicable on all debit card/BHIM UPI/ AePS transactions up to and including a value of Rs 2000 will be be borne by government for 2 years with effect from 1 January, 2018 by reimbursing same to the banks. MDR is the rate charged to a merchant by a bank for providing debit and credit card services.

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 RBI placed Bank of India and United Bank of India under prompt corrective action (PCA) framework. BOI and UBI became 9th and 10th bank respectively to be put under PCA in last 10 month. Also, this is the second time in four years that UBI came under regulatory sanctions and be forced to take corrective measures for strains in financials.  RBI imposed a monetary penalty of Rs. 30 million on IndusInd Bank for non-compliance with the directions issued by RBI on Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms.  According to Reserve Bank data, bad loans of Public sector banks (PSBs) stood at Rs 7.34 lakh crore by the end of second quarter (September 30) this fiscal, a bulk of which came from corporate defaulters. However, on the other hand private sector banks non- performing assets (NPAs) were considerably low at Rs 1.03 lakh crore by September 30.  According to the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) Financial Stability Report (FSR), gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) might rise from 10.2 per cent of gross advances in September 2017 to 10.8 per cent in March 2018 and further to 11.1 per cent by September 2018.  The Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) Fraud Monitoring Reports showed that the scheduled commercial banks including select financial institutions lost Rs 16,789 crore due to frauds in 2016-17.  RBI announced that overseas branches and subsidiaries of Indian banks have been permitted to refinance external commercial borrowings (ECBs) of AAA rated public sector and private sector companies. Earlier ECB refinancing, was so far restricted to only foreign lenders.  RBI increased limits for investment by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) for the January-March 2018 quarter by ₹, oe i Cetal Goeet Seuities G-Ses ad ₹, oe i State deelopet loas SDLs.  RBI has launched an SMS campaign and a missed-call helpline to warn people against scams like fraudsters promising prize money from the RBI. Helpline number – 8691960000. The missed call to this helpline number is returned with another call that provides more information on steps to be taken in such cases.  Public sector Bank of Baroda has entered into an agreement with Italian bank UniCredit S.p.A. to acquire its 51 per cent stake in Baroda Pioneer Asset Management Company, thus increasing its shareholding to 100 per cent.  OBOPAY, the global mobile payment solutions company, recently announced that the company has secured alicense for Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) from the Reserve Bank of India to operate a semi-closed loop wallet in the country.  US buyout giant KKR & Co has become the first foreign investor to fully own an asset reconstruction company (ARC) in India as it received approval from the Reserve Bank of India  Indias largest digital bank Paytm Payments bank has unveiled Paytm Ka ATM outlets that allows customers to open Saving Accounts and deposit/withdraw money from their bank accounts.  Axis Securities, a subsidiary of Axis Bank, has become the first-ever broking arm of a bank to take membership of a commodity exchange by registering itself with NCDEX.  Yes Bank has established a Medium Term Note (MTN) programme to raise USD 1 billion (over 6,400 crore) by issuing debt securities on private placement basis.  Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company has started adoption of digital branch services through its offering Mosambee to add depth and breadth to its service offerings.  The Financial Services Commission, Mauritius has opened its representative office in Mumbai, a move that will further strengthen and deepen its partnership with its Indian counterparts.  Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Limited has been awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for Risk Management for the year 2017.  Customers will not have to pay any transaction charges for payments through debit card, BHIM app and other payment made for up to Rs 2,000 from January 1, 2018.

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The merchant discount rate (MDR) will be borne by the government for two years with effect from January 1, 2018 by reimbursing the same to banks.  Public sector Allahabad Bank said the Reserve Bank has put the lender under prompt corrective action (PCA) framework post an on-site inspection of high NPAs and negative return of assets for fiscal 2016-17.  Seeking to perk up public sector banks that have been hit by huge non-performing assets (NPAs), the government announced plans to infuse over Rs. one lakh crore including Rs 80,000 crore through recap bonds and Rs 8,139 crore as budgetary support during the current fiscal.  The Central government has announced that the Payments Banks and Small Finance Banks will now offer social security scheme Atal Pension Yojana (APY) to their subscribers.  Leading Public Sector Bank (PSB), Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Housing Bank for implementation of the Rural Housing Interest Subsidy Scheme (RHISS) of the Ministry of Rural Development. IOB is one of first major public sector bank to execute the MoU to implement the scheme.  According to a census by the Reserve Bank, Mauritius was the largest source of foreign investment in India, followed by the US and the UK.  State Bank of India (SBI) announced signing of a Information Utility (IU) agreement with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL), the first information utility registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), to share financial and security information under IBBI (IU) regulation 2017.  Indias most-valued lender HDFC Bank Ltd crossed Rs5 trillion market capitalisation for the first time, making it only the third Indian company and first Indian Bank to achieve this milestone.  All the 14 designs of Rs 10 coin are valid and legal tender for transactions, the Reserve Bank amid reluctance by certain traders to accept the coins.  India has emerged as a top borrower from the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with USD 1.5 billion worth of loans last year and USD three billion more in the pipeline.  IndusInd Bank launched its new Sonic Identity, which is essentially a musical logo called MOGO, as part of its branding initiatives.  To speed up retail transmission by banks of the central banks cuts in the lending rate, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it will link the Base Rate with the Marginal Cost of Funds-based Lending Rate (MCLR) from the next fiscal.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revealed that the estimated inflation for first half of the next fiscal would stand at 5.1 to 5.6 percent.  According to the report by BMI Research, a unit of Fitch Group, Indias fiscal deficit is expected to come in at 3.5 per cent of GDP in financial year 2018-19, as policymakers seek to promote economic growth by reducing the pace of fiscal consolidation.  The Reserve Bank of India announced setting up ombudsman for addressing customer grievances in the non- banking finance companies. RBI will start with deposit taking NBFCs and widen the scope to cover NBFCs with asset size of Rs 100 crore.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided not to pursue a proposal for introduction of Islamic banking in the country. Islamic or Sharia banking is a finance system based on the principles of not charging interest, which is prohibited under Islam.  The Reserve Bank of India, RBI, has withdrawn the sale of Rs Ten thousand crore worth of government securities under Open Market Operations, OMO.

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 RBI has asked co-operative societies not use the word Bank in their names as it violates the Section 7 of Banking Regulation Act, 1949.  The RBI has decided to allow asset reconstruction companies to have higher holding than the 26 per cent cap set earlier with regard to limits on shareholding of the post-converted equity of a borrower company under reconstruction.  In August, the RBI had paid a dividend of Rs 30,659 crore for the fiscal ended June 2017. It was less than half the Rs 65,876 crore it had paid in 2015-16. Now, the Government has seeked Rs 13,000 crore of surplus lying with the central bank.  Govt set Rs 10,000 min balance in bank accounts as rural poverty measure  Moodys Investors Service upped the long-term ratings of four Indian financial institutions by a notch to Baa2 following the upgrade of the countrys sovereign rating to the same level. These are -- Export- Import Bank of India (EXIM India), HDFC Bank, Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited (IRFC) and State Bank of India (SBI)  The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) announced that NRIs and PIOs are not required to link bank accounts and other services with Aadhaar.  According to the Truecaller Insights report, the State Bank of India is the biggest bank by volume of SMSes, with 30 per cent of Truecaller users using it, followed by HDFC at 14 per cent and ICICI at 13 percent.  State Bank of India (SBI) has launched comprehensive digital service platform You Only Need One also known as YONO which is a omni digital platform that offers just about everything related to financial services and lifestyle products or services.  State-run lender Bank of Baroda launched digital Supply Chain Finance solution which aims to accelerate working capital loan opportunities for the small and medium enterprises and large corporate clients.  Andhra Bank has launched a new scheme, Pattabhi Sitaramayya — Self Business Group (PS-SBG), for self-help groups (SHGs) to encourage entrepreneurship.  Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) has launched 24 hour accessible e-Lobbies Smart Banking 24×7 in the Mumbai suburbs of Juhu and Powai.  Indias largest private sector bank by consolidated assets, ICICI Bank, announced the launch of Indias first voice- based international remittance service to enable non-resident Indians (NRIs) to send money to any bank in India.  ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited (ICICI Pru Life) has become the first life insurance company in India that has implemented the Electronic – National Automated Clearing House (e-NACH) service of the National Payment Corporation of India.  Private sector RBL Bank has set up an all women branch in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The women branch is a testament to the banks efforts in encouraging gender equality.  Paytm Payments Bank formally launched. It is Indias only mobile first bank providing zero balance accounts and zero digital transaction charges. Currently, India has four Payments Bank including Paytm Payments Bank. The other three operational ones are Airtel Payments Bank, India Post Payments Bank and Fino Payments Bank.  AU Small Finance Bank received approval from Reserved Bank of India (RBI) to operate as Scheduled Commercial Bank. AU Small Finance Banks name has now been included in the Second Schedule of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.  YES Bank is all set to launch a first-of-its-kind fintech survey. Called India Fintech Opportunities Review, the study will cover India and a few major fintech markets in the world.

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 India Post Payments Bank will become operational in all 650 districts of the country by April next year. Two such banks are already operational in Ranchi and Raipur.  Private sector lender Yes Bank signed an agreement with the government to provide Rs 1,000 crore financing for food processing projects.  HSBC has pledged to provide $100 billion in financing and investment by 2025 to help combat climate change.  Private Sector, Federal Bank has obtained RBI approval to open representative offices at Kuwait and Singapore.  Canara Bank launched a digital library, a Canarites app, a field recovery mobile app, a retail loan (vehicle) – tracking system, and a regulatory guidance tracking system.  IDFC Bank, MobiKwik and Net1 have partnered to launch a co-branded virtual prepaid card on the Visa platform to customers of MobiKwik.  Emirates NBD, the UAEs second-largest lender, has started operations in India with an aim to invest USD 100 million capital into its Indian operations. Branch opened in Mumbai.  IndiaFirst Life Insurance (IndiaFirst Life) has launched an unique micro-insurance plan insurance khata targeted at those in the informal sector and agricultural labourers with seasonal incomes.  Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has launched Pro-fit, a platform that will act as a one-stop solution to all the health-record tracking needs of customers.  During the International Fraud Awareness week, Axis Bank in association with has launched its latest campaign #MuhPeTaala to promote safe banking.  Private sector lender Axis Bank has launched an instant international payment services using Ripples enterprise blockchain technology solution for retail and corporate customers.  The Royal Bank of Canada is the first Canadian lender to be added to the Financial Stability Boards list of global systemically important banks, which are deemed too big to fail.  JM Financial Home Loans, a step-down subsidiary of Mumbai-based JM Financial, has received certificate of registration from the National Housing Bank for carrying out housing finance activities.

Bi-monthly monetary policy The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its key interest rate unchanged at 6 per cent for the fourth time in succession at its final bi-monthly monetary policy review of the fiscal, citing concerns about the inflationary push by rising global crude oil prices.

Current Monetary Policy Rates:

Repo Rate: Unchanged at 6% Reverse Repo Rate: Unchanged at 5.75% Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate: Unchanged at 6.25% Bank Rate: Unchanged at 6.25% Cash Reserve Ratio: Unchanged at 4% Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): Unchanged at 19.5%

RBI unveils new Rs 10 banknotes

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled banknotes of Rs 10 denomination under the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series.  The new 63 mm x 123 mm notes are embossed with the signature of RBI Governor Dr Urjit Patel and have the motif of the Sun Temple, Konark on the reverse, depicting the countrys cultural heritage.

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 While the base colour of the note is chocolate brown, it comes with other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme, both at the obverse and reverse.  The obverse side of the note contains a see-through register with denominational numeral 10 and the same in Devnagari script.  It contains a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at the centre, with the micro letters RBI, INDIA (in both English and Hindi) and 10. There is also a windowed demetalised security thread with inscriptions Bharat (in Hindi) and RBI.

Business News  Bharti Airtel, the telecommunications service provider, has acquired a strategic stake in Juggernaut Books, a digital platform to discover and read high quality, affordable books and to submit amateur writing.  Bharti Airtel entered into a definitive agreement with Millicom International Cellular S.A. under which Airtel Rwanda Limited will acquire 100 percent equity interest in Tigo Rwanda Limited.  Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire specified assets of debt-laden Reliance Communications (RCom) and affiliates, controlled by his younger sibling Anil Ambani.  Amazon has acquired a startup named Blink that builds wireless home monitoring systems, including connected Wi- Fi home security cameras.  Apple announced that it has acquired song recognition company Shazam. The deal is worth $400 million.  Nod given to Bharti Airtel and Tata to merge Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (TTML) into Bharti Airtel.  CCI has approved the scheme of amalgamation between IndusInd Bank and Bharat Financial Inclusion.  Ride-sharing platform Ola announced that it has acquired Foodpandas India business from Germanys Delivery Hero in exchange for Ola stock.  Direct-to-home (DTH) operator Dish TV India Ltd has announced that that the company has received the final approval from the government for closing its merger with Videocon d2h, the DTH arm of Videocon Industries Ltd. The new entity will be called Dish TV Videocon Limited.  Carlyle Group has completed the acquisition of GE Capitals entire 26 percent stake in SBI Card, which is the second largest and credit card issuer in the country.  To boost inflows of foreign funds into Indian capital markets, regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) raised the investment limit for FPI in central government securities to over Rs 1.91 lakh crore from January 1, 2018.  Indias largest mobile-first financial services platform, Paytm announced that its app has crossed the 100 million milestone on Google Play Store in the second week of December 2017.  Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has entered into a definitive agreement with digital classified firm Quikr, to transfer its entire shareholding in HDFC Realty Limited, a real estate brokerage platform; and, HDFC Developers Limited (which runs the HDFC RED platform) to Quikr.  The United Kingdom has topped Forbes rankings of best countries in the world for business in 2018 for the first time, up from fifth last year. The UK is followed by New Zealand and the Netherlands, while India was ranked 62nd on the list.  Technology giant Apple acquired a Vancouver-based mobile iteration platform, Buddybuild, with an aim to make it easier for developers to create and iterate their apps for its platforms.  Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has got the consent for acquiring controlling stake in fellow PSU Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).

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 NBFC firm Capital First will merge with IDFC Bank, subject to subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.  Facebook has acquired a biometric ID verification startup named Confirm that specialises in remotely verifying IDs like drivers licenses.  Tech giant Google has announced the closure of a USD 1.1 billion deal with smartphone maker HTC, following which the former is set to acquire the latters design talent.  Indias largest mobile-first financial services platform Paytm has announced launch of Paytm for Business app on Android Play Store.  Facebook has launched its Marketplace to buy and sell used goods and services across categories such as electronics, entertainment, and housing in India.  Paytm has announced that it has set up Paytm Money Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of One97 Communications to build Investment and Wealth Management products for its users.  Chinese gaming and entertainment company AGTech Holdings Limited has entered a joint venture with Paytm to launch Gamepind, a mobile gaming platform with social and casual games that include rewards.  Google has introduced a new app named Bulletin that allows anybody to submit stories for and about their communities.  Trade between India and the US is estimated to have jumped substantially from USD 118 billion in 2016 to USD 140 billion in 2017, according to an advocacy group that aims to promote bilateral trade.  Popular mobile-based digital payment platform Paytm launched Inbox, a messaging service that will allow consumers to chat with friends and family, and send and request money at the same time.  ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) gets government nod for acquiring HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum).  Rs 10,000 Crore MoU signed between Govt of India & Patanjali  According to Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), provisional figures of direct tax collections up to October, 2017 show that net collections are at Rs. 4.39 lakh crore which is 15.2 percent higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year.  The GST Council decided to raise Composition Scheme threshold to Rs 2 crore. The Council, which held its 23rd meeting in Guwahati, decided that there will be no inter-state taxes and input tax credit for composition dealers.  Out of 228 items in the 28% tax bracket, 178 have been put into the lower tax category of 18%. It will be applicable from 15th November.  Amazon India announced the launch of Amazon Saheli, a new pioneering program aimed at empowering and enabling women entrepreneurs across the country to sell their products on the Amazon.in marketplace.  Amazon India collaborated with hardware accelerator HAX and crowd-funding community Kickstarter to announce Startup C-Cube — a multi-level challenge for the startups that will commence in Bengaluru on December 5.  Paytm has picked up a majority stake in CreditMate, a Mumbai-based startup that facilitates two-wheeler loans for customers with no formal credit history. Economy News  The Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) weekly statistical supplement showed that Indias foreign exchange (Forex) reserves kitty increased by $1.20 billion as on November 24, 2017. The overall Forex reserves rose to $400.74 billion from $399.53 billion reported for the week ended November 17.  Asian Development Bank said that the economies of developing countries of Asia are expected to record a 6% growth in 2017

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 Asian Development Bank (ADB) lowered its Indian GDP forecast for the 2017 to 6.7 per cent.  According to Fitchs December Global Economic Outlook (GEO), the global ratings agency reduced the growth forecast for the fiscal year to end-March 2018 (FY18) to 6.7% from 6.9%.  According to the United Nations, India can achieve an 8% growth rate for the next two decades by promoting investment and improving the living conditions of its people.  According to UNs World Economic Situation and Prospects 2018 report, Indian economy is likely to grow by 7.2% in 2018 and go up further to 7.4% in 2019.  Global investment bank Nomura has predicted Indias economy to register a 7.5 per cent growth rate in 2018  Indias GDP growth to rise to 7.5% in 2018: Morgan Stanley  Indias April-November fiscal deficit remained at 112% of full years target — Rs 6.12 lakh crore — of the full years target of Rs 5.46 lakh crore.  Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that despite the slowdown in 2016-17, as per the IMF, India was the fastest growing major economy in 2016 and second fastest growing major economy in 2017 in the world.  According to rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P), Indian banking sector has been classified under Group 5. The other countries in group 5 are Spain, Ireland, Italy, Panama, Bermuda, Poland, Peru, Qatar, South Africa and the UAE.  According to a report by CARE Ratings, India has the highest level of non-performing assets (NPA) among BRICS countries and is ranked 5th on a list of countries with the highest levels of NPAs. Greece topped the list.  Indias GDP growth may rebound to 7.5% in 2018: Nomura  India Set To Be 5th Largest Economy in 2018, Overtaking UK, France, according to a report by UKs Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). China is likely to overtake the US as worlds largest economy in 2032, CEBR added.  According to a Sanctum Wealth Management report, India will overtake China to be the fastest growing large economy in 2018 and the countrys equity market will become the fifth largest in the world.  As per latest statistics, the banking sector posted a double digit growth of 10.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in December 2017, up from 7.2 percent in October last year.  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have commended the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its remarkable progress in strengthening banking supervision.  The government will borrow only Rs 20,000 crore extra in the last quarter of the current fiscal against Rs 50,000 crore announced in December, indicating an improvement in government finances that should calm fiscal worries.  India will set up a $350-million fund to finance solar projects.  According to the Economic Survey for the current fiscal 2017-18, the Indian IT industry grew 8 per cent to $140 billion (Rs 8,91,700 crore) in fiscal 2016-17 from $129 billion (Rs 8,256 crore) in the previous fiscal (2015-16).  Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2018-19 has been projected at 7 to 7.5 percent as per the Economic Survey 2017-18.  Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) has announced that the 8 per cent GoI savings bond is not closed but has been replaced by 7.75 per cent scheme.  According to an HSBC report, Indias GDP growth rate is expected to accelerate to 7.0 per cent in 2018-19 from 6.5 per cent in this fiscal and improve further to 7.6 per cent by 2019-20.  India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has predicted that Indias gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at 7.1 per cent in FY19.  World Bank has projected Indias growth rate at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% for the next two years.

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 Rating agency Crisil revised upwards the outlook on 18 state-run banks to stable from negative and also reaffirmed their ratings following the Rs 88,139-crore capital infusion by government.  According to the Economic Research Department of State Bank of India (SBI), the GDP FY18 estimates are likely to grow at 6.5 percent compared to the growth rate of 7.1 percent in FY17.  According to Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, in line with the earlier official estimate of the countrys GDP growth in the last fiscal, Indias gross domestic product during 2016-17 grew at 7.1 per cent.  According to State Bank of India (SBI) Ecowrap report, the gross value added (GVA) — the total value of goods and services produced — estimate for 2017-18 is expected to trend higher at 6.3-6.4 per cent from the projected 6.1 per cent.  Parliament has passed the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017 with the Rajya Sabha approving it. The Bill seeks to amend the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981. The Bill allows the central government to increase the authorised capital of the Bank from 5 thousand crore rupees to 30 thousand crore rupees.  Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has successfully commissioned its refinery off-gas cracker (ROGC) complex of 1.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity along with downstream plants and utilities in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The company said that it is the worlds first ROGC.  According to the estimate of national income for 2017-18 released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Indian economy is expected to grow at a slower 6.5 per cent in 2017-18 compared to the 7.1 per cent in 2016-17.  India Inc expects the countrys 2017-18 economic growth to be above the 6.5 per cent-mark due to a favourable base effect.  To make India attractive to cruise passengers and to promote cruise tourism, the Central Government has exempted cruise tourists arriving with e-visas from the requirement of biometric enrolment for a period of three years till December 31, 2020.  After years of no show on the global annual survey, for the first time, three cities from India have featured amongst the top world order as a part of the Emerging World Cities group. This was revealed in JLLs latest research entitled World Cities: Mapping the Pathways to Success, which shows that amongst the Emerging World Cities category, Delhi and Mumbai are deemed Megahubs while Bengaluru is high Enterprisers city.  ICICI Lombard General Insurance has launched a health insurance app – IL TakeCare in collaboration with Practo, the leading healthcare platform. This one-of-its-kind solutions covers Outpatient expenses of all its customers.  Reliae Idusties RIL eoe the fist Idia opay to oss the ₹-lakh crore mark in market capitalisation as its shares touched a 52-eek high of ₹..  The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)s India International Exchange listed the first bond on its Global Securities Market.  The National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) unveiled Indias first agri-commodity options in guar seed designed as a hedge for farmers to safeguard against price risks.  India announced a national healthcare scheme for half a billion of its poorest citizens in a major giveaway to voters in the final budget before a general election.  The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley launched CriSidEx, Indias first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises ( MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL & SIDBI. CriSidEx is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative) to 200 (extremely positive) .

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 Reiterating its commitment to make the web a safer place for everyone, Google India announced its collaboration with NCERT to integrate a course on Digital Citizenship and Safety in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) curriculum in schools.  The change of name of apex indirect tax policy making body Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) to Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) is likely to happen by April after the budgetary exercise gets Parliament nod.  According to the Economic Survey 2017-18, Maharashtras has come out to be one of the largest states in terms of its economic size and prosperity gives it the largest share in Indias exports and the goods and service tax (GST) base.  The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a fine of around Rs. 136 crores on search engine major Google for unfair business practices in the Indian market for online search.  Singapores DBS Bank lowered Indias GDP growth forecast for 2017-18 to 6.6% from the previous 6.8%. In 2018-19 – 7.2%.  The government gave ex-post facto clearance to implementation of the Special Banking Arrangement (SBA) of Rs10,000 crore for payment of outstanding claims towards fertiliser subsidy in 2016-17.  Asia Index Pvt Ltd, a joint venture of S&P Dow Jones Indices and BSE, has launched an environmental, social and governance (ESG) index to measure the exposure to securities meeting sustainability investing criteria.  Eight core sectors grew to a six-month high of 5.2 per cent in September, helped by a robust performance in coal, natural gas, and refinery segments.  The data furnished by the Comptroller General of Accounts (CGA) showed that Indias budgetary fiscal deficit for the first seven months of 2017-18 stood at 96.1 per cent — Rs 5.25 lakh crore — of the full years target of Rs 5.46 lakh crore.  According to data of Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Indias Gross Domestic Products (GDP) surged by 6.3 percent in the second quarter (July-September) Q2 of 2017-18.  According to the Japanese financial services major, Nomuras report, Indias current account deficit (CAD) for this financial year is expected to be around $40 billion, or 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).  The revenue department has announced that farmers do not need to quote PAN for cash sale of their produce up to Rs 2 lakh a day.  The government has decided to increase the New Fund Offer (NFO) size of Bharat 22 ETF from Rs. 8,000 crore to Rs. 14,500 crore, to cater to the demand of retail investors and retirement funds.  Lauding Indias increasing per capita income, World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva said she has no doubt that India will be a high-middle income country by 2047 when it completes its centenary year of independence.  Indias insurance regulator IRDAI has mandated all insurers – life and non-life – to link the Aadhaar number of the policy holders to their policies. It further said that linking of Aadhaar number to insurance policies is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules 2017.  Sidbi, Crisil to launch sentiment index named CriSidEx for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector  The Government of India launched the BHARAT-22 Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) managed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund targeting an initial amount of about Rs.8,000 crore. This New Fund Offer is open till November 17, 2017. The Units of the Scheme will be allotted 25% to each category of investors.  According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), with the revised base year of 2011-12, went up in October to 3.59 per cent from 2.60 per cent in September.

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 International credit rating agency Moodys Investors Service has upgraded Indias bond rating for the first time in 14 years, saying continued progress in Indias economic and institutional reforms will enhance its high growth potential. It has upgraded Indias bond rating to Baa2 from its lowest investment grade (Baa3).  Moodys Investors Service has upgraded the ratings of infrastructure government-related issuers (GRIs) NTPC, NHPC, NHAI & GAIL to Baa2 in line with Indias sovereign ratings.  Rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) maintained Indias sovereign ratings at BBB-/A-3 with stable outlook.  Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country increased by 17 per cent to USD 25.35 billion during April-September this fiscal.

Govt cuts small savings interest rates by 20 bps

The government has reduced the interest rates on small saving schemes, including National Savings Certificates (NSCs), Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), by 0.2 percentage point for the fourth quarter of the fiscal (January-March).

The interest rate on the one-year time deposit has been lowered to 6.6 percent as compared to 6.8 percent in the October-December quarter, whereas the 2-year time deposit will now fetch a lower interest rate of 6.7 percent from 6.9 percent in the previous quarter.

For small saving schemes, new interest rates (for January-March) are:

 Public Provident Fund (PPF) – 7.6%  National Savings Certificates (NSCs) – 7.6%  Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) – 7.3%  Senior Citizen’s Savings Scheme of five-year period – 8.3%  Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana for the girl child – 8.1%

Science & Technology  Tech giant Google announced the launch of Files Go app that takes a mobile-first approach to freeing up space, finding files faster and easily sharing them with others, even when offline.  NASA has announced the discovery of an eight planet orbiting Kepler-90, a star comparable to the Sun located 2,545 light-years from the Earth. With eight planets, the Kepler-90 system equals our own system in terms of the number of planets orbiting a single star. Astronomers have yet to detect a system with more than eight planets. Defence News  The Indian Coast Guard on 29 November 2017 conducted a Regional Level Marine Oil Pollution Response Exercise Clean Sea – 2017 at sea off Port Blair, capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.  The Indian Armys Southern Command, conducted exercise Hamesha Vijayee from December 16 till December 22 in the general area of Barmer and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.  The two-week long eighth edition of the Indo-Maldives joint military exercise, Ekuverin, came to an end at Belagavi, Karnataka.  Indian Navy conducted the joint naval exercise Naseem-Al-Bahr with the Oman Navy. The exercise is also known as Sea Breeze. The exercise was conducted in Muscat, Oman.

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 The Surface to Air Missile AKASH with indigenous radio frequency seeker against target Banshee has been successfully launched from Chandipur, Odisha. With this success, India has achieved the capability of making any type of Surface to Air Missile.  India has successfully test-fired its indigenously developed Advanced Air Defence (AAD) supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile in low altitude, from a test range in Odisha.  The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has commissioned its sixth and final 105M Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), ICGS Sujay during a ceremony in Goa, on Dec. 20.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned Indias first indigenous Scorpene-class submarine Kalvari into the Navy at Mumbais Naval Dockyard. The 1,565-tonne INS Kalvari is Indias first new diesel-electric submarine in 17 yeas ad ill e folloed y fie othe Sopee suaies ude the ₹,-crore Project-75. Named after the first Foxtort-class submarine, INS Kalvari was inducted into the Navy on December 8, 1967.  VINBAX -- Exercise among Armies of India and Vietnam held in Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. It is the first military exercise between the two countries.  India has successfully test fired its indigenously developed intercontinental surface-to-surface nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni-V — the most potent and with the longest range in the Agni series – that can reach targets as far as Beijing.  The Indian Naval Ships Nirbhik and Nirghat have been decommissioned at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, after a glorious 30 and 28 years respectively in the service of the nation.  The third indigenously-built diesel-electric Scorpene-class submarine, INS Karanj, has been launched at the Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL) in Mumbai.  The Pakistan Navy demonstrated its ability to respond to any aggression by conducting a test fire of a cruise missile – Harba Naval Cruise Missile, which is a surface-to-surface anti-ship missile, from its newly commissioned Fast Attack Craft (Missile), PNS Himmat, off Karachi in the North Arabian Sea.  Indian Coast Guard Ship C-161 was commissioned at Porbandar in Gujarat. The induction is a part of ongoing efforts by the Coast Guard to strengthen coastal security.  Vijaya, the second offshore patrol vessel (OPV) built by the Larsen and Toubro Shipyard for the Indian Coast Guard has been launched.  Vikrant, Indias first home-made aircraft carrier, will be ready for induction by 2020. The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier has been named Vikrant after the first aircraft carrier that India had — INS Vikrant, which was HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy before India bought it after it was decommissioned by the UK.  India successfully test-fired its short-range nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni-1 with a strike range of over 700 km from a test range off the Odisha coast. Weighing around 12 tonnes, the 15-metre-long Agni-I can carry payloads up to 1,000 kg and is capable of hitting a target beyond 700 km. The missile is also capable of carrying nuclear warheads.  Business tycoon Elon Musks SpaceX has created history by successfully launching the Falcon Heavy rocket, the most powerful operational rocket in the world, into outer space.  Indian and Kazakhstan - 14-day joint exercise ͚Prabal Dostyk 2017͛ from November 2 in Bakloh belt of Himachal Pradesh.  Indian and the Bangladeshi armies - an intensive combat exercise ͚Exercise Sampriti͛ at Indias Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram.  Indian and Myanmar armies - their maiden joint exercise ͞IMBAX-2017͟ at Umroi Cantonment, about 25 km from Shillong, the state capital of Meghalaya

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 An army training capsule on counter-insurgency/ counter-terrorism operations will be conducted in Patnas Danapur Cantonment from November 13 to December 10.  Indo – United Kingdom joint army training exercise ͚Ajeya Warrior 2017͛ will be conducted between the Indian and United Kingdom Army from 01 to 14th December 1-14, 2017 at Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan.  Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba visited Bangladesh to participate in the International Multilateral Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise (IMMSAREX), the first ever operational exercise held under the aegis of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) in Bangladesh.  Defence of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Exercise (DANX) was conducted under the aegis of Andaman & Nicobar Command.  Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) conducted Multi State Mega Mock Tsunami Exercise 2017 along the entire East Coast in 31 coastal districts across four states-West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (UT)  Aiming to strengthen coastal security along the Odisha and West Bengal coastline, the governments of both states will hold a joint security exercise Sagar Kavach in the Bay of Bengal  The Union Government announced on 3 November 2017 that an indigenously developed lightweight Glide bomb was successfully tested in Chandipur in Odisha.  Indian Navy is likely to go with an advanced catapult-based aircraft launch mechanism (CATOBAR) from the U.S. for its second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-II)  India successfully test-fired the indigenously-designed and developed long-range subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay from an Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odishas Balasore. It failed its last test in December 2015. Science & Technology

 NASA has launched Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission to to study the dynamic region where space and Earths uppermost atmosphere meet. It is the first NASA science mission to fly an instrument as a commercially hosted payload. The mission will fly aboard SES-14, a commercial communications satellite.  India successfully launched its 100th satellite Cartosat-2 Series from Space Centre in Andhra Pradeshs Sriharikota Island. For the mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) used PSLV-C40 launch vehicle, which is carrying 31 satellites, including three from India and 28 from six other countries.  Taking prime minister Narendra Modis Digital India initiative forward, a chat based job search mobile app Empzilla, first ever of its kind in the country, is being launched that will do away with existing limitations of employers and job seekers making selection process quick and cost effective.  MobiKwik, a issuer-independent digital financial services platform and mobile wallet announced the launch of Magic – a digital platform for end-to-end corporate processes, rewards and reimbursements.  Technology Giant Google announced the launch of Datally App that will help users understand, control and save on their mobile data.  NASA launched a next-generation satellite, called the Joint Polar Satellite System-1, into space designed to monitor weather around the world and help improve forecasts.  Astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized planet, named Ross 128 b, outside our solar system which is expected to be temperate and could be a comfortable abode for possible life.

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 The Space Kingdom of Asgardia has launched its first satellite - Asgardia-1. This so-called virtual nation is the pet project of Russian scientist and billionaire Igor Ashurbeyli.  The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first drug Abilify MyCite in the United States with a digital ingestion tracking system.  India is all set for the take-off of its maiden mission to the Sun by the year 2019. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman AS Kiran Kumar said, Aditya-L1, Indias maiden mission to the Sun, will be launched in 2019.  India has created history after it successfully flight-tested the worlds fastest supersonic cruise missile BrahMos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) from the Indian Air Forces (IAF) front-line fighter aircraft Sukhoi-30MKI against a sea based target in the Bay of Bengal. It is 2.5 tonne supersonic air-to-surface cruise missile with range of more than 400 km. BrahMos is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India and NPOM of Russia. Sports News

Tournament Winner Other Info South Asian Regional Badminton Tournament India Beat Nepal to win the tournament ICC Intercontinental Cup Afghanistan Beat UAE SAFF U15 Womens Championship Bangladesh Beat India World Rapid Chess Championship The Championship held in Saudi Arabia for the first time 61st National Shooting Championships - Jitu Rai Held in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Mens 50-metre pistol national title Royal Cup Shiv Kapur Held in Pattaya, Badminton Junior Nationals (U-17 & U-19 Aakarshi Kashyap singles titles) Commonwealth Wrestling Championship Sakshi Malik (62kg womens freestyle category) Commonwealth Wrestling Championships Sushil Kumar (74kg mens freestyle category) Joburg Open golf tournament Shubhankar Sharma 2017 Asian Kabaddi Championships India Both Indian mens and womens kabaddi teams won. Mens team beat Pakistan and womens team beat South Korea to win Chship. U-19 Asia Youth Cup trophy Afghanistan Beat Pakistan. Senior National title – womens singles title PV Sindhu Senior National title – mens singles title H.S. Prannoy Asian Boxing Championships Mary Kom Held in Vietnam National Womens Trap champion Shagun Chowdhary at the ongoing 61st National Shooting Championship Competition National Mens Trap Shooting title Manavjit Sandhu at the ongoing 61st National Shooting Championship Competition

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Panasonic Open India (Golf) Shiv Kapur Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open (Golf) Aditi Ashok Asia Cup Hockey Title (Women) India Beat China ATP Challenger Tour Yuki Bhambri IBSF World Billiards Championship Pankaj Advani Championship held at Doha, Qatar IBSF World Snooker Championship Pankaj Advani Held at Doha, Qatar World Weightlifting Championship Mirabai Chanu She became the first Indian woman in over two decades to clinch gold at the 2017 World Weightlifting Championship Asian Marathon Championship Gopi Thonakal He became the first Indian man to win the Asian Marathon Championship Ranji Trophy Vidarbha Beat Delhi Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Delhi Beat Rajasthan Swedish Open Junior International Series Siddharth Pratap Singh (Badminton) U-19 World Cup trophy India They defeated Australia. They lifted the cup for the record fourth time. 8th Hockey India Senior Women National Central Reserve Police Championship 2018 Force (CRPF) U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy Vidarbha team India Open Boxing Tournament M C Mary Kom Maybank Championship Golfer Shubhankar India Open final (womens singles) Beiwen Zhang from the She defeated P. V. Sindhu US India Open final (mens singles) Shi Yuqi from China Blind Cricket World Cup India Beat Pakistan Hockey India Sub Junior (Women) National Haryana Beat Madhya Pradesh Championship 2018 (A Division) Hockey India Sub Junior Men National Assam Beat Rajasthan Championship 2018 (B Division) Premier Badminton League championship Hyderabad Hunters Bengaluru Blasters Kolkata Open International Invitation Aditya Mehta Snooker Championship Mens Hockey World League title Australia By beating Argentina. India won Bronze by beating Germany. The tournament was held at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Ballon dOr Cristiano Ronaldo He won the Ballon dOr for a fifth time Davis Cup France Beat Belgium Brazilian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Valtteri Bottas

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Indian Sports Honours  Sportsman and woman of the year for individual sports – Indian shuttlers Srikanth Kidambi and PV Sindhu respectively  Sportsman and woman of the year in the team sports – off-spinner R Ashwin in mens and Mithali Raj respectively  Inspirational Honour – Tennis player  Transformational Contribution to Sports award – Olympic champion  Team of the Year – The Indian Womens Cricket Team Indian Sports Honours is an initiative partnered by India skipper Virat Kohli and Sanjiv Goenka, in line with their vision to support the development of Indian sports.

National Wrestling Championship  Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, who was back on mat after the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, won a gold medal in mens 74 kilogram freestyle competition.  Sakshi Malik and wrestler Geeta Phogat achieved a gold medal each 62kg and 59 kg categories respectively of womens wrestling.

Sports  M C Mary Kom and Sushil Kumar resigned as the national observer for Indian boxing.  India has become the first-ever team to register 300+ totals 100 times in ODIs, after posting 392/4 against Sri Lanka in Mohali.  Khelo India, a programme strives to promote Sports for All as well as Sports for Excellence,will be launched at a cost of Rs.1,756 crore. 2018 will be celebrated as Year of Sports.  BCCI announced that India will host 81 more home games in the 2019-23 cycle.  Virat Kohli became the fourth fastest Indian batsman to reach the landmark of 5,000 runs in the five-day format on the opening day of the third and final cricket Test against Sri Lanka.  Captain Virat Kohli surpassed Brian Lara to set the record for most double centuries scored by a Test captain on the second day of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka in Delhi.  Rohit Sharma became the first-ever player in ODI history to hit three double hundreds, slamming his third in the Mohali ODI against Sri Lanka.  World youth champion Sachin Siwach has been named the Asian Boxing Confederations best youth boxer of the year.  Prithvi Shaw named Indias captain for U-19 World Cup to be held in 2018 in New Zealand.  BCCI has appointed former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim as General Manager, Cricket Operations.  To promote football in India, the Premier League has forged a partnership with Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh.  Visually impaired swimmer Kanchanmala Pande scripted history by becoming the first Indian to win gold at the World Para Swimming Championship, held in Mexico.  Former AC Milan and Real Madrid midfielder Kaka, who lifted the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, announced his retirement from football.  Roger Federer has been voted BBC overseas sports personality of the year for a record fourth time.  India captain Mithali Raj was named in the ICC womens ODI team of the year while left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht was the lone cricketer to find a place in the both the ODI and T20 Teams of the year announced by the world body.  World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan won the womens singles title in Dubai World Badminton Superseries defeating top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu, who had to then settle for silver.

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 Indias men and womens hockey teams remained in the 6th and 10th positions respectively in the rankings revealed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).  India football team remained stagnant on the 105th position while Germany finished first to be named the Team of the Year in the FIFA rankings released in December 2017.  Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the Tribal Sports Meet 2017, a first-of-its kind event in the country to promote sports among tribals in Odisha. Patnaik also unveiled the logo of the event and mascot of the meet Olly.  India will host the Senior Womens World Boxing Championships in 2018 and the Senior Mens World Championships in 2021.  Delhi will host India Open boxing tournament from Jan 28, 2018.  Melbourne (city in Victoria, Australia) will host Golf World Cup in 2018.  The emblems of the Beijing 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, respectively named Winter Dream and Flight, have been unveiled in Beijing, China.  England womens cricketers won the Team of the Year award at the BBC Sports Personality show after their 2017 World Cup triumph.  Russia has been banned from the 2018 Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee. 2018 Winter Games will be hosted by Pyeongchang County, South Korea.  The first ever International Wheelchair Cricket Tournament was organised in Nepals Kathmandu. The tournament has participation of teams from Nepal, India and Bangladesh.  FIFA lifted two-year ban imposed on Kuwaits football federation.  Shooting Excluded from 2022 Commonwealth Games going to be hosted by Birmingham, England.  Australia won the Ashes for the 33rd time after defeating England.  Vice President Venkiah Naidu conferred Badminton Association of India (BAI) Lifetime Achievement Award to 1983 World Championship medallist Prakash Padukone.  Celebrating the game, Football Delhi honoured the Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri, announcing his birthday to be celebrated as Delhis Football Day. Chhetris birthday falls on August 3.  The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed Vikram Singh Sisodia as the Chef de Mission for the 21st Commonwealth Games to be held at Gold Coast in Australia.  Union Minister of State ( I/C)Youth Affairs and Sports Col Rajyavardhan Rathore has launched the vibrant Khelo India logo, reflecting the freshness, agility and vitality of New India. The three-stroke Khelo India logo, designed by Ogilvy India. The logo conveys an impression of fitness and competitiveness.  India skipper and run-machine Virat Kohli has won the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2017 as the International Cricket Council announced the mens individual award winners of 2017.  Anu Kumar of Uttarakhand grabbed the first gold medal of the Khelo India School Games in 1500 metres at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.  Sharath Kamal beat top-seeded Anthony Amalraj to win the men singles title for the eighth time, equalling the feat of Kamlesh Mehta in the 79th edition of the 11Even Sports Senior Nationals in Ranchi, Jharkhand.  Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore unveiled the mascots (Vijay the tiger and Jaya the black buck) and launched the anthem Au khela hahte hai hu…Khel ei hi asti hai….khel se aaad hoge hu.

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 Indian all-rounder Yusuf Pathan has been suspended for five months for failing a dope test during a domestic match last season.  Aanchal Thakur made history by winning Indias first-ever international medal in skiing in Turkey.  G Sathiyan has surpassed the legendary Sharath Kamal to become Indias highest- ranked player in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings, which also have an unprecedented nine players in the top- 100.  Former world silver medallist Sarjubala Devi representing Manipur claimed the gold in 48 kg category in the National Womens Boxing Championships in Rohtak, Haryana.  Shooter Shahzar Rizvi won the Mens 10m Air Pistol Gold at the 61st National Shooting Championship (NSCC), at the Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi.  Gilles Simon of France has lifted the inaugural Tata Open Maharashtra Tennis trophy. The tournament is Indias only ATP event.  Meghalaya signed the Host City Contract with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for hosting the 39th National Games in 2022.  Australia is going to host ICC World T20 2020. It was announced that Australias largest stadium Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will host the final of both the mens and womens ICC World Twenty20 in 2020.  The Asian Champions Trophy 2018 will be hosted by the Oman Hockey Association in Muscat between October 18 and 28, confirmed the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF).  2018 ICC Womens World Twenty20 will be hosted in the West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018  Sandeep Lamichhane has become the first cricketer from Nepal to land a deal an IPL contract.  The Indian mens football team have climbed three spots to be placed 102nd in the latest Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rankings. 1st - Germany .  Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldinho has retired from football, although he has not played a game since 2015.  South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has become the number-one ranked bowler in the MRF Tyres ICC Test Player Rankings, after he helped his team to a 72 run victory over India in the first Test at Newlands.  Indian womens cricket team pacer Jhulan Goswami has become the first woman in the world to take 200 wickets in ODI cricket. Goswami achieved the feat playing in her 166th ODI against South Africa.  Indias leading squash player, Saurav Ghosal became the highest-ranked Indian squash player.  Young golfer Shubhankar Sharma was elevated from 193 to 72, a gain of 121 spots, in the world rankings making him the highest-ranked Indian in the world.  The first Khelo India School Games concluded in New Delhi with sports powerhouse Haryana topped the overall medal tally.  The 23rd Olympic Winter Games officially kicked off with a colourful ceremony at Pyeongchang in South Korea.  The Indian football team remained static at 105th in the latest FIFA rankings. India drew with Myanmar 2-2 at home in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers during this ranking period.  Indian ace shuttler Srikanth Kidmabi has risen to the zenith of his career as he established himself as world number 2 in the latest BWF mens singles ratings.  Indian womens cricket team captain Mithali Raj bagged the Indian Sportswoman of the Year (Team Sports) award at the Indian Sports Honours (ISH) event.  The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has decided to name the Gate No. 3 and 4 of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium after the cricketer-turned-commentator , Anjum Chopra.

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 Womens Youth World Boxing Championship held in Guwahati. Mary Com is the Ambassador of 2017 AIBA youth womens World boxing championship. Assams famed one-horned rhino – Guppy – is the official mascot, and Make Some Noise its anthem.  Basel, Switzerland will become the first city to jointly host the Badminton and Para Badminton World Championships after it was awarded the 2019 edition of the Para event.  The second edition of World Gaming Festival (casino) will be held in Panaji, Goa from November 30 to December 4  Guwahati hosted the World Youth Womens Boxing Championship  Mairaj Khan crowned skeet champion at 61st National Shotgun Cship  India wrestler Ritu Phogat clinched a silver medal in the 48kg event in the Under-23 Senior World Wrestling Championship at Poland.  Geeta Phogat wins gold at All India Police Championship  Prakash Nanjappa wins gold at Commonwealth Shooting Championships  Virat Kohli - top of the latest ICC Twenty-20 Rankings for Batsmen.  Sandeep Tulsi Yadav, who had also failed the dope test last year, has been handed a four-year ban by the Anti- Doping Disciplinary Panel of the NADA.  France will host the 2023 Rugby World Cup  Spains Rafael Nadal was presented with ATP World No. 1 award  The official mascot of the 2017 AIBA Youth Womens World Boxing Championship is Assams famed one-horned rhino. The official mascot, anointed Guppy, is a female version of Assams one-horned rhino. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place on November 19 at the Maulana Mohd. Tayebulla Hockey Stadium.  Ankushita Boro, a young girl from Assam, has done India proud after winning The Best Boxer title in World Youth Womens boxing Championship held in Guwahati.  The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has named a gate of the Feroz Shah Kotla ground after former India opener Virender Sehwag. The Gate No. 2 of the stadium, in Delhi, was named as the Virender Sehwag Gate.  Indian fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah became the number one bowler in the latest ICC T20I rankings Player Rankings.  Pakistan to host ACC Emerging Nations Cup in April 2018  Hong Kong is set to become the first Asian city to host the Gay Games, after it won the right to host the Games in 2022, beating the likes of Mexicos Guadalajara and Washington DC.  25-time Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis has announced her retirement from professional tennis at the conclusion of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore.  Adidas Football has unveiled the Telestar 18 official ball for the 2018 FIFA World Cup to be held in Russia.  Indias star gymnast Dipa Karmakar has been conferred a D.Litt. degree from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Agartala.  M. S. Dhoni inaugurated his first global cricket academy in Dubai, UAE  The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed fine of Rs 52.24 crore on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for anti-competitive conduct in the IPL Media Rights agreement.  UKs premier Southhall Football Club will jointly set up an international level football academy with Cordia Institutes at its campus at Sanghol in Fatehgarh Sahib district in Punjab.

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Australian Open 2018  Mens Singles – Roger Federer (Switzerland)  Womens Singles – Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)  Mens Doubles – Oliver Marach (Austria), Mate Pavic(Croatia)  Womens Doubles – Kristina Mladenovic (France),Tímea Babos (Hungary)  Mixed Doubles – Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada),Mate Pavic (Croatia)

Committees

Head of Committee Purpose Amitabh Kant Panel to address the problem of stressed assets in Indias power sector. Kant is NITI Aayogs chief executive. Narendra Singh Tomar A 30-member central advisory council is formed by govt., which will play key role in (Housing and Urban Affairs protecting the interest of consumers while advising government on implementation Minister) of the Real Estate Regulation Act (Rera). Dr. Kirti Bhushan The Delhi government under Dr. Kirti Bhushan set-up a nine-member expert committee to look into the functioning of private hospitals and nursing homes and recommend norms to be followed the clinics, including capping the profit margin on medicines and consumables. Umesh Sinha The Election Commission has set up a 14-member panel under Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha to study how social media and other digital platforms are used ahead of polls and make suggestions on how to adapt the Model Code of Conduct to these changes. B.R. Sharma The Union Home Ministry has appointed a 12-member inter-ministerial committee to take a call on the playing of the national anthem in cinema halls and public places. Arun Jaitley The government formed a ministerial committee headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley to decide what to do with old, pre-existing projects in ports, which have become unviable. Yashwant Thorat Maharashtra government has formed a committee to study the feasibility of merging financially weak District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) with the Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank Sushil Chandra Multi-Agency Group (MAG) will investigate the Paradise Papers on offshore financial holdings, including a list 714 Indian individuals and entities. M Vinod Kumar Panel has started a review of the laws governing goods and services tax (GST) to remove any glitches. CK Mishra Committee to formulate short and long-term measures to solve the problem of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region. Nand Kishore Singh He will lead 15th Finance Commission. Commission is formed by the government to recommend on the sharing of revenue between the Centre and states for a five-year period from April 1, 2015 and will go on until March 31, 2020. (This Finance Commission comes under Article 280 of the Constitution.) Arbind Modi A task force under Arbind Modi for redrafting the 50-year old income tax law in sync with the economic needs of the country.

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Rankings

Index India’s Rank Other Information Global Prosperity Index 100 1st – Norway. [It is The Legatum Prosperity Index 2017] Global Intellectual Property (IP) index 44 1st - USA Global Talent Competitiveness Index 81st 1st – Switzerland Environmental Performance Index 177th 1st – Switzerland (EPI) 2018 Global Manufacturing Index 30th 1st – Japan Index by World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Democracy Index 21st 1st – Norway In the list of cheapest country to live 2nd 1st – South Africa or retire (survey by GoBankingRates ranked nations) In the list of wealthiest countries 6th 1st – USA (report given by New World Wealth) In terms of attractive market for 5th 1st – USA investments and the optimism over global economic growth In the list of emerging economies on 62nd Norway is ranked first among advanced economies in an inclusive development index inclusive development. Among emerging economies, Lithuania has secured the first rank. Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) 6 1st – Haiti Business Optimism index 7 1st – Indonesia Climate Change Performance Index 14 The top three rankings are unoccupied. 4th – Sweden (CCPI) 2018 IMD World Talent Ranking 51 1st – Switzerland Global Gender Gap index 108 1st – Iceland Index is launched by World Economic Forum According to a recent report published by World Steel Association (WSA), India overtook the US to become the worlds third-largest steel producer in 2018. 1st – China According to a survey of Expedia Vacation Deprivation Report 2017, globally India has been ranked as the 5th most vacation deprived country due to heavy work schedule, with 60 percent respondents corroborating with the view. South Korea stood at number one position. According to the World Migration Report (2018), published by the International Organisation for Migration, a UN agency, the Indian diaspora is the worlds largest, with slightly more than 15.6 million Indians residing overseas. After India, Mexico has the second largest diaspora. The Indian government is the third most trusted government in the world, a survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed. The list is topped by Switzerland, followed by Indonesia, while India grabs the third spot. Indians second-highest public bingers in the world. 1st – Mexico. Binge Watching means the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television programme in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming. India tops domestic air passenger traffic in September, China second: International Air Transport Association (IATA)

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According to the Q3 2017 Salary Budget Planning Report, Indias projected salary growth for 2018 stood the highest in the Asia-Pacific region at 10 per cent despite a decreasing year-on-year pattern. According to a report released recently by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), India has slipped from a rating of compliant to an overall rating of largely compliant as regards its meeting international standards for exchange of tax information. Union Agriculture Minister Radhan Mohan Singh announced that India has become the second largest fish producing country in the world.

Rankings (Persons, Cities, Organizations and Others)

 As per the report titled, Office Space Across the World 2017, Delhi-NCR ranks at 84th position in the list of most expensive office locations globally. With rental values almost as high as ₹ 430 per square feet per month, Delhi and NCR is the most expensive office location in the country followed by Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.  In the race to go digital, businesses judge Indias Silicon Valley — Bangalore — the best host among 45 cities worldwide. San Francisco came in second followed by two other Indian cities — Mumbai and New Delhi.  The posh Khan Market in South Delhi has been ranked as the 24th most expensive retail location in the world. The top spot on the list was bagged by Upper 5th Avenue in New York, followed by Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. Loans from Banks

From To Amount Purpose World Bank India $40 million The loan amount is for U.P. Pro-Poor Tourism Development Project. World Bank India $318 million The loan amount is for the Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project to promote climate resilient agriculture technologies, improve water management practices, and increase market opportunities for small and marginal farmers. World Bank India $125 million Credit is for the Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement Operation (STRIVE) Project World Bank India $250 million Loan amount is for the Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) Project World Bank Inland US $ 375 For Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). Waterways million Authority of India (IWAI) World Bank India $100 million To promote rural enterprises, facilitate their access to finance, and create employment opportunities for youth, particularly women, in selected blocks of Tamil Nadu World Bank India $120 million To help increase access to improved water supply in the peri- urban areas of Uttarakhand. World Bank India $119 Million For the Odisha Higher Education Programme for Excellence & Equity (OHEPEE) Project was signed with the World Bank. Asian Reliance $583 million The loan is given to develop the Reliance Bangladesh Liquefied Development Natural Gas (LNG) and Power Project

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Bank (ADB) ADB India $346 million To fund highway upgradation project in Karnataka. ADB India $250 million To finance the construction of 6,254 kilometres all-weather rural roads in the States of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal under the Prime Ministers Rural Roads Program (PMGSY). ADB India $20 billion Asian Development Bank (ADB) will raise annual funding to India to up to $4 billion from existing $2.7 billion, from next year. Period - 2018-22. So totaling to $20 billion ADB India $500 million Loan to improve rural road connectivity in five states – Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal. Brics New India and $400 million Loans will be used to rehabilitate the Indira Gandhi canal system Development Russia in India and to build a toll transport corridor connecting Ufa city Bank (NDB) centre to the M-5 federal highway in Russia Asian India $335 million The loan is to finance a 100-per cent electric metro rail project - Infrastructure Bangalore Metro Rail Project?Reach 6 (R6) - in Bangalore. Investment Bank (AIIB) NABARD Odisha Rs 372.51 Assistance under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund crore (RIDF) towards irrigation and rural bridge projects for the last quarter of this fiscal. Japan India Rs 2,587 For Phase 3 (I) of the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage crore Project The union government and the World Bank signed a guarantee agreement for USD 98 million and grant agreement for USD 2 million for the Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project. The UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Indian government signed a $168 million pact to sustainably raise incomes and food security for tribal farming households in northeast India. A Loan agreement and a Guarantee agreement for providing additional funding of Euro 20 million was signed between India and Germany for the project Pare Hydroelectric Plant (in Arunachal Pradesh) under Indo-German Bilateral Development Cooperation.

Deadlines/ Important Dates

What for Deadline/Date RBI has asked banks to provide doorstep banking facilities to senior citizens of more December 31, 2017 than 70 years of age and differently-abled persons by Indian Railways has decided to install Aadhaar-based biometric attendance system January 31, 2018 across its zones and divisions by Aadhaar and mobile number must be linked by February 6, 2018 In an eco-friendly measure to cut power consumption, the Indian Railways has March 31, 2018 planned to make all stations cent per cent LED lit by Deadline to paste price stickers on unsold packaged products to reflect new MRP March 2018 (earlier it was post GST December 2017) Roll out of BS-VI fuel in the national capital (Earlier the deadline was April 1, 2020) April 2018

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Target of 100 per cent completion of installing bio-toilets in the Indian Railways December 2018 coaches (Earlier the deadline was September 2019) Completion of the work of installing bio-toilets in all passenger trains By March 2019 Seaplanes to Link Small Towns (The government is speeding up the process to before the 2019 general frame norms for the mode of transport, and has decided to allow them under the elections regional connectivity scheme.) NBCC to redevelop 10 railway stations with amenities similar to airports 2020

Books

Book Author/s Other Info Veteran lyricist has come out with his debut novel titled Two in English which examines the status of refugees after the Partition. Bollywood: The Films! The Co-authored by S.M.M. It is a coffee table book, which provides historical Songs! The Stars! Ausaja, Karan Bali, insights, lesser-known facts and behind-the-scene Rajesh Devraj and Tanul exclusives of the most iconic movies made in the history Thakur of the Indian film industry. Trivendra Ek Zindaginama – Nandan Singh Bisht It is a biography of Uttarakhands Chief Minister Khairasain ka Sooraj Trivendra Singh Rawat The Way I See It — a Gauri Edited by writer and It is a book containing selected writings by late journalist Lankesh Reader sociologist Chandan Gauri Lankesh who was shot dead by some unidentified Gowda men some time ago. The Tall Man Biju Patnaik Sundar Ganesan Biju Patnaik was the former Chief Minister of Odisha. Dilli Meri Dilli: Before and Sheila Dikshit Book offers an engrossing narrative about the journey of After 1998 Indias capital city and its evolution over the centuries.

The Heartfulness Way Kamlesh Patel It is a book on heartfulness techniques and principles Imperfect Sanjay Manjrekar The book is the autobiography of Sanjay Manjrekar. He has played 37 Test matches. Hisaab Kitaab Anjana Sukhani The book is a how-to book on household budgeting Mere Sapnon ka Bharat Tarun Vijay It is a compilation of interviews of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Even When There Is A Dr Yashwant Amdekar, The book describes the role of an individual or parents in Doctor Dr Rajesh Chokhani and improving their childs health. Krishnan Sivaramakrishnan

PM Modi Pens Book ͚Exam Warriors͛ to Help Students Reduce Stress

 Prime Minister Narendra Modis new book – Exam Warriors – launched aims to help students breeze through their examinations.  The book reportedly urges young students to tackle their examinations with zeal and energy. Modi has constantly reiterated the fact the exams should be viewed as festivals in order to reduce stress, on his monthly talk show – Mann ki Baat.

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Obituaries

Name Profession Other Info Chaudhary Prem Singh Politician Chandrasekhar Rath Odia literature Madavoor Vasudevan Nair Kathakali maestro Kalamandalam Ottanthulal artist Geethanandan Lakshmi Devi Kanakala Telugu actor Sudha Karmarkar Artist, Director He was veteran theatre artist, director, and pioneer of Childrens Theatre Radha Vishwanathan Carnatic vocalist Anwar Jalapuri Urdu Poet Doodhnath Singh Hindi Author Ananta Ojha Odiya jatra actor, director Shrivallabh Vyas Bollywood Actor Supriya Devi Bengali actress Krishna Kumari Telugu Actress Chandrashekhar Kannada actor A.E. Manoharan Pop singer and actor He was popularly known as Ceylon Manohar has passed away. He was best known for the song Surangani. Ava Mukherjee Bollywood Actress Charu Rohatgi Actress W. B. Rao Cinematographer Banwari Lal Joshi Delhis former Lt Governor Ashok Mattoo Sports Administrator He headed the national boxing and hockey federations at different times Scientist He is called the Father of DNA finger printing in India M V Pylee Educationist Neeraj Vora Actor-director Bollywood actor Veteran Bollywood actor and the romantic screen icon of the 70s and early 80s, Shashi Kapoor who immortalised the line Mere Paas Maa Hai, died this evening after prolonged illness. Leslie Harding Pde Author Former Meghalaya bureaucrat and renowned Khasi author Saksham Yadav Indian Powerlifting world champion Nuclear Physicist Buddhadev Dasgupta Sarod maestro NK Trikha Journalist Gnani Sankaran Journalist

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Anindya Sengupta Journalist Shashikant Bhagwat Sports journalist Gurcharan Singh Kalkat Agricultural scientist Chandi Lahiri Cartoonist Partha Mukhopadhyay Bengali Actor Jatileswar Mukhopadhyay Bengali Singer Rabisankar Bal Journalist and Bengali author Adarsh Sen Anand Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Purabi Mukhopadhyay Rabindrasangeet singer Adithyan South Indian music director Ja Ra Sundaresan Tamil journalist and humourist Sukharanjan Sengupta Journalist Chintaman Wanaga Politician Khagen Das Politician Dinesh Nandan Sahay Politician He was first governor of Chhattisgarh and former governor of Tripura Raghunath Jha Politician Former Union minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise Daljit Singh Doctor (Ophthalmologist) He was a surgeon, teacher, researcher, activist, poet and later even a politician. Justice V Khalid Judge Former Supreme Court judge and eminent jurist Justice Bhagwati Prasad Chief Justice Former chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court Abdul Mannan Hossain Politician Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi Politician He was former Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting. Virendra Sanghi Journalist Jagdish Mohan Hindustani vocalist Kunwar Narain Hindi poet Ashok Khal Veteran cyclist Amritsar Govindsingh Milkha Cricketer Singh Sreerupa Bose (Mukherjee) Cricketer Former India womens cricket team coach and batswoman Manu Sharma Hindi Author Biju Phukan Assam Actor Vettoor Purushan Malayalam actor Abi Malayalam actor and mimicry artist Thodupuzha Vasanthi Malayalam TV and film actress Rita Koiral Bengali actress Mangi Bai Arya Rajasthani Maand folk singer Kirti Nidhi Bista Former Prime Minister of Nepal Dina Wadia She was Mohammad Ali Jinnahs Daughter

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Mansur bin Muqrin Saudi Prince Sue Grafton American Author She was author and creator of the Alphabet Series of mystery novels. Robbie Malinga Musician He was a legendary South African musician. John Young Astronaut First shuttle commander US astronaut Jo Jo White American basketball player Sulaiman Dik Abed South Africa all-rounder Ursula K Le Guin American Novelist Honsen Lyngdoh Meghalayas noted philanthropist Connie Sawyer Actress (American) Hollywoods oldest working actress Hugh Masekela South African jazz musician Vladimir Yankilevsky Russian painter Dharmasena Pathiraja Sri Lankan filmmaker

Nobel Prize Winners

Award Winner For What 2017 Nobel Prize in Americans Jeffrey C. Hall, for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms Physiology or Medicine Michael Rosbash and Michael controlling the circadian rhythm. W. Young 2017 Nobel physics prize Americans Rainer Weiss, Barry for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne the observation of gravitational waves. 2016 Nobel Prize in Swiss Jacques Dubochet, for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high- Chemistry German Joachim Frank and resolution structure determination of biomolecules in British Richard Henderson solution. 2017 Nobel Peace Prize International Campaign to for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic Abolish Nuclear Weapons humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear (ICAN) headquartered in weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to Geneva, Switzerland achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons. 2017 The Sveriges Riksbank American Richard H. Thaler for his contributions to behavioural economics. Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2017 Nobel Prize in British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro who, in novels of great emotional force, has Literature uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.

Important Days

January 2018

Date Day Extra Info 4 January World Braille Day 10 January World Hindi Day 12 January National Youth Day 15 January Indian Army Day

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24 January National Girl Child Day 25 January National Voters Day Theme : Accessible Elections 26 January Republic Day 26 January International Customs Day 27 January International Holocaust Theme: Holocaust Remembrance and Remembrance Day Education: Our Shared Responsibility 28 January 2018 World Leprosy Day 30 January Shaheed Diwas 31 January Raising Day of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)

Febrauary 2018

Date Day Extra Info 2 February World Wetlands Day Theme 2018: "Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future" 4 February World Cancer Day Theme 2018: "We Can, I Can" 6 February International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation 10 February National Deworming Day 11 February International Day of Women and Girls in Theme 2018: Equality and Parity in Science for Science Peace and Development 13 February World Radio Day Theme 2018: "Radio and Sports" 20 February World Day of Social Justice 21 February International Mother Language Day 24 February Central Excise Day 27 February 2017 86th death anniversary of Chandra Shekhar Azad 28 February National Science Day

March

Date Day 1 March World Civil Defence Day 1 March Zero Discrimination Day 3 March National Defence Day 3 March World Wildlife Day 3 March World Hearing Day 4 March National Security Day 8 March International Womens Day 9 March World Kidney Day 10 March CISF Raising Day 13 March Commonwealth Day

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15 March World Consumer Rights Day 16 March National Vaccination Day 18 March Ordnance Factories Day 20 March International Day of Happiness 20 March World Sparrow day 21 March International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 21 March International Day of Forests 21 March World Poetry day 22 March World Water day 23 March World Meteorlogical Day 24 March World Tuberculosis Day 25 March International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members 25 March International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade 25 March 2017 Earth Hour 27 March World Theatre Day

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