WEEKLY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR WEEK 28/(JULY 9-15) (2019) Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal holds bilateral meeting with the Indonesian Minister of TradeEnggartiastoLukita Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal held a bilateral meeting with Indonesian Minister of Trade EnggartiastoLukita in New Delhi. Both the countries agreed to work towards sustainable trade. Uttarakhand is all set to establish Six Sigma Institute of Mountain Medicines & High Altitude Rescue Asia’s 1st Six Sigma Institute of Mountain Medicines and High Altitude Rescue to be established at Rudraprayag district in Uttarakhand. It will be a high altitude institute of mountain medicine, training and research center. India to train Bangladeshi Civil Servants at Mussoorie India will train a batch Bangladeshi civil servant at the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), Mussoorie in Uttarakhand for a period of 2019-2025. This training is based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in February 2019 between National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) and Ministry of Public Administration, Government of Bangladesh. France to impose Green tax on plane tickets from 2020 France will impose Green tax on flight tickets upto 18Euros from 2020. It was announced by the France transport minister Elisabeth Borne. Similar tax was introduced in Sweden in April 2018, which imposed an added charge of up to 40 euros on every ticket in a bid to lessen the impact of air travel on the climate. Kyriakos Mitsotakis sworn in as the new Prime minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis of New Democratic Party sworn-in as the new Prime Minister of Greece. He belongs to Greece’s New Democracy Party. He takes over from Alexis Tsipras. Arun Kumar appointed as DGCA chief Arun Kumar has been appointed as the Director General of DGCA. He will replace BS Bhullar. Kumar is an IAS officer of 1989 batch of Haryana cadre. Gully Boy’ wins NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at BIFAN At 23rd Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in South Korea, the Indian film ‘Gully Boy’ was honoured with NETPAC (The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award for Best Asian Film. The film directed by Zoya Akhtar. 2019 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is the 23 edition of this film festival. Vice President releases book titled Vivekadeepini Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu releases a book titled ‘Vivekadeepini’. It is a concise book of aphorisms (a memorable expression of a general truth or principle) initially written by Adi Shankaracharya. This short book is a summary of PrashnottaraRatnamalika written by Adi Shankaracharya. ICSI launches UDIN to improve corporate governance Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) rolled out an initiative in the form of a Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN). The Objective is to pursue a heightened sense of self- governance and strengthen the practicing side of company secretaries. UDIN will help to maintain a register of attestation and certification services. The ICSI functions under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Union Minister of Corporate Affairs: Nirmala Sitharaman Madhya Pradesh Govt announces cow welfare fund, hikes Haj committee grant MP Government proposed to allocate Rs 132 crore for the welfare of bovines and hiked grant to the state Waqf Board and Haj committee. Plot-1441, Opp. IOCL Petrol Pump, CRP Square, Bhubaneswar-751015 Ph. : 8093556677, 9040456677, Web :www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected] 1 WEEKLY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR WEEK 28/(JULY 9-15) (2019) They proposed a three-fold hike in the honorarium for the priests working in the registered temples. Allocation of Rs 8,000 crore has been made to waive remaining loans of the farmers in the state. A provision has been made to generate employment for youths under which the skill training programme would be given an impetus. More than Rs 821 crore has been earmarked for the OBC and Minorities Department. Government approved Phase-I of BharatmalaPariyojana along Indo-Nepal Border areas with financial outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crore Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Shri Nitin J Gadkari approved the Phase-I of BharatmalaPariyojana received the approval with the financial outlay of Rs 5,35,000 crores. Their main aim is to develop 24,800 km Highways along with 10,000 km residual National Highways Development Project (NHDP) over a period of five year. In BharatmalaPariyojana Phase-I, development of Border & International Connectivity roads for a length of 2000 km has also been envisaged with outlay of Rs. 25,000 crore. Kochi to host India’s largest women startup summit Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is hosting India’s largest women startup summit on August 1 at the Integrated Startup Complex, Kochi. The ‘Women Startup Summit 2019’ aims at encouraging aspiring women professionals to take up their entrepreneurial journey and developing an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem in the state. The meet will be open for all women professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and startup founders. Centre prepares Rs 14,000 cr plan to reduce accidents on National Highways Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has announced that the government has prepared a 14 thousand crore rupees project to identify accident black spots and plug gaps on National Highways to reduce casualties. He appreciated the work being undertaken by the Tamil Nadu government to reduce road accidents as TN has resuced 15% Road accidents. The second edition of India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue 2019 held in New Delhi The second India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue (IRSED) 2019 held in New Delhi. The bilateral meeting was chaired by Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman of India’s think tank, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Timur Maksimov. The main areas of cooperation include: 1. Development of transport infrastructure and technologies 2. Development of agriculture and agro-Processing sector 3. Small and Medium business support 4. Digital Transformation and Frontier Technologies 5. Cooperation in Trade, Banking, Finance, and Industry 6. Tourism & Connectivity First Global Conference on Media Freedom in London The first Global Conference on Media Freedom took place in London on 10 and 11 The event was organised by the UK government and the government of Canada. The conference is part of an international campaign to shine a global spotlight on media freedom and increase the cost to those that are attempting to restrict it. A three members Indian media delegation, including Prasar Bharati Chairman A.Surya Prakash, Rajya Sabha MP and journalist Swapan Dasgupta, and journalist and political analyst Kanchan Gupta, have attended the first Global Conference for Media Freedom. Vikas Swarup appointed Secretary of Overseas Indian Affairs Senior diplomat Vikas Swarup has been appointed as Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry. Plot-1441, Opp. IOCL Petrol Pump, CRP Square, Bhubaneswar-751015 Ph. : 8093556677, 9040456677, Web :www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected] 2 WEEKLY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR WEEK 28/(JULY 9-15) (2019) His appointment will come into effect from August 1, 2019. Swarup, a 1986-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, is at present India’s High Commissioner to Canada. IAF to get Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAM) The Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to adopt Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM). It is a new European visual range air to air missile. IAF aims to expand its Su-30 fleet with a proposal to build 40 more jets under license at HAL’s Nashik facility. The Indian government has formally requested Russia to extend the production license. Operation Thirst launched by RPF The Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Indian Railways has launched an all-India drive called Operation thirst. The operation aims to crub the sale of unauthorized packaged drinking water. Under Operation thirst, more than 1,371 people were arrested and over 69,294 bottles were seized by RPF. The bottles were seized under section 144 and section 153 of Indian Railway Act. The operation was launched in all major railway stations across the country to curb menace of unauthorized Packaged Drinking Water inside railway stations Delhi govt. plans to spot of the defunct Rajghat thermal power plant into solar park Delhi Government has announced its plan to convert a waste-to-energy plant, a solar park of 5,000 KW capacity. It aims to spot of the defunct Rajghat thermal power plant into solar park. The Cabinet has decided to oficially shut down the Rajghat power plant. A photovoltaic power station is also known as a solar park. Chandigarh ranks best performing in the eld of education Chandigarh ranked best in the field of education and is followed by Kerala and Gujarat. Chandigarh is best among all the states. Arunachal Pradesh is the least performing state ,it ranked 36th on the index. The states are Haryana (4), Tamil Nadu (5), Punjab (7), Rajasthan (8) and, Delhi (9)the lowest are Meghalaya (34), Nagaland (35) and Arunachal Pradesh (36). Kerala is the state with highest literacy rate followed by Lakshadweep and Mizoram. The information also shared by Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in Parliament. Uttar Pradesh Govt sets target of $1 trillion economy in the next three years Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath exhorted traders and businessmen to contribute towards the state becoming a trillion dollar economy. UP Vyapari Kalyan Board (Traders’ Welfare Board) in Lucknow while referring to Modi’s aim of India becoming a $5 trillion economy urged the business community to rise up to the occasion and contribute wholeheartedly towards a 1$ trillion economy by 2024. UP Budget 2019-20 tabled in the state legislature is estimated to touch Rs 15.80 trillion (or nearly $230 billion at current exchange rate) by the end of this financial year.