DAILY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS – 21.06.2018 TO 23.06.2018 NATIONAL Shillong 100th city to be selected under Smart Cities Mission (a) Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya has been selected as 100th Smart City, to receive funding under the Centre’s flagship Smart Cities Mission, after evaluating the proposal submitted by it. (b) According to the release, with the selection of Shillong, the total proposed investment in the finally selected 100 cities under the Smart Cities Mission would be Rs 2,05,018 crore. (c) Under the scheme, each city will get Rs 500 crore from the Centre for implementing various projects. An equal amount, on matching basis, will have to be contributed by the state or urban local bodies. Surat Bags ‘City Award’ Under India Smart Cities Award 2018 Surat has been honored with the “City Award” under ‘India Smart Cities Award’ 2018. The award has been given to Surat for showcasing “great momentum” in the implementation of projects under the Smart Cities Mission especially in the categories of urban environment, transport and mobility and sustainable integrated development. The India Smart Cities Awards were announced in 3 categories with total 9 awards. The categories includes: City Award, Innovative Idea Award and Project Award. Bhopal and Ahmedabad were jointly selected in the Innovative Idea’ category for Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC) and Safe and Secure Ahmedabad (SASA) Project respectively. The Project’ awards were given in seven categories namely: Social Aspects’ category – NDMC, Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Visakhapatnam, Pune Urban environment category – Bhopal, Pune and Coimbatore and Jabalpur Culture and Economy category – Bhopal and Jaipur Transport and Mobility category – Ahmedabad and Surat Water and Sanitation category – Ahmedabad Governance category – Pune Built Environment category – Pune India Smart Cities Award were launched on 25 June 2017 with an objective to reward cities, projects and innovative ideas, promoting sustainable development in cities. Gujarat Unveils Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Policy (a) The state government of Gujarat has announced a policy ‘Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Policy-2018’ to promote setting up of wind as well as solar power projects at one location to ensure optimal use of land and transmission infrastructure. (b) The policy will remain in force for five years. Projects approved under this policy can avail various benefits and rebates as mentioned in the policy document for a period of 25 years or till the life of the project Haryana to give kids Rs 50 for planting trees The Haryana government has decided to introduce a scheme under which an incentive of Rs 50 will be given to school children for planting trees. Under the new scheme, students from Classes 6 to 12 of both government and private schools will be given an incentive of Rs 50 each for every live tree planted by them every six months for a period of three years. The students will also be provided with books about environment conservation. The drive will be launched by the school education department on July 10 Haryana approves scheme to provide Rs 8,000 monthly assistance to female acid victim The Haryana state government has approved a scheme to provide monthly financial assistance of Rs 8,000 to female acid victims. Besides, the women and girl acid attack victims would also be given preference in the allotment of fair price shops by the Haryana Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department. World’s 1st International Centre for Humanitarian Forensics Launched in Gujarat The World’s first International Centre for Humanitarian Forensics (ICHF) has been inaugurated in Gujarat, India on 20 June 2018. It is a joint initiative of the Gujarat Forensic Sciences University (GFSU) in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Regional Delegation for India, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives. ICRC--Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland,Founder: Henry Dunant,President: Peter Maurer Health Ministry launches National Health Resource Repository project Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda launched the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) on June 19, 2018 in New Delhi. The repository is India’s first ever national healthcare facility registry of authentic, standardised and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare establishments. The Minister also released the National Health Profile (NHP)-2018 prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) on the occasion. Tripura to execute Smart City project with ADB loan The state government of Tripura has taken Rs 500 crore as loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Hudco (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) to carry out the Rs 1,000 crore smart City project in Agartala by 2021. Punjab Government Launched Mobile App- ‘i-Hariyali’ To increase the state’s green cover, the Punjab government has launched ‘i-Hariyali’ app that lets users order free plant saplings. The ‘i-Hariyali’ app under ‘Mission Tandarust’ can be downloaded from the app store for free. The users can book a sapling of their choice, a maximum of 25 per person, from a nearby government nursery. Government to expand BPO promotion scheme, plans largest National Data Centre in Bhopal The Indian Government has planned to expand its BPO promotion scheme from current 48,000 seats to one lakh seats as well as set up India’s largest National Data Centre in Bhopal. 1441, Opp. IOCL Petrol Pump, CRPF Square, Bhubaneswar-750015 1 Ph. : (0674) 6556677, 8093556677. Web : www.vanik.org, E-mail : [email protected] DAILY UPDATED CURRENT AFFAIRS – 21.06.2018 TO 23.06.2018 The National Data Centres, that host Government websites, services and apps, are currently operational at four locations namely Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bhubaneswar. The fifth and the largest National Data Centre will come up in Bhopal with capacity of five lakh virtual servers. TN sets up Committee to Suggest Downsizing, Outsourcing The state government of Tamil Nadu has set up a Staff Rationalisation Committee in an attempt to downsize its workforce. The Committee will be headed by S. Audseshiah, a retired Principal Secretary of the state government. It will evaluate the staff structure in various departments to identify non-essential posts as well as the categories of posts which can be outsourced or appointed through contract appointment among other relevant issue concerning administrative expenditure management in government and government agencies and make suitable recommendations. INTERNATIONAL Canada becomes second nation to legalize marijuana Canadian Parliament has passed a “historic” bill legalizing the recreational use of marijuana(Ganja) nationwide, becoming the second country in the world to do so.Uruguay became the first country to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use in December 2013. Uruguay became the first country to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use in December 2013.The Bill C-45, otherwise known as the Cannabis Act, controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed and sold. BILATERAL India to construct war memorial at Villers Guislain in France (a) India will construct a war memorial at Villers Guislain, a town around 200 km from Paris, to honour the valour and sacrifice of the thousands of its soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought for peace in the World War I.This was announced by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. (b) She also handed over certificates of appreciation to Indian community organisation and individuals who have contributed to the Swacch Bharat Kosh. (c) The minister also attended a ceremony held to name the Indian Culture Centre in the memory of Swami Vivekanand. Russia to supply technical security equipment to India India and Russia have decided to cooperate in area of integrated security system taking forward their decades old defence cooperation. For this, Russia’s NIKIRET, a subsidiary of Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom, and Indian engineering services firm Core Energy Systems Pvt Ltd have signed an agreement to promote the technical security equipment of NIKIRET in India. UK excludes India from student visa norms list The United Kingdom government has excluded Indian students from a new list of “low risk” countries eligible for easier visa application to the UK. The decision is based on India’s refusal to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the return of illegal Indian immigrants in the UK to India and vice-versa. ECONOMY Vodafone – Idea to merge to form Vodafone Idea Ltd (a) Idea and Vodafone India are in process of merging their businesses, the approval for which is in final stage by the Department of Telecom. (b) The combined entity would be known as “Vodafone Idea Ltd” post merger.Idea and Vodafone India are in process of merging their businesses. According to official sources, the approval for merger by the Department of Telecom is in final stages. The merger, when it comes through, will create India's largest telecom firm worth over $23 billion and is expected to intensify the telecom battle dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. (c) Vodafone is expected to own 45.1 per cent, 26 per cent by Aditya Birla Group and Idea shareholders will own 28.9 in the combined entity. RBI alters ‘relative’ definition to check outward remittances (a) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has narrowed the definition of relatives under the ‘maintenance of close relative’ category of Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to check outflow of funds and prevent misuse of facility. (b) Henceforth, funds under this category can be sent only to immediate relatives such as parents, spouses, children and their spouses. (c) The definition of relatives under LRS has been now aligned with definition of relative with definition given in Companies Act, 2013 instead of Companies Act, 1956. (d) Outward remittances under maintenance of close relatives had shot up to almost $3 billion in 2017-18 from mere $174 million in 2013-14.