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Banking & Economy

First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2018-19

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Apr 05 has decided to maintain status

quo and keep its key interest rate, the repo rate, unchanged at 6 per cent in its first bi-monthly policy review of the

fiscal year 2018-19.

This is consecutive fourth time in the row, MPC keep its key interest rate unchanged.

It had last cut rates by 25 bps eight months earlier in its Aug 2017 review.

On the whole, GDP growth is projected to strengthen from 6.6 per cent in 2017-18 to 7.4 per cent in 2018-19 – in

the range of 7.3-7.4 per cent in H1 and 7.3-7.6 per cent in H2 – with risks evenly balanced.

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India’s forex reserves at record high of $424.864 bn

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a report stating that India’s forex (foreign exchange) reserves have

touched record high of $424.864 billion in Apr 2018.

The surge was due to massive spike in foreign currency assets (FCAs), a key component of the reserves.

The forex are reserve assets held by a central bank in foreign currencies.

It acts as buffer to be used in challenging times and used to back liabilities on their own issued currency as well as

to influence monetary policy.

The components of India’s FOREX Reserves include Foreign Currency Assets (FCAs), Gold Reserves, Special

Drawing Rights (SDRs) and RBI’s Reserve position with International Monetary Fund (IMF). PNB launches products to mark foundation day

State-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Apr 13 has launched new products such as pre-approved credit card

and UPI solution to mark its 124th foundation day.

The bank announced its UPI partnership with the expense management app WALNUT that comes embedded with

features such as bill reminders, bill-split and instant paperless loans.

RBI tightens reporting norms for Liberalised Remittance Scheme

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightened reporting norms for the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) under

which individual can transfer up to US $2,50,000 abroad in a year.

It aims to improve monitoring and also to ensure compliance with LRS limits.

Currently, the LRS transactions are permitted by banks based on declaration made by remitter.

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LRS is facility provided by RBI for all resident individuals including minors to freely remit upto certain amount

in terms of US Dollar for current and capital account purposes or combination of both.

India’s economy to grow 7.3% in 2018-19

The Asian Development Outlook 2018 released by Asian Development Bank (ADB) projected India’s economic

growth to 7.3% in 2018-19 fiscal and further to 7.6% in 2019-20 fiscal.

Indian growth is expected to pick up to 7.3% in fiscal year (FY) 2018 and 7.6% in FY2019, following the

estimated 6.6% in FY2017.

The ADB’s growth projection is in line with that of rating agency Fitch, but is lower than Reserve Bank of India’s

(RBI) forecast of 7.4%. India will remain the world’s fastest growing major economy.

AIIB approves $140 million loan

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved $140 million loan for project aimed at improving

rural roads (connectivity) in Madhya Pradesh. The Project will be co-financed with World Bank.

It also aims to improve durability and accessibility and enhance resilience to climate change of gravel surfaced

rural road in Madhya Pradesh.

SBI launches UK subsidiary with 225 mn pounds capital

India's largest state-owned bank, the State Bank of India (SBI) has launched its UK subsidiary, SBI (UK) Limited,

with an initial capital commitment of 225 million pounds from its parent entity.

With this, it becomes the first foreign bank in the UK to ringfence its retail division from its wholesale business.

SBI operates seven branches in London and five each in Manchester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Leicester and

Coventry - all cities with a large concentration of Indian diaspora population.

SBI to invest Rs 80 bn in hydropower project of Nepal

The State Bank of India (SBI) will be investing a total of Rs 80 billion in the Arun III hydropower

project of Nepal, which has 900 megawatts (MW) electricity production capacities.

With the completion of this project, Nepal will get 21.9 percent of the total electricity produced in a year i.e., 197

MW electricity with 86 crore unit for free in a year.

Along with this, the Punjab National Bank will lend the loan for the construction of the 268 km long 400 KV

transmission line via the Everest Bank which is the joint venture bank of the PNB.

J&K Bank launches special financing scheme

Jammu and Kashmir Bank has launched a special financing scheme, 'Add on Working Capital GST' scheme to

help the state industry cope with the delay in reimbursement of GST under special tax relief.

The bank has also launched another scheme customised for the Trade and Services sector, which will get

enhanced working capital for GST component under the scheme, he said.

11 PSBs placed under RBI’s PCA framework

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has placed 11 public sector banks

(PSBs) out of 21 State-owned banks under its Prompt Corrective Action (PCA)

framework because of deteriorating performance.

The 11 banks already under PCA framework are IDBI Bank, UCO

Bank, Bank of India (BoI), Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Dena

Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Bank of Maharashtra (BoM),

United Bank of India, Corporation Bank and Allahabad Bank.

These banks may take at least another 6-9 months before they report

any noticeable improvement in key regulatory indicators, which will help them

come out of PCA.

PCA is a process or mechanism to ensure that banks don’t go bust.

FPI investment limit in Govt Securities hiked

The Reserve Bank of India in consultation with the Govt hiked the

foreign portfolio investors (FPI) investment limit in Central govt securities (G-

Sec) from 5 per cent of outstanding stock now to 5.5 per cent in FY 2019 and 6

per cent in FY 2020.





The hike comes in the wake of 99.31 per cent of the upper FII investment limit in G-Secs of ₹1,91,300 crore

getting utilised.

RBI switches back to GDP model

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has switched back to gross domestic product (GDP) model from the gross value

added (GVA) methodology to provide its estimate of economic activity in the country.

The switch over is mainly to conform to international standards and global best practices.

The GVA methodology gives picture of state of economic activity from producers’ side or supply side whereas

the GDP model gives picture from consumers’ side or demand perspective.

Globally, performance of most economies is gauged in terms of GDP model.

Earlier, Govt had started analysing growth estimates using GVA methodology from Jan 2015 and had also

changed the base year to 2018 from Jan 2018.

ICICI Bank becomes first Indian bank to go live on SWIFT’s GPI service

India’s largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank has become the first Indian bank to go live on SWIFT’s (Society

for World Interbank Financial Telecommunication System) Global Payment Innovation (GPI)

SWIFT GPI is an improved cross-border payments service.

It was launched in May 2017 to help banks to track their global transactions at all times, keeping full vigil on

payments activity.

Govt inks agreement with World Bank for Maharashtra Project

The Union Govt, Maharashtra Govt have signed US $420 million loan agreement with World Bank for Project for

Climate Resilient Agriculture to help small and marginal farmers in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of

Maharashtra.

The loan will be provided from World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

RBI constitutes inter-departmental group

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) constituted an inter-departmental group to study and provide guidance on

feasibility to introduce fiat digital currency backed by it. The group will submit its report by end-Jun 2018.

Fiat currency is currency that a govt has declared to be legal tender.

The Bank of England was one of the first to initiate a global discussion on prospects for introduction on Fiat

digital currency.

Fiat Digital Currency (or Central bank digital currency) is the digital form of fiat money which is currency

established as money by govt regulation or law.

RBI defers adoption of Ind-AS by 1 year for banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deferred adoption of Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) by commercial

banks for year (till Apr 2019) due to unpreparedness of banks to migrate to the new accounting system.

RBI has requested Govt to amend Banking Regulation Act, 1949 as format of financial statements as prescribed

under Schedule 3 of Act is not amenable to reporting financial statements under Ind-AS.

Ind AS is global accounting practice that lender is mandated to adopt.

It governs the accounting and recording of financial transactions as well as presentation of statements such as

profit and loss account and balance sheet of lender or a company.

Banks and non-banking financial companies currently follow generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

standards.

CBDT forms Working Group to assess tax risks

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) constituted 5-member working group (committee) to examine

taxation aspects related to High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) who are migrating abroad to other jurisdictions.

The Working Group will be headed by Pragya Sahay Saksena.

It will make recommendations for policy decision in respect of tax risks of migrating HNWIs.

PayPal, FIEO tie up

Digital payments company PayPal and exporters’ body the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO)

have tied up to promote exports, leveraging the technology platform.





PayPal will work with FIEO to educate SMEs on using technology to receive money in a safe and timely manner

with PayPal products such as invoicing and bring to them global best practices from across 200 markets.

Jio Payments Bank begins operations

A joint venture between Reliance Industries and the State Bank of India, Jio Payments Bank Ltd. has commenced

operations as a payments bank with effect from Apr 3, 2018.

Reliance Industries Ltd was one of the 11 applicants which were issued in-principle approval for setting up a

payments bank in Aug 2015.

It will be competing against more established players like the two-year-old Airtel Payments Bank, Paytm founder

Vijay Shekhar Sharma-promoted Paytm Payments Bank and Fino Payments Bank.

H. Srikrishnan has been appointed as MD and CEO of Jio Payments Bank.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel was the first to begin payment bank services in Nov 2016.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma promoted Paytm Payments Bank began operations from May 2017 last year

while FINO Payments Bank Ltd. kicked-off in in Jun 2017.

Birla group's Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank was the latest in this space whose operations were started from

Feb 22 this year.

The Department of Posts, which also got a license for a payment bank is yet to start its services formally, who is

running services on pilot basis currently.

Payments banks are being promoted by the Reserve Bank to further financial inclusion by giving services such as

small savings accounts, payment or remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low income households,

small businesses and unorganised sector entities as well as other users.

SEBI eases algorithm trade rules in commodity exchanges

The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) relaxed algorithm trading norms at commodity derivatives

exchanges.

The market regulator has raised limit of trading using algorithm trading process up to 100 orders per second by

user from the existing limit of 20 orders per second.

Algorithmic trading in financial markets refers to transaction orders generated by using advanced mathematical

models that involves automated execution of trade.

It uses mathematical models and software codes to make transaction decisions on exchanges and execute them at

high speed.

Indian Army, HDFC Bank ink MoU

Indian Army has signed Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) with HDFC Bank on the Defence Salary Package.

It is renewed version of the first MoU signed between Indian Army and HDFC Bank in 2011 and renewed in Mar

2015.

This MoU will benefit large number of serving and retired Indian Army personnel who are having their accounts

with HDFC bank.

Under current MoU, Indian Army personnel will get other benefits like free personal accident death cover and

free permanent disability cover of Rs 30 lakhs.

The dependent child in case of accidental death of defence personnel will get free educational cover of upto Rs 1

Lakh per year for four years.

They will also get 100% processing fees waived for Car Loans and Personal Loans.

SoftBank signs $930 mn deal with GCL

SoftBank has signed a $930-million deal with China's energy conglomerate Golden Concord (GCL) to produce

and sell solar equipment in India.

GCL will invest for a 40% stake in the joint venture, with SoftBank taking the rest.

The project will have a 4 gigawatt-capacity and will produce solar ingots, silicon wafers, batteries, and

components.

RBI lifeline allows banks to stagger bond portfolio losses

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has thrown a lifeline to banks that posted huge treasury losses in the third

quarter and faced the prospect of posting losses in the fourth quarter too.





The central bank has allowed them to spread the provisioning towards the

depreciation of the bond portfolio over four quarters, commencing from the

quarter in which the loss was first incurred.

This relaxation also comes in the backdrop of the possibility of banks facing

huge provisioning burden towards bad loans in the fourth quarter.

This, in turn, has meant that banks have had to incur losses on their bond

portfolios by marking down prices.

Bond prices are inversely correlated to yields.

RBI changes methodology for bond valuation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has changed the methodology used by debt

market players, including banks and primary dealers, for the valuation of the

prices of securities.

It aims to prevent the possibility of manipulation in the prices of securities,

especially govt securities (G-Secs), on the last trading day of a quarter.

As per a central bank directive, security/bond valuation will be based on the

weighted average price of the last half-an-hour of trading on the last trading

day of every quarter against the last traded price earlier.

The methodology as to how the bonds are valued is crucial for mark-to-

market (MTM) purposes.

MTM entails recording the price or value of a security to reflect the current market value rather than the book

value.

Banks classify their investment in securities under three categories — held to maturity (HTM), Available For Sale

(AFS), and Held For Trading (HFT).

Investments in the HTM category need not be marked to market as they are held till maturity.

Investments in the AFS category are marked to market at quarterly or at more frequent intervals.

Sebi decides to ease rules for angel funds

The Markets regulator, Sebi has decided to double the investment limit by angel funds in venture capital

undertakings to Rs 10 crore.

The Sebi board has approved amendments to Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) regulations with respect to

Angel Funds'.

Angel funds, a sub-category AIFs, encourage entrepreneurship by financing small startups at a stage when they

find it difficult to obtain capital from traditional sources of finance such as banks and financial institutions.

Under the amendment, Sebi will increase the maximum investment by angel funds in venture capital undertakings

to Rs 10 crore from the current Rs 5 crore.

However, the minimum investment by an angel investor will continue to be Rs 25 lakh.

Further, Sebi would have the minimum corpus size required for an angel fund to register with it to Rs 5 crore.

SIDBI celebrates its foundation day

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has celebrated its foundation day this year on Apr 02,

2018.

The day was celebrated as day of Sampark (connect), Sanwad (interaction), Suraksha (security) and Sampreshan

(disseminate).

They are MSME contact programme; Samridhhi, a virtual assistant; revamped SIDBI website (www.sidbi.in) and

Bankability Kit.

SIDBI, headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, is the principal development financial institution for promotion,

financing and development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector in India.

Jana Small Finance Bank commences operations

Jana Small Finance Bank (formerly Janalakshmi Financial Services, India's leading micro-finance company)

announced the commencement of its banking operations.





To cover its extensive customer base, Jana Bank will initially open 19 branches across 18 states and expand to

200 banking outlets including the 25% unbanked rural branches by June 2018.

Jana Bank, which is digitally enabled across majority of its offerings with expanded customer base, will continue

to keep its fundamental focus on financial inclusion as its core strategy.

'Likho Apni Kahaani' is the motto of Janalakshmi Financial Services / Jana Urban Foundation.

Rivigo ties up with IDFC, YES Bank

Rivigo, a homegrown logistics start-up that owns as well as acts as an aggregator of trucks, has tied up with YES

Bank, IDFC and 10 other financial institutions to make cheaper funds available to truck owners and operators on

its platform.

The funds will be available at an interest rate of 1-2 per cent per month, lower than the usual industry standard of

2-3 per cent.

Deepak Garg is the founder and CEO of Rivigo.

Long term capital gains tax to come into effect from April 1

The proposed long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equity holdings, applicable on profits made from sale of

shares on or after Apr 01, 2018.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget for 2018-19 announced levying long-term capital gains tax on profits

made from share sales.

Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh from sales of shares made on or after April 1, 2018, will be taxed at

10 per cent. There will be no tax on gains accrued upto Jan 31, 2018.

RBI imposes Rs 59 cr penalty on ICICI Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a monetary penalty of ₹58.9 crore on ICICI Bank Ltd for non-

compliance with the directions issued by RBI on direct sale of securities from its Held To Maturity (HTM)

portfolio and specified disclosure in this regard.

RBI has imposed a penalty on the bank for continued sale of government securities classified as HTM.

Sebi allows physical settlement of stock derivatives

The stock market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) allowed physical settlement of both

stock options and stock futures.

At present only cash settlement of derivatives is allowed.

EPFO launches Pensioner's Portal

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) launched a new portal for pensioners, through which EPFO

pensioners would be able to the details of pension-related information.

It will also assist the pensioners to know the status of their life certificate, in case of non-submission/rejection of

life certificate of the pensioners.

Exim Bank extends $500 million loan facility

The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) inked USD 500 million line of credit (LoC) agreement with Bank

for Investment and Development (EBID) to fund various development projects in 15-member countries of

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region in western-south Africa.

The line of credit (LoC) agreement of US $500 million to EBID is umbrella limit for financing developmental

projects in 15-member countries of EBID in ECOWAS region.

15-member countries of EBID in West African region are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire,

Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

India and ADB sign $80 Million Loan Agreement

The Govt of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed $80 million loan to help modernize technical

and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and improve the skills ecosystem in the State

of Himachal Pradesh.

SWIFT introduces universal real-time payment tracking

The SWIFT (Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunication System) platform expanded its GPI

(Global Payment Innovation) Tracker system to help banks track their global transactions at all times and keep

full vigil on payments activity.





SWIFT, headquartered in La Hulpe, Belgium, is global financial messaging service that enables financial

institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in secure, standardized and

reliable environment.

HDFC Bank signs MoU with Govt e-Marketplace

Private sector lender, HDFC Bank signed an agreement with the Govt e-Marketplace (GeM) under which the

bank will facilitate a host of services to the public procurement portal for Central and state govt organisations.

The MoU is significant as Govt e-marketplace will bring transparency and efficiency in the procurement process

with assured and timely payment to the sellers.

ABFL's merger with Allahabad Bank gets nod

Allahabad Bank has received approval from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for merger of its fully-owned

subsidiary AllBank Finance with itself.

The Scheme of Amalgamation for amalgamation of bank’s wholly owned subsidiary namely AllBank Finance

with the bank has been confirmed by the regional office (eastern region), Ministry of Corporate Affairs, vide their

confirmation order dated Mar 14, 2018.

MCX launches world’s first brass futures contracts

India’s largest commodities exchange platform, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited (MCX) launched

world’s first brass futures contracts. It will facilitate brass stakeholders to hedge

their price risk.

MCX Brass futures will be the first non-ferrous contract with

compulsory delivery option.

Brass is metallic alloy of copper (55-60%) and zinc (40-45%) with

small amounts of lead and iron.

Arvind Modi committee to review Income tax Act

The Govt of India (GoI) had constituted a task force under the

chairmanship of CBDT member Arvind Modi in Nov 2017 to review the

Income-tax Act of 1961 and to draft a new Direct Tax Law in consonance with

the economic needs of the country. The committee will submit its report in May

2018.

Recently, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) invited

suggestions and feedback from stakeholders and general public in the format

provided on the departmental website.

The task force will also study the direct tax system in other countries

and also keep in mind international best practices.

SBI signs pact with IMGC

The State Bank of India (SBI) signed a pact with India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) to offer

mortgage guarantee scheme for prospective non-salaried and self-employed home loan customers.

The offering will help increase home loan eligibility up to 15% within the regulatory norms.

IMGC is a joint venture between National Housing Bank, Genworth Inc International Finance Corporation and

Asian Development Bank.

GIC Re to Operate from Lloyd’s in London

General Insurance Corporation., GIC Re is starting operations in Lloyd’s London office next month thus it has

gone a step closer in achieving its aim of increasing the share of international business and making India a

regional reinsurance hub.

GIC Syndicate 1947’ has now received permission to commence operations from April 2018, in accordance with

the Lloyd’s agreed business plan.

It has developed overseas business through branch offices in London, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

Axis Bank opens representative office in Sharjah

Axis Bank opened a representative office in Sharjah to better serve its customers in the emirate and to expand its

retail offerings to customers in the neighbouring northern emirates.





The new office will not only service the non-resident Indian (NRI) community in the emirate, but will also help

effectively service customers in the other emirates of Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, and Fujairah.

India inks $120 Million Loan agreement with ADB

The Union Govt inked $120 million loan agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for completion of

projects to improve Rail Infrastructure along high-density corridors and operational efficiency of Indian railways.

The loan amount is 3 tranche of $500 million multi-tranche financing facility for Railway Sector Investment

Program approved by ADB Board in 2011.

It aimed at enhancing efficiency of rail infrastructure through electrification, introduction of modern signaling

system and doubling rail tracks on key routes in country.

ICICI Bank launches instant overdraft ‘InstaOD’ facility

The ICICI Bank launched instant overdraft ‘InstaOD’ facility for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME)

in a completely online and paperless manner.

In 'InstaOD' facility, customers will be able to get overdraft facility up to Rs 15 lakh for a year anytime, anywhere

using the bank’s Internet and mobile banking app. Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India inks MoU with RBI

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) inked an MoU with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for

increased cooperation in effective implementation of insolvency law.

It was signed at the time when authorities are working on ways to address huge amount of non-performing assets

(NPAs) in banking sector.

India attracts $209 billion FDI in 2014-2017

India attracted reaching US $208.99 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) during April 2014 to Dec 2017

period.

Services sector, computer software and hardware sector, telecommunications sector, construction sector, trading

and automobile sector received the maximum FDI.

Foreign investments are considered crucial for India as it needs around 1 trillion dollars for overhauling its

infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth.

Passport details made mandatory for loans above Rs 50 crore after PNB fraud

The passport details will be made mandatory for availing loans more than Rs50 crore from state run banks as it

looks to tighten procedures following the detection of the Rs 12,636 crore scam at Punjab National Bank.

This is to ensure quick response in cases of fraud.

Paytm arm gets SEBI nod as registered Investment Adviser

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Paytm, Paytm Money received approval of market regulator SEBI to become a

registered Investment Advisor.

The nod will allow the company to roll out investment and wealth management products to consumers across the

country.

ISA-ADB, NDB, GCF, AfDB and AIIB sign joint declarations

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) and African Development Bank (AfDb), Asian Infrastructure Investment

Bank (AIIB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Green Climate Fund (GCF) & New Development Bank (NDB)

signed Joint financial partnership Declarations.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) also signed Joint partnership Declaration with ISA.

It aims to deepen their cooperation in support of renewable energy.

ISA had earlier signed three partnerships with World Bank, European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Bank

for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

It also aims to mobilise investment of over US $1000 billion into solar energy by 2030.

IREDA & EIB ink Loan Agreement

The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and European Investment Bank (EIB) signed loan

agreement for second line of credit (LoC) of Euro 150 million on non-sovereign basis for renewable energy

financing in India.

EBRD approves India’s membership





The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have given their nod to India’s candidature to

international financial institution. Now, India will become the 69th member of EBRD.

The development follows Indian Govt’s application to seek membership of EBRD back in Dec 2017.

The EBRD’s Board of Governors, which represents all existing shareholders of the international financial

institution, had voted in favour of India’s membership application.

RBI lifts per-borrower loan cap for MSMEs

The Reserve Bank of India decided to do away with per borrower loan limits to Micro/ Small and Medium

Enterprises (Services) for classification under priority sector lending.

Earlier, Loan limit to Micro/Small & Medium Enterprises (Services) up to Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore,

respectively, was considered under priority sector lending (PSL).

All bank loans to MSMEs that are involved in services as specified in terms of investment in equipment under

the MSMED Act, 2006, will be considered priority sector lending without any credit limit.

PSBs begin to rationalise 35 overseas operations

The state-owned banks started rationalising overseas operations by consolidating 35 operations and closing down

non-viable branches as part of the clean and responsible banking initiative.

The rationalisation of overseas operations of banks comes at the time when jewellery designer Nirav Modi had

allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs.12,700 crore in connivance with PNB staff and officials of

overseas branches of other state-owned banks.

At present, public sector banks have about 165 overseas branches, besides subsidiaries, joint ventures and

representative offices.

State Bank of India (SBI) has largest number of overseas branches (52) followed by Bank of Baroda (50) and

Bank of India (29).

CBDT achieves important milestone of signing 200 APAs

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) crossed an important milestone of having signed 200 Advance

Pricing Agreements (APAs).

After entering into seven more APAs in Feb 2018, CBDT achieved this milestone.

Yi Gang named head of People's Bank of China

US-educated economist Yi Gang has been named the next governor of China's central bank, the People's Bank of

China (PBOC).

He has been deputy governor of the bank since 2008, but his appointment was largely unexpected.

RBI raises ETCD trading limit to $100 million

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised exposure limit under exchange traded currency derivatives (ETCD)

trading for residents and foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to $100 million across all currency pairs involving

Indian rupee.

The decision of RBI aims to help entities engaged in forex transactions to maintain their currency risks in better

manner.

The raised exposure limit permits persons resident in India and FPIs to take positions (long or short), without

having to establish existence of underlying exposure, up to single limit of $100 million equivalent across all

currency pairs involving Indian rupees, put together, and combined across all exchanges.

Earlier, the limit was of $15 million for US Dollar-Rupee and $5 million for other currency pairs of Indian rupee

with Japanese Yen, Euro and British Pound.

AIIB approves $1.5 billion in loans to India

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), based in China, approved $1.5 billion in loans to India for

infrastructure-related projects in 2018.

$200 million commitment to India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to spend on roads,

housing and urban development.

FIU categorises 9,491 NBFCs as high risk





The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under Finance Ministry categorised around 9,491 non-banking financial

companies (NBFC) as high risk prone financial institutions as they have not complied with stipulated provision of

Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

At present, 12,000 NBFCs in country and high risk financial NBFCs account for about 80% of total NBFCs in the

country.

Govt appoints IIFT, ICAI and NICMAR to improve World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ ranking

The Union Commerce and Industry ministry appointed four institutes to interact with stakeholders and suggest

measures to push India’s ranking in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index.

The four institutes are National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR), Indian Institute

of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and Institute of Chartered Accountants

of India (ICAI).

As per the latest World Bank’s Doing Business ranking 2017, India’s position had improved by 30 places to

100th.

Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank begins operations

Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd (ABIPBL) commenced operations as a payments bank with effect from

February 22.

ABIPBL is a joint venture between Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd (51 per cent

stake) and Ideal Cellular (49 per cent stake).

So far, Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd, Department of Posts, Fino

PayTech Ltd, and Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm Payments Bank) have

started their operations.

Reliance Industries Ltd, Vodafone M-Pesa Ltd, and National Securities

Depository Ltd are yet to start their payment bank operations.

RBI launches Ombudsman scheme for NBFCs

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched Ombudsman Scheme for

non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) for redressal of complaints

against NBFCs registered with RBI under section 45-IA of the RBI

Act, 1934.

The Ombudsman scheme will provide cost-free and expeditious

complaint redressal mechanism relating to deficiency in services by

non-banking financial companies.

It has offices at four metro centres viz, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and

New Delhi.

RBI directs banks to link SWIFT to core banking solutions by April 2018

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed banks to link SWIFT (Society for World Interbank Financial

Telecommunication System platform) with their core banking solutions (CBS) by April 30, 2018.

The decision is a part of RBI’s efforts to tighten internal controls in banks following Rs 11,400 crore fraud that

was unearthed at Punjab National Bank (PNB).

This is centralized software used to support bank’s most common transactions.

First sale of electoral bonds from Mar 01, 2018

The first sale of electoral bonds starts from Mar 01, 2018 for a period of 10 days at four main branches of State

Bank of India in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi.

The bonds have a life of 15 days, and citizen of India or an entity incorporated or established in the country can

purchase them. It makes India first country in the world to have such unique bonds for electoral funding.

These electoral bonds can be bought for any value in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh or

Rs 1 crore after fulfilling all existing Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and making payments from bank

account.

ADB to give $84 mn loan for water projects in Bihar





The Govt of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $84 million loan today for improvement and

expansion of water supply in Bhagalpur and Gaya towns in Bihar.

The tranche 2 loan is part of the $200 million multi-tranche financing facility (MFF) for the Bihar Urban

Development Investment Program that was approved by ADB in 2012 to provide sustainable urban infrastructure

and services in four towns in Bihar – Bhagalpur, Gaya, Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur.

Paytm launches two insurance companies

Digital payments startup, Paytm launched two insurance companies, Paytm Life Insurance and Paytm General

Insurance.

Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CFO Madhur Deora, and Shankar Prasad Nath are the three signatory

stakeholders in both the companies.

Capital First gets NHB nod for merger with IDFC Bank

The regulator National Housing Bank (NHB) has approved the merger of the Capital First along with Capital

Home Finance and Capital First Securities Limited with IDFC Bank.

The amalgamation is subject to the receipt of approval from the Reserve Bank of India and other statutory and

regulatory approvals.

EPFO cuts interest rate to 8.55% for 2017-18

Retirement fund body Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) reduced interest rate on deposits to 8.55

percent for the financial year 2017-18 following a general decline in interest rates.

The move will affect around six crore subscribers and leave EPFO with a surplus of Rs 586 crore against Rs 695

crore in the previous financial year.

Cabinet approves creation of National Urban Housing Fund

The Union Cabinet approved the creation of Rs. 60,000 crores National Urban Housing Fund (NUHF) to finance

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). It aims to build 1.2 crore affordable houses in urban areas by 2022.

NUHF will be placed under aegis of Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC).

Y H Malegam Committee to look into the reasons for wide divergence by banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) constituted a new 5-member expert Committee heade by Y H Malegam, a

former member of the Central Board of Directors of RBI, to look into the reasons for wide divergence by banks in

asset classification and provisioning by banks and measures to prevent frauds.

The other members of the committee are Bharat Doshi, S. Raman and Nandkumar Saravade. A.K. Misra,

Executive Director of RBI, will be the Member-Secretary of the committee.

Moody's, Fitch put PNB ratings under review for downgrade

Moody's Investors Service placed Punjab National Bank's (PNB) rating under review for downgrade after the

lender reported a ₹11,500 crore fraud.

It expects that PNB will need to provide for at least a substantial portion of the exposure.

Fitch Ratings placed PNB on a Viability Rating of 'BB' on Rating Watch Negative (RWN).

NABARD launches Rs 1,918 cr area development plan for Punjab

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) announced area development plans worth

Rs 1,918 crore for Punjab to supplement farmers' income.

The investment credit growth in Punjab went down from 37 per cent in 2013-14 to 18 per cent in 2016-17 while

the overall investment credit growth in India has gone up from 25 to 35 per cent.

Milkbasket recognised as 'Startup of the Year' 2017

Milkbasket, India's first and largest micro-delivery platform has been recognised as 'Startup of the Year' 2017 at

the 7th Small Business Awards.

The startup of the year award is dedicated to young SMEs, aged 7 years or less, with great potential to become big

in local/international markets. Anant Goel is the CEO of Milkbasket.

NPCI allows Whatsapp to beta test its payments service

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has allowed Facebook-owned WhatsApp to beta test its

BHIM UPI beta payments service with limited user base of 1 million and low transaction limit.





Four banks will join social messaging app’s BHIM UPI model in phases and full feature product will be released

after beta test is successful.

IOB receives Rs 173 cr capital infusion from govt

Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has received Rs 173.06 crore capital infusion from the govt in the current fiscal.

The capital infusion is the contribution of the central govt in the preferential allotment of equity shares of

the bank as govt's investment during the 2017-18 fiscal.

Yes Bank lists $600 mn MTN bond

India’s fifth largest private sector lender, Yes Bank listed $600 million bond issued under its maiden $1 billion

MTN programme on Global Securities Market (GSM) of India INX.

The bank will use proceeds from this bond to fund the bank’s IFSC Banking Unit (IBU) in Gift City and expand

IBU’s rapidly growing business opportunities.

Yes Bank’s MTN (medium term note) bonds issuance has received overwhelming response from international

investors.

It has been already listed on London Stock Exchange International Securities Market (LSE-ISM) and Singapore

Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX).

FY16 GDP growth revised up to 8.2%, FY17 unchanged at 7.1%: CSO

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) revised the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for 2015-16 to 8.2%

from the earlier estimates of 8% and kept the 2016-17 growth unchanged at 7.1%.

The real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2016-17 and 2015-16 stands at Rs 121.96 trillion

and Rs 113.86 trillion respectively, showing growth of 7.1% during 2016-17 and 8.2% during 2015-16.

Investment increased by only 2.4% in 2016-17.

According to the provisional estimates, Gross Value Added (GVA) grew 7.1% in 2016-17, which was 6.6%

earlier.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 has forecast growth at 7-7.5% in 2018-19. The CSO estimates the economy will

expand 6.5% in FY18.

According to the new estimates, India's real GDP grew 6.1%, 7.2% and 8.2% in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16,

respectively, compared with preliminary rates of 6.4%, 7.5% and 8%.

Govt to ban cryptocurrencies from its payments system

The Union Finance Ministry has appointed regulator to oversee unregulated exchanges that trade in crypto assets

and thus is planning to ban cryptocurrencies from payments system.

The Govt has constituted Dinesh Sharma committee to look into issues relating to cryptocurrencies which will

finalise its recommendations by submiting its report in current fiscal year, ending on Mar 2018.

India contributes $1 mn to UN Development Partnership Fund

India has contributed an additional $1 million to India-UN Development Partnership Fund, earmarked for South-

South cooperation.

India has pledged multi-year contribution of $100 million to the fund established in June 2017.

Since the launch of the fund, India has already provided $6 million.

CRISIL, SIDBI launches India’s first MSE Sentiment Index, CriSidEx

The SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) and India's ratings agency, Crisil have launched India’s

first MSE Sentiment Index, CriSidEx (CRISIL-SIDBI MSE Sentiment Index) for micro, small and medium

enterprises (MSMEs).

CriSidEx, developed jointly by CRISIL and SIDBI, will help to indicate the current state and expected outlook on

the MSME sector every quarter. It is a composite index based on diffusion index of 8 parameters.

It measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative) to 200 (extremely positive).





Union budget 2018-19

Agriculture

Doubling the farmer’s income by 2022 with special emphasis on generating higher income for farmers.

Minimum Selling Price (MSP) for the Kharif Crops has been set at 1.5 times of the input cost.

Development & upgradation of existing 22,000 rural haats into Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs) to

strengthen the physical infrastructure using MGNREGA and other govt schemes.

Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund with a corpus of `2000 crore for developing and upgrading agricultural

marketing infrastructure in the 22000 Grameen Agricultural Markets (GrAMs).

Allocation of ₹ 1400 crore for food processing

‘Operation Green’ with a corpus of ₹ 500 crore to promote Farmer Producers Organizations (FPOs), agri-

logistics, processing facilities and professional management.

Announcement of 42 mega food parks.

Kisan credits cards to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers to help them meet their working capital needs.

₹ 10,000 crore for Fisheries and Aquaculture and Animal Husbandry Development Fund.

A restructured bamboo mission with a fund of ₹ 1290 crore to promote bamboo sector in a holistic manner.

Agricultural credit target increased from ₹ 8.5 lakh crore to ₹ 11 lakh crore.

A special scheme to support the state govts of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi to manage the burning of crop

residue and reduce pollution.

Education, Health and Social Protection

Estimated budgetary expenditure on health, education & social protection for 2018-19 is ₹1.38 lakh crore

against estimated expenditure of ₹1.22 lakh crore in 2017-18.

₹ 9975 crore for National Social Assistance Programme this year.

Amendment in the Right to Education Act to enable more than 13 lakh untrained teachers to get trained.

Proposed to increase the digital intensity in education and move gradually from ‘'black board’’ to ‘‘digital

board’’.

Upgradation of the skills of teachers through the recently launched digital portal ‘‘DIKSHA’’.

Ekalavya Model Residential School to provide the best quality education to the tribal children in every block

with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons by 2022.

‘‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) by 2022’’ with a total investment of ₹ 1, 00,000

crore in next four years.

Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) for funding RISE.

Railways University at Vadodara.

18 new schools of Planning and Architecture in the IITs and NITs as autonomous Schools.

‘Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF)’ Scheme to identify 1,000 best B.Tech students each year from

premier institutions and provide them facilities to do Ph.D in IITs and IISc, with a handsome fellowship.

The World’s largest govt funded health care programme, titled National Health Protection Scheme to cover

over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto

5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization.

₹ 1200 crore for the National Health Policy, 2017

1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres to bring health care system closer to the homes of people.

₹600 crore to provide nutritional support to all TB patients at the rate of ₹500 per month for the duration of

their treatment.

Setting up of 24 new Govt Medical Colleges and Hospitals.

187 projects sanctioned under the Namami Gange programme for infrastructure development, river surface

cleaning, rural sanitation and other interventions at a cost of ₹16,713 crore.





All 4465 Ganga Grams – villages on the bank of river - declared open defecation free.

115 aspirational districts taking various indices of development in consideration for making them model

districts of development.

Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) and Employment

₹ 3794 crore for giving credit support, capital and interest subsidy and for innovations.

MUDRA Yojana launched in April, 2015 has led to sanction of ₹4.6 lakh crore in credit from 10.38 crore

MUDRA loans.

76% of loan accounts are of women and more than 50% belong to SCs, STs and OBCs.

₹3 lakh crore for lending under MUDRA for 2018-19.

12% of the wages of the new employees in the EPF for all the sectors for next three years.

Amendments in the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 to reduce women

employees' contribution to 8% for first three years of their employment against existing rate of 12% or 10%

with no change in employers' contribution.

₹7148 crore for the textile sector in 2018-19.

Fiscal Expenditure

The total expenditure of the Union govt is ₹ 21.57 lakh crore.

The projected fiscal deficit of the FY 2018-19 is 3.3 per cent of the GDP.

Taxation Reforms

In previous years, the growth rate of direct taxes of 18.7 per cent till Jan 2018

Over 85 lakh new taxpayers filed their returns.

The number of effective taxpayers increased from 6.47 lakh crore to 8.27 lakh crore in the previous financial year.

The excess revenue from personal income tax is ₹ 90000 crore.

No changes in personal income tax slabs.

Around 1.89 crore returns were filed in 2017 and ₹ 1.44 lakh crore was paid as taxes.

100 per cent tax deduction to farmer-producer companies having ₹ 100 crore turnovers.

Corporate tax reduced to 25 per cent for companies having turnover of up to ₹ 250 crore.

Long term capital gains tax of 10 per cent will be levied for amount exceeding ₹ 1 lakh.





A Standard deduction of ₹ 40000 for transport and medical reimbursements. The revenue cost of this

reimbursements will be ₹ 8000 crore.

Exemption of interest income for deposits in banks and post offices will be increased from ₹ 10000 to ₹ 50000

for senior citizens. It applies to all fixed deposit schemes.

All senior citizens will now be able to claim benefit of a deduction of ₹ 50000 for any medical expenditure and

can claim deduction of ₹ 100000 for critical illnesses.

Duties

Customs duty on mobile phones and parts of televisions increased to 20 per cent from 15 per cent.

Customs duty on raw cashew reduced from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

The name of the Central Board of Excise and Customs changed to the Central Board of Direct Taxes and

Customs.

Electronic IT assessment rolled out across the country for greater efficiency and transparency.

No more education cess on imported goods.

Education cess replaced by social welfare surcharge of 10 per cent.

Infrastructure and Financial Sector Development

₹50 lakh crore needed to increase growth of GDP.

Increase of budgetary allocation on infrastructure for 2018-19 to ₹5.97 lakh crore against estimated

expenditure of ₹4.94 lakh crore in 2017-18.

Using online monitoring system of PRAGATI alone, projects worth 9.46 lakh crore facilitated and fast tracked.

Ten prominent tourist sites into Iconic Tourism destinations.

₹5,35,000 crore approved for the construction of 35000 kms Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana.

99 cities selected with outlay of ₹2.09 lakh crore under Smart City programme.

National Heritage Augmentation Yojana to preserve heritage cities.

India Infrastructure Finance Corporation Limited (IIFCL) to help finance infrastructure projects including

investment in education and health infrastructure.

Creation of livelihood and infrastructure in rural areas, total amount to be spent by various Ministries will be

₹14.34 lakh crore, including extra budgetary and non-budgetary resources of ₹11.98 lakh crore.

₹ 2600 crore allocated for Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojna - Har Khet ko Pani to strengthen the Ground

water irrigation scheme.

Railways

Railways Capital Expenditure for the year 2018-19 pegged at ₹1,48,528 crore.

18000 km of railway line to be doubled to eliminate capacity constraints.

Re-development of 600 major railway stations.

All stations with more than 25000 footfalls will have escalators.

All stations will also be equipped with high-speed wifi.

90 kilometers of double line tracks in Mumbai’s local train network at a cost of over ₹11,000 crore.

150 kilometers of additional suburban network at a cost of over ₹40,000 crore, including elevated corridors on

some sections.

A suburban network of approximately 160 kilometers at an estimated cost of ₹17,000 crore to cater to the

growth of the Bengaluru metropolis.

Air Transport

NABH Nirman to expand the airport capacity more than five times to handle a billion trips a year.

56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads to be connected under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik).

₹ 60 crores for setting up a coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure.





Digital Economy

A Mission on Cyber Physical Systems to be launched by Department of Science & Technology to support

establishment of centres of excellence for research, training and skilling in robotics, artificial intelligence, digital

manufacturing, big data analysis, quantum communication and internet of things.

Allocation on Digital India programme doubled to ₹ 3073 crore in 2018-19.

Five lakh wifi hotspots to provide net connectivity to five crore rural citizens.

₹ 10000 crore in 2018-19 for creation and augmentation of Telecom infrastructure.

The govt will not consider cryptocurrency as legal tender.

Individual Enterprises will now have their own unique IDs.

Defence

India's defence budget for FY 2018-19 increased by 7.81 per cent to ₹2,95,511.41 lakh crore.

Out of ₹ 2.95 lakh crore, ₹ 1,95,947.55 crore has been allocated for revenue expenditure and ₹ 99,563.86 crore

for capital expenditure for the defence services and departments under the ministry.

First defence corridor to be established in Tamil Nadu, linking Chennai and Bangalore.

Construction on the Rohtang tunnel completed and the construction of Zojila pass tunnel is progressing well.

Construction of a tunnel under the Sela pass.

Disinvestment

2017-18 disinvestment target of ₹72,500 crore exceeded and expected receipts of ₹1,00,000 crore.

Disinvestment target of ₹80,000 crore for 2018-19.

Three Public Sector Insurance companies- National Insurance Co. Ltd., United India Assurance Co. Ltd.,

and Oriental India insurance Co. Ltd., to be merged into a single insurance entity.

A comprehensive Gold Policy will be formulated to develop gold as an asset class.

Establishment of a system of consumer friendly and trade efficient system of regulated gold exchanges in

the country.

Gold Monetization Scheme to be revamped to enable people to open a hassle-free Gold Deposit Account.

The Budget proposes to revise emoluments to ₹5 lakh for the President, ₹ 4 lakhs for the Vice President and

₹3.5 lakh per month to Governor.

Underprivileged

Free LPG connections to be provided to poor women under Ujjwala Yojana increased to 8 crore from 5 crore

earlier.

Under Saubhagya Yojna, around 4 crore poor households to be provided with free electricity connections at a

cost of ₹ 16000 crore

Constructed more than 6 crore toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission to enable proper hygiene and sanitation

especially among women.

Construction of 2 crore more toilets targeted under Swachh Bharat Mission.

Planning to build houses for all the poor in the country under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by 2022.

51 lakhs houses in year 2017-18 and 51 lakh houses during 2018-19 to be constructed.

37 lakh houses sanctioned to be constructed in urban areas.

Establishment of a dedicated Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) in National Housing Bank, funded from priority

sector lending shortfall and fully serviced bonds authorised by the Govt of India.

Increment of the loans to Self Help Groups of women to ₹ 75000 crore by March 2019.

Increment in the allocation of National Rural Livelihood Mission to ₹ 5750 crore in 2018-19.

Ground water irrigation scheme under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna- Har Khet ko Pani will be

taken up in 96 deprived irrigation districts where less than 30 per cent of the land holdings gets assured

irrigation presently.





₹ 2600 crore for Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna- Har Khet ko Pani.

₹ 14.34 lakh crore for creation of livelihood and infrastructure in rural areas, including extra-budgetary and

non-budgetary resources of ₹11.98 lakh crore.

Schemes Launched in Budget 2018-19

1. Kifayati Aawas Yojna: The Central Govt will create a dedicated affordable housing fund in National Housing Bank.

The govt has planned that by the end of 2022, everyone will have their own house. For this, more than one crore

households are being constructed in the rural areas in the current and next financial year under the Pradhanmantri

Awas Yojana.

2. Ayushman Bharat Scheme (National Health Protection Scheme): National Health Protection Scheme will be

launched to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. Under this, up to Rs 5 lakh will be provided to each family

per year in secondary and tertiary care institutions. This scheme will have 50 crore beneficiaries. So far under the

National Health Insurance Scheme, insurance cover of Rs 30,000 was available only.

3. Kisan Credit Card to Fishermen: On the lines of the Kisan Credit Card, the Finance Minister has announced a

credit card to fishermen and cattle owners to enable them to avail the easier loans. It will help the people associated

with the milk production business in rural areas.

4. Gobar-Dhan Yojna (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resource Fund Scheme): The govt announced a new scheme

Gobar-Dhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resource Fund) scheme under its efforts to improve the lives of the

villagers. Under this scheme, solid waste of dung and fields will be changed into compost, biogas and bio-CNG. The

govt has identified 115 districts for development.

5. National Bamboo Mission: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has also proposed the National Bamboo Mission with the

total corpus of Rs. 1,290 crore. It will help in the development of bamboo production as an industry of the people of

rural and tribal areas.

6. Eklavya School: Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley said that along the lines of Navodaya schools, Eklavya schools will

be established for scheduled caste students by 2022. Eklavya model residential schools will be set up in each Block

having more than 50 percent tribal areas and 20,000 tribal people.

7. Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE): Jaitley unveiled a new scheme called Revitalising

Infrastructure and Systems in Education or RISE which will be financed via a restructured higher education financing

agency (HEFA) that is functioning for the last two months as a non-banking financial company. It aims to lend low-

cost funds to govt higher educational institutions. Presently, HEFA is looking to raise Rs 20,000 crore and Budget

announcement hiked this number to Rs1 trillion. While HEFA was granted a budgetary allocation of Rs250 crore in

the fiscal year 2018, in FY19, the lending body will be provided a budget of Rs 2,750 crore.

8. Operation Green: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced the ‘Operation Green’ scheme to double the

farmers’ income by end of the year 2022 with the budget allocation of Rs. 500 Cr. This scheme will facilitate the

farmers of the nation. This will be in line with the operation flood. To reduce the fluctuation in the pricing of Onion,

Tomatoes and Potatoes the scheme has been launched.

9. Prime Minister Fellowship Scheme: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced the PM Fellowship Scheme

during the budget. Under this, one thousand B.Tech students will be given the opportunity to do Ph.D. in IIT and IISc.

10. Expansion of Ujjwala Scheme: The Govt has set a target to provide the number of free LPG connections to the poor

families under the Ujjwala scheme to reach 8 crores.

11. Saubhagya Yojna: The govt has targeted to increase the number of power connections in rural areas to 40 million

households. This scheme is one of PM Modi's ambitious plans.

12. Expansion of UDAN Yojna: 56 airports and 31 helipads being used less than the capacity will be added in the

initiative to connect common man with the ‘UDAN Yojna. Along with this, the announcement of the construction of

10 major prestigious destinations for the promotion of tourism was announced.





National News

Govt extends Phase-1 of FAME-India scheme by 6 months

The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises extended Phase-1 of FAME India Scheme to provide

financial support to electric and hybrid vehicles by another six months till Sept 30, 2018 or till launch of phase-II.

FAME India Scheme stands for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles.

Earlier phase-I of FAME India Scheme was initially for two years viz. FY2015-16 and FY2016-17.

But it was further extended for period of six months (till Mar 31, 2018) or till launching of Phase-II.

NPCIL, NSDC partner to spur Centre's Skill India mission

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has signed a MoU with the Nuclear Power Corporation of

India Limited (NPCIL) to provide skill training to 500 youth and women at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.

NPCIL committed Rs. 1.74 crore under its CSR contributions towards this project, which is estimated to be

complete in 15 months.

CJI first among equals, power to allocate work: SC

The Supreme Court reiterated that Chief Justice of India (CJI) is first among equals and has exclusive prerogative

to allocate cases and constitute benches.

The ruling given by SC bench led by the CJI Dipak Misra dismissing PIL that sought directions to regulate CJI’s

power to form benches and allocate cases. The CJI in his capacity as judge is primus inter pares, first among

equals. Article 146 reaffirms position CJI as head of institution.

ITDC bags first private contract

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) bagged Rs 550-crore contract for developing a Mega Tourism

Destination project at Bhairav Lanka in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh.

ITDC has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Suraas Impex Pvt.

The ITDC, headquartered in New Delhi, is an hospitality, retail and Education company owned by Govt of India,

under Ministry of Tourism.

Industrial production grows 7.1% in February 2018: CSO

According to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), factory output measured in terms of the Index

of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown 7.1% in February 2017.

The IIP recorded growth of 8.54% in November 2017, 7.1% in December 2017 and 7.4% in January 2018. During

April-February period, IIP has slowed to 4.3% from 4.7% compared to same period 2017-18 fiscal.

The IIP is composite indicator that measures short-term changes in volume of production of basket of industrial

products during given period with respect to chosen base period.

It is compiled and published monthly by Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and

Programme Implementation. The CSO revised the base year of the IIP from 2004-05 to 2011-12 in May 2017.

NHAI signs agreement for its first International project

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) signed agreement for upgradation of Yagyi – Kalewa section

of highway in Myanmar to two lanes with earthen shoulder.

This project is part of India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) Trilateral Highway and will be NHAI’s first international

project.

It is being funded by Ministry of External Affairs, India and will be executed on Engineering, Procurement and

Construction (EPC) mode at a cost of Rs.1177 crores.

Govt constitutes 13 members Task Force

The Union Govt constituted 13-member task force, headed by Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation Jayant

Sinha, to prepare road map and fast-track implementation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology or

drones in the country.

The task force will prepare roadmap, including outcomes, timelines, implementation and review mechanism and

measurable metrics for implementation of UAV technology.

India inks pact with Morocco





India has inked a pact with Morocco to evaluate the potential mineral resources and promote exploration and

mining through participation of both public and private sector.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in New Delhi after the bilateral discussions between

Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and his counterpart Aziz Rabbah of Morocco.

India, Morocco sign MoU

India and Morocco signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the field of Mining and Geology for a period

of 5 years to promote mineral exploration.

It was signed in New Delhi after the bilateral discussions between Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and his

Moroccan counterpart Aziz Rabbah.

Geological Survey of India (GSI) will assist Morocco in geological mapping and mineral exploration.

India hosts 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting

India, world’s third-largest energy consumer after US and China hosted 16th International Energy Forum (IEF)

Ministerial Meeting in New Delhi with the theme "The Future of Global Energy Security: Transition, Technology,

Trade and Investment". It has been formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

IIT-Delhi installs India’s first 5G lab

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi installed Massive Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) lab on

campus for standardisation, R&D and manufacturing of 5G equipment.

The first of its kind 5G lab in the country has been set-up at Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and

Management.

5G is wireless communication technology based on third-generation partnership project (3GPP).

5000 MW capacity solar park approved

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has recently approved setting up a 5000 MW capacity solar park at the

Dholera Special Investment Region (SIR), which would be the largest such entity in the world after its

completion.

The proposed solar power generation project would be set up in 11,000 hectares of land with an investment of Rs

25,000 crore.

The project will contribute significantly in achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of producing 175

gigawatt of electricity through renewable energy sources by 2022.

Govt invites proposal for India’s first offshore wind project

The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) issued

Expression of Interest (EoI) for first offshore wind energy project of India.

The global EoI is for prospective offshore wind energy developers for developing 1000 MW (1 GW) offshore

wind energy project in Gulf of Khambat, off the coast of Gujarat.

FSSAI launches ‘Project Dhoop’

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched a unique initiative ‘Project Dhoop’ to

encourage schools to shift their morning assembly to around noon-time, mainly between 11 am to 1 pm, to ensure

maximum absorption of Vitamin D in students through natural sunlight. .

The move comes in the backdrop of rising incidence of Vitamin D deficiency (VDD), particularly amongst the

young people, in the country as the studies have found that over 90% of boys and girls in various Indian cities are

deficient in Vitamin D despite most part of India receiving abundant sunshine all the year through.

‘Project Dhoop’ has been launched by FSSAI in association with National Council of Educational Research and

Training (NCERT), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and North MCD Schools at National Bal Bhavan.

Transgenders to be recognised as independent gender in PAN form

The govt has amended Income Tax rules that will allow transgenders to be recognised as an independent category

of applicants for obtaining a Permanent Account Number (PAN) for their tax-related transactions.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) issued a notification for the independent category.

It provides a new tick box for the transgenders to apply for the PAN.

The notification, issued under sections 139A and 295 of the Income Tax Act, specifies the new application

process for obtaining a PAN number by an individual.





So far only male and female gender categories were available to be chosen on the PAN application form.

PAN is a 10-digit unique alphanumeric number alloted by the I-T department to individuals and entities.

India’s first high-speed electric locomotive launches

India’s first high-speed electric locomotive has been flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the

Madhepura Electric Locomotive Factory in Bihar.

It has a 12000 horsepower (HP) engine with a maximum speed of 110 km per hour.

The first big Make-in-India project is developed & completed in collaboration with French firm Alstome.

The Rs 20,000-crore project includes the Rs 1,300 crore cost for setting up the factory at Madhepura and two loco

maintenance depots at Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Nagpur (Maharashtra), beside building 800 locos.

The average cost of each locomotive is estimated to be Rs 25 crore.

India donates $1 million for Swaziland’s NDMA

India donated US $1 million to support Swaziland’s National Disaster Management Agency as well as food

grains.

Indian President Kovind visited Swaziland on the second leg of his three-Affrican nation tour which also included

Equatorial Guinea and Zambia.

Website and mobile app of National Commission for Safai Karamcharis launched

The Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment launched new website and mobile application of the

National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK).

Indian Railways induct new machines for Mechanised Track Maintenance

The Indian Railways inducted three 09-3x Dynamic Tamping Express machines for improved mechanised Track

Maintenanc. The advanced technology simulator is presently only available in five countries including India.

Health Ministry bans over-the-counter sale

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry banned over-the-counter sale of 14 steroid creams to prevent

indiscriminate sale of ointments containing steroids and antibiotics without prescription.

These 14 preparations were included under Schedule H of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 to impose the

ban.

Govt sets up committee to review the enforcement of CSR provisions

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has constituted a 12-member committee, headed by Regional Director

(Western Region) Manmohan Juneja, to review enforcement of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provisions

under Companies Act, 2013.

Besides, there will be two sub-committees viz. legal and technical that will go into various aspects in relation to

compliance with CSR provisions.

UIDAI launches digitally signed QR code

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) brought in secured digitally-signed QR Code on e-Aadhaar.

It will contain photograph of Aadhaar holder in addition to demographic details.

The small QR code will be on front side of cutaway portion of e-Aadhaar, with demographic data.

It will also have UIDAI digital signature to make this information more secured and tamper-proof.

QR code is a form of barcode label which contains machine-readable information.

e-Aadhaar is electronic version of Aadhaar that can be downloaded from official UIDAI website.

India to build strategic railway link between Kathmandu and Raxaul

India agreed to build strategic railway link between Raxaul in Bihar and Kathmandu in Nepal to facilitate people-

to-people (P2P) contact and bulk movement of goods.

The announcement was made after delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his

Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli who was on three-day visit to India.

Dharmendra Pradhan launches PMUY scheme in Delhi

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme in Delhi and

distributed new LPG connections and cylinders to beneficiaries.

During the event, about 400 LPG connections were handed over to families belonging to below poverty line

category.





This Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has transformed the lives of more

than 3.5 crore women fulfilling the vision of Prime Minister to provide

clean cooking fuel to them and eliminating the health hazards.

Recently, the target of Ujjwala connections has been raised from the

existing target of 5 crore to 8 crore by 2020.

India, Nepal to develop inland waterways

India and Nepal agreed to develop inland waterways for cargo movement

within Protocol to Treaty of Transit between both the countries to boost

cooperation in connectivity sector.

Govt to launch Gobardhan Yojana nationally from Haryana

The Union Govt will launch a central govt scheme, GOBAR-dhan Yojna

nationally from Karnal district of Haryana by the end of Apr 2018.

GOBAR is abbreviated as Galvanising Organic Bio Agro Resources.

The scheme focuses on managing and converting cattle dung and solid

waste from farms and fields to useful compost, biogas and bio-CNG.

The govt aims to cover nearly 700 districts under the scheme in this

financial year (2018-19).

Madhubani railway station gets makeover with Mithila paintings

Madhubani railway station in Bihar got complete makeover with Mithila paintings.

The makeover project was unique initiative of Indian Railways to experiment with local artists voluntarily

painting works in short span of two months.

The total wall area of railway station covering area more than 14,000 sq ft has been fully painted with various

themes under traditional Mithila painting style.

President Ram Nath Kovind embarks on 3-nation Africa tour

President Ram Nath Kovind has embarked on three-nation official state visit to African countries of Equatorial

Guinea, Swaziland and Zambia from Apr 7 to 12, 2018.

It will be first-ever visit by any head of state of India to Equatorial Guinea and Swaziland.

Govt bans imports of hormone oxytocin

The Union govt has banned imports of hormone oxytocin to stop its misuse in livestock industry, where it causes

hormonal imbalances and shortens the lives of milch animals.

Oxytocin, often called love hormone, is released naturally in human bonding activities such as sex, childbirth and

breastfeeding.

Walmiki and Malhar languages discovered

Linguist from University of Hyderabad have discovered two endangered languages Walmiki and Malhar, which

are predominantly spoken in remote regions of Odisha.

They were discovered by Prof Panchanan Mohanty as part of activity of Centre for Endangered Languages and

Mother Tongue Studies.

Delhi-Pathankot flight under UDAN scheme inaugurated

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu inaugurated the first flight from Delhi to Pathankot at the Indira

Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Pathankot airport was opened by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to improve regional connectivity as per the

UDAN Scheme.

The Airports Authority of India is the implementing agency of UDAN, a regional airport development and

Regional Connectivity Scheme of Govt of India.

TRAI proposes Wi-Fi grid

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) proposed concept of open architecture-based public Wi-Fi

grid to bring down the cost of internet by 90%.

The Wi-Fi grid or mesh proposed by TRAI entails various providers coming together to address aspects like

services, access, payment, and authentication.





It has suggested that any entity – company, proprietorship or non-entities – should easily be able to set up a public

Wi-Fi access point.

Union Govt launches UTTAM App

Union Minister of Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal has launched the UTTAM App for Coal Quality Monitoring.

The word 'UTTAM' is abbreviated as 'Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal'.

The app has been jointly developed by the Union Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL).

MakeMyTrip Partners with Flipkart for Travel Bookings

Online travel portal MakeMyTrip has formed a partnership with Flipkart to allow customers to book domestic

flight tickets and other travel services directly through the e-commerce firm's portal.

The partnership comes at a time when competition in India's e-commerce market is increasing with firms such as

Flipkart, Amazon.com and Paytm adding services.

Govt constitutes committee to regulate news portals

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has constituted a 10-member committee to regulate online

portals, including news websites, entertainment sites and media aggregators.

Secretary of Information and Broadcasting will be heading the committee.

The committee will include secretaries of departments of Home, Electronics and Information and Technology,

Legal Affairs and Industrial Policy and Promotion. It will propose policy for foreign direct investment (FDI) in

this media. It will cover print and electronic media as well as entertainment sites.

Govt launches Digital Initiative for ease of exports

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry have launched digital initiatives of Export Inspection Council (EIC) for

ease of export to boost to India’s potential for agricultural and food export.

EIC is the official export certification body of Central Govt.

The initiatives, launched under flagship Digital India Initiative, aimed to keep pace with changing dynamics of

the world.

India’s manufacturing sector growth falls to five-month low

According to monthly survey of Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), India’s

manufacturing sector activity fell to five-month low in Mar 2018.

It felled from 52.1 in Feb 2018 to five-month low of 51.0 in Mar 2018 indicating slowest improvement in

operating conditions recorded by survey since Oct 2017.

PMI is an indicator of business activity-both in the manufacturing and services sectors.

Boeing, HAL, Mahindra tie up

Boeing India subsidiary of US aerospace manufacturer Boeing, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Mahindra

Defence Systems entered into agreement to manufacture fighter aircraft F/A-18 Super Hornet in India.

The partnership comes in backdrop of stiff competition between global aerospace companies looking to secure

$15 billion (Rs. 97,950 crore) deal to sell 110 fighter jets to India.

Oberoi Committee to prevent Exam Paper Leakages

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has constituted a High Powered Committee to examine the entire

system of conducting Class X and Class XII examination conducted by the CBSE with a view to preventing

leakages.

Vinay Sheel Oberoi, Retd. Secretary (Higher Education), MHRD will be the Chairperson of the 7 member High

Power Committee.

The High-Powered Committee will submit its report by on or before May 31 this year.

120 castes/communities notified in Central OBC list

The Union Govt notified inclusion of 120 castes/communities, their synonyms and sub-castes in the Central List

of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for different States/Union Territories in the last three years.

It was informed by Ministry of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in written reply in Lok Sabha.

Govt inks 16 APAs in March 2018

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) entered into 14 Unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (UAPA) and

2 Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (BAPA) in Mar 2018.





With the signing of these Agreements, CBDT has entered total 219 APAs.

This includes 199 Unilateral APAs and 20 Bilateral APAs.

First India-Bangladesh container train flagged off

The trial run of the first container train to run between Kolkata and Dhaka has been flagged off.

The much-awaited demand of the trade is finally being met after a long passing by Container Corporation

of India Ltd (CONCOR) and Indian Railways with Bangladesh Railway and other agencies of the two countries.

Ola acquires ticketing app firm Ridlr

Ride-hailer Ola, has acquired Mumbai-based Ridlr, an end-to-end public transport ticketing and commuting app.

The acquisition will complement Ola’s efforts to integrate its mobility platform with public transportation

infrastructure.

Ridlr is currently serving commuters in Mumbai and Delhi with partnerships with BEST, Delhi Metro, and

Mumbai metro, along with pilots in several other cities.

Govt levies 10% import duty

The Central Bureau of Excise and Customs (CBEC) under Finance Ministry imposed 10% duty on imports of key

smartphone components such as populated printed circuit boards (PCBs), camera modules and connectors.

At present there is zero import duty imposed on the three components.

This move will make imports of components expensive while giving stimulus to local manufacturing under Make

in India program.

Atal Pension Yojana subscriber base touches over 97 lakh

According to Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA), the subscriber base of Atal

Pension Yojana (APY) stood at 97.05 lakh at end of 2017-18 fiscal.

APY was launched in Jun 2015 with an aim to provide affordable universal access to essential social security

protection to unorganized work force of country, which makes major chunk of labour force (88%).

It had replaced earlier govt-backed pension Swavalamban scheme targeted at the unorganised sector.

Under scheme, subscriber will receive minimum guaranteed pension of Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000 per month,

depending on his contribution, from age of 60 years.

Core sector growth up by 5.3% in Feb 2018

According to index of eight core industries released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry, eight core

infrastructure sectors grew by 5.3% in Feb 2018.

These 8 sectors grew by 4.3% in Apr-Feb 2017-18 against 4.7% in the same period last fiscal.

Petroleum refinery production recorded 7.8% growth.

Fertilizer production recorded 5.3% growth.

Cement production recorded 22.9% growth.

Electricity generation grew by 4%.

Coal production grew by 1.4%.

Steel production grew by 5%.

Crude oil production declined by 2.4%.

Natural Gas production declined by 1.5%.

In India, there are eight core sectors comprising of coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum refinery products,

fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

Ravi Kota appointed Joint Secretary of 15th Finance Commission

Ravi Kota, the 1993 batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya, has been appointed Joint Secretary of 15th Finance

Commission under the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA).

The Finance Commission, set up in 1951 under Article 280 of the Constitution, basically decides how revenue has

to be distributed between the Centre and the States.

The 15th Finance Commission was constituted on Nov 27, 2017 and is headed by former Revenue Secretary

Rajya Sabha MP N.K. Singh.

The panel also includes Shaktikanta Das, former Economic Affairs Secretary and Anoop Singh, adjunct professor

at Georgetown University.





This Commission is slated to submit its recommendations by Oct 31, 2019.

The recommendations, to be observed for a period of five years, will kick in from Apr 1, 2020.

India at risk of food shortage due to climate change

According to recently published global study, India is among the countries which are at greatest risk of food

insecurity due to weather extremes caused by climate change.

E-way Bill comes into effect

The e-way Bill System for Inter-State movement of goods across the country has been introduced from Apr 1,

2018.

The businesses and transporters moving goods worth over Rs. 50,000 from one state to another will have to carry

an electronic or e-way bill.

The e-way bill will apply to inter-state transportation of goods worth over Rs. 50,000 through road, railways,

airways and vessels. The e-way bill provision of the goods and services tax (GST) was first introduced on Feb 1,

2018.

PFMS portal processes record transactions on single day

The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) portal has processed record Rs 71,633 crore transactions on a

single day.

PFMS is end-to-end solution for processing payments, tracking, monitoring, accounting, reconciliation and

reporting.

Book "India’s Heritage of Gharana Music: Pandits of Gwalior" launches

The book title "India’s Heritage of Gharana Music: Pandits of Gwalior", authored by classical vocalist Meeta

Pandit, has been launched by politicians Jyotiraditya Scindia and Karan Singh.

The book is an outcome of an emotional journey that author undertook after her elder brother Tushar Pandit died

in a road accident in 1994.

Govt launches Swachh Bharat Summer Internship

Govt has launched Swachh Bharat Summer Internship (SBSI) 2018 aimed at engaging college youth with

Swachhata work in villages in coming Summer vacation.

The initiative has been launched by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, the convening and coordinating

Ministry of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in association with Ministry of Human Resource Development.

SBSI 2018 aims to engage lakhs of educated youth across country, develop their skills and orientation for

sanitation sector, amplify mass awareness and cement people’s movement (Jan andolan) aspect of SBM. India receives first LNG consignment from US

India received first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo comprising 1.2 Lakh tones of the Gas from United States.

The cargo has landed at the Dabhol regasification terminal in Maharashtra.

The recent consignment of LNG has been imported from US under a long-term contract of 20 years.

India’s longest elevated road inaugurated in UP

India’s longest elevated road, Hindon Elevated Road has been inaugurated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

The road connects UP Gatee to Rajnagar Extension and will make it easier to commute between Delhi and

Ghaziabad. The elevated six-lane road is approximately 10 kilometres-long and was built at a cost of about Rs

11,000 crores.

Smart India Hackathon Grand Finale 2018-Software edition inaugurated

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar inaugurated the Smart India Hackathon Grand Finale

2018 – Software edition in New Delhi. The edition is hosting by the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

It aims to build Digital India of country’s dreams and to engage the youth directly with nation-building.

Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) between India and Pakistan started

The 114th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) between India and Pakistan has been started in

New Delhi.

Both the sides are expected to discuss Water Treaty dispute and resolution of outstanding issues.





The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) was signed in 1960 and involves six rivers – the Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus,

Chenab and Jhelum. The PIC had last met in March 2017 in Islamabad.

The meeting of the PIC is held alternately in India and Pakistan at least once every year as mandated by the

Treaty.

Study in India programme launched by Govt

The Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) approved ‘Study in India’ programme to attract foreign

students to pursue higher education in India.

Govt has approved expenditure of Rs. 150 crores for programme for two years 2018-19 and 2019-20 which will

be primarily for brand promotion activities.

It helps in doubling India’s market share of global education exports from less than 1% to 2%.

In Times Higher Education Ranking 2018, top spot has gone to University of Oxford where 38% population is of

Indian students.

Govt allows export of 2 million tonnes of sugar

The govt allowed export of two million tonnes of sugar under the Minimum Indicative Export Quota (MIEQ)

scheme until the end of the 2017-18 marketing year.

The govt has also allowed export of white sugar till Sep 2018 under the Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA)

scheme, under which exporters are allowed to import sugar at zero duty within three years.

NITI Aayog launches baseline ranking of 115 aspirational districts

The NITI Aayog launched the baseline ranking for 115 aspirational districts based on 49 indicators across five

sectors that include health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill

development, and basic infrastructure.

Earlier, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' programme

in Jan to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.

Skill India partners with Ministry of Power

The Ministry of Power partnered with Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship for training the

manpower in six states for speedy implementation of its Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna (Saubhagya

Scheme). These six states are Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojna (Saubhagya Scheme) aims to achieve universal household

electrification in all parts of the country.

The total outlay of scheme is Rs. 16,320 crore of which Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) is Rs. 12,320 crore.

GIFT, Deloitte sign MoU

GIFT City signed an MoU with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP (DTTILLP), which renders consultancy

services, for mutual cooperation in areas related to international financial services.

GIFT City based in Gujarat is a global business district offering a platform for business opportunities in

international and domestic business operations.

Department of Posts launches Cool EMS Service between India and Japan

Department of Posts under Ministry of Communications launched Cool EMS Service between India and Japan.

The one-way service from Japan to India allows customers in India to import Japanese food items for personal use

which is allowed under Indian regulations. The Cool EMS Service came into force from Mar 2018.

Saras Aajeevika Mela at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi

The Union Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Mines, Narendra Singh Tomar has inaugurated

Saras Aajeevika Mela at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.

The SARAS Aajeevika Mela is an endeavour of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods

Mission.

Atal Innovation Mission ink SOI with SAP Global

NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) signed Statement of Intent (SOI) with German tech company SAP

to promote culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across 100 Atal Tinkering Labs across India.

SAP will adopt 100 Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL) in 2018 for five years to nurture science, technology,

engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning among secondary school children across India.





SAP will select secondary schools from Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and

Telangana.

93% rural households with access to toilets using them

According to National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2017-18, over 93% households in villages who

have access to toilets are using them and about 77% homes in rural areas have got toilets.

The survey was conducted by Independent Verification Agency (IVA) under World Bank support project to

Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G).

According to the survey, 77% of households were found to have access to toilets. 4% of people who had access to

toilets used them. 6% of villages which were previously declared and verified as ODF were confirmed to be ODF.

India’s first insect museum opened in Tamil Nadu

India’s first insect museum with state-of-the-art amenities has been unveiled at Tamil Nadu Agricultural

University campus in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu by Tamil Nadu CM K Palaniswamy.

The lobby of the museum depicts theme "BUGS ARE KINGS".

The museum has been established at an area of 6,691 sqft. and is fully dedicated to insects.

China-India joint-group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science & Technology held in New Delhi

The eleventh session of the China-India joint-group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science & Technology held in

New Delhi.

The session was co-chaired by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Suresh Prabhu and China’s Minister of

Commerce Mr. Zhong Shan.

ISA, India sign Host Country Agreement

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) signed Host Country Agreement

in New Delhi.

ISA is initiative jointly launched by India and France in Nov 2015 at Paris on side lines of COP21 UN Climate

Change Conference with its headquartered at campus of Natioanl Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurugram,

Harayana.

The agreement gives ISA juridical personality an power to contract, acquire and dispose off movable and

immovable properties and also to institute and defend legal proceedings.

3,21,567 more affordable houses under PMAY(Urban)

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has approved the construction of 3,21,567 more affordable

houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) with an investment of Rs 18,203

crore with central assistance of Rs 4,752 crore.

The projects were sanctioned across 523 cities in the states of Haryana, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,

Gujarat, Mizoram, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Goa.

Govt releases Draft policy on Defence Production

The Ministry of Defence released draft policy on defence production that

aims to make India one of the top five manufacturers of defence platforms

with active participation of public and private sectors.

At present, India is one of the world’s largest importer of military platforms

and weapons.

It aims to achieve turnover of Rs.1,70,000 crore in military goods and

services by 2025 by promoting domestic defence industry.

It will make India one of top five manufacturers of defence platforms with

active participation of public and private sectors.

Govt may relax protected area permit rules

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is planning to relax the protected

area permit (PAP) regime to enable foreign tourists to access border areas.

MHA will coordinate with other agencies and state governments to identify

possible locations for which protected area permit (PAP) regime provisions

may be relaxed.





Citizens from Pakistan and China are unlikely to be given these relaxations.

The protected areas currently include whole of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim,

besides parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Govt launches E-Tribes India on e-commerce platforms

The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), under Ministry of Tribal Affairs

launched E-Tribes India banners on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Snapdeal, Paytm & GeM.

TRIFED’s websites- www.tribesindia.com, www.trifed.in and Retail Inventory Software and M-commerce app

was launched as part of Digital India Initiative.

TRIFED’s Handbook for Retail Trade and TRIFED’s quarterly magazine ‘Tribes Haat’ was also launched.

MEA launches engagement programme with Regional Media

The External Publicity and Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) launched 'Videsh

Aaya Pradesh ke Dwaar', an engagement programme with regional media in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Reliance signs deal to merge JioMusic with Saavn

Mukesh Ambani-helmed Reliance Industries Ltd announced an integration with leading music app Saavn for its

digital music service JioMusic.

The combined entity is valued at over $1 billion, with JioMusic’s implied valuation at $670 million.

Union govt to declare 2018 as ‘National Year of Millets’

The Union govt decided to declare 2018 as 'National Year of Millets' to boost the cultivation of millets like ragi

and jowar on a mission mode to achieve nutritional security.

This was stated by Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh while addressing MPs in a consultative committee

meeting in New Delhi.

The millet cultivation has declined due to change in dietary habits and unavailability of millets. As a result of this,

level of nutrients like proteins, Vitamin-A, iron and iodine fell in women and children.

India’s first sign language dictionary launched

The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment launched India’s first Sign Language Dictionary of 3000.

The dictionary is developed by Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre (ISLR&TC) under Department

of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD).

It has English and Hindi terms to help deaf children to learn English. This dictionary is available in both print and

video formats.

It will help to bring uniformity in sign languages which are used by differently abled people especially people

with hearing or speech impairment.

1st National Conference on Drug Law Enforcement held in New Delhi

The first-ever National Conference on Drug Law Enforcement, inaugurated by Minister of State for Home

Affairs, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, held in New Delhi.

The conference is organized by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Ministry of Home Affairs.

Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission approved

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved launch of Ayushman Bharat-National

Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM).

It will integrate two on-going centrally sponsored schemes viz. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and

Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).

The mission aims to target over 10 crore families belonging to poor and vulnerable population based on Socio

Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) database.

It will cover Rs 5 lakh per family per year, taking care of almost all secondary care and tertiary care procedures.

Sand Mining Framework launched to check illegal extraction

The Union Ministry of Mines launched Sand Mining Framework to help states deal with the sand mining issues,

including demand supply deficit and illegal extraction at the third National Conclave on Mines & Minerals held in

New Delhi.

Govt scraps export duty on sugar





The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) under Ministry of Finance scrapped export duty of 20% on

raw and refined sugar to boost shipments.

Sugar output is estimated to rise sharply to 29.5 million tonnes (MT) in 2017-18 marketing year (Oct-Sept) from

20.3 MT in the previous year.

In Feb 2018, Govt doubled import duty on sugar to 100% and restricted sale by mills to keep a checking on

falling prices.

Parliament passes Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The Parliament passed Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to empower govt to fix period of maternity

leave and tax-free gratuity amount with an executive order.

The Bill seeks to amend Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 on two issues related to maternity leave and ceiling of

gratuity payable to an employee.

Under it, employees are paid gratuity if they have provided at least 5 years of continuous service at time of

termination.

Under the Act, maximum maternity leave was 12 weeks and was changed to 26 weeks by Maternity Benefit

(Amendment) Act, 2017.

The Bill removes the existing ceiling of Rs 10 lakh amount of gratuity payable to an employee and states that the

ceiling may be notified by the central government.

The implementation of 7th Central Pay Commission has increased ceiling gratuity for Central Govt employees

from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh.

UGC grants full autonomy to 62 higher educational institutes

The University Grants Commission (UGC) approved proposal to grant full autonomy to 62 higher educational

institutions which have maintained high standards of excellence under Autonomous Colleges Regulation.

These 62 higher educational institutions include 5 central universities, 21 state universities, 26 private universities

and 10 other colleges.

DAE develops device to measure uranium traces in water

An Indore-based unit of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), the Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced

Technology (RRCAT) developed an instrument called Fluorimeter, to measure traces of uranium in water.

The device is capable of examining traces of uranium in sample of water from 0.1 PPB (Parts-per-billion) unit to

100 PPB with an estimated cost of around Rs 1 lakh.

NITI Aayog, Piramal Foundation ink agreement

NITI Aayog and Piramal Foundation inked Statement of Intent (SoI) to work closely with District Collectors and

key officers of ‘Aspirational Districts’ to support their transformation in terms of healthcare, education and

nutrition.

The Union Govt had selected 115 backward (aspirational) districts for rapid transformation by 2022 in line with

Govt’s vision to create ‘New India’.

National Cultural Audiovisual Archives becomes world’s first Trusted Digital Repository

The National Cultural Audiovisual Archives (NCAA) project of Ministry of Culture has been certified as world’s

first Trusted Digital Repository as per ISO 16363:2012 standard.

BIRAC celebrates 6th Foundation Day

The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology

celebrated its sixth Foundation Day on Mar 20 with the theme ‘Sustaining Innovation – A Market Driven

Pathway’.

India, Hong Kong sign double tax agreement

India and Hong Kong signed agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion

with respect to taxes on income.

Murli Manohar Joshi committee for modernising and upgrading country’s security systems

The Estimates Committee headed by Dr Murli Manohar Joshi recommended effective measures to modernise and

upgrade the country’s security systems at par with the developed countries.

1st National Workshop on POSHAN Abhiyan held in New Delhi





The first National workshop on POSHAN Abhiyan involving all the states and union territories held at Pravasi

Bharatiya Kendra, New Delhi.

Centre approves Plastic Park in Deoghar in Jharkhand

Centre approved setting up of a plastic park in Deoghar district of Jharkhand at an estimated cost of 120 crore

rupees and is spread over 150 acres of land.

Centre will also set up a plastic refining unit in the same area at the cost of 3.5 crore rupees.

Bhel commissions 1st unit of Kishanganga hydro project in J&K

State-run power equipment maker, Bhel commissioned first unit of 110 MW of the Kishanganga hydro-electric

project (HEP) of NHPC in Jammu and Kashmir.

The unit is located on the river Kishanganga, a tributary of the Jhelum in Bandipora district.

All the three units of the 340 MW project will generate 1,350 million units (MU) of clean electricity annually.

NITI Aayog releases SATH-E Roadmaps

NITI Aayog released comprehensive roadmaps and detailed timelines for its initiative Sustainable Action for

Transforming Human Capital in Education (SATH-E) project to introduce system-wide Governance

Transformation in school education. The roadmaps will operate between 2018 to 2020.

The detailed interventions will be taken by three participating states- Jharkand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha to

become ‘Role Model States’ in school education.

President releases commemorative coins on Nabakalebar festival

President Ram Nath Kovind released Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 10 commemorative coins on the occasion of Nabakalebar

festival in Puri, Odisha.

The releasing of coins aimed to mark the festival which is a symbolic recreation of sibling deities — Lord

Jagannath, Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra.

Nabakalebara festival is an ancient ritual that is observed in the Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri, Odisha at

predefined time according to Hindu Calender. Naba means new and Kalebara is body.

India-Japan Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction held in New Delhi

The first-ever India-Japan Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction has been inaugurated by the Vice-Chairman of

NITI Aayog, Dr. Rajiv Kumar in New Delhi.

KUSUM Scheme - harnessing solar power for rural India

The Govt of India is planning to formulate a Scheme 'Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan

(KUSUM)'.

It provides for the installation of grid-connected solar power plants each of capacity up to 2 MW in the rural

areas.

Govt imposes anti-dumping duty on Ofloxacin import from China

The Revenue Department under the Finance Ministry imposed anti-dumping duty on import of ‘Ofloxacin’, a

pharma product used in treatment of certain infections from China.

It was imposed for three years following recommendations of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied

Duties (DGAD) to protect domestic producers from below-cost shipments.

CISF launches mobile app for lost items at airports

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) launched its lost and found mobile applcation for passengers at 59

airports across India.

PM inaugurates 105th Indian Science Congress in Imphal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated 105th session of Indian Science Congress (ISC) at Manipur

Central University in Imphal with the theme "Reaching the Unreached Through Science & Technology".

The 2018 ISC was organised by the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA), a premier scientific

organisation of India.

Govt launches LaQshya program

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched LaQshya program aimed at improving quality of maternity

care in labour room and maternity Operation Theatre (OT).





It aims to improve quality of care for pregnant women in labour room, maternity Operation Theatre and

Obstetrics Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and High Dependency Units (HDUs).

India-UK Joint Team won the Newton-Bhabha Fund

An India-UK Joint Team won the Newton-Bhabha Fund for a project on Groundwater Arsenic Research in Ganga

River Basin.

It aims to assess how the problem of arsenic poisoning can get aggravated in the next 25 to 30 years and influence

groundwater management practices and suggest water remedial technologies accordingly.

India to host ICN2018

India will be hosting the 17th Annual Conference of International Competition Network 2018 (ICN 2018) for the

first time from Mar 21-23, 2018 in New Delhi.

India’s GDP growth has been projected at 7.3%: World bank

According to the World Bank’s latest report, "India Development Update – India’s Growth Story" India’s GDP

growth projected at 7.3% for FY 19 (2018-19) and is expected to accelerate further to 7.5% in 2019-20.

The World Bank expects that the Indian economy to clock a growth rate of 6.7% in the current fiscal FY 18

ending Mar 31.

Lok Sabha passes Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The Lok Sabha passed Specific Relief (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to further ease procedures for doing business in

the country.

Environment Ministry gives nod to Neutrino project

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF’s) given environmental clearance to India-based Neutrino

Observatory (INO) project to be set up in Bodi West hills in Tamil Nadu.

It aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover of approximately 1200 meter.

MDWS bags best award for best implementation of E-office

The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) bagged the award for best implementation of E-

office.

E-Office is one of the Mission-mode Projects under the Digital India programme.

The e-Office solution enables core operations of the Govt at all levels to be performed in a ‘paper-less’

environment, including the E-leave, E-tour, Knowledge Management, Notice Board, Download Forms, Inventory

Control etc.

India’s first cloned Assamese buffalo born

The Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes (CIRB) claimed that India’s first cloned Assamese buffalo male

calf named Sach-Gaurav was born in Hisar, Haryana.

It was born to Murrah buffalo, at Hi Tech Sach Dairy Farm, 100 kms from cloning laboratory, making it first

buffalo calf to be born in field.

India’s tallest national flag has been unfurled in Karnataka

India’s tallest national flag, 9,600 sq.ft flag on a 110 m flag pole unfurled in Belagavi (also known as Belgaum) in

Karnataka by Ramesh Jarkiholi, District in-charge Minister.

The 110 m tall flag post at Kote Kere is near the historic Belagavi fort in the city.

It is taller than the post in Pune (107 m) and the one at the India-Pakistan border at Attari (105 m) in Punjab.

AYUSH Drug developed by CCRAS for cancer patients

The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) undertaken development of coded drug

AYUSH QOL-2C for improving quality of life in cancer patients.

CCRAS, headquartered in New Delhi, is autonomous body under the Ministry of AYUSH.

PM launches campaign to eradicate TB

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Tuberculosis (TB) Free India Campaign after the inauguration of Delhi

End-TB Summit in New Delhi.

The campaign will have funding of over Rs. 12,000 crore over next three years. and the deadline to eradicate TB

from the country has been set at 2025, five years ahead of global target of 2030 mentioned in the Sustainable

Development Goals.





President inaugurates World Hindi Secretariat

President Ram Nath Kovind has inaugurated World Hindi Secretariat building in Port Louis, Mauritius.

The secretariat’s logo, an Early Digital Learning Programme as well unveiled foundation stones of social housing

project and large ENT hospital being built with Indian assistance was also launched by the President.

He visited Mauritius as part of first leg to his two-nation state visit (Mauritius and Madagascar).

The Secretariat is fully financed by Govt of India and providing grant of Rs. 33 crore.

India, France co-hosts International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit

India and France co-hosted first International Solar Alliance (ISA) Summit at Rashtrapati Bhavan Convention

Centre in New Delhi with an aim to deliberate on finance mechanism for promotion of solar energy in member

countries, crowd-funding and technology transfer.

The summit was co-hosted by President Ram Nath Kovind and his French counterpart President Emmanuel

Macron.

The summit was of particular significance to India as it strives to achieve ambitious target of generating 175 GW

of renewable energy, including 100 GW of solar energy, by 2022.

IATA partners with Civil Aviation Ministry and National Aviation University

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) inked an MoU with Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and

National Aviation University (NAU) to enhance human resource availability in India’s aviation industry.

The three parties to the MoU formalised this partnership on sidelines of Wings India 2018 held in Hyderabad,

Telangana.

India is expected to be third largest aviation market in the world behind China and US by 2024.

IATA is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with Executive Offices in Geneva, Switzerland.

Foreign law firms can’t practice in India, but their lawyers can advice

The Supreme Court in a ruling said that foreign law firms cannot set up offices and their lawyers cannot practise

in India but they can give legal advice on foreign laws.

The ruling given by apex court on appeal by Bar Council of India (BCI), challenging judgements by Bombay and

Madras High Courts.

Govt forms committee to probe illegal cultivation of HT Cotton

The Department of Biotechnology in Ministry of Science and Technology constituted Field Inspection and

Scientific Evaluation Committee (FISEC) to investigate matter of illegal cultivation of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) or

BG-III cotton in four states.

The committee constituted after several media reports and complaints regarding illegal or unauthorised cultivation

of HT cotton in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Govt forms Tribunal to solve Mahanadi Water dispute

The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation constituted Mahanadi Water

Dispute Tribunal for adjudication of longstanding disputes between Odisha and Chhattisgarh over sharing of

Mahanadi river water.

The tribunal will have three members. Chief Justice of India (CJI) has nominated Supreme Court Judge A M

Khanwilkar as chairman of Tribunal.

The two other members are Justice Ravi Ranjan of Patna High Court and Jusitce Indwermeet Kaur Kochar of

Delhi High Court.

Govt institutes Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence

The Union Government approved proposal to institute Union Home Minister’s Medal for Excellence in Police

Investigation.

The award aims to promote high professional standards of Investigation of Crime in State/UT Police and Central

Investigating Agencies (CIAs) in the country.

Death penalty should stay

The 12 out of 14 states/UTs replied to Home Ministry that capital punishment or death penalty should stay, as it

serves to act as deterrent in cases of heinous crimes such as murder and rape.





The states/UTs vetoed abolition of capital punishment was Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,

Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Only two states, Karnataka and Tripura, want practice to be done away

with. India-UK Joint Team wins Newton-Bhabha Fund

India-United Kingdom (UK) Joint Team won Newton-Bhabha Fund for project on Groundwater Arsenic Research

in Ganga River Basin.

The project is aimed to assess problem of arsenic poisoning and to understand aggravation such situation in next

25 to 30 years and its influence on groundwater management practices and suggest water remedial technologies

accordingly. It is conducted from three sites – Bijnor and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Nadia in West Bengal.

India's Biggest M&E Services Market, EnTTech 2018 Inaugurated

India's biggest Media & Entertainment Services Market-EnTTech 2018 has been inaugurated in Mumbai.

The event organized by Service Export Promotion Council (SEPC) in association with MEAI (Media &

Entertainment Association of India) and supported by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce &

Industry, Govt of India.

GST Council approves rollout of e-way bill from April

The GST Council headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley approved the rollout of inter-state e-Way bill from

April 01.

e-Way bill deferred the liability to pay tax on reverse charge mechanism until June 30 and extended tax

exemption benefits to exporters for another six months.

Goods and Services Tax’s (GST) e-Way bill system is a crucial measure against tax evasion and it also promises

to enable faster movement of goods through a seamless portal-driven payment system.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Modi will be interacting with IT experts

on how the tax return filing system under GST can be simplified.

Milk production up 20% in 2014-2017

Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh announced that the Milk production in the

country increased by 20 per cent from 137.7 million tonnes to 165.4 million tonnes between 2014 and 2017.

The per capita availability of milk has risen by 15.6 per cent from 307 gms a day to 355 gms per day between

2013-14 and 2016-17.

With a corpus of Rs 2,450 crore, the govt has set up an Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund

(AHIDF) for financing infrastructure requirement of animal husbandry sector.

PM Modi, French President Macron inaugurate UP's Biggest Solar Power Plant

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated Uttar Pradesh's biggest solar

power plant in Mirzapur district's Chhanvey block.

The 100 MW facility has been dedicated to the people of the state.

NCRB celebrates its 33rd Inception Day

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) celebrated its 33rd Inception Day on Mar 11, 2018.

'Citizen Services' mobile application developed in-house by NCRB was also released.

Supreme Court allows passive euthanasia

The Supreme Court (SC) five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has allowed

passive euthanasia and right to give advance medical directives or ‘Living Wills’.

The apex court states that human beings have the right to die with dignity as part of fundamental right, but made

sure to set out strict guidelines that will govern when it is permitted.

Passive euthanasia is the act of withdrawing or withholding medical support to dying patient who has no hope for

revival or cure.

Article 21 of the Constitution of India explains about the Fundamental right to life and dignity and it also includes

right to die with dignity.

‘Crime-free zone’ along India, Bangladesh international border launched

The Director Generals of Border Security Force (BSF), India & Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) declared 8.3

kms stretch of Indo-Bangladesh border as first ‘crime-free zone’.





The 8.3 kms stretch covers Gunarmath and Kalyani Border Out Posts (BOPs) in India and Puthkhali and

Daulatpur BOPs in Bangladesh across border.

Both countries share 4,156 km long international border.

It passes throuh five states viz. Assam (262 km), Tripura (856 km), Mizoram (180 km), Meghalaya (443 km) and

West Bengal (2,217 km).

Govt launches #YesIBleed menstrual hygiene campaign

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry launched #YesIBleed menstrual hygiene campaign on the occasion of

International Women’s Day 2018 (Mar 08).

The '#Yes I Bleed' campaign has been initiated formally across all multi-media platforms, including Facebook and

YouTube to spread awareness about issue.

Govt launches Udyam Sakhi Portal for Women Entrepreneurs

The Union Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) has launched Udyam Sakhi Portal

(www.udyamsakhi.org) for women entrepreneurs on International Women’s Day (Mar 08).

The portal was unveiled by Minister of State (Independent Charge) of MSME, Giriraj Singh, in a program held at

Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.

NITI Aayog launches Women Entrepreneurship Platform

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog launched Women Entrepreneurship Platform

(WEP) on the occasion of International Women’s Day (Mar 8) with the theme song 'Naari Shakti'.

'Naari Shakti' song was composed and sung by renowned singer Kailash Kher.

The aspirations of women entrepreneurs are manifested in three pillars Ichha Shakti, Gyaan Shakti and Karma

Shakti.

Ichha Shakti helps in motivating aspiring entrepreneurs to start their enterprise.

Gyaan Shakti will provide knowledge and ecosystem support to women entrepreneurs to help them foster

entrepreneurship.

Karma Shakti will provide hands-on support to entrepreneurs in setting-up and scaling up businesses.

Govt launches 100% Oxo-biodegradable Sanitary Napkin

The Union Chemicals & Fertilizers Ministry launched a 100% Oxo-biodegradable Sanitary Napkin, 'Suvidha'

under Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP).

The Sanitary Napkin, 'Suvidha' was launched by Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary

Affairs Ananthkumar on the occasion of International Woman’s day (Mar 08).

The affordable Suvidha sanitary napkins will be available for Rs. 2.50 per pad at over 3200 Janaushadhi Kendras

across India.

It will ensure 'Swachhta, Swasthya and Suvidha' for underprivileged women.

It will be physically available at all Janaushadhi Kendras in country by World Menstrual Hygiene Day (May 28)

Govt launches association of all Indian Metro Rail companies

The Union Housing Ministry launched I-Metros, an association of all Indian Metro Rail companies for mutual

sharing of ideas & experiences for nurturing excellence their performance at Conference on 'Indian Metros:

Collaborating for Excellence' held at Metro Bhawan in New Delhi.

'I-Metros' platform is a forum for exchange of ideas, sharing of experience and pooling of knowledge, best

practices, innovations etc. among Indian Metro Rail companies to nurture excellence in performance.

India-China trade hits record $84.4 billion in 2017

According to data of Chinese General Administration of Customs, India-China bilateral trade has reached $84.44

billion in 2017, a historic high with 18.63% year-on-year growth rate.

India has emerged as the seventh largest export destination for Chinese products, and 24th largest exporter to

China.

India’s imports and exports have increased by 39.11% year-on-year to $16.34 billion in 2017.

India’s imports from China have increased by 14.59% to $68.10 billion.

India’s trade deficit remained high at $51.75 billion, registering a growth of 8.55% year-on-year in 2017.

CCI imposes Rs. 54 crore fine on 3 airlines





The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed fine of more than Rs. 54 crore on Jet Airways, InterGlobe

Aviation and SpiceJet for unfair business practices with respect to fixing fuel surcharge on cargo transport.

The penalties were imposed at the rate of 3% of three airlines average relevant turnover of last 3 financial years

and taking into consideration financial position of airlines at relevant time and noting that FSC constitutes about

20-30% of cargo revenue.

Sukhad Yatra App and Toll-free Emergency number for Highway users

The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) launched Sukhad Yatra mobile application and

1033 Toll-free Emergency number for highway users.

Toll-free number 1033 will enable users to report an emergency condition and highway-related feedback.

MoRTH will provide financial assistance of up to Rs. 1 crore for these centres.

Microsoft inks first renewable energy deal in India

Microsoft inked its first renewable energy deal in India for powering its new facility in Bengaluru.

The facility will be operational from June 2018.

This deal is part of Karnataka govt program to encourage investments in local solar energy operations, in line with

the country’s goal of ramping up solar power generation to 100 gigawatts by 2022.

Rs.1000 crore allocated for research in S&T under IMPRINT-II

The Ministry of Human Resource Development allocated Rs. 1000 crore for phase II of Impacting Research

Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) India programme to boost research

and innovation in the country.

IMPRINT India Programme is a joint initiative of Indian Institutes of

Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Under IMPRINT-I Programme, 142 projects at cost of Rs. 318.71 crore are

already under implementation.

These projects cover 10 crucial technology domains mentioned above.

46th Know India Programme

46th edition of Know India Programme (KIP) held from Feb 12 to Mar 08,

2018.

40 participants of Indian Origin from 9 countries have attended in this

edition of KIP in which Madhya Pradesh was the partner state.

Know India Programme (KIP) is initiative (scheme) of Ministry of External

Affairs for Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) between the age group of 18 to

30 years.

Animal Welfare Board of India headquarters shifted from Chennai to

Ballabhgarh

Govt shifted the headquarters of Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to Ballabhgarh in Faridabad District of

Haryana from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The shifting has been done after consultation with AWBI for better coordination between the Environment

Ministry and AWBI for carrying out the animal welfare activities.

Commerce Ministry to devise strategy on product standards

The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry released draft Indian National Strategy for Standardisation of

products and services to provide level playing field to domestic industry and adopt best global practices.

India starts importing LNG from US

India for the very first time has started importing Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) from United States.

India’s first import of crude oil from the US was done in Oct 2017.

It will be discharged at GAIL’s Dabhol terminal, Maharashtra.

Street Lighting National Programme

The Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) installed 49 lakh LED street lights in 28 states/UTs under the

Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP).





The Programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jan 2015, aims to replace 1.34 crore conventional

street lights with energy efficient LED lights by Mar, 2019.

This is the world’s Largest Street Light Replacement Programme. Rajasthan was the first state to adopt the

scheme.

Services PMI contracts to 47.8 in Feb 2018

According to the Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index, India's services sector contracted at 47.8 in Feb

2018 compared with 51.7 in Jan 2018.

The contraction in the services sector shows that activity and new work in services sector declined for the first

time since Nov 2017.

Centre sets up panel to study issues in Fintech space

The Union Govt set up 8 member’s steering committee to look into the development and regulation of the

financial technology (fintech) sector in India.

It will be headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.

The committee comes after the announcement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech of

2018-19.

Govt approves Rs 2,919 cr projects under Nirbhaya fund

The Women and Child Development Ministry approved projects worth Rs 2,919 crore under Nirbhaya Fund for

creating eight safe cities, viz, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and

Lucknow.

Project worth Rs 663 crore was approved for Delhi.

Project worth Rs 252 crore was sanctioned for Mumbai,

Chennai will receive Rs 425 crore for .

Rs 253 crore was approved for Ahmedabad for ABHAYAM Vans.

Kolkata will get Rs 181.32 crore for various schemes.

Bengaluru will get Rs 667 crore for projects.

Nirbhaya Fund is created by Ministry of Finance in 2013.

NIFT to conduct National Sizing Survey

National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) under Ministry of Textiles is going to conduct National Sizing

Survey dubbed as Size India to develop comprehensive size chart for ready-to-wear industry based on body

measurements of Indian population.

14 countries have successfully completed national sizing surveys that include US, UK, France, Canada, Spain,

Germany, South Korea, Mexico, China and Australia.

Size India project is scientific exercise where anthropometric data will be collected from 25,000 sample (with

men and women in equal numbers) population in age group 15 to 65 years across six major cities.

The six cities are Kolkata (east), Mumbai (west), New Delhi (north), Bengaluru (south), Hyderabad (centre), and

Shillong (northeast).

Only 13% of over hundred tiger conservation areas meet global standards

According to recent survey, only 13% of tiger conservation areas that are part of Conservation Assured | Tiger

Standards (CA|TS) Partnership meet global standards.

India’s GDP growth forecast at 7.6%: Moody

Investors Service of Moody has recently estimated India’s GDP growth forecast for year 2018 & 2019 at 7.6%

and 7.5% respectively.

The GDP growth forecast for India for 2018 unchanged at 7.6 % and for 2019 at 7.5 %, amid signs of economic

recovery from the negative impact of demonetisation and disruption caused by GST roll out.

In its global growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019, Moody’s said the Budget for fiscal year beginning April 1

(2018-19) includes some measures to stabilize rural economy that was disproportionately hit by scrapping of high

denomination 500 and 1000 rupee notes.

Manufacturing growth falls to four-month low in Feb 2018





According to Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), India’s manufacturing sector

activity fell to four-month low in Feb 2018 as factory output and new business orders rose at slower pace.

The monthly PMI fell to 52.1 in Feb 2018 from 52.4 in Jan 2018, indicating modest improvement in operating

conditions.

India provide $5 million dollar assistance to Jordan

India will provide $5 mn dollar assistance to Jordan in the form of vaccines and medicines in 2018.

India and Jordan have inked 12 agreements in areas including Defence, Health and Cultural Exchange

Programme.

DAC approves Rs. 9,435-crore procurement proposals

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, approved various

procurement proposals for three services estimated at about Rs. 9,435 crore.

The proposals include purchase of 41,000 light machine guns (LMGs) and over 3.5 lakh close quarter battle

(CQB) carbines, High-capacity radio relay (HCRR) and two Pollution control vessels (PCV).

JS Rajput nominated as India’s representative to Executive Board of UNESCO

The Ministry of Human Resource Development nominated former NCERT director JS Rajput as India’s

representative to Executive Board (EXB) of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO).

Kumar Birla to be chairman of merged Voda-Idea entity; Balesh Sharma CEO

Idea Cellular and UK-based Vodafone Group Plc announced a total restructuring of the leadership team for the

merged business.

Vodafone insider and current Chief Operating Officer (India) Balesh Sharma has been named Chief Executive

Officer of the merged entity.

Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla would be non-executive chairman of the Board of

Directors of the merged company.

Book on Paramveer Chakra Awardees – 'Paramveer Parwane' launched

The Chief of the Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat released a book on Paramveer Chakra Awardees – 'Paramveer

Parwane'.

The book illustrates the bravery of Paramveer Chakra Awardees from 1947 to 1965 and is written by Dr.

Prabhakiran Jain published by Medha Books.

IITs set to get 25% of Govt loans

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will get largest chunk of loans on offer under a new scheme

Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE).

RISE scheme, announced in Union Budget 2017-18, aims to lend low-cost funds to government higher

educational institutions.

Under it, all centrally-funded institutes (CFIs), including central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITs and IISERs can

borrow from a Rs 1,00,000 crore corpus over next 4 years to expand and build new infrastructure.

All infrastructure and research projects sanctioned by HEFA are to be completed by Dec 2022.

Govt to launch GOBAR-Dhan Yojana

The Union Govt will roll out Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBAR-DHAN) scheme,

which was first announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his 2018-19 budget speech.

It aims to help in keeping the village clean while increasing income of farmers and cattle herders.

The scheme will be hugely beneficial for country as India is home to highest cattle population in world (around

300 million in number) which produces around 3 million tonnes of dung.

Govt to set up NTCPWC at IIT Chennai

The Ministry of Shipping under Union Govt laid foundation stone for setting up of a National Technology Centre

for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC) at IIT Chennai to give technological support to ports and maritime

sector.

It is being set up under Shipping Ministry’s flagship Sagarmala programme at cost of Rs 70.53 crore to be shared

by Ministry of Shipping, IWAI and Major Ports.





Health Ministry launches Viral Load test

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched ‘Viral Load testing’ for all People Living with

HIV/AIDS (PLHIV).

The test measures amount of HIV in blood number of copies of HIV RNA in milliliter of blood.

It will help in strengthening ‘Mission Sampark’ in tracking LFU (Loss to Follow Up) PLHIV and achieve India’s

commitment to global 90-90-90 target by 2020.

SRIJAN idea competition for 635 Stations Development launched at MyGov portal

SRIJAN (Station Rejuvenation through Joint ActioN), an idea competition for development of 635 railway

stations has been launched on MyGov portal by Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited

(IRSDC).

IRSDC has taken up massive redevelopment of around 600 major Railway stations across the country.

International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels held in New Delhi

A two-day International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels organized by Department of Biotechnology on

behalf of Mission Innovation and Biofuture Platform held in New Delhi.

Union Minister for Science and technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan has inaugurated the Conference.

PM flags off Palace Queen Hamsafar Express

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Palace Queen Humsafar Express between Mysuru and Udaipur in

Mysuru Railway Station.

Both the Mysuru Palace and Udaipur palace are iconic tourist attractions and this special train will create a new

tourist circuit connecting North India and the South.

‘Mission Buniyaad’ to improve learning skills

The Delhi govt launched “Mission Buniyaad” for improving learning skills of children studying in state and

municipal-run schools.

Under the programme which will run from April to June for Class 3 to 5 in MCD and Class 6 to 8 in govt’s

schools, children will undergo a reading level assessment based on which they will be enrolled in specialised

“Mission Buniyaad” classes.

21st National conference on e-Governance held in Hyderabad

The two-day 21st National Conference on e-Governance held in Hyderabad with the theme ‘Technology for

accelerating Development’.

The Conference was organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG),

Govt of India, along with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt of India in association

with Telangana govt.

15th edition of BioAsia 2018 held in Hyderabad

The 15th edition of BioAsia, the annual flagship programme of Govt of Telangana, held from Feb 22 to Feb 24,

2018 at Hyderabad International Convention Center (HICC) in Madhapur in Hyderabad.

Ireland, Netherlands and South Africa roped in as international partners for the 15th edition of the event whereas

the States of Gujarat, Assam and Rajasthan are the state partners for the event.

UIDAI launches Blue coloured Bal Aadhaar

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal authority for issuing Aadhaar cards has rollout ‘Bal

Aadhaar’ (Kid’s Aadhaar), meant for kids under 5 years of age.

It will have blue colour to differentiate it with regular Aadhaar and will be linked with one of parent’s Aadhaar

card. Bal Aadhaar will have no biometric identification, like Iris scan or fingerprint scans, as their parents will be

accompany their ward when such identification is required.

However, once the kid crosses 5 years of age, then regular Aadhaar will be issued, which will have the biometric

details.

International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels (ICSB-2018) held in New Delhi

The International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels (ICSB-2018), jointly organized by Department of

Biotechnology, Govt. of India on behalf of Mission Innovation and Biofuture Platform, held in New Delhi.





The Sustainable Biofuel is one of the Seven Mission Innovation Challenges and India Co-leads this along with

other countries Brazil, Canada and China.

1st International Solar Alliance summit to be hosted in India

India will be hosting the first International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit in Mar 2018 in New Delhi.

The ISA, headquartered at Gurugram, India, id one of key takeaways at Paris Climate summit, 2015, aimed at

tapping solar energy in the countries that lie partially or fully between Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

The main objective of ISA includes global deployment of over 1,000GW of solar generation capacity and

mobilisation of investment of over US $1000 billion into solar energy by 2030.

First Inter-Ministerial Committee on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants for North East

The first meeting of Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) for North East

Region (NER) is scheduled to be held on Mar 12, 2018.

The Ministry of Development of North-East Region (MDoNER) will be the coordinator for the IMC of MAPs.

India offers $1 million aid to Tonga

India contributed $1 million aid Tonga for rehabilitation efforts after island was hit by Tropical Cyclone Gita

which had caused massive destruction across the Pacific Ocean archipelago.

India is providing $500,000 for immediate relief assistance and remaining $500,000 from the India-UN

Development Partnership Fund (UNDP) for the rehabilitation efforts.

It is being utilized to carry out country-level projects that would be catalytic towards achieving 17 sustainable

development goals (SDGs) of 2030 Agenda.

Govt sets up the NITI Forum for Northeast

The Union Ministry for Development of North-East Region (DoNER) is setting up the ‘NITI Forum for North-

East’ to identify constraints and recommend suitable interventions for speedy and sustainable growth in North

East Region (NER).

It will be co-chaired by Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog and Minister of State (I/C), Ministry of Development of

Northeastern Region (DoNER).

NITI Aayog Budget Allocation Increased by More than 20%

The New India Budget presented by the Finance Minister has cemented NITI Aayog’s role as a driver of

transformational change in the country.

Allocations for the Ministry of Planning, which is embodied by the NITI Aayog, have been increased by more

than 20% over last year i.e. to Rs 339.65 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 279.79 crore in 2017-18.

Govt launches six new user friendly features of e-NAM Platform

The Union Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare launched six new features of National Agriculture Market

(e-NAM) Platform to make it more users friendly.

The six new features are e-NAM Mobile App, BHIM payment facility, new and improved Website with

eLearning Module, MIS Dashboard, Grievance Redressal Management System for Mandi Secretaries and

Integration with Farmer Database.

Govt launches Swajal Programme and Gangotri Swachh Iconic Place project

The Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation launched Gangotri Swachh Iconic Place project and

Swajal, a community owned drinking water programme in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand.

Bagori Ganga Gram’ project announced for Bagori village, which was declared open defecation free (ODF).

The project is community owned drinking water programme for sustained drinking water supply with a budgetary

support of more than Rs. 32 lakh.

The project is a solid and liquid waste management scheme with total expense of Rs 11.88 lakh.

‘International R&D Conclave’ inaugurated in New Delhi

The Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh has inaugurated the

international R&D Conclave’ in New Delhi.

The two-day conference, organised by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), aimed on Emerging Opportunities

and Challenges of R&D in Indian Power Sector.

Crèche facility to come up at Parliament House





The Parliament House is setting up crèche facility on its premises for establishing inclusive and supportive work

environment for its women employees. The setting up is in line with provisions of Maternity Benefit

(Amendment) Act, 2017.

It will be 1500 sq-foot centre and guarded by professionals, ensuring all-round development of children and will

also have separate feeding room to aid mothers.

India to Host World Environment Day 2018 on June 05

India will be the Global Host for World Environment Day (WED) 2018 which is observed annually on June 5

with the central theme ‘Plastic Pollution”.

For this, Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed between India and UN Environment in New Delhi.

India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre in Mumbai

The Maharashtra Govt will set up the India’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) centre in Mumbai.

The plan will be launched by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for the institute during the Magnetic Maharashtra

Summit and at the Global Economic Conference in Canada in March 2018.

National Conference “Agriculture 2022- Doubling Farmers’ Income”

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) has organized a National Conference under the title

of “Agriculture 2022 – Doubling Farmers’ Income” at National Agriculture Science Complex (NASC), Pusa,

New Delhi.

It also aims to build a consensus around appropriate recommendations that will help in shaping and sharpening

the vision of the Govt on Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022 into actionable points.

Govt extends transmission charge waiver to solar, wind power till Mar 2022

The Union Power Ministry extended waiver of inter-state power transmission charges and losses for solar and

wind power projects commissioned till 31 March 2022 in order to give boost to clean energy sources.

The order assumes significance in view of India’s ambitious target of having 175GW of renewable energy

capacities (100GW of solar, 60GW of wind energy, 10GW energy from Biomass and 5 GW from Hydel).

The Union Govt also has planned to auction 40GW of solar energy capacities and 20GW of wind projects in

2018-19 and 2019-20 to meet the tall order.

Amazon launches its first food retail service in India

Amazon has become the first foreign e-commerce firm to start its own food retail venture in India called Amazon

Retail, piloting its services in Pune.

Amazon also has Amazon Now app, which connects retailers with customers for sale of groceries.

8th edition of Theatre Olympics inaugurated

The 8th edition of Theatre Olympics has been inaugurated by Vice president Venkaih Naidu in New Delhi.

The Theatre Olympics organised by National School of Drama (NSD) under Ministry of Culture with the theme

“Flag of Friendship“.

India is hosting Theatre Olympics for the first time ever from Feb 17 –Apr 08, 2018 in New Delhi.

Last year the edition of mega carnival of theatre was held in Poland in 2016.

Watan Ko Jano programme organised

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) organized Youth Exchange Programme- Watan Ko Jano programme.

The programme is sponsored jointly by Ministry of Home Affairs, Central Govt (Kashmir Cell) and J&K State

Rehabilitation Council Social Welfare Department.

As part of the programme, around 200 youth from J&K visited different places of country.

World Sustainable Development Summit 2018 held in New Delhi

The 2018 edition of World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS 2018) inaugurated by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi with the theme ‘Partnerships for a Resilient Planet’.

The flagship forum of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) seeks to bring together global leaders and

thinkers in the fields of sustainable development, energy and environment sectors on common platform.

PM Modi launches three key projects in Arunachal Pradesh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched three key projects in Arunachal Pradesh.





The Dorjee Khandu state convention centre has been inaugurated in Itanagar having an auditorium, conference

halls and an exhibition hall.

The new auditorium, which can seat over a thousand people, built at a cost of Rs. 70 crore.

Govt extends anti-narcotics scheme for 3 more years

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the Anti-Narcotics Scheme for 3 more years to combat

illicit trafficking in drugs and psychotropic substances.

The scheme was first launched in October 2004 for period of five years, which was later extended twice in

subsequent years.

The financial assistance for narcotics control has been extended, with an estimated budget of Rs. 21 crore.

42 Indian languages heading towards extinction

According to report of Census Directorate, 42 languages or dialects in India are considered to be endangered and

are believed to be heading towards extinction as only few thousand people speak them.

There are 22 scheduled languages and 100 non-scheduled languages in country, which are spoken by large

number of people — one lakh or more.

There 42 languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people.

Govt extends anti-narcotics scheme for 3 more years

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the Anti-Narcotics Scheme for 3 more years to combat

illicit trafficking in drugs and psychotropic substances.

The scheme was first launched in October 2004 for period of five years, which was later extended twice in

subsequent years.

The financial assistance for narcotics control has been extended, with an estimated budget of Rs. 21 crore.

President hosts LPG Panchayat

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind hosts an 'LPG Panchayat' at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The LPG Panchayat, organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala

Yojana (PMUY), aims to provide a platform for LPG consumers to interact with each other, promote mutual

learning and share experiences.

India and Russia celebrated 70 years of bilateral relations

India and Russia celebrated 70 years of bilateral relations in the field of agriculture at Suratgarh in Rajasthan on

Feb 14, 2018.

The CSF was set up in Suratgarh in 1956 with the assistance from erstwhile USSR.

India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2017 released

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) released India State of Forest Report

(ISFR) 2017, which revealed that total forest and tree cover in India has increased of over 8,021 sq km (about

80.20 million hectare)





The increase in the forest and tree cover is one percent from 2015 and is 24.39% of geographical area of the

country.

The increase in the forest cover observed as 6,778 sq km and that of tree cover 1, 243 sq km.

India ranked 10th in world, with 24.4% of land area under forest and tree cover.

India placed 8th in list of Top Ten nations reporting the greatest annual net gain in forest area.

India gets access to strategic Duqm port in Oman

During the PM Modi’s visit to Oman, India has secured access to key strategic Port of Duqm in Oman in Arabian

sea for military use and logistical support.

An annexure to MoU on Military Cooperation was signed between the two countries.

Following this pact, the services of Duqm port and dry dock will be available for maintenance of Indian military

vessels.

The Port of Duqm is strategically situated on southeastern seaboard of Oman, overlooking Arabian Sea and Indian

Ocean.

CBI can probe FCRA violations over ₹5 cr

The cases of alleged Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) violation involving more than ₹5 crore can be

referred by the govt to the CBI for a probe.

The submission has been made in connection alleging the role of aviation consultant Deepak Talwar, a non-govt

organisation linked to him and others in the suspected FCRA violation.

Govt developing soft power matrix

The Union Govt is developing a tool, soft power matrix, which aimed at calibrating effectiveness of India’s soft

power outreach and foster better diplomatic traction in India’s immediate neighbourhood and beyond.

It is being developed to calibrate outreach efforts such as propagation of Gandhian values and philosophy,

strength of Mumbai film industry, educational scholarships extended by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA),

extending humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to help mitigate adverse impact of natural disasters.

Sports Ministry to introduce ranking system

The Sports Ministry is planning to introduce ranking system for National Sports Federations (NSFs) which aimed

at inculcating healthy competition between sports bodies.

For the first time, it will have system by which sports federations will be ranked or rated according to set

parameters.

PM Modi lays foundation stone of first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his second visit to the Gulf country laid the foundation stone for the

construction of first traditional Hindu temple in Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi, the capital city of United Arab Emirates

(UAE).

The UAE Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had allocated land for the temple during

PM Modi’s first visit to the gulf country in 2015.

The first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi will come up on 55,000 square metres of land.

The first traditional Hindu stone temple in the Middle East will be hand-carved by Indian temple artisans and

assembled in the UAE.

The temple design and structure is along the lines of the Akshardham temple in Delhi and other places.

It will include idols of Lord Krishna, Lord Maheshwara, Lord Ayyappa and more.

It will be completed by 2020, and open to people of all religious backgrounds.

Niti Aayog bats for setting up independent debt management office

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman, Rajiv Kumar made a strong case for setting up independent Debt Management

Office for better servicing of loans that will lead to substantial reduction in India’s interest payment.

At present, govt debt, including market borrowing, is managed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

According to the Budget document, India’s total debt is estimated at Rs 66.68 lakh crore at end of March 2018,

which is likely to go up to Rs 72.51 lakh crore by March 2019.

The interest payment on public debt is estimated to rise from Rs 5.3 lakh crore in 2017-18 to Rs 5.75 lakh in

2018-19.





In his Feb 2015 Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to set up independent Public Debt

Management Agency (PDMA) within the Finance Ministry.

Govt to establish National Women Entrepreneurship Council (NWEC)

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development is planing to establish National Women Entrepreneurship

Council (NWEC).

India ranked 49 among 54 economies globally with overall low score of 41.7 points in the Mastercard Index of

Women Entrepreneurs.

Govt launches National Deworming initiative

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has launched National Deworming Initiative on the

occasion of National Deworming Day (observed on Feb 10).

It aims to reach more than 32.2 crore children aged between 1 to 19 years to combat parasitic worm infections.

Govt launches ASH TRACK mobile app

The Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy R.K Singh has launched Web based

monitoring System and Fly Ash mobile application named ASH TRACK in New Delhi.

ASH TRACK will enable better management of fly ash produced by thermal power plants by providing interface

between ash producers (thermal power plants) and potential ash users such as, cement plants, road contractors

etc.

PM Narendra Modi conferred with ‘Grand Collar of the State of Palestine’

President Mahmoud Abbas has conferred ‘Grand Collar of the State of Palestine’ on Prime Minister Narendra for

his key contribution to promote relations between India and Palestine.

PM Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to make an official visit to Palestine.

The Grand Collar is the highest order given to foreign dignitaries – Kings, Heads of State/Govt and persons of

similar rank.

President inaugurates 88th Mahamastakabhisheka at Shravanabelagola

President Ram Nath Kovind has inaugurated 88th Mahamastakabhisheka of Lord Gomateshwara by unveiling an

idol of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola in Hassan district, Karnataka.

Mahamasthakabhisheka, the head anointing ceremony, is performed once in 12 years of 57 feet tall monolithic

statue of Lord Bahubali Gommateshwara.

One of the biggest festival for Jain community honors Lord Bahubali, a revered Jain icon.

Cabinet approves Prime Minister Research Fellows Scheme

The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved implementation of Prime Minister’s Research

Fellows (PMRF) Scheme at a total cost of Rs. 1650 cr for doctoral students pursuing research in areas related to

technology.

PMRF Scheme aims to realize importance of innovation and technology for progress and development of the

nation. It will be implemented for period of seven years beginning 2018-19.

A maximum of 3000 Fellows would be selected in a three year period, beginning 2018-19.

Under the fellowship scheme, selected students will be offered a monthly fellowship of Rs.70,000 for the first two

years, Rs.75,000 for the 3rd year and Rs.80,000 in the 4th and 5th years.

Apart from this, a research grant of Rs. 2.00 lakh will be provided to each of the Fellows for a period of 5 years to

cover their foreign travel expenses for presenting research papers in international conferences and seminars.

Govt sets up mechanism in CSIR for transfer of technology

Ministry of Science & Technology has set up Mechanism in Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

to interact with Small-Scale Industry (SSI) for transfer of Technology from CSIR Labs.

In the mechanism, nodal officer in CSIR will coordinate with the SSIs and CSIR labs for appropriate technology

required by them.

Kasturirangan committee to draft new National Education Policy

The 9-member committee, headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan, will submit its report to draft new

National Education Policy (NEP) by Mar 31, 2018.





The committee was constituted by the Union HRD Ministry to draft new National Education Policy (NEP) on

June 2017.

Govt launches Green Good Deeds campaign

The Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Dr Harsh Vardhan has launched

Green Good Deeds campaign in New Delhi.

It aims to sensitise people and students, in particular about climate change and global warming.

‘Green Sainiks’ on the lines of ‘Polio Sainiks’ are needed to broaden the ‘Green Good Deeds’ campaign and take

it to the grassroots level.

Govt to launch KUSUM scheme

The Union Govt has announced Rs. 1.4 lakh-crore Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM)

scheme for promoting solar farming.

KUSUM scheme aims to decentralise solar power production of up to 28,250 MW to help farmers.

The Union Budget 2018-19 has allocated Rs. 48,000 crore for the KUSUM scheme for the ten-year period.

The scheme will start with building 10,000 MW solar plants on barren lands and providing 1.75 million off-grid

agricultural solar pumps.

India joins Ashgabat agreement

India has joined Ashgabat Agreement on the establishment of an International Transport and Transit Corridor

between the Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The agreement was signed in April 2011, which envisages facilitation of transit and transportation of goods

between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Govt formulates ambitious water conservation scheme

The Union Govt formulated ambitious water conservation scheme, Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) to tackle ever-

deepening crisis of depleting groundwater level.

For the scheme, the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation piloted Rs 6,000-

crore.

The scheme after Cabinet’s clearance will soon be launched in water-stressed states: Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka,

Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The half of the total project cost will be supported by the Centre and rest of the budgetary cost will be shared by

the World Bank.

Google launches ‘#SecurityCheckKiya’ campaign

Search engine giant, Google has launched ‘#SecurityCheckKiya’ campaign in India to create awareness around

Internet safety on the occasion of Safer Internet Day (Feb 06).

The campaign aims to protect first-time web users from account hijacking, safeguard Android devices from

malicious apps and secure all their personal data if they lose their device.

Development of Solar Cities scheme: 60 Solar Cities to be developed

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy sanctioned development of 60 Solar Cities including 13 Pilot and 5

Model Cities up to 12th Five-year Plan period (2012–2017).

It was under “Development of Solar Cities” scheme of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The Scheme aims at reducing minimum 10% in projected demand of conventional energy at end of five years,

through combination of enhancing supply from renewable energy sources in city and energy efficiency measures.

Govt launches GeM 3.0

The Ministry of Commerce & Industry launched third version of the Govt e-Marketplace (GeM 3.0).

GeM 3.0 will offer standardised and enriched catalogue management, powerful search engine, real time price

comparison, template-based Bid and RA creation, demand aggregation, e-EMD, e-PBG, user rating, advanced

MIS and analytics and more.

The earlier version GeM 2.0 was launched as pilot project in Aug 2016.

India’s first online radio station, “Radio Umang” launched

“Radio Umang”, the India’s first online radio station has been launched on Feb 13, which is celebrated as World

Radio Day with the theme peace, humanity and hope.





It comes packed with inspirational stories, engaging talk shows and lots of soothing music.

India’s first ever Highway Capacity Manual released

The Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga

Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari released India’s first-ever Highway Capacity Manual (Indo-HCM) in New Delhi to

guide road engineers and policy makers about road expansion.

The Indo-HCM has been developed by CSIR – CRRI on the basis of an extensive, country-wide study of the

traffic characteristics on different categories of roads like single lane, two-lane, multi-lane urban roads, inter-

urban highways and expressways and the associated intersections on these roads.

This is for the first time that manual has been developed in India.

Other countries like USA, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan have already developed their own Highway

Capacity Manuals long time back.

NHAI to launch ranking system for toll plazas

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is planning to launch ranking system for the toll plazas in an

effort to address issues at toll plazas.

The massive drive has been launched on more than 300 toll plazas simultaneously across the country by the

Highway Operation Division of NHAI.

The ranking will be on the basis of cleanliness, staff behaviour, availability of ambulance and cranes in case of

any emergency on highways.

India Health Fund to boost research on TB, malaria

The India Health Fund (IHF), launched by Tata Trusts in collaboration with Global Fund in Aug 2016, has come

forward to financially support innovations and technologies designed to combat tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.

It is long-term exercise aligned with country’s goal of eliminating TB by 2025 and malaria by 2030.

Prince Charles launches education impact bond for India

Britain’s Prince Charles launched a new 10-million-dollar Development Impact Bond (DIB) to help improve

education for over 200,000 children in India. The fundraising initiative by British Asian Trust (BAT) set up by

royal 10 years ago to fight poverty in South Asia.

The DIB was announced on occasion of celebration of 10th anniversary of BAT.

South Central Railway becomes 1st railway zone to complete 100% LED lighting

The South Central Railway (SCR) becomes the first railway zone in India to complete 100% LED lighting at all

the 733 stations under its jurisdiction.

The provision of LED lighting is expected to save 32 lakh units of electrical energy worth Rs 2.7 crore per year.

NHAI to launch 'Pay as You Use' tolling on Delhi-Mumbai Highway

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is going to launch a pilot project of "Pay as You Use" tolling

on the Delhi-Mumbai national highway to study and implement the ability of system in the country.

The project to be run for one year involves implementing a satellite-based electronic toll collection system

running on GPS/GSM technology for around 500 commercial vehicles on selected national highway.

Govt launches 3 tools to rank states, UTs on startup ecosystem

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under Commerce Ministry has launched 3 tools to

rank States and Union Territories on the basis of their performance in implementation of the central govt's Startup

India programme.

The framework aims to foster competitiveness and propel states/UTS to act proactively in startup matters.

Exam Warriors: Book written by Narendra Modi released

The book “Exam Warriors” authored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been released by External Affairs

Minister Sushma Swaraj at a function in New Delhi.

“Exam Warriors” book aims to inspire youth to face the difficult moments of examinations and life with fresh

and new energy.

The Book, published by Penguin India, emphasizes the importance of play, sleep & even travel.

Rapid Detection Kits for adulterants launched





The Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Radha Mohan Singh has launched the Rapid Detection

Kits for adulterants (ammonia and formaldehyde) in fresh fish in New Delhi.

Rapid Detection Kits has been developed by Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Kochi.

Ammonia helps in preventing ice from melting and use of formaldehyde increases the shelf life of fish therefore

many people in the fisheries sector are using these chemicals.

STATE News

New Delhi to host the India Mobile Congress 2018

The second edition of India Mobile Congress (IMC-2018), organised by Department of Telecommunications

(DoT) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), will be held in New Delhi on Oct 25-27, 2018.

The theme of second edition of IMC is "NEW DIGITAL HORIZONS Connect, Create, innovate."

The first IMC held in Sept 2017 was attended by around 2,000 delegates, 32,000 visitors, 152 speakers, 100

exhibitors and 100 start-ups.

Home Expo India 2018 to be held in Greater Noida

The 7th edition of Home Expo India 2018 is going to be inaugurated by Smriti Zubin Irani, the Union Minister of

Textiles and Information and Broadcasting, at India Expo Centre and Mart in Greater Noida on Apr 16, 2018.

It will be organized by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), is on three segmented categories

shows comprising Housewares, Textiles and Furniture.

DefExpo India- 2018 starts in Tamil Nadu

The 10th edition of a biennial exhibition of weapons and military hardware "DefExpo India- 2018" has started at

Tiruvidanthal, Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu.

The 4-day long defence expo has been formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The theme of the expo is "India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub", which will showcase the strengths

of India’s defence public sector and uncover the country’s growing private industry.

Conference of LG and Administrators of UTs held in Port Blair

The conference of Lieutenant Governors and Administrators of Union Territories held at Megapode Resort, Port

Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, VP Singh, Lt. Governor of Puducherry, Dr Kiran Bedi,

Lt. Governor, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Admiral (Retd.) DK Joshi and representatives from Delhi,

Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu are attending the conference.

NITI Forum for North East held in Agartala

The first meeting of NITI Forum for North East- a unit of NITI Aayog took place in Agartala, Tripura.

The meeting was inaugurated by Minister of Development of North East Region (DoNER) Dr Jitendra Singh and

Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Rajiv Kumar.

There will be main five missions on which NITI Forum will focus. These include Agriculture, Tourism, Bamboo

use and ‘Made in North East’.

Representatives of all eight member northeastern states Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya,

Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura participated in it.

Maharashtra govt ties up with Tata Trusts

The Maharashtra govt tied up with Tata Trusts to finance the state’s first poultry company to be run and owned by

tribal women.

As part of the project, 300 women have been given poultry sheds and each of them would be given 400 chicks

every day.

After rearing them for 40 days, the poultry will be sold and the project envisages an income between Rs 6,000 to

Rs 8,000 for each woman over a 40-day period.





The state govt has contributed Rs 12 crore while Tata Trusts has given Rs

3 crore to finance the project and an agreement had been signed with an

NGO, Pradhan, to operate the project.

Eighth Regional 3R Forum in Asia and Pacific held in Indore

The Eighth Regional 3R Forum in Asia and Pacific held in Indore,

Madhya Pradesh with the theme "Achieving Clean Water, Clean Land and

Clean Air through 3R and Resource Efficiency– A 21st Century Vision for

Asia-Pacific Communities".

The Regional 3R Forum in Asia and Pacific was launched in 2009 in

Tokyo, Japan with objective of integrating 3Rs– reduce, reuse and recycle

in policy, planning and development.

Kerala becomes first state to adopt SOP

Kerala becomes the first Indian state to adopt a Standard Operating

Procedure (SOP) for brain death certification in govt and private hospitals.

The Kerala govt has brought out SOP as per the high court directive and to

mitigate public fear about the process involved in declaring a person as

brain dead.

Chhattisgarh bags 'State of the Year' Award

Chhattisgarh bagged the 'State of the Year' Award under the ‘business leader’ category as part of the India

Business Leadership for the remarkable increase in business and services activities in various sectors.

Union Information Technology and Electronics Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad gave the award at India Business

Leader Awards (IBLA) event, organised by a leading business channel.

8th Theatre Olympics concludes in Mumbai

The 8th edition of Theatre Olympics has been concluded in Mumbai, Maharashtra after glorious run of 51 days

across 17 cities of India and showcasing rich heritage and culture across length and breadth of the country.

It was inaugurated by Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in Feb 2018 at the majestic Red Fort in New Delhi and was

organised by National School of Drama (NSD) under Ministry of Culture.

The theme of the festival was – "Flag of Friendship".

Patna tops in 4G connectivity among 20 largest cities

According to a report from OpenSignal, a wireless coverage mapping company, Patna has topped in 4G

connectivity among 20 of India’s largest cities.

It has emerged ahead of the likes of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.

Four cities from India’s central and eastern regions—Patna, Kanpur, Allahabad, Kolkata, Bhopal and Lucknow—

made it to the top 10 while popular tech hubs like Bengaluru are at 10, followed by Hyderabad, Mumbai and

Delhi.

UP Govt launches Ganga Hariteema Yojana

The Uttar Pradesh Govt launched the Ganga Hariteema Yojana (also known as Ganga Greenery scheme) in 27

districts of the state located on the bank of river Ganga.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has launched the scheme at Allahabad in a function organised on the bank of

Sangam the confluence of rivers of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati.

Plantation will be carried out in 1 Km areas from the banks of river under the scheme.

General people will also be encouraged for plantation on their private lands under 'One Person One Tree' slogan.

Tamil Nadu Govt launches Uzhavan app

Tamil Nadu Govt launched bi-lingual ‘Uzhavan’ (farmer) mobile application in a bid to use technology for

benefit of farmers. Chief Minister K Palaniswami launched the App in the state capital, Chennai.

The app available in Tamil and English language will allow ryots to have access to nine types of services,

including details about their crop insurance.

Uttarakhand’s second Mega Food Park inaugurated





Uttarakhand’s second Mega Food Park- Himalayan Mega Food Park Private Ltd inaugurated at Mahuakhera Ganj

in Kashipur in Udham Singh Nagar district.

It was inaugurated by Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

The first Mega Food Park in the state is located at Haridwar and has already become operational.

The mega food park was set up in area of 50.14 acres at a cost of Rs 99.96 crore.

Assam Spring Festival organised at Manas National Park

The two-day Assam Spring Festival held at Manas National Park in Assam.

Manas National Park (or Manas wildlife sanctuary) is UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger

reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve in Assam.

Global Logistics Summit held in New Delhi

The Global Logistics Summit, a platform to hold discussions with global experts, academics, government officials

and private sector and industry representatives held in New Delhi.

Foundation laid for SJVNL hydro project in Uttarakhand

The foundation stone of the Proposed Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project (NMHEP) was laid on with an

estimated project cost at ₹. 648.33 crore.

The 60 MW project is located on the river Tons – a tributary of the Yamuna, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand.

This run-of-the river project was allocated to SJVN Ltd by the Uttarakhand govt.

The project is scheduled to be completed by Dec, 2021, in a period of four years.

U.P. CM inaugurates India’s longest elevated road in Ghaziabad

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated a 10.30-km-long elevated road, touted to be the

longest of its kind in the country, connecting UP Gate and Rajnagar Extension.

The six-lane elevated road was built at a cost of ₹1,147 crore and will be supported on 227 pillars.

Kerala to host Asia's largest startup conclave 'Huddle Kerala'

Asia's largest startup ecosystem congregation, Huddle Kerala, will be hosted by Kerala at Kovalam on Apr 06 and

07.

The conclave is being organised by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with Internet and Mobile

Association of India (IAMAI) and IAMAI Startup Foundation.

The KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala Govt for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in

the State.

Mangaluru Airport Adjudged India's Cleanest Airport

The Mangalore International Airport has been adjudged the cleanest airport in the country.

Airport director VV Rao received the award during the 23rd annual day celebrations of the Airports Authority of

India (AAI) in New Delhi.

In the survey conducted across 53 airports in the country by AAI, Mangaluru airport was adjudged the cleanest.

Multi Modal Logistic Park inaugurated at Balli, Goa

Multi Modal Logistics Park has been inaugurated at Balli Station near Madgaon in Goa.

The part is located on Konkan Railway route.

It has been set as per MoU entered between Konkan Railway & Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR).

Monument Mitras to adopt heritage sites and monuments

Ministry of Tourism in close collaboration with Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)

had launched Adopt a Heritage Project.

They will be called as ‘Monument Mitra’ and adopt the sites essentially under their Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) activity.

Permanent Indus Commission meeting held in Delhi

The meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) between India and Pakistan held in New Delhi.

India’s Indus water commissioner PK Saxena and Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials were part of

Indian delegation for annual meeting.

Pakistan’s six-member delegation will be led by Syed Muhammad Mehar Ali Shah.

West Bengal launches Rupashree scheme





West Bengal govt launched a scheme called “Rupashree” in order To ensure safe future for young women.

This scheme was earlier announced by Amit Mitra, the Finance Minister of West Bengal, at the time of budget.

Under this scheme govt provides one-time financial support for marriage of poor girls.

Before marriage an amount of Rs 25,000 will be credited to girl’s bank account.

State govt has allocated Rs. 1500 cr for this scheme.

Delhi becomes first city to roll-out BS-VI fuel

Delhi has become the first city in India to supply ultra-clean Bharat Stage (BS) VI grade fuel (both petrol and

diesel) with an aim to combat the rising levels of air pollution in Delhi-NCR region.

State-owned oil firms have started supplying the BS-VI fuel (equivalent to fuel meeting Euro-VI emission norm)

at all their 391 petrol pumps in NCT.

Other cities in NCR like Noida, Gurugram, Ghaziabad and Faridabad as well as other 13 major cities,

including Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune will roll-out cleaner BS-VI grade fuel from Jan 1

2019.

However, BS-VI fuel will be rolled out in rest of the country by April 2020.

National conclave on Psychological Trauma, Child Protection and Mental Illnesses held in New Delhi

The first-ever National conclave on Psychological Trauma, Child Protection and Mental Illnesses held at J L N

Auditorium in AIIMS, New Delhi.

The National conclave was organised by the Ministry of Women & Child Development (WCD) in collaboration

with the Dept. of Psychiatry of AIIMS.

Kadaknath chicken gets Geographical Indication tag

Chennai based Geographical Indication Registry and Intellectual Property India awarded Geographical Indication

(GI) Tag to Madhya Pradesh’s Kadaknath chicken.

The GI tag will ensure that no one else can use name Kadaknath Chicken while selling any other black chicken.

Kadaknath chicken breed is unique for its black colour due to its black-feathers.

Rhino population rises marginally in Kaziranga National Park

According to the recent census carried out in Kaziranga National Park, Assam it was found a marginal increase in

the population of the one-horned rhinoceros.

As per census report, currently there are 2,413 rhinos in Kaziranga National Park registering a marginal increase

of 12 rhinos compared to last census.

Kaziranga national park is located in the Golaghat and Nagaon districts of Assam.

Sub-junior National Wushu Championship started in Jammu

The national level sports event, Sub-junior National Wushu Championship is being organised in the winter capital

city of Jammu by the the Wushu Association of India in collaboration with J&K State Sports Council at MA

Stadium. This is the 17th edition of Sub-junior National Wushu Championship.

1st mega food park of Rajasthan inaugurated

The first mega food park of Rajasthan has been inaugurated by Union Minister for Food Processing Industries

Harsimrat Kaur Badal at Roopangarh village near Ajmer at an investment of Rs 113.57 crore.

It will benefit around 25 thousand farmers in Ajmer and neighbouring districts.

Rs 50 crore subsidy has been given by the center for this project.

Madhya Pradesh has highest number of covered tribal habitations

Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of 55770 fully covered tribal habitations with the safe drinking water in

the country followed by Odisha 52427, Jharkhand 53476 numbers of habitations.

AAI signs MoU with Assam govt

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) signed an MoU with Assam govt under its Corporate Social Responsibilities

(CSR) initiative for sustainable development of human settlements at villages inKamrup district.

The AAI would provide financial assistance under its CSR initiative of Rs 4.58 crore for the Kamrup district as

per the estimates prepared by the UNDP to improve the resilience of communities around Guwahati Airport.

Surat becomes the first district to have 100% solar powered health centres





Surat district in Gujarat become the first in the country to have 100% solar powered Primary Health Centers

(PHCs).

The solarification of all 52 PHCs in Surat district will bring down electricity bill by 40% and also help fight

global warming.

Asia’s largest tulip garden in Srinagar thrown open to visitors

The beginning of the tourism season in the Kashmir Valley marked with the opening of Asia's largest Tulip

garden on the banks of the iconic Dal lake in Srinagar.

Chhattisgarh wins National Water Digest Award

Chhattisgarh awarded National Water Digest Award for Water Conservation-Diversion and increasing the

irrigation capacity in the state.

The award was presented to Chhattisgarh Water Resources Department (CWRD) on the occasion 'World Forestry

Day' (Mar 21) in New Delhi.

Rashtriya Rifles Biennial Conference held in Jammu & Kashmir

The Rashtriya Rifles Biennial Conference held at Nagrota in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

The Rashtriya Rifles (RR) is a branch of the Indian Army under the authority of the Indian Ministry of Defence.

'Videsh Aaya Pradesh ke Dwaar' held in Hyderabad

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) launched the first of its kind initiative titled 'Videsh Aaya Pradesh ke

Dwaar' in Hyderabad. Hyderabad is a key centre for Telugu and Urdu media.

Madhavpur Mela started in Porbandar district of Gujarat

The famous Madhavpur Mela started at Madhavpur Ghed in Porbandar district of Gujarat from Mar 25, 2018.

The 4-day Mela will showcase for the first time the cultural integration of the North-East with Gujarat.

The Mishmi Tribe traces its ancestry to the legendary King Bhishmak and through him to his daughter Rukmini

and Lord Krishna. For the first time ever, the fest will celebrate the immortal journey which Rukmini undertook from Arunachal

Pradesh to Gujarat with Lord Krishna. 2018 National Conference on Down Syndrome held in New Delhi

The '2018 National Conference on Down Syndrome', organised by the National Trust under Ministry of Social

Justice and Empowerment, held in New Delhi on Mar 25.

Down Syndrome is a chromosomal condition associated with intellectual and learning disabilities.

International Exhibition of Graphic Prints held in New Delhi

The first-ever International Print Biennale, an International Exhibition of Graphic Prints, organised by Lalit Kala

Akademi, held in New Delhi.

2018 India Maize Summit held in New Delhi

The 2018 India Maize Summit held at FICCI in New Delhi to harness the potential of maize and technological

innovations.

India-Egypt Joint Commission Meeting held in New Delhi

The 7th India-Egypt Joint Commission Meeting led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Egyptian

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held in New Delhi.

World’s longest sandstone cave discovered in Meghalaya

The world’s longest sandstone cave named Krem Puri discovered near Laitsohum village in Mawsynram area in

East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.

The cave is 24,583 metres (24.5 km) in length and is known for its complex cave systems hidden under its

undulating hills.

Krem Puri underground cavern is more than 6,000 metres longer than world record-holder Cueva Del Saman in

Edo Zulia, Venezuela, a quartzite sandstone cave measuring 18,200 metres (18.2km).

Punjab Govt observed the martyrdom day

The Punjab Govt observed the martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, Shaheed Sukhdev and Shaheed

Rajguru as 'Youth Empowerment Day' on Mar 23, 2018.

Chandigarh becomes North India’s first city to install digital automatic speed gun cam





Chandigarh becomes the North India’s first city to install digital automatic speed gun cameras for traffic

management.

The high-tech speed cameras are equipped with night vision technology and will record the speed of oncoming

traffic, helping Chandigarh Police to issue challans to anyone driving above the city speed limits.

Kerala Chief Minister launches M-Kerala App

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan launched a unified app, M-Kerala for all govt services at #FUTURE 2018.

It is a first-of-its-kind digital tech summit in the state. Kerala also becomes the state with the largest public Wi-Fi

deployment in the country. The internet penetration in the state is at 52%.

#FUTURE is Kerala's first-ever Global Digital Summit and was inaugurated by P Vijayan in Kochi.

Andhra Pradesh govt launches multi-utility vehicle "NAIPUNYA RATHAM"

The Andhra Pradesh govt launched a multi-utility vehicle "NAIPUNYA RATHAM (or World on Wheels)".

The vehicle aims to bring technology to the remote corners.

Kerala govt declares Jackfruit as the official fruit

The Kerala govt declared Jackfruit as the official fruit of the state to promote the ‘Kerala Jackfruit’ as a brand in

markets across the country and abroad.

It is expected that the state can generate Rs 15,000 crore through sale of jackfruit and its allied products through

branding of the fruit.

Elephant is the state animal of Kerala, while ‘great hornbill’ the bird and ‘kanikkonna’ the official flower.

The state had recently declared pearl spot, popularly known as ‘karimeen’, as its official fish.

Bihar celebrates its 106th foundation day on Mar 22

Bihar celebrated its 106th foundation day on Mar 22, 2018.

2018 Theme: "Centenary of Champaran Satyagraha and Elimination of Dowry and Child Marriage".

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated 3-day Bihar Diwas celebrations in Patna and also released 4

books- ‘Ek Tha Mohan’, ‘Bapu Ki Chiththi’, ‘Champaran Ki Kahani’ and ‘Neel Ke Dhabbe’ on this occasion.

106th Indian Science Congress (ISC) to be held in Bhopal

The 106th edition of the Indian Science Congress (ISC) is going to held at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal,

Madhya Pradesh from Jan 03 to 07, 2019.

Prof. Manoj Kumar Chakrabarti is the General President-elect of the Science Congress Association.

The theme of the meet will be ‘Future India: Science & Technology’.

2018 International Competition Network (ICN2018) starts in New Delhi

The 17th Annual Conference of International Competition Network 2018 (ICN2018) held in New Delhi.

For the first time, India is hosting the ICN Annual Conference since it joined International Competition Network

(ICN) in 2009.

ICN is an international body comprising 132 members from 120 competition jurisdictions exclusively devoted to

international competition enforcement.

3rd National Conclave on Mines and Minerals held in New Delhi

The 3rd edition of National Conclave on Mines and Minerals started in New Delhi to provide an effective

platform to showcase the recent policy initiatives of the govt.

The first edition of the conclave was held in Jul 2016 at Raipur, while the second took place in Feb 2017 in New

Delhi.

7th Women Science Congress (WSC-2018) held in Imphal

The 7th edition of the Women Science Congress (WSC-2018) inaugurated by West Bengal Governor Keshari

Nath Tripathi at Manipur University, Imphal with the theme 'Reached the Unreached Through Science and

Technology”'.

The WSC-2018 apts to those areas where the light of scientific development has not spread yet and to those areas

where we have not done research on.

Festival of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (FINE) inagurates in New Delhi

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the Festival of Innovation And Entrepreneurship (FINE) at Rashtrapati

Bhavan in New Delhi.





The fest is organised by the President’s Secretariat in association with Department of Science &

Technology/National Innovation Foundation-India.

2018 International Yoga Fest to be held in New Delhi

The Ministry of AYUSH is going to organise the 2018 International Yoga Fest at the Morarji Desai National

Institute of Yoga in New Delhi from Mar 21, 2018.

This fest is a curtain raiser for the 2018 International Yoga Day, which is to be celebrated on June 21.

Informal World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting held in New Delhi

The 2-days Informal World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting started in New Delhi.

The informal meeting is expected to provide an opportunity to engage in free and frank discussions leading to

political guidance on some of the major issues, both at the negotiating table and also in other areas.

Krishi Unnati Mela started in New Delhi

The annual Krishi Unnati Mela started at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, on its Pusa campus, in New Delhi

with a focus on doubling farmers’ income.

Nadi Mahotsava held in Hoshangabad

The Nadi Mahotsava inaugurated by Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development & Ganga

Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari at Bandrabhan of Hoshangabad District of Madhya Pradesh.

The 2-day mahotsava with various sessions of discussion is taking place for the conservation of Narmada River.

Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of IACP held in New Delhi

The Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), inaugurated by

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, held in New Delhi with the theme "Challenges to Policing in 2020 – How is Cyber

Space shaping our approach to Cybercrime and Terrorism, how do we perform within it and take advantage of it".

IACP is world’s largest organization of Police and law enforcement executives that is highly regarded for its role

in identifying and responding to changing needs of the law enforcement community.

Haryana passes bill for death penalty for child rapists

The Haryana Assembly unanimously passed Criminal Law (Haryana Amendment) Bill, 2018 providing for death

penalty for convicts found guilty of raping girls aged 12 years or less.

Haryana becomes third state to pass the bill, after Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to have provision of capital

punishment for such sexual offenders.

The Bill amends Indian Penal Code (IPC) 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 1973 and Protection of

Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. It inserts section 376-AA in IPC.

It provides punishment of death or rigorous imprisonment of not less than 14 years in case of rape of girl up to 12

years of age.

Odisha Govt to collaborate with RIMES

The Odisha govt is going to collaborate with Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES)

for strengthening its early warning services and enhancing preparedness for management of hazards in state.

This partnership will be forged between Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA) and RIMES in the

field of drought monitoring and early warning for different natural disasters.

Jaipur to witness 8th Theatre Olympics

Jaipur is going to co-host 8th Theatre Olympics, the largest international theatre festival being held for the first

time in India.

The event was organised by National School of Drama (NSD) with the theme"Flag of Friendship".

Maharashtra Govt bans use of plastic

The Maharashtra Govt banned use of plastic in time-bound manner, citing environmental and public health

concerns.

The ban will include plastic bags, thermocol, disposable cups and plates, cutlery, non-woven polypropylene bags,

plastic pouches and packaging.

Arunachal Pradesh Assembly passes bill to have two-tier Panchayati Raj

Arunachal Pradesh Assembly passed Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill 2018 to do away with the Anchal Samiti,

the intermediate level of the three-tier panchayati raj system and set up a two-tier system in the state.





Three-tier panchayati raj institutions were set up in state in 2003, 2008 and 2013, and elections for next five-year

term were due in April-May 2018.

Pune tops in urban governance in ASICS 2017 report

Pune ranked first among 23 cities across India in terms of quality of urban governance in the fifth edition of

Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2017 report released by Bengaluru-based non-profit

organisation, Janaagraha. Pune topped the list by scoring 5.1 out of 10 for the first time.

It was followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat with scores in range of 4.6 to 4.5.

The worst performers in ASICS 2017 were Bengaluru (scoring the least at 3 out of 10), Chandigarh, Dehradun,

Patna and Chennai.

Indo-French Knowledge Summit held in New Delhi

The first-ever Indo-French Knowledge Summit has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and

French President Emmanuel Macron in New Delhi.

Festival of Democracy to be celebrated in Jaipur

Anjaneya Seva Samiti in collaboration with Talk India Foundation is going to celebrate the Festival of

Democracy in Jaipur, Rajasthan on Mar 17, 2018 to discuss developmental dialogues relevant to democracy in the

country.

‘MRTS for Urban Areas – Opportunities and Challenges held in Kolkata

The first regional conference on ‘Mass Rapid Transport System (MRTS) for Urban Areas – Opportunities and

Challenges, organized by Ministry of Finance, AIIB, ASSOCHAM and Research and Information System for

Developing Countries (RIS), held in Kolkata, West Bengal.

The 3rd annual meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to be held in Mumbai from June 2018.

First national coastal policing academy set up in Devbhumi Dwarka

The India’s first national coastal policing academy set up in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Gujarat to train police

forces in effectively safeguarding the Indian shoreline.

The National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP) will start functioning from a campus of Gujarat’s Fisheries

Research Centre located in coastal Okha from April 2018.

Haryana govt constitute a Om Parkash Dhankhar committee

The Haryana govt constituted a committee, led by State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Om Parkash

Dhankhar, to find a solution to polluted water flowing in Yamuna River affecting the four districts of the state.

It announced by the Chief Minister of Haryana in the Haryana Assembly during Zero hour to the issue of quality

of water in Okhla Barrage and effulents entering Yamuna from 37 polluted channels in Delhi.

National Conference on Counterfeiting & Role of Enforcement Agencies held in New Delhi

The National Conference on Counterfeiting and Role of Enforcement Agencies, by Cell for IPR Promotion and

Management (CIPAM) in collaboration with European Union (EU), held in New Delhi.

Its mandate is to effectively implement National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy adopted in May 2016

with slogan – “Creative India; Innovative India”.

First Indo-French Knowledge Summit held in New Delhi

The first Indo-French Knowledge Summit for university, scientific and technology cooperation held in New

Delhi.

It was organized by the French Embassy in India and co-hosted by Ministry of Human Resource Development.

India’s first coastal policing academy set up in Gujarat

India’s first national coastal policing academy, National Academy of Coastal Policing (NACP) will be set up to

train police forces in effectively safeguarding country’s shoreline. It will start functioning from April 2018.

The Border Security Force (BSF), Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) will form core to run academy.

Floating Lab set up to monitor Manipur's Loktak Lake

The Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Laboratory (IBSD), Imphal, set up a floating laboratory in northeast

India's largest freshwater lake, Loktak to constantly monitor its water quality and eventually improve it.

Floating laboratory will boost up for finding the flora and fauna and whatever data we are getting from the lake

will help be useful in the future.





International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit held in New Delhi

The first-ever International Solar Alliance (ISA) summit held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan cultural centre in New

Delhi.

The ISA was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris on Nov 30, 2015 by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and the then French President Francois Hollande.

2018 National Legislators Conference held in New Delhi

The 2018 National Legislators Conference inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Central Hall of

Parliament House, New Delhi with the theme 'We For Development'.

Civil Aviation and Aerospace ‘Wings India 2018’ held in Hyderabad

The Civil Aviation and Aerospace ‘Wings India 2018’, organized by Ministry of Civil Aviation and Airport

Authority of India and FICCI, held in Hyderabad with the theme "India-Global Aviation Hub".

It aims to foster partnership to transform Indian aviation and the role of conducive regulatory framework to

facilitate growth of civil aviation market.

Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018 passed in Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Legislative Assembly passed The Criminal Laws (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill, 2018 providing for

death penalty for convicts involved in rape of girls below 12 years of age and with this Rajasthan becomes the

second state after Madhya Pradesh to award death penalty and lifetime imprisonment to child rapists.

A person who is convicted of raping/gang-raping a girl up to twelve years of age, shall be given a death sentence

or rigorous imprisonment, which shall not be less than fourteen years and 20 years, respectively.

The amended bill also provides to award life sentence and life imprisonment to child rapists to ensure that the

convict doesn’t get out of the jail even after completing 14 years of sentence.

Telangana govt launched Women Entrepreneurship Hub

The Telangana govt launched the India’s first state-led incubator Women Entrepreneurship Hub (WE-Hub) for

women entrepreneurs in Hyderabad.

The WE-Hub was launched on the occasion of International Women’s Day (Mar 08).

Karnataka Govt approves state flag proposal

Karnataka Govt accepted the state flag proposal which is designed by 9-member committee constituted by state

Kannada and Culture department.

The committee recommended new tricolour having yellow (at top), white (in middle) and red (at bottom) colours,

with state’s emblem Gandaberunda (a two-headed mythological bird) in centre.

The white colour in new flag symbolizes peace and captures Karnataka’s image the best, while other two colours

are synonymous with Kannada identity.

Diu becomes first Union Territory to run 100% on solar power

Diu becomes the first and the only Union Territory in the country to be fully operated on solar energy.

Diu generates total of 13 megawatts (MW) of electricity from solar power generating facilities daily.

Diu’s peak-time demand for electricity goes up to 7 MW,

Swachh Shakti 2018 celebrated in Lucknow

The Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry in association with Uttar Pradesh Govt organized Swachh Shakti

2018, a Women’s Convention on occasion of International Women’s Day in Lucknow.

In Swachh Shakti 2018, 8000 women sarpanches, 3000 women Swachhagrahis and women champions from

across country recognised for their outstanding contribution towards making Swachh Bharat.

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) was launched in Oct 2014 with an aim to achieve universal sanitation coverage

and to put focus on sanitation.

Women’s Film Festival (WFF-2018) held at Pune

The 2018 Women's Film Festival (WFF-2018), organized by the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), held

from Mar 09 to 11 at NFAI Pune with the theme 'Travelling Women'.

NFAI also hosted a special event “Parikathe til Rajkumari” on Mar 08, and screen audiovisual clips paying tribute

to women in Indian cinema, from the birth of Indian cinema till the 1960s.





2018 International Women’s Day screened Balu Mahendra’s Tamil film Moondram Pirai, in remembrance of

actress Sridevi.

International Yoga Festival (IYF-2018) held in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand

The world-famous International Yoga Festival (IYF-2018) held at Parmarth Niketan in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand.

The festival was officially inaugurated by Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu.

Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao inaugurates from Rajasthan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the pan-India expansion of flagship programme–Beti Bachao-Beti

Padhao (BBBP)–from JhunJhun district of Rajasthan on March 8 to mark the International Women’s Day (IWD-

2018).

The Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao (BBBP) is an initiative to save and educate the girl child.

Odisha govt launched free sanitary napkin scheme ‘Khushi’

The Odisha govt launched the free sanitary napkin scheme ‘Khushi’ for girl students from Class VI to XII in all

the govt and govt-aided schools in the state.

The scheme will be implemented by the health and family welfare department of the state at a cost of Rs 70 crore

per year.

Shigmotsav festival celebrated in Goa

The Shigmotsav has been celebrated in the month of Phalguna (March) from the 9th moon day to full moon day

as per the Hindu calendar in Goa. This is the biggest festival for the Hindus in Goa.

The Shigmotsav or Shigmo is one of the several cultural festivals of the coastal state and is celebrated through

colours, costumes, music, dance and parades.

I&B Minister Smiriti Irani inaugurates FICCI Frame in Mumbai

The 19th edition of FICCI Frames has been inaugurated by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Smiriti

Irani in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

The Theme of 2018 FICCI Frames is 'Creative Future: Coronation of Digital Consumer'.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), a non-government and not-for-profit

organisation, is the voice of India's business and industry.

India’s first HeliTaxi service launched in Bengaluru

India’s first helicopter shuttle service (HeliTaxi), provided by Thumby Aviation, has been launched in IT capital

Bengaluru, Karnataka in a bid to provide last-mile connectivity.

The maiden trip between Electronic City and Kempegowda International Airport of helitaxi was held in

Bengaluru.

HeliTaxi provides connectivity between Airport and Electronic City (located in south about 70 km from airport in

the city centre), home to hundreds of technology firms including, Infosys and other multinationals.

The fare is fixed at Rs. 4,130 per seat, including GST.

Punjab Govt signs MoU with e-Governance Foundation

The Punjab Govt signed an MoU with e-Governance Foundation (e-Gov)

of Nandan Nilekani regarding the managing of electronic governance of

Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) throughout Punjab.

Odisha Govt launches Ama Gaon, Ama Vikas programme

The Odisha Govt launched ‘Ama Gaon, Ama Vikas’ (Our Village, our

development) programme to reach out to people in rural areas and

involve themselves in developmental activities.

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik flagged off mobile video vans that will

move across the state to highlight various welfare schemes at villages in

the state.

In the first phase of programme, these vans will reach Koraput, Jajpur,

Ganjam and Sambalpur districts of state.

Arunachal Express connecting Naharlagun-Anand Vihar flagged off

Arunachal Express, a new train between Naharlagun in Arunachal





Pradesh and Anand Vihar Terminal in the national capital has been flagged off.

The second direct train for Arunachal Pradesh and overall 14th for North East aims to connect with the national

capital.

Arunachal Express will cover 2013 kilometre distance between Naharlagun (Arunachal Pradesh) and Anand

Vihar Terminal (New Delhi) in over 38 hours.

World’s largest solar park launched in Karnataka

The first phase of world’s largest solar park, Shakti Sthala solar park was inaugurated in drought-prone Pavagada

region of Tumkur district, Karanataka. Shakti Sthala solar park has the total capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW).

The park is in line with the Central Govt’s scheme to generate 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power by 2020.

These farmers are paid annual rental of Rs.21,000 per acre, with scope for 5% increase every two years.

The first phase of the Rs. 16,500 crore park will generate 600MW power, while the balance 1,400MW will be

commissioned in second phase by end year 2018.

Maharashtra’s first Mega Food Park inaugurated at Satara

The Maharashtra’s first Mega Food Park, Satara Mega Food Park Pvt. Ltd. inaugurated by Minister of Food

Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal at Degaon Village in Satara district.

The 12th Mega Food Park operationalized in country will leverage additional investment of about Rs. 250 crores

in 25-30 food processing units in park.

Tamil Nadu Govt sets up a 24-hour helpline

The Tamil Nadu Govt set up a 24-hour helpline that would provide information on education and offer guidance

to students.

27th IJIRA on Shaping the Future of Jute held in Kolkata

27th Technological Conference of Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association (IJIRA) on Shaping the Future of

Jute held in Kolkata, West Bengal.

Geotextiles are absorbent fabrics which, when used in association with soil, have the ability to separate, filter,

reinforce, protect or drain.

2nd India-Korea Business Summit 2018 held in New Delhi

The 2nd India-Korea Business Summit 2018 held in New Delhi to strengthen the economic relationship, boost

trade relations and increase investments between India and Republic of Korea with the theme 'India-Korea:

Scaling up the Special Strategic Relationship through Trade and Investments'.

2nd project of Swajal Yojana launched in Rajasthan

The Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Uma Bharti launched the 2nd project of Swajal Yojana at

village Bhikampura, Karauli, Rajasthan with a budget of more than Rs 54.17 lakh.

90% of the project cost will be taken care by the Govt and the remaining 10% of the project cost will be

contributed by the community.

World Information Technology Congress 2018 inaugurated

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated World Information Technology Congress (WITC) 2018 in

Hyderabad, Telangana via video conference with the theme ‘Future Enterprises.’ India is hosting WITC 2018 for

the first time.

Rs 1711 crore approved for Bihar

The high-level committee for Central Assistance, under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh,

approved financial assistance of Rs 1711 crore for Bihar which was affected by floods in 2017.

The committee also approved assistance of Rs 1055 crore for Gujarat which was also affected by floods.

Rs 838 crore have been sanctioned for West Bengal and Rs 420 crore each have been sanctioned for Rajasthan

and Uttar Pradesh which were also affected by floods.

Tamil Nadu will receive Rs 133 crore and Kerala will receive Rs 169 crore which were affected by cyclone

Ockhi. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh will get Rs 836 crore and Rs 396 crore, which were affected by Kharif

drought in 2017.

India’s first Aviation Multi Skill Development Centre launched in Chandigarh

India’s first Aviation Multi Skill Development Centre (MSDC) launched at Chandigarh Airport’s old terminal.





This is a CSR initiative of Airports Authority of India (AAI).

It is supported by Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) of India.

Assam to observe ‘Rhino Day’ on Sept 22

The Assam govt will be observing Sept 22 as ‘Rhino Day’ to generate public awareness on protection of the one-

horned pachyderm. The day will be a tribute to the rhinoceros – the pride of Assam.

A Special Battalion will be raised to protect wild animals in Manas National Park, the official added.

PM Modi flags off 'Run for New India' Marathon in Surat

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 'Run for New India' marathon in Surat, Gujarat with a mission to

build a New India.

The 'Run for New India' marathon has been flagged off from the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium of the city.

Remembering Sardar Patel, Prime Minister Modi appealed to the youths to participate in Run for Unity on 31st

October.

PM Modi launches Amma Scooter Scheme in Chennai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Amma Scooter Scheme – the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam govt’s flagship programme – in Chennai on Feb 24, the birth anniversary of former Chief Minister J

Jayalalithaa.

Under the scheme, named after Jayalalithaa, the state govt offers Rs 25,000 subsidy for women to buy two-

wheelers.

PM Modi inaugurates projects worth 1000 crores in Daman

Prime Minister Modi lays foundation stones for projects worth 1000 crores; Inaugurates helicopter service

between Daman and Diu, flight service connecting Ahmedabad with Diu and several projects; hails the people of

Daman for making it ODF, saying the swacchta mass movement has contributed to tourism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid foundation stones for projects worth 1000 crore rupees in Daman in union

territory of Daman and Diu.

Scooters for differently-abled beneficiaries, 'SWABHIMAN' cards distributed to pregnant and Lactating Women,

'Badhai Kit' to the newly born girl children under 'beti Bachao, Beti padhao'.

Cycles to school going girls under Saraswati Cycle Yojna, extended loans under 'Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojna

and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana to beneficiaries.

Economic Times – Global Business Summit (ET-GBS 2018) held in New Delhi

The 4th edition of Economic Times – Global Business Summit (ET-GBS 2018) held in New Delhi with theme

“New Economy – New Rules”.

7th edition of the Youth Festival held in New Delhi

The 7th edition of the Youth Festival started with theme “Let Love Live” at Central Park in New Delhi.

The Youth festival is organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad and the Department of Art, Culture and Languages,

Delhi Govt.

Book reading series - Archives Reads launched in New Delhi

The Director General of National Archives of India (NAI), Pritam Singh launched a Book reading series -

“Archives Reads” in New Delhi to showcase importance of archival records.

This Book Reading Series commenced with the book titled “Hari Singh Nalwa: Champion of the Khalsaji – 1791-

1837” authored by Dr. Vanit Nalwa, a senior consultant Psychologist.

This book chronicles the life and times of Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa, one of the great pillars of Maharaja Ranjit

Singh’s empire.

Vaccination compulsory for school admissions to Class 1

The Kerala govt has recently made vaccination compulsory for school admissions to Class 1 from the 2018-19

academic year.

The purpose of the new health draft policy is to reduce maternal mortality rate from 66 per lakh to 30 per lakh in

the short term, and infant mortality from 12 per lakh to eight.

The draft envisages a new Kerala Public Health Act to cover all issues in the health sector.

NERs 1st Regional Centre for Agriculture in Mizoram





A Centre for Agriculture, with the collaboration of Israeli expertise, is going to be inaugurated in Mizoram in

March 2018. This has been announced by Israeli Ambassador to India, Daniel Carmon.

This will be the first such center in the North East region (NER) of India that is being established with Israeli

collaboration. It has been set up at a cost of Rs 8-10 crore.

Manohar Parrikar presents Rs 17,123-crore Goa budget

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar presented in the state assembly a Rs 17,123-crore budget for 2018-19, an

increase of 6.84 per cent over the ongoing fiscal, with a stress on education and job creation.

The gross total budgetary expenditure is Rs 17,123.28 crore for the coming fiscal as against Rs 16,027.01 crore

for 2017-18, an increase of 6.84 per cent.

Parivartan scheme launched by Haryana govt

The Haryana govt officially launched the Parivartan scheme, which is designed to address 10 issues including

cleanliness and pollution, in 46 developmental blocks of the state.

The 10 issues include facilitation of financing, making agriculture profitable and sustainable, improving health

services, implementing Swachh Bharat, decongesting market areas, engaging the youth, checking air pollution,

ensuring availability of identity-related services, effective policing, and ensuring road order and conduct.

44th Khajuraho dance festival held in Madhya Pradesh

The 44th edition of Khajuraho Dance Festival 2018 held at Khajuraho temple, a UNESCO world heritage site in

Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel inaugurated the fest and it was organised by culture department of

state government.

Northeast’s first regional Centre for Agriculture to come up in Mizoram

Northeast India’s first regional Centre for Agriculture will be inaugurated in Mizoram in March 2018.

The regional centre will be first such centre in North East region of India being established with Israeli

collaboration.

There are 22 such operational centres setup across India with support of Israel including in states of Haryana,

Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. The first centre was established in 2008 in Haryana.

Sanskriti Mahotsav “Swachhagrah – Bapu ko Kaaryaanjali” held in Varanasi

The Sanskriti Mahotsav, “Swachhagrah – Bapu ko Kaaryaanjali” held at the Man Mandir Ghat and Assi Ghat in

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh to celebrate the creative and cultural industries in Varanasi and to focus attention on the

need for Swachhta by using cultural forms.

Regional conference of Southern states held in Hyderabad

The regional conference of southern states held in Hyderabad to resolve the pending inter-state water issues.

Ministers and Principal Secretaries of Water Resources of Six southern states – Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,

Puducherry, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana are taking part in the meeting which will be chaired by Minister of

State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Jaipur's Gandhi Nagar becomes country’s first all-women railway station

The Gandhi Nagar railway station in Jaipur has become the country’s first major railway station to be fully-

managed by women.

The North Western railways (NWR) have deployed a female employee on every single post in the station, making

it the first such station in the country.

Gandhi Nagar is important railway station in Jaipur situated on the Jaipur-Delhi rail route with more than 50

trains passing through the station out of which 25 halting at the station.

Rajiv Kumar committee to study Brahmaputra and flood control measures in Assam

The Union Govt has constituted a committee headed by Rajiv Kumar, the Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, to

study the Brahmaputra and flood control measures in Assam and neighboring states.

Magnetic Maharashtra investor summit held in Mumbai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 'Magnetic Maharashtra' Convergence Summit 2018 at the Mumbai

Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) grounds at Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).





This is Maharashtra’s first Global Investors Summit and is being regarded as one of the biggest such events,

especially on the lines of the 'Make In India' initiative launched by the Prime Minister in 2016 in Mumbai.

Fourth Container Terminal of JNPT inauguratd in Mumbai

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the Fourth Container Terminal (FCT) of Jawaharlal Nehru Port

Trust (JNPT) in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

The new FCT will add capacity of 24 lakh containers per year in Phase-I and after completion of Phase-II in 2022,

the capacity of JNPT will be 100 lakh containers per year and with this, JNP doubled its container handling

capacity.

The new FCT has been developed on Design, Built, Fund, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis for a concession

period of 30 years at estimated cost of Rs. 7915 crore.

The project was implemented in two Phases. i.e. Phase I and Phase II. The indicative cost of the project for Phase

I was Rs.4719 Crore. The terminal has deepest berths to handle “Mother Ships.

Haryana opens four subsidised canteens

The Haryana govt opened four subsidised canteens in four districts under the ‘Antyodaya Aahaar Yojana’ to

provide healthy, nutritious and hygienic food at affordable prices to all poor and needy persons.

These four districts are Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar and Yamunanagar.

These subsidised canteens will serve food to registered construction workers and all other poor and needy persons

at Rs. 10.

Each food packet would cost Rs 20 out of which Rs 10 would be shared by Labour Department.

National Banana Festival started in Kerala

The National Banana Festival (NBF-2018) has been started at Kalliyoor, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The festival, run from Feb 17 to 21, has been organised by Centre for Innovation in Science and Social action

(CISSA) in partnership with Kalliyoor Grama Panchayat and a host of National and State organisations.

The Banana Festival exhibition will showcase everything about banana.

6th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) held in Patna

The 6th Conference of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) of India Region inaugurated by Lok

Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in Patna, Bihar with the theme ‘Role of Parliament and Parliamentarians in

achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’.

India Pharma 2018 and India Medical Device 2018 started in Bengaluru

The third-edition of international conference and exhibition on pharmaceuticals industry and medical devices-

India Pharma 2018 and India Medical Device 2018 – has been started in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

The conference inaugurated by Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs, Ananth

Kumar and with the theme – ‘Affordable & Quality Healthcare’.

The conference is a workshop by World Health Organization (WHO) on “Regulatory System Strengthening and

Prequalification updated by WHO”.

Maharashtra govt will launch cheap sanitary pad scheme “Asmita Yojana

The govt of Maharashtra will launch cheap sanitary pad scheme “Asmita Yojana” on the International Women’s

Day for rural women.

Under the scheme, girls in Zilla Parishad schools will get a sanitary napkin packet at Rs 5 while rural women can

avail it at a subsidised rate of Rs 24 and Rs 29.

The scheme, catering to girl students and women in rural areas, will be formally launched on Mar 8, 2018.

Committee recommends separate state flag for Karnataka

Nine member committee headed by the principal secretary, Department of Kannada and Culture constituted by

Karnataka govt has recommended the designing of separate flag for the state and providing a legal standing for it.

It has recommended new tricolour having yellow (at top), white (in middle) and red (at bottom) colorus, with

state’s emblem Gandaberunda (a two-headed mythological bird) in centre.

It has changed pattern of earlier unofficial flag having yellow and red which is unofficially used now.

The white colour symbolizes peace and captures Karnataka’s image the best, while other two colours are

synonymous with Kannada identity.





Jammu and Kashmir is only state having its own flag since 2015 as it enjoys special powers under Article 370 of

Constitution.

Foundation stone of Rhodendron park laid in Tawang

The foundation stone of Rhodendron Park laid by Chief Minister Pema Khandu in Tawang district of Arunachal

Pradesh.

India’s first radio festival held in Delhi

India’s first radio festival held at the UNESCO House in New Delhi to mark World Radio Day which held

worldwide on Feb 13 with the theme, "Radio and Sports".

The festival was organised by International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) in

partnership with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility held in Bengaluru

The International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR-2018) held in Bengaluru, Karnataka with

the theme "Responsible CSR: a New Agenda Beyond Governance".

This is the 12th edition of the Conference. The prestigious Golden Peacock Award 2017 was presented in the

Conference.

The leadership award for philanthropy and social change was presented to Vineet Nayar, the chairman of

Sampark Foundation.

International Conference on Operations and Maintenance held in New Delhi

The International Conference on Operations and Maintenance, “Indian Power Stations 2018” held in New Delhi.

The Conference was inaugurated by R.K. Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New and Renewable

Energy.

India-Russia Agriculture Business Summit 2018 was held in New Delhi

2018 India-Russia Agriculture Business Summit organized by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in

New Delhi.

West Bengal becomes first state to opt out of National Health Protection Scheme

The West Bengal has become the first state in the country to opt out of Centre’s National Health Protection

Scheme (NHPS) which was announced in Union Budget 2018-19.

The State Govt has already made hospitalisation and medical treatment free for its citizens and has already

enrolled 50 lakh people under its Swasthya Sathi programme.

NHPS, also termed as Ayushman Bharat Scheme, dubbed ‘Modicare’ seeks to provide health insurance of Rs 5

Lakh to 10 crore poor and vulnerable households.

Punjab Govt constitutes Revenue Commission

Punjab has notified six-member Revenue Commission, headed by (Retd.) Justice SS Saron, with an aim to bring

greater efficiency and accountability in functioning of t Revenue Department.

The commission will streamline existing laws, procedures and processes relating to land administration, in line

with requirements of land for use of agriculture and industry.

Punjab Govt makes super straw management mandatory

Punjab has made attachment of super straw management system to combine harvester machines mandatory for

harvesting paddy (rice) crop in an attempt to check the dangerous trend of stubble burning.

The instructions were issued under section 31 A of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.

4th Meeting of Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister held in New Delhi

The 4th meeting of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) under the chairmanship of

Dr Bibek Debroy held in New Delhi.

The EAC-PM discussed the possible modalities of implementing the National Health Scheme announced in the

Union Budget-2018-19 by the govt.

Under it, up to Rs 5 lakh insurance cover will be provided to each family per year in secondary and tertiary care

institutions.

Centre for learning Sanskrit language launched in Gujarat University





The Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh has launched the Centre for learning Sanskrit language in Gujarat

University in Ahmedabad.

The first-of-its-kind spoken Sanskrit centre will offer a six-month course for people on how to speak the

language. The classes will be held on Saturday and Sunday. The fees have been fixed at Rs 500.

Bihar Govt bans sale of loose cigarettes

The Govt of Bihar has banned sale of loose cigarettes in the state to deterrent to kids and youngsters who start

smoking by buying loose cigarettes.

State health department has issued notification under Section 20 of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act

(COTPA), 2003.

With this, Bihar becomes the 12th state in the country to bring such a ban into effect after Uttarakhand, Himachal

Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and others.

National Micro Drama Festival (NMDF-2018) held in New Delhi

The second edition of Thespis 2 – National Micro Drama Festival (NMDF-2018), organised by Delhi-based

theatre group ‘Vriksh the Theatre’, held at Kamani Auditorium in New Delhi.

The festival is named after ‘Thespis of Icaria’, who lived in the 6th Century BC and was the first Actor ever

appeared on stage to perform alone.

2018 International Conference on Unani Medicine inaugurated in New Delhi

The 2018 International Conference on Unani Medicine has been

inaugurated by Dr Jitendra Singh (the Union Minister of Development of North-

East Region) with the theme “Integration of Unani System of Medicine in

Mainstream Healthcare” in New Delhi.

National Unani Day is celebrated on Feb 11 and this year is special for

Unani fraternity as it is the 150th Birth Anniversary of Hakim Ajmal Khan.

Kerala tops overall health performance in the Health Index

Kerala topped the list of larger states on overall health performance in the

Health Index report released by Niti Aayog while Uttar Pradesh appeared at the

bottom among larger states in terms of overall performance.

As per the index “Healthy States, Progressive India’ report for large states,

Kerala was followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

Besides Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Odisha are among the states

that performed poorly in the health index.

Among small states, Mizoram ranked first, followed by Manipur and Goa

in terms of annual incremental performance.

The Health Index will act as a tool to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism, accelerating the pace of

achieving health outcomes.

National Meet on Grassroot Informatics- VIVID 2018 held in New Delhi

A three-day National Meet on Grassroot Informatics- VIVID 2018 organized by National Informatics Centre

(NIC) in New Delhi with the theme, "Cyber Security and Innovation".

Electronics and Information Technology Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad has inaugurated the event at India Habitat

Centre.

Uttar Pradesh launched door to door campaign DASTAK with UNICEF

Uttar Pradesh in association with UNICEF has launched massive door to door campaign, DASTAK to eradicate

deadly Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) disease in the state.

The war cry of DASTAK is "Darwaja khatkhatao, AES aur JE ko bhagao".

5th South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference held in New Delhi

The 5th edition of the South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference (SARPPC-2018) was inaugurated by

Arun Jaitley in New Delhi with the theme “Public Procurement and Service Delivery”.





The purpose of the 3-day Conference was to enable the Heads of Public Procurement and other key stakeholders

in the eight South Asian countries to meet and learn from one another and from experts in the field of public

procurement.

It was hosted by Govt of India (GOI), through the Public Procurement Division (PPD) of the Ministry of Finance

and All India Management Association (AIMA).

It is sponsored and facilitated by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank.

Haryana govt launched the ‘Gobardhan Yojana’

The Haryana govt launched the ‘Gobardhan Yojana’ to provide for the sale of organic manure and cow urine with

an aim to benefit farmers.

Under the scheme, a provision of Rs 11 cr has been made to provide benefits of various projects.

The Gobardhan Yojana would help in doubling the income of farmers and next time, the MSP would be given

with additional benefit of 50% over the cost of production.

International Kala Mela inaugurated in New Delhi

The first-ever International Kala Mela inaugurated by the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu at the Indira

Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi.

The Art Festival, organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, aims to focus on direct interaction between the artist and the

connoisseur and also educating and raising awareness about art.

Pelican Bird Festival-2018 held in Andhra Pradesh

The ‘2018 Pelican Bird Festival’ held for the first time in Atapaka Bird Sanctuary at Kolleru lake in Andhra

Pradesh.

The Bird Festival was jointly organised by Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) and Krishna district

administration.

Recently, Atapaka Bird Sanctuary was recognised as one of the largest pelicanry in the world.

Kolleru Lake, located between Krishna and Godavari deltas. is one of the largest freshwater lakes in India located

in Andhra Pradesh.

Mumbai airport becomes world’s busiest single-runway airport

Mumbai 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 on Jan 20, 2018.

With this, the Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport bettered its own feat of 974 flights in 24

hours, recorded on Dec 6, 2017.

While Gatwick, the U.K.’s second largest airport, remains the most efficient single-runway airport in the world.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurates investors' summit in Assam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the two-day 'Global Investors Summit' in Assam.

India is the most preferred investment destination with the highest FDI in last fiscal at USD 60 billion.

The tagline of the summit is ‘Advantage Assam: India’s Express way to ASEAN’.

Assam is hosting its first global investor’s summit to showcase its manufacturing opportunities and geostrategic

advantages to foreign and domestic investors.

2018 Kala Ghoda Arts festival started in Mumbai

2018 Kala Ghoda Arts festival held in Mumbai, Maharashtra from Feb 03 with the theme of the fest, “Hara

Ghoda”.

The Bombay High Court has recently refused permission for cultural events as part of the Kala Ghoda Festival at

public properties free of cost and without imposing any conditions, which were granted by the Maharashtra

government.

FTW launched in Hyderabad

The Floating Treatment Wetland (FTW) has been inaugurated in Neknampur Lake in Hyderabad on World

Wetlands Day (Feb 02) to clean and purify the polluted waterbody.

Plants planted on FTW can clean the lake by absorbing nitrates and other pollutants in the water.

FTW measures around 3,000 sq. ft and comprises four layers viz. floatable bamboo at base, styrofoam cubicles

above it.





Cleaning agents planted on FTW include vetivers, cattalis, canna, bulrush, citronella, hibiscus, fountain grass,

flowering herbs, tulsi and ashvagandha.

2nd edition Nobel Prize Series–India 2018 inaugurated in Goa

The 2nd edition of the Nobel Prize Series – India 2018 has been inaugurated in Panaji, Goa with the theme

“Science Impacts Lives”.

The Nobel Prize Series–India 2018 is jointly organized by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of

Science and Technology, India along with the Govt of Goa and Nobel Media AB.

The 1st edition of Nobel Prize Series-India was held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in Jan 2017.

Indian Railways to set up Coach Factory in Maharashtra

The Indian Railways has decided to set up of a massive rail coach factory in Latur district i.e. in Marathwada

region of Maharashtra.

The Rail coach factory will help to generate employment opportunities and bring economic development in

Marathwada region which is one of the most Backward Parts of Maharashtra.

IEC 2018 held in New Delhi

The 7th edition of India Energy Congress (IEC) 2018, organised by World Energy Council (WEC) India , has

been started in New Delhi with the theme “Energy 4.0: Energy Transition Towards 2030”.

IEC 2018 was inaugurated by Union Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh.

Under the theme “Energy 4.0”, the 7th edition of IEC assumes greater significance in the context of grand

transition in the global energy scene.

Punjab Govt bans sale of 20 insecticides

Department of Agriculture of Punjab Govt has issued directions to discontinue the sale of 20 pesticides

(insecticides) including Endosulfan as this is harmful to health of humans and environment with immediate effect.

The insecticides that are banned includes Tricholorofon, Phosphamidon, Dicofol, Methomyl, Thiophanate

Methyl, Benfuracarb, Bifenthrin, Endosulfan, Chlorfenapyr, Carbosulfan, Ethofenprox (Etofenprox), Phorate,

Triazophos, Dazomet, Diflubenzuron, Fenitrothion, Metaldehyde, Kasugamycin, Alachior and Monocrotophos.

Maharashtra Govt approves Ghodazari Wildlife Sanctuary

The Maharashtra Govt under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has approved Ghodazari in

Chandrapur district as new wildlife sanctuary in the state.

The decision was taken at 13th meeting of Maharashtra State Board for Wildlife (SBWL).

The wildlife sanctuary located in North East of Tadoba Tiger Reserve will be carved out in total of 159 sq km

area covering Nagbhir, Talodhi and Chimur forest areas.

32nd Surajkund International Crafts Mela begins

The 32nd Surajkund International Crafts Mela will begins in Faridabad.

The Mela is organized by the Surajkund Mela Authority and Haryana Tourism in collaboration with Union

Ministries of Tourism, Textiles, Culture and External Affairs.

The 17-day cultural extravaganza will see a spectacular showcase of regional and international crafts, handlooms,

traditions along with some mouth-watering multi-cuisine food for the visitors.

Uttar Pradesh is the theme state of 2018 and Kyrgyzstan is the Partner Nation.

2018 International Bird Festival to be held in Uttar Pradesh

The 2018 International Bird Festival is going to be held at the Dudhwa National Park in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar

Pradesh from Feb 9 to 11 with nearly 200 leading ornithologists expected to attend.

The objective of the bird fest is to promote eco-tourism in Dudhwa and to give it a distinct international identity

besides highlighting its traditional Tharu arts, culture, and heritage.

Eminent documentary maker Mike Pandey will be the brand ambassador of the festival.





International News

United Nations launches UN Road Safety Trust Fund

United Nations launched UN Road Safety Trust Fund to improve road safety worldwide to save lives and prevent

the loss of opportunity associated with road accidents.

The fund has potential to galvanise global efforts to address road safety situation, building on progress made and

experience gained over Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is secretariat for the trust fund.

World’s first microfactory launches

Veena Sahajwalla, an Indian-origin scientist in Australia, launched the world’s first microfactory that can

transform the components from electronic waste items such as smartphones and laptops into valuable materials

for re-use.

A microfactory is one or a series of small machines and devices that uses patented technology to perform one or

more functions in the reforming of waste products into new and usable resources.

Bangladesh ends Reservation in Govt Jobs

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced the scrapping of reservation in govt jobs.

The quota system for govt jobs has been abolished.

11th World Hindi Conference to be held in Mauritius

The eleventh edition of World Hindi Conference will be hosted by Mauritius in its capital city Port Lois in Aug

18-20, 2018 with the theme "Vaishvik Hindi Aur Bharatiy Sanskriti".

It will be organised by Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in association with Government of

Mauritius.

16th International Energy Forum inaugurated

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the 16th International Energy Forum (IEF16), the largest

gathering of ministers from energy consuming, producing and transit countries.

It is hosted by India and will focus on global energy security and transition, the ministry said in a statement.

The International Energy Forum (IEF), with its secretariat at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, aims to foster greater mutual

understanding and awareness of common energy interests among its members.

International Conference on Human Rights in South Asia held in Kathmandu

The 3-day International Conference on Human Rights in South Asia, organized by the National Human Rights

Commission of Nepal, started in Kathmandu, Nepal.

2018 theme: "Identifying Challenges, Assessing Progress, Moving Forward: Addressing Impunity and Realizing

Human Rights in South Asia".

‘Water, Environment and Climate Change: Knowledge Sharing and Partnership’ conference held in Kathmandu

The first international conference on ‘Water, Environment and Climate Change: Knowledge Sharing and

Partnership’ started in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The 3-day conference is organised by the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage, Govt of Nepal in

association with the Society of Public Health Engineers Nepal and Nepal Engineers Association.

World’s first microfactory for e-waste launches

IIT-trained Australian scientist of Indian origin Veena Sahajwalla launched the world’s first microfactory that can

transform components from electronic waste items into valuable materials for re-use.

The e-waste microfactory uses green manufacturing technologies to turn many types of consumer waste such as

glass, plastic and timber into commercial materials and products.

The e-waste microfactory has number of small modules for processing e-waste and fits into small site.

Soft Drinks Sugar tax in UK

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy, also known as soft drinks sugar tax or sin tax or sugar tax came into force in

United Kingdom to combat obesity and sugar related disease in the country.





With introduction of sugar levy, UK joins few countries, including Mexico, France and Norway that

have introduced similar fat taxes.

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy was announced in 2016.

Summer Davos held at Boao

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), often called Summer Davos, is going to be held at Boao, a coastal town in the

southern island province of Hainan from Apr 08 to 11 with the theme ‘Open and Innovative Asia for a World of

Greater Prosperity'.

It is modeled after the World Economic Forum (WEF) held annually in Davos, Switzerland.

It has its fixed address in Boao, Hainan province, China, although the Secretariat is based in Beijing.

Turkey hosts critical summit on Syria war with Russia, Iran

The presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia met for their second tripartite summit in under six months, aiming to

speed the peace process for Syria and bolster their influence in the country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Hassan

Rouhani in Ankara for a meeting that have a critical bearing on developments in Syria.

NAM Mid-Term Ministerial Conference 2018 held in Baku

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Mid-Term Ministerial Conference 2018 is going held in Baku, Azerbaijan

with the theme 'Promoting International Peace and Security for Sustainable Development'.

The Indian delegation will be led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

The Non-Aligned Movement includes 120 states.

Seventeen states and 10 international organizations hold observer status of NAM.

In 2019, the Republic of Azerbaijan will host the 18th Summit of the NAM and will chair NAM in 2019-2022.

MCIS 2018 held in Moscow

The 7th Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS-2018) held in Moscow, Russia.

The 2-day conference focused on the defeat of terrorists in Syria. The Indian delegation is led by Union Defence

Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

India-Japan-US trilateral talks held in New Delhi

The crucial dialogue between the three leading democratic powers viz. India, Japan and the USA of the Indo-

Pacific region held in New Delhi.

The India-Japan-US trilateral was launched in Dec 2011. It was elevated to ministerial level in Sept 2015.

The last ministerial dialogue was held in New York in Sept 2017.

Nepal launches its first accessible trekking trail

Nepal has launched its first accessible trekking trail for differently abled and elders in Pokhara city as a part of

three-day international conference on "Accessible Tourism".

The recently inaugurated trek is a 1.3 kilometers section of the 14 kilometer hiking path in the ridge connecting

Sarangkot to Naudanda areas.

The trek offers unmatchable view of Mt. Annapurna, Fisthtail and Manaslu.

Google acquires GIF search platform Tenor

Google has acquired the GIF search platform Tenor.

Tenor runs GIF-searching functionality in keyboards for phones and messenger software, including on Samsung

devices and Facebook Messenger.

Earth Hour 2018 observed across the world

The 12th edition of Earth Hour has been observed across the globe on Mar 24 to take a global call on climate

change.

It was organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) with an aim to enable harmonious existence of

human and wildlife.

All the cities worldwide turned their lights off for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time.

The World Wide Fund (WWF)-India made strong pitch for "Give Up to Give Back" on the occasion of Earth

Hour.

The first Earth Hour was held on Mar 31, 2007 in Sydney, Australia.





Brazzaville declaration signed to protect world’s largest tropical peatland

The Brazzaville declaration has been singed to promote better management and conservation world’s largest

tropical peatlands-Cuvette Centrale region in Congo Basin from unregulated land use and prevent its drainage and

degradation.

GSL delivers second AOPV to Sri Lankan Navy

The Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) delivered second Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) to Sri Lanka Navy.

This is the overall the fourth Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) delivered in the current financial year.

The SLOPV Project for building two large size ships is one of the most significant defence cooperation between

India and Sri Lanka.

1st G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors held in Buenos Aires

The first G20 meeting of Finance ministers & central Bank Governors held at the Center of Exhibitions and

Conventions (CEC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The summit gathered 22 finance ministers, 17 central bank governors and 10 heads of international organisations,

including IMF Director-General Christine Lagarde.

44 African countries sign agreement to establish African Continental Free Trade Area

The 44 African countries from total 55 members of African Union (AU) signed agreement to create African

Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), one of the world’s largest free trade blocs at a summit held in Kigali,

Rwanda. The signed AfCFTA agreement contains legal framework for free trade area.

10 countries including Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous country have refused to sign the

agreement.

Global carbon emissions hit record high in 2017

According to International Energy Agency (IEA), the global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose

to historic high of 32.5 gigatonnes in 2017 due to higher energy demand and slowing of energy efficiency

improvements.

The global energy demand rose by 2.1% in 2017 to 14,050 million tonnes of oil equivalent, more than twice

previous 2016 rate, boosted by strong economic growth.

IEA, headquartered in Paris, France, is an inter-governmental organization established in 1974 as per framework

of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

U.S bans Use of Venezuela’s Cryptocurrency, Petro

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring any U.S.-based financial transactions involving

Venezuela’s new Petro cryptocurrency.

U.S. officials warned that it was a “scam” by President Nicolas Maduro’s govt to further undermine democracy in

the OPEC country.

Philippines withdraws from International Criminal Court

Philippines announced to withdraw from International Criminal Court (ICC) citing reason of international bias

and held that ICC was being utilised as a political tool against it.

With this, Philippines becomes the second country to withdraw from the Rome statute, following Burundi in

2017.

International Criminal Court (ICC), headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, is the world’s first

intergovernmental legal body with permanent international jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide,

crimes against humanity and war crimes.

UN launches $951 million appeal for Rohingya refugees

United Nations agencies and NGO partners released a 2018 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian

Crisis, with a $951 million appeal to meet the urgent needs of nearly 900,000 Rohingya refugees.

It also applies to more than 330,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis in the communities hosting the refugees from

Myanmar.

International Air Transport Association signs MoU with MoCA





The International Air Transport Association (IATA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU) to strengthen

human resource possibility over India’s aviation industry.

The IATA is a trade association of the world’s airlines and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

China develops artificial heart with rocket technology

The Chinese scientists developed artificial heart using rocket technology and is currently undergoing thorough

testing experiments on animals.

The artificial heart uses magnetic and fluid levitation from rocket system.

WHO SEARO countries adopt Delhi End TB Summit Statement of Action

The Member Countries of the World Health Organization-Regional Office for South-East Asia (WHO-SEARO),

participating in Delhi End Tuberculosis (TB) Summit adopted ‘Delhi End TB Summit Statement of Action’.

The summit co-hosted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, WHO-SEARO and Stop TB Partnership in

New Delhi.

US challenges India’s export subsidy programmes at WTO

The US Trade Representative (USTR) challenged Indian export subsidy schemes at World Trade Organisation

(WTO), saying these programmes harm its manufacturing sector and workers by creating an uneven playing field.

World ATM Congress (WATMC-2018) held in Spain

The world’s largest international air traffic management (ATM) exhibition and conference, World ATM Congress

(WATMC-2018) held at Feria de Madrid in Spain.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) participated and showcased its achievements and initiatives.

11 countries sign revised TPP trade pact without US

11 Pacific Rim countries formally entered into Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific

Partnership or CP TPP or TPP11 in Santiago, Chile.

This revised version of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was proposed by US but finalized after US withdrew

from it.

It will be world’s third largest trade bloc after European Union (EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement

(NAFTA).

TPP11 includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and

Vietnam.

Iraq overtakes Saudi Arabia as India’s biggest Oil Supplier

Iraq overtook Saudi Arabia to become India’s top crude oil supplier by supplying 38.9 million tonnes (MT) crude

oil in the current financial year. India is 80% dependent on imports to meet its oil needs.

Saudi Arabia traditionally has been India’s top oil source but Iraq dethroned it.

Iran continued to be third largest supplier followed by Venezuela and Nigeria.

WTO to set up compliance panel

The dispute settlement body (DSB) of World Trade Organization (WTO) decided to set up compliance panel to

examine whether India has complied with its 2016 ruling in case against US regarding domestic content

requirements (DCR) rules for solar cells and modules.

Marshall Islands to launch world-first digital legal tender

Marshall Islands in Pacific Ocean will become the first country in the world to recognize cryptocurrency as its

legal tender and adopt transparent crypto monetary system.

The parliament of island has passed law to create the digital currency called “Sovereign” with symbol SOV to

raise some hard cash to pay bills and boost economy.

The Marshall Islands is partnering with Israeli fintech startup Neema to launch its SOV.

India, Vietnam inks MoU on Cooperation in field of atomic energy

India and Vietnam signed MoU on Cooperation in field of atomic energy during official state visit Tran Dai

Quang, President of Vietnam to India.

The MoU was signed between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership, India (GCNEP) and Vietnam

Atomic Energy Institute (VINATOM).





GCNEP, headquartered at Bahadurgarh, Haryana, is sixth Research & Development unit under Department of

Atomic Energy (DAE).

Myanmar puts off border agreement with India

Myanmar has indefinitely deferred signing agreement with India to streamline free movement of people within 16

km along open border between two countries.

India and Myanmar share 1,643 km unfenced border along four states viz. Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Nagaland

(215 km), Manipur (398 km) and Mizoram (510 km) and permit free movement regime (FMR) upto 16 km

beyond border.

Pakistan elects first Hindu woman to Senate

Krishna Kumari Kolhi from Sindh province in Pakistan has become the first-ever Dalit Hindu woman to get

elected as Senator, member of upper house (Senate) of Muslim-majority country.

She won the election for the reserved seat for women from Sindh province.

'India by the Nile' to be held in Cairo

The 'India by the Nile', mega annual cultural festival held in Cairo, Egypt with main focus on classical culture.

It is the biggest foreign festival in Egypt which provides audiences an Indian cultural experience and encourages

artistic collaborations between India and Egypt will be held in several cities such as Cairo.

Pakistan admits being added grey list of FATF

Pakistan will be added on ‘grey list’ of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in June 2018, once an action plan

is mutually negotiated. Pakistan was on the FATF grey-list from 2012 to 2015.

In Feb 2018 plenary session of FATF, US, UK, Germany and France had pushed for putting Pakistan on grey list

for its ineffectiveness to deal Islamist terrorists especially Haqqani Network and its facilitators.

FATF, headquartered in Paris, is an inter‐ governmental policy making body that aims to establish international

standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

EPG on Nepal-India relations held in Kathmandu

The 7th meeting of Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations held in Kathmandu, Nepal.

1950 Peace and Friendship treaty, trade, environment, border and hydropower were discussed during the two-day

meeting.

EPG is a joint mechanism consisting experts and intellectuals from India and Nepal. The 8th meeting of the group

will be held in New Delhi.

7th meeting of EPG on Nepal-India relations concludes in Kathmandu

The seventh meeting of Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations concluded in Kathmandu.

Various bilateral issues including 1950 Peace and Friendship treaty, trade, environment, border and hydropower

were discussed during two-day meeting.

The issues from 1950 treaty to current border-related concerns were addressed and a positive report on it would be

submitted within few months.

China elected as vice chair of FATF

China has been elected as vice chair of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body mandated to combat

terror financing and money laundering.

FATF in its plenary meeting in Paris had placed Pakistan under “grey list” subject to direct monitoring and

intense scrutiny by International Cooperation Review Group till June 2018 for compliance of Anti-Money

Laundering and Combating Finance of Terrorism regulations.

Huawei unveils world’s first 5G chip

Chinese electronic device and smartphone maker, Huawei unveiled Balong 5G01, world’s first 5G chip at Mobile

World Congress 2018 held in Barcelona, Spain. The chip has been designed and manufactured by Huawei.

It offers 3GPP standard 5G connectivity and provides downlink speeds of up to 2.3Gbps.

It supports 5G connectivity across all frequency bands including sub-6GHz and millimetre wave (mmWave) to

offer a complete 5G solution suitable for multiple use cases.

SAARC Business Leaders’ Conclave to be held in Kathmandu

The 2018 SAARC Business Leaders’ Conclave is going to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal from Mar 16 to 18.





It has an objective to promote investment, innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.

This is the bi-annual event of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAARC-CCI).

India International Textiles Expo (IIT Expo) started in Colombo

2018 India International Textiles Expo (IIT Expo) started in Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

The Expo is being organized by Powerloom Development & Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) with the

support of Union Ministry of Textiles & Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India (GoI).

World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT-2019) held in Yerevan

The World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT-2019) is going to be held in Yerevan, Armenia.

This is the 23rd edition of the WCIT. It is the largest and the most reputable international event among worldwide

IT leaders. The WCIT 2019 will be the first Congress being held in Europe since 2010.

Work of TAPI gas pipeline on Afghanistan section begins

The member countries of TAPI, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India ceremonially broke ground on

Afghanistan section of ambitious, multi-billion dollar TAPI gas pipeline.

TAPI gas pipeline project is proposed trans-country natural gas pipeline from Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan to India

through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The pipe line connects central Asia with south Asia covering 1,840 km.

The estimated construction cost of the project is 10 billion US dollars and is being funded by Asian Development

Bank (ADB).

The pipeline will begin pumping natural gas from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas field by the beginning of

2020 and supply life is expected to last for period of 30 years.

Airtel, Huawei successfully conduct India’s first 5G network trial

Telecom Major Bharti Airtel and Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei successfully conducted India’s first

5G (fifth generation) network trial.

The network trial has been conducted at Airtel’s network experience centre in Manesar, Gurugram (Haryana) and

was able to achieve over 3 gigabit per second (Gbps) data speed.

The setup for this 5G trial involved 5G RAN that operated on 3.5GHz network band, along with 5G Core and

50GE network slicing router.

Govt imposes anti-dumping duty on ceramicware from China

The Union Finance Ministry (Department of Revenue) imposed anti-dumping duty on import of ceramic

tableware and kitchenware from China in bid to protect domestic producers.

Both items will attract anti-dumping duty of $1.04 per kg, making the imports expensive.

The decision was based recommendation of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD),

Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Venezuela becomes first country to launch virtual currency

Venezuela has become the first sovereign country to officially launch its own cryptocurrency called Petro backed

by oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves to circumvent US-led financial sanctions.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has claimed that the pre-mined cryptocurrency Petrohas raised US $735

million on the first day of its pre-sale.

The Petro, based on blockchain technology, aims to help Venezuela to advance in issues of monetary sovereignty,

to make financial transactions and overcome financial blockade.

Venezuelian govt will issue 100 million coins of Petro of which 38.4 million is available for pre-sale and 44

million coins will be offered in Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) in March 2018.

India International Textiles Expo begins in Colombo

A three –day India International Textiles Expo (IITExpo) of India began in Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

The Expo is being organized by Powerloom Development & Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) with the

support of Union Ministry of Textiles & Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Singapore to impose carbon tax from 2019

Singapore would impose a carbon tax from next year to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and make companies

more competitive as global agreements on climate change take effect.





The tax, to be applied to all sectors, will be Sg$5.0 ($3.8) per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 to

2023, after which the levy will be reviewed and possibly raised to between Sg$10 and Sg$15 per tonne by 2030.

Singapore ranks 26th out of 142 countries in terms of emissions per capita based on the latest International

Energy Agency data largely due to its small size and dense population.

Global Digital Health Partnership Summit In Australia

The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, J P Nadda addressed the Global Digital Health Partnership

Summit, at Canberra, Australia.

The Union Health Minister spoke on the topic: Making Digital Health Services a Priority in Healthcare Reform.

Saudi Arabia allows women to open their own businesses without male consent

Saudi Arabia has allowed women to open their own businesses and benefit from govt e-services without having to

prove consent from husband or male guardian.

The expansion of female employment is under Saudi Arabia’s new reform plan for a post-oil era.

Pakistan to deploy troops in Saudi Arabia

Pakistan Army announced to deploy troops in its close ally Saudi Arabia under existing bilateral security

cooperation agreement.

Munich Security Conference (MSC-2018) held in Munich

The 54th Munich Security Conference (MSC-2018) held in Munich, Germany from Feb 16-18 to discuss pressing

security issues, including North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and the Syrian civil war.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro

Kono attended the meet.

China to host 2018 SCO Summit at Qingdao

China will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO-2018) Summit 2018 at Qingdao, eastern Shandong

Province in June 2018.

China taken over the rotating chair of SCO after 17th SCO summit which was concluded in Astana, capital of

Kazakhstan in June 2017.

SCO is a Eurasian economic, political and security organisation headquartered in Beijing, China.

The full members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India and Pakistan.

Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia have observer status at present.

Venezuela, Libya lose UNGA Vote

Venezuela and Libya have been suspended from voting in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2018-19

session for not paying dues to 193-member world body.

This is for the third time in three years these countries have been suspended from voting for unpaid dues.

Overall, 14 countries including Venezuela and Libya were in arrears for paying to global organization.

Among the other countries who also lost their voting rights are Central African Republic (CAR), Dominican

Republic, Dominica, Marshall Islands, Grenada, Surinam and Yemen.

Maldives govt declares state of emergency

The Maldives govt declared a 15-day state of emergency overnight as the political crisis deepened in the Indian

Ocean nation amid an increasingly bitter standoff between the president and the Supreme Court.

Legal Affairs Minister Azima Shakoor announced the state of emergency on state television.

NTPC to supply 300 MW electricity to Bangladesh

India’s biggest electricity producer, NTPC Ltd won the tender to supply 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity to

power-starved Bangladesh for 15 years.

The tender was floated by Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for supply of 500 MW power from

India for short term (2018-2019) and long term ( 2020-2033).

From this, NTPC will be able to earn Rs.900 crore in annual revenue.

Krishna Kumari becomes first female Hindu lawmaker in Pakistan

Krishna Kumari will be the first female Hindu lawmaker in Pakistan since 1947, when Pakistan gained

independence from Britain.





She is poised to become lawmaker in the elections for the Upper House of Parliament after the country’s

Opposition party nominated her for the Senate’s upcoming elections.

6th World Govt Summit held in Dubai

The sixth edition of 2018 World Govt Summit (WGS) held at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

(UAE) from Feb 11 to 13, 2018.

India is the guest country at 2018 WGS and Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural speech on day

one.

PM Modi in his inaugural speech propounded the idea of six Rs for sustainable development- Reduce, Reuse,

Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture, with the view to safeguarding the nature.

Gevora: The world's tallest hotel opens in Dubai

The world’s tallest hotel, Gevora has opened in Dubai, adding another skyscraper to the already towering skyline.

The Gevora Hotel stands at 356 metres and has 528 rooms.

It is one metre taller than the previous record holder, the JW Mariott Marquis, which is also in Dubai.

It is situated next to the Rose Rayhaan by Rotana, which at 333 metres was the tallest hotel before JW Marriot

Marquis opened.

World's first autonomous pods unveiled in Dubai

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has launched the first tests of the world’s first autonomous pods at

the World Govt Summit.

The autonomous pods have been launched in cooperation with Next Future Transportation and are designed to

travel short and medium distances in dedicated lanes.

Each pod is fitted with cameras and electromechanical technologies to carry out the coupling and detaching,

which can be activated while the pod is in motion.

Tanzania withdraws from UN refugee programme

Tanzania announced its withdrawal from United Nation’s “Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework” citing

security reasons and lack of funds.

4th Nepal Buildcon and Wood International Expo 2018 held at Kathmandu

The 4th Nepal Buildcon and Wood International Expo 2018 has been inaugurated by Deputy Prime Minister of

Nepal Kamal Thapa at Kathmandu.

The Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Manjeev Singh Puri graced the event as guest of honour.

World Govt Summit (WGS) 2018 held in Dubai

6th edition of World Govt Summit (WGS) 2018 will be hosted by Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) from

February 11 to 13. The Indian delegation will be led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The summit acts as a knowledge exchange hub between govt officials, thought leaders, policy makers and private

sector leaders, and as an analysis platform for the future trends, issues and opportunities facing humanity.

Sushma Swaraj inaugurates Saudi Arabia’s National Heritage Festival

32nd edition of Saudi Arabia’s National Heritage Festival has been inaugurated by King Salman bin Abdulaziz in

the presence of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Janadriyah village, Riyadh.

India is guest of honor country for this year Saudi Arabia’s National Heritage Festival.

Jenadriyah, cultural and heritage festival of Saudi Arabia, is held annually at Jenadriyah village near Riyadh.

The India Pavilion at festival was based on the theme ‘Saudi ka dost Bharat’.

Bermuda becomes world’s first country to legalise & then repeal same-sex marriage

Bermuda has become the world’s first country to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage.

The governor of the British island territory, John Rankin has approved a bill reversing the right of gay couples to

marry, despite 2017 Supreme Court ruling that authorized same-sex marriage.

Sri Lanka celebrates 70th Independence Day

Sri Lanka celebrated her 70th Independence Day, under the patronage of HE the President, Maithripala Sirisena

who is also the Commander -in -Chief of the Armed Forces, at Galle Face grounds in Colombo on the Fwb 04.

The day commenced with the President hoisting the National Flag. And then, the "Jayamangala Gatha" was sung

which was followed by a two minutes silence observed in memory of the fallen War Heroes.





A special Gun Salute for the President was carried out by the Sri Lanka Army.The theme of ceremony is "One

Nation".

Sweden commits record $370m aid to UN World Food Programme

Sweden signed Strategic Partnership Agreement with United Nations (UN) for committing record $370 million

dollars to UN World Food Programme. The contribution is for the duration of four years i.e. 2018-2021.

UK allows doctors to create three-parent babies

The Britain’s fertility regulator Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) allowed doctors to create

country’s first ‘three-parent’ babies through mitochondrial donation therapy (or MRT).

It aimed at preventing passage of incurable genetic diseases from mothers to offsprings.

Rwanda becomes first poor country to provide eye care for all

Rwanda becomes the first low-income country to provide universal eye care for its 12 million population.

The Rwanda govt has partnered with the organisation Vision for a Nation (VFAN) to train more than 3,000 eye

care nurses based in 502 local health centres, prescribing glasses and referring those with serious eye problems to

national clinics.

UAE launches world’s longest zip line

The United Arab Emirates has made a record by opening the world’s longest zip line, measuring 2.83 kms in

length. Guinness World Records officials certified the zip line in Ras al-Khaimah.

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