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  • WBCS Current Affairs 20/05/2017 to 26/05/2017 for WBCS Exam
    Posted on June 7th, 2017 in Current Affairs, Weekly Current Affairs
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    WBCS Current Affairs 20/05/2017 to 26/05/2017 for WBCS Exam

    The Importance of Current Affairs in W.B.C.S examinations is immense.Success inW.B.C.S  Prelims and W.B.C.S Mains Exam is mainly subjected to how well an aspirant is aware of the important current affairs. Preparation of current affairs for W.B.C.S is the key to unlock the exam.Continue Reading WBCS Current Affairs 20/05/2017 to 26/05/2017 for WBCS Exam.

    1. Election contestants will have to declare their own and their spouses’ sources of earning in the affidavits filed before contesting polls. At present, it is mandatory for the poll contestants to disclose the details of assets and liabilities for self, spouse and three dependents in Form 26 at the filing of nomination papers but not the source of income. The law ministry has announced an amendment to the conduct of election rules. Salient Highlights The Election Commission’s suggestion of including a fresh column in the affidavit related to the “source of income of self and spouse” has been accepted by the law ministry. According to the Election Commission, the amendment is aimed at bringing in more transparency. The Election Commission had submitted in the Supreme Court that inclusion of source of income is necessary as it will enable the voters to make an informed decision as to whether the increase of the income of the candidate from the previous election is reasonable or not. The new rules also makes it necessary for the poll contestants to specify whether they are Indian citizens or not as only the Indian nationals can contest the elections. The poll contestants also have to declare whether they hold an office of profit in a government office or not. Other disclosures that need to be made by the poll contestants include the details of earlier disqualification under the Representation of the People Act for spreading enmity or declared bankrupt.Continue Reading WBCS Current Affairs 20/05/2017 to 26/05/2017 for WBCS Exam.

    2. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the Foundation Stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Gogamukh in Assam’s Dhemaji district located on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. This will be the third Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Apart from IARI in the national capital, the work on setting up of second IARI in Ranchi, Jharkhand has commenced. The setting up of a new institute is envisaged to help in the overall development of agriculture sector in North-East India. The institute will have facilities related to farming, horticulture crops, animal husbandry and silk pest farming. Prime Minister also spoke of “Panch Tatva” for the overall development and to boost connectivity in the North-East India. The five ways are highways, railways, waterways, airways and I-ways or the optical fibre network.

    3. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has been given back the power to grant licenses for defence manufacturing. Earlier, a few months back, the Home Ministry was given the responsibility. The decision was taken considering the workload of Home Ministry which has to look after security concerns of the entire country. The decision will clear the confusions in the minds of the defence products manufacturing companies as the battle on the matter between the DIPP and the Home Ministry had virtually stopped the process of granting industrial licenses since last year.DIPP DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) was first established in 1995, and then reconstituted in 2000 and merged with the Department of Industrial Development. The Department falls under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. DIPP looks at the overall industrial policy while individual ministries work on the specific areas allocated to them. Its main responsibility includes formulation of promotional and developmental measures to boost industrial sector.

    4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Changsari in the Kamrup District of Assam. The institute will be constructed at a distance of 26 km from Guwahati. The institute will be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,123 crores as part of the ‘Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana’. The construction of the institute will be completed within the next four years. The institute will have a hospital comprising of 750 beds, 22 super speciality departments including 16 operation theatres. It will also have a medical college capable of accommodating 100 MBBS students every year and a nursing college accommodating 60 students each year. It will be spread across 189 acres.

    5. KPS Gill, an IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre of the 1958 batch, who is often credited with rooting out militancy in Punjab has passed away at the age of 82. He was known as a ‘super cop’ for his work in the fields of policing and security. Gill led the ‘Operation Black Thunder’ in May 1988 to eliminate militants hiding in the Golden Temple. He is credited for completely eliminating the Khalistani terrorism in Punjab. Unlike Operation Blue Star (1984), Operation Black Thunder was highly successful as little damage was caused to the Golden Temple. Operation Black Thunder resulted in the surrender of around 67 Sikhs and the death of 43 militants. Gill was the former director general of police (DGP) of Punjab. He held that post from 1988 to 1990 and then again from 1991 until his retirement in 1995. Gill was conferred with Padma Shri in 1989 for his work in civil services. Gill has held various other posts including president of the Institute for Conflict Management and the president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF).

    6. The Ministry of Environment and Forests have come up with new regulations that bans the sale of cattle for slaughter. The central regulation for cow protection has been notified at the backdrop of rising cases of violence against cow traders by Hindu vigilante groups. The rules have been notified under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. Slaughter of cows are banned in most parts of the country except parts of the north-east India and Kerala. The new rules will be implemented in the next three months. Salient Highlights Across India, the cattle trade is permitted only among farm land owners. Cattle can be only sold to a person possessing documents that he is an agriculturist. As per the new regulations, cattle bought cannot be resold within six months. Young and unfit animals cannot be traded. Animal markets cannot be set up within 50 km of an international border and 25 km of a state border. Transporting cattle outside of the country will require special approval of the state government nominee. All animal markets has to run with the approval of district animal market committee to be headed by a magistrate. The committee will also have two representatives from government-approved animal welfare groups. The new regulations prescribes around 30 norms for animal welfare in markets like that of water, fans, bedding, ramps, non-slippery flooring, veterinary facility and separate enclosure for sick animals etc. The owner of the animal has to bear the cost of its upkeep in a shelter. In case, the owner is unable to pay, the cost would be recovered as land arrears. The state government will specify the costs every year on April 1.

    7. United States senate has confirmed Amul Thapar as a judge to the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. With this appointment he has become only the second Indian-American judge of an appeals court. Thapar was confirmed by senate by a 52-44 vote. Thapar has become President Trump’s second judicial nominee to get confirmed after Senate’s approval. In 2013, Shri Srnivasan became the first Indian to get appointed to the DC circuit court of appeals by President Barak Obama. He was the first Indian American to be appointed as the judge to the American counterpart of India’s high courts.

    8. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which is the nodal body for Start-up India, has amended the definition of a start-up. As per the new definition, an entity will be considered as a Start-Up if its turn over is less than Rs 25 crore and has not completed seven years from the date of its incorporation/registration. In the definition, the change is with respect to the time period which is currently five years. The new definition has increased it to 7 years taking into the consideration the long gestation period involved in establishing start-ups. Other Salient Amendments The scope of definition of start-up will also be widened to include scalability of business model with potential of employment generation or wealth creation. An entity that has completed 7 years from the date of its incorporation or if its turnover exceeds Rs 25 crore, it will cease to be a start-up. The process of recognition of an entity as a start-up will be through an online application made over the mobile app/portal set up by the DIPP. For the Start-Ups in the biotechnology sector, they will be considered as start-ups for a period of up to 10 years from the date of incorporation/registration. Start-ups will not require a letter of recommendation from an incubator or an industry association to get tax benefits under the Start-up India action plan. However, the entities should obtain a certificate of an eligible business from an inter- ministerial board of certification as constituted by the DIPP to claim tax benefits. An entity will be deemed as a start-up if it is working towards innovation, development or improvement of products/processes/services, or if it is a scalable business model with potential for employment generation or wealth creation. Significance The new definition and amendments will help to ease of starting new business and will promote the start-up ecosystem. The tweak in the definition will also help the entities to avail government sponsored venture funding and tax and other benefits. It will create more jobs and promote entrepreneurship under the Start-up India scheme.

    9. Google’s vice-president for South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan has been appointed as the new chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). Rajan will succeed FreeCharge’s co-founder and chief executive officer Kunal Shah. The other new office bearers of the IAMAI will be MakeMyTrip chairman & Group CEO Deep Kalra who will be the vice-chairman. He succeeds Saavn co-founder and president Vinodh Bhat. Facebook’s managing director (India & South Asia), Umang Bedi will be the new treasurer of IAMAI. Subho Ray will continue to be the president of IAMAI. The tenure of the office bearers of the new council will be for two years.

    10. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated India’s longest river bridge – the Dhola-Sadia Bridge in Assam. He has also renamed the bridge as Bhupen Hazarika Bridge. The construction of the bridge began in 2011. The cost of the project is about Rs 2056 crores. Salient Features Dhola-Sadia Bridge is a three lane bridge stretching 9.15 kilometre built over river Lohit, which is a tributary of the Brahmaputra river. The bridge was built by Navayuga Engineering Co. Ltd. The Dhola-Sadiya bridge is 3.55 km longer than the Bandra–Worli Sea Link in Mumbai which is the longest bridge in the country as of now. The bridge will connect Sadia, which is 540 Km from Guwahati and Dhola, situated 300 Km from Itanagar. The bridge has been designed to withstand the weight of 60-tonne battle tanks. This will be the only bridge in the region that will be strong enough to withstand the travel of tanks to Tinsukia, a place from where Indian troops usually enter Arunachal. Significance Road connectivity between Dhola to Sadia will boost overall economic development of the areas north of Brahmaputra in upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge fills a huge connectivity gap that existed in the north east region. Till now, the only means existed to cross this location was a ferry travel which was not possible during floods. The construction of the bridge will reduce the distance from Rupai on NH- 37 in Assam to Meka-Roing on NH-52 in Arunachal Pradesh by 165 Km. This reduction in travel time is expected to result in saving of petrol and diesel worth 10 lakh rupees per day. Travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will also get reduced by up to four hours. The bridge will cater to the strategic requirements in border areas and will facilitate troop mobilization much more quickly in Arunachal Pradesh, the state which is claimed in its entirety by China.

    11. World Economic Forum citing UN-Habitat data has named two Indian cities-Mumbai and Kota among the world’s most crowded cities. Dhaka has topped the list followed by India’s financial capital Mumbai. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh has a population density of 44,500 people per square kilometre. Mumbai has a population density of 31,700 people per square kilometre. Another Indian city Kota in Rajasthan with 12,100 people per square kilometre has been ranked seventh in the list. Medellin in Columbia with a population density of 19,700 people per square kilometre has been ranked third followed by Manila, Philippines at 4th place with a density of 14,800;Casablanca, Morocco at 5th place with a density of 14,200; Lagos, Nigeria at 6th place with a density of 13,300; Singapore at 8th place with a density of 10,200 and finally Jakarta, Indonesia at 9th place with a density of 9,600. It has been estimated that more than half of the world’s population resides in urban areas and the UN expects this to increase to 66% by 2050 with around 90% increase concentrated in Asia and Africa.

    12. Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has resigned from his post. He was elected as the 39th Prime Minister of Nepal. Prachanda has stepped down honouring a power sharing agreement entered by him with the ruling partner Nepali Congress on August 3, 2016. As per the agreement, Dahal, who is the Chairman of CPN (Maoist Centre) was to have a brief stint of 9 months and will be succeeded by Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba. It was agreed that the government will be run on a rotational basis until elections to Parliament are held in February 2018. Sher Bahadur Deuba is expected to assume the office by next week. In his tenure, he will oversee the remaining two elections — provincial and central which are to be conducted by January 2018. Prachanda’s tenure has helped to ease the hostile relationship between the Government of Nepal and Madhesis. Both Prachanda and Sher Bahadur Deuba are committed to amend the constitution to accommodate the aspirations of Madhesi people who have been protesting since 2015 against those constitutional provisions that excludes them from the power structure. Background First local level polls were held in Nepal on May 14 which is a first in two decades. After 1997, local level elections could not be held in Nepal due to the decade-long Maoist insurgency and ensuing political instability. Nepal has seen around 25 prime ministers in the last 25 years. Nepal is also recovering from the devastating earthquake which killed over 9,000 people. In addition, it is also plagued by the protests of the minority ethnic Madhesis who demand amendment of the Nepali Constitution.

    13. The Union Cabinet has given its approval for allocating 2.5% of the Central Road Fund (CRF) for the development of the National Waterways.Significance The allocation will provide around Rs 2000 crore annually for the development and maintenance of the National Waterways which in turn will boost inland water transport. According to the Inland Waterways Authority of India, the development of National Waterways would require Rs 25,000 crore till 2022-2023. The move is also expected to provide employment opportunities to 1.8 lakh persons in the next 5 years A number of facilities like navigation aids, night navigation facility, facilities for embarking and disembarking at designated locations, facilities for expeditious crossing of the Farakka Navigation Lock, pilotage and assistance in distress will be provided by the IWAI. Background The National Waterways Act, 2016 was passed in 2016 for the development and maintenance of National Waterways. The act which came into force in 12 April, 2016 has declared 111 inland waterways across 24 states as national waterways. At present five National Waterways are operational. Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) is the statutory body in charge of the waterways in India. Its headquarters is located in Noida, UP. Its main function is to build the necessary required infrastructure in these waterways, surveying the economic feasibility of new projects and also administration and regulation.

    14. The Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha has launched three new initiatives, namely, BSNL’s satellite phone service; Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Telecom Skill Excellence Award Scheme & Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Sanchar Kaushal Vikas Pratisthan Scheme. Salient Highlights BSNL’s satellite phone service will be offered in a phased manner. In the first phase, the service will be extended to the government agencies handling a disaster, state police, railways, Border security forces and other government agencies. In the subsequent phases, the phone service would be offered to those people who are travelling in flight and ships. Global satellite phone service is modern satellite phone service. Under Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Sanchar Kaushal Vikas Pratisthan Scheme, the ministry will impart training to 10,000 people from 10 States/UTs in the first phase. States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Punjab and Haryana will get benefitted in the first phase. Further, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plans to established more than 1,000 Sanchar Kaushal Vikas Pratisthan in future. In addition, a new award called Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Telecom Skill Excellence Award has been instituted to recognize achievers and talents in Telecom sector.

    15. India’s Ravichandran Ashwin has won the international cricketer of the Year Award at the CEAT Cricket Rating (CCR) International awards 2017. He was presented with an award at a function held at the Cricket Club of India by former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar and Harsh Goenka of RPG Enterprises. Ashwin has taken 99 wickets in the past 12 months. Batsman Shubhman Gill has been awarded with the Young Player of the Year award for his stellar performance during the India-England U-19 ODI series

    16. Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma has launched Swachh Bharat app at the National Museum in New Delhi. The app will enable visitors to report garbage on the premises of the ASI monuments across the country. Around 30 galleries in the National Museum have already been equipped with a device that will make use of the intranet to connect to the app. Salient Highlights The services of the app will be soon rolled out in 116 monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) across the country. The devices installed in the monuments will connect to this app using Bluetooth. The devices will have a range of around 30 metres. The visitors with the help of the app would be permitted to report the culture ministry any litter or garbage on the premises of the monuments. The app is available for Android mobile phones. As soon as the visitors enter the premises of the monuments and switch on the Bluetooth, the app will relay Swachh Bharat-related information to the visitors and will ask them to report any garbage around them. Even if the visitors have not installed the App on their handsets, a message will be delivered by Google about the Swachh Bharat Abiyan and will provide the visitors with a link to install the App. The Swachh Bharat App will be monitored by the Ministry of Culture. The App is expected to promote cleanliness in the premises of ASI monuments.

    17. The two organizations Afcons Transtonnelstroy and Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMCRL) involved in implementing the East West Metro have completed boring the India’s first underwater tunnel under the Hooghly river to link Howrah and Kolkata. The length of Kolkata’s East West Metro is 16.6 km long. Out of which a length of 502 metres is under the Hooghly river. The project is built by Afcons Transtonnelstroy and implemented by KMRCL. Afcons Transtonnelstroy is an Indo-Russian joint venture. The project connects Howrah to the west and Salt lake to the east. Digging the underwater tunnel was the critical task in the project. A massive tunnel boring machine called Rachna was used for boring the underwater tunnel. The tunnel boring job was completed within in a time of one month and six days well ahead of schedule. The East West Metro with a length of 16.6 km will have 12 stations, six of which will be underground stations. The project which was slated to be completed by 2012 got postponed many times. The final commissioning of the project is expected to be held by December 2019.

    18. The Union Cabinet has approved the abolition of 25 year old FIPB. Henceforth, concerned ministries will be responsible for direct approval of foreign investment proposals. The decision falls in line with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s proposal to scrap FIPB in this year’s Union Budget. FIPB was constituted in the mid-nineties under the Prime Minister’s Office following economic liberalisation. Rationale Over 90% of the FDI inflows in value terms enters through automatic route. The government expects that scrapping of FIPB would help in ease of doing business. At present, only 11 sectors, including defence and retail trading needs government approval for foreign direct investment (FDI). New Mechanism FDI proposals would be approved by the ministries concerned by following the standard operating procedure approved by the Cabinet. Those 11 sectors that require approval would be dealt directly by the concerned ministry. In proposals related to security, the proposals will also need to require the approval of Home Ministry. Those proposals which are presently pending before the FIPB will be sent back to the ministries concerned. The FDI proposals above Rs 5,000 crore will continue to come under the purview of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

    19. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has jointly inaugurated the integration of E-Sanad with CBSE’s digital repository ‘Parinam Manjusha’ in New Delhi. Salient Highlights E Sanad is an e-service for online verification and attestation of documents of Indian citizens. E-Sanad an initiative under the Digital India programme that aims to offer faceless, cashless, contactless and paperless document attestation/apostille services. It will benefit the applicants in India and those travelling abroad as it will enable them to get their documents attested and verified. It will facilitate digital verification by foreign governments. The integration will pave way for the seamless electronic movement of the documents among the stakeholders. It allows online filing of applications and saves precious time and money of applicants who at present are required to travel long distances for getting attested by the concerned authorities in States. eSanad has been designed and developed by NIC. eSanad has been integrated with Non- Tax Receipt Portal (NTRP) for enabling cashless payment. Implementation The eSanad will be implemented in phases. In the first phase, the initiative has been launched in five passport offices and is in the process of being implemented in the Apostille/ Attestation Cell of the Ministry. For implementation in States, the initiative is being rolled out on a pilot basis in Telangana. Telangana has become the first state in the country where the pilot ‘e-Sanad’ project has been rolled out.

    20. Former Ethiopian Health Minister Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has been elected as the new Director-General of the World Health Organisation. This election has earned the distinction of being the first election which saw the participation of all WHO member states in the voting process. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus defeated the other two contendors to the post, namely, UK’s Dr David Nabarro and Pakistan’s Dr Sania Nishtar.

    21. British actor Roger Moore, who played the much famed secret agent James Bond, has passed away at the age of 89. Roger Moore has acted as James Bond in seven films for 12 years between 1973 and 1985. His famous films include Live and Let Die and A View to a Kill. Moore was also known for playing Simon Templar in TV series The Saint between 1962 and 1969. Roger was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and is well known for his humanitarian work. He was Knighted for his service to charity by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. In 2008, Roger was appointed as a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Letters by the French Government.

    22. Airlander 10, the world’s largest aircraft has successfully completed a test flight by flying for a total of 180 minutes in Cardington, UK. During the test flight, the aircraft’s’ handling and improved landing technology were tested thus bringing it a step closer to commercial use.

    23. IIT Kharagpur’s Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness and Madhya Pradesh government’s ‘Rajya Anandam Sansthan’ (Department of Happiness) has signed an MoU to collaborate on the development of a Happiness Index for measuring the well-being of the residents of the state. The MoU was signed in the presence of MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and IIT-KGP Director Prof P P Chakrabarti at Bhopal. Salient Highlights The Happiness index would be developed by IIT-KGP and the data collected by the state government would be analysed to assess the happiness levels of people of the state and to suggest recommendations to enhance happiness levels in the state. IIT-Kharagpur will also develop an online screening and assessment system to suitably identify the volunteers from more than 30,000 people who have expressed their desire to be part of the collaborative effort. In addition, IIT-KGP will also develop online courses on happiness with the help of evaluation system available at its Center for Educational Technology. Background India has been ranked at 122 out of 155 countries in the 2017 United Nations’s World Happiness Index (WHI). Among the 8 SAARC nations, Pakistan is at 80th position, Nepal stood at 99, Bhutan at 97, Bangladesh at 110 and Sri Lanka is at 120. The list is topped by Norway, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and Finland. The rankings are based factors such as inequality, life expectancy, GDP per capita, public trust (i.e. a lack of corruption in government and business), and social support. Together they are used to generate a happiness score of country on a scale from 1 to 10.This year it is fifth such report since the first was published in 2012.

    24. The tiny island of Nauru which is the world’s smallest republic has become the sixth country to ratify the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework pact. Still five more nations namely the Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia, Ghana and Djibouti have committed to ink the International Solar Alliance Framework Pact in the ongoing annual meeting of the African Development bank in Gandhinagar. This is the first time that India is hosting the annual meetings of the AfDB and its sister institutions. India had joined the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1983.

    25. Every year May 23 is celebrated as the World Turtle Day as an annual observance aimed at protecting turtles and tortoises and their rapidly disappearing habitats across the world. The celebrations was started in 2000 by the American Tortoise Rescue (ATR). Since then it is celebrated every year to create awareness about the world’s oldest living reptiles in the world.

    26. IAS officer Haulianlal Guite has recently published a philosophical novel for God titled “Confessions of a dying mind: the blind faith of atheism“. The book was unveiled by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju at august gathering of Civil Services Officers’ Institute in New Delhi. The book is touted as “the world’s first philosophical novel for God“. Haulianlal Guite is hailed as the first civil servant to write on Philosophy after John Stuart Mill’s work titled “On Liberty” published in 1858. The book explores interesting arguments against atheism. It also explores the nature of science, religion, evidence and love in light of latest findings of modern science and the solid theories in philosophy. The unveiled book is the first part of the three volumes. The book is published by a UK based Bloomsbury Publishing. Haulianlal Guite hails from Churachandpur district of Manipur. He cleared the 2010 Civil Services Examination with an All India Rank of 33.

    27. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the 52nd Annual General Meeting of the African Development Bank in Gandhinagar. The AGM will be held in from May 22-26. This is the first time that India is hosting the annual meetings of the AfDB and its sister institutions, including of finance ministers of member countries, who comprise the AfDB board of governors. India had joined the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1983. The Annual Meetings are the Bank’s largest annual event and offers a unique forum for representatives of government, business, civil society, think-tanks, academia and the media to debate key issues on Africa’s development. The event will see the participation of 4500 delegates including finance ministers and central bank governors belonging to AfDB’s 54 member countries and 26 non-member countries. The event is expected to deepen India’s ties with African continent.

    28. Paytm has rolled out its Payments Bank operations by launching its first physical branch in Noida. With this launch, there are three payments bank operational in the country, the other two being Airtel Payments Bank Ltd and India Post Payments Bank Ltd. The Paytm Payments Bank will be the first bank in the country to offer cashbacks on deposits. Significance As a Payments Bank, Paytm will be able to accept deposits upto Rs 1 lakh per customer in wallet and savings/current accounts. Further it can also offer other services like Debit Cards, Online Banking and Mobile Banking. It will not be allowed to lend to customers. However, it will be able to offer financial products like loans, insurance, mutual funds, pension funds etc by partnering with other financial institutions and banks.

    29. The Reserve Bank of India is set to reconstitute Oversight Committee to operationalise the banking ordinance, which was recently cleared by the Union Cabinet to amend the Banking Regulation Act for the sake of giving more powers to Reserve Bank of India for effectively dealing with non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector. The existing Oversight Committee was constituted by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). The move is aimed at containing the bad loans which have reached to over Rs 8 lakh crore.

    30. A seven-member High-Level Committee on Scouts and Guides has submitted its Final Report to Minister for State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Vijay Goel with various recommendations. Salient Highlights The committee has suggested for the constitution of an Enquiry Committee to take stock of complaints and grievances and submit its report. The committee has suggested for completely revamping the Bharat Scout & Guides and Hindustan Scouts and Guides. It has stressed upon the need for streamlining the organizational set up of Bharat Scouts and Guides and Hindustan Scouts and Guides. It has also said that it has observed a number of irregularities and anomalies in the financial management of the Scouts and Guides which are audited by the Chartered Accountant. So, the committee has recommended for the constitution of a permanent monitoring Committee to periodically assess the activities of both the organisations and submit report to the Union Sports Ministry. The committee has suggested for the nomination of government nominees on the Boards of both the organizations.

    31. NASA has named a new bacteria discovered on the filters of the International Space Station, ISS, as Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. The genus is Solibacillus and the species name is kalamii. Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has found that the bacteria remained on board the International Space Station for 40 months. The new organism is found only on the ISS and has not been found anywhere on the earth. In 1963, Dr. Kalam had his early training at NASA before setting up India’s first rocket launching facility at Thumba in Kerala.

    32. The State Government of Madhya Pradesh has put an indefinite ban on the sand excavation in the Narmada River. This announcement has been made by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhopal. The government has also set up a committee to suggest the scientific ways of mining the rivers. This committee will submit the report to state government after exploring ways for sand excavation without harming rivers. The government will also promote manufactured sand (made by mixing stones).

    33. Every year, May 22 is observed as International Day for Biodiversity or World Biodiversity Day. This date commemorates the date of Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity at UNEP Headquarters, Nairobi on 22 May 1992. In 2000, UN General Assembly via resolution 55/201 decided to celebrate World Biodiversity Day on May 22 instead of December 29, which was previously designated as International Biodiversity Day. Theme The theme for 2017 for World Biodiversity Day is “Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism”. The theme is in sync with the observance of 2017 as “International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development” as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly. UN has already declared 2011-20 as United Nations Decade on Biodiversity to support and promote reducing the loss of biodiversity. About Global Biodiversity The term Biological Diversity was first coined by wildlife scientist and conservationist Raymond F. Dasmann in 1968. This term became widespread in use during 1980s. Biodiversity refers to the “totality of genes, species and ecosystems of a region”. There are three levels of biodiversity viz. species diversity, ecosystem diversity and genetic diversity. The term biodiveristy is used to address several problems in conservation of environment including loss of species, destruction of habitats, invasive species, genetic pollution, over exploitation and effects of climate change on biodiversity. The spatial distribution of organisms, species and ecosystems is called Biogeography. Biodiversity is unequally distributed on Earth and it varies across regions on the basis of climatic and geographical factors. On earth, highest biodiversity is found in tropics. In comparison to Oceans, terrestrial biodiversity is much greater. It is estimated that there are 8.7 million species on earth of which 2.1 million live in Oceans while rest are terrestrial. The terrestrial biodiversity is greater at equator in comparison to poles. Around 90% of world’s biodiversity is found n tropical rainforests which occupy less than 10 percent of Earth’s surface. The marine biodiversity is highest along the coasts in the Western Pacific which is known for highest sea temperature. Around 70% of World species are found in 12 countries viz. Australia, Brazil, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, Congo, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mexico and Peru.

    34. On May 21, Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu inaugurated free Wi-Fi facility at 28 Railway Stations of Konkan Railway from Kudal Railway Station in Maharashtra. Indian Railways has tied by with SYSCON/JOISTER for providing 2 Mbps peer-to-peer 24 hrs Free Wi-Fi bandwidth at 28 railway stations of Konkan Railway.

    35. The South Asian Junior Table Tennis championship was held in Mount Lavinia, near Colombia in Sri Lanka. In a stunning performance, the paddlers from India have won all the 10 Gold Medals on offer in this tournament. Apart from 10 gold medals, the Indian participants have also won 14 medals, thus taking the medal tally to 14.

    36. Hassan Rouhani has been re-elected as the President of Iran. He was elected as president for his first term in 2013. He won 2013 elections by pledging to end Iran’s isolation and improve civil rights at home. Rouhani was born in Semnan province on November 12, 1948. He is a graduate of University of Tehran and did his PhD from Scotland’s Glasgow Caledonian University. The 68 year old Rouhani is a lawyer, academic and a former diplomat. Rouhani has won his second term by presenting himself as the candidate of change and social freedoms that ended many sanctions and a 13 year standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme. He has held various key positions like the key defence portfolios during the 1980 -88 Iran-Iraq war. He had spent 16 years as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, which is Iran’s top security post. Rouhani consistently worked to rebuild Irans’ relations with the West. He also became the first Iranian leader to speak with the President of United States when Barack Obama phoned in September 2013.

    37. India along with countries like Argentina, Burkina-Faso, Chad, France, Ivory Coast, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Yemen has jointly commissioned a study to define and structure a Common Risk Mitigation Mechanism (CRMM) for solar power generation projects in solar rich countries. The commissioning of the study is aimed at dramatic reduction in the cost of finance for renewable energy and the overall price of electricity. The exercise is part of the international efforts aimed at implementing the the Paris Declaration of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) adopted on 30 November 2015. The study has been entrusted to a task force chaired by Terrawatt Initiative (TWI), the World Bank Group, the Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and also the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). Each of the participating countries will also appoint a qualified representative who will cooperate with the task force and provide information regarding the country specific expectations, experience and needs of the task force. All the countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics are also invited to join the task force and support this initiative in order to attract investments into solar sector.

    38. The Indian Men’s compound archery team has managed to win gold after defeating Columbia 226-221 in the archery World Cup stage 1 championships held in Shanghai, China. Indian archery team were represented by Abhishek Verma, Chinna Raju Srither and Amanjeet Singh. The Colombian team comprised Camilo Andres Cardona, Jose Carlos Ospina and Daniel Munoz. India beat USA  in the semifinal and edged out Iran in the quarterfinals. The team also defeated Vietnam in the first round. The women’s team, however, failed to shine in the event. In the Women’s event, South Korea, Denmark and Russia emerged as winners in that order.

    39. The GST Council headed by finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finalised a 4-slab service tax structure at the rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent as against the single rate of 15% levied on all taxable services. GST regime is scheduled to be implemented from July 1. In the next GST Council meeting, tax rates on gold and other precious metals will be taken up for discussion. Salient Highlights Luxury hotels, gambling, race club betting and cinema services will attract a tax rate of 28%. Education, healthcare and non-AC rail travel will remain exempted from the GST tax regime. However, the states will be given the option to levy additional taxes on cinema to compensate for the revenue losses entailed due to merging of entertainment tax with GST. At present, the total tax incidence on cinema including entertainment and service tax is in the range of 55%. The states need to use the legislative route if it wants to levy additional tax on cinema. States will also be permitted to levy any new tax as the taxation powers of the states have only been restricted and not abolished after the rollout of GST. Telecom and financial services will be taxed at a rate of 18%. Transport services will be taxed at the rate of 5%. Cab aggregators like Ola and Uber will have to pay 5% under GST in place of 6%. AC rail travel will attract 5% tax. Economy class air travel will attract 5 % GST while business class will attract 12%. Travelling on metro, local train and religious travel such as Haj Yatra would be exempted from GST. The e-commerce players like Flipkart and Snapdeal would be required to shell out 1% Tax Collected at Source (TCS). Non-AC restaurants and AC restaurants will attract a GST of 12% and 18% respectively. Advertisements published in newspapers will attract 5% GST. At present it is exempt from service tax.

    40. Air Marshal PN Pradhan has been appointed as the Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations). IDS Integrated Defence Staff was created in 2001 following the recommendation of GoM which was set up after the Kargil war to review India’s defence management. IDS was established to ensure a high degree of synergy between the Armed forces. IDS works towards integration of policies, war fighting and procurement by employing best management practices. The IDS comprises of Service Officers, Civilian Officers and Scientists who perform roles and functions allocated to them based on responsibilities of Integrated Defence Staff.

    41. The Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation had constituted a committee to prepare guidelines for desiltation of Ganga River last year. The four member committee is headed by Madhav Chitale (Expert Member of National Ganga River Basin Authority). The other members of the committee include Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Secretary, Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change and Dr. Mukesh Sinha, Director, Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune. The committee was constituted as per the commitment made by Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti while chairing the 6th meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority in New Delhi in July, 2016.

    42. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has released a two-part book series written by the eminent agricultural scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan. The series is titled – M.S. Swaminathan: The Quest for a world without hunger.

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