- Soumitra Chatterjee to receive Legion d’Honneur
Thespian Soumitra Chatterjee has been conferred with the highest French civlian honour, the Legion d’Honneur. The 82-year-old veteran actor, who is getting the honour 30 years after legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray had received the same.
Chatterjee has previously been conferred with the Commandeur de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest award for artistes and is the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award which is India’s highest award in cinema.
- IOB launches retail mart in Thiruvananthapuram
Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), the Lead Bank for Thiruvananthapuram district, has launched the Retail Mart, a retail lending concept, in Kerala’s capital city. The exclusive facility that handles retail products has started functioning at the main branch of the bank at Statue Junction in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Retail Mart has been designed with an aim to complete all the pre-release formailities at the customer’s door step and sanction quality retail loans at a competitive rate of interest with a minimum turnaround time.
- President Pranab Mukherjee launches ‘Selfie with Daughter’ mobile app
President Pranab Mukherjee was launched the ‘Selfie with Daughter’ mobile application, aimed at raising awareness about female foeticide and sex selection. Mukherjee urged people to take photographs with their daughters and upload them to make the campaign a success.
The campaign was started by Sunil Jaglan in June 2015 in village Bibipur in Haryana’s Jind district. The former sarpanch had been working in the field of women empowerment and village development.
- SATH program launched by NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog has launched the SATH (Sustainable Action for Transforming Human capital) programme to usher in transformation in the education and healthcare sectors along with State governments. NITI will work in close collaboration with the State machinery by building three future ‘role-model’ States for health systems.
SATH programme will be implemented by NITI Aayog along with global consultancy McKinsey & Company and IPE Global consortium in the three selected States after the signing of MoUs.
- Lok Sabha Speaker inks MoU with Mauritius counterpart
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is leading a Parliamentary delegation to Mauritius, met the Speaker of National Assembly of Mauritius, Santi Bai Hanoomanjee in Port Louis, and inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to institutionalise cooperation between the two Parliaments.
The MoU on joint framework for parliamentary support and capacity building was a “visionary” step forward
- GST Council forms 18 sectoral groups
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has constituted 18 sectoral groups for ensuring smooth transition into the new tax regime. The 18 groups pertain to sectors such as banking and insurance, textiles, exports, information technology, transport, and oil and gas.
These 18 sectoral groups containing senior officers of the Centre and the States are being set up to timely respond to the issues and problems of their respective sector(s).
- Canara Bank ties up with New India Assurance Company
Canara Bank and the New India Assurance Company have entered into a corporate agency arrangement for distribution of insurance products. The pact allows Canara Bank to offer non-life insurance products to its customers across metros and tier II and III cities through the bank’s extensive network of over 6,000 branches. The pact also strengthens distribution network of New India Assurance.
Under the agreement, New India Assurance will make offer a bouquet of products — such as motor, home, health, travel, fire, marine, and engineering insurance policies — through branches of Canara Bank.
- Jelena Ostapenko stuns Simona Halep to win French Open
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko stunned third seed Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to win her maiden Grand Slam title and become the lowest-ranked champion in French Open history. Ostapenko, 20, is the first unseeded player to lift the Roland Garros title in the Open era and the first Latvian major champion in history.
- Eminent rights activist Mehrunnisa Dalwai passes away
Mehrunnisa Dalwai, wife of prominent Muslim activist and thinker late Hamid Dalwai and the protagonist of a reformist movement ‘Muslim Satyashodhak Mandal’, passed away. She was 87.
She eventually became the president of the Mandal and later founded Islamic Research Institute and Maharashtra Talaq Mukti Morcha.
Her autobiography, “Mi Bharun Pawle” is considered an inspirational piece for progressive movement.
- Former Kerala assembly speaker T S John passes away
Former Speaker and Minister T.S. John passed away. An advocate by profession, he represented the Kallooppara Assembly constituency four times. He was Speaker of the Assembly during 1976-77 and Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in the A.K. Antony-led Ministry in 1978. He became Minister in the succeeding Ministry led by P.K. Vasudevan Nair.
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