- Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu selected for USIBC Award
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been selected for the Transformative Chief Minister Award in recognition for his role in advancing the US-India partnership at the state level. The award by the US-India Business Council would be presented to Naidu during the USIBC West Coast Summit in the Silicon Valley on May 8.
The summit will convene 150 industry leaders from sectors such as information technology, banking, food processing, healthcare, clean energy, digital payments, manufacturing and Government of India officials to explore the impacts of manufacturing in India, digitisation, India’s move towards a cashless society and the future of the US-India trade relations
- MP becomes 1st state to adopt Jan-Dec as financial year
Madhya Pradesh has become the first state to adopt a January to December fiscal year. The decision was made in a cabinet meeting led by chief minister Shivraj Singh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently encouraged states to adopting this idea. The meeting also decided that a picture of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay will be issued with all the government letter heads, banners and advertisements.
Following a proposal from Modi, the Centre is in consultation with the states to have a January to December financial year, doing away with the old tradition of financial year starting on April 1 and ending on March 31. The system was adopted around 150 years ago during British rule.
- Haryana to become stray cattle free by August 15
On August 15, as the country will celebrate its 71st Independence Day, the northern state of Haryana would become stray cattle-free. That is the target that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has set and work to rehabilitate abandoned cattle is already on in a mission mode.
The work to rehabilitate abandoned cattle is being undertaken in a mission mode and 27,000 animals have already been accommodated in gaushalas.
This was announced by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar after a meeting with his Good Governance Associates and Administrative Secretaries
- India’s 2nd tallest national flag hoisted in Kolhapur
Fadnavis hoisted a 303-feet high national flag — considered the second-tallest flag in the country — in Kolhapur. A special helicopter that showered flowers from the sky was deployed for the occasion. Actor Akshay Kumar, Kolhapur’s Guardian Minister Chandrakant Patil and other ministers and MLAs were present during the event. The flag, erected at the police ground in Kolhapur city, measures 60×90 feet. Almost 5,400 sq m of cloth was used to make it.
- Govt starts 1st ever survey of Chhattisgarh’s Maoist region
For the first time since Independence, scores of state government officials are being sent to collect data and talk to local population in the heart of India’s Maoist-hit territory in Chhattisgarh’s Abujhmad. The thickly forested region where government presence is sparse and often in name is also overrun by landmines and booby traps, creating a situation former prime minister Manmohan Singh described as India’s gravest internal security threat.
- Indian Railways to Track Wagons and Coaches with RFID tags
The Indian Railways will use radio-frequency identification tags for tracking of wagons, coaches and locomotives to ensure effective and transparent functioning. Leveraging information technology in a big way, the public transporter has issued instructions for equipping all wagons with RFID tags to begin with. There are about 2.25 lakh wagons, 50,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives in the railways. Railways have sanctioned Rs 57 crore for the first phase of rollout of the system.
- Maharashtra CM inaugurates state’s first automatic weather station in Nagpur
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has inaugurated the state’s first automatic weather station at Dongargaon in Nagpur. Around 2,065 such weather stations will come across Maharashtra on public private partnership (PPP) model in this year and 1,000 of these will be set up by June 2017. The weather conditions for farmers in different regions will be available on Mahavedh portal (Maharashtra agriculture weather information network) and mobile application of Skymet.
- Real Estate Act comes into effect
Ending the nine year long wait, regulation of real estate sector involving over 76,000 companies across the county becomes a reality from May 1, 2017 with the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Act, 2016 coming into force. With all the 92 Sections of the Act coming into effect from May 1, 2017, developers shall get all the ongoing projects that have not received Completion Certificate and the new projects registered with Regulatory Authorities within three months i.e by July end. This enables the buyers to enforce their rights and seek redressal of grievances after such registration.
- HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar launches Vidya-Veerta Abhiyan
Union Minister of Human Resource Development Shri Prakash Javadekar has launched the VIDYA VEERTA ABHIYAN in New Delhi. Shri Javadekar said through this campaign a wall of valour will be built in colleges and universities across the country and this will be built on contributory funding by students and teachers on voluntary basis.
He said this wall will be 15X20 feet in size and will depict the portraits of all the 21 Paramveer Chakra recipients. The Minister expressed the hope that this will help revive and re-energize the patriotic fervour in our young minds.
- RBI asks ARCs to have a minimum net corpus of Rs100 crore by 2019
The Reserve Bank has said all the existing Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) must have a minimum net-owned corpus of Rs 100 crore by March 2019.
The government and RBI have envisaged a greater role for ARCs in resolving stressed assets. These companies are in the business of buying bad loans from banks to turn them around.
In a notification, RBI said that it “has been decided to fix the minimum NOF requirement for ARCs at Rs 100 crore on an ongoing basis”.
As per amended SARFAESI Act, 2016, no ARC can commence or carry on the business of securitisation or asset reconstruction without having Net Owned Fund of not less than Rs 2 crore or such other higher amount as the Reserve Bank may, by notification, specify.
- SBI reduces term deposit rates by up to 50 basis points
Country’s largest lender State Bank of India has cut its term deposit rates by up to 50 basis points for various maturities. The rates have been revised for medium and long term deposits and for amount below Rs1 crore.
According to the new structure, for two to less than three years deposits, SBI will offer a rate of 6.25% as compared to 6.75% earlier, the bank said. For the similar maturity, the deposit rates for senior citizen have been cut to 6.75% from 7.25%. For deposits maturing between three years and 10 years, the rates have been lowered by 25 basis points to 6.50%.
- Maruti Suzuki 1st Indian auto firm to cross ₹2 lakh cr m-cap
The trade market closed with shares of Maruti Suzuki coming closer to Rs 6,000 mark, making its market capitalisation (m-cap) standing above Rs 1.8 lakh crore. A few thousand crore, or about 11% later, it would achieve the Rs 2,00,000 crore mark, beating every other auto firm in India. The nearest competitor that Maruti Suzuki has is Tata Motors, standing at Rs 1.3 lakh crore, about 41% lower. Tata Motors also saw the highest market-cap for an Indian auto firm, when it attained is Rs 1.89 lakh crore in September 2016.
- Samsung gets approval to start testing self-driving cars
Samsung has received the green light to start testing a self-driving vehicle in South Korea. The tech company will be testing a car fitted with sensors and cameras, according to a government statement. It will use artificial intelligence to study how the vehicle deals with bad weather and obstacles.
Samsung is the the first electronics company to receive government approval to test a driverless car on South Korean roads. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has previously granted approval to carmakers like Hyundai and Kia as well as academic and research institutions.
- SpaceX successfully launches secret payload for US military
SpaceX successfully launched and landed its Falcon 9 rocket in the fifth of 20 scheduled launches in 2017. This was a landmark event for the company, as it was the first launch of a military satellite in its 15-year history. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7:15am local time near the famous NASA launch site. Just nine minutes later, the rocket’s main section touched back down on the launch pad. The launch was the first time the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has entrusted anyone other than the United Launch Alliance (ULA) with one of its top-secret payloads. The NRO is an agency within the US Defense Department that operates its fleet of spy satellites.
- Dubai becomes world’s first city with its own Microsoft font
Dubai has become the first city in the world to get its own Microsoft font. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council, launched the Dubai Font. He directed government institutions all across the city to adopt the font, saying it is considered a positive shift that will boost the emirate’s competitiveness in smart technology.
- Scientists eliminate HIV infection in ‘humanised’ mice
US researchers have successfully removed HIV DNA from the genomes of living animals using a gene-editing tool, boosting the confidence of scientists to eliminate the AIDS virus infection in humans.
In a new study published in the journal Molecular Therapy, researchers at Temple University and the University of Pittsburgh has reported performing the feat in three different animal models, including a “humanised” model in which mice were transplanted with human immune cells and infected with the virus.
- Mark Selby beats John Higgins to retain world title
John Higgins blew a great chance to land a fifth Betfred World Championship. he misfiring Scot squandered a commanding 10-4 lead in a shock 18-15 final defeat to defending champion Mark Selby in Sheffield.
Selby looked down and out six frames behind, but the world No 1 mounted a courageous Crucible comeback in winning 14 of the next 19 frames to make it a hat-trick of world titles in four years.
And with victory at snooker’s 17-day marathon Selby pocketed the £375,000 first prize and became only the fifth player in the modern game to have won three or more world titles.
- Leander Paes Wins Tallahassee Challenger Title
Veteran Indian tennis player Leander Paes won his second Challenger-level title of the season but Ramkumar Ramanathan had to be content with a runner-up finish at the $75000 clay-court event. The top-seeded pair of Paes and American Scott Lipsky came from behind to pip Argentine third seeds Leonardo Mayer and Maximo Gonzalez 4-6, 7-6 (5), 10-7 in the summit clash.
- Joshna Chinappa becomes 1st Indian to win Asian Squash title
Joshna Chinappa became the first player from India to win the senior title when she beat Dipika Pallikal Karthik in an intensely fought five-game final in the 19th Asian Individual Squash Championships. Earlier in the men’s final, top seed Max Lee of Hong Kong kept his tryst with glory, winning his maiden title beating India’s Saurav Ghosal, the second seed 5-11, 11-4, 11-8, 11-7 (62 min) in a match where the Indian’s enterprise was effectively shut out after a promising start.
- Ghosh wins both singles and doubles titles at Chile Open
It was a double delight for Soumyajit Ghosh as he bagged both the singles and doubles gold at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF Challenge Chile Open in Santiago. This is the first time India had won a men’s doubles title on either the ITTF Challenge Series or ITTF World Tour. Ghosh, meanwhile, became the third Indian to win a men’s singles title at an ITTF Challenge Series or ITTF World Tour tournament, while Amalraj became the fourth Indian to reach a final of such a competition.
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