- EDII and ITC bags Porter Prize 2017
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), an acknowledged national resource institute for entrepreneurship education, research, training and institution-building, has been conferred with the prestigious Porter Prize 2017. The award had been instituted by the Institute for Competitiveness, India Chapter, affiliated to the Harvard Business School. It has been named after Prof Michael E Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School, and recognises the strategic acumen of corporates in India.
- Socialist Lenin Moreno sworn in as Ecuador President
Lenin Moreno was sworn in as Ecuador’s president has following a tight electoral race that the former vice president won on promises of maintaining the social programs of his leftist predecessor, Rafael Correa. The 64-year-old socialist won a runoff last month in the oil-exporting country, bucking a shift to the right in South America as leftist governments struggle to maintain support.
- Amul Thapar becomes 2nd Indo-American US appeals court judge
Amul Thapar became only the second Indian-American judge of an appeals court with the United States senate confirming his appointment to the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Thapar was confirmed by a 52-44 vote. Shri Srnivasan, who was appointed to the DC circuit court of appeals by President Barak Obama and confirmed in 2013, is the first Indian American ever to be named as judge to the American counterpart of India’s high courts.
- Google India MD Rajan Anandan named new IAMAI Chairman
Google’s vice-president for South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan has been appointed new chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). He will take over from FreeCharge’s co-founder and chief executive officer Kunal Shah. MakeMyTrip chairman & Group CEO Deep Kalra has taken over as vice-chairman from music app Saavn co-founder and president Vinodh Bhat; Facebook’s managing director – India & South Asia, Umang Bedi has been elected as the new treasurer of the association, while Subho Ray continues to be the president.
- Anurag Tripathy Appointed as Secretary of CBSE
Senior bureaucrat Anurag Tripathy was appointed as the secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Tripathy, a 1998 batch officer of Indian Railway personnel Service (IRPS), has been appointed to the post for a period of five years, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). The CBSE is a national school education board.
- PM Modi inaugurates India’s longest bridge in Assam
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated India’s longest bridge, spanning 9.3 km across the Brahmaputra, promising to turn the north-east into a showpiece of infrastructure development. The road bridge, connecting Dhola in Arunachal Pradesh to Sadiya in Assam, has been built at a cost of Rs2,056 crore by the ministry of road transport and highways.
The bridge will open gates for economic growth in the region and bring an economic revolution. We are confident that Eastern and North Eastern India have great aptitude to take the nation to new heights.
- PM Modi lays foundation stone of IARI at Gogamukh, Assam
The Prime Minister has laid the Foundation Stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Gogamukh in Assam. Union Government had taken a number of steps for farmers’ welfare in the last three years. In this context he mentioned the soil health cards, the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, and the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
- Pradhan Mantri replaces ‘Indira Gandhi’ in maternity scheme
The government has renamed the Matritva Sahyog Yojana– a scheme to give Rs 6,000 to pregnant and lactating mothers for the first live birth– as Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), yet another instance of the PM’s name prefixed to a government programme.
This is the second time that the scheme’s name has been changed. When it was launched way back in 2010 it was called the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana. After coming to power in 2014, the NDA government dropped “Indira Gandhi” from the scheme.
- Uma Bharti begins Ganga Nirikshan Abhiyan
Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti visited Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute located at Barrackpore, West Bengal during the first leg of her Ganga Nirikshan Abhiyan. This institution is specialized in Fisheries Research on river Ganga.
During her fortnight long tour the Minister will visit several places from Ganga Sagar to Gangotri along the river Ganga to personally monitor the progress of Namami Gange programme. During the 2500 km long tour the Minister will pass through Kakdweep, Kapilmuni Ashram (Ganga Sagar), Nabadweep, Murshidabad, Farraka, Sultanganj (Bhaglpur), Munger, Patna, Arrah , Buxar, Varanasi, Allahabad, Shringverpur, Fatehpur, Kanpur, Fatehgarh, Kasganj,
- Govt launches ‘eSanad’ for online document verification
The Human Resource Development Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry launched an online verification portal to make the document verification process easier for students who planning to study abroad. The Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) academic repository of degrees and certificates “Parinam Manjusha” was also involved in the project of creating “eSanad”.
- J&K’s first professional football academy launched
Jammu and Kashmir’s first professional football academy was launched at Tourist Reception Centre (TRC) in Srinagar in a bid to boost sports in the state. Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Molvi Imran Raza Ansari, who launched the academy, said the academy will act as major sports training school and provide players a platform to prepare for national as well as international competitions. This professional atmosphere will groom young athletes to reach new heights for shining at regional, national and international levels.
- Paytm Payments Bank appoints three new board members
Noida-based digital payments company Paytm, owned by One97 Communications Ltd, has formed a five-member board for its payments bank. PV Bhaskar, former executive director of the Reserve Bank of India; Ash Lilani, co-founder and managing partner at Saama Capital; and GS Sundarajan, a former director at Shriram Group, have joined the board as independent directors.
Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma will act as a non-executive chairman, and Paytm Payments Bank CEO Renu Satti will also serve as a director on the bank’s board.
- TRAI firm on levying 3,050cr fine on Airtel, Idea, Vodafone
India’s telecom regulator slapped a combined penalty of Rs.3,050 crore on Bharti AirtelBSE 1.12 %, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for violating licence norms by denying adequate interconnection points to Reliance Jio Infocomm and said their actions appeared to be aimed at stifling competition and were anti-consumer and against public interest.
In three almost identical scathing letters to the Department of Telecommunications dated October 21, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India recommended that DoT take action against each of the three carriers, saying that violation of licence norms warranted revocation of their permits.
- Iran built 3rd underground ballistic missile factory
Iran has built its third underground ballistic missile production factory and will keep developing its missile program. Iran’s third underground factory has been built by the Guards in recent years.
Most nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were lifted last year after Tehran fulfilled commitments under a 2015 deal with major powers to scale back its nuclear program – an agreement that Trump has frequently criticized as being too soft on Tehran. But Iran remains subject to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions.
- PV Sindhu elected as member of BWF Athletes’ Commission
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu became one of the members of the BWF Athletes’ Commission after the end of voting for the four places on the representative body. The 21-year-old Indian topped the ballot with 129 votes as she led a trio of women onto the BWF Athletes’ Commission.
The new Athletes’ Commission members will join Shintaro Ikeda of Japan; Koen Ridder of the Netherlands; and India’s Saina Nehwal on the players’ representative body.
- Ashwin named best international cricketer of the year
India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has won the coveted International Cricketer of the Year award at the CEAT Cricket Rating (CCR) International awards 2017. The award was presented to Ashwin by former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar and Harsh Goenka, Chairman of RPG Enterprises, at a function held at the Cricket Club of India. Meanwhile, Young batsman Shubhman Gill won the Young player of the year award for his superb performance during the India-England U-19 ODI series, played in Mumbai.
- Supercop KPS Gill passes away
He was 82. KPS Gill, the former Punjab top cop best known for crushing the Sikh militancy in the late eighties and early nineties died. He was 82. KPS Gill, who served twice as the Director General of Police in Punjab, is credited with rooting out militancy from the state. The outspoken police officer was a recipient of the Padma Shri award in 1989 for his contribution in the civil service.
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