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- Appoints IAS officer Ajay Tyagi as SEBI chief for 5 years
The government has appointed senior finance ministry official Ajay Tyagi as the chairman of the India markets watchdog, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for a five-year term. Tyagi, who is currently an additional secretary at finance ministry’s economic affairs department, will succeed Upendra Kumar Sinha as the chairman of Sebi. Sinha’s current term ends on 1 March.
- Hemant Bhargava appointed as LIC’s MD
Hemant Bhargava was appointed as managing director of state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. He is at present LIC’s zonal manager, Delhi. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved Bhargava’s appointment to the post till his superannuation, i.e., 31 July, 2019. The top LIC management consists of the chairman and three managing directors.
- Govt to open 56 Post Office Passport Seva Kendra facilitie
Head Post Offices as Passport Seva Kendra, the government has now decided to scale up this programme by opening 56 such facilities across the country. The Ministry of External Affairs and the Department of Posts had earlier decided to join hands to deliver passport- related services to the citizens.
The pilot projects of the Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSK) have been running successfully at Mysuru and Dahod. We have been releasing 100 appointments for Mysuru and Dahod POPSK per day with cent per cent utilisation.
- Gujarat establishes cashless system for PDS
Gujarat has become the first state in the country for establishing cashless system in its public distribution system (PDS) of food grains. The beneficiaries who are eligible for subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) will now need to carry only Aadhaar cards for getting their food grains in Gujarat.
- Aadhaar mandatory for receiving subsidised foodgrains from PDS shops
The government has made Aadhaar mandatory for availing subsidised foodgrains from the ration shops with a view to better target ₹1.4 lakh crore subsidy under the food security law. The government has given time to those not having the biometric-based unique identification number to apply for Aadhaar by June 30.
- BoB to finance small units in diamond sector at concessional rates
To give a leg up to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the diamond industry, Bank of Baroda is planning to launch a supply chain financing product for the industry on a pilot basis in Surat. Cutting and polishing units, which procure roughs from large companies and supply finished products back, will be provided finance at a competitive rate of interest.
- Uber launches UberHIRE in 9 cities
After Ola, US-based cab aggregator Uber has now launched ‘UberHIRE’ in nine Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Pune that will allow users to hire a cab for up to 12 hours. UberHIRE is a time-based offering that allows users to make trips punctuated with multiple stop overs. Uber’s local rival Ola had launched a similar service ‘Rentals’ last year, which is available in 85 Indian cities.
- UK Foreign secretary renounces US citizenship
Boris Johnson, the New York-born British foreign secretary and former mayor of London, renounced his U.S. citizenship last year. A list from the U.S. Treasury Department showed Johnson was one of more than 5,000 people who gave up their American citizenship in 2016. Johnson has called his former dual British-American nationality an accident of birth — his parents were living in New York City at the time. He left the United States when he was 5.
- Shawna Pandya To Become Third Indian-origin Woman To Fly In Space
Dr Shawna Pandya is a general physician in Canada’s Alberta University Hospital. She is also an astronaut preparing for two crucial space missions. When they take off, she will be only the third woman of Indian origin, after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, to fly to space. Born in Canada, the 32-year-old was shortlisted after topping the Citizen Science Astronaut (CSA) program.
- Official mascot of FIFA U-17 World Cup ‘Kheleao’ unveiled
The official mascot of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017, ‘Kheleao’ was unveiled at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The clouded leopard is an endangered wild cat whose habitat extends from the Himalayan foothills to mainland Southeast Asia.
Kheleo will participate in numerous activities in the run-up to the first-ever FIFA tournament to be hosted by India, which will be played from 6 to 28 October this year.
- Sports Minister Vijay Goel launches Mission-Eleven-Million programme
Driven by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi´s vision of making football the sport of choice in India, Mission XI Million, the biggest school sport outreach programme was launched by the Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Vijay Goel in the presence of President of AIFF Shri Praful Patel. A first of its kind, the programme will encourage children to play the beautiful game of football, gain healthy habits and learn important life lessons in teamwork and sportsman spirit. The approach is to work with school principals and sports teachers and encourage and incentivize them to make children play football games on regular basis.
- MRI pioneer and Nobel laureate Sir Peter Mansfield passes away at 83
A British Nobel Prize winner who pioneered body scanning technology that has revolutionised science and medicine has died at the age of 83. In the 1970s, Professor Sir Peter Mansfield led a University of Nottingham team that turned magnetic resonance imaging into the powerful tool. MRI scans use strong magnetic fields and radio waves to generate 3D images of the body’s internal organs without potentially harmful X-rays.
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