Current Affairs Current Affairs - 07 July 2018

General Affairs

Nagpur Paralysed Due To Heavy Rain, Assembly Building Flooded

The monsoon session of Maharashtra Assembly had to be adjourned for an hour on Friday, after low lying areas of the Vidhan Bhavan were flooded following torrential rain and power cut. Lawmakers were seen moving to higher grounds of the building. Nagpur is witnessing very heavy rain since last night. Residents have been posting pictures of extensive flooding on the social media, criticising poor infrastructure facilities and lack of preparedness.

Area where bungalows of the ministers and residential quarters of legislators are located are also flooded. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was present in the flood control room overseeing the situation.

CM @Dev_Fadnavis visits Nagpur Municipal Corporation control room to take stock of the situation and relief measures in Nagpur city in view of heavy rains.
CM also reviewed the measures taken in other parts of the district with senior officials.#NagpurRains

Shiv Sena, an ally of the ruling BJP in the state was quick to criticise the government. "Had this happened in Mumbai, there would have been a barrage of criticism against the Sena-run Mumbai civic body. Everybody would have demanded an inquiry against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation," Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu told news agency PTI.

"Nagpur Municipal Corporation is run by the BJP. It should have provided basic infrastructure to ensure rain doesn't obstruct the proceedings of the monsoon session," Mr Prabhu said.

NCP lawmaker and former minister Bhaskar Jadhav said, "This government is fully exposed. It had decided that the monsoon session will be held in Nagpur. Shouldn't it make all the arrangements to put the disaster management systems in place?"

If you ever want to see how to totally mess up a perfectly beautiful city, come to #Nagpur . Every road especially those which were concreted has become a river. Houses are inundated with water. If you don’t pay jeep to basic design this is the hell you create.

An embarrassed state energy minister Chandrashekar Bawankule said it was for the first time that rain has affected the legislature proceedings. "This happened because maybe the drainage was not cleaned," Mr Bawankule said, adding that the water level is receding and the situation will soon be normal.

Nagpur has received 163 mm of rainfall in just 3 hours today, according to a private forecast agency Skymet Weather. The District Collector of Nagpur has announced that schools will be closed on Saturday after heavy rain alert for the next 48 hours in the region.

Railways Sets "New Milestone", Constructs 6 Subways In Less Than 5 Hours

The East Coast Railway has created a record of sorts by constructing six limited height subways (LHS) in less than five hours, according to Divisional Railway Manager of Sambalpur.

With this, all unmanned level crossings over Sambalpur Division have been eliminated, the divisional railway manager said today.

"The six subways have been launched simultaneously in Sambalpur Division and completed in a single block of four and half hours on July 5," claimed Dr. Jaydeep Gupta, Divisional Railway Manager, East Coast Railway, Sambalpur

In view of the building of six limited height subways, seven level crossing gates will be completely closed in Bhawanipatna-Lanjigarh Road Section of Kalahandi area of Odisha.

"Launching of six LHSs in Sambalpur Division is a first of its kind not only in East Coast Railway, but also in the entire Indian Railways.

"This was done in spite of the tremendous challenges involved in launching six LHSs in one go and despite the unfavourable monsoon weather conditions...This has set up a new milestone in the history of Indian Railways," the divisional railway manager said.

Oil Price Spike Or Ignore Donald Trump: China And India's Big Decision

How do you solve a problem like US foreign policy? It's a question two of the world's largest oil consumers will have to wrestle with over the next four months -- and their answers will define the global trade in oil.
China and India, who together imported about 1.4 million barrels a day of Iranian crude over the past 3 months, will soon have to decide whether they want to snub the US government's desire to bring Iranian oil exports to zero, or run the risk of an ever-escalating crude import bill. It's a story that's complicated by the emergence of the US as a major exporter of crude, in particular to China.

Down one path lie surging oil prices and less profitable refineries. Down the other, the wrath of the US government and the risk of exclusion from America's banking system.

"The question is: to what extent India and China can pick up the slack," said Eugene Lindell, analyst at JBC Energy GmbH. "If you're importing 10 million barrels a day and you manage to lower the price of all your imports by a buck or two by taking Iranian crude, it makes a big difference."

The Iranian issue is just one of several US foreign policy decisions that are reaching across the oil market with the potential to upend crude flows. Trade wars are looming with China and Europe. Venezuela's output is crumbling under the weight of sanctions and economic collapse.

At the same time, the President has been pressuring OPEC, and in particular Saudi Arabia, to ramp up output by as much as 2 million barrels a day. If the Trump administration is serious about cutting Iranian exports to zero, prices could top $100 a barrel, consultants such as Energy Aspects Ltd. and JBC have argued.

President has been pressuring OPEC, and in particular Saudi Arabia, to ramp up output by as much as 2 million barrels a day.

The impact of curbs in Iranian output will ripple through the world's refiners. Spain's Repsol SA and Cia Espanola de Petroleos SAU have been active buyers in the past, while oil majors like Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have wound down their consumption, Iran's oil minister said last month.

The US has also put pressure on allies such as South Korea and Japan to end their purchases. India is also a heavy buyer under pressure to cut back. For those customers, Saudi Arabia's barrels are the best replica for those lost from Iran as they are often similarly 'heavy' crudes -- a term used in the industry to denote the grade's density.

"Saudi Arabia is the most obvious replacement for the Iranian barrels," said Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix GmbH. "To fill the void it's obviously Saudi Arabia, I think it's quite clear that's the plan."

Another possible outcome is Russia boosting its sales of Urals crude. Flows of Russian crude already shifted significantly this year as OPEC's largest ally in oil cuts diverts more barrels to Asia, but outside of OPEC, Russia is one of the few nations with any spare production capacity.

It's not just Iran where US policy has been extending its reach. In Venezuela production has fallen from around 2 million barrels a day to 1.4 million barrels a day since OPEC begin cutting supply -- a move exacerbated more recently by US sanctions. Venezuelan oil is "a special barrel" because it is one of the heaviest in the world, according to JBC's Lindell. While that makes it harder to replace, Middle Eastern or Canadian grades may help fill the gap, Petromatrix's Jakob said. Canadian supplies themselves are also currently restricted after an outage at an oil sands upgrader.

The reach of US foreign policy into energy markets is also jumbled up with its own boom as an oil exporter. Weekly crude shipments topped 3 million barrels a day for the first time ever late last month, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

It may ultimately be Trump's trade war with China that proves the biggest swing factor for flows. The US has averaged 534,000 barrels a day of crude and products exports to China so far this year. Some US crude grades have a similar density to lighter Iranian barrels, although not with the same sulfur content. As trade disputes between the two superpowers intensify, some analysts argue China may ushhhpute with the US

"One option China's got is to switch its imports from the US to Iran, if it wants to escalate that situation a bit further," says Tom Pugh, commodities economist at Capital Economics in London. "The big question mark is will China curtail."

Policeman, On Leave, Kidnapped And Killed By Terrorists In Kashmir

A policeman, who was kidnapped by terrorists in south Kashmir's Shopian district last night, was found dead today with multiple bullet wounds in neighbouring Kulgam. Constable Javed Ahmad Dar was on leave and visiting his native village Vehil. He was kidnapped when he went out to buy medicines.
Javed's village is just one kilometre from Kutchdora, where security forces killed five terrorists in an encounter in April.

At the home of constable Javed was an inconsolable family. "He returned from duty to his village and was kidnapped at around 8: 30 PM, in the morning we found his body, it is not confirmed, but eye witnesses said they were four men who had come in a Santro car," a neighbour of Javed said.

Javed was the personal security officer to Senior Superintendent of Police Shailendra Mishra, who was spearheading the anti-terror operations in south Kashmir. Mr Mishra was recently transferred.

Police have already started an investigation. "Search has been stopped after the body was recovered but investigations are going on, which terrorist organisation did this is again a matter of investigation, we will proceed further as the investigation goes further," said Shopian's Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Choudhay.

The incident comes less than a month after armyman Aurangzeb was kidnapped by terrorists in Pulwama district and was later shot dead. He was on leave for Eid and was travelling in a car to Shopian when terrorists blocked the way and took him away.

Security forces suspended anti-terror cordon and search operations in Jammu and Kashmir under a peace initiative during the holy month of Ramzan, but combat operations resumed after Eid.

Sources said that it was a desperate attempt by terrorists to show their presence just when the security forces have been exerting pressure by neutralising them and their leadership.

They added abduction and subsequent killing of policemen and solhhh men in the security forces.

Yogi Adityanath Bans Plastic Bags In Uttar Pradesh From July 15

Uttar Pradesh government has banned the use of polythene bags and items of common use made of plastic from July 15, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said today.
"I appeal that after July 15 plastic cups, glasses and polythene should not be used at any level. This will need the cooperation of all of you," the message in Hindi, released by the CM's office, said.

The Uttar Pradesh move comes within days of a similar ban coming into effect in Maharashtra.

Yogi Adityanath's tweet did not give further details.

It was not immediately clear if there were any exemptions to the ban, and no details of penalties were announced.

The chief minister made the initial announcement earlier in the day in Barabanki, while addressing a "van mahotsav".

Business Affairs

Congress alleges Rs 5,000 crore 'bitcoin scam' in Gujarat, BJP says allegations 'laughable'

Two weeks after reports emerged that the old currency notes worth Rs 745.58 crore were deposited in Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB) in five days of demonetisation in 2016, another purported "bitcoin scam" worth over Rs 5,000 crore has surfaced in the BJP-ruled state of Gujarat.

State Congress leadership has alleged that state BJP leaders could be involved converting black money into white through hawala network using the non-regulated digital currencies like bitcoin and others, Hindustan Times reported.

Demanding a Supreme Court-monitored judicial inquiry, Congress spokesperson Shaktisinh Gohil said the scam could be as high as worth Rs 88,000 crore.

"As the BJP is scrambling for answers to explain how Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, whose director is BJP chief Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days and how Rs 3,118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district co-operative banks linked with BJP leaders in Gujarat itself, a new 'mega bitcoin scam' worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unravelled in the state," he told the mediapersons.

The BJP, meanwhile, has said the allegations are "laughable" and "unfortunate", calling it nothing but the Congress' dirty trick department's handiwork to spread lies. BJP spokesperson Anil Baluni said the state police had unearthed the case, and that the probe was on.

The two subsequent allegations against the leaders of the ruling party have given a lot of ammunition for the opposition Congress in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On June 22, Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said that 19 months post demonetisation the scam's layers were being unearthed. On the reports of Rs 745.58 crore deposited in Ahmedabad Cooperative Bank, he said the "notebandi" was an opportunity for "notebadli" for Amit Shah's Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank. He said that old notes worth Rs 3,1hhhonetisation in the 11 district co-op banks of Gujarat.

TCS stock hits all-time high on Q1 earnings outlook

The Tata Consultancy Services stock hit its all-time high in trade today amid optimism over Q1 earnings set to be announced next week. The stock touched an intra day high of 1,920 level, a rise of 2.03% from the previous close of 1,881.70 on the BSE. At 3:05 pm, the stock was trading 1.56% or 29 points higher at 1911 level on BSE.

The stock closed 1.68% or 31 points higher at 1913 level on the BSE.

The firm will announce its Q1 earnings on July 10, 2018.

The stock has been gaining for the last two days and clocked 2.27 rise during the period. It has logged 63.10% gains during the last one year and has risen 41.62% since the beginning of this year.

Country's largest software exporter and top firm by market capitalisation (m-cap) crossed the key level of Rs 7.32 lakh crore m-cap during the rally.

TCS is expected to report 3.7% constant currency (CC) revenue growth powered by ramp-up of recently won large deals, according to Kotak Institutional Equities estimates. Growth will be led by seasonal strength and ramp-up of large deals won in 2HFY18. All verticals, barring banking, will report healthy growth, the brokerage said.

"We expect 3.3% QoQ CC growth in Q1. This signifies acceleration compared to the 2 percent QoQ CC growth witnessed in Q4 FY18," Motilal Oswal said in an earnings preview report recently.

The falling of rupee to an all-time low of 69.10 is expected to push earnings of IT firms in an upward trajectory.

A fall in rupee translates to higher income for IT firms. IT companies earn most of their revenues in dollars. So, each dollar earned abroad will now get them more rupees.

Varroc Engineering makes strong listing on bourses, stock rises over 5%

Auto parts manufacturer Varroc Engineering made a strong listing on the stock exchanges clocking over 5% gains over its issue price. At 10:07 am, the stock was trading 5.38% or 52 points higher at 1019 level compared to Rs 967 per share issue price. The stock opened at 1032 level on the BSE.

The issue was subscribed 3.59 times on June 29, the last day of the IPO. Bids for 5,09,62,695 shares were received against the total issue size of 1,41,85,212 shares, data showed.

The IPO was launched on June 26 in a price range of Rs 965 to Rs 967 per share. At the upper end of the range, the IPO would raise about Rs 1,955 crore ($287.46 million). The offer consisted of an offer-for-sale to the tune of 20,221,730 equity shares by promoters and existing investors.

The offer also includes a reservation of 1,00,000 shares for employees, at a discount of Rs 48 a share. The net offer aggregates up to 20,121,730 equity shares and together constitutes 15 per cent and 14.93 per cent, respectively, of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital.

Kotak Mahindra Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India, Credit Suisse Securities (India) were the global co-ordinators and bookrunners for the offer, which closes on June 28.

Varroc Engineering, which supplies auto parts to Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley, Audi and Harley Davidson, KTM, Bajaj Auto, Land Rover and General Motors raised Rs 584 crore from anchor investors including Canadian pension fund CDPQ and Smallcap World Fund.

Nomura, Canadian pension fund CDPQ, Smallcap World Fund Inc, Nomura Fund Ireland Public Ltd, DSP BlackRock, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund were among the anchor investors, the company informed the stock exchanges.

The company's IPO committee finalised allocation of over 60.36 lakh shares to 30 anchor investors at a price of Rs 967 apiece, also the upper price band of the offer. At this price, the total proceeds would be around Rs 583.73 crore.

Founded in 1990 in Aurangabad, Varroc is a global automotive component manufacturer and supplier of exterior lighting systems, power-trains, electrical and electronics, body and chassis parts to passenger car and motorcycle segments worldwide.

Varroc Engineering designs, manufactures, and supplies exthhh-electronics components, and precision metallic components worldwide. It operates through Polymer, Electrical, Engine Valve, Forged Components, and Lighting segments.

Is Mukesh Ambani headed for a battle with Flipkart-Walmart, Amazon?

At Reliance Industries' 41st AGM, it became amply clear that the global e-commerce giant Amazon and retail behemoth Walmart, which is set to acquire largest homegrown e-tailer Flipkart, may not have a smooth ride in a market where they have pumped in billions of dollars. RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani gave a peek into his long-term plans to grab a bigger piece of country's fast-growing e-commerce sector. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate wants to synergise the widespread presence of Reliance Retail's physical stores with the strengths of Jio's digital infrastructure.

"As Reliance transitions to become a technology platform company, we see our biggest growth opportunity in creating a hybrid, online-to-offline new commerce platform," Ambani said at the shareholders' meeting.

Reliance Retail, with its 7,500 stores in 4,400 cities attracting more than 350 million footfalls, is among the country's largest and fastest-growing retail companies in the country. Its revenues crossed Rs 69,000 crore, posting a growth of over 100 per cent year-on-year. Its fashion retail arm Reliance Trends and consumer electronics brand Reliance Digital are the largest in their respective categories. While the company has separate online websites for every retail vertical, what it currently lacks is a common e-commerce platform.

By leveraging the inventory, supply chain, warehouses and nationwide reach of its brick-and-mortar operations, Reliance Retail is likely to have an edge in the e-commerce space. Ajio, its first pan-Indian e-commerce venture has already undergone a major marketing blitz in recent months. Reliance Retail's other online initiatives like RelianceSMART.in, RelianceDigital.in and RelianceTrends.com are yet to gain customer traction. Reliance Retail has also launched its Reconnect brand of consumer appliances and electrical goods. It also operates the largest portfolio of 41 international brands like Gas, Steve Madden, DIESEL, etc. A single e-commerce platform for all these verticals makes sense, especially at a time when the India e-commerce market is reportedly pegged to grow to $202 billion over the next 10 years.

It's not for nothing that Ambani sounded sanguine about his 'New Commerce' bet. Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart has already led to a spike in valuations of e-commerce players.

"This platform has the potential to redefine retailing in India and become one of the biggest new growth engines for Reliance in the years to come... I am confident that our growth in these consumer businesses, based on asset-light platforms of the future, will be nonlinear and exponential," Ambani told the shareholders.

It's not just Walmart or Amazon which need to be wary of RIL's foray into the booming e-commerce sector. Grocery start-ups like BigBasket and Grofers may also witness a new challenger in the years to come. Reliance sold over 500,000 tonnes of groceries last year. Reliance Retail, which currently runs its own online grocery delivery website, RelianceSmart.in, has hardly made its presence felt. An overhaul of its current strategy would give stiff competition to the existing players in the market. It just needs to put logistics in place, and for sourcing, it will have its own neighbourhood retail chains like Reliance Fresh and Reliance Smart, which have over 513 stores in the country.

"This platform will bring together... the 35 crore and growing customer footfalls at Reliance Retail stores... the 21.5 crore and growing Jio connectivity customers. The targeted 5 crore Jio Giga-Homes; and most importantly, all the 3 crore small merchants and shop-keepers all over India who provide the last-mile physical market connectivity. Hence, we will integrate the physical and digital marketplaces in a uniquely collaborative Bharat-India Jodo enterprise," Ambani explained.

He added that the new commerce platform will redefine retail in India by enabling all customers - rich or poor, whether at home or on mobile - to transition from simple shopping to personalised Immersive shopping experience. "This will be made possible by Augmented Reality, holographic technology and VR devices," Ambani said.

WhatsApp to pay $50,000 to independent researchers interested in studying misuse of platform

The Facebook-owned messaging platform, WhatsApp, will award $50,000 to independent researchers who study the spread of false propaganda on the communication platform and highlight measures for curtailing the same. The development comes after incidents of mob violence being reported in various parts of India because of inciting information being shared on WhatsApp.

The company has established a 'WhatsApp Research Awards for Social Science and Misinformation' which states, "WhatsApp is commissioning a competitive set of awards to researchers interested in exploring issues that are related to misinformation on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp Research Awards will provide funding for independent research proposals that are designed to be shared with WhatsApp, Facebook, and wider scholarly and policy communities." The monetary award is unrestricted, implying that the awardee may utilize the prize amount for any cause.

In principle, the company wants researchers to study the different ways in which:

a) Content received through WhatsApp is interpreted by users.

b) Political actors leverage WhatsApp to influence elections.

c) Information is disseminated through WhatsApp networks to create trends.

d) Technology can safely and effectively be introduced in under-served geographical regions.

e) The company can detect illegal activity on the platform without monitoring the content of users.

Preference will be given to research conducted in countries where WhatsApp is a prominent medium of communication, namely India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, etc. PhD holders will be favoured for individual applications; while, in exceptional circumstances, applications from individuals without PhD would be appraised if they have demonstrated high-level of achievement in social sciences or technological research. All data aggregated from the research efforts will be owned by the researcher. Applications have to be sent in by August 12th, and potential awardees will be notified by September 14th.

Additionally, WhatsApp will organize two workshops for awardees to:

a) Provide a detailed introduction to how the WhatsApp product works as well as context on the focus areas of misinformation on which the research is to be conducted. It will be tentatively held between October 29-30, in Menlo Park, CA.

b) Present their initial research findings to WhatsApp and other awardees, providing an opportunity to contextualize their findings with each other. It will be tentatively held in April 2019.

The company will, in addition to the research award amount, arrange and pay for the travel and accommodation of one representative from each awardee.

Recently, the Government of India had instructed WhatsApp to take swift measures to prevent the spreading of "irresponsible and explosive messages" through its platform. On July 1st, five people were lynched to death in Dhule district of Maharashtra by villagers who suspected the deceased of being child-lifters. WhatsApp responded to the Government by stating that it is horrified by the terrible acts of violence perpetrated by false messages shared on the platform. It further outlined steps to curtail such abuse, which include product controls, digital literacy, and fact checking.

General Awareness

Appointments

Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been appointed as Egyptian President for second 4 year term.

Airline GoAir appointed Cornelis Vrieswijk as its new CEO.

Anoop Kumar Pandey will be appointed as Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh.

Arvind Saxena has been appointed as acting chairman of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

B V R Subrahmanyam has been appointed as chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir. Also K Vijay Kumar has been appointed as an Advisor to Governor of Jammu & Kashmir governor (N N Vohra Currently).

B.Sriram is appointed as MD & CEO of IDBI bank for temporary term of 03 months, replacing Mahesh Kumar Jain who was made Deputy Governor of RBI recently.

Bandhan Bank appointed former RBI deputy governor Harun Rashid Khan as non- executive part time chairman, for 3 years.

Bangladesh appointed Aziz Ahmed as country’s new army chief for 3 years.

Bharti Airtel appointed Ajay Chitkara as Director and CEO of Airtel Business to spearhead domestic and global enterprise business as one unit.

Deepak Raj Joshee has been appointed as new Chief Justice of Nepal.

Ethnic Indian lawyer Tommy Thomas is appointed as Malaysia's new attorney general (Top Lawyer of Nation).

Financial Services Firm Paytm appointed former RBI Deputy Governor Rama Subramaniam Gandhi as an advisor.

Football Club FC Pune City appointed Brazilian Marcos Paqueta as head coach.

Government appointed Anant Barua as whole-time member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). SEBI Chairman is currently Ajay Tyagi.

Government appointed Arijit Basu as Managing Director of State Bank of India (SBI), replacing Rajnish Kumar who was elevated as chairman recently.

Government appointed IDBI Bank’s MD & CEO Mahesh Kumar Jain as a Deputy Governor of RBI. The post was vacant after SS Mundra retired in July 2017. Other RBI Deputy Governors are BP Kanungo, N S Vishwanathan and Viral Acharya. Urijit Patel is current RBI Governor.

Also, former RBI deputy governor R Gandhi joined board of Electronic Payment Services (EPS) as independent director.

Government appointed Inder Jit Singh as Secretary in Ministry of Coal.

ICICI Bank appointed Girish Chandra Chaturvedi as its non-executive part-time chairman.

India Origin person Dedar Singh Gill has been appointed judicial commissioner of Singapore’s Supreme Court.

India's Abhay V. Udeshi has been selected by International Castor Oil Association (ICOA) as its President. ICOA members are involved in growing, processing, trading, marketing and consuming Castor Oil.

Indian Origin Person Nikesh Arora (former SoftBank Group Corp president) is appointed as CEO and Chairman of Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks.

Indian Person Dhivya Suryadevara is appointed as CFO of General Motors,USA's largest automaker.

Indian-American surgeon Atul Gawande named as the CEO of a new US employee health care company started by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chief Executives. Also, French beauty giant L’Oréal appointed Amit Jain as its new India MD, first Indian to lead its operations in India.

Ivan Duque has been appointed as New president of South Amerian Nation Colombia.

Janardan Singh Gehlot has been appointed as International Kabaddi Federation (IKF) chief for 4 years.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II appointed Omar Razzaz as new prime minister of Middle east Nation.

K Alagesan has been appointed as Chairman and MD of PSU ITI Limited and M Venkatesh took charge as MD & CEO of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).

Law Ministry appointed Krishna Murari as Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.

N.S. Kannan is appointed as Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company. While, previous ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company CEO Sandeep Bakhshi has been appointed as COO (chief operating officer ) of ICICI Bank.

New Indian Ambassadors (June 2018) -

Rudrendra Tandon - 10 Member ASEAN (Associationb of Southeast Nations).

Madhu Sethi - Cuba

Tsewang Namgyal - Lithuania

Ravindra Prasad Jaiswal - Eritrea

Vijai Kumar - Papua New Guinea.

Armstrong Changsan - Republic of Iceland

Ravi Thapar - Costa Rica

Noted Music composer A R Rahman named Brand Ambassador of Sikkim government.

Pedro Sanchez has been appointed as new Prime Minister of Spain.It also ended 7 month direct rule by Spanish government in Spain’s Catalonia region. Pedro was appointed as Spanish PM after former PM Mariano Rajoy was toppled by a corruption scandal, becoming first leader in Spain’s modern democracy to lose a vote of no confidence in Parliament.

Pippa Harris has been selected as the Chairman of British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA).

Portugal’s Antonio Manuel de Carvalho Ferreira Vitorino (61) is elected as next Director General (DG) of International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN Migration Agency.

Raghav Iyengar has been appointed as CEO of Indiabulls AMC (Asset Management Company).

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is re-elected as President of Turkey, for his 2nd term as President.

S Ramesh has been appointed as New Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), succeeding Vanaja N. Sarna.

Sharad Kumar has been appointed as the Vigilance Commissioner in Central Vigilance Commission.

South Korean firm LG appointed Koo Kwang-mo as new chairman. He is fourth-generation leader of family-controlled conglomerate.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder & Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, stepped down as Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He will be succeeded by Paul Polman (CEO of Unilever). While, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga appointed as First Vice-Chair of ICC.

Suranjan Gupta appointed as Executive Director and Secretary of PSU EEPC India.

U.S. based ride hailing firm Uber appointed Pradeep Parameswaran as new President of India and South Asia.

USA Researchers discovered world’s first known natural manta ray nursery that allows them to observe juvenile manta ray in their habitat. Oceanic manta rays (Mobula birostris) are known as the gentle giants of the sea. They are large, plankton-eating rays. They can reach sizes of up to 7 metres in wingspan as adults.

United Nations General Assembly elected Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces as its next president for 73rd Session. Maria is 4th woman (and 1st Latin American) to be appointed UNGA President in its 73-year history.

Vijay Mahajan is selected as Secretary and CEO of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation(RGF) and Director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies (RGICS).

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has been given additional charge of Tripura Governor, during absence of Tathagata Roy due to leave.

World Economic Forum (WEF) appointed India's Sarita Nayyar as a member to its Managing board.

YES Bank re-appointed Rana Kapoor as MD & CEO for 3 years.

Awards

2017 Sports Illustrated India magazine Awards -

Sportsperson of the Year - Kidambi Srikanth (Badminton)

Team of the Year - Women’s cricket team

Coach of the year - Stephen Constantine (football team coach)

Outstanding contribution to Sport - Leander Paes (Tennis)

Young Sportsperson of the Year - Paddler Manav Thakkar

Lifetime Achievement Award - Dhanraj Pillay (Hockey)

2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction, previously known as Orange prize and Bailey’s prize, has been won by British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie for her novel Home Fire.

Actor Kalki Koechlin has been conferred with French distinction of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) for her contribution in enhancing Indo-French ties in cinema.

American Actor Tim Robbins, 2003 Supporting actor Oscar winning star of Mystic River will receive Crystal Globe for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) in Czech Republic.

American activist Jane Fonda will be awarded Lumiere Award 2018 in Lyon (France). Lumiere Festival is largest international festival of classic cinema.

BCCI Awards 2018 -

Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award – Pankaj Roy

BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award For Women – Diana Edulji (she declined the award as she is part of the Committee of Administrators which is currently overseeing the work of the board)

BCCI Special Award – Abbas Ali Baig and Naren Tamhane

Polly Umrigar Award – Virat Kohli (4th Polly Umrigar Title for Kohli, stands for International cricketer of the year)

Best International Cricketer - Women – Harmanpreet Kaur

Best Performance In BCCI Domestic Tournaments – Cricket Association of Bengal

Other Awards

Lala Amarnath Award For The Best All-rounder In Ranji Trophy – Parvez Rasool

Lala Amarnath Award For The Best All-rounder In Domestic Limited-overs Competitions – Krunal Pandya

Madhavrao Scindia Award – Highest Scorer In The Ranji Trophy – Priyank K Panchal

Madhavrao Scindia Award – Highest Wicket-taker In The Ranji Trophy – Shahbaz Nadeem

Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy – Best Woman Cricketer (Sr Domestic) – Punam Raut

Jagmohan Dalmiya Trophy – Best Woman Cricketer (Jr Domestic) – Jemimah Rodrigues

Best Umpire In Domestic Cricket – Anil Dandekar

China awarded its first highest state honour Friendship Medal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, since the medal was established in 2015. Friendship Medal is conferred by China on foreigner who made outstanding contributions in promoting cooperation between China and world, and in maintaining world peace.

Femina Miss India Beauty Pageant 2018 -

Anukreethy Vas frem Tamil Nadu has been crowned Miss India World 2018 (1st Place).

Meenakshi Chaudhary (Haryana) has been crowned Miss India Grand International 2018 (1st runner-up).

Shreya Rao Kamavarapu (Andhra Pradesh) has been crowned Miss India United Continents 2018 (2nd runner-up).

Indian Army contingent comprising of 7 Garhwal Rifles Infantry Battalion Group was awarded United Nations Medal for “selfless service”, as part of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Indian International Film Awards (IIFA) 2018 -

Best Film - Tumhari Sulu

Best Actor in a leading role (Female) - Sridevi (MOM)

Best Actor in a leading role (Male) - Irrfan Khan (Hindi Medium)

Best Actor In Supporting Role (Female) - Meher Vij (Secret Superstar)

Best Actor In Supporting Role (Male) - Nawazzuddin Siddiqui (MOM)

Best Director - Saket Chaudhary (Hindi Medium)

Best Debut Director - Konkona Sensharma (A Death in the Gunj)

Outstanding Achievement by an Actor in Indian Cinema - Anupam Kher

Best Story - Amit V Masurkar (Newton)

Best Music Direction - Amaal Mallik, Tanishk Bagchi, Akhil Sachdeva (Badrinath Ki Dulhania)

Best Playback Singer Female - Meghna Mishra (Main Kaun Hoon - Secret Superstar)

Best Playback Singer Male - Arijit Singh (Hawayein - Jab Harry Met Sejal)

Industrial Awards (June 2018) -

HDFC Bank recognized with Champion Security Award at 14th Visa Asia Pacific Security Summit in Singapore, in South Asia category.

Corporation Bank won under category Best Expectation Management (Mid Cap) for 2017-18, in awards instituted by Investor Relations Society India.

Chennai-based startup Calzy 3 won Apple Design award 2018, along with 9 other startups from different countries. Calzy 3 is a customisable calculator that uses iOS technologies such as Drag & Drop to share results in other apps to help users perform day to day mathematical calculations.

SVC Co-operative Bank received National Payments Excellence Award 2017 by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), as highest recognition in banking industry for exceptional performance in payments system.

Oriental Bank of Commerce has been awarded as best public sector bank for Atal Pension Yojana for year 2017-18.

SKOCH conferred Best performing Social Sector Ministry award on Ministry of Women and Child Development. Also, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was conferred the ‘Chief Minister of the Year’ award for her remarkable work in e-governance. Awards were conferred during 52nd SKOCH summit in New Delhi. Ministry of Shipping’s flagship programme for port-led-prosperity ‘Sagarmala’ received the ‘Gold Award’ in infrastructure sector. Sagarmala Programme also received ‘Order of Merit’ at the Summit.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) received an award during X International IT Forum event in Russia, for its support and active participation at the forum, consecutively for 2 years.

TechnipFMC has been honored with special recognition award for their community development initiative in India called ‘Seed of Hope’, at 13th National Convention 2018 at Shangri-La (Bengaluru).

India won prestigious GRR Award for Most Improved Jurisdiction, in London (UK). It recognises jurisdiction that improved its restructuring and insolvency regime the most over last year.

Irish author Mike McCormack won the $100000 International Dublin Literary Award 2018 for his novel Solar Bones. The novel is written in a single sentence which comes across as really accomplished storytelling. With €100000 cash, it is world’s largest prize for a single novel published in English. Solar Bones Novel is told by a ghost on All Souls’ Day and was turned away by major publishers as too uncommercial.

Madhya Pradesh has been awarded by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for reducing maternal mortality under Prime Minister’s Safe Motherhood Campaign (Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan-PMSMA), from 221 in 2011-13 to just 173.

Noted American director Martin Scorsese will be conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award at the Rome Film Festival 2018.

Noted Bollywood actor Prem Chopra honoured with living legend prize at 25th annual Bharat Nirman awards.

Noted actor Anupam Kher will be honored with Lifetime Achievement honour at upcoming International Indian Film Academy awards ceremony in Bangkok (Thailand).

Noted social activist Pushpa Bhave received Rajarshi Shahu Puraskar in Kolhapur (Maharashtra). Rajarshi Shahu Puraskar award is given in memory of Rajarshi Shahu, a well-known social reformer. It consists of a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

Smart Cities Awards 2018 -

9 awards in three categories - Project Award, Innovative Idea Award and City Award announced.

City award - Surat (Gujarat).

Innovative Idea award - Bhopal (Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC)) and Ahmedabad (Safe and Secure Ahmedabad (SASA) Project).

Project awards - Given to innovative and successful projects in seven categories

Governance - PMC Care from Pune.

Built Environment - Smart Place Making from Pune under

Social Aspects - Smart Class rooms from NDMC and Jabalpur, Smart Campus from Visakhapatnam, Lighthouse from Pune

Culture and Economy - B Nest Incubation Centre from Bhopal and Conservation of Rajasthan School of Arts from Jaipur

Urban environment - Public Bike Sharing from Bhopal, Pune, Coimbatore and Waste to Energy Plant in Jabalpur

Transport and Mobility - Integrated Transit Management System (TMS) from Ahmedabad and Surat

Water and Sanitation - Smart Water Management through SCADA from Ahmedabad

World Food Prize 2018 has been awarded to British Economist Lawrence Haddad and David Nabarro (UK) for their contribution in elevating maternal and child undernutrition within food security. They will share $250,000 prize equally.

Books

Actor Priyanka Chopra will come out with her memoir in 2019, with name Unfinished.

Book Human Rights, Values and Cultural Ethos, collection of essays and lectures by Dr. R.P. Dhokalia has been launched.

Book Vedvigyan Alok, written by Acharya Agnivarat Naishthik has been released.

Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati versions of Book Emergency: Indian Democracy’s Darkest Hour, written by Prasar Bharti Chairman Surya Prakash Have been released.

NABARD released book on Indian Crops named Water productivity mapping of major Indian crops’, based on a study of 10 important crops.

Special booklet 80-years of Odisha Budget – A Commemorative Volume was released by Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. Odisha annual budget increased from 1.77 crore in 1936-37 to Rs 1.2 lakh crores in 2018-19. Odisha is first state to bring out such a compilation. State government came up with a separate agricultural budget in 2016.

WWF-India launched its first-ever comic book named The Great Indian Nature Trail with Uncle Billy, written by Rohan Chakravarty and Bijal Vachharajani.

Committees

Culture Ministry formed three high-powered panels that will work to set up a unique museum on Theme Prime Ministers of India' in New Delhi. It will tell the story of all prime ministers of country. Formed Committes and their tasks are -

Content Committee and Project implementation committes headed by Shakti Sinha.

Swapan Dasgupta Committee - Will vet content for curation for museum

Government constituted a group to study Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Policy of India (implemented from 01st April, 2000), to be headed by Bharat Forge Chairman Baba Kalyani. Group will evaluate SEZ policy, suggest measures to cater to needs of exporters in present economic scenario and make SEZ policy WTO compatible, suggest course correction in SEZ policy.

Government has set up a Chief Ministers Subgroup to Coordinate Policy Approaches for Agriculture and MGNREGS with CM of Madhya Pradesh (Currently Shivraj Singh Chouhan) as Convener. Sub-Group will submit its report within 3 months.

Government has set up a committee headed by former Chief Statistician of India TCA Anant to bring in transparency in jobs data calculation. It look into the limitations of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES).

Government has set up a committee to lay down standards for metro rail systems in country, to be headed by E Sreedharan (known as metro man of India), who is credited with creation of Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro.

Government has set up an executive committee under PM Narendra Modi to spread M K Gandhi’s legacyamong people at national & international level.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) has set up 10-member committee headed by Suresh Mathur (ED-IMF, IRDA), to review norms related to Insurance Marketing Firms (IMF) with an aim to increase insurance penetration in country.

Maharashtra government has set up a committee to study issues related to development of a 1,000-MW floating solar power plant at Ujani dam in Solapur district, headed by Satish Chavan.

Days

4 June: International Day of Innocent Children Victims of AggressionInternational Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression. June 4, 2018 aso marks 29th anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests of China. In 1989, Chinese troops violently retook Tiananmen Square in Beijing from pro-democracy protesters. It killed over 200 citizens, being biggest Massacre in Modern Chinse History.

Government observes anti-Emergency day on 25-26 June every year, to remind people how Emergency was clamped by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.

June 01 - World Milk Day. India is leading Milk Producer in world with 23.69% increase during 2014-2018 and Annual increase of 6.3%.India's Milk production was 165.5 Million Tonnes in FY 2016-17. Also On June 1 2018, India’s first superfast train, Deccan Queen express from Mumbai to Pune marked 88 years of service.

June 1 - Global Day of Parents. It was Announced by UNICEF in 2012.

June 11 - Green Mizoram Day, organised every year since 1999.

June 12 - World Day against Child Labour. 2018 theme is ‘Generation Safe & Healthy’. Campaign aims to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets of ending all forms of child labour by 2025 and achieving safe working environments for all workers by 2030.

June 13 - International Albinism Awareness Day. 2018 theme is shining our light to the world.

June 14 - World Blood Donor Day. 2018 theme is Be there for someone else. Give blood. Share life. The 2018 host is Greece.

June 15 - World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. 2018 theme is Moving from Awareness to Action through a Human Rights based approach.

June 16 - International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR). It is also observed as International Integration Day.

June 17 - World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (WDCDD). 2018 Theme is Land has true value – invest in it. Global observance of WDCD 2018 was hosted by Ecuador.

June 17, 2018 - Father's Day 2018. It is observed on 3rd Sunday of June.

June 18 - World Sustainable Gastronomy Day, proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in December 2016.

June 19 - International Day for Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

June 2 - Telangana Statehood Day. It was formed in 2014, after Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

June 20 - World Refugee Day. 2018 theme is Now More Than Ever, We Need to Stand with Refugees.

June 21 - World Music Day. 2018 theme is Live the music together.

June 21 is longest day of the year. It marks beginning of summer in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, referred to as ‘summer solstice’. A solstice is an astronomical event when tilt of Earth’s axis with respect to the Sun is maximum. After summer solstice, days start getting shorter till winter solstice on December 21, Northern Hemisphere’s shortest day.

June 21, 2018 - 4th UN International Yoga Day. 2018 theme is Yoga for Peace.

Main Yoga Day 2018 events held in Dehradun (Uttarakhand).

Guinness world record was created by conducting largest yoga session on International Yoga Day at Kota (Rajasthan), where 1 lakh people together performed yogic exercises.

3 day National Yoga Olympiad concluded at All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in New Delhi. Prizes were distributed by Eric Falt (Director and UNESCO Representative to India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka), who was Chief Guest.

Yoga is inscribed since 2016 on UNESCO’s Representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Winners -

Upper Primary (Girls) – Gold won by the Sikkim team, Silver by Gujrat team and Bronze by Delhi

Upper Primary (Boys) – Gold won by Gujrat team, Silver by Delhi team and Bronze by Tamil Nadu.

Secondary (Girls) – Gold by Sikkim team, Silver by Manipur team and Bronze by Delhi team.

Secondary (Boys) – Gold by Delhi, Silver by Haryana and Bronze by Karnataka.

Shri Vishwas Mandalik, Nasik and The Yoga Institute, Mumbai are recipients of Prime Minister's Award for outstanding contribution for promotion and development of Yoga for the year 2018, selected from among 186 nominations.

HRD Ministry approves setting up an inter-university yoga centre at Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana in Bengaluru.

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar announced to set up a ‘Yog Aayog’ in state.

West Bengal University Visva-Bharati received INR 5 crores central grant for setting up a 'Yoga Gram' in university campus.

PM Modi inaugurated a nature center in New York City, through video conferencing called YO1 Nature Cure Center.

June 23 -is observed as United Nations Public Service Day. It is also observed as International Olympics Day and UN International Widows' Day.

June 25 - Day of the Seafarer. 2018 theme is Seafarers wellbeing.

June 26 - International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. 2018 theme is Listen First – Listening to children and youth is the first step to help them grow healthy and safe.

June 27 - UN Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Day (MSME) Day. It was declared by UN General Assembly in 2017.

On this occasion, Udyam Sangam 2018 was held in New Delhi, where President Ram Nath Kovind launched Solar Charkha Mission. It will cover 50 clusters and every cluster will employ 400 to 2000 artisans. MSME Ministry will disburse subsidy of 550 crores to artisans.

Also, under Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) budgetary allocation for FY 2018-19 has been increased by 75% to 1800 crores.

A Portal of Ministry of MSME called Sampark was also launched by President.

June 29 - International Day of Tropics.

June 29 - National Statistics Day. It maks Birth anniversary of Regarded statisician Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, who founded Indian Statistical Institute. 2018 theme is Quality Assurance in Official Statistics.

2018 marks 125th Birth Anniversary of Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis and 12th Indian Statistics Day. On this occasion, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu released commemorative coin of Rs 125 and circulation coin of Rs 5 denomination, at Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata.

June 3 - First UN World Bicycle Day. It aims to encourage a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation.

June 30 - International Day of Parliamentarism. It is also oberved as International Asteroid Day.

June 5 - World Environment Day. 2018 Theme is Beat Plastic Pollution. On this Occasion -

Ministry of Environment , Forest and Climate Change and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) signed MOU to set up a resource efficiency cell, aimin to focus on waste management and resource efficiency by enabling coordinated thinking among various ministries. It would focus on system based use of materials, products and processes in India. Effective collection , recycling and use of bio-degradable plastic can reduce emission of Green House Gases (GHG).

A thematic knowledge conference on “Plastic Pollution and Management” was organized at “Vigyan Bhawan” in New Delhi.

Environment Minister (IC) Mahesh Sharma Issued a Pledge Titled Taj Declaration to Beat Plastic Pollution, aiming to make 500-meter area around Taj Mahal litter free and phase out single use plastic.

Uttarakhand Government announced to completely prohibit use of polythene or plastic from July 31, 2018.

Tamil Nadu Govt also announced that state would ban use of plastic from 2019.

Telangana government also directed all urban local bodies and civic municipal bodies to ban usage of single-use plastic in offices.

June 5 is also observed as International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.

June 8 - World Oceans Day. 2018 theme is Peventing plastic pollution and encouraging solutions for a healthy ocean. June 8 is also opserved as World Brain Tumor Day.

Defence

India and Indonesia Navies Participated in their 31st Joint Coordinated Patrol (IND-INDO CORPAT).

13th Joint Military Exercise of India and Nepal, named SURYA KIRAN-XIII conducted at Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand).

Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman approved procurement of equipment for Defence Forces worth inr 5500 crores. It includes -

12 High Power Radars for Indian Air Force, to provide long range medium and high altitude cover with capability to detect and track high speed targets following parabolic trajectories.

Air Cushion Vehicles (ACVs) will be procured for Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and Indian Army from Indian Shipyard. These vessels offer great advantage over conventional boats and crafts as they have ability to travel at very high speeds over shallow water, sand banks, mud flats and swamps which are non-navigable by boats.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully carried out maiden test OF new surface-to-air missile (yet to get formal name) powered by Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) propulsion Technology. It also successfully demonstrated technology of nozzle less booster for first time in country.

SFDR technology is jointly developed by India and Russia. It will help both India’s surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles to perform better and enhance their strike range, making them more lethal.

SFDR and Conventional Missiles are different as conventional missiles have limitations against maneuvering targets, as terminal stage of conventional missiles cannot provide enough energy to maintain their speed in order to hit targets. SDFR removes this drawback by exceptionally enhancing endgame maneuverability of missile at terminal stage when its seeker is locked onto target.

Government will raise 5 Indian Reserve Police (IRP) battalions in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), to provide jobs to local youths and enhance security. These battalions will have over 5000 personnel, with 60% posts reserved for people from border areas of J&K. Besides, two female battalions comprising 1,000 women personnel will also be created.

At present, there are 144 IRBs in various states. 4 IRBs each are being raised in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana; and 12 in Maoist-hit states.

India successfully test fired long range ballistic missile Agni 5, with operational range over 5000 KMs. Upgraded version of Pinaka rocket was also test fired, with rage 40 - 70 KMs. Earlier Pinaka version was an unguided one.

India will host first military exercise of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) group focussing on counter-terrorism in September 2018.

BIMSTEC has 7 member nations (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand). Its secretariat is in Dhaka (Bangladesh), with Nepal as current Chair from 2014 onwards.

Indian Army announced to observing year 2018 as Year of Disabled Soldiers in Line of Duty. Indian Army aso drawn detailed plan to develop Jaisalmer Military Station in Rajasthan as smart facility patterned on Central Government’s Smart Cities Mission.

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) commissioned fast patrol vessel (FPV) ICGS Rani Rashmoni, in Visakhapatnam, (Andhra Pradesh). It is fifth and last ship to be commissioned in series of fast patrol vessel (FPV) project of ICG.

Indian Coast Guard (ICG) commissioned interceptor ship ICGS C 439 at Mumbai.

Indian Naval Ship Sunayna has been directed to evacuate 38 Indians stranded on Yemeni island of Socotra in aftermath of cyclone Mekenu, under Operation Nistaar. Evacuated Indians were embarked onboard and immediately provided with appropriate care.

India’s first indigenous, long-range artillery gun Dhanush passed its final test and is ready for induction into Army.

Indian Army has so far not inducted any new artillery guns since Bofors guns. It has placed an initial order for 114 Dhanush guns and is expected to order another 400 more.

Dhanush is a 155mm x 45mm calibre artillery gun developed by Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) Kolkata. It is upgraded version of Swedish 155-mm Bofors howitzers, which India procured in mid-1980s. It has strike range of 40 kilometres (11 km more than imported Bofors).

Malabar 2018, the Trilateral Naval Exercise between India, Japan and United States held off coast of Guam in Philippine Sea. It is 22nd edition of the naval exercise.

Navies of India and Indonesia participated in Passage Exercise (PASSEX) 2018.

Tri service joint military exercise Indra-2018 between India and Russia will be held in India in second half 2018.

USA approved sale of six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to India, for approx $930 million. Proposed sale also includes 180 Hellfire Longbow air-to-surface anti-armor missiles, 90 R-3 Hellfire II air-to-surface missiles, 200 Stinger air-to-air missiles etc. Apache attack helicopters will strengthen India’s ability to defend its homeland and deter regional threats.

Economy

Commerce ministry approved 16 projects under TIES (Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme), to develop infrastructure for promoting exports. TIES was launched in 2016, with outlay of INR 600 crores. TIES has been launched for three years to 2020.

2nd tranche of Bharat-22 ETF (exchange traded fund) opened for fresh subscription, with government aiming to raise INR 6000 crores. There is also a green shoe option of Rs 2,400 crore, subject to government approval.

Bharat 22 index was launched in November 2017, managed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund. It’s a part of the government’s disinvestment programme.

Bharat 22 comprises 22 stocks including those of chosen Government enterprises, spanning six sectors - basic materials (4.4%), energy (17.5%), finance (20.3%), industrials (22.6%), FMCG (15.2%) and utilities (20%).

ETFs are essentially index funds that are listed and traded on stocks exchanges just like regular shares.

2nd tranche of Bharat-22 Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), comprising shares of 22 companies, received bids worth Rs. 15,436 crore, much higher than government’s fund raising target. The second tranche was targeted to achieve fund mop up of Rs 6,000 crore with green-shoe option for another 2,400 crore.

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and TransUnion CIBIL launched 2nd edition of MSME Pulse, a Quarterly Report on MSME Sector, providing precise data-driven insights to support policy as well as business decisions.

Total commercial lending exposure in India is 54.2 lakh crores, with MSME segment constituting 12.6 lakh crores, with with Y-o-Y growth of 22% and 13% respectively in Micro and SME sectors.

In Large corporate segment, NPA rates increased from 15.3% (in Mar’17) to 18% (in Mar’18). However, MSME NPA rates remained stable. In Micro segment, NPA rate moved from 8.9 % (in Mar’17) to 8.8 % (in Mar’18). In SME segment, NPA hovered between 11.4% (in Mar’17) to 11.2 % (in Mar’18). Recognized NPA exposure for MSME is 81000 Crores as on Mar’18.

Private Banks and NBFCs have further increased their market share in Micro and SME lending from 27.5% and 9.1% in March 2017 to 30.3% and 10.9% in March 2018. Share of PSBs fallen from 57% to 50.4% in same period.

AU Small Finance Bank raised INR 1000 crores from Singapore-based investment firm Temasek.

According to a new report by UN, Foreign Direct Investment to India decreased to 40 billion dollars last year from 44 billion dollars in 2016. Also, outflows from India have more than doubled in 2017-18.

However, According to Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP)'s Recent Report - FDI in India increased to US $61.96 billion in 2017-18, from $60 billion Last year.

Accounting software solution firm Marg ERP partnered with ICICI Bank to offer an integrated payments platform to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) customers. This will enable ICICI Bank’s current account holders to connect their bank accounts with MARG ERP software and undertake several digital transactions via RTGS, NEFT or IMPS directly from this platform, automate reconciliation of banking and accounting entries etc.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited (APSEZ) acquire 97% stake Marine Infrastructure Developer Private Limited (MIDOL) for Rs 1950 crores.

After success of India's largest Merger of SBI Associate Banks with SBI, government is planning another mega merger of Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank and Central Bank of India. These banks has combined loss of INR 21646 crores last year. It will create India's second largest bank after SBI with a combined asset of INR 16.58 trillion.

As per Mobile Banking Volume and Value share List compiled by SBI for 2017-18 -

Value -

Axis Bank (17.2%), ICICI Bank (17.1%), SBI (16.8%, down from 44.4% a year ago).

Paytm, the topper in Volume category, holds only .25% of total Value of Mobile Banking Transactions.

Volume -

Paytm (21.87 %), SBI (19.5%), Axis Bank (12.76%), ICICI Bank (9.7%).

Mobile-banking usage seen a steep jump, rising to 1871 million in FY18, from 977 million in FY17.

As per World Bank report South Asia’s Hotspots: The Impact of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards -

Climate change might cost India 2.8 % of GDP, as Average annual temperatures will increase by 1-2 % by 2050.

60 crore Indians live in areas that could become moderate or severe hotspots of climate change by 2050.

As per accounts of Government of India (Provisional/Unaudited) for FY 2017-18 -

Government received inr 15,51,004 crores, comprising 1242662 crores Tax Revenue, 192523 crores Non Tax Revenue and 115819 crores of Non Debt Capital Receipts (Recovery of Loans and Disinvestment of PSUs)

Expenditure incurred by Government is INR 2142667 crores, out of which 1878963 crores on Revenue Account and 263704 crores on Capital Account. 529243 crores is spent on Interest Payments (approx 25% of total spends).

As per official data of Q4 of 2017-18, Government debt increased by 1.7 % to INR 76,94,940 crores (from 75,66,215 crore in previous quarter), which is 45.9 % of GDP.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved investment of $200 million in India’s National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to give greater impetus to mega infrastructure projects.

AIIB is China led multilateral development bank set up in 2016. It has 83 member nations. India is second largest shareholder in AIIB (7.5 %), after China (26.06). It is headquartered in Beijing (China).

NIFF was set up in December 2015 to catalyse funding into country’s infrastructure sector. It has been set up as a fund of funds structure with aim to generate risk adjusted returns for its investors alongside promoting infrastructure development. It has targeted corpus of Rs 40,000 crore to be raised over the years. 49% will be funded by government.

Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has recommended 22 general managers to be elevated as executive directors at various public sector banks (PSBs). This is the first major exercise undertaken by reconstituted BBB, headed by newly appointed Chairman BP Sharma.

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) launched platform to make stock market listing attractive for startups in SME (small and medium enterprise) segment. For listing, A company needs to have a pre-issue paid up equity share capital of a minimum of Rs 1 crore and must be in existence for a minimum period of 3 years on the date of filing draft prospectus with BSE.

Department of Telecom (DoT) raised fresh demand of around INR 4700 crores ahead of merger deal between Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. As per DOT, Vodafone India merged all its arms into one company and these dues are related to one-time spectrum charges (OTSC).

The merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular will create country’s largest mobile service operator with proposed name of Vodafone Idea Ltd. It will be worth over $23 billion with a 35 % market share and a subscriber base of around 43 crores.

Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) approved revised cost (3466 Crores) and Extended Time Period (June 2020) for World Bank funded Dam Rehabilitation & Improvement Project (DRIP). DRIP is a state sector scheme with central component to improve safety and operational performance of selected dams.

Participating States / Agencies are Damodar Valley Corporation, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited and Central Water Commission.

Financial Services Firm Paytm acquired Orbgen Technologies, entity that operates Chennai-based online ticketing platform TicketNew, in a bid to enhance its entertainment ticketing business.

Financial Services Firm Paytm acquired mobile technology startup Cube26, to help it build its consumer engagement products in areas of social and content. Cube26 works with handset manufacturers and combines its software capabilities with hardware.

Flipkart-owned PhonePe partnered with cab aggregator Ola that will allow riders to book rides using PhonePe’s payment platform.

Global ratings agency Fitch revised down its outlook on ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

It downgraded ICICI Bank’s ‘support rating’ to ‘3’, from ‘2’, its support rating floor to ‘BB+’, from ‘BBB-’ .

Axis Bank’s rating degraded to negative from stable, pointing to high proportion of NPAs.

Government simplified process for permission of Additional Fiscal Deficit Limit over and above 3 % of Gross State Domestic Product for States (GSDP). States will be eligible for flexibility of 0.25 % over and above this for any given year for which borrowing limits are to be fixed if their debt-GSDP ratio is less than or equal to 25 % in preceding year.

States will be further eligible for an additional borrowing limit of 0.25 % of GSDP for which borrowing limits are to be fixed if interest payments are less than or equal to 10 % of revenue receipts in preceding year. Flexibility in either of the 2 options or both will be available only if there is no revenue deficit in current and immediately preceding year.

During 4th Meeting of Governing Council of NITI Aayog, States pointed-out that permission accorded by Department of Expenditure to eligible States were sometimes delayed due to bunching of proposals received from different States at different intervals into one consolidated approval. Government has henceforth decided to simplify process of approval of such additional borrowing limits requested by States.

Government will launch INR 500 crores Credit Enhancement Fund (CEF) in July 2018 to facilitate infrastructure investments by insurance and pension funds, as announced in Budget 2016-17. It also helps borrower to raise loans at lower interest rates. Initial corpus of INR 500 crores will be sponsored by IIFCL (India Infrastructure Finance Company).

IIFCL will hold 22.5% stake in NBFC, while Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been offered by Government to pick up 10% stake.

At present, only $110 billion is being invested in infrastructure in India, against requirement of $200 billion, classifying India as a infrastructure deficit country.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched an Online Analytical Tool to facilitate closer monitoring of utilisation of foreign contributions, allowing to take evidence-based decisions regarding compliance of provisions of FCRA, 2010. Its dashboard will be integrated with the bank accounts of FCRA-registered entities through the Public Financial Management System for updation of transactional data on a real-time basis.

ICICI Venture sold its 30% stake in hospital chain Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) to General Atlantic for INR 850 crores.

IDFC Bank received RBI’s approval for merger of Capital First, Capital First Home Finance and Capital First Securities with Itself.

Income Tax Department launched New Benami Transactions Informants Reward Scheme, to get people’s participation in Department’s efforts to unearth black money and reduce tax evasion.

Under this, a person can get reward up to 1 crores for giving specific information in prescribed manner to Income Tax Department about benami transactions and properties, which are actionable under Benami Property Transactions Act 1988, as amended by Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2016. Identity of persons giving information will not be disclosed.

Giving details about undisclosed black money stashed abroad could fetch the informer up to INR 5 crores.

India GDP Growth Forecasts (June 2018) -

World Bank forecasted growth rate of 7.3 % for India in 2017-18 and 7.5 % for next two years, making it fastest growing country.

Fitch predicted India’s growth forecast to 7.3% for FY’18, 7.4% for FY’19 & 7.5% for FY’20.

Indian IT Firm HCL Technologies acquired German IT services provider H&D International Group, one of largest IT service providers in German automotive industry.

Indian rupee (INR) breached 69-level against US dollar for the first time, touching a record low of 69.09 on higher crude oil prices and concerns of a US-China trade war.

Indians' Money in Swiss banks rose over 50% to Swiss Francs (CHF) 1.01 billion (Rs. 7,000 crore) in 2017, reversing a three-year downward trend.

India’s IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) became first listed company in India to close day’s trade with market capitalisation (m cap) of over INR 7 lakh crores (over $103 billion), as its board approved share buyback of 76,190,476 equity shares at INR 2100 per share for about 16000 crores. Buyback size was 1.99% of total paid-up equity share capital.

India’s fiscal deficit in FY 2017-18 stood at 3.53% of GDP (in line with revised estimates). India revised its fiscal deficit target in February 2018 to 3.5% of GDP from 3.2% projected earlier. In FY 2018-19, aim is to trim deficit to 3.3% of GDP. Shortfall for 2017-18 was 5.9 trillion
(6 Lakh Crores INR).

India’s oldest public sector financial institution IFCI (Previously Industrial Finance Corporation of India) will raise INR 3000 crores from debt, during current fiscal. IFCI aims to sanction 6000 crore worth of loans in 2018-19.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) approved Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) to acquire a majority stake in IDBI bank, taking LIC's stake in IDBI bank to 51%, injecting 10,000-13,000 crores.

Karnataka Bank launched KBL-Deposit Only Card’ that enables hassle-free cash deposit transactions at bank’s 24X7 e-lobby services, specially meant for the bank’s current/overdraft customers.

Karur Vysya Bank signed bancassurance tie up with Aditya Birla Health and Birla Sunlife Insurance To provide insurance services to its customers.

Kerala Government launched microfinance programme in co-operative sector, named Muttathe Mulla, to help ordinary people being exploited by private financiers charging exorbitant interest rates for loans. It is a joint initiative of cooperative banks and women neighbourhood network Kudumbashree. Under this, Cooperative banks would give micro-finance loans to ‘Kudumbashree’ at an interest rate of 7 %, which members of neighbourhood network can avail at an interest rate of 12 % instead of 37-72% interest that private lenders charge.

Maharashtra government will provide financial grant of 1,000 rupees per quintal to farmers whose tur and gram could not be purchased by administration before May 31 deadline. State government had set up tur procurement target of 44.6 lakh quintals.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs released draft on cross-border insolvency in order to strengthen Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). It will help banks access overseas assets of company undergoing resolution.

Existing IBC provides for two Sections related to cross border insolvency (Section 234 and 235), which are inadequate to effectively deal with default cases of domestic corporate debtor having assets and operations outside India.

Existing provisions only allow Central government to enter into agreement with foreign country for enforcing provisions of Code.

Draft norms have been issued to plug these loopholes and have any effective resolution mechanism in place for cross-border insolvency.

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will launch credit rating model a new system to assist banks in assessing credit risk and probability of fraud using big data analysis.

This will help banks, particularly rural and cooperative banks, tackle issue of rising non performing assets (NPAs). Currently, rural and cooperative banks depend on judgement of bank manager, resulting in high NPAs and frauds.

It will also help in predicting different types of frauds in banking sector based on RBI guidelines. Besides, a web-enabled software is also being tested to assist banks to easily adopt models for credit rating, NPAs and fraud. Validation of these models has been done using data from several banks.

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs approved 33 % increase in carpet area of houses eligible for interest subsidy under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) for Middle-Income Group (MIG) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) (PMAY-U).

With revision, carpet area of a house for Middle Income Group-I (MIG-I) has been increased from 120 sqm to 160 sqm and for MIG II, area has been increased from 150 sqm to 200 sqm.

New rules will be effective from January 1, 2017, date on which scheme became operational.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries acquired Radisys Corporation, a US-based open telecom platform solutions provider for $75 million (Rs 510 crores).

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio overtook Vodafone India to become 2nd largest carrier by revenue in India, with adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of 6,217 crore in March quarter compared to Vodafone’s 4,937 crores. Bharti Airtel is at top with AGR INR 7087 crores.

National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched a ‘Tri-party Repo Market Platform’ for repurchase of corporate debt security. It is a repo contract where a tri-party agent acts as an intermediary to facilitate services like collateral selection, payment and settlement, custody and management during life of transaction.

This would increase demand for corporate bonds and may provide a boost to much needed liquidity in corporate bond market.

Under corporate bond repo a firm / bank pledges corporate bonds with another company or lender to garner funds. The entity, who pledges, agrees to repurchase bonds at a specified price.

National Stock Exchange (NSE) will offer basket repo for 1 day to 7 days. NSE would act as tri-party agent and offer an online web based, anonymous, order matching and multilateral trading platform. Settlement of repo transactions shall be guaranteed by NSCCL.

Power distribution company BYPL signed MoU of 3 years with Business Finland, a Finnish government agency, for collaborative activities in different areas, including energy efficiency and electric vehicles.

President Ram Nath Kovind approved promulgation of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance 2018, bringing changes in Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, affecting mainly real estate and financial sectors. Notable changes are -

Homebuyers will be Recognized as Financial Creditors, giving them due representation in Committee of Creditors (CoC).

Promorters of MSMEs will be allowed to bid for their companies as long as they are not wilful defaulters. This corrects anomaly in section 29A of existing act that barred promoters of defaulting assets from bidding for their assets.

Withdrawal of Insolvency Application will be permitted only if it is approved by 90% vote share of CoC. CoC voting threshold has been brought down to 66 % from 75 % for all major decisions.

Other provisions -

Addresses some issues such as non-entertainment of late bids, no negotiation with the late bidders and a well laid down procedure for maximizing value of assets.

Exempts pure play financial entities from being disqualified on account of NPA and NPA acquired under Insolvency Code shall not disqualify an entity for the next three years.

Successful resolution applicants will get a minimum one-year grace period to fulfill various statutory obligations.

It also addresses much litigated issue of enforcement of guarantees.

RBI changed eligibility conditions of priority sector lending -

Previous eligibility Changed eligibility From 28 lakh (for metropolitan cities) To 35 lakh AND From 20 lakh ( for other centres) To 25 lakh. These changes are valid till overall cost does not exceed 45 lakh for metropolitan and 30 lakh for other centres.

Existing limit of family income of 2 lakh per annum has been changed to to 3 lakh per annum for economically weaker group and 6 lakh for low income groups.

RBI conducted Financial Literacy Week from June 4 on theme ‘Customer Protection’. Last year’s theme of the week was, ‘Know Your Customer’.

RBI eased bad loan classification norms for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), to formalize economy further and create more jobs. loans to all MSMEs having credit facility of up to 25 crore will now be classified as non-performing assets (NPAs) as per 180-days due criterion, rather than 90-days due criterion. This is done as a result of effect of GST on the small and medium enterprises. After January 2019, rules will fall back to normal 90 day regime for GST registered MSMEs.

RBI eased investment norms for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in debt, to attract more overseas flows and arrest recent fall in rupee on one hand and also lift recent fall in demand for corporate bonds.

Corporate bond segment - FPIs are permitted to invest in corporate bonds with minimum residual maturity of above 1 year. The short-term investments in corporate bonds by an FPI shall not exceed 20% of total investment of that FPI in corporate bonds. residual maturity up to 1 year.

Government securities (G-secs) - FPIs cap on investment in Government securities (G-secs) has been increased to 30% of outstanding stock of that security, from 20% earlier. FPIs were allowed to invest in government bonds with minimum residual maturity of three years.

FPIs are permitted to invest in G-secs, including treasury bills (T-bills), and SDLs without any minimum residual maturity requirement. However, it will be subject to condition that short-term investments (residual maturity up to 1 year) by FPI under either category shall not exceed 20% of total investment of that FPI in that category. Short-term investments by an FPI may exceed 20% of total investments, only if investments are entirely made on or before April 2018, and not made after it.

RBI made PAN mandatory for remitting money abroad under Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). Earlier PAN was not insisted upon for putting current account transactions of up to $25,000. Under LRS, foreign remittances of upto USD 2,50,000 annually are allowed by resident individuals.

RBI made changes in Gold Monetisation Scheme (GMS) to make it more attractive -

RBI allowed customers to deposit the gold in a broken time period where short term period of 1-3 years can be broken to 1 year 3 months , 2 years 3 months 15 days etc. Medium Term Period (5-7 years) and Long Term Period (12-15 years) can be broken as well. Interest rate is calculated as per number of years and remaining days.

For pre-mature retrieval of Medium and Long term the amount would be in INR while 0.2% in INR would be deducted as administrative charges upon redemption in gold form.

Interest for Medium and Long term can be calculated as per amount of gold in terms of rupees during at time of deposit.

Interest rate vary from 2.25% to 2.5%.

RBI narrowed definition of relatives under the ‘maintenance of close relative’ category of Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) to check outflow of funds and prevent misuse of facility. Henceforth, funds under LRS can be sent only to immediate relatives such as parents, spouses, children and their spouses.

Earlier in June 2018, RBI had made PAN mandatory for anyone using LRS for remitting money outside the country. Earlier PAN was not insisted upon for putting current account transactions of up to $25,000.

Under LRS, foreign remittances of upto USD 2,50,000 annually are allowed by resident individuals.

RBI released draft guidelines to make rules stricter for larger borrowers to borrow working capital from banks. It specifies a minimum level of loan component in fund based working capital finance and a mandatory Credit Conversion Factor (CCF) for undrawn portion of cash credit availed by large borrowers.

Cash Credit is a facility by banks in which, a company can withdraw an amount more than what it holds to its credit against security. It posses regulatory challenges such as rollovers, diffusion of liquidity management from borrowers to banks, and hindering of smooth transmission of monetary policy.

Minimum level of ‘loan component’ - Borrowers having aggregate fund based working capital limit of 150 crore and above, need to withdraw a minimum of 40 % of limit as loan component and remaining as cash credit, from October 1, 2018.

Ground rules for sharing of cash credit and loan components will be laid down by consortium, subject to guidelines on bifurcation.

Amount of Working Capital Demand Loan (WCDL) will be fixed by banks, and tenure of shall not be less than seven days.

Banks will have discretion to demand repayment of ‘loan component’ in instalments or by way of a ‘bullet’ repayment.

Undrawn portion of cash credit / overdraft limits sanctioned will attract a credit conversion factor of 20 % from April 1, 2019.

Current 40 % loan component will be revised to 60 % from April 1, 2019.

RBI stated that interest subsidy scheme on short-term crop loans of up to 3 lakh rupees will be implemented through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode from current FY. Centre earmarked 15000 crore rupees for 2018-19 towards interest subvention for short-term crop loans.

RBL Bank raised its stake in Swadhaar Finserve Pvt. Ltd to 100% from 60.48%, buying stake from US-based non-profit Accion.

Reliance Industries (RIL) and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Company (JMF ARC) submitted proposal to acquire bankrupt textile company Alok Industries, for INR 5000 Crores, of which lenders will receive 4000 Crores, out of total 29500 Crores that Aloi Industries owes to its creditors.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced chnages in Monetary Policy Rates. New Rates are -

New Rates -

Repo Rate - 6.25 % (Increased from 6 %)

Reverse Repo - 6.00 %

Bank Rate - 6.50 %

Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate - 6.50 %

Unchanged Rates -

CRR (Cash Reserve Ratio) - 4 %

SLR(Statutory Liquidity ratio) - 19.5 %

6 member monetary policy committee (MPC) of RBI is headed by RBI Governor Urjit Patel. In this meeting, RBI also decided to allow voluntary transition of Urban Co-Operative Banks (UCB) into Small Finance Banks (SFB). It is an outcome of recommendations made by Committee on Urban Cooperative Banks in August 2015 headed by Former RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi. Panel recommended converting UCBs with business size of 20000 crores into regular banks in a bid to propel their growth.

RBI proposed setting up of Board of Management (BoM) in all Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs) having deposits of over 100 crores within one year, to strengthen governance.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will set up a Public Credit Registry (PCR) as a repository of information regarding loan information of individuals and corporate borrowers, as per recommendations of Y.M. Deosthalee committee. Committee Recommendations -

RBI should set up a Public Credit Registry and this should be backed by a legal framework. PCR will work as a repository of all loan contracts, duly verified by reporting institutions for all / any lending in India, regardless of amount of loan.

PCR should also capture data such as external commercial borrowings, market borrowings and should provide an holistic picture about borrower’s indebtedness. Borrowers should also be able to access their own history.

PCR data will be available to all stakeholders such as banks on a need-to-know basis. The database should also be linked to defaulter databases such as those maintained by Export Credit Guarantee Corp, GST network etc.

Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) approved amendments to buyback and takeover regulations and changed time for announcing price band of initial public offering (IPO) from 5 to 2 days, based on suggestions made by regulator’s Primary Market Advisory Committee (PMAC).

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) constituted expert Group to look into existing Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) framework and suggest measures to facilitate listing of startups. Group will look into existing ITP framework and suggest measures to facilitate listing of startups.

ITP framework is window on stock exchanges where e-commerce, data analytics, bio-technology and other startups can list and trade on their shares. It allows companies to list without necessarily doing an Initial Public Offer (IPO) of equity. SEBI introduced it in 2013 to facilitate listing of new age companies, but it failed to gain any traction.

ITP facilitates capital raising by start-up companies which are in their early stages of growth. It provides easier entry and exit options for investors like angel investors, Venture Capital Funds (VCFs) and Private Equities (PVs) etc.

It also provide better visibility and wider investor base.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) constituted an expert committee to recommend suitable framework to allow direct listing of Indian companies on overseas exchanges while allowing overseas companies to list directly on Indian exchanges.

Currently, Indian companies can only use depository receipts route – Global Depository Receipts (GDR) or American Depository Receipts (ADR) – to list on overseas exchanges.

Similarly, foreign companies can access Indian capital markets only through Indian Depository Receipts (IDRP) for listing of equities.

Sujit Prasad is convenor of the committee.

Swedish caller ID service Truecaller acquired Kerala-based payments startup Chillr, marking its first acquisition in India. Founded in 2014, Chillr lets users send money directly between bank accounts using mobile numbers.

Task Force on Shell Companies was set up in February 2017 to check the menace of companies indulging in illegal activities including facilitation of tax evasion and commonly referred to as ‘Shell Companies’.

Task Force has most notably compiled a database of shell companies by SFIO. This database comprises of 3 lists - Confirmed List (16537 entries), Derived List (16739 entries) and Suspect List (80670 entries).

During FY 2017-18, Registrars of Companies (ROCs) removed names of 226166 companies (under Section 248 of Companies Act 2013), which had not filed their Financial Statements for continuous 2 years. Also, 309619 directors were disqualified.

To help genuine corporates in regularizing their pending returns, Condonation of Delay Scheme 2018 was brought. It was effective from 1-01-2018 to 1-05-2018. Total 13,993 companies benefitted from the scheme.

For 2nd drive to be launched during FY 2018-19, total 225910 companies have been identified for being struck-off, along with 7191 LLPs for action under section 75 of LLP Act 2008, due to non-filing of financial statements for 2015-16 and 2016-17.

US government arm Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has given USD 5 million loan to Grameen Impact Investments to support domestic small and medium enterprises. The financing to Grameen Impact, a non-banking financial company, comes through IndusInd Bank in the form of a loan guarantee agreement.

World Bank approved Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation's Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY), with INR 6000 crores Expenditure. It is to be implemented from 2018-19 to 2022-23, with World Bank assistance. It aims to address criticality of ground water resources in a major part of country. Priority areas are Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Scheme is expected to benefit nearly 8350 Gram Panchayats in 78 districts in these states.

Funds will be provided to states for strengthening ground water governance and encourage community involvement for improving ground water management.

Scheme will have several positive outcomes like better understanding of ground water regime, focused community based approach for addressing issues related to ground water depletion, adoption of efficient water use practices to reduce ground water use for irrigation.

Yes Bank launched a new deposit scheme as first of many green retail products to be launched by bank. Bank aims to fetch INR 1000 crores through the scheme, called ‘Green Future : Deposit”. It supports Green Good Deeds campaign recently launched by Government. This would provide a peak interest of 7.5% and has a tenure of 18 months and 8 to 18 days. For senior citizens it would provide 8% interest. Bank also launched a pilot project for recycled dry waste generated at facilities.

Yes Bank received SEBI approval for acting as custodian of securities, enabling it to play a larger role in channelising domestic and foreign investments into Indian financial market and would enhance bank’s current capital market offerings.

International

A public health emergency has been declared in Oceania Nation Papua New Guinea (PNG), amid recent polio outbreak (first in 18 years).

12th Global Peace Index (GPI) 2018 by Ausralian Think Tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Rankng 163 Nations -

Top 5 - Iceland (1), New Zealand (2), Austria (3), Portugal (4), Denmark (5)

Bottom 5 - Syria (163), Afghanistan (162), South Sudan (161), Iraq (160), Somalia (159)

Neighbours - Nepal (84), Pakistan (151), Sri Lanka (67), Bangladesh (93)

BRICS - Brazil (106), Russia (154), India (136), China (112), South Africa (125)

India improved as compared to 137th Rank in 2017 List.

9th London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) -

Actors Irrfan Khan and Manoj Bajpayee were honored by special Icon Awards in the event.

Outstanding Achievement Award went to Actress Richa Chadha.

Satyajit Ray Short Film Award worth GBP 1,000 went to Indo-German co-production “The Peanut Seller”.

The LIFF will tour will tour Bimingham and Manchester in June - July 2018.

End of Childhood Index 2018 report by global child rights group named Save the Children.

India ranked 113th in list of 175 countries.

Top 5 - Singapore (1), Slovenia (2), Norway (3), Sweden (4), Finland (5)

Bottom 5 - Niger (175), Mali (174), Central African Republic (173), Chad (172), South Sudan (171)

ASSOCHAM study on Electricals & Electronics Manufacturing in India -

India recycles only 5% of its e-waste and is one of biggest contributors of e-waste (2 million tonnes per annum). E-waste includes discarded computer monitors, motherboards, Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT), Printed Circuit Board (PCB), mobile phones and chargers etc.

Other top e-waste generator countries are China, US, Japan and Germany.

In India, Maharashtra is at top in e-waste generation (19.8% ), followed by Tamil Nadu (13%), Uttar Pradesh (10.1%).

According to FDI Report 2018 by FDI Intelligence (division of Financial Times Ltd.), USA surpassed India as top destination to attract Greenfield FDI investment ($87.4 billion FDI).

Number of greenfield FDI projects in India during year fell sharply by 21% to 637.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) -

Total nuclear warheads with 9 nuclear countries (USA, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea).

Out of 14465 nuclear warheads at beginning of 2018, 3750 are actually deployed.

Top Holders are -

Russia - 6850

USA - 6450

France - 300

China - 280

Pakistan 140-150

Britain - 215

India - 130-140

Israel - 80

North Korea - 10-20

According to United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2018 report, number of hungry people in world has risen for first time in more than decade. There are now approximately 38 million more undernourished people in world, rising from 777 million in 2015 to 815 million in 2016.

According to a Mercer survey, Mumbai is most expensive city in India to live in for expatriates as compared to Washington and Melbourne. Hong Kong is ranked as world’s costliest city to live in for expatriates, followed by Tokyo, Zurich, Singapore, and Seoul.

According to a report titled Summer 2018 State of the Internet/ Security: Web Attack report, by Cloud delivery network provider Akamai Technologies, India is ranked fourth in list of top 10 target countries for Web Application Attacks.

According to report by organization European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), Norway observes lowest rate of traffic accidents in world (20 deaths per 10 lakh inhabitants).

As per Future Development blog of World Bank’s Brookings Institute titled as The start of a new poverty narrative -

India is no longer a nation having world’s largest poor population. Nigeria has now overtaken India with largest number of extremely poor people at 87 million in early 2018.

India is moving down in global poverty ranking. From 125 million poor people in 2016, India had just 73 million people in poorest of poor index as of May 2018.

Approx 44 Indians are being taken out of poverty every minute, highest rate in world.

Asia’s first arbitration centre specialised in intellectual property, called International Arbitration Centre in Tokyo (IACT), will be opened in Tokyo (Japan) in September 2018. It will have around 12 arbitrators from various parts of the world, who would try to resolve disputes within a time period of 1 year. IACT would also handle disputes between non-Japanese companies if both parties agree.

BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands List 2018 -

HDFC Bank is only Indian brand in List, ranked 60th.

Top 4 - Google (1), Apple (2), Amazon (3), Microsoft (4).

Canadian Parliament passed a historic bill legalizing recreational use of marijuana nationwide, becoming second country to do so.

Chemical weapons watchdog Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has granted itself new powers to help identify those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria, as a proposal tabled by United Kingdom. Until now, OPCW was only able to say whether chemical weapons were used – but not who had used them.

China approved first domestically developed, long-acting injectable HIV drug named Albuvirtide. It can block fusion of virus and host cell membranes, blocking HIV life cycle in earliest stage.

China successfully launched new Earth observation satellite Gaofen-6. It will focus on agricultural resources research and disaster monitoring. Also, a scientific experiment satellite named Luojia-1 was sent into space.

China will build a railway connecting western region of Tibet with Nepal, one of several bilateral deals signed during Nepali PM Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli’s visit to China. It will connect Tibetan city of Xigaze with Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

Citi Bank is first to enroll as Payment Initiation Service Provider under UK’Open Banking regime, According to which the European Banks are required to share customer data with third party banks upon the customers’ approval. This would enable it to receive small payments directly from UK’s customer bank accounts without debit or credit cards.

Denmark banned wearing of face veils (burqa and niqab) in public places, a move that will criminalise Muslim women who choose to wear niqab or burqa.

East African Nation Uganda's parliament passed a law to impose a controversial tax on people using social media platforms. It imposes a 200 shilling ($0.05, £0.04) daily levy on people using internet messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber and Twitter, arguing that social media encouraged gossip.

European Union Film Festival (EUFF) began in New Delhi on 18th June at the Siri Fort Auditorium, With 24 latest European films from 23 EU Member States. The festival will traverse through 11 cities in India till 31st August.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Pakistan in its 'grey list' for its failure to check activities of terrorists operating from and within its territory, inlcuding failure to curb Terror Financing.

This may hurt Pakistan's economy as well as its international standing and make it tough for it to receive international funding.

FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

France will reintroduce compulsory national service for all 16-year-olds. French boys and girls would do a minimum of 1 month service in first phase which would focus on voluntary teaching and working with charities among others. 2nd phase will be voluntary and focus on areas linked to defence and security.

German conglomerate Bayer completed its $63-billion takeover of US-based Monsanto to create world’s biggest agro-chemical and seed company.

Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI) 2018 by realty consultant JLL -

India is ranked 35th among 100 countries.

Top 5 - UK (1st), Australia (2nd), United States (3rd), France (4th), Canada (5th)

Bottom 5 - Venezuela (100), Libya (99), Senegal (98), Mozambique (97) and Ivory Coast (96).

South Asia: Sri Lanka (66th position), Pakistan (75th).

Global financial services major Morgan Stanley reported that India will become a leader in shared mobility by 2030, caused by increasing amount of electric and autonomous vehicles being used. In 2017, 10% of total 257 million miles have been travelled by shared mobility and this trend would increase to 35% by 2030.

Greece and Republic of Macedonia reached a historic agreement to end a bitter 27-year name dispute that kept Macedonia out of international institutions such as Nato and EU.

Macedonia naming dispute is a political dispute over use of name "Macedonia" between Greece and Republic of Macedonia, formerly a region within Yugoslavia.

Agreement says that Republic of Macedonia will be Known as Republic of Northern Macedonia, ending the naming dispute.

Deal reached by two countries' prime ministers is expected to be signed by their foreign ministers soon. After that, Macedonia's parliament would vote on it, and if it approved, Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov's signature would be needed.

However, Macedonian President Mr. Ivanov said that he will not sign the accord to change his country's name.

HDFC has been ranked as 5th biggest public company globally in 'consumer financial services category' on Forbes' list. American Express topped category, while Indiabulls Housing Finance is only other Indian company (at 13th place). In overall list topped by China's ICBC, HDFC took 321st place. There are a total of 58 Indian companies on the overall list of 2000 firms, with Reliance Industries (83rd) as Best in India.

India extended financial aid of INR 99 million (approx 10 Crores) to Nepal for construction of 2,700 shallow tube well (STWs) irrigation systems in 12 districts of southern Terai region to boost agricultural productivity. It is final payment for Nepal-Bharat Maitri Irrigation Project, which has seen India release total 227.6 million Nepali rupees to Nepal for implementing this project.

India pledged $5 million for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Near East. Besides, 19 other countries also made pledges for UNRWA at Pledging Conference for UNRWA in New York (US). Sweden pledged US $250 million over 3 years, $ 51 million and UAE $50 million.

India also increased its grant to Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) new four-year investment cycle, known as GEF-7 from $12 million to $15 million. It was announced at GEF Council meet at Da Nang (Vietnam), and approved $4.1 billion replenishment of GEF-7.

India received first shipment of its so far cheapest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) from Russian supplier Gazprom, priced USD 7 per million British Thermal Unit (mmBtu), which is around 1.5 USD cheaper from LNG imported from Qatar (India’s oldest and largest supplier of LNG).

India is fourth largest importer of LNG, with import dependence 45% to 50 %.

India will make strategically important Chabahar port operational by 2019, even as US reimposed sanctions on Iran after withdrawing itself from nuclear deal.

India will open four new air entry points to Nepal in eastern and western parts of country. Routes are - Kathmandu-Biratnagar-Dhaka, Kathmandu-Janakpur-Kolkata, Kathmandu-Janakpur-Patna in eastern Nepal, Kathmandu-Mahendranagar-Delhi (L626) in west.

India's Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) signed agreement to set up a framework for recognizing members easier and encourage mobility of professionals between both countries.

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) removed Nepal from its Significant Safety Concern (SSC) list. In 2013, ICAO enlisted Nepal in SSC category as Nepal’s compliance to ICAO’s standard at that time stood only at 55 % out of standard 60 %.

International Monetory Fund (IMF) released its loan of $252 million to Srilanka, as part of a $1.5 billion deal.

Iraq Parliament ordered a full manual recount of country’s recent parliamentary election where 1.1 crore votes were cast, as a response to charges of electoral fraud. Elections were held in Iraq last month for first time since defeat of Islamic State in country.

Japan adopted an economic plan that will allow more foreign workers to work in country. This will help rapidly aging country to make up for its declining workforce. Under it, Japan will relax visa requirements in sectors facing severe labour shortages and will create new five-year visa category for non-professional foreign workers. Applicants for new visa status will need to pass certain skill tests and have some degree of Japanese language proficiency in order to receive new five-year visas.

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) for Asia-Pacific region stated that India’s gender inequality is extremely high on work & politics. India’s score was 0.30 in gender equality at work and 0.78 in legal protection and political voice out of 1.0 scale. India behind Asia-Pacific average in all, but ahead of Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Microsoft acquired video discussion platform Flipgrid which is used by 20 million teachers and students across world.

Microsoft launched prototype of an underwater data centre off the coast of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, as part of Microsoft’s Project Natick. The capsule contains 864 servers and 27.6 Petabytes of storage, and has been placed 117 feet below ocean’s surface. It is designed to hold data for up to 5 years without maintenance.

Myanmar and UN agencies signed an agreement that could lead to return of some of 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled brutal persecution by country’s security forces and are now crowded into makeshift camps in Bangladesh.

Netherlands Parliament bannned full-face veils such as burqa and niqab in public places. Violation will result in a fine of nearly INR 32000.

ONGC Videsh Ltd received the first equity oil cargo from Abu Dhabi's Lower Zakum oilfield, where it recently bought 10% stake in. A shipload of Das blend crude oil reached New Mangalore port. Lower Zakum (LZ) oilfield produces 400000 barrels per day.

Passport Index 2018 by Henley and Partners -

It analyzes 199 different passports across 227 destinations to list rankings annually.

Japanese passport is named most powerful passport in world, granting visa-free access to 189 countries.

Indian passport secured 76th rank in index with its holders getting visa-free access to 59 countries.

QS World Best Universities Ranking 2019 (Top 1000 Universities Listed) -

Top 5 -

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

Stanford University (USA)

Harvard University (USA)

California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (USA)

Univesity of Oxford (UK)

Indian Universities in List -

24 Indian Universities in 2018 List, up from 20 last year.

IIT Bombay topped among Indian Universities in List (162nd Place), Followed by IISC Bengaluru (170), IIT Delhi (172), IIT Madras (264) and IIT Kanpur (283).

Rajnilanth Starrer Kaala become first Indian film to release in Saudi Arabia. Note that Hollywood's Black Panther recently became first film to release in Saudi Arabia in 35 years. Saudi Arabia also recently gave away its first batch of driving licenses to women after decades long ban.

Russia launched Glonass-M positioning satellite on board of Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket, as part of GLONASS network GLONASS (Russian acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System) which provides real-time positioning data for surface, sea and airborne objects around globe, at accuracy reportedly at par with US Global Positioning System (GPS). With this, there are now total 26 Glonass satellites in orbit.

Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom)'s subsidiary Nikiret signed an agreement with Indian engineering services firm Core Energy Systems Pvt Ltd for promotion of its technical security equipment in India, to assist in India's Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS) project.

SAARC Development Fund (SDF) will launch social enterprise development programme (SEDP) as part of its social window, aimed at building social enterprises by using mix of grants and concessional returnable capital. It intends to fund around 80 enterprises across 8 SAARC member states (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) annually.

Saudi Arabia Government established Ministry of Culture, separating it from Information Ministry, amid attempts to modernise the conservative kingdom.

Seychelles President Danny Faure said that India-Seychelles joint project to develop naval base at Assumption Island in his country can not move forward. Seychelles will develop military facilities at the island on its own.

Agreement was signed with India in 2015 to develop a naval facility at Assumption Island which would have given India strategic advantage in Indian Ocean Region (IOR), but the project had to be halted after growing political opposition in Seychelles. It was meant to India’s first Naval Base project overseas and had acquired significance after China had acquired its first African naval base in Djibouti (near Horn of Africa) in November 2014.

Assumption Island is a small island situated southwest of Seychelles main and largest island of Mahe. It is situated very close to Mozambique Channel from where much Indian Ocean maritime routes pass. Its location lends it strategic importance for monitoring shipping in the Mozambique Channel.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will become 1st international head of State to travel to North Korea to meet North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, since he took over in 2011.

UK’s Prince William became first member of the royal family to visit Israel on an official visit. He also met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which will mark first UK royal visit to West Bank.

US State Department's 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report categorised North Korea as worst human trafficking nation for 16th consecutive year, citing use of forced labour. N Korea is included in Tier 3 category, along with China, Russia and Iran.

USA and Cuba will permanently restore postal services after running a pilot program for 2 years, which was suspended in 1963.

USA announced its withdrawl from United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), accusing it of "chronic bias" against Israel. Recently, UNHRC blamed Israel for Gaza violence, and rejected USA demand to condemn Hamas (The palestinian Extremist Group).

USA imposed stiff 25% tariff on US $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, accusing China of intellectual property (IP) theft and unfair trade practices. Tariffs will be applied in two waves, first to 818 Chinese goods worth $34 billion and in second wave it will apply to 284 goods worth another $16 billion. As a backfire action, China also imposed additional tariffs and duties on $50-billion worth of American products.

Also, India also imposed higher import tariffs (ranging from 20 to 50%) on 30 goods from USA, ranging from automobile components to agro products such as almonds, shrimps and chocolates. It is expected to rake in additional $240 million to India.

USA unveiled world’s most powerful supercomputer called ‘Summit’, beating previous record-holder China’s Sunway TaihuLight. With a peak performance of 200,000 trillion calculations per second (200 petaflops), it is over twice as fast as Sunway TaihuLight, which is capable of 93,000 trillion calculations per second. Summit has 4,608 servers.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) flagship carrier Emirates Airline launched a joint project with US Crop One Holdings to build world’s largest vertical farming facility near Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport, with investment of $40 million.

Vertical farm facility will cover an area of 12,077 square metres with an output equivalent to 3.64 million square metres of farmland.

It will harvest 2,700 kg of high-quality, herbicide and pesticide-free leafy greens daily, using 99 percent less water than outdoor fields.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) elected South Africa, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Germany and Belgium as non-permanent members of UN Security Council (UNSC). They will have two-year term beginning January 1, 2019.

WHO launched new WHO Global action plan on physical activity and health 2018-2030: More active people for a healthier world, explaining how countries can reduce physical inactivity in adults and adolescents by 15% by 2030. It specifies a set of 20 policy areas aimed to develop more active societies by improving the environments and opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to do more Physical Activities.

With Over 186000 Indian students studying in USA, India is 2nd highest sender of foreign students to US, next only to China.

World Bank approved $700 million to help Bangladesh achieve its education for all vision by improving primary education sector, under Quality Learning for All Program (QLEAP). Also, Pakistan and World Bank inked agreements worth $565 million to support projects in power and water sectors.

World Health Organisation (WHO) classified gaming addiction as mental health disorder in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD). WHO defines gaming disorder as pattern of gaming behaviour characterized by impaired control over gaming, increased priority given to gaming over other activities.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) notified declaration submitted by India related to Article II and III of Appendix to Paris Act (1971) related to Berne (Switzerland) Convention for Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

It will enable India to avail facilties provided for Article II and III of Appendix to Berne Convention during 10 years period that will expire, on October 10, 2024.

India has been member of Berne Convention since April 1928 and has been submitting declaration as per Article II and III of Appendix from time to time.

Berne Convention for Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Convention) is international copyright agreement that mandates equal treatment of copyrighted works by signatories, known as Berne Union. It was adopted in 1886 in Berne, Switzerland.

World Reputation Rankings 2018 Times Higher Education (THE) -

Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru (IISc Bangalore) is Only University in Global Top 100 (Ranked 91).

Top 5 - Harvard University (USA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), Stanford University (USA), University of Cambridge (UK) and University of Oxford (UK).

World's First third generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) reactor started working in Taishan (China).

EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor (PWR) design, developed mainly by Framatome and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and Siemens in Germany. In Europe this reactor design was called European Pressurised Reactor, and internationalised name was Evolutionary Power Reactor. 2 EPR units under construction in Finland and France are both facing costly construction delays.

Meetings

106th Indian Science Congress will be held at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Jalandhar (Punjab0 in January 2019, with theme Future India: Science & Technology. It will be organised by Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA).

11th World Hindi Conference will be held in Mauritius in August 2018, with Theme Hindi Vishwa Aur Bharatiya Sanskriti.

44th G7 summit held in Quebec (Canada). Its Joint Statement was rejected by USA Prez Donald Trump. Members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy,Japan,United Kingdom,United States AND European Union. Next (45th) G7 Summit will be held in Nouvelle - Aquitaine (France).

An anti-doping sports conference named Clean Sport=Fair Outcome? conducted to address the issue of doping, at Oslo (Norway).

Department of Economic Affairs (Ministry of Finance) hosted 3rd Annual Meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Mumbai (First in India) -

Theme for this year's AIIB meet is Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration.

With total project portfolios of US$4.4 Billion, India is largest borrower of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Inaugural Asian Infrastructure Forum was also held launched, which will gather infrastructure practitioners in a practical and project-driven discourse, focused on matching innovative finance to criticalinfrastructure needs.

Exhibition titled India Infrastructure Expo 2018 was also organized on sidelines of 3rd AIIB Meet.

AIIB -

AIIB is China led multilateral development bank set up in 2016. It has 83 member nations. India is second largest shareholder in AIIB (7.5 %), after China (26.06). It is headquartered in Beijing (China).

Jin Liqun (China) is current president of AIIB.

Haryana Government will host 2018 World Union of Wholesale Markets (WUWM) Conference at Gurugram in October 2018, to provide common unified structure of mandis all across world and take advantages of the improvements in mandis in the world for India’s domestic requirements.

Most anticipated Bilateral Meeting for world peace, the USA-North Korea Meet held in Singapore.

USA Prez Donald Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un met in Singapore, after a round of negotiations and months of tensions among both parties.

North Korea Pledged to give up its nuclear Program and destroy its Nuclear arsenal. It brings respite to whole world as North korea.

After successful USA-North Korea Peace summit, USA and South Korea suspended 2 exchange program training exercises.

Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) plenary meeting held in Jurmala (Latvia). With this, Latvia became first Baltic state to chair NSG.

National

Cabinet Approvals (June 27, 2018) -

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Approvals -

Contribution of 1040 crores to National Export Insurance Account Trust (NEIA), to be utilised till 2019-20. Corpus would strengthen NEIA to support project exports from the country that are of strategic and national importance.

Capital infusion of 2000 crores for strengthening of Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC). It would enhance insurance coverage to MSME exports and strengthen India’s exports to emerging and challenging markets like Africa, CIS and Latin American countries.

Hiked price of ethanol, used for doping in petrol, by almost INR 2.85 per litre to Rs 43.70 in a bid to cut India's oil import dependence as well as give higher price for sugarcane.

General Approvals -

Establishment of additional 6.5 Million Metric Tonne (MMT) Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) facilities at Chandikhol in Odisha (4 MMT) and Padur in Karnataka (2.5 MMT), including construction of SPMs (Single Point Mooring) for 2 SPRs.

ISPRL has already constructed underground rock caverns for storage of 5.33MMT of crude oil at 2 locations - Vishakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangalore (1.5 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT).

MOUs -

Singapore - Planning

Denmark - Science, Technology and Innovation, Animal Husbandry and Dairying

Germany - Civil Aviation

France - Maritime Awareness Mission

Indonesia - Technical Cooperation in Railways sector

Bahrain - Healthcare

13 Indian beaches will soon get the Blue Flag certification, for being Environment-friendly, clean and equipped with amenities of international standards. These beaches of Odisha, Maharashtra and other coastal states will be the first in Asia, to get Blue Flag certification. Blue Blue Flag beach standards are conferred by Copenhagen (Denmark) based Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).

220 MW Unit-1 of Karnataka's Kaiga Generating Systems (KGS-1) has set a new record of the continuous operation of 766 days, surpassing earlier record of 765 days set by the Unit-5 of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS-5) in 2014. With this, KGS-1 stands second in world among Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and fourth among all nuclear power reactors in terms of continuous operation.

3 day annual Sindhu Darshan Festival celebrations on bank of Indus River in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

578 metre long Theng tunnel inaugurated in Sikkim, as state’s longest tunnel. It is constructed on Gangtok-Chungthang Highway.

A tripartite Concession Agreement signed between National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), UP Jal Nigam and Triveni Engineering & Industries to develop an Integrated Sewage Infrastructure for Mathura on Hybrid Annuity-based PPP mode.

According to Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation, rural sanitation coverage has risen to 85% under Swachh Bharat Mission. Sanitation coverage under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) has increased more than double since launch of mission. As a result, over 3.8 lakh villages and 391 districts across country have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

According to Recently Released SRS bulletin (2016) -

India registered significant decline in Maternal Mortality Ratio, with 22% reduction in since 2013. MMR declined from 167 in 2011-2013 to 130 in 2014-2016, against UN MDG (Millennium Development Goals) target of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 139 by 2015. Total maternal deaths for first time are reduced to 32000.

Uttar Pradesh with 30% decline topped in reduction of Maternal Deaths. Three states (Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu) have already met SDG target for MMR of 70 per 100000.

WHO commended India's progress in reducing the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by 77 %, from 556 per one lac live births in 1990 to 130 per one lac live births in 2016. This puts India country on track towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal target of MMR below 70 by 2030.

According to recently released language data of Census 2011, Hindi is most spoken in India with it being mother tongue of 43.63% Indians, followed by Bengali. Marathi replaced Telugu as 3rd most spoken language in nation. Sanskrit is least spoken in India.

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation for icon tower in Amaravati, with 33 floors and 158-meter height. It will be in the form of letter ‘A’ and it represents Amaravati, to ber built at around 500 Crores.

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu stated that state is now Open Defecation Free (ODF), as it achieved goal of constructing 2.77 lakh individual toilets.

Andhra Pradesh Government launched a Zero Based Natural Farming (ZBNF) scheme for benefitting farmers, aiming 100% chemical-free agriculture by 2024. It has provisioned investment of INR 16134 croress by 2024. It makes Andhra Pradesh as India’s first 100 % natural farming state.

Andhra Pradesh government announced monthly allowance of INR 1,000 each to unemployed graduate youths in state with an upper age limit of 35 years.

Andhra Pradesh will become first state to use auto-disable syringes for all clinical purposes to prevent infection, from World Hepatitis Day on July 28.

Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu inaugurated 6 MW Shaikangchu small hydro electric project at Gongkhar village in Arunachal Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu launched Arunachal Rising Campaign, to create awareness among people about government programmes. It will highlight positive works of government and involve feedback services covering all sections of people.

Arunachal Pradesh Government signed MOU with Andhra Pradesh-based Smart Village Movement (SVM), To facilitate technology innovations, research and development in selected villages of state. 100 villages spread over 60 constituencies would be selected in consultation with government for SVM project.

As per Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry -

19 of 25 dirtiest cities in India are from West Bengal. Jharkhand is the cleanest state in India, followed by Maharashtra and Chattisgarh.

Among cities, Indore is cleanest for 2nd year in a row, followed by Bhopal and Chandigarh. While, Bhadreshwar in Gujarat is at bottom of 500 cities.

As per State of India’s Environment (SoE) 2018 in Figures that has been released recently by Down To Earth magazine -

India ranked 177 out of 180 countries in Global Environment Performance Index (EPI) rankings 2017, India silpped from 141st place in 2016.

India scored 5.75 out of 100 in air quality.

Through Swachh Bharat scheme, 72.1 million individual household toilets have been constructed. But funds allocated for spreading awareness on this to rural people remains unused.

Central government’s target of installing 175 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy by 2022, is not seeing expected progress, with only 9 % of the roof-top solar target achieved so far.

There is a 146 per cent increase in forestland diversion for non-forest activities in the last one year with maximum diversions recorded in Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. Forest fires have increased by 125 per cent in just two years (2015-2017).

Ashwini Kumar Choubey 9Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare) released 11th Common Review Mission (CRM) report of the National Health Mission. One of its findings stated that women bear uneven burden in family planning as they account for more than 93% of sterilisations in the country.

Assam government will introduce awareness programme called 'Sanskar' in all its development blocks and panchayats, after incidents triggered by superstition and ignorance including lynching of two people in Karbi Anglong district.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) signed pact with South Korean firm NANO Ltd for design and manufacture of SCR Catalysts for De-NOx application in coal-fired plants. It will enhance BHEL's offerings for emission control systems (De-NOx applications).

Bihar government launched new crop insurance scheme named Bihar State Crop Assistance scheme, to be effective from Kharif season 2018. Under this, farmers would get compensation of INR 7500 per hectare if less than 20% of crop is damaged. And if more than 20% of crop is damaged, INR 10000 would per hectare would be given as compensation.

Cabinet Approvals (June 06, 2018) -

CCEA (Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs) Approvals -

Approved construction of 9.9 km long new 6 - lane bridge across river Ganga on NH - 96 at Phaphamau in Allahabad with total cost of INR 1948 crores, to be completed by December 2021. It will resolve the traffic congestion on existing old 2 - lane Phaphamau bridge on NH-96 at Allahabad. This will aso boost pilgrimage and local economy of Holy city of Prayag.

Implementation of Phase-3 of Off-grid and Decentralised Solar PV (Photo Voltaic) Application Programme to achieve additional 118 MWp(Mega Watt peak) off-grid solar PV capacity by 2020. Off-grid solar systems will also open better livelihood opportunities for beneficiaries in remote areas, increasing self-employment. Implementation of Phase-Ill is likely to generate employment opportunity equivalent to 8.67 lakh man-days. It will Cover -

300000 solar street lights will be installed across country.

Solar power plants of individual size up to 25 kWp(kilo Watt peak) will be promoted in areas where grid power has not reached or is not reliable. Aggregated capacity of solar power plants would be 100 MWp.

2500000 solar study lamps will be provided in North Eastern States and LWE affected districts.

Total project of the three components included under the phase 3 is INR 1895 crores of which INR 637 crores will be provided as central financial assistance.

General Approvals -

Release of Joint Stamps between with Russia, to establish postal cooperation.

Approved revision in wage structure of Gramin Dak Sevaks (GDS), with expenditure of INR 1258 crores during 2018-19, benefitting . 3.07 lakh Gramin Dak Sevaks. GDSs have been brought under two categories - Branch Postmasters (BPMs) and Assistant Branch Postmaster (ABPMs). Present 11 TRCA slabs will be merged into 3 TRCA Slabs with two levels each for BPMs and other than BPMs. Introduction of new Time Related Continuity Allowance (TRCA).

Approved Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) Continuation Programme (Phase 6) and funding of thirty PSLV operational flights under the Programme, with total fund requirement of INR 6131 Crores.

PSLV Continuation Programme was sanctioned in 2008, with four phases completed and fifth phase to be completed by Q2 of 2019-20. Phase 6 approval will cater to launch of satellite missions during Q3 of 2019-20 to Q1 of 2023-2, with frequency of up to 8 launches per year.

Approved Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-III (GSLV Mk-III) continuation programme (Phase-I) consisting of ten (10) GSLV (Mk-III) flights, at a total estimated cost of Rs. 4338 crores.

The GSLV Mk-III continuation Programme – Phase 1 is first phase of operational flights that will enable launch of 4 tonne class of communication satellites to meet country’s satellite communication requirements, during 2019-2024.

It will meet launch requirement of communication satellites to meet national demand for High Throughput Satellites for rural broadband connectivity, increase and sustain the availability of transponders for DTH, VSAT and Television broadcasters.

Approved several measures worth aprox INR 8500 crores, to improve liquidity of sugar mills resulting in accumulation of huge cane price arrears of farmers.

Creation of buffer stock of 30 LMT of sugar for 1 year and to incur estimated expenditure of 1175 crores.

To fix minimum selling price of white / refined sugar at mill gate below which no white / refined sugar can be sold by a sugar mill in domestic market. Minimum selling price of white/refined sugar shall be initially fixed at Rs.29/kg which can be revised by DFPD based on revision of FRP etc.

To up-grade existing distilleries attached to sugar mills by installing incineration boilers and setting up new distilleries in sugar mills. Government will bear interest subvention of maximum 1332 crores over 5 years on bank loans amounting 4440 crores to be sanctioned to sugar mills by banks.

MOUs -

With Netherlands on technical cooperation in Spatial Planning, Water Management and Mobility Management.

With Denmark on technical cooperation in Sustainable and Smart Urban Development.

With United Kingdom, France on technical cooperation in Sustainable Urban Development.

With Oman on Cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space.

Cabinet Approvals (June 13, 2018) -

MOUs -

Joint issue of a postage stamp between Department of Posts of India and Vietnam.

MoU signed between Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Institut National de la Santeet de la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) of France. It aims at cooperation in areas of common interest within medical, life sciences and health research fields.

General Approvals -

Permitted HDFC Bank to raise additional share capital of up to a maximum of 24000 crores, over previous approved limit of 10000 crores. Provided that Composite foreign shareholding in Bank shall not exceed 74% of paid-up equity share capital.

Approved continuation of 3 Year Action Plan (2017-2020) of scheme for Agricultural Education Division and ICAR Institutes with outlay of INR 2225 crores. It is aimed to generate quality human resources from the institutions of higher agricultural education. It comprises of -

Strengthening and Development of Higher Agricultural Education in India - 2050 crores

ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) - 24 crores

ICAR - Central Institute of Women in Agriculture (CIWA) including All India Coordinated Research Project on Home Science (AICRP-HS) - 151 crores.

Approved withdrawal of Nalanda University (Amendment) Bill 2013 (pending in Rajya Sabha). Nalanda University was established after a Joint Press Statement at 4th East Asia Summit in Thailand in October 2009. Present proposal is for withdrawing Nalanda University (Amendment) Bill 2013, which is aimed at amending certain existing provisions of Nalanda University Act 2010.

Approved introduction of Dam Safety Bill 2018 in Parliament. It will help States and UTs to adopt uniform dam safety procedures which shall ensure safety of dams and safeguard benefits from such dams. The Bill provides for -

Constitution of a National Committee on Dam Safety which shall evolve dam safety policies and recommend regulations.

Establishment of National Dam Safety Authority as a regulatory body which shall implement guidelines and standards for dam safety.

Constitution of a State Committee on Dam Safety by State Governments.

Approved nomination of Home Minister as Chairman of North Eastern Council (NEC), and Minister of State (Independent Charge) in Ministry of DoNER as Vice Chairman of NEC. NEC has Governors and CMs of all 8 North Eastern State as its members. Presently, Rajnath Singh is Home Minister and Jitendra Singh is Minister of State (IC) in Ministry of DoNER.

Central Water Commission (CWC) signed agreement with Google for flood forecasting and dissemination of flood related information to masses, to help crisis management agencies to better handle extreme hydrological events, under National Hydrology Project (NHP).

CWC will use technological advances made by Google in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and geo-spatial mapping for effective management of water resources.

Google also roled lout an offline mode for Android users, to enable surfing web with Chrome even without a constant internet connection. Users who are signed into Chrome can also access relevant articles, based on browsing history.

Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) developed a mobile based application utsonmobile, with features -

It enables booking of unreserved tickets, issue and renewal of season and platform tickets, check and load R-wallet balance and helps maintain user profile management and booking history.

Upon registration, Railway Wallet (R-Wallet) will be created. R-Wallet can be recharged online (https://www.utsonmobile.indianrail.gov.in) or at any of UTS counters.

No advance ticket booking is allowed (Journey date will always be current date).

No need to carry hardcopy of ticket.

Centre of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding (CEMS) announced setting up of 24 labs (6 in Mumbai and 18 in Vizag campus), as first of its kind of infrastructure in Asia Pacific region. CEMS aims to build competency in maritime & shipbuilding sector through skill development.

Chhattisgarh Government approved merger of shikshakarmi with state school education department., wef July 2018. It is expected to benefit around 1.50 lakh shikshakarmi who are currently working under Panchayats and urban local bodies. For merger, a shikshakarmi must have completed 8 years of service.

Merged teachers would from now onwards be known as Teacher (LB) cadre and their management as well as control would be with School Education Department instead of Panchayat Department.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated a 16 MW solar ‘PV power plant’ established by Bharat Electronics LTD at Heavy Vehicle Factory in Avadi (Chennai).

Delhi Government will introduce a “happiness curriculum” in Delhi’s government schools from coming academic session, for students from nursery up to Class VIII.

Draft national disaster risk index prepared by home ministry with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has ranked Maharashtra at top, followed by West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, while Delhi is most at risk among Union territories (UTs).

Election Commission launched its online RTI Portal at URL (http://rti.eci.nic.in), to facilitate applicants seeking information under Right to Information Act.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj launched new Passport Seva App, allowing people to apply for a passport from anywhere.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recommended stringent punishment for food adulteration, with life imprisonment and penalty of up to s 10 lakh.FSSAI has proposed 100 amendments in Food Safety and Standards Act 2006.

It suggested creation of a 'Food Safety and Nutrition Fund' to support promotional and outreach activities among food businesses and consumers.

Recommended imprisonment of not less than 6 months and up to 2 years, besides penalty of up to 5 lakh. At present, imprisonment in such cases is up to 3 months and fine is up to Rs 1 lakh.

French power utility EDF and American conglomerate General Electric (GE) signed strategic cooperation agreement with State-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) for construction of 6 EPR (European Pressurized Reactors) type nuclear reactors of capacity 1,650 megawatt (MW) each at Jaitapur nuclear plant in Ratnagiri district (Maharashtra).

Agreement is for construction of conventional island on each of 6 reactor units of Jaitapur nuclear plant. GE Power will design conventional islands for plant and EDF will supply EPR technology and will be responsible for building and coordinating industrial partners.

Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant is proposed 9900 MW nuclear power project to come at Madban village of Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra. It will be built under Indo-France Civil Nuclear Deal signed in December 2010. Estimated cost of this project was around US $15 billion (Rs. 1 Lakh Crores).

World's First third generation European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) reactor recently started working in Taishan (China).

General Conferences (June 1 - 10, 2018) -

India and South Centre (an inter-governmental organisation based in Geneva (Switzerland)) organized an International Conference on TRIPS- CBD Linkage in Geneva, aiming to revive WTO discussions on issues related to preventing theft of traditional knowledge.

49th Conference of Governors Held in New Delhi.

3rdNational Health Editors’ Conference on Yoga held at Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) in New Delhi.

Oxford University Press South Asia Conclave 2018 held in New Delhi.

State Environment Ministers Conference as a run-up to World Environment Day held in New Delhi.

In this event, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan released ‘Status of Environment Report, India 2015’.

India’s forest cover was 21.34 % in 2015, and non forest trees area is 2.82%. Mizoram with 89 % has highest forest cover, followed by Lakshdweep (84.56 %), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (82 %), Arunachal Pradesh (80 %).

Assam has lowest forest cover with 35 % among 15 states / UTs with over 33 % forest cover.

Madhya Pradesh has maximum forest cover of 72,462 sq km, out of total approx 7 Lakh Sq Km forest cover in India.

11th GeoIntelligence Asia 2018 organised at Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi with theme GeoSpatial : A Force Multiplier for Defence and Industrial Security.

India’s Sanjana Ramesh was awarded ‘Most Valuable Player’ (MVP) even as compatriot Vaishnavi Yadav won the ‘Girls Grit Award’, during Basketball Without Borders Asia 2018 event held in New Delhi.

Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) organised National Consultation on Child Protection in New Delhi.

Ministry of Shipping in association with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), Ministry of Rural Development conducted a workshop on “Skill Development in the Port and Maritime Sector” in New Delhi.

General Conferences (June 11 - 20, 2018) -

15th annual Asia and Oceania Region Intergovernmental Ministerial meeting on anti-doping held in Colombo.

2 day National Consultation on ‘Making Agriculture Sustainable and Profitable’ held at Pune (Maharashtra).

4th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog held in New Delhi.

Rajiv Kumar is Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog and Amitabh Kant is Its CEO.

Kerala government organized promotion programme Yoga Ambassadors Tour, as a specialized trip for yoga professionals.

1 day thematic Seminar on “Private Sector Participation and Innovation in Resource Mobilisation” hosted in Mumbai by Ministry of Finance and Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) as knowledge partner.

Conference on Implementation of National Pension System (NPS) by Central Autonomous Bodies (CABs) organized by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in Delhi.

J P Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare exchanged MOUs with State Health Ministers of 20 States marking their commitment towards launch of the Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) at a Health Ministers conclave in Delhi.

Also, government proposed to impose penalty on insurance companies for delay in payment to hospitals for settlement of claims under its Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS). If an insurance company delays claim payment beyond 15 days, then it would have to pay a penalty of 1 % interest on claimed amount per week till it finally settles the claim.

About NHPM -

NHPS aims to provide a cover of Rs 5 lakh per family annually to 10 crore vulnerable families.

Indu Bhushan is CEO of NHPM.

3rd Meeting of National Council of Senior Citizens(NCSrC) held in Delhi.

IIT Kharagpur hosted Grand Finale of Smart India Hackathon 2018 – Hardware edition, in association with Ministry of HRD, AICTE, Persistent Systems and i4C.

SIH2018 – Hardware edition is first of its kind innovative initiative to provide platform to young technical minds to showcase their innovations which can bring out revolutionary changes in crucial sectors like agriculture, health, clean water, waste management, automotive, smart communication.

2nd India-US colloquium on Earth Observations and Sciences for Society and Economy was inaugurated at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO) at Dona Paula (Goa).

International Conference on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) held in Kathmandu (capital of Nepal) with Theme Sustainable Development Goals for Smart Society.

10th Meeting of Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF) held in New Delhi.

Workshop on Cyber Security Framework for Department of Defence organised by Ministry of Defence in New Delhi.

5th National Standards Conclave with theme Implementing the Indian National Strategy for Standardization held in New Delhi.

General Conferences (June 21 - 30, 2018) -

National Seminar on Conservation of Particularly Vulnerable Tribes of Andaman & Nicobar Islands (The Way Forward) held in New Delhi.

Students from KCJ College of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, have won first prize at the Smart India Hackathon 2018 Hardware Edition under the ‘Smart Communication’ category conducted at the CSIR-CEERI in Pilani, Rajasthan.

2 day National Consultation on ‘Making Agriculture Sustainable and Profitable’ held at Pune (Maharashtra).

A turmeric workshop on ‘Production and export promotion of turmeric’ held in Telangana. Commerce Ministry announced to set up a special cell for turmeric in Nizamabad (Telangana).

19th All India Conference of Directors of Finger Prints Bureau in Hyderabad (Telangana).

7th India Minerals and Metals forum organized in New Delhi.

4th National Review and Consultation on Swachh Iconic Places began in Hyderabad.

PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Vanijya Bhawan, a new office complex in New Delhi for Department of Commerce. PM also laid foundation stone for National Centre for Ageing at All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi. It will be completed by February 2020.

Pilot Training of Trainers (ToT) Course on Civilian Protection and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) held at Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi.

Ministry of Women and Child Development organized a Seminar on Technology Partnerships ‘TECH-THON’ for steering POSHAN Abhiyaan at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in New Delhi.

Confernce on Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan 'IPledgefor9' Achievers and MMR Reduction Awards held in New Delhi.

500th death anniversary of noted saint kabit observed at Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) organized Renewable Energy Dialogue 2018 in New Delhi. India has set a fresh target of achieving 100 GW of solar power by 2022 (up from 20 GW earlier). India also aims to achieve 40% of its total electricity generation from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

4th National Consultation Meeting of Ministers of States & UTs, in-charge of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs held in New Delhi.

J P Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated NIMHANS Digital Academy (Bengaluru).

Goa tourism department will launch app-based taxi services in state called GOAMILES in July 2018, to organize taxi services in tourism prone state. It has more than 2,800 licensed taxi drivers partnering with the app.

Government approved assistance of INR 5.5 lakh per family to West Pakistan Refugees (WPRs), to benefit 5764 families of WPRs settled in Jammu and Kashmir. Full expenditure for this scheme will be borne by Central Government.

Government proposed to set up 3000 Van Dhan Kendras involving 30000 SHGs across country under Van Dhan Scheme of Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

Van Dhan Scheme was launched on 14th April, 2018 during celebrations of Ambedkar Jayanti at Bijapur (Chattisgarh).

Under Van Dhan Scheme, 10 Self Help Groups of 30 Tribal gatherers each have been constituted at Bijapur, Chhattisgarh. They are then trained and provided with working capital to add value to the products, which they collect from the Jungle.

Van Dhan Mission targets at livelihood generation for tribals by harnessing non-timber forest produces, with estimated value of 2 Lakh Crores per year.

Further it is to set-up tribal community owned Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (the Kendra) in predominantly forested tribal districts. A Kendra shall constitute of 10 tribal SHGs, each comprising of upto 30 tribal NTFP gatherers or artisans i.e. about 300 beneficiaries per Kendra.

Governmet launched JANAUSHADHI SUVIDHA Oxo-biodegradable Sanitary Napkin, under Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), to be available at over 3600 Janaushadhi Kendras across India. It is priced at INR 2.5 Per pad, down from average price of a pad at INR 8 Currently.

Gujarat government announced wind-solar hybrid power policy 2018, aiming to make optimum utilisation of the land and grid. It provides 50% concession for cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge when generated energy is sold to a third party. Gujarat currently generates over 5,500 MW of wind power and 1,600 MW of solar power.

Gujarat government launched Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY), solar power scheme for farmers enabling them to generate electricity for their captive consumption as well as sell surplus power to grid and earn extra buck.

It is first such scheme in country, where farmer will produce his power and sell surplus to State power utility.

Pilot Phase with approx 137 feeders will cover as approx 12400 farmers from 33 districts. The project cost is around Rs 870 crore and it will generate 175 MW.

Under it, farmers of state having existing electricity connection will be given solar panels as per their load requirements. It envisages setting up of separate feeders for agricultural solar energy consumption.

Cost Sharing - State and Central governments will give 60% subsidy on cost of project. Farmer is required to take 5% cost, while 35% will be provided to him as affordable loan with interest rates of 4.5 to 6%.

Duration of scheme is 25 years, split between 7 and 18 year periods. For first 7 years, farmers will get per unit rate of Rs 7 (Rs 3.5 by state power utility + Rs 3.5 by state government). For subsequent 18 years they will get rate of Rs 3.5 for each unit sold.

HRD Ministry approved draft Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill 2018 , that seeks to repeal UGC Act and set up Higher Education Commission of India. Stakehoders can give their suggestions at reformofugc@gmail.com by 07-07-2018.

Principals of Draft Include Less Government and more Governance, Separation of grant functions, End of Inspection Raj, Focus on academic quality, Powers to enforce.

Highlights of Bill -

Improving academic standards and quality of higher education, specifying norms for learning outcomes, lay down standards of teaching/research etc.

Provide roadmap for mentoring of institutions found failing in maintaining the required academic standards.

Shall have the power to enforce decisions, grant or revoke authorization for starting / closure of academic operations.

Will encourage higher education institutions to formulate a Code of Good Practices covering promotion of teaching and learning.

Provides for penal provisions (graded), which will cover withdrawal of power to grant degrees/ diplomas, or even prosecution sanction in serious willful non-compliance.

There will be an Advisory Council to render advice the Commission on matters concerning coordination of standards in country.

Commission will specify norms for fixing of fee chargeable by higher education institutions and advice Governments accordingly..

It will monitor, through a national data base, development of emerging fields of knowledge and balanced growth of higher education in all spheres.

Handbook Legal Processes for the Police in Respect of Crime Against Children, has been released by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) along with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Mumbai.

Harayana Government launched 7-Star Gram Panchayat Rainbow scheme to give star rankings to its panchayats on the basis of seven social parameters - sex ratio, education, hygiene, environment preservation, governance and social participation. So far, Ambala topped star ranking followed by Gurugram and Karnal. .

Gram panchayats scoring maximum in all parameters will be recognized as Indradhanush Gram Panchayats. They will get special grants for development works from Development and Panchayats Department of State Government.

Rewards -

6 stars - 20 lakh.

5 stars - 15 lakh.

4 stars - 10 lakh.

Villages for achieving each parameter will be rewarded Rs 1 lakh. Villages having equal or more girl population will be given INR 50000 as bonus with their reward money. Villages which adopt Swachhta Mission will be given additional INR 50000.

Various Colours -

Pink star - To panchayats that make outstanding performance in improving sex ratio.

Green star - For protection of environment

White star - Cleanliness.

Saffron star - For crime-free villages.

Sky colour star - To village that will have no drop out.

Golden star - For good governance.

Silver star - For participation in development of villages.

Haryana Government approved introduction of e-auction with an amendment in policy for allotment of petrol pumps, CNG (Compressed natural gas) or PNG (Piped Natural Gas) sites to oil companies in urban areas. It aims at bringing transparency in allotment process.

Haryana government approved to provide monthly assistance of INR 8000 to female acid victims.

Haryana government increased upper age limit to enter into government service from 40 to 42 years.

Haryana government issued a notification directing sports persons employed with state to pay 33% of their income earned professionally and through commercial endorsements to state sports council. It will be used for development of sports in Haryana. State government also hiked Dearness Allowance (DA) from 5 % to 7%.

Haryana government launched One-Stop centres for women affected by violence in all its districts. Presently there are 7 OSCs in some districts in Haryana and approval has been granted for 15 more OSCs. Haryana Governemnt also announced to develop Madhogarh Fort in Mahendragarh on pattern of Mughal Gardens in Pinjore, under Madhogarh-Mahendragarh-Narnaul-Rewari Heritage Circuit.

Himachal Pradesh CM Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated Dr Radhakrishnan Government Medical College in Hamirpur. It will admit first batch of 100 students from 2018-19 academic year.

Himachal Pradesh cabinet announced increment of honorarium of ASHA workers of he health department from 1000 to Rs 1250, to benefit 7,829 ASHA workers in the state.

Himachal Pradesh government will do away with semester system in undergraduate (UG) courses and revert to annual examination system, as recommended by a committee formed to review RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan).

India will get its first national police museum in Lutyens Delhi, depicting history of central and state police forces. It will be inaugurated on Police Commemoration Day, which is held on October 21.

Also, A National Tribal Museum along with a National Level Tribal Research Institute will also be set up in Delhi.

Indian IT industry’s apex body NASSCOM (National Association of Software & Services Companies) has launched ‘Women Wizards Rule Tech’ programme to increase number of women in senior levels in Information Technology (IT) industry.

Indian Institute of Technology – Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi) and Amazon Internet Services Private Limited (AISPL) signed MoU to develop cloud-ready job skills by providing access to AWS Educate program and to help establish a Cloud Research Lab on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Cloud Research Lab will provide students with opportunities to use AWS Cloud technology to pursue research initiatives that focus on AI and ML innovation for India.

Indian Railways eliminated all unmanned level crossings (UMLC) from its four zones - West Central, Central, Eastern and South East Central Railways, aggregating 11,545 route kilometers that are now UMLC free on broad gauge route. Railways has target of September 2018 for eliminating UMLC in 11 zones of its total 16 zones. For remaining zones, target is set before 2020.

India’s first automated and organised vehicle scrapping and recycling facility set up in Greater Noida by Mahindra & Mahindra Limited through a joint venture with MSTC Limited.

India’s first robotic telescope at Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) at Hanle (Ladakh) started observing the skies. It is part of a multi-country collaborative initiative called ‘Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen’ (GROWTH) to observe transient events in universe. It is joint project of Indian Institute of Astrophysics Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB).

J P Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare released National Health Profile (NHP) 2018 prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI). He also launched National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) - Country’s first ever national healthcare facility registry of authentic, standardized and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare establishments.

NHRR will be ultimate platform for comprehensive information of all healthcare establishments in India (Private / Government). Over 20 lakh healthcare establishments like hospitals, doctors, clinics, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and nursing homes would be enumerated under this census, capturing data on over 1,400 variables.

Jammu and Kashmir government will host its first ever global investors meet in July 2018 in Srinagar, focused on harnessing hydropower potential of 20,000 mega watts in Jammu Kashmir.

KVIC (Khadi and Village Industries Commission) created world record of distributing maximum number of bee-boxes in one day, 2330 bee-boxes were distributed among 233 beneficiaries in Zangalee Army area (Kashmir).

Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence (KASE) launched a new portal with single window facility for job seekers and employers. KASE will develop a Labour Bank that will be connected to jobs portal.

Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority launched of a ‘Water Literacy’(Jala Saksharatha) campaign to create awareness about importance and optimal use of water and its conservation.

Madhya Pradesh government announced outstanding power bill waiver scheme for laborers and poor families, expected to benefit about 77 lakh people. Cabinet also approved Mukhyamantri Jan Kalyan (Sambal) Yojana 2018 to provide subsidized power.

Maharashtra Government signed MoU with Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) to launch Cotton Mission, to create value chain with final market linkages for thousands of cotton farmers in Vidarbha region. Under this, MCX will partner with state agriculture department and other agencies to work with Farmer Producer Organisations and help them connect to organised market network for building their capabilities.

Maharashtra Govt. inaugurated a web portal named Continuous Medical Education (CME) to offer information and suggestions related to exact treatment received by patients for various health issues. Using this, medical practitioners can obtain suggestions regarding accurate treatment of patients suffering from various ailments.

Maharashtra government announced Kanya Van Samruddhi Yojana, in which farmers families with girl child will be given saplings for plantation. A farmer family with a girl child between April 1 and March 31 will get 10 saplings free of cost from forest department. Beneficiaries will have to plant saplings between July 1 and 7. Scheme will be applicable for 2 girl childs per family.

Maharashtra government made it compulsory for the Public Works Department to use plastic waste for construction and repair of asphalt roads, to sustainably use increasing amount of plastic waste collected by state civic bodies.

Maharashtra government partnered with Andhra Pradesh Government, to strengthen ecosystem of Fintech technology, during recent Mumbai Fintech Festival.

Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi laid Foundation for India’s First Advanced Forensic Lab in Chandigarh, dedicated to women related cases. It will augment current capacity of CFSL Chandigarh to 2000 Cases per year (from 160 cases). 5 more advanced forensic labs would come up in Mumbai, Chennai, Guwahati, Pune and Bhopal in 3 months, taking annual capacity to 50000 cases.

Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu launched ReUnite mobile application, to track missing children. It will use AmazonRekognition web facial recognition service to identify missing kids.

Minister of Steel, Chaudhary Birender Singh dedicated rebuilt Blast Furnace-1 ‘Parvati’ of SAIL, Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) to the Nation. Parvati is first Blast Furnace of SAIL that was launched in February 1959 by first President of India (Dr. Rajendra Prasad). It was put down in August 2013 for total rebuilding. With rebuild, annual production capacity of furnace increased from 0.438 Million tonnes (MT) to 1.015 MT.

Ministry of Agriculture launched Krishi Kalyan Abhiyan from June 1 to july 31, 2018, to promote best farming practices and double farmers income launched in 25 villages in Aspirational Districts identified by Ministry of Rural Development and NITI Aayog. Activities Include distribution of soil health cards, mini kits of pulses and horticulture plants etc.

Ministry of Culture launched Seva Bhoj Yojna scheme with outlay of INR 325 Croress for 2018-19 and 2019-20. It envisages to reimburse Central Government share of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST), to lessen burden of Charitable Religious Institutions who provide Food free of cost without any discrimination to General Public, Including Temples, Gurudwara, Mosque, Church, Dharmik Ashram etc.

It is applicable to Organizations which have been in existence for at least 5 years before applying for financial assistance/grant and who serve free food to at least 5000 people in a month.

Ministry will register eligible charitable religious institutions for a time period ending with finance commission period and subsequently registration may be renewed by he Ministry, subject to performance evaluation.

Entity will be permitted to submit reimbursement claim of GST and Central Government share of IGST to designated authority of GST Department at State level in prescribed format during validity of registration.

Eligible institutions should be registered with Darpan portal.

Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation launched Swajal Scheme in 115 Aspirational districts, aimed at providing clean drinking water. It will involve outlay of 700 crores through flexi-funds under existing National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) budget. 90% of project cost is taken care by Government and remaining 10% is contributed by beneficiary community.

Modernisation of 2000 water quality testing laboratories spread across country will also be taken up. INR 1000 crores will be earmarked for addressing drinking water needs of 27,544 arsenic and fluoride affected habitations of country, under National Water Quality Sub-Mission (NWQSM).

Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation selected 10 more iconic sites under Phase III of Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) of Swachh Bharat Mission, launched at Mana village (Uttarakhand).

10 new iconic sites are - Raghavendra Swamy Temple (Andhra Pradesh), Hazarduari Palace (West Bengal), Brahma Sarovar Temple (Haryana), Vidur Kuti (Uttar Pradesh), Mana village (Uttarakhand), Pangong Lake (J&K), Nagvasuki Temple (UP), Ima Keithal market (Manipur), Sabarimala Temple (Kerala) and Kanvashram (Uttarakhand).

SIP is an initiative of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under Swachh Bharat Mission and was launched in 2016. It was initiated as project to take iconic places and their surroundings to higher standards of cleanliness (swachhata).

Phase 1 and 2 of SIP each have 10 Iconic places listed under them.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeITY) launched 5000 Wi-Fi Choupals in villages in partnership with common service centres (CSCs), aiming to transform rural Internet connectivity through BharatNet. They will provide 60,000 WiFi hotspots in rural areas. Wi-Fi Choupals are in addition to broadband connectivity provided gram panchyats through optical fibre network under BharatNet.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) willl expand its India BPO Promotion Scheme to 1 lakh seats from current 48,000 seats. It will also set up 5th and India’s largest National data centre (NDC) in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) with capacity of 5 lakh virtual servers.

India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) was Launched in 2014, to incentivize establishment of BPO firms and their extension to Tier II and Tier III cities.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed an MoU with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to scale up short term healthcare courses through IGNOU's platform. Under this, curriculum for 10 courses especially designed for health sector, will provide more than 14 lakh trained manpower by 2025.

With coming up of 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) by 2022 under National Health Protection Mission (NHPM), there will be an urgent need for such health care providers.

Initially four courses will be launched, namely Home Health Aide,Geriatric Care Assistant, Phlebotomist andGeneral Duty Assistant. Followed by remaining six skill-based curriculum as standardized by MoHFW- Diabetes Educator, Dietetic Aide, EMT-Basic, Dispensing Optician/VT and Medical Equipment Technology Assistant.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved institution of Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal and 3 more Medals- Antarik Suraksha Medal, Asadharan Aashuchan Padak, and Utkrisht & Ati-Utkrisht Seva Medal, to be awarded annually.

HM’s Special Operation Medal and Asadharan Aashuchan Padak will be awarded on Independence Day (15th August).

Antarik Suraksha Medal and Utkrisht & Ati-Utkrisht Seva Medal will be announced on Republic Day (26th January).

Home Minister’s Special Operation Medal - Aims to promote high professional standards of Investigation of Crime in State/UT Police and Central Investigating Agencies (CIAs) in country.

Asadharan Aashuchan Padak - Will be given to security and Intelligence officials for acts of exceptional courage and skill in intelligence gathering.

Antarik Suraksha Medal - To be bestowed upon Police personnel for operation duty rendered by them for tenure of every 2 years in internal security in Jammu & Kashmir, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) region and North East region.

Utkrisht and Ati Utkrisht Seva Medal - To be awarded to permanent Police and intelligence personnel in recognition of Long Service of 15 and 25 year and good service records.

Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) announced that National Testing Agency (NTA) will train paper setters to set better question papers and provide better model answers. NTA It will take over all examinations from CBSE (except 10th and 12th board examinations) from 2019 in phased manner. It will be also conducting prestigious Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admission to prominent engineering colleges.

Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) launched National Digital Library of India (NDLI) on occasion of National Reading Day (June 17) in New Delhi. NDLI aims to make digital educational resources available to all, to empower learning.

NDLI (under aegis of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT)) is a framework of virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. It been developed by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) declared medium (5 GW by 2022) and long-term (30 GW by 2030) targets for offshore wind power capacity addition, as a new element in already existing basket of renewable energy of country.

Target for offshore wind power is moderate in comparison to on-shore wind target of 60 GW and its achievement of 34 GW and solar target of 100 GW by 2022, because of challenges in installing wind power turbines in open seas.

Global capacity of off-shore wind power is about 17 to 18 GW,led by UK, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands & China.

Ministry of Power will make 24 degrees celsius as mandatory default setting and labeling of air conditioners within few months, as part of campaign to promote energy efficiency.

Every one degree increase in temperature of air-conditioner results in saving of 6% of electricity consumed.

Normal human body temperature is approximately 36-37 degree Celsius. Lower temperature around 18-21 degree Celsius controlled by air conditioners is not only uncomfortable but is also unhealthy.

Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation approved 2 major irrigation projects and 4 flood management schemes with a cumulative cost of INR 84748 crores from six States/ UT.

Kaleshwaram Project (Telengana), will divert 195 TMC (5522 Million Cubic Meter) of Godavari water to irrigate about 18.25 lakh acres of land in 13 districts of Telangana. It is worth approx INR 80190 crores.

Upper Pravara (Nilwande-II) Project (Maharashtra) will irrigate an area of 2,12,758 acres. It is worth approx INR 2232 crores.

Ministry of Women and Child Development launched report titled Women in Prisons, aiming to build an understanding of various entitlements of women in prisons and possible methods for resolution of the same. Report contains 134 recommendations for improving lives of women facing several issues.

Ministry of Women and Child Development partnered with NASSCOM to improv its nutrition monitoring app, Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS), developed under Poshan Abhiyan (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment) that aims to fight malnourishment and stunting.

Mizoram government will introduce a resolution in state legislature objecting to Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016, as the amendment will legalise thousands of Buddhists (Chakmas) who have illegally entered Mizoram from Bangladesh.

Also, cabinet approved Sinlung Hills Council Bill 2018, signed as result of peace accord betwee Mizoram government and erstwhile underground Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic) in April 2018.

Muthoot Fincorp became first major private sector player to partner with National Skill Development Corporation to train over 10,000 youth over 3 years.

NITI Aayog Launched a Composite Water Management Index as a tool to improve management of water resources. This index is an attempt to inspire States and UTs towards efficient and optimal utilization of water. States are categortized as North Eastern and Himalayan States AND Other States. Outcomes of report (for 2016 - 17) -

In Other States,Gujarat is ranked at top in reference year (2016-17), followed by Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

In North Eastern and Himalayan States, Tripura is at top followed by Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Assam.

In terms of incremental change (over 2015-16 level), Rajasthan is at top in general States and Tripura first amongst North Eastern and Himalayan States.

NITI Aayog released first Delta ranking for 108 aspirational districts to measure their incremental progress across five developmental areas during April and May 2018. 49 key performance indicators were mapped across 5 developmental areas - health and nutrition, education, financial inclusion and skill development, agriculture and water resources and basic Infrastructure.

Districts started entering data from April 1, 2018 in Champions of Change dashboard.

Most improved - Dahod (Gujarat, rank: 1st), West Sikkim district (Sikkim, 2nd). Ramanathapuram district (Tamil Nadu, 3rd) and Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh, 4th) and YSR Kadapa district (Andhra Pradesh, 5th).

Least improved - Kupwara (Jammu and Kashmir), Begusarai (Bihar), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Simdega (Jharkhand) and Khagaria( Bihar).

NITI Aayog signed a Statement of Intent (SOI) with Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (GNFC) to work together for implementing Proof-of-Concept (PoC) application for fertilizer subsidy management using Blockchain Technology.

NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) selected 3,000 additional schools for establishment of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs), bringing the total number of ATL schools to 5441. Selected schools shall receive a grant of Rs 20 lakh spread over 5 years to establish Atal Tinkering Labs for nurturing innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among secondary school children across India.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is Government's flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in country.

Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) create innovators, Atal Incubation Centres and support to Established Incubation Centreensure that innovations are taken to market and help create enterprises around these innovations.

NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurs Platform (WEP) signed Statement of Intent (SoIs) with Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, SREI Infrastructure Finance, Srimanta Sankar Mission and Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), to create opportunities and support women entrepreneurs. WEP was launched on International Women’s day (March 8, 2018).

NTPC adopted iconic Charminar of Hyderabad (Telangans) under Swachh Iconic Places Projects of India. NTPC, in partnership with the GHMC, will take up development and beautification works at Charminar.

National Institute for Mountaineering & Allied Sports (NIMAS) in Dirang (Arunachal Pradesh) successfully conducted its Expedition to Mount Everest, making it first time that any National Institute expedition team has put eight members on top of Everest in First attempt.

Odisha Govenment launched Gopabandhu Sambadika Swasthya Bima Yojana as a new Health Insurance Scheme for journalists. It provides INR 2 Lakh per annum health insurance cover to all working journalists, initially covering families of around 3200 journalists. It is named after prominent social worker Gopalbandhu Das.

Odisha Government signed MoU with Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) to enhance effective management of all kinds of disasters, aimed at automating risk management, advisory generation and dissemination.

Odisha government raised health cover from 5 lakh to 7 lakh under Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) for women. CM Naveen Patnaik also sanctioned 31.54 crore for 154 panchayats in seven blocks of 6 districts under Ama Gaon Ama Bikash Yojana.

Odisha government signed a MoU with Hyderabad-based Pullela Gopichand Badminton Foundation (PGBF) for setting up of P Gopichand Badminton Academy in Odisha.

PM Modi inaugurated Delhi Metro’s Mundka-Bahadurgarh section, The 11.2 km elevated corridor as part of Delhi Metro’s Green Line. Delhi Metro network is now expanded to 288 km with 208 stations. This is third line of connectivity to the neighbouring state of Haryana.

PM Narendra Modi dedicated Mohanpura Project to the Nation, to facilitate irrigation of agricultural land in Rajgarh district (Madhya Pradesh), which is among 115 Aspirational Districts identified by Government for putting special developmental focus.

INR 3866 crores project includes a dam and a canal system which will provide drinking water to over 400 villages.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated several developmental projects in Chhattisgarh -

Launched Integrated Command and Control Centre at Naya Raipur Smart City.

Launched modernized and expanded Bhilai Steel Plant.

Laid foundation stone for IIT Bhilai.

Inaugurated air services between Jagdalpur and Raipur.

PepsiCo Foundation announced a USD 4.26 million grant to an international non-profit organisation WaterAid to provide safe water access to communities in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala by December 2020. This adds to USD 17 million that Foundation has made in India to date.

Piyush Goyal (Minister for Railways, Coal, Finance & Company Affairs) inaugurated Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLCIL)’s three 100 MW Solar Power Projects for commercial operation, situated at Thoppalaakkarai and Sethupuram in Virudhunagar District and Sellaiya Sezhiyanallur in Tirunelveli District (Tamil Nadu).

President Ram Nath Kovind formally declared Queen Pineapple as state fruit of Tripura. He also inaugurated National Highway from Matabari to Sabroom in Udaipur (Tripura), during his visit to State.

Punjab Government launched Paani Bachao, Paise Kamao campaign for checking depletion of underground water. Through this, farmers will receive monetary benefit for less use of tube well. Details related to the use of power and money transferred into account of farmers will be provided to them on phone.

Punjab Government launched a mobile application named ‘i-Hariyali’ aimed at increasing state's green cover, under ‘Mission Tandarust Punjab. It will enable users to order free plant saplings. The 'i-Hariyali' app, ’ can be downloaded from the app store for free.

Punjab Government launched a ‘Business First Portal’ to give a big push towards ease of doing business in state. It aims at facilitating industrialists for regulatory clearances and fiscal approvals and real-time tracking of applications on a common platform.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that Indian Railways will become a net zero-carbon emitter by 2030 with current action plans for 100% electrification and renewable strategies.

Railways flagged off a new Humsafar Jodhpur (Rajasthan) - Bandra (Maharashtra) Express. Humsafar Express are a completely 3-tier AC sleeper trains which started their operation from December 2016 (First being Anand Vihar - Gorakhpur Express). Humsafar Express have Special features such as LED screen displays, Vending machines, smoke alarms, CCTVs, refrigerating boxes etc.

Railways launched 2 mobile applications to ease traveling experience - 'Rail MADAD and Menu on Rails. Rail MADAD will enable travelers to lodge complaints, and Menu on Rails will facilitate seamless ordering of food. Also, Northern Railways will now monitor the cleanliness of its trains using WhatsApp groups supervised by senior officials.

Rajasthan ranked first by NITI Aayog among all states after it registered a significant increase in groundwater level due to water conversation structures built under Chief Minister Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan. State also witnessed increase of 81% in irrigation capacity.

Reliance Industries announced to set up India's first carbon fibre manufacturing unit to cater to aerospace and defence needs.

Saudi Aramco and ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) signed MoU today to jointly develop an integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex at Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, implemented by Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (RRPCL).

Earlier, Saudi Aramco joined the project by signing an MoU with Indian consortium, during International Energy Forum Ministerial meet in April 2018 in New Delhi. RRPCL will now have Saudi Aramco & ADNOC as overseas strategic partners.

The project will be set up as a 50:50 joint partnership (50:50) between the consortium from India and Saudi Aramco and ADNOC.

Mega refinery will be capable of processing 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day (60 million metric tonnes per annum). It will also provide feedstock for integrated petrochemicals complex, with capacity of 18 million tonnes per annum of petrochemical products.

Project cost is estimated at around Rs.3 lakh crore (USD 44 billion).

Shillong (capital of Meghalaya) selected as 100th Smart City. With selection of Shillong, proposed investment in finally selected 100 cities under Smart Cities Mission would be INR 2,05,018 crores.

State Government also launched 3rd year of insurance scheme Chandranna Bima Yojana, aimed to benenfit over 2.5 crores labourers in unorganised sector (with monthly income under INR 15000). Beneficiaries need to pay only 15 per year to get -

Insurance of 5 lakh for accidental death / permanent disability and up to 2.50 lakh for temporary disability due to accident.

Those in 18 - 50 years age will receive 2 lakh and those aged between 51 - 59 years will receive 30000 in case of natural death.

State government of Gujarat has launched a dedicated ambulance service for infants, under Neonatal ambulance service project for inter-hospital transfer.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA will open its first store in India in Hyderabad in July 2018. In February 2018, IKEA opened a distribution centre spread over 2.3 lakh square feet in Pune.

Tamil Nadu government announced SOPs for several sectors like Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector and Establishment of an agency to attract foreign investment in state MSMEs. An Innovation Policy will also be launched through which government will develop entrepreneurs, in line with Tamil Nadu government’s Vision 2023 document which estimates a 11 % GSDP by then.

Tamil Nadu government announced setting up of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) facility near Madurai, at estimated of INR 1500 crores.

Tamil Nadu government released its Ecotourism Policy 2017, which includes identifying ecotourism sites and will have specific ecotourism product associated with it in their uniqueness and value in terms of aesthetic, natural, cultural and landscape characteristics.

Telangana Government will organize Bonalu Festival between July 15 and August 5, 2018. State government released INR 15 Crores for the same.

Telangana Police launched COP CONNECT’ mobile application to support communication and collaboration needs of entire police department of state. This app has features of regular mobile messaging apps and is enabled for chatting, group chats, file and location sharing.

Telengana Government will set up District Child Protection Units (DCPU) in all 31 districts to protect the children from child abuse, child labour and to implement the child rights in all districts.

Tripura government launched GPS (Global Positioning System) and wireless based 24×7 “mobile policing” service to control crime, mainly against women. Under Mobile policing, Police will reach the spot within a few minutes to tackle the situation.

US Food and Drug Administration has approved World's first prosthetic iris that can be implanted to treat patients with missing or damaged iris (coloured part of eye).

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) notified that use of Aadhaar biometric data for criminal investigation is not allowed under Aadhaar Act 2016. This comes after National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) asked police to be provided with limited access to Aadhaar data to aid them in catching first-time offenders and for identification of unidentified bodies.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a campaign to clean Gomti river.

Uttar Pradesh government will set up a police station in every district, which wil focus on minimizing power theft and power loss. State government has also approved a Solid Waste Management policy, Animal Breeding Policy 2018 and Milk Policy 2018.

Uttarakhand high court banned paragliding, and white water rafting and other water sports until the government frames a policy to regulate them.

Varanasi's Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport will become India’s first airport to have an automated smart facial recognition system at its entry, security and boarding points. It will ensure quicker entry into airports by facilitating automated check-ins.

West Bengal Government will invest 107 crore rupees to check erosion at vulnerable areas along banks of Ganga and Padma.

West Bengal government applied for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Kohitur mango, which was sold for INR 1500 a piece last season. It is believed to have been cultivated by a royal breeder named Hakim Ada Mohammadi at behest of thelast Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah. The variety was reportedly only consumed by royals.

World Heritage Committee declared Victorian and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai as a World Heritage Property, inscribing it site on UNESCO's World Heritage list, as India's 37th UNESCO Heritage Site.

This makes Mumbai the second city in India after Ahmedabad to be inscribed on World Heritage List.

Apart from the Mumbai site, committee inscribed three other cultural sites on World Heritage List - Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars region of Iran, Hidden Christian Sites in Nagasaki Region of Japan and Sansa, Buddhist Mountain Monasteries in Korea.

Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai comprises 2 architectural styles - 19th century collection of Victorian structures and the 20th century Art Deco buildings along the sea, conjoined by the historical open space of the Oval Maidan.

With this, India now has 37 World Heritage Inscriptions with 29 Cultural, 07 Natural and 01 Mixed sites. India stands second in Asia Pacific (after China), in number of World Heritage properties, overall sixth in world.

World's first of its kind International Centre for ‘Humanitarian Forensics’ (ICHF) launched at Gujarat Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), as joint venture of International Committee of Red Cross in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Gujarat Forensic Science University. It would promote best practices in forensics.

World's tallest girder rail bridge (141 Metres Height) is being built near Noney (Manipur), as part of 111-km-long Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal new broad gauge railway project in Manipur. First section involves construction of 84 kms of railway line connecting Jiribam to Tupul which is on verge of completion. 2nd section of 27 kms connecting Tupul to Imphal is expected to be completed by 2019.

Persons

Actress Sonakshi Sinha joins UNESCO to promote safe & secure online environment for children and help empower our future digital citizens.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos becomes the richest man in the world with a net worth of USD 141.9 Billion according to Forbes world’s billionaire list.

Four year old Ayan Gogoi Gohain of Assam is honoured as Youngest Author of India title by Indian Book of Records, for his book ‘honeycomb’, published in January 2018.

French swimmer Ben Lecomte began his expedition to become first person to swim across Pacific Ocean, starting from Japan. He will swim for eight hours a day for more than six months as he heads towards US west coast, during approx 8850 kilometres long swim.

India's Priyanka Das from Assam has been appointed as ambassador for ‘promote science’ initiative in France to encourage girls to pursue scientific careers.

Monti Rajkhowa became first Assamese to scale Mount Kanchenjunga, 3rd highest mountain in world (8586 Metres).

Obituaries (June 2018) -

Timothy Pereira - Former Indian footballer.

Urmila Singh - Former Himachal Pradesh governor.

L.P. Shahi - Congress leader and former Union Minister (Appointed Education & Culture Minister in 1985).

Narayan Prasad Singh - Odisha's Noted lyricist, popularly known as Rasaraj.

David Douglas Duncan - Noted World War II photographer (USA).

Maria Bueno - Noted Brazilian tennis player.

Shahjahan Bachchu Noted Bangladeshi writer.

Mulubha Jadeja - Former Saurashtra Cricketer.

Adiraju Venkateswara Rao - Noted Telugu journalist and writer.

Nerella Venumadhav - Noted Telugu Mimicry Artist from Telangana.

Puan, world’s oldest Sumatran orangutan passed away in Perth Zoo (Australia), at age of 62 years.

Jamsheed Marker - Noted Pakistani diplomat who holds Guinness World Record for World’s longest-serving ambassador and also being the ambassador to more countries than any other person.

Kim Jong-pil - Prime Minister of South Korea.

Donald Hall - Noted American poet and writer.

Peter Thomson - Noted Australian golfer.

B Sujatha Devi - Malayalam Poetess.

Pallavi Durua of Koraput district in Odisha is crowned first Tribal Queen at Adi Rani Kalinga Tribal Queen competition held at Utkal Mandap, was organised by SC & ST department of Govt of Odisha.

Persons Resigned / Retired (June 2018) -

Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana - Madagascar’s Prime Minister.

James Sutherland - Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer.

Mike Hesson - New Zealand cricket coach.

Giorgi Kvirikashvili - Georgia’s prime minister.

Peggy Whitson - Noted NASA Astronaut. She spent more 665 days off earth, most by an American.

Mehbooba Mufti - Jammu & Kashmir’s Chief Minister. After BJP pulled out of an alliance with Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), causing government to fall apart. After this, President Ram Nath Kovind imposited Governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, as 8th time in four decades J&K was put under Governor’s rule and third time under Current Governor N N Vohra.

Arvind Subramanian - Chief Economic Advisor of India.

Brian Krzanich - Removed as CEO of Intel Corp. after his past consensual relationship with an employee.

Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested Bank of Maharashtra CMD Ravindra P. Marathe in a case of INR 3000 crores fraudulent loans extended to Pune DSK Group.

Visits from India (June 1 - 10, 2018) -

Indian Air Force Chief Birender Singh Dhanoa visited Brazil.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited South Africa. She participated in BRICS Foreign Ministers Meeting and IBSA Foreign Ministers Meeting during her visit.

PM Narendra Modi Visited China -

India and China signed 2 MoUs related to sharing of Brahmaputra river data and supply of non-Basmati rice. Under MoU, China will provide India hydrological data of Brahmaputra River in flood season crucial to predict floods.

Attended 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Qingdao. SCO has 8 Members Including India and Pakistan.

PM Narendra Modi Visited Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -

Indonesia -

India and Indonesia signed 15 MoUs in fields of economic co-operation, defence, scientific and technological cooperation, railways and health, among others.

India and Indonesia agreed to Jointly develop strategic Indian Ocean Port.

India an Indonesia will set up a task force to enhance connectivity between Andaman (India) and Sabang (Indonesia).

Malaysia -

PM Modi met his newly elected 92-year-old Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad. Discussed issues of Bilateral Co-operation and Mutual Interest.

Singapore -

India and Singapore signed 14 MOUs in a business cum community event called ‘Anushasanam’.

Key fields under which agreements were exchanged are - Naval cooperation, Economic co-operation, Fintech, Cybersecurity, Nursing, Combating Narcotics smuggling & Human Trafficking, Personnel Management and Public Administration, Planning.

Attended Annual Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security meet of 28 Asia - Pacific Nations.

Conferred Padma Shri award to former Singaporean Diplomat Tommy koh. Koh served as Singapore's ambassador to US and the UN, and as president of Third United Nations Conference on Law of Sea in 1981 and 1982.

An orchid is named as ‘Dendrobium Narendra Modi’ as a special gesture for PM Modi during his visit.

Unveiled a plaque dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi at Clifford Pier in city-state, where his ashes were immersed.

Launched three Indian digital payment systems - RuPay, BHIM app and UPI by SBI. With this, India's RuPay digital payments system was linked up with Singapore's 33-year old Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS). It would create multi-billion dollar transactions as some five million Indians travel to and transit through Singapore, internationalising RuPay beginning with first cross border usage.

India signed Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) in Nursing with Singapore. This is first MRA being signed by India with any of our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners. It paves way for our healthcare service providers to institutionally access markets abroad.

India and Singapore concluded 2nd Review of India Singapore CECA (Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement).

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu attended an Informal Meeting of World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministers in Paris.

Visits from India (June 11 - 20, 2018) -

Nitin Gadkari (Minister for Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and Road Transport & Highways and Shipping) visited Tajikistan (Central Asia) to represent India in high-level Conference on International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development, 2018-2028.

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Visited OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) Forum in Vienna (Austria). Theme of the Seminar is ‘Petroleum – cooperation for a sustainable future’. Mr. Pradhan also visited Germany.

OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of 15 nations, headquartered since 1965 in Vienna (Austria). 15 OPEC members account for 44 % of global oil production and 81.5 % of world's proven oil reserves.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Vietnam -

She inaugurated first Representative Office of Navratna Defence Public Sector Unit Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Hanoi (Vietnam).

Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu visited USA.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis visited USA -

He met World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva at Washington DC and asked for World Bank’s assistance for Rural transformation through sustainable livelihood in 10,000 villages and A multimodal transport corridor in Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Ford Motor Company submitted a proposal of 50 million USD for setting up a Centre of Excellence for integrated mobility in Maharashtra.

Maharashtra government and Canada’s Quebec province signed a pact to increase economic cooperation.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Visited european Nations Italy, France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

India will construct a war memorial at Villers Guislain in France as tribute to Indian soldiers who died in World War I.

2018 marks 20th year of India's Diplomatic relations with France and 70th year of India's Diplomatic relations with Luxembourg.

It was First ever official visit by an India Minister of External Affairs to Luxembourg.

President Ram Nath Kovind Visited Greece, Suriname and Cuba -

Greece -

He attended Greece-India Business Forum in Greek Capital Athens.

Stated that India is on its way to become a 5 trillion UDS Economy by 2025.

MOUs -

Cooperation in Fields of Standardization.

Cooperation in Diplomatic Training and.

Programme of Cultural Cooperation for 2018-2020.

Cuba -

2 MoUs signed - Traditional Systems of Medicine AND deepen collaboration in biotechnology.

Suriname -

India announced $51 Million aid to suriname for several developmental Projects -

20 Million USD for for setting up a solar project to provide clean energy to a cluster of 49 villages in Suriname.

27.5 Million USD to support a power transmission project in PikinSaronarea

3.5 Million Dollars 3.5 million for maintenance of Chetak helicopters.

India - Suriname MOUs -

To establish a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology in Suriname.

MoUs in fields of elections, diplomatic academies partnership, employment for spouse of diplomats.

Twinning Agreement Cities of Panaji (Goa) and City of Victoria of Seychelles.

Visits from India (June 21 - 30, 2018) -

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani visited Israel and created a joint working group (JWG) between Gujarat and Israel in fields of agriculture, horticulture and allied sectors

15th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) held in Canberra, Australia. It was sttended by Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu during his visit to Australia.

Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar visited Australia to attend 4th Meeting of Australia-India Education Council (AIEC).

Minister of State (IC) for Tourism, K. J. Alphons attended a series of ‘Incredible India road shows’ in United States of America.

5th 2 plus 2 vice-ministerial level dialogue between India and Japan held in Japan. India was represented by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra

India and USA will hold 1st 2+2 Dialogue in Washington, DC in July 2018. India will be represented by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh Visited India.

He jointly launched construction of Mongolia's first oil refinery, a long-awaited project that is funded by India and designed to end the country’s dependence on Russian fuel.

The refinery, in southern Dornogovi province will be capable of processing 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil per year. It is planned for completion in late 2022, will meet all of the nation’s demand for gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and LPG.

Cost of project is estimated at $1.35 billion, and it will include a pipeline and its own power plant. Its financing is part of $1 billion soft credit line agreement between Mongolia and Export-Import Bank of India, made during 2015 visit by PM Narendra Modi.

Sunil Lanba, Chief of Indian Navy will visited Bangladesh. He inaugurated first Indian Navy - Bangladesh Navy Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) which is being instituted as an annual feature between the navies of both countries.

Nitin Gadkari (Minister for Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Road Transport & Highways and Shipping) Visited Dushanbe (Tajikistan Capital). He stated that India will make Chabahar Port in Iran operational by 2019.

Visits to India (June 1 - 10, 2018) -

Nepal's Chief of the Army Staff Rajendra Chhetri visited India.

Singapore trade and industry minister Mr. R Iswaran Visited India. During this Visir, Andhra Pradesh Govt. announced set up of startup area with joint collaboration with Singapore, with signing of a Concession and Development agreement (CADA).

National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) will partner with Singapore e-Government Leadership Centre (eGL) at National University of Singapore’s Institute of Systems Science (NUS-ISS) for implementation of skill development initiatives of India.

Visits to India (June 11 - 20, 2018) -

United Kingdom Minister of State for Countering Extremism and Minister for Equalities, Baroness Williams of Trafford Visited India.

Visits to India (June 21 - 30, 2018)

Singapore’s Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee visited India. During hs visit, Andhra Pradesh Government signed MoU with Singapore to accelerate construction work of its new capital, Amratvati.

United States Permanent Representative to United Nations, Nikki Haley visited India. Haley, daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab, is the first Indian-American to serve in a Cabinet-level position in any US presidential administration.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited India. He announced to set up a consulate of United Arab Emirates i Hyderabad (Telangana).

Suhrob Kholmuradov, Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan visited India.

Chakra Pani Khanal, Minister for Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives of Nepal visted India. He participated in India-Nepal “New Partnership in Agriculture” meet in New Delhi.

Danny Faure, President of Seychelles Visited India -

Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) extended $10 million worth of line of credit (LOC) to Seychelles, as first tranche of the $50 million sanctioned by Exim Bank to Seychelles.

6 MoUs signed between India and Seychelles -

Indian Grant Assistance for implementation of small development projects through local bodies, educational and vocational institutions.

Twinning Agreement on Establishment of and Cooperation between Panaji (Goa) and Victoria City of Seychelles

Cyber Security.

Cultural Exchange Programme between India and Seychelles for 2018-2022.

Technical Agreement on Sharing White Shipping Information between Indian Navy and National Information Sharing and Coordination Center of Seychelles.

MoU between Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of Ministry of External Affairs of India and Department of Foreign Affairs of Seychelles.

Seychelles gifted pair of Giant Aldabra tortoise to India as a goodwill gesture, both aged about 20 years. Aldabra Giant Tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) is endemic to Aldabra Atoll in Seychelles, and is one of largest species of tortoises on planet.

India gifted a second Dornier aircraft to the Seychelles to help it enhance maritime reconnaissance and maintain security in that part of the Indian Ocean region.

Science

6 new species of minute goblin spiders discovered in forests of Sri Lanka, named after fictional characters described by English children’s writer Enid Blyton. Names given are - goblins Bom, Snooky and Tumpy and the brownies Chippy, Snippy and Tiggy.

Antarctica has Reportedly lost about 3 trillion tonnes of sea ice since 1992 contributing to a global sea-level rise of 7.6 mm. Antarctica has enough ice to raise seas by 58 metres if it ever all melted.

China launched bird-shaped drones fitted with a camera, GPS antenna, and satellite communication capability, to monitor citizens living in different parts of country, codenamed Dove.

Flower Impatiens dorjeekhanduii has been named after former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu. It was discovered at a forest in Zemithang area of Tawang in September 2017.

ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) will transfer its own in-house lithium ion (Li ion) cell technology to successful Indian industries and start-ups on non-exclusive basis in automobiles for INR 1 crore. It aims to accelerate development of indigenous electric vehicle (EV) industry and reduce dependence of imported lithium ion cell technology.

Transfer of ISRO’s technology will help in establishing production facilities in country that can produce cells of varying size, capacity, energy density and power density catering to entire spectrum of power storage requirements of electric vehicles (EVs).

India Meteorological Department (IMD) will use flash flood guidance system for the first time, to forecast floods. Currently, Central Water Commission issues flood warnings. Different kinds of soil from various parts of country have been studied to find out how absorbent each variety was.

India will start producing first indigenous Lithium Ion batteries, after an MoU for transfer of technology for India’s first Lithium Ion (Li-ion) Battery project was signed between CSIR Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI) and RAASI Solar Power Pvt Ltd. India imported Li-Ion batteries worth 150 million dollars in 2017 and is one of its largest importers in the world.

Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates invested $4 million in genetically-modified mosquitoes to eradicate malaria, spread by female mosquitos. The research, conducted by UK-based Oxitec, involves releasing modified male mosquitoes to mate with female mosquitoes. The male will pass on a self-limiting gene, which will kill female offspring before reaching maturity.

Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) launched Ensemble Prediction System (EPS), as a new system to generate more area specific forecast of extreme weather events.

EPS system has been developed by Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) and Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

EPS is special for its high resolution short-medium range weather forecasts. Under it, area of spatial resolution (currently 23 km grid scale) will come down to 12 km.

In its calculations, system will use a newly procured 8 petaflops high-power computing system.

Forecasts of severe weather events at 12 km grid scale would greatly help in making better emergency response decisions.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare banned manufacture and sale of Oxytocin drug formulations for domestic use in private sector to prevent its misuse from 1st July 2018. Henceforth, Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Ltd will only manufacture and supply it directly to registered hospitals.

Oxytocin, often called love hormone, is released naturally in human bonding activities such as childbirth , breastfeeding and sex. It is uterine stimulant hormone, prescribed for initiation of uterine contractions and induction of labour in women as well as stimulation of contractions during labour.

NASA extended Juno’s science operations until July 2021, providing it additional 41 months in orbit around Jupiter. Larger orbits will also allow scientists to further explore far reaches of the Jovian magnetosphere, region of space dominated by Jupiter's magnetic field.

NASA will launch world’s lightest satellite in August 2018, which is developed by engineering students from Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science in Tamil Nadu. It is 4cm ‘cube’ satellite named ‘Jaihind-1S’, with a 3D printed outer casing from polylactic acid (PLA) nylon material, making it weigh just 33.39 grams.

Researchers from University of Seville (Spain) identified absorbent materials that can help soak up pollutants found in urban waste water. Results show that material C18-Mica-4 is capable of eliminating majority of pollutants that were evaluated in urban waste water, as well as surface water and potable water.

Russian researchers created a battery based on radioactive isotope nickel-63 that has a half-life of 100 years, which could help power deep space missions. The prototype packs about 3,300 kilowatt-hours of energy per gram, which is more than any other nuclear battery based on nickel-63 and 10 times more than commercial electrochemical cells.

Satellite named RemoveDEBRIS was successfully deployed from International Space Station (ISS), to clean up space debris orbiting Earth. It was transported to ISS via SpaceX CRS-14 launch in early April 2018. Satellite was built by consortium of space companies and research institutions led by Surrey Space Centre at University of Surrey (United Kingdom).

Satellite is aimed at performing key Active Debris Removal (ADR) technology demonstrations (e.g capture, deorbiting) representative of operational scenario during low-cost mission using novel key technologies for ADR.

Scientists at Ahmedabad Physical Research Laboratory have discovered an exoplanet, Taking India into a select group of countries which have found planets outside the solar system. The ‘super-Neptune’ is about 27 times mass of Earth and six times its radius. It is 600 light-years away from Earth. It is named as EPIC 211945201b (or K2-236b) and host star has been named EPIC 211945201 (or K2-236).

Discovery was made by measuring mass using indigenously designed “PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search” (PARAS) spectrograph integrated with 1.2m Telescope at PRL's Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu (Rajasthan). PARAS is first of its kind spectrograph in Asia, which can measure the mass of a planet going around a star.

Scientists discovered peripheries of a 14th century Maori village in New Zealand, containing tools and food items that can shed more light on the lifestyle of settlers. Obsidian (volcanic glass) was used by early Maori settlers as simple cutting tools.

Scientists from USA's University of Michigan developed world’s smallest computer, measuring just 0.3 milimeters.

Turtle fossil dating back to 150 million years (Jurassic period) has been discovered in Chongqing municipality of China.

Two new species of cricket frogs named Kalinga and Krishnan discovered in the Odisha (Eastern Ghats) and Karnataka (Western Ghats) Respectively. The other species has been named Krishnan. Kalinga has been named after ancient kingdom of Kalinga. The other species from Karnataka has been named after eminent biologist, Dr. K Subramanian Krishnan.

World's 1st habitable 3D-printed houses will be built in Eindhoven (Netherlands), to be occupied by mid-2019. It would help reduce carbon footprint as less cement would be needed for their construction.

World’s largest iceberg (B-15), which broke away from Antarctica's Ross ice shelf 18 years ago, is nearing its end, as per NASA observation. It measured about 296 kilometres long and 37 kilometres wide when it first broke away in March 2000. As in May 2018, B-15Z measured just 18 km long and 9 km wide.

Sports

18th Asian Junior Athletics Championships 2018 in Gifu (Japan) -

437 under 20 athletes from 35 nations participated in 44 Events.

Medal Table -

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total

1 Japan 14 15 12 41

2 China 11 8 5 24

3 India 5 2 10 17

4 Chinese Taipei 4 5 3 12

5 Sri Lanka 3 4 2 9

India Ranked 3rd with 17 Medals.

Gold - Ashish Jakhar (Hammer Throw), Kamalraj Kanagaraj (Triple Jump), Ajeet Kumar (5000 Metres), Anu Kumar (800 Metres), Jisna Mathew (400 metres Female Event)

Silver - 4×400 m relay Female Team comprising Subha Venkatesan, Rachna, Nidhi Singh AND Jisna Mathew, Damneet Singh (Hamer Throw)

2018 Forbes list of ‘The World’s 100 highest paid athletes’ -

Top 5 -

Floyd Mayweather (USA) - Boxing (285 Million USD)

Lionel Messi (Argentina) - Soccer (111 million USD)

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - Soccer (108 million USD)

Conor McGregor (Ireland) - Mixed Martial Arts (99 million USD)

Neymar (Brazil) - Soccer (90 million USD)

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli is the sole Indian and Cricketer to feature in List with Pay of $24 Million USD.

No Female Athelete Named in 2018's list. Last Year, USA Tennis star Serena Williams with $27 Million USD Earnings was ranked 51st.

2018 Gerry Weber Open Men's Tennis Title (Also called Halle Open (Germany)) -

Singles - Borna Ćorić (Croatia), defeating Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer.

Doubles - Łukasz Kubot (Poland) AND Marcelo Melo (Brazil)

2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup Round 3 held in Salt Lake (USA). India won 3 medals at the event.

Medals in Round 3 -

Gold for Deepika Kumari in Recurve Women. She defeated Michelle Kroppen (Germany). This win ensured Deepika will represent the country at the season-ending Archery World Cup Final in Samsun, Turkey in October 2018.

Silver for Abhishek Verma in COMPOUND MEN

Bronze for COMPOUND MIXED TEAM

Previous Rounds in 2018 Hyundai Archery World Cup

Round 1 (Shanghai (China)) -

Bronze for Compound Mixed Team

Round 2 (Antalya (Turkey)) -

Silver for Compound Women Team

Bronze for Compound Mixed Team

2018 Mercedes Cup Men's Tennis (Stuttgart, Germany) -

Singles - Roger Federer (Switzerland), defeating Milos Raonic (Canada)

Doubles - Germany 's Philipp Petzschner AND Tim Pütz

American fighter Ronda Rousey will become first female MMA fighter to be inducted into Ultimate Fighting Championship Hall of Fame.

Bangladesh Cricketer Shakib Al Hasan became quickest to reach 10000 runs (ODI + Tests + T20I) and pick 500 wickets in international cricket. He also became first Bangladeshi cricketer with 500 international wickets.

Also, England Became First ODI Nation to loose to an Associate Nation, after they lost an ODI to Scotland, in Edinburgh.

Bangladesh won Women’s Asia T20 Cricket Cup 2018 in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), defeating India.

Brooks Koepka (USA) won US Open Golf 2018 by defeating Tommy Fleetwood, becoming first player in 3 decades to successfully defend his title.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist weightlifter Sanjita Chanu and tennis player Yuki Bhambri have been dropped from Target Olympic Podium (TOP) Scheme, amid positive dope sample test results.

England created new record for highest total in a men’s ODI with 481 against Australia, beating its own previous Record.

FIFA lifted 18 Month long suspension imposed on Guatemala Football Association (Central America), over its failure to comply with anti-corruption rules.

Ferrari's German driver Sebastian Vettel won Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix 2018 -

2018 Formula 1 (F1) Calendar-

Serial Grand Prix Date Winner

1 Australian Grand Prix 25 March Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

2 Bahrain Grand Prix 8 April Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

3 Chinese Grand Prix 15 April Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)

4 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 29 April Lewis Hamilton (UK)

5 Spanish Grand Prix 13 May Lewis Hamilton (UK)

6 Monaco Grand Prix 27 May Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)

7 Canadian Grand Prix 10 June Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

8 French Grand Prix 24 June

9 Austrian Grand Prix 1 July

10 British Grand Prix 8 July

11 German Grand Prix 22 July

12 Hungarian Grand Prix 29 July

13 Belgian Grand Prix 26 August

14 Italian Grand Prix 2 September

15 Singapore Grand Prix 16 September

16 Russian Grand Prix 30 September

17 Japanese Grand Prix 7 October

18 USA Grand Prix 21 October

19 Mexican Grand Prix 28 October

20 Brazilian Grand Prix 11 November

21 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 25 November

French Open Tennis 2018 -

Men's Singles - Rafael Nadal (Spain), defeating Dominic Thiem (Austria).

Nadal equaled Margaret Court's all-time record of 11 Grand Slam singles titles won at one major (French Open).

Overall, It was Nadal's 17th Grand Slam Victory, 2nd only to Swiss Star Roger Federer (20 Titles).

Women's Singles - Simona Halep (Romania), Defating Sloane Stephens (USA). It was Halep's first Grand Slam title.

Men's Doubles - Pierre-Hugues Herbert (France) AND Nicolas Mahut (France)

Women's Doubles - Barbora Krejčíková (Czech Republic) AND Kateřina Siniaková (Czech Republic)

Mixed Doubles - Latisha Chan (Chinese Taipei) AND Ivan Dodig (Croatia)

Boys' Singles - Tseng Chun-hsin (Chinese Taipei)

Girls' Singles - Cori Gauff (USA)

Government approved revised guidelines for MAKA (Maulana Abul Kalam Azad) Trophy, to simplify selection of top performing university in sports for award of MAKA Trophy. Under revised guidelines -

Receiving and Scrutiny of Applications will be invited by Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports / Sports Authority of India (unlike Association of Indian Universities (AIU) upto now).

Tournaments which are held more than once a year will not be considered for computation of marks.

Award money for winner has been increased from 10 lakh to 15 lakh. While that for 1st and 2nd Runner-up universities is enhanced from 5 lakh to 7.5 lakh and 3 lakh to 4.5 lakh respectively.

Harry Kane (England) named most valuable player for upcoming FIFA World Cup in Russia 2018. Kane is estimated to be worth 201.2 million euros, as calculated by CIES Football Observatory algorithm.

ICC included Nepal, Netherlands, Scotland and the UAE in their ODI rankings list apart from 12 existing countries.

ISSF Junior World Cup 2018 Round 2 (Suhl (Germany)) -

Including Round 1 in Sydney (Australia) in March 2018, India won total 48 Medals in ISSF Junior World Cup 2018 (24 Gold, 7 Silver, 17 Bronze). India is at the top of table in ISSF Junior World Cup 2018.

Medal Table -

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total

1 India 24 7 17 48

2 China 15 17 14 46

3 Italy 7 6 10 23

4 Czech Republic 4 1 1 6

5 Russia 3 6 1 2

Gold Medals for India in ISSF Junior World Cup 2018 Round 2 (Suhl (Germany)) -

Individual -

Men - Hriday Hazarika (10 Metre Air Rifle), Saurabh Chaudhary (10 metre air pistol), Vijayveer Sindhu (25 meter standard pistol)

Women - Elavenil Valarivan(10 Metre Air Rifle), Vishwa Jignesh Dahiya (25 meter standard pistol), Manu Bhaker (10 metre air pistol)

Team -

Men - 10 metre air rifle, 50 metre pistol, 10 metre air pistol, 25 meter standard pistol, 25 meter pistol

Women - 50 metre pistol, 25 meter standard pistol

Mixd Team - 10 metre air pistol (Saurabh Chaudhary / Devanshi Rana), 100 Metre air rifle (Elavenil Valarivan / Divyansh Singh Panwar)

India Women Cricketer Smriti Mandhana became first Indian player to appear in Kia Super League (women’s cricket super league in England).

India won Intercontinental Cup football title by defeating Kenya by 2-0 in Mumbai. India's Sunil Chhetri became joint second highest international goal scorer among active players along with Argentina's Lionel Messi with his 64th strike. Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo is top active scorer with 85 Goals so far.

Indian cricketer Shikhar Dhawan became first Indian to score a century before lunch on first day of a test match, against Afghanistan. He is 6th batsman in world to achieve this feat.

International Cricket Council (ICC) announced its Future Tours Programme (FTP) for 2018-2023, which includes World Test Championship and a 13-team ODI league. ICC World Test Championship will be held in July of 2019 to June 2021. Test championship will involve 9 teams playing 3 home and 3 away series.

International Shooting Sport Federation ISSF World Cup 2018 Leg 3 and Leg 4 (In Fort Benning (USA) and Munich (Gerrmany) Respectively) -

India Could Not win a medal in Leg 3 and Leg 4 of ISSF World Cup 2018.

India's Total Medal Tally in ISSF WC 2018 stands at 10 Medals, as of now. Medal Tally after Leg 4 looks like -

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total

1 China 13 14 9 36

2 United States 5 1 3 9

3 India 4 2 4 10

4 Russia 4 2 0 6

5 Ukraine 3 0 1 4

Kagiso Rabada Named South Africa's Cricketer Of The Year, for 2nd time. He is also named ODI and Test Cricketer of the Year.

Mercedes's British driver Lewis Hamilton won Formula 1 French Grand Prix 2018 -

2018 Formula 1 (F1) Calendar-

Serial Grand Prix Date Winner

1 Australian Grand Prix 25 March Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

2 Bahrain Grand Prix 8 April Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

3 Chinese Grand Prix 15 April Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)

4 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 29 April Lewis Hamilton (UK)

5 Spanish Grand Prix 13 May Lewis Hamilton (UK)

6 Monaco Grand Prix 27 May Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)

7 Canadian Grand Prix 10 June Sebastian Vettel (Germany)

8 French Grand Prix 24 June Lewis Hamilton (UK)

9 Austrian Grand Prix 1 July

10 British Grand Prix 8 July

11 German Grand Prix 22 July

12 Hungarian Grand Prix 29 July

13 Belgian Grand Prix 26 August

14 Italian Grand Prix 2 September

15 Singapore Grand Prix 16 September

16 Russian Grand Prix 30 September

17 Japanese Grand Prix 7 October

18 USA Grand Prix 21 October

19 Mexican Grand Prix 28 October

20 Brazilian Grand Prix 11 November

21 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 25 November

Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore approved revision of pension to meritorious Sportspersons. New Rates are -

Category

Pension Amount

Medallist at Olympic/Para-Olympic Games

20000

Gold medallist at World Cup/World Championship (in Olympic/Asian Games disciplines)

16000

Silver/Bronze medallist at World Cup/World Championship (in Olympics / Asian Games disciplines)

Gold medallist in Asian Games/Commonwealth Games/Para Asian Games

14000

Silver and Bronze medallist in Asian Games/Commonwealth Games/Para Asian Games

12000

Misc. Sporting Events (June 2018) -

Ariya Jutanugarn (Thailand) won 73rd US Women’s Open, becoming first player from Thailand to win a US Women’s Open title.

Long distance runner Gavit Murali Kumar bagged a gold in men's 10,000m race at Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden (Netherlands) He also became second fastest Indian in this event, 2nd only to Surendra Singh, who holds national record of 28:02.89.

India's Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker win Mauritius Open Badminton title 2018.

Indian boxers won 1 Gold and 2 Silver medals at Umakhanov Memorial Tournament in Russian city of Kaspiysk.

Gold - Saweety Boora in Women’s 75 kg category, beating Anna Anfinogenova (Russia).

Silver - Brijesh Yadav (men's 81 kg) and Virender Kumar (91 kgs).

Indian swimmer Sandeep Sejwal won gold medal in men's 50m breaststroke event at Singapore National Swimming Championships in Singapore.

India’s R Praggnanandhaa become country’s youngest and world’s second youngest Grand Master at age of 12 years and 10 months, after reaching the final round of Grenadine Open in Italy.

Indian Tenis Player Karman Kaur Thandi won first singles title on ITF Pro circuit at Hong Kong ITF Tournament.

18th KSS Memorial Shooting Championships held in New Delhi.

Ulaanbaatar Cup boxing tournament 2018 held in Mongolia. India won total 9 medals, including a Gold by Mandeep Jangra (69kg).

Chemistry World Cup of Olympic Boxing 2018 held in Halle (Germany), conducted in 10 Weight Categories. Cuba topped medal tally by winning 9 medals in total. India won 6 medals (2 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze medals). India's Gaurav Solanki (52kg) defeated Cuba’s Jorge Alejandro Merencio and won a gold medal.

Sprinter Dutee Chand has set a new national record in women’s 100-metre race, when she clocked 11.29 seconds at 58th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Guwahati (Assam).

45th Glenmark Junior and 35th Sub Junior National Aquatic Championships held in Pune, (Maharashtra).

12th Tunis International Meeting organized by National Paralympic Committee of Tunisia. Iran won total 23 medals. India’s Amit Kumar Saroha wins gold at World Para Athletics Grand Prix , in men’s club throw F51 event.

Mithali Raj become first Indian Female Cricketer to score 2000 runs in T20I cricket.

New Zealand Cricketer Amelia Kerr created a world record in women’s ODI cricket by scoring an unbeaten 232 runs (145 Balls) in a match against Ireland in Dublin.

Rani Rampal is named as captain of India’s 18-member squad for women’s hockey World Cup to be played in London in July 2018.

USA, Mexico and Canada chosen as hosts of 2026 FIFA Football World Cup.

2026 FIFA World Cup will be 23rd FIFA World Cup. It will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in USA (60 Matches), Canada (10 Matches) and Mexico (10 Matches). 2026 World Cup will also see the tournament expanded from 32 to 48 teams.

2022 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Qatar, with 32 teams participating.

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Current Affairs - 07 July 2018

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Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Japan	14	15	12	41
2	China	11	8	5	24
3	India	5	2	10	17
4	Chinese Taipei	4	5	3	12
5	Sri Lanka	3	4	2	9

Serial	Grand Prix	Date	Winner
1	Australian Grand Prix	25 March	Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
2	Bahrain Grand Prix	8 April	Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
3	Chinese Grand Prix	15 April	Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
4	Azerbaijan Grand Prix	29 April	Lewis Hamilton (UK)
5	Spanish Grand Prix	13 May	Lewis Hamilton (UK)
6	Monaco Grand Prix	27 May	Daniel Ricciardo (Australia)
7	Canadian Grand Prix	10 June	Sebastian Vettel (Germany)
8	French Grand Prix	24 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix	1 July
10	British Grand Prix	8 July
11	German Grand Prix	22 July
12	Hungarian Grand Prix	29 July
13	Belgian Grand Prix	26 August
14	Italian Grand Prix	2 September
15	Singapore Grand Prix	16 September
16	Russian Grand Prix	30 September
17	Japanese Grand Prix	7 October
18	USA Grand Prix	21 October
19	Mexican Grand Prix	28 October
20	Brazilian Grand Prix	11 November
21	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	25 November

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	India	24	7	17	48
2	China	15	17	14	46
3	Italy	7	6	10	23
4	Czech Republic	4	1	1	6
5	Russia	3	6	1	2

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	13	14	9	36
2	United States	5	1	3	9
3	India	4	2	4	10
4	Russia	4	2	0	6
5	Ukraine	3	0	1	4

Category	Pension Amount
Medallist at Olympic/Para-Olympic Games	20000
Gold medallist at World Cup/World Championship (in Olympic/Asian Games disciplines)	16000
Silver/Bronze medallist at World Cup/World Championship (in Olympics / Asian Games disciplines) Gold medallist in Asian Games/Commonwealth Games/Para Asian Games	14000
Silver and Bronze medallist in Asian Games/Commonwealth Games/Para Asian Games	12000