National Nutrition Week: 1 to 7th September

The National Nutrition Week will be observed throughout the country from 1st to 7th September. The theme of the National Nutrition Week for 2017 is "Optimal Infant & Young Child Feeding Practices: Better Child Health". 

The basic objective of this annual event is to intensify awareness generation on the importance of nutrition for health which has an impact on development, productivity, economic growth and ultimately National development.

Rajaswa Gyan Sangam 2017 held in New Delhi

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on 2nd september inaugurated the Rajasva Gyan Sangam at New Delhi, and addressed the tax administrators of both the Union and State Governments.  

The conference was jointly organised by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC).

The objective Rajaswa Gyan Sangam 2017 was to enable two-way communication between policy-makers and senior officers in field offices with view to to increase revenue collection and facilitate effective implementation of law and policies in key result areas.

India-European FTA talks this month

India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will meet this month in an attempt to conclude their long pending negotiations, together with the EFTA countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein), go ahead with the FTA

So far, 16 rounds of negotiations have taken place, talks for which started in 2008. The two sides resumed talks on the agreement here in January after a gap of three years

The proposed agreement covers trade in goods and services, investments, trade facilitation, customs cooperation, IRPR protection and public procurement.

What is EFTA?

EFTA was founded in 1960.The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is an intergovernmental organisation set up for the promotion of free trade and economic integration to the benefit of its four Member States.

The Association is responsible for the management of:

·         The EFTA Convention, which forms the legal basis of the organisation and governs free trade relations between the EFTA States;

·         EFTA’s worldwide network of free trade and partnership agreements; and

·         The European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement, which enables three of the four EFTA Member States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) to participate in the EU’s Internal Market.

Nirmala Sitharaman: India’s first full time woman Defence Minister

Nirmala Sitharaman as India's first full-time woman defence minister, delivering the biggest surprise in a Cabinet recast that saw nine new ministers being sworn in, elevating the next generation of BJP leaders to key berths and inducting in-house technocrats with an eye on the 2019 polls.

With external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Sitharaman will be the second woman member of the Cabinet Committee on Security, an elite ministerial group that deliberates on major strategic issues.

While Indira Gandhi held charge as defence minister as PM, Sitharaman is the first full-time woman occupant of the South Block perch, breaching an enduring glass ceiling as she assumes responsibility of a male-dominated military where demands for allowing women in combat roles are gaining traction.

Nirmala Sitharaman was born in Madurai , Tamil Nadu, India to Shri Narayanan Sitaraman and Savitri. She obtained a B.A. degree from Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College, Tiruchirappalli and an MA degree in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1980 and MPhil.

Cabinet Reshuffle Highlights

Nine new ministers today took oath.

Hardeep Singh Puri: Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Satya Pal Singh: MoS Human Resource Development and MoS Water Resources, River 

Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

Shiv Pratap Shukla: MoS Finance Ministry.

Alphons Kannanthanam: MoS (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism; and MoS in Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Raj Kumar Singh: MoS (Independent Charge) of Ministry of Power; and MoS (Independent Charge) of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

Virendra Kumar: MoS in Ministry of Women and Child Development; and MoS in Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Anantkumar Hegde: MoS in Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Besides, four ministers were elevated to the cabinet rank. They are - Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Mukhtar.

Abbas Naqvi - were elevated to cabinet level.

Arun Jaitley will keep Finance,

Piyush Goyal has been assigned Railways.

Nirmala Sitharaman has been given Defence.

TRAPPIST-1 planets likely to have water

The Earth-sized planets orbiting the ultracool TRAPPIST-1 dwarf star 40 light-years away may have substantial amounts of water and could be habitable.

An international team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to estimate whether there might be water on the seven planets orbiting in the nearby TRAPPIST-1 planetary. The results suggest that the outer planets of the system might still harbour substantial amounts of water.

ધોનીનો વર્લ્ડરેકોર્ડ : વન-ડેમાં ૧૦૦ સ્ટમ્પિંગ પૂરા કરનારો પ્રથમ કીપર

મહેન્દ્રસિંહ ધોનીએ હવે વધુ એક રેકોર્ડ પોતાને નામે કરી લીધો છે. શ્રીલંકા સામેની પાંચમી વન-ડે દરમિયાન ચાહલની બોલિંગમાં ધોનીએ ધનંજયાને સ્ટમ્પ આઉટ કર્યો હતો. આ સાથે જ ધોનીએ વન-ડે ક્રિકેટમાં ૧૦૦ સ્ટમ્પિંગ પૂરા કર્યા છે. વન-ડે ક્રિકેટના ઈતિહાસમાં ધોની ૧૦૦ સ્ટમ્પિંગ પૂરા કરનારો સૌપ્રથમ વિકેટકપર બની ગયો છે.

સૌપ્રથમ ૧૦૦ સ્ટમ્પિંગ પૂરા કરવાનો રેકોર્ડ ફર્સ્ટ ક્લાસ ક્રિકેટમાં જ્હોન હેમન્ડ, લિસ્ટ એમાં સ્ટિવ રોડ્સને નામે છે. આમ, આ એલિટ ક્લબમાં હવે ધોની પણ સામેલ થઇ ગયો છે. ધોનીએ તેની ૩૦૧મી વન-ડેની ૨૯૬મી ઇનિંગ્સમાં આ સિદ્ધિ હાંસલ કરી છે.

વન-ડેમાં સૌથી વધુ સ્ટમ્પિંગ

વિકેટકીપર	ઇનિંગ્સ	સ્ટ.	કેચ
એમએસ ધોની	૨૯૬	૧૦૦	૨૮૩
કુમાર સંગાકારા	૩૫૩	૯૯	૩૮૩
રોમેશ કાલુવિથર્ના	૧૮૫	૭૫	૧૩૧
મોઇનખાન	૨૦૯	૭૩	૨૧૪
એડમ ગિલક્રિસ્ટ	૨૮૧	૫૫	૪૧૭
નયન મોંગિયા	૧૩૯	૪૪	૧૧૦

 

5 banks of BRICS nations sign pact for credit lines

Five banks of the BRICS Bank Cooperation Mechanism have agreed to establish credit lines in the national currencies and cooperate on credit ratings.

The agreement was signed ahead of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in China’s Xiamen city.

Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Vnesheconombank, Export-Import Bank of India, China Development Bank and Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) have signed an agreement to establish credit lines in the national currencies, as well as a memorandum of cooperation on credit ratings.

Ahead of the BRICS summit, the New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries has approved USD 1.4 billion loans for sustainable development projects in China, India and Russia.

The Board of Directors of the bank have approved four infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the three countries.

For India, the Bank has approved USD 470 million loan for Madhya Pradesh?s Multi-Village Rural Drinking Water Supply Scheme Project.