Current affairs : August 27&28, 2016
Nagaland becomes eighth State to pass GST bill
The Nagaland State Assembly has passed the Goods and Service Tax (GST) Constitution Amendment Bill, 8th State to ratify the tax reform.
- GST is a tax levied when a consumer buys a good or service. It is meant to be a single, comprehensive tax that will subsume all the other smaller indirect taxes on consumption like service tax, excise duty etc.
Indians spend 8 times more on private hospitals than
on govt. ones
The
National Health Accounts (NHA) Estimates data for the financial year 2013-14 was recently released. The
data was released by the Health Ministry after almost a decade. The NHA
monitors the flow of resources in the country’s health system and provides
details of health finances.
- Indians spent eight times more on private hospitals and twice as much on transporting patients compared to costs in government hospitals during financial year 2013-14.
India's first textile university to come up at Surat
Gujarat government is planning to set up India's first textile university at Surat.
- The main aim of the university is to provide all kind of support including technology, research and development (R&D), skilled manpower etc.
- The university will build on over 250 acre land in Surat and it is expected to get operational in the next one and a half years.
POCSO e-Button:
Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO), e-Box, has launched by Ministry for women and child development.
- It is an online complaint management system for easy and direct reporting of sexual offences against children and timely action against the offenders under the POCSO Act, 2012.
- E-Box is very simple to operate and will help to maintain the confidentiality of the complaint.
India at 77th, Pakistan at 72nd and Bangladesh at 5th: World Risk Report 2016:
The World Risk Report 2016, published by the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and Bundnis Entwicklung Hilft, analyses the role that infrastructure plays in shaping a country’s disaster risk.
- India has been ranked 77th, Pakistan at 72nd, Bangladesh at 5th and topped by Island state of Vanuatu.
Centre sets up panel to suggest steps to promote card
payments
The Finance
Ministry has set up a committee to consider incentives such as cash back
schemes and tax rebates for promoting card and digital payments in a step
towards discouraging cash transactions.
- The panel, which will review the payments system in the country and recommend measures for encouraging digital payments, has been set up following a decision taken by the Cabinet in February.
- The 11-member committee is headed by former Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal. The committee has been given a year’s time to submit its report.
Himachal Health Minister launches ambulance mobile app
Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur has launched a mobile application called '108 HP' to facilitate efficient access to ambulances for medical emergencies.
World’s largest marine protected area:
U.S. is all set to expand a
national monument off the coast of Hawaii, creating the world’s largest marine
protected area. US President Obama has decided to quadruple the size of the Papahanaumokuakea
Marine National Monument, originally created by ex-president
George W. Bush in 2006.
Karnataka Bank launches UPI app KBL-SMATRz
Mangaluru based Karnataka Bank has come up with a mobile application named KBL-SMARTz built on the unified payments interface (UPI) platform of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
- The App was launched by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer P Jayarama Bhat, Karnataka Bank.
Unique ID numbers to elephants:
Elephants that are in
possession of the Karnataka Forest Department, private organisations and
individuals will be implanted with a microchip, which are equipped with unique
numbers.
- Nearly 60 elephants will now be identified with their number in order to aid the forest department in monitoring them.
- The initiative is being undertaken by the forest department to check false information private owners and, even forest authorities furnish during investigation processes.
19th SAARC Summit:
19th SAARC Summit will be held
in Islamabad in November 2016.
- This was announced by Pakistan recently.
- 18th summit was held in Nepal.
Person in News:
1.Sharmila Tagore
Film actress Sharmila Tagore, theatre activist Arundhati Nag and film studies academician Ira Bhaskar have been appointed new members of Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC).
- The Board of Directors of Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF) headed by Star India chairman Uday Shankar has approved these appointments for a term of three years in the eminent persons.
2. MS Dhoni
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has set a world record, he captained India
in a record 325th game (most by a player in history), across all three formats,
to break Australian skipper Ricky Ponting's mark.
- Dhoni was leading India in 71st T20I.
- He has already captained the side in 60 Tests and 194 ODIs.
Tillakaratne Dilshan, a formidable Sri Lanka
opening cricketer, has announced his retirement from ODIs after the third match
against Australia
- He has also announced his retirement from T20 internationals after a match on September 9.
- Dilshan won the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year award at the 2009 ICC Awards, besides winning the man of the series trophy for his individual batting performances in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 tournament.
