Current affairs : March 10th, 2017 for all competitive exams
The Lok Sabha
has passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The Bill had already
been passed by the Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session.
- Maternity
leave available to the working women to be increased from 12 weeks to 26
weeks for the first two children.
- Maternity
leave for children beyond the first two will continue to be 12 weeks.
Centre
to Launch Pilot Project on Ornamental Fisheries with total outlay of Rs. 61.89
crore
Recognizing
the potential and scope of ornamental fisheries, the Department of Animal
Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers
Welfare, has envisaged a program to unlock the country’s ornamental fisheries
sector through a special drive by launching a pilot scheme for the development
of ornamental fisheries with a total outlay of Rs. 61.89 crore.
- The
pilot project on ornamental fisheries shall be implemented by the National
Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) through the Fisheries Departments of
States/UTs.
India
and Belgium sign Protocol amending the India-Belgium Double Taxation Avoidance
Agreement and Protocol
India and
Belgium have signed a Protocol amending the existing Agreement and Protocol
between the two countries for Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention
of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income.
- The
Protocol will broaden the scope of the existing framework of exchange of tax
related information.
- This
in turn will help curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two
countries and will also enable mutual assistance in collection of taxes.
Funds
to Swachh Bharat Kosh (SBK)
Rural Electric
Corporation (REC) Limited has contributed Rs. 25 crores towards SBK as part of
REC’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
- REC
has also contributed Rs. 25 Crore towards this noble cause earlier in
August 2016, thus making a total contribution of Rs. 50 Crore to the Kosh.
- The
SBK was set up to attract CSR funds from corporate sector and contribution
from individual philanthropists to achieve the objective of Clean India
(Swachh Bharat) through “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” by the year 2019, the 150th
year of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
10th International Conference on Theory and
Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV)
The 10th edition of the International Conference
on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV 2017) was held in New
Delhi from March 7-9, 2017. The theme is: 'Building
Knowledge Societies-From Digital Government to Digital Empowerment'.
- The
Objective of ICEGOV 2017 is focused on the use of technology to transform
relationships between government and citizens, businesses & civil
society.
Commonwealth
trade meet begins
An inaugural
Commonwealth summit focused on stimulating trade within the group has begun in
London. It is being attended by government trade representatives and business
people.
- The
event involves a series of roundtable discussions between ministers from
over 30 countries and chief executives, followed by a ministerial
roundtable, which its organisers hope will kick start further action on
strengthening cross-Commonwealth trade, ahead of next year’s Commonwealth
Heads of Government summit in the U.K. next year.
No
change in India’s stance on UNSC veto
India and
other G4 countries have said that they are willing to consider temporarily
suspending their veto rights when and if they are made permanent members of the
UN Security Council.
- This
change of heart is meant to hasten the process of making the G4 countries
– India, Brazil, Germany and Japan – permanent members of the elite UN
body sooner rather than later.
Minorities’
panel has no member
The National
Commission for Minorities (NCM), formed to protect the interests of minority
communities, is left with no member. The last member of the panel, Dadi E
Mistri, a representative of the Parsi community, demitted office recently after
completing his stipulated three-year term with the commission.
- The
government says the process of filling vacancies is on.
Odisha govt launched 181 helpline for distressed
women
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched 24*7
helpline number 181 to assist women in distress on the occasion of
International Women’s Day (8th March 2017).
- A woman from any part of the Odisha can dial 181 to get immediate assistance.
NIO
finds a new canyon system close to Kovvada coast
Scientists of
CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Visakhapatnam are an ecstatic
lot. They have found three new canyons forming a major canyon system in the
depths of Bay of Bengal close to Kovvada in Srikakulam district.
- Canyon
systems are generally formed by
flow of river water into the sea and they could be as old as the river
system, which is close to 23 million years.
Iran successfully tests ballistic missile
Iran's Revolutionary Guard has successfully
tested a ballistic missile named Hormuz 2.
- The
Hormuz 2 is capable of hitting floating targets with high accuracy within
a range of 300 kilometers (186 miles). It provided no additional details.
INS
Tillanchang commissioned at Karwar:
INS
Tillanchang, a Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC) was recently commissioned
into the Indian Navy.
- INS
Tillanchang is the third ship of four follow-on WJFAC built by the Garden
Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) Kolkata. The first two ships of
the class, IN ships Tarmugli and Tihayu were commissioned in 2016 and are
based at Visakhapatnam.
- The
ship has been indigenously designed and built and is an upgrade from the
Chetlat class of Fast Attack Craft that the Indian Navy possesses.
RV
Sindhu Sankalp completes 100 expeditions:
Research
Vessel (RV) Sindhu Sankalp, the flagship research vessel of CSIR- National
Institute of Oceanography (NIO), has completed 100 expeditions.
- The
vessel, which was originally built as fishing training vessel ( FV Chisio Maru
) by the Japanese Government in 1989, was procured by NIO from Japan in
2008.
- The vessel sailed across Bay of Bengal, Andaman Seas and Arabian Sea and has provided invaluable data and samples to understand the ocean processes and mapping of sea floor and water column variables.
Centre
issues draft rules on e-wallet payments
In a bid to
make transactions through e-wallets safer and strengthen the grievance
redressal mechanism for consumers, government has released a set of guidelines
for wallet firms.
- The
draft Information Technology (Security of
Prepaid Payment Instruments) Rules 2017 which have been released for public consultation by the
ministry of electronics and IT cover an entire spectrum such as protecting
consumer information, especially financial data.
- The
Rules mandate that each Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) company or wallet
firm will have a privacy policy posted on its website.
- The
policy should include details such as consumer information collected, its
uses, period of retention of information, purposes for which information
can be disclosed and to whom especially with law enforcement agencies.
RBI to issue new Rs 10 notes soon with
high-security features
The Reserve Bank of India notified that it is
soon going to issue Rs 10 denomination notes with enhanced security features
for circulation.
- The
note will be in the Mahatma Gandhi series-2005 and carry inset letter ‘L’
on both number panels.
- The
year of printing (2017) will be on the reverse of the note. Numerals
on both the panels will be in ascending size from left to right.
- The
first three alpha-numeric characters (prefix) will remain constant in
size.
Mohan Bhagwat conferred honorary degree of Doctor
of Science
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat was conferred the
honorary degree of Doctor of Science (DSc) by the Nagpur-based Maharashtra
Animal and Fishery Sciences University.
- He
was conferred the degree for his contribution in the field of veterinary
sciences and social work.
Konkani writer gets Saraswati Samman
Eminent Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail has
been honored with the Saraswati Samman 2016 for his novel 'Hawthan'.
- The
74-year-old’s novel was shortlisted out of 22 books written in as many
languages.
- The
award carries a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh and a citation.
Viola Davis Conferred with Harvard’s Artist of the
Year Award 2017
The popular actress Viola Davis was awarded the
2017 Artist of the Year Award by Harvard Foundation during its 32nd annual
Cultural Rhythms Festival in Memorial Hall’s Sanders Theatre at Harvard
University in Cambridge.
- She also won her second Tony Award for the 2010 Broadway revival of the play.
