Daily Current affairs - October 31st, 2017 for all competitive exams
United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as World Cities Day, by its resolution 68/239.
- The Day is expected to greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and addressing challenges of urbanization, and contributing to sustainable urban development around the world.
- 2017 Theme: Innovative Governance, Open Cities
- The general theme of World Cities Day is Better City, Better Life.
Government sets up Arun Jaitley led panel on PSU bank mergers:
The government has constituted a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to oversee merger proposals of state-owned banks.
- The other members of the panel include Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
- Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said that the government is working on banking reforms and constituted an Alternative Mechanism for Public Sector Banks, PSB consolidation.
Government extends last date for filing of GSTR-2 to Nov 30:
In an effort to facilitate more businesses and taxpayers, the government extended the last date for filing the purchase return under the new Goods and Services Tax (GSTR-2) and GSTR-3 (matching of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2) for the month of July.
- The Ministry of Finance in a notification said that the deadline for filing July’s GSTR-2 has been extended to November 30. And, the last date for filing of GSTR-3 for the month of July has also been extended to December 11.
- GSTR-1 is the document that records the details of the sales made by the seller to the buyer. GSTR-1 is the base document upon which the entire compliance structure in GST is based. Due date of filing GSTR-1 is 10th of next month.
- GSTR-2 is for inward supplies of goods or services or both received during a tax period.
- GSTR-3 is a monthly GST Return. It contained two parts i.e.Part A, Part B.
- Part A of the return shall be electronically generated on the basis of information furnished through returns in FORM GSTR-1, FORM GSTR-2 and based on other liabilities of preceding tax periods.
- Parts B contained the Tax Liability, interest and penalty paid and refund claimed from cash ledger, if any. Part B is also auto populated, the system will compute the tax liability on the basis of GSTR-1(Output tax) and after adjustment of Input tax credit as claimed in GSTR-2.
Union Minister launches Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana in Mumbai
Union Minister for state for social justice and empowerment, Ramdas Athawale launched the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana in Mumbai.
- The Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana has been launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an objective of making quality medicines available at affordable prices to all, particularly to the poor and underprivileged, through exclusive outlets.
- Jan Aushadhi Medical store is set up with an aim to reduce out of pocket expenses in healthcare.
Railway forms will now carry ‘T’ option for transgenders.
Transgenders will now have the option of identifying themselves as the third gender.
- The railway board has modified rail reservation forms to provide the option ‘T’, besides’ (male) and ‘F’ (female).
- In a letter to all zonal railways, the board has said that ticket booking and cancellation forms will be modified from the current option of ‘Transgender (male/female)’ to just ‘T’.
India signs $200 mn deal with World Bank for rural transformation in Assam.
The finance ministry and the World Bank announced the signing of a loan agreement worth $200 million for the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project.
- The project will support Assam Govt. to facilitate agri-business investments, increase agricultural productivity and market access among others.
- The World Bank will release its Doing Business report on October 31.
List of MoU signed by Italy & India:
Italy Prime Minister visited India. During his visit, India and Italy made on 6 agreements. Those are:
1. Joint Declaration of Intent of Cooperation for Safety in the Railway sector between India and Italy
2. MoU on 70 years of diplomatic relations between Indian Council of Cultural Relations and Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, Government of the Republic of Italy
3. MoU on cooperation in the field of Energy between India and Italy
4. Executive Protocol on Cultural Cooperation between India and Italy
5. MoU between the Training Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Government of the Republic of Italy and the Foreign Service Institute of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of the Republic of India
6. MoU for promoting mutual investments between Italian Trade Agency and Invest India.
India, China hold border meet in Arunachal Pradesh.
India and China held a Border Personnel Meeting at Bumla near Arunachal Pradesh.
- The meet that comes months after a stand-off along the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28.
- Located at an altitude of 15,134 feet and situated 42 km north of Tawang town, Bumla is one of the five designated BPM venues, between Indian and Chinese troops.
- The Indian delegation was led by Brig MP Singh, and the Chinese by Senior Col Liu Jiang Xun.
China plans 1000-km tunnel to take Brahmaputra water to Xinjiang.
- The Chinese scientists have suggested to the government that the Brahmaputra be drained in southern Tibet, close to the Indian border, and the water diverted to Xinjiang
- They are working on a plan to drain the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river near the Indian border and divert the water through a 1,000-km tunnel, the world’s longest, to arid Xinjiang.
- The Tsangpo flows into India through Arunachal Pradesh as the Siang before becoming the Brahmaputra in Assam.
Saudi Arabia to Allow Women into Sports Stadiums from 2018
Turki Al-Asheikh, Chairman of the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia has announced that Saudi women will now be able to attend sports events in stadiums starting from 2018.
- The move is aimed at empowering and engaging women in the society as an integral part of the development process. All these changes support Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” plan for economic and social reforms.
Bharti Infratel plans to create on India’s largest mobile tower company
The Bharti Infratel said it will explore acquiring the additional stake in Indus Towers, a move likely to create India’s largest mobile tower company.
- Bharti Infratel and Vodafone India hold 42 percent stake in Indus Towers and rest is held by Idea Cellular.
- Indus had 1,23,073 mobile towers and Bharti Infratel owned 39,264 towers on the standalone basis at the end of September.
- Both the companies jointly command 40.8 percent market share in terms of installed mobile tower base in the country.
SBI extends Rs 2k crore to solar projects:
State Bank of India (SBI), extended Rs 2,317 crore to corporates towards financing grid connected rooftop solar projects with an aggregate capacity of 575 Mw.
- According to Rajnish Kumar, chairman of SBI, the bank has availed $625 million credit from the World Bank for on-lending to viable Grid Connected Rooftop Solar projects undertaken by PV developers/aggregators and end-users for installation of rooftop solar systems on the rooftops of commercial, institutional and industrial buildings.
- This is expected to support installation of around 800 Mw of rooftop solar capacity.
- With the World Bank funded capacity development programme, SBI is attempting to incentivise the market for rooftop solar power by way low cost financing.
IDFC, Shriram call off merger on differences over valuation.
Shriram Group and IDFC Ltd called off their planned merger following differences over valuation.
- IDFC management said that it will continue to look at buying or merging with other non-banking financial companies at the level of IDFC Bank.
London mayor Sadiq Khan tops Asian Power List again.
Now in its seventh year, the 101-member power list compiled by the Asian Media Group was announced at an event in central London
- London mayor Sadiq Khan topped the 2017 Asian Power List that celebrates the achievements of influential Asians in Britain.
Former BCCI GM MV Sridhar passes away.
Former Hyderabad captain MV Sridhar, who recently resigned as BCCI’s general manager of cricket operations, passed away in Hyderabad.
- Sridhar played 97 first-class matches for Hyderabad, where he scored 6,701 runs, with 21 tons and 27fifties.
- Sridhar has the distinction of the third-highest individual score in the history of the Ranji, hitting 366 vs AP.
