CHHATTISGARH

• 5,987 c’garh villages to have wifi by 2019

 

• Chief Secretary Ajay Singh chaired a meeting of State-level Co-ordination Committee for BharatNet Project Phase-II at the Mantralaya.

 

• The Chief Secretary reviewed in detail the works taken up to ensure network connectivity of all villages in the State by 2019.

 

• Singh directed the officials to submit the information on status of the project from district, block and village panchayat levels alongwith the assessment of connectivity speed within a forthnight.

 

• He also directed Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society  (CHiPS) to hold training programmes at State an District levels.

 

• CHiPS CEO Alex Paul Menon informed in the meeting that by 2019, an action plan had been prepared for providing network connectivity to State’s 5,987 villages with wifi facility.

 

• The network connectivity will be used by schools, health centers and offices of Patwaris etc, he informed.

 

• It may be recalled that CHiPS— the nodal agency of Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of Chhattisgarh will be getting route survey and Right of Way (RoW) clearance done for Bharat Net Phase-II project in the State.

 

• Notably, Bharat Net is a project initiated by the Central Government and funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) with an aim to provide broadband connectivity to over two lakh fifty thousand (250,000) Gram Panchayats of India.

 

• The project aims to provide internet access using Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) and extending it to the Gram Panchayats (GPs). The project is intended to enable the Central Government to provide e-services and e-applications nationally, transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy is the most critical and important action item for Digital India.

 

• The Bharat Net project is of national importance, with a highly scalable network infrastructure to provide on demand, easily affordable broadband internet connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, to realize the vision of Digital India, in partnership with the states and the private sector, officials informed.

 

• The Chhattisgarh Government on December 30 last year also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  with the Centre for the implementation of second phase of Bharat Net project .

 

• Chief Minister  Raman Singh had stated that Chhattisgarh is entering a new era of ‘Digital Revolution’.

 

• The Chief Minister  was addressing a function after signing of MoU of Bharat Net Project in Naya Raipur between the State Government and Central Government.

INTERNATIONAL

 

• World Consumer Rights Day: 15 March

 

• The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is celebrated every year on March 15 to pay solidarity with the international consumer movement and give more attention to promote basic rights of consumers.

 

• It provides an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers and demand those rights that must be respected and protected.

 

• The theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2018 will be ‘Making digital marketplaces fairer’.

 

 

• Finland tops 2018 global happiness index

 

• The World Happiness Report published ranked 156 countries by happiness levels, based on factors such as life expectancy, social support and corruption.

 

• According to report, Finland is the happiest place to live. Norway and Denmark ranked second and third respectively.

 

• India ranked 133rd in the report. Burundi ranked last in the index.

 

 

• Angela Merkel elected to fourth term as German chancellor

 

• Angela Merkel was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany after lawmakers voted to re-elect her as leader in a close vote on Wednesday morning.

 

• She will now begin a historic fourth term as Chancellor.

 

• The vote in parliament ended almost six months of political turmoil after the federal election.

 

 

• Indian film ‘Halkaa’ bags award at Montreal fest

 

• Indian filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda’s “Halkaa” has bagged the Grand Prix de Montreal at the gala.

 

• “Halkaa” was selected among seven international children’s films from different countries in the official competition of the festival.

 

• The film is a take on a slum child’s heroism, aspirations, and dreams.

 

• Stephen Hawking: Visionary physicist dies aged 76

 

• World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

 

• The British scientist was famed for his work with black holes and relativity, and wrote several popular science books including ‘A Brief History of Time’.

 

• At the age of 22 Prof Hawking was given only a few years to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease.

 

• Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.

 

 

·        IATA Partners With Civil Aviation Ministry in India

 

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) signed a MoU with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the National Aviation University to enhance human resource availability in India’s aviation industry.
• Under the agreement, the signatory institutions would also leverage “the existing infrastructure for training in India to expand the reach of vocational training in aviation disciplines”.

 

NATIONAL

 

• Pune tops in improved quality governance: Survey

 

• Pune has emerged as the top city to show improvement in quality of governance, according to a survey.

 

• The other cities that came in the top five include Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat.

 

• The survey was conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy.

 

 

·        Exports in February Up 4.5% To $25.8 Billion

• India’s exports grew by 4.5% in February-2018 to 25.8 billion dollars.
• It was 24.7 billion dollar during the same period in February-2017.
• This announcement was made by the Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.
• During April to February period of the current fiscal, exports recorded a growth of 11% to $273 billion. Imports also rose by 10.4% to $37.8 billion during the last month.

 

• “Innovation Cell” to be set up in HRD Ministry to boost Innovation

 

• An Innovation Cell in the Ministry of Human Resource Development will be created to further strengthen the innovation efforts.

 

 

• It will be headed by a Scientist and comprise of a senior Ministry official and young professionals who bring to the table new ideas in promoting innovation.

 

• This was stated by Minister for Human Resource Development,  Shri Prakash Javadekar after a high level review meeting.