CHHATTISGARH
- Venkaiah Naidu lays foundation for smart city project in Ranchi
- Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation for building the nation’s first Greenfield smart city project in HEC of Ranchi.
- Speaking on the occasion, he said for the bright future, smart cities are a must where people get all the amenities of life including houses, roads, public transport, cleanliness alongwith medical and educational and employment facilities.
- He said the city which would come up in HEC would be a no carbon zone.
INTERNATIONAL
- US Open: Sloane Stephens wins Women’s Singles Title
- American Sloane Stephens lifted the US Open women’s singles title.
- She ranked 83rd completed a spectacular return from injury to beat 15th seed Keys 6-3, 6-0 in the finals.
- She started the tournament when she was ranked in the 900s and has now ended it as the US Open Champion.
- India won 2nd SABA U-16 Championship
- India won 2nd South Asian Basketball, SABA, Under – 16 Championship
- They defeated Bhutan by 131-50 in its last league match at Kathmandu in Nepal.
- India now qualified for 2017 International Basketball Federation, FIBA,Under-16 Asian Championship to be played in Malaysia later this year.
- Rafael Nadal won 2017 US Open title for his 16th Grand Slam Title
- RafaelNadal (Spain) won the 2017 US Open title in men’s single category.
- He defeated Kevin Anderson from South Africa.
- The other category winners are
Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) and Horia Tecau won theMen’s Double
Chan Yung-jan (Chinese Taipei) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland) won Women’s DoubleChampionship.
Martina Hingis (Switzerland) and Jamie Murray (United Kingdom) won the Mixed Doubles Championship.
- Satya Nadella announces his first book ‘Hit Refresh’.
- Tech giant Microsoft’s India-born CEO Satya Nadella’s first book in which explores his personal journey, the company’s ongoing transformation and the wave of technological change will hit the stands later this month.
- The book titled ‘Hit Refresh’ carries a foreword by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and will go on sale globally on September 26.
- Nadella, 50, said he hoped that the book, which tells the story of Microsoft’s quest to rediscover its soul, will inspire people to discover more empathy.
NATIONAL
- India and Afghanistan sign four pacts in areas of health and transport
- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Salahuddin Rabbani in New Delhi signed four agreements recently.
- The four agreements were exchanged in areas like health and
- India’s commitment to support Afghanistan as a secure, stable, united and prosperous nation.
- Both the nations remain united in overcoming challenges posed by cross border terrorism and safe havens and sanctuaries of terrorism.
- Union Government to host Smart City contest with 50 lakh as prize money
- Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry announced a Smart CitiesAwards Contest with a total prize money of50 lakhs to recognise and reward cities and innovative ideas that promote mission’s goals.
- Under the Project Awards category, excellence will be awarded in various categories such as Improving Governance, Social Aspects, Culture and Economy, Environment impact, Transportation and Mobility and Water and Sanitation.
- Best performers in each of the categories will be awarded Rs 5 lakh each.
- All projects that will be completed by April 1, 2018, will be eligible for participating in the contest.
- Kochi to host BWF Senior Badminton World Championships
- This is the first time in India, Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Senior Badminton Championship tournament started in Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium of Kochi which will continue till 17th September.
- A total of 175 players will represent India including Olympians Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Nikhil Kanetkar, and V Diju along with three times Asian Games team bronze medallist Partho Ganguly and 1982 Asian Games bronze medallist Leroy D’sa.
- The President of Badminton Association of India (BAI) Himanta Biswa Sarma will be hosting BWF tournament.
- National Pension Scheme Upper Age Limit Raised to 65
- The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) announced that the upper age limit for joining the National Pension Scheme (NPS)had been raised to 65 years, from the current 60.
- It is currently open for people between 18 and 60, and the Board has approved raising the age limit for joining to 65.
- This aims to open up pensions to sectors without pensions.
- Currently, only 15-16% of employees in India are covered by pensions because around 85% of the workforce is in the unorganized sector.
- FSSAI launches online platform for food inspection, sampling
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) launched ‘FoSCoRIS’, a nationwide online platform to bring in transparency in food safety inspection and sampling.
- The new system will bring together all key stakeholders food businesses, food safety officers (FSOs), designated officers, state food safety commissioners on a nation-wide IT platform and data related to inspection, sampling and test result data will be shared.
- The system will help to verify compliance with food safety and hygiene standards by food businesses as per the government norms.
- FSSAI is a nodal statutory agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health in India through regulation and supervision of food safety.
- The Project Insights to b launched soon by Government
- The Union Finance Ministry is planning to launch ‘Project Insight’ from October 2017 to monitor high value transactions and detect tax evaders using technology with a view to curbing circulation of black money.
- To implement the project government has signed contract with Information Technogolgy major L&T Infotect Ltd. The project will add to list of efforts made by government to curb black money like Operation Clean Money’ after demonetisation, Income Disclosure Scheme, GST implementation, amendment DTAA with other countries etc.
- The linking of PAN (Permanent Account Number) with Aadhaar will be key identifier to be used by IT Department to link and analyse various transactions relating to tax payers.