Uttarakhand

Disaster management in Uttarakhand a matter of public welfare: HC

The Uttarakhand high court, remarked that disaster management in the region, which is highly prone to natural calamity due to its fragile mountains, tectonic activity and climatic events, was a matter of public welfare. The HC had last month rapped the Centre for its “casual approach” to disaster management and asked it to reply within three weeks on what steps were being taken to monitor Himalayan glaciers and prevent related calamities.

The Kedarnath tragedy of 2013 shook the whole nation and brought to the notice of the entire country that disaster management techniques are not even up to mark to handle calamities. As stated herein, Uttaranchal is one of most vulnerable states with respect to possible natural disasters.

INTERNATIONAL

· China opens its first overseas Military base in Djibouti

ð China formally launched its first overseas naval facility in Djibouti, an East African nation.

ð Five Chinese formations and Djibouti’s Three Services HonorGuard took part in the launch ceremony on 1 of August 2017.

ð The event marked the 90th anniversary of the Chinese military Services.

ð Djibouti is a tiny East African nation of around 887,000 people, is between Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia.

ð Dijbouti is known as horn of Africa.

· Peter O’Neill re-elected as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.

Peter O’Neill has been reappointed as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.
The election has been widely criticized because thousands of voters were excluded and there were blazing abuses of the electoral process.
He is the leader of the People’s National Congress and represents the constituency of Ialibu-Pangia.

· World breastfeeding week is observed from August 1st to August 7^th.

World breastfeeding weekis being celebrated from 1st to 7th August every year.
The theme for the year 2017 is “Sustaining Breastfeeding Together”.
It was first celebrated in 1992 by World Alliance for Breastfeeding World Breastfeeding WeekAction (WABA)and is now observed in over 120 countries by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO)and their partners including individuals, organizations, and governments.

National

e-RaKAM portal has been launched by Government.

The government launched a portal, e-Rashtriya Kisan Agri Mandi(e-RaKAM), to provide a platform to sell agricultural produce. The portal is a joint initiative by state-run-auctioneer MSTC and Central Warehousing Corporation arm CRWC.

E-RaKAM is a first-of-its-kind initiative that leverages technology to connect farmers of the smallest villages to the biggest markets of the world through internet and e-RaKAM centres.

Under this initiative, e-RaKAM centres are being developed in a phased manner throughout the country to facilitate farmers for online sale of their produce.

Farmers would be paid through e-Payment directly into their bank accounts.

Reliance Jio launches world’s longest 100Gbps submarine-cable-system.

Reliance Jio Infocomm has launched the Asia-Africa-Europe (AAE-1) submarine cable system. It is claimed to be world’s longest 100Gbps technology-based.

Third Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy declared.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced Third Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement for current fiscal.2017-18 on August 2, 2017. This time, RBI has cut the policy repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 6 percent.

Repo Rate – 6.00%

Reverse Repo Rate – 5.75%

Marginal Standing Facility Rate – 6.25%

Bank Rate – 6.25%

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) – 4.00%

Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) – 20.00%

· Union Parliament passes Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill.

The Union Parliament passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education(Amendment) Bill, 2017 with Rajya Sabha approving it Lok Sabha
The Bill amends the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), 2009 by extending the deadline for teachers to acquire the prescribed minimum qualifications for appointment.

· SBI and Samsung collaborate to advance Digital India initiative.

The State Bank of India (SBI)and Samsung India announced the availability of Samsung Pay for higher variants of SBI debit card to advance Digital India.
It is currently available on Samsung smartphones. It enables consumers to make offline payments without the need for a physical Card.
It works on 2.5 million Point of Sale (POS) Card machines across the country through its Magnetic SecureTransmission (MST) technology.

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