UTTARAKHAND

The state government on Wednesday announced a 2% hike on Dearness Allowance (DA) in the hill state with immediate effect.

The hike has been implemented and the employees would get the benefit starting from January 1, 2018.”

The hike would result in an additional expenditure of over Rs 70 crore annually on the state exchequer.

The state government had been in discussions with the Centre regarding the implementation of the 2% DA hike and it was after tabling the budget that the preparation to give additional money was completed.

INTERNATIONAL

· China’s Alibaba Buys Pakistan E-Commerce Firm Daraz

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba purchased leading Pakistani online retailer‘Daraz’,continuing its overseas expansion by gaining a foothold in the growing South Asian consumer market.
China is seeking closer economic ties with Asian neighbors including Pakistan through its Belt and Road initiative, a strategy to increase trade links that are led primarily by infrastructure projects.
Daraz, founded in 2012, was purchased from Rocket Internet, a Berlin-based incubator of online startups.

· India Pavilion Inaugurated At Cannes Film Festival 2018

The inaugural session of theIndian Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 was held at Cannes, France. It was hosted by noted actor Sharad Kelkar.
A meeting between the Indian delegation and Ms. Isabelle Giordano, Director General, Unifrance, M. Loic Wong, Director of International Department, CNC, France was held to explore co-production opportunities between India and France.

Scientists have discovered world’s second oldest grain of magnetic zircon ( a mineral that contains traces of radioactive isotopes ) from champuna from Singhbhum rock sample in Odisha’s Kendujhar district.
It is an estimated 4, 240 million years old, making it world’s second oldest rock ever to be discovered.
It is oldest magnetic zircon on earth.

India and Peru signed an agreement in the field of Renewable Energy at Lima.
The pact was signed in the presence of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and the Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva Arevalo.
This is the final leg of the 3-Nation visit to central America of Indian Vice- President.
During the meeting, the leaders discussed various bilateral and international issues of mutual interest.
Vice President’s visit comes at a time when India is celebrating the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Diplomatic Relations with Peru.

Facebook said it has introduced a “cyber threats crisis” email hotline for politicians and political parties in India. The social media giant, recently embroiled in a major controversy over misuse of private data, is also working on an “election integrity” microsite for India.

Compromised accounts and even the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which works under union ministry of electronics and IT, can write to indiacyberthreats@fb.com in case of a security breach. Facebook also released a “cyber security guide” for political accounts.

NATIONAL

In a major boost to defence logistics along the border with China, India’s longest road and railway bridge connecting Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh is likely to be inaugurated later this year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While all the civil work would be completed by July this year, two more months would be needed to finish the electrical and signalling work on the 4.94 km bridge.

The bridge, which is the second longest in Asia, has three lane roads on top and double line rail below.

The bridge is 32 metres above the water level of the Brahamaputra and is fashioned on a bridge that links Sweden and Denmark.

Bogibeel is part of infrastructure projects planned by India to improve logistics along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. This includes the construction of a trans-Arunachal highway on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, and new road and rail links over the mighty river and its major tributaries such as the Dibang, Lohit, Subansiri and Kameng.
India and China share a nearly 4,000 km border.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli on Friday jointly inaugurated a direct bus service between Janakpur and Ayodhya, the two sacred cities for Hindus, as part of a “Ramayan Circuit” to promote religious tourism in Nepal and India.

The government has identified 15 destinations in India for development under the Ramayana Circuit theme — Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh), Sitamarhi, Buxar and Darbhanga (Bihar), Chitrakoot (Madhya Pradesh), Mahendragiri (Odisha), Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh), Nashik and Nagpur (Maharashtra), Bhadrachalam (Telangana), Hampi (Karnataka) and Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu).

Janakpur is known as the birth place of Sita, the wife of Lord Rama. Janaki temple was built in memory of Sita in 1910. The three-storey structure made entirely of stone and marble is 50-metre high and spread over 4,860 sq feet.

Ramayan circuit is one of the 13 circuits under swadesh darshan scheme of Government.

GK Bit – Swadesh Darshan Scheme

Government had launched Swadesh Darshan Scheme to promote international and domestic tourism across the country. There are 13 tourism circuits have been identified so far and few proposed tourist circuit by Walk Through India such as Shiva Temple Circuit, Jain Temple circuit,Gurdwara circuit, Adventure tourism circuit and Cruise tourism.

Under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, thirteen thematic circuits have been identified, for development namely: North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit.

Kapilavastu, Uttar Pradesh

Bodh Gaya, Bihar

Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh

Rajgir, Bihar

Sravasti, Uttar Pradesh

Vaishali, Bihar

Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh

There are more Buddhist pilgrimage destination in India such as Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur,Sanchi Stupa in Madhya Pradesh, Buddhist Monasteries in Bylakuppe,Buddhist monastery in Sikkim,Buddhist monastery in Ladakh.