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Important Current Affairs 10th August 2018

  

Important Current Affairs 10th August 2018

                                            INTERNATIONAL NEWS

MoU between India and Indonesia on Health cooperation
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Indonesia on health cooperation.


 The MoU covers the following areas of cooperation:-
 1.    Research and development, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and IT-based medical equipment;
2.    Human Resource Development;
3.    Health services; and
4.    Any other area as may be mutually agreed upon.
 


India and Canada comes together on collaboration among Chartered Accountant Institutions  
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing of the "Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)" between "Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)" and "Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada)".

 Significance:
•    The aim is to work together to develop a mutually beneficial relationship in the best interest of ICAI members, students and their organizations.
•    The MoU will provide an opportunity to the ICAI members to expand their professional horizon and simultaneously ICAI will become an entity to aid strengthen brand building of local nations. 
•    The MoU will foster strong working relations between the ICAI & CPA Canada.

Beneficiaries:

•    The MoU would help encourage more and younger Indian Chartered Accountants to take up the recognition of "CPA Canada" professional designation to further help them pursue professional opportunities in Canada. 

•    A number of Indian Chartered Accountants are holding top level positions in Canadian companies and with the recognition from CPA Canada, the Canadian Corporates would trust Indian talent and skills more and proceed to hire them.

Global Innovation Index, GII- 2018 launched in India
•    India's rank on the Global Innovation Index (GII) has improved from 60th last year to 57th this year. India has been consistently climbing the GII ranking for the past two years.
•    Its position improved from 80 in 2015 to 66 in 2016 after sliding for successive five years. 
•    According to Mr Ratan P Watal Government and industry must synergise their efforts to promote R&D and innovation in the country. 
•    NITI Aayog will join hands with CII to drive innovation in India.


Scientific and Technological Cooperation between India and Indonesia 

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Indonesia on Scientific and Technological Cooperation.
Objective of this MoU:
•    The objective of the MoU is to promote cooperation in the fields of science and technology between India and Indonesia on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.
•    The stake-holders will include researchers from scientific organizations, academia, R&D laboratories and companies from India and Indonesia.
•    Information and Communication Technology; Marine Science & Technology; Life Sciences (including Biotechnology, Agriculture and Biomedical Sciences); Energy Research; Water Technologies; Disaster Management; Space Sciences, Technology and Applications; Geospatial Information and Applied Chemistry were identified as potential areas for immediate collaboration.

Trade Remedy Cooperation between India and Korea 

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi gave its ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Korea on Trade Remedy Cooperation.

The MoU was signed in July 2018 during the State visit of President of Korea to India.

Significance

The MoU will promote cooperation between the two countries in the area of trade remedies viz. anti-dumping, subsidy and countervailing and safeguard measures, which will enhance the bilateral trade relations.
Important
President of South Korea is Moon Jae-in


NRIs cannot file RTI applications

•    Non-Resident Indians cannot file Right to Information (RTI) applications to seek governance-related information from the Central government departments.
•    Only citizens of India have the right to seek information under the provisions of Right to Information Act, 2005. Non-Resident Indians are not eligible to file RTI applications.

Right to Information Act, 2005
•    Right to Information (RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of the right to information for citizens and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002.
•    Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.
•     The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.

Important:
Minister of State for Personnel is Jitendra Singh 

                                             

                                                   NATIONAL NEWS

CIL entered into a tripartite MoU with NSDF and NSDC
In the coal sector, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) has entered into a tripartite MoU with National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) and National Skill Development Center (NSDC) under Skill India Mission of Govt. of India for standardization of Skills and Training & Assessment of their employees as well as Contractual Workers, Project affected Persons (PAP), Youth & Women in its command area to bring them in line with NSDC Qualifications. Till date, Rs.15 Crore (approx.) have been spent on the project to impart training to 39953 persons (including 4700 contractual workers).

Figures:

2018-19(Fund Allocation): 106.02 Crore
2017-18(Fund Allocation): 72.76 Crore

Important:

The Minister of Railways, Coal, Finance & Corporate Affairs is Shri Piyush Goyal 

Begging in the national capital is decriminalized by Delhi High Court

According to the Delhi High Court Criminalising begging is a wrong approach to deal with the underlying causes of the problem, as it quashed provisions in the law that made begging a punishable offence.

What the Law Says:

The act of begging in the national Capital was made a criminal offence after the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, was extended to Delhi by a Central government amendment in 1960.

The law prescribes a penalty of three years of detention in beggar homes in case of first conviction for begging and the person can be ordered to be detained for 10 years in subsequent conviction.

S Gurumurthy, Satish Marathe appointed as directors on RBI board 
The government has appointed Swaminathan Gurumurthy and Satish Kashinath Marathe as  part-time non-official directors on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) board. 

The Cabinet's Appointments Committee approved their appointment following a proposal from the Department of Financial Services.

About Swaminathan Gurumurthy

•    Gurumurthy, an economist and chartered accountant by profession, is also the co-convenor of RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch. 

•    He is also the editor of Tamil political weekly Thuglak. 

•    A vocal supporter of PM Narendra Modi's policies, Gurumurthy had defended the demonetisation of high value currency notes.

About Satish Kashinath Marathe

•    Marathe, started banking career with Bank of India, then he became chairman of The United Western Bank Ltd.

•    He is also the founder of Sahakar Bharati, an NGO that supports co-operatives in India.

RBI to pay Rs 50,000 cr dividend to govt for FY18

•    The RBI decided to pay Rs 50,000 crore as dividend to government in line with the Union Budget provisions, helping the Centre stick to its fiscal roadmap.

•    The Reserve Bank, which follows July-June financial year, has paid about 63 per cent higher dividend than previous year (2016-17). The RBI made a dividend payout of Rs 30,659 crore for the fiscal ended June 2017.

Important:

•    The government projected to collect Rs 54,817.25 crore as dividend or Surplus of Reserve Bank of India, Nationalised Banks and Financial Institutions. 

•    The RBI transferred a surplus of Rs 30,659 crore as dividend to the government for the year ended June 30, 2017, which was less than half of what it paid in the previous year (Rs 65,876 crore). 
What RBI Act, 1934 says 

Under the RBI Act, 1934, the central bank is required to pay the government its surplus after making provisions for bad and doubtful debts, depreciation in assets and, contribution to staff and superannuation fund among others. 


ACC appointments

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the following appointments:
 
•    Shri Raghvendra Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Culture as Secretary, Ministry of Textiles vice Shri Anant Kumar Singh.

•    Shri Anant Kumar Singh, IAS  Secretary, Ministry of Textiles as Secretary, Department of Land Resources in the vacancy caused on superannuation of Shri Dinesh Singh.

•    Shri Arun Goel,  Special Secretary, Ministry of Culture as Secretary, Ministry of Culture vice Shri Raghvendra Singh on his appointment as Secretary, Ministry of Textiles.

                                                           DEFENCE NEWS


Cabinet approves raising of four additional battalions of National Disaster Response Force
 
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given the approval for raising of four (4) additional battalions of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to strengthen the India's disaster response set up at an estimated cost of Rs 637 crore.

Details:
 
•    The objective of raising four additional battalions is to reduce the response time keeping in view the vast geographic area of the country.

•    These four battalions will initially be raised as two battalions in Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and one battalion each in Border Security Force (BSF) and Assam Rifles (ARs).

•    Later these four battalions will be converted into NDRF battalions. Based on the vulnerability profile, these four battalions will be placed in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi National Capital Region.

 Background:

NDRF is a specialized force, which has been created in the year 2006 for the purpose of specialist response during the natural and man-made disaster or threatening situation. At present there are 12 battalions in NDRF which are deployed strategically across the country to provide immediate response.

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