Just 14 months after Yoga was declared as a sport in India, the decision has now been reversed.
●    When Yoga was recognised as a sport in India in September last year, it had the seal of approval from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
●    But on Wednesday the sports ministry communicated to all the National Sports Federations and the Sports Authority of India (SAI), that "Yoga can't be termed as a sport."
●    Yoga, in fact, was added in the list of priority sports but the government has found out that it has many dimensions and it will not be possible to conduct competitions in Yoga.
●    For any sport to be added into the priority list, it should be part of Olympics, Asian Games or Commonwealth Games but for Yoga, an exception was made.
●    The sports ministry will no longer look after Yoga and it has now gone back to the AYUSH ministry.

Sakhamuru, a nondescript village in Thullur mandal of Andhra Pradesh will host the single largest lung space in the State’s capital region in the form of a 200-acre botanical garden.
●    The AP-Capital Region Development Authority (AP-CRDA) which is developing it, has identified a 100-acre parcel of land for the garden and got it incorporated in the master plan.
●    Besides, six nurseries set up by the landscaping and environment wing of the CRDA at Mandadam, Kondamarajupalem, Navuluru, Penumaka, Velagapudi and Venkatayapalem will help raise greenery across the region.
●    These facilities have a collection of 10 lakh saplings.
●    Two other big projects undertaken by the CRDA are those which will give Gannavaram–Ramavarappadu and Kanaka Durga Varadhi–Pottur (Guntur Rural Mandal) stretches of the respective national highways a green look by raising plantations along the central dividers.
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The Odisha Government recently decided to launch a new malaria control programme, DAMAN, in remote tribal-dominated areas.
●    Odisha has 62 types of tribes including 13 primitive tribes that constitute 22.3 per cent of the state's population. The population is under the high risk of malaria infection.
●    DAMAN stands for Durgama Anchalare Malaria Nirakaran (Malaria Control in Inaccessible Areas).
●    It will be implemented in 8000 villages of all 79 blocks of eight high malaria endemic southern districts. 
●    These districts are Koraput, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Rayagada, Nabarangapur, Nuapada, Kandhamal and Gajapati.
●    The programme incorporates mass screening for malaria with treatment of positive cases along with intensified supervision, mosquito control measures and regular health education activities throughout the year.
●    The drive will continue for five years with a total expenditure of Rs 120 crore. 
●    The State Government has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore to start the programme.
●    Around 80 lakh high-risk population will benefit from the programme.

Reliance Communications (RCom) of the Anil Ambani group has signed binding agreements with Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure and institutional partners to sell its tower business for an upfront cash payment of Rs 11,000 crore
●    The already-announced combination of RCom’s wireless business with Aircel, and the monetisation of the tower business, will together reduce RCom’s overall debt by Rs 31,000 crore ($ 4.6 billion), or nearly 70 per cent of existing debt.
●    RCom will also receive Class B non-voting shares in the new tower company, providing 49 per cent future economic upside in the towers business, based on certain conditions. 
●    RCom expects significant future value creation from the B Class shares, based on growth in tenancies arising from increasing 4G roll-out by all telecom operators and fast accelerating data consumption.
●    RCom shares rose by 6.85 per cent to Rs 37.45 on the BSE soon after the announcement.
●    Brookfield Infrastructure is an investment company.
●    Brookfield Infrastructure operates Canada's majority stake.
●    After American Tower Corp Brookfield is the second largest independent telecom tower company in India.

Union Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu today launched ‘Google Maps Toilet Locator App’ to enable people to locate the nearest public toilet in five cities of the National Capital Region and Bhopal and Indore.
●    Besides, Thanesar and Sirsa cities in Haryana have been awarded ’Swachhta Certificate’ for making cities open defecation free.
●    Naidu said the Google Maps Toilet Locator App facility, which is as of now available in Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida and the two cities of Madhya Pradesh, would help in addressing open urination and open defecation.
●    The app also gives information about the nature of the toilet seat available, free or pay for use, working hours, etc. 
●    This facility will be extended to other cities in due course, the minister said. The Urban Development Ministry has partnered with Google to enable this service.
●    The minister also awarded ‘Swachhta Certificates’ to 12 cities, including Thanesar and Sirsa, which have become open defecation free recently and their claims verified independently by the Quality Council of India.
●    Other cities are Visakhapatnam; Guntur and Nellore in AP; New Delhi Municipal Council, Suchindram and Mailadi in TN; and Khopoli, Kolhapur and Nandurbar in Maharashtra.

The Centre approved the promulgation of an ordinance on Wednesday to enable industries to pay wages by cheque or by direct credit into bank accounts.
●    Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya said wage payment through the banking system would only be optional, until State governments or the Centre come up with a notification for specific industries.
●    Mr. Dattatreya had introduced the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha on December 15, but it couldn’t be cleared owing to the impasse in Parliament. 
●    The present law states that all payment of wages should be in cash, with a provision asking employers to obtain written permission of the worker to pay either by cheque, or by crediting the wages to his or her bank account.
●    The present law states that all payment of wages should be in cash, with a provision asking employers to obtain written permission of the worker to pay either by cheque, or by crediting the wages to his or her bank account.

Popular bollywood actor Salman Khan topped the 2016 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List. 
●    As per the list released by the Forbes magazine on 23 December 2016, 50-year-old Salman Khan retained the top spot due to the commercial success of his two big releases - Sultan and Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo.
●    Salman Khan’s total earnings constituted 9.84 percent of the total wealth of all the top 100 celebrities for the year.
●    While the top 100 celebrities cumulatively earned Rs 2745 crore, Salman earned Rs 270.33 crore in one year period.
●    Top 10 celebrities of the list in:
●    Salman Khan
●    Shah Rukh Khan
●    Virat Kohli
●    Akshay Kumar
●    MS Dhoni
●    Deepika Padukone
●    Sachin Tendulkar
●    Priyanka Chopra
●    Amitabh Bachchan
●    Hrithik Roshan

The government of Tripura has decided to adopt for cashless payment in all public transactions, starting from 1 January 2017.
●    The government has already initiated the process of opening bank accounts including issuing RuPay cards to people who do not have any bank accounts.
●    According to the Chief Secretary of the state, Yashpal Singh, 80% people in Tripura already have at least one bank account. 
●    So, the state government took the initiative of opening bank accounts for those who don’t have such as the tea garden and brick kiln workers.
●    By New Year, the government plans to convert the state into a cashless economy by ensuring that all its state departments deal mostly in digital payments.
●    Apart from this, the government is also building digital infrastructure in the Agartala government medical college & hospital, Tripura medical college and hospital and Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital. 

The Department of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food and Public Distribution is celebrating the National Consumer Day this year with the theme “Alternate Consumer Disputes Redressal” on 24th December, 2016 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
●    The programme will be inaugurated and presided over by Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and will be attended by Shri C.R Chaudhary, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Members of Parliament, Ministers and Secretaries in charge of Consumer Affairs in the States, Officers in the Central Government, and representatives from Industry and the Voluntary Consumer Organisations.
●    High on the agenda of the event will be the discussion on the theme Alternative Dispute Resolution, which is already being practiced in resolving civil disputes, and the Consumer Protection Bill 2015 also has a chapter dedicated to mediation, one of the ADR mechanisms. 
●    New initiatives of the Department on consumer grievance redressal and consumer education, leveraging new age technologies will be launched.
●    The National Consumer Day is observed every year on December 24. On this day, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 had received the assent of the President. 
●    The Day is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the national consumer movement and is an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers.

The Ministry of Textiles have taken an initiative to organize first ever “Investors Summit” exclusively for NER in association with Ministry of DONER and the Industry Associations FICCI and CII on 30-31 January 2017 at Shillong. The Summit aims to showcase the NER as a global destination for investment, and explore possibility of convergence of efforts of various central Ministries and North Eastern States to attract investment in NER.
●    The Summit will be attended by the all North Eastern States, Industries from North East and leading investors across the country. The Summit is expected to unlock huge potential of the NER in textile manufacturing and generate new avenues for employment in the region.
●    North Eastern Region has huge potential for investments particularly in the field of textiles and handicrafts due to its inherent strength for skilled work force and locally available raw material. Ministry of Textiles is implementing projects worth Rs 1050 cr for Handlooms, Handicrafts, sericulture, Apparel & Garmenting, Technical textiles etc. in the eight States of North East region in line with the “Act East” policy of the Government,
●    These projects have created a foundation for further growth of manufacturing in textile sector. Other line Ministries also have schemes where various incentives/ concessions are available for investments in NER. However, the information is mostly in silos and does not provide a comprehensive picture to the investors about the opportunities in 
●    North East.