[CA] News: July 04, 2017

Around INDIA

# Upholding her right to choose, the Supreme Court allowed a woman to abort her over 2-week-old foetus with severe abnormalities; In general, the law foes not permit abortion if the foetus is over 20 weeks old

# Centre has sought another report from the West Bengal government on the ongoing Darjeeling violence as the State Government (West Bengal) has asked for the withdrawal of women CRPF personnel

# DRDO successfully test-fired an indigenously developed Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air-Missile (QRSAM)

# "Har haath ek kitaab" (One Book for Every Hand) is the new scheme set in motion by the NBT (National Book Trust)

# In a first-of-its-kind initiative by a serving Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi will write a book dedicated to the youth, in which he will address core issues like overcoming examination stress, keeping one's composure and even what to do after the exams are over

TAMIL NADU

# Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) would be expanded to cover 8, 878 sq. km from its current 1, 189 sq. km.

- All of Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur districts as well as Arakkonam in Vellore Dt would be part of the new CMA

# Supreme Court stayed a Madras High Court order directing the Tamil Nadu Government to extend its crop loan waiver scheme to all farmers, including those with holding above five acres

# Oil well row: Kadiramangalam residents take out silent march

# Government to launch Open Government Data on the lines of the website created by the Centre to increase transparency in governance and to conduct hackathons by using the data

STATES SCAN

# Madhya Pradesh: Government launched "Namami Devi Narmade" campaign; to plant 6 crore saplings across the River Narmada

- Becomes the first State of India to have embarked upon world's largest river conservation campaign with people's participation

BILATERAL ISSUES

# Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi to visit Israel (July 04-06); becomes the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel

- On his arrival in Tel Aviv, Mr. Modi will receive protocol reserved only for the U. S. President and the Pope, as Israel Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu will greet him at the airport for a welcome ceremony

- In Oct 2015, President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee became the first Indian President to visit Israel

# The standoff between the Armies of China and India completed 18 days over Doklam area in Bhutan

WORLD

# Syria: Syrian Central Bank put into circulation anew 2, 000 Syrian Lira ($3.9) banknote that has the face of country's current President Mr. Bashar Asad

# USA: President, Mr. Donald Trump spoke with Chinese President, Mr. Xi Jinping to appeal for his help with what he called the "growing threat" posed by North Korea's nuclear weapon programme

ECONOMICS

# With the roll-out of the GST, 22 States in India have abolished their check posts.

# Senior Union Ministers Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Mr. Piyush Goyal and Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju will be part of a five-member ministerial panel headed by finance minister Mr. Arun Jaitley tasked with deciding the process of privatising Air India, which may start by December.

# IOCL is gearing up to commission two import facilities at the Kochi port in Kerala and Paradip in Odisha by 2018

# IOCL's jumbo cylinder weighing 450 kg was launched; it is aimed at catering to bulk consumers and those seeking to use LPG cylinder

# Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of India signed a $220 million loan for improving connectivity as well as transport efficiency and safety on State Highways of Rajasthan.

# National Multi Commodity Exchange (NMCE), India's first de-mutualised online national multi-commodities exchange, will merge with the Indian Multi Commodity Exchange (IMCE)

SPORTS

# Google rolled out a new doodle commemorating the 140th anniversary of the world's oldest tennis tournament, Wimbledon championships

# Easterbourne International Championship 2017 (at UK)

- Men's Singles: Novak Djokovic won Men's Singles by defeating France's Gael Monfils

- Women's Singles: Karolina Pliskova (Czech) won the Women's Singles by defeating Danish Caroline Wozniacki

# World Champion Peter Sagan won his eighth Tour de France stage

MISC

# Writer Preeti Shenoy was honoured with the Indian of the Year Award

- A few of her famous books are "It's All in the Planets", "Life is What You Make It", "It happens for A Reason", etc