[CA] News: July 13, 2017

Around INDIA

# Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi chaired his twentieth interaction through PRAGATI - the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.

# A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court will hear a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Aadhaar Scheme

# The Supreme Court allowed Arunachal Pradesh and Andaman & Nicobar Is to join the club of Sikkim and Meghalaya, both of which enjoy full exemption from the Court’s ban on sale of liquor within 500m of National and State Highways

# 8th edition of the greatest carnival of Theatre in the World will take place in India for the first time ever from February 17 – April 08, 2018 simultaneously in various cities across the country

# Ministry of Health launched the National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination (2017-22)

# Ministry o f Railways launched the following Initiatives:-

1. Rail Cloud Project:

2. NIVARAN-Grievance Portal (First IT Application on Rail Cloud).

3. Cashless treatment Scheme in Emergency (CTSE) Scheme and Handing over of 1st CTSE Card.

# MoS for Home Affairs, Mr. Kiren Rijiju to lead a high level central team today to supervise the rescue and relief operations in flood affected different parts of North East.

# A major controversy erupted with the CBFC objecting to the use of words like "Cow", "Gujarat", "Hindu" and "Hindutava" in a documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sen titled "The Argumentative Indian"

# Union Health Ministry will set up the Centres of Excellence in Transfusion Medicine under the Metro Blood Bank Project in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai

# Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) at campus of National Seed Research and Training Center (NSRTC) in Varanasi.

# Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Palestine on cooperation in the field of Health and Medicine.

# Union Cabinet has given its approval for the Joint Interpretative Notes (JIN) on the Agreement between India and Bangladesh for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.

# Union Cabinet has given its ex-post facto approval for signing a Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) between India and Germany on cooperation in the field of Health.

# Union Cabinet has been apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bangladesh on cyber security

# Union Cabinet has been apprised of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Palestine on Cooperation in the field of Information Technology and Electronics (IT&E)

TAMIL NADU

# Commercial Tax Department will soon unveil a "Samadhan Scheme" to collect outstanding tax arrears that are pending for a long time

STATES SCAN

# Maharashtra: become the first State to enact a law against social boycott by caste panchayats

# Karnataka: Chief Minister, Mr. Siddaramaiah has written to his Goa Counterpart, Mr. Manohar Parrikar requesting a tentative date to hold a meeting of the Chief Ministers of three riparian State (the other being Maharashtra) to help resolve the Mahadayi river water row

WORLD

# 22nd World Petroleum Congress at Istanbul, Turkey.

# Malta: the predominantly Roman catholic island nation of Malta is set to legalise same-sex marriage, joining much of its western Europe countries

# USA: Postal service marked the occasion of Henry David Thoreau's 200th birth anniversary with a new postage stamp honouring the writer, philosopher and naturalist

ECONOMICS

# Government is considering the introduction of a regulator regime for virtual or crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin, that would enable the levy of the GST on their sale

SPORTS

# CEAT-Ultimate Table Tennis league starts today in Chennai (July 13 - July 26); 6 teams (each team has 8 players) comprising Indian players and International players

# Indian women cricketer Maithali Raj becomes the highest run scorer in women's cricket; she scored a total of 6028 runs so far

- Only female cricketer to surpass the 6000 run in ODIs

# Ravi Sashtri is the new coach of Indian cricket team

# 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics likely to be held either in Los Angeles or Paris

MISC

# Japanese comedian Pikotato has adapted his catchy song "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen", to promote the United Nations' sustainable development

# NASA's spacecraft Juno flied close to Jupiter's Great Red Spot

# Scientists have discovered the smallest star (called as EBLM JO555-57Ab) in the universe slightly larger than Saturn in size

# One of the biggest icebergs ever recorded has just broken away from Antarctica

# Book "The Great Game in Afghanistan: Rajiv Gandhi, General Zia and the Unending War" by Kallol Bhattacherjee

# Renowned forensic expert Pakkiriswamy Chandra Sekharan passed away