[CA] News: July 18, 2017

Around INDIA

# 14th Presidential Election recorded probably the highest ever voting turnout of close to 99%; 3 MPs and 2 MLAs did not cast their vote

# BJP's Parliamentary board picked Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Mr. Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu as the party's nominee for the post of Vice - President

# Centre told the Supreme Court that it took a conscious decision to not give any grace period for citizens to deposit the demonetised notes after the cut off date of Dec 30, 2016

# Government informed the Supreme Court that a policy decision on the commercial release of the Genetically Modified (GM) mustard crop is yet to be finalised

# The indigenously developed newborn hearing screening device – SOHUM was formally launched by the Ministry of Science & Technology

# Assam and Odisha face flood fury; 60 persons have died due to floods in Assam over the last couple of months

TAMIL NADU

# July 18, 1967: Assembly passed a resolution to change the name of "Madras State" to "Tamil Nadu"; 50th year now; On Jan 14, 1969 the name was officially changed to Tamil Nadu

# Cauvery delta region shrank by 20% due to climate change

# All members of the Assembly from Tamil Nadu except DMK President, Mr. Karunanidhi cast their vote in the Presidential Election in Chennai. Besides 232 MLAs from the State (1 seat is vacant), Union MoS,Mr. Pon Radhakrishnan and IUML MLA from Kerala Mr. Parakkal Abdulla cast their vote in Chennai

STATES SCAN

# Karnataka: Putting an end to the fierce internecine slugfest among IPS officers in the prisons department, Chief Minister, Mr. Siddaramaiah shunted out director general of police (prisons) Mr. H. N. Sathyanarayana Rao and deputy inspector general (prisons) Ms. D. Roopa, ahead of a formal inquiry into corruption allegations, including special treatment to jailed AIADMK chief Ms. V. K. Sasikala

# Telangana: in a first of its kind, state will have eco-friendly bridges over a canal cutting across the tiger corridor linking the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in the Chandrapur Dt of Maharashtra with the forests in Telangana's Kumram Bheem Asifabad Dt.

BILATERAL ISSUES

# The Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) is conducting jointly with the US, the second edition of United Nations Peacekeeping Course for African Partners (UNPCAP-02) in New Delhi

# Trilateral exercise between India, USA and Japan concluded

WORLD

# China: "husband rest booths" introduced in malls for husbands who go for shopping with their wives from store to store

# Indonesia: has named waters in its exclusive economic zone that overlap with China's expansive claim tot he South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea, an assertion of sovereignty that has angered China

# USA: U. S. Postal Service has honoured the rich legacy of the Walt Disney Studio's Ink and Paint Department by dedicating a sheet of 20 stamps, featuring 10 classic Disney Villians

# UAE orchestrated the hacking of a Qatari government news site in May 2017, planting a false story that was used as a pretext for the current crisis between Qatar and several Arab countries: The Washington Post

ECONOMICS

# GST Council decided to increase the cess applied on cigarettes by as much as 31% in certain categories

SPORTS

# FIFA lifted the ban on Sudan

# India's Amit Kumar Saroha clinched a Silver in Men's club throw F51 competition in the World Para Athletics Championships in London