[CA] Daily News [Feb 09, 2018]

Around INDIA

·       Supreme Court said that it will handle Ayodha title dispute only as a "land issue"

·       Defence Ministry formed a panel under Vinay Sheel Oberoi to expedite capital acquisition

·       South Central Railway Zone becomes the first railway zone in the country with 100% LED lighting at every station under its jurisdiction

·       NHAI launched a pilot project on Delhi - Mumbai National Highway to analyse the feasibility of "Pay as you use" tolling system in India

·       Government said that there is no proposal at present to ban advertisements of junk food on television

·       NITI Aayog to release a comprehensive report titled, “Healthy States, Progressive India” today

STATES SCAN

·       Goa: the third edition of Difficult Dialogues forum on gender to be held in Panaji

·       Gujarat: set to face a severe water crisis

BILATERAL ISSUES

·       Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi will be undertaking bilateral visits to Palestine, United Arab Emirates and Oman from Feb 09-12, 2018; Becomes the first Indian Prime Minister,, to visit Palestine

·       Britain's Prince Charles has launched 10-million-dollar Development Impact Bond (DIB) with an objective to help improve education for over 200000 children in India

·       India rejected an offer by Maldivian President Mr. Abdulla Yameen to send a special envoy to discuss the ongoing emergency in the country

WORLD

·       Bangladesh: President, Mr. Abdul Hamid was re-elected unopposed for another five-year term

·       Bangladesh: Bangladesh National Party leader and three-time Prime Minister,  Ms. Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years after being found guilty in a corruption case

·       Bermuda: become the first country in the world to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriages

·       Maldives: Government invited all political parties to re-convene talks

ECONOMICS

·       International Intellectual Property Index (IIP)

- Released by US Chambers of Commerce

- Topped by USA followed by UK and Sweden

- India is ranked at 43rd position

SPORTS

·       2018 Winter Olympics at Peyongchang (South Korea) from Feb 09-25

MISC

·       Kathakali maestro Madavoor Vasudevan passed away

·       THE (Times Higher Education) World University Rankings (for Asian Countries) 2018

- National University of Singapore ranks first

- Japan has maximum representations in the list with 89 universities

- Among India, IISc (Bengaluru) is the highest ranked university at 29th position, followed by IIT Mumbai at 44th

- 17 institutions from India featured in the list

·       An 18-month-old boy (Lucas Warren of Dalton) with Down Syndrome has been named by baby food maker Gerber as its "Spokesbaby" for 2018