Uttar Pradesh
- Chaliye Pokhara’ campaign launched in Lucknow
- A 26-member contingent from Nepal, comprising members of the Nepal Tourism Board and hotel association of the Himalayan Kingdom was in the state capital on Sunday as part of its ‘Chaliye Pokhara’ initiative to promote tourist flow from Lucknow.
- India accounts for around one third of tourist flow to Nepal and Pokhara finds a special place in the itinerary of tourists from Lucknow and Gorakhpur.
- “Increased economic growth of bordering states of Nepal like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is a major reason behind organising such an event in Lucknow.
- Major tourist cities of Nepal like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbini had witnessed increased tourist footfall from Indian cities, especially Lucknow and Gorakhpur.
ð Pokhara is considered to be the gateway to one of the world’s best trekking experiences in Annapurna mountain range.
ð The first leg of promotion and business tour of ‘Chaliye Pokhara’, launched from Lucknow, has been very successful. The second phase of this campaign will be launched from Gorakhpur.
- No more tax-free goods for serving, ex-UP govt staff.
- The UP government employees and pensioner, around 22 lakh in number, will no more be able to buy tax-free consumables and goods from the government-run depots and canteens after the present pre-GST stocks are exhausted.
- The goods and services tax (GST) law has done away with the provision that enabled the states governments to allow its depots sell the goods to its employees and pensioners below the market rate by exempting the goods from the VAT that was upto 14% or even more in case of commodities that also carried 0.5-1% special additional tax (SAT).
- The UP Employees’ Welfare Corporation established in 1965 as a registered society runs 160 depots (stores) across the state to make goods of daily use available to state government employees/ pensioners and their dependents after their death at a rate below the market price.
- These depots would procure VAT-free goods from the designated dealers and sell the same to the employees and pensioners for the same price without charging any VAT. Among the dozens of tax-free goods being sold by such stores included edible oils, atta, pulses, tea, ghee, spices, soaps, perfumes, tooth pastes, fans, pressure cookers, watches, suitcases/brief cases, helmets and sanitary napkins.
- In case of the army canteens, the state government exempted VAT only on the sale two wheelers and four wheelers with total maximum limit of such vehicles to be sold by all the army canteens in the state together in a year not being more than 10,000.
- “The UP government had to suffer an annual loss upto Rs 200250 crore due to VAT exemptions given on goods sold through UP employees’ welfare corporation and the army canteen.
INTERNATIONAL
- China launches its first X-ray space telescope.
- China launched its first x-ray telescope, a significant step in the country’s race to develop a space program that can rival that of the US or Russia.
- The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) took off from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the country’s first satellite launch site, located in Inner Mongolia via a domestically-developed Long March-4B rocket.
- Once in orbit, the telescope will be used to observe high-energy entities like black holes, pulsars and gamma-ray bursts in order to understand more about their energy sources.
- World’s first train that runs on virtual tracks in China
- China has unveiled the world’s first ‘railless’ train – a train that runs on virtual tracks.
- China is also testing a bus that can straddle the road, and allow traffic to pass under it.
- New train is part of China’s attempts to develop “intelligent rail express system”. Instead of railway tracks, the train runs on rubber tyres.
- The train can move at a maximum speed of 70 km/hour.
- 65 million people displaced in 2016: UN
- Record 65.6 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes owing to conflict or persecution by the end of 2016
- It includes 22.5 million refugees, 40.3 million internally displaced people and 2.8 million asylum seekers.
- For the third consecutive year, Turkey hosted the largest number of refugees worldwide, with 2.9 million people.
- It was followed by Pakistan (1.4 million), Lebanon (1 million), Iran (979,400), Uganda (940,800), and Ethiopia (791,600)
NATIONAL
- Union Government launches National Biopharma Mission
- The Union Ministry of Science & Technology has launched National Biopharma Mission, a first ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India.
- Under this mission, the ministry also launched Innovate in India (i3) program to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector.
Indian biopharmaceutical industry is still 10-15 years behind their counterparts in the developed countries and faces stiff competition from Korea, China and others.
- Innovate in India (i3) program is a flagship program of the Government of India in collaboration with World Bank. It is committed to make India a hub for design and development of novel, affordable and effective biopharmaceutical products and solutions.
It promises to boost the growth of domestic biopharma industry by accelerating the translation of research concepts into viable products and supporting clinical validation.
National Biopharma Mission
- The mission aims to enable and nurture an ecosystem for preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in biopharmaceuticals to be globally competitive level over the next decade.
- The mission will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a PSU of Department of Biotechnology. It will bring together expertise from national and international corridors
- KK Venugopal appointed as Attorney General of India
- President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed senior advocate and constitutional expert K K Venugopal (86) as the new Attorney General of India. He will be 15th Attorney General of India. He succeeds Mukul Rohatgi as the country’s top law officer. Earlier, in the Morarji Desai’ government (1977-79), Venugopal had served as Additional Solicitor General of India
Gk byte – Attorney General of India
- Attorney General for India is the Indian government’s chief legal advisor, and its primary lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.He is appointed by the President of India under Article 76(1) of the Constitution and holds office during the pleasure of the President. He is part of Union Executive.
- Attorney General is the first law officer of the government of India and acts as top advocate for Union Government. He is responsible for giving advice to President/ Union Government upon such legal matters and to perform such other duties of legal character which are assigned to him by the President.
- He has right of audience in all courts within the territory of India. He has also the right to speak and take part in proceedings of both the houses of parliament including joint sittings. But cannot vote in parliament. Further, he can also be made a member of any parliamentary committee but in the committee also, he has no power to vote.