UTTAR PRADESH

Power employees charges state government for initiating the process of privatization

Power employees charged the state government of initiating the process of privatization of power distribution companies (Discoms) from the back door.

The four Discoms, all wholly owned subsidiaries of UP Power corporation Limited (UPPCL), have also floated tenders for hiring Rs integrated service provider’ (ISP).

The employees alleged that the service provider would take over as much as 90 percent of the work presently done by engineers and employees of Discoms.

The private firm awarded contract will take over the job of giving new power connection, installation of new metre, raising bill and revenue recovery. Presently this job was done by officials and engineers of Discoms.

After the award of the contract to the service provider, engineers of Discoms will be left with overall monitoring of power supply and revenue recovery.

INTERNATIONAL

World Cancer Day: 4 February

World Cancer Day is an international day marked on February 4 to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment.

World Cancer Day was founded by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to support the goals of the World Cancer Declaration, written in 2008.

The primary goal of the World Cancer Day is to significantly reduce illness and death caused by cancer by 2020.

The theme for the World Cancer Day 2016-2018 is ‘We can. I can.’

Nepal gets a high Rs. 650 crore outlay

India’s annual financial allocation to Nepal for 2018-19 has nearly doubled under the Union Budget presented on February 1.

The External Affairs Ministry has been allocated a total Rs. 15,011 crore, which indicates a marginal increase of Rs. 1,321 crore over the previous year’s grant.

For India’s development and diplomatic engagement under the ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, the Budget has allocated Rs. 5545 crore.

Bhutan is traditionally the largest recipient of Ministry’s allocation.

NATIONAL

Venkaiah Naidu to Inaugurate First International Kala Mela

The Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu will inaugurate the First International Kala Mela in New Delhi on February 4.
The Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge) and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Mahesh Sharma will also grace the occasion.

Lalit Kala Akademi, the premier institution for the promotion of Art and Culture is organizing it at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi (IGNCA).

Environment Ministry launches ‘Green Good Deeds’ campaign

Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has appealed to the teaching community to join the “Green Good Deeds” campaign, launched by his Ministry to sensitise the people about climate change and global warming.

The Minister reminded the teachers of their “Green Social Responsibility similar to corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

CRISIL, SIDBI Launch India’s First MSE Sentiment Index

The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley launched CriSidEx , India’s first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises ( MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL & SIDBI.

CriSidEx is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative ) to 200 ( extremely positive) .

The parametric feedback was captured through a survey of 1100 MSEs in November –December.

CriSidEx will have 2 indices , one for the ‘survey quarter’ and another for the ‘next quarter’ once a trend emerges after few rounds of the survey , providing independent time series data.

The crucial benefit of CriSidEx is that its readings will flag potential headwinds and changes in production cycles and thus help improve market efficiencies and by capturing the sentiment of exporters and importers , it will also offer actionable indicators on foreign trade.

India’s biggest floating island released in Neknampur lake

On the occasion of World Wetland Day, city-based NGO Dhruvansh has introduced biggest floating island of India at Neknampur Lake, Hyderabad.
The duo of Dhruvansh NGO, Madhulika and Neeraj Singh started Neknampur restoration programme in June 2016 adopting various cost effective methodologies to clean the lake.
After successful introduction of 10×10 feet floating islands last year, the NGO introduced 2,500 square feet floating island with 3,500 wetland plants floating on this platform.

“A Century is Not Enough”: Autobiography of Sourav Ganguly

Former Team India captain Sourav Ganguly’s autobiography is soon-to-be-published and it is named “A Century is Not Enough”.

The book is co-authored by Gautam Bhattacharya and published by Juggernaut Books.

The book covers the ups and downs in more than a decade long career of the former Indian captain fondly called ‘Dada’.

· Railways Ministry may introduce dynamic pricing system

The Railways Ministrythe current flex-fare system and is considering introducing a dynamic pricing system for train tickets, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said. Under dynamic pricing system, fares will be decided as per the season and demand.

The Fares will be automatically adjusted via artificial intelligence, algorithms or technology, to help trains have more occupancy.

· India Lifts U-19 World Cup 2018

India defeated Australia to lift the Under 19 World cup for the fourth time.
The Men in Blue defeated the three-time champions Australia at Bay Oval, New Zealand.

Manjot Kalra scored a sensational unbeaten century and was named Man of the Match.

Shubman Gill was declared man of the series.

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