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India
and Nepal sign Power Trade Agreement (PTA)
India
> Indo-Nepal > Oct 22
India and Nepal have
signed a historic Power Trade Agreement (PTA) which will allow
exchange of electricity and pave the way for cooperation in the
hydropower sector. The two countries had agreed on the deal when
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Nepal in August. There is a
provision of establishing a joint working group in the PTA to be
headed by joint secretaries of the two countries. The joint group
will sit every six months and take up issues not only pertaining to
the existing cooperation in power sector between the two countries
but will also explore and identify new areas of cooperation.
India
ranks poorly, 114 out of 142 nations in 2014 gender gap index
World
> Gender
gap index > Oct 28
India has failed to
remove gender-based inequalities, ranking 114 out of 142 countries,
in World Economic Forum's 2014 gender gap index, scoring below
average on parameters like economic participation, educational
attainment and health and survival. India slipped 13 spots from its
last year's ranking of 101. India is part of the 20 worst-performing
countries on the labour force participation, estimated earned income,
literacy rate and sex ratio at birth indicators. However, India is
among the top 20 best-performing countries on the political
empowerment subindex. It is the highest-ranked country on the years
with female head of state (over the past 50 years) indicator. Europe
holds 12 of the 20 top positions in the rankings. As in 2012 and
2013, the top four countries remained unchanged, with Iceland first,
Finland second, Norway third and Sweden fourth. The UK has slipped
from 18th to 26th in the rankings of its Global Gender Gap Report,
while the U.S. is now at 20th place, up three spots from the previous
report.
Government
hands over 627 names of black money holders abroad after court gives
deadline
Politics
and government > Black
Money > Oct 28
The government on
Monday, 27th Oct, disclosed in the Supreme Court eight
names against whom it has initiated prosecution under the Income Tax
Act for allegedly storing black money in foreign banks. Those who
have been named are: Dabur India promoter Pradip Burman, bullion
trader Pankaj Chamanlal Lodhiya, Goa mining company Timblo Private
Ltd and five of its directors. Although the Supreme Court in 2011 had
directed complete disclosure of information on people who had black
money abroad, the government said that it can reveal information only
in those cases where evasion of tax has been established after
thorough investigation. Rejecting the Centre's stand, the Supreme
Court on Tuesday ordered the Centre to disclose all the names of
black money holders abroad and reveal all information to it by today
and the court would direct investigation to be done by SIT or any
other agencies including CBI. The court also chastised the government
for going soft on the issue. Accordingly, the Centre handed over the
list with 627 names in a sealed cover to the court today. The apex
court declared that only the SIT chairman and vice-chairman can open
the envelopes and the team must submit a status report by
November-end.
Others
India
re-elected to UNHRC with highest votes
World
> UNHRC > Oct 22
India
has been re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council
(UNHRC) for the period of 2015 to 2017 in the recently held UN
General Assembly elections in New York after receiving the highest
number of votes, 162 votes. India was competing in the Asia-Pacific
group in which four seats were up for election. The other countries
competing in the group were Indonesia, Bangladesh, Qatar, Thailand,
Kuwait, Cambodia, Philippines and Bahrain, out of which India,
Bangladesh, Qatar and Indonesia made it to the UNHRC. India's first
term as the member of the 47-nation UNHRC is due to end on December
31st, this year.
BJP’s
Manohar Lal Khattar sworn in as 10th Chief Minister of Haryana
Politics
and Government > Haryana
Chief Minister > Oct 26
Manohar Lal Khattar,
from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was sworn in as the 10th
Chief Minister of Harayana at a high-profile event attended by PM
Narendra Modi and several senior BJP leaders. It is after 18 years
that a non-Jat was sworn in as the Haryana chief minister. Before
Khattar, the last non-Jat CM was Bhajan Lal. He had been in power
from 1991 to 1996.
Sania
mirza and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black win WTA doubles title
Sports
> Tennis > Oct 26
Indian tennis star
Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe's Cara Black teamed up to win the doubles
title at the WTA Finals in Bangalore beating Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei
and Peng Shuai of China. Sania became the first Indian in almost four
decades to win the season finale. The first and only previous Indian
to win the title was Vijay Amritraj in 1977, when he won the men's
event alongside American Dick Stockton.
Dilma
Rousseff narrowly wins second term as President in Brazil
World
> Brazil > Oct 26
Brazil's leftist
President Dilma Rousseff narrowly won re-election on Sunday after
convincing voters that her party's strong record of reducing poverty
over the last 12 years was more important than a recent economic
slump. Rousseff won 51.6 percent of votes in a runoff against
centrist opposition leader Aecio Neves, who won 48.4 percent with
more than 99 percent of the votes tallied. The result means another
four years in power for the Rousseff’s Workers' Party, which since
2003 has virtually transformed Brazil - lifting 40 million from
poverty, reducing unemployment to record lows and making big inroads
against hunger in what remains one of the world's most unequal
countries.
India's
GDP likely to grow by 5.6% in FY15
Economy
> GDP > Oct 27
A World Bank report titled 'India Development Update' has said
that India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is likely to expand by 5.6
percent this fiscal as reforms gain momentum and the growth is
expected to accelerate as proposed measures such as GST will give a
boost to manufacturing sector. GDP growth is likely to rise further
to 6.4 per cent and 7 per cent in FY16 and FY17 respectively. A
strong industrial recovery has helped growth and capital flows are
back, showing renewed investor confidence, exchange rate has
stabilised and financial sector stress has flattened out.
BJP’s
Devendra Fadnavis to be chief minister of Maharashtra
Politics
and Government >
Maharashtra > Oct 28
Bharatiya Janata
Party’s Devendra Fadnavis will be the new chief minister of
Maharashtra after he was elected the leader of the BJP’s
legislature party on Tuesday. Meanwhile the BJP continued talks with
its former ally the Shiv Sena on whether to form a government
together. Fadnavis is the first BJP chief minister of the state and
will head a minority government if the party fails to strike a deal
with the Sena. He will be sworn in along with seven ministers on
Friday at Wankhede Stadium. Fadnavis, who has his roots in the RSS,
is known to be a meticulous politician with a clean image. He has an
LLB from Nagpur University and a Post-Graduation in Business
Management. He also holds a diploma in methods and techniques of
project management from DSE, Berlin.
Survey
shows one in six female undergraduates at MIT has been sexually
assaulted
World
> Sexual
assault on campus > Oct 28
A survey conducted at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed that one in
six female undergraduates, who responded to the survey, has been
sexually assaulted, but fewer than 5 per cent reported a sex crime.
Five per cent of female undergraduates said they had been raped and
one in five knew a perpetrator of unwanted sexual behaviour. MIT,
which urged all its students to take the survey on attitudes towards
sexual assault, is one of the first U.S. schools to release
wide-ranging data on sex crimes on campus. MIT Chancellor Cynthia
Barnhart said that the survey was released to learn more about sexual
assault on campus, raise awareness so that more such incidents are
reported and derive ways to curb such incidents. MIT began taking
steps after an alumna wrote anonymously in the student newspaper,
saying she had been raped on campus.
Supreme
Court pulls up Centre for delaying government formation in Delhi
Politics
and Government > Delhi > Oct 28
The Supreme Court on
Tuesday pulled up the centre regarding government formation in Delhi
saying that it had given enough time and there was no progress on the
government’s part. Earlier in the morning, Delhi's Lieutenant
Governor Najeeb Jung was given the go-ahead by President Pranab
Mukherjee to invite the single largest party in Delhi, which is the
BJP, to form government in the state. The apex court said that in a
democracy, President’s’ rule cannot go on forever. The LG should
have taken a decision on government formation at the earliest and not
taken 5 months time. The SC bench further questioned whether "the
ruling party (BJP) has the numbers to form government." The AAP
and the Congress also questioned how the BJP would govern given they
didn't have the required numbers. The Supreme Court will now
pronounce its order on whether a government should be formed in the
state or whether Governor Jung should dissolve the Assembly and call
for fresh polls.
Japanese
telecom company Softbank to invest about Rs. 3762 crore in Snapdeal
Corporate
> Snapdeal > Oct 28
Japanese telecom giant
Softbank will invest USD 627 million (about Rs 3,762 crore) in
Snapdeal.com, one of India’s largest e-retailers, becoming the
largest shareholder in the company. This is the largest investment
made by a single investor in an e-commerce company in India. Other
existing investors have also participated in this round of
investment. Snapdeal will use the investments in expanding its chain
of fulfillment centres and make acquisitions in the coming few months
specifically in the area of mobile technology. SoftBank has pledged
an investment of USD 10 billion (over Rs 60,000 crore) in India's IT
and communications space, one of the biggest investment commitments
from a Japanese firm after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to
that country.
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