Haryana Assembly passes bills for mandatory educational criteria for urban local bodies elections
i. The Haryana Legislative Assembly has unanimously passed two bills to make minimum educational qualification criteria mandatory for the urban local bodies election (ULBs).
ii. These bills are (i) The Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (ii) Haryana Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
iii. These bill seeks to amend the amend Section 13 A of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 and Section 8 of the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994 respectively.
Key features of the Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Bill, 2016
- Minimum educational qualification for a candidate contesting ULBs election in the general category would be Class X i.e. matriculation.
- Female candidate from open category and a male candidate from Scheduled Caste (SC) will be required to be at least 8th standard pass.
- Minimum educational qualification for SC women candidates will be 5th standard pass.
- Candidate should not be convicted or have charges framed against him in a criminal case by a court for an offence punishable with imprisonment for not less than 10 years.
- There should be no pending arrears of electricity bills against the candidate contesting the elections to ULBs. Candidates must have a functional toilet at their residence.
Union Government releases Indian Intellectual Property Panorama
i. Union Government has released Indian Intellectual Property (IP) Panorama to increase awareness and build sensitivity towards IP in the SME sector, academia and researchers.
ii. The IP Panorma is a single window interface for information on IP and guidance on leveraging it for competitive advantage. It can be accessed at http://ict-ipr.in/index.php/ip-panorama.
Key facts
- The Indian IP Panorama is a customized version of IP Panorama Multimedia toolkit developed by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA).
- The toolkit has been adapted to cater to start-ups and SMEs especially India’s ICTE sector based on an agreement signed between DeitY and WIPO.
- Thus, the Indian IP Panorama is a customized version of WIPO’s original product has been framed in accordance with Indian IP laws, standards and needs of the Indian ICTE sector.
- 5 modules of the Indian IP Panorama: (i) Importance of IP for SMEs, (ii) Trademark, (iii) Industrial design, (iv) Invention and Patent and (v) Patent Information.
- Developed under the aegis of: Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in close coordination with the Indian IP office.
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO): It is the global body for promotion and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It encourages and provides assistance to all its 188 member countries in formulating a national IPR policy however it does not dictate or prescribe any mandatory measures. India is a member of WIPO and party to several treaties administered by WIPO.
Union Government imposes safeguard duty on import of steel products
i. The Union Finance Minister has extended the safeguard duty on import of some steel products by two years i.e till March 2018.
ii. In this regard, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) has issued a notification mentioning that safeguard duty will be reduced to 10% in stages till 2008 from current 20%.
iii. The safeguard duty will be imposed on steel products hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel in coils of 600 mm width.
iv. The duty will be on the products which are imported at or above the minimum import price (MIP), which helps to set a floor price mainly to discourage imports below this price.
v. The main intention of this move is to protect domestic industry from onslaught of cheap steel supplies (imports) from China amid a global glut.
What is Safeguard Duty?
- The safeguard duty is tariff barrier imposed by government on the commodities to ensure that imports in excessive quantities do not harm the domestic industry.
- It is mainly temporary measure undertaken by government in defence of the domestic industry which is harmed or has potential threat getting hared due to sudden cheap surge in imports.
Renowned journalist Babu Bharadwaj passes away
i. Veteran journalist and writer Babu Bharadwaj passed away due to cardiac arrest in Kozhikode, Kerala. He was 68.
ii. As a journalist, he was part of prominent print and television media in Kerala.
About Babu Bharadwaj
- Born in Kozhikode in 1948 at Chemmenchery. He had studied at Poyilkavu High School, and later at Malabar Christian College and the Thrissur Engineering College.
- As a writer he had written many novels and stories. His famous works include Pravasiyude Kurippukal, Shavaghoshayathra, Pravasiyude Vazhiyambalangal, Puppet Theatre (short story collection) and Adrushya Nagarangal.
- He also had produced a Malayalam movie named Iniyum Marichittillatha Nammal (1980) directed by Chintha Ravi.
- Awards and Honours: He had won Kerala Sahitya Akademi award (2006) for his novel Kalapangalkkoru Grihapadam.
Flipkart acquires mobile payments firm PhonePe
i. India’s homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart has acquired a Bengaluru-based mobile payments company PhonePe for an undisclosed sum.
ii. PhonePe has been co-founded by ex-Flipkart employees Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari. After the acquisition, the mobile payments company will function as an independent business unit.
Key facts
- PhonePe is building India’s a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) based product. It is expected to be launched in April 2016.
- The interface this mobile payments gateway will allow users to transact using their unique identification and mobile phone number or virtual payments address.
- This will be without sharing any other bank details and anyone with a bank account can perform instant transactions by using mobile phone.
- This payment gateway is in contrast to the present payments process, which involves entering numerous account/card details and multi-level interventions.
Germany’s Development Bank KfW to provide loan assistance to metro system for Nagpur
i. Germany’s Development Bank KfW will provide loan assistance of 3750 crore rupees for the modern and sustainable metro system for Nagpur city.
ii. In this regard, a loan agreement was signed by Joint Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs S Selvaraj and Director General of KfW Roland Siller in New Delhi.
iii. The loan period is 20 years with a moratorium of 5 years and disbursal will be based on the progress of the project over three years.
iv. With this Nagpur metro project becomes first metro to be financed under the Indo-German partnership for clean, socially inclusive and climate friendly mobility for people in cities.
v. The project is being executed by Nagpur Metro Rail Corporation Limited and its total costing is of 8,680 crore rupees.
4th Nuclear Security Summit begins in Washington
i. The fourth edition of Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) began in Washington, United States to discuss a gamut of issues pertaining to nuclear security.
ii. In this edition of summit, heads of about 53 countries and representatives of five international organisations including the UNO, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), European Union (EU), Interpol are taking part.
iii. India is being represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the two-day summit. The fourth summit is the last summit under the current format and also under the presidency of Barack Obama.
Key facts
- The summit will highlight achievements and commitments of several countries towards safeguarding nuclear devices and technologies and reducing the threat of nuclear terrorism.
- This edition of summit is expected to take stock of the measures being taken by all countries to safeguard nuclear materials and facilities and also prevent non-state actors gaining access to them.
- It is also a crucial element of the US strategy to keep terrorists from acquiring fissile material to make nuclear weapons.
- The prime focus of the summit will be on North Korea and the terrorist organisation ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).
Background
- The idea of Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) was mooted by the US President Barack Obama in 2009 and the first summit was held in 2010 in Washington.
- It is a signature event of global diplomacy in Obama’s presidency that aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism around the globe.
- India has been contributing its bit to strengthen nuclear security by taking an active part in the summit ever since its inception in 2010.
- The second, third summits were held in Seoul (South Korea) and The Hague (Netherlands) in 2010, 2012 and 2014 respectively.
Shiva Thapa wins Silver medal at Asian/Oceania Qualifying event in China
i. Ace Indian boxer Shiva Thapa has won the silver medal at the Asian/Oceania Qualifying Tournament held in Qian’an, China in the 56 Kilogram category final.
ii. In the final match, he lost to Thailand’s Chatchai Butdee by 0-3 score who won the gold medal.
iii. By entering in the final match of this event, he had booked his ticket to 2015 Rio de Janeiro Olympics Games after beating Kazakhstan’s Kairat Yeraliyev in the semifinals.
iv. Shiva is a World Championship bronze-medallist in the Bantamweight category held in Doha in 2015. He also had participated in the 2012 London Olympics and was the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics.
i. Ace Indian boxer Shiva Thapa has won the silver medal at the Asian/Oceania Qualifying Tournament held in Qian’an, China in the 56 Kilogram category final.
ii. In the final match, he lost to Thailand’s Chatchai Butdee by 0-3 score who won the gold medal.
iii. By entering in the final match of this event, he had booked his ticket to 2015 Rio de Janeiro Olympics Games after beating Kazakhstan’s Kairat Yeraliyev in the semifinals.
iv. Shiva is a World Championship bronze-medallist in the Bantamweight category held in Doha in 2015. He also had participated in the 2012 London Olympics and was the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics.
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