GOA

• Maharashtra minister supports Goa in Mhadei row

• Maharashtra minister of state for home Deepak Kesarkar said diversion of Mhadei water to Karnataka affects the natural flow of the river.

• The place where Mhadei originates and flows in Khanapur taluka falls in Maharashtra according to the Mahajan Commission Report. Maharashtra rejected the report since Belagavi city was the bone of contention, but Karnataka has accepted it. By that token, Mhadei river falls in Maharashtra. After accepting the Mahajan Report and claiming that Khanapur is part of Karnataka is contradictory to its claims in the Supreme Court.

• Kesarkar maintained that Marathi-speaking people in border areas of Karnataka are facing injustice. He said Karnataka should give government documents to Marathi linguistics in their mother tongue at least in the disputed area covering 856 villages. Maharashtra gives documents in the mother tongue as well as English. At least, it should give documents in English. 

  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.