March 21, 2017 India ranks 122 in 2017 World Happiness Report India ranked at 122 out of 155 countries in the World Happiness Report 2017 published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network on the eve of International Day of Happiness (20 March). The rankings are based factors such as inequality, life expectancy, GDP per capita, public trust (i.e. a lack of corruption in government and business), and social support. Together they are used to generate a happiness score of country on a scale from 1 to 10.This year it is fifth such report since the first was published in 2012. Key Highlights of report 10 Happiest Countries: Norway (1), Denmark (2), Iceland (3), Switzerland (4), Finland (5), Netherlands (6), Canada (7), New Zealand (8), Australia (9) and Sweden (10). 5 Saddest Countries: Rwanda (151), Syria (152), Tanzania (153), Burundi (154) and Central African Republic (155). Uttarakhand HC recognise Ganga and Yamuna Rivers as living entity The Uttarakhand High Court has recognized the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers as so-called living entities. It is for the first time any court in India has recognized a non-human as a living entity. The two rivers are sacred for the Hindus, sustain millions of people in the country but have seen years of damage at the hands of humans. The HC Division Bench comprising Justice Alok Singh and Justice Rajiv Sharma gave a landmark judgment while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by one Mohammad Salim in 2014. www.talentsprint.com 1
Union Cabinet approves four GST Bills The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the four Goods and Services Tax (GST) related bills. These Bills were earlier approved by the GST Council after clause by clause, discussion over 12 meetings in past 6 months. The passage of these four GST related bills will pave the way for the biggest reform in the area of Indirect Taxes in the history of the country. These four Bills are: The Central Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 (CGST Bill): The Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 (IGST Bill): The Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 (UTGST Bill): States Goods and Services Tax (SGST) that will enacted by state legislatures for levy and collection of tax by the States/UTs on intra-state supply of goods or services or both. Yogi Adityanath sworn in as 21st CM of UP Five-time Parliamentarian and BJP s firebrand leader Yogi Adityanath (44) was sworn in as the 21st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers. They were administered the oath to the office and secrecy by Governor Ram Naik at oath taking ceremony held in Kanshiram Smriti www.talentsprint.com 2
Upvan in Lucknow. Besides them 47-member council of ministers consisting of 22 cabinet ministers, 9 ministers of state (MoS) with independent charge and 13 ministers of states (MoS) also took oath. The cabinet has 5 female ministers and 1 Muslim Minster, Mohsin Raza. World Bank approves $175 million loan for India s National Hydrology Project The World Bank has approved $175 million for India s ambitious National Hydrology Project to improve its ability to forecast floods and reduce vulnerability to recurring floods and droughts. The loan has been issued from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) with maturity of 23 years. It also has a six-year grace period in which no interest payments will be due. Nearly Five-month-long economic blockade in Manipur ends Nearly five-month-long economic blockade in Manipur was lifted last night after successful tripartite talks among the Centre, the new state government and the Naga groups. The blockade was imposed by the United Naga Council (UNC) on 1st of November last year to protest against the creation of seven new districts by the previous Okram Ibobi Singh-led Congress government in the state. The blockade on two national highways NH-2 and NH-37 led to a steep rise in the prices of essential commodities and severely affected normal life. It became a major issue in the recent Assembly polls in the state www.talentsprint.com 3
Government to merge Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI The Government has decided to merge the THREE YEAR OLD Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) with the State Bank of India (SBI) to ensure greater banking services outreach to a larger number of women, at a faster pace. Finance Ministry in a statement said, the decision to merge BMB with SBI has been taken in view of the advantage of the large network of SBI among other things. Indian bank and IDBI bank chiefs to swap places The MD & CEO of Indian Bank, Mr. M.K. Jain is being posted as MD & CEO of IDBI Bank. He will be replaced by Mr Kishore Karat, who is currently the MD & CEO of IDBI Bank. They have swapped their positions Scientists develop new Wi-Fi system to offer super-fast connectivity Scientists from Eindhoven University of Technology in Netherlands have developed a new wireless Internet network based on infrared rays that is reportedly 100 times faster than existing Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) networks. It has www.talentsprint.com 4
a huge capacity, more than 40 Gigabits per second (Gbit/s). It also does away with the need of sharing Wi-Fi, as every device gets its own ray of light. www.talentsprint.com 5