Classifieds

  Los Angeles to host the 2028 Olympics According to the evaluation commission of International Olympic Committee (IOC), Los Angeles (USA) will host the 2028 Olympics. Earlier, Los Angeles had originally bid for 2024, but because of the new date, it had to make changes to its host contract. The full IOC will award the 2024 Games to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles.

1% DA hike for Central government staff The Union Cabinet has approved the release of an additional 1% (existing rate of 4%)of dearness allowance (DA) to Central government employees and dearness relief (DR) to pensioners (applicable from 1st July 2017). This will benefit about 49.26 lakh Central government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners. The Cabinet also approved a proposed law amendment to double the maximum gratuity payout to private sector workers from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs.

  India's industrial production grows 1.2% in July The country's industrial production grew 1.2% in July this year. According to the Central Statistics Office data, Manufacturing output grew 0.1% in July and electricity generation increased 6.5 %. Capital goods output contracted 1% in July. Industrial output had grown 4.5% in July last year and contracted 0.2% in June this year. Consumer durables output shrank 1.3%, but production of consumer non-durables rose 3.4% in July.

Airtel & SK Telecom tie-up to build high-speed network, 5G Telecom operator ‘Bharti Airtel’ has announced strategic partnership with South Korean telecom operator ‘SK Telecom’ for using latest technologies. Both the companies will work together across several areas including developing bespoke software to improve network experience, leveraging advanced digital tools, big data, and building customised tools to improve network planning. The companies will jointly work towards building an enabling ecosystem for the introduction of these technologies in the Indian context. According to TRAI, Reliance Jio has been offering about double the speed delivered by its closest rival at around 18 megabits per second.

GoM to monitor & resolve IT challenges faced in implementation of GST The Union Finance Minister ‘Arun Jaitley’ has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to monitor and resolve the IT challenges faced in the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GoM will be headed by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi. A Committee on Exports has also been constituted under the convenorship of Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia. The committee will look the issues of exports and recommend the GST Council a suitable strategy for helping the sector in the post-GST scenario.

Mother Dairy & Maharashtra Govt. tie up for processing plant The Maharashtra Govt. and Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd has signed a lease agreement to set up a state of the art milk and milk products processing plant. As per the MoU, a dairy development initiative will begin in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions in the state to provide access to milk producers to markets in Nagpur and Mumbai. The Maharashtra govt. will provide assistance, including funds, for a coordinated approach to improve productivity through animal breeding, nutrition, and health

Venkaiah Naidu lays foundation for smart city project in Ranchi Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu laid the foundation stone for Ranchi Smart City (country’s first greenfield city) coming up on the Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) land. The smart city is coming up on 656 acres of HEC land which would be fully wi-fi, carbon free, garbage free locality with modernized housing, traffic management system, education hub and equipped with facilities like round the clock power and water supplies.

FSSAI launches online platform for food inspection, sampling Food Safety and Standards Authority of India  (FSSAI) has launched a nationwide online platform to bring in transparency in food safety inspection and sampling. The food regulator asked the state govt. to adopt this system as it would help eliminate discrepancy and make food safety officers accountable. The system will ease out the process of sample collection, make it transparent and traceable and controls the quality of compliances. Note: The web-based 'FoSCoRIS' system will bring together all key stakeholders food businesses, food safety officers, designated officers, state food safety commissioners on a nation-wide IT platform and data related to inspection, sampling and test result data will be shared seamlessly by all the officials.

UN Secretary-General appoints Peter Thomson as 1st special envoy for oceans UN Secretary-General ‘Antonio Guterres’ has appointed Peter Thomson as the first special envoy for the oceans. Peter Thomson played a leading role at the first-ever UN conference on oceans in June. The 193 UN member states issued an urgent call for action to reverse the decline in the health and productivity of the world's oceans

Halimah Yacob becomes first female President of Singapore Former speaker of Singapore’s parliament Mdm Halimah Yacob (63 -years) has been declared as the President of Singapore. She will become the country’s first female President and second Malay president for Singapore. Under section 15 of the Presidential Election Act, declared Mdm Halimah to be elected to the office of President as only one candidate stands nominated at end of nomination period. This year's Presidential Election was reserved for Malay candidates. Halimah Yacob was educated at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Tanjong Katong Girls' School, before going on to the University of Singapore where she completed an LLB (Hons) degree in 1978. In 2001, she completed an LLM degree at the National University of Singapore and was conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from NUS on 7 th  July 2016.