26 February 2019 - Daily Current Affairs

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has launched a dashboard for passengers to keep track of train punctuality as well as other such information from anywhere in the country.
The 'eDrishti' dashboard has been developed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and can be accessed at ‘www.raildrishti.cris.org.in’.
Now, people can now track any information related to Indian Railways in a swipe-even while on the move.
The dashboard has been linked to the base kitchens of the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to allow monitoring of the goings-on in IRCTC kitchens through live video.
The dashboard will also provide the live status of reserved and unreserved passengers travelling on trains besides providing the exact location of trains at any point of time.

Union Minister of Health Minister J P Nadda along with Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad jointly inaugurated the 4th Global Digital Health Partnership Summit in New Delhi.
According to Mr. Nadda, nearly 13 lakh poor people have availed the benefits of ‘Ayushman Bharat scheme’.
The scheme is completely digital where all the processes from beneficiary identification to hospital empanelment and settlement of claims are done electronically.
The objective of the summit is to provide an opportunity to support governments and health system reformers to improve the health and well-being of their citizens through digital technologies.

Note:

The Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) is a collaboration of governments and territories, government agencies and the World Health Organization, formed to support the effective implementation of digital health services.

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Gita Aradhana Mahotsav at ISKCON, East of Kailash in New Delhi.
At the event, Mr. Modi turns a page of the Bhagwad Gita which has been prepared by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) devotees.
It is measuring over 2.8 meters and over 800 kilograms the Bhagwad Gita is one of this kind in the world.
It will have the original verses of Bhagwad Gita along with commentary.

Note:

The Bhagavad Gita is a 700-verse Sanskrit scripture that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.
The Gita is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince (Arjuna) and his charioteer Krishna.

The Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has inaugurated a “Skill Saathi Youth Conclave” to create awareness about various programmes under Skill India Mission in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.
The Skill Saathi model was created to impart information on vocational education and available market opportunities to the youth.
Currently, Ten Counselling Implementing Organisations (CIO) are empanelled under the 'Skill Saathi' initiative in Odisha, who mobilise candidates and provide career counselling to them.
All blocks and urban local bodies in Odisha have been divided among these empanelled CIOs.

Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath has launched the state Government’s flagship scheme ‘Mukhyamantri Yuva Swabhiman Yojana’ to urban youths (21-30 years) from economically weaker sections.
Under the scheme, Rs 4,000 stipend per month will be given for 100 days of employment every year.
They will also be given skill development training in order to become independent.
Only those youths, whose family’s annual income is less than Rs 2 lakh are eligible for the scheme.

Banking and Finance

The GST Council slashed tax rates on under-construction housing properties to 5% (existing 12%).
The Council also cut GST rates on affordable housing to 1% (current 8%).
The council altered the definition of affordable housing, any house built on an area of 60 square metres or less in the metro cities of India will be categorised as affordable housing.
The new tax rates will come into effect from 1^st April 2019.

Union Home Ministry has announced the hike in Risk and Hardship allowance for Central Armed Police Forces personnel deployed in Left Wing Extremism states and Jammu and Kashmir.
Now, Troops up to the rank of Inspector will get Rs. 17,300 (existing Rs. 9,700) while the officers will get Rs. 25,000 (existing Rs. 17,300) per month.
This will be a huge morale booster for all CAPF deployed in these areas.

World Bank, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) jointly launched new social impact bonds ‘Women’s Livelihood Bonds (WLBs)’, with an initial corpus of Rs 300 crore.
It will enable individual women entrepreneurs in sectors like food processing, agriculture, services, and small units to borrow around Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh.
It’s an annual interest rate of around 13% to 14% or less.
They will be unsecured, unlisted bonds and offer a fixed coupon rate of 3% per annum to bond investors.

Note:

The bonds (tenure of five years) will be launched by SIDBI with the support of the World Bank and UN Women.

India-born former PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi has joined the online retail giant Amazon’s board of directors.
She is the second woman of colour to be added on Amazon’s board of Directors.
Ms. Nooyi stepped down as CEO of Pepsico in October 2018.
She was Pepsico CEO from October 2006 to October 2018, where she also served as the Chairman of its board of directors from May 2007 to February 2019.

Note:

She was elected to PepsiCo’s board of directors and became its President and Chief Financial Officer in 2001.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (59-years) announced his resignation.
His reputation in Iran's political establishment took a hit when the US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018.
Zarif was blamed by ultra-conservatives for negotiating a bad deal that had not gained anything meaningful for Iran.
President Hassan Rouhani has not accepted the resignation so far.

Brijbhushan Sharan Singh (62-years) has been elected unopposed as President of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
This marked the third time that Singh had assumed the post of WFI’s president.
He was the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent for the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta and Palembang.
Mr. Sharan is also a Member of Parliament from the Kaiserganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh.

Saurabh Chaudhary has won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol event at the ongoing ISSF World Cup at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi.
Saurabh shot a total of 245 (World Record) to claim the top spot.
He has also booked a spot in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Indian Grandmaster ‘Abhijeet Gupta’ lifted the Cannes International Open Chess trophy.
Abhijeet won the tournament with 7.5 points.
Then two more wins and three draws happened on the way to his first solo International tournament victory.