TELANGANA

• Telangana signs MoU with British Council

• The Telangana government and British Council have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen educational and cultural cooperation and support the knowledge ambitions and economic growth of Telangana.

• The MoU seeks to develop the skills of faculty and teachers from government universities and industrial training institutes across the State, expand the existing collaboration through initiatives like the Indo-British Fund, UK-India Education Research Initiative and the Newton Bhabha programme. 

  INTERNATIONAL

   

  • NASA’s InSight spacecraft successfully lands on Mars

   

  • NASA’s robotic InSight lander successfully landed on Mars after the six-month journey.

   

  • The US space agency’s InSight mission team in a statement said, the lander sent signals indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface.

   

  • NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals of the landing, which were received on Earth.

   

  • In Sight will study the interior of Mars, and will teach about valuable science as they prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars.

   

  • The probe was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on 5th of May.

   

  ·         Germany asks France to give its UN Security Council seat to EU

   

  • Germany has called for France to give up its permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council and turn it into a seat for the European Union (EU).
  • This would allow the EU to speak “with one voice” at the world body.
  • France could instead become the permanent EU ambassador to the UN.
  • France has been one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council since the body was first established in 1945 in the wake of World War II to prevent another large-scale conflict.

   

   

  ·        Reggae music gets into heritage list of UNESCO

   

  • Reggae music, with artists like Bob Marley, won international fame and secured a spot on the United Nations’ list of global cultural treasures. UNESCO, the world body’s cultural and scientific agency, added the genre that originated in Jamaica to its collection of intangible cultural heritage deemed worthy of protection and promotion.
  • Reggae music emerged in the late 1960s out of Jamaica’s ska and rocksteady styles, also drawing influence from American jazz and blues. It quickly became popular in the U.S. as well as in Britain, where many Jamaican immigrants had moved in the post-World War years.

   

  ·        Global Nutrition Report 2018 – One-third of world’s stunted children live in India

   

  • Nearly one-third of the world’s 8 millionstunted children live in India, the 2018 Global Nutrition Report revealed.
  • With 46.6 million children who are stunted, India topsthe list of countries followed by Nigeria (13.9 million) and Pakistan (10.7 million).
  • Over 46 million Indian children aged under five years are stunted due to malnutrition and 25.5 million more are ‘wasted’, meaning they don’t weigh enough for their height.
  • India is suffering from two forms of malnutrition– anaemia and stunting.

   

  NATIONAL

   

  • PSLV-C43 successfully launches earth observation satellite HysIS and 30 foreign satellites

   

  • The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C43) successfully launched 31 satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.

   

  • HysIS is an earth observation satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite2 (IMS-2) bus weighing about 380kg. The mission life of the satellite is five years.

   

  • The primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in both the visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

   

  • Data from the satellite will be used for a wide range of applications including agriculture, forestry, soil/geological environments, coastal zones and inland waters, etc.

   

   

  • KONKAN-18 exercise begins at Goa

   

   

   

  • Naval cooperation between India and the United Kingdom is based on the long term strategic relationship between both countries.

   

  • Both Navies have, over the years, undertaken bilateral activities such as training exchanges and technical cooperation.

   

  • The Bilateral KONKAN exercise provides a platform for the two Navies to periodically exercise at sea and in harbour, so as to build interoperability and share best practices.

   

  • The KONKAN series of exercises commenced in 2004, and since then has grown in scale. KONKAN-2018 will be conducted from 28 Nov to 06 Dec 18 off Goa with units participating from both navies

   

   

  ·        Himachal Pradesh first state to launch single emergency number ‘112’

   

  • Himachal Pradesh became the first state to launch a pan-India single emergency number ‘112’ where all kinds of immediate help can be sought in urgent matters.
  • Under this project, an Emergency Response Centre(ERC) has been established in Shimla along with 12 district command centres (DCCs), covering the entire state.
  • The ERC has been integrated with police (100), fire (101), health (108) and women (1090) helpline numbers to provide emergency services through the emergency number ‘112’.
  • The central government has allocatedRs 321.69 crore under Nirbhaya Fund for implementation of ERSS project across the country.

   

  • Casio launches world’s first GST calculator

   

  • Japanese electronics company ‘CASIO’ has launched world’s first Goods and Services Tax (GST) calculator in India for simplify the GST calculations for tax payers.

   

  • The company has two variants of GST calculators MJ-120GST and MJ-12GST in the Indian market.

   

  • These new GST calculators will provide solution for GST based invoicing.

   

  • These GST calculators feature built-in GST tabs for all five tabs- 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%.

   

  • It includes separate buttons for GST slabs to reduce time required for processing invoice.