9th March 2016


A.India to host BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave

1.India is going to host BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave in Mumbai (Maharashtra), financial capital of India from April 14 to 16, 2016. 

2.It will be attended by the top Urban Policy makers and Planners from BRICS Nations viz. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 

Key facts 

1.The conclave will be joint initiative of Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Government of Maharashtra. 

2.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the conference which will be attended by representatives of at least two cities from each of the BRICS nations. 


3.The three-day conclave will be organised by Mumbai First, a think-tank working to find solutions for city’s development.

B.Parliament passes Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015

1.Parliament has passed Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 to establish Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). 


2.The Bill replaces the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986. It was first passed in Lok Sabha during winter session in December 2015 and later in Rajya Sabha in February 2016. 

3.Now the bill will go Presidential assent as per provisions of Article 111 of the Constitution. 


Key facts 


1.The bill establishes BIS as a national standard body for development of standardization and assessment and quality assurance of goods, articles, services, processes and systems. 


2.It broaden the ambit of BIS and empower Union Government to make it mandatory to carry the standard mark for certain notified goods, articles, processes, etc. 


3.The Bill extends the ambit of BIS to include services, products and processes while ensuring production of world class goods. 


4.It make BIS a national standards body for introduce mandatory hallmarking of precious metals, prevent misuse of standard marks. At present, BIS is not formally recognised as a national standards body of the country, though it is representing India in various international bodies.

C.Karnataka launches Mukhyamantri Santwana Harish Yojana for free treatment to accident victims

1.Karnataka government has launched Mukhyamantri Santwana Harish Yojana to provide free medical treatment to road accident victims for the first 48 hours (2 days) in the nearest government or private hospital. 

2.The scheme has been named after Harish Nanjappa who had donated his eyes moments before his death. 

3.He had died as no help was provided to him after he was  severely injured in mishap in February 2016 . 


4.Under the scheme Immediate medical relief would be provided to the victim during the Golden Hour with financial aid up to Rs 25,000 during the first 48 hours of treatment. 


5.Financial assistance to victims of road accidents will be provided across the state irrespective of their financial status or nationality. 


6.All hospitals would be directed not to reject accident victims and they shall be provided proper medical care for first 48 hours and get treatment at any hospital.

D.Union Government announces to withdraw tax proposal on EPF

1.The Union Finance Ministry has announced to withdraw its proposal to tax Employee Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals. 


2.It was announced by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha clarifying NDA government’s stand on the issue. 

3.However, government has not changed its plan to tax National Pension Scheme (NPS) withdrawals. Background Earlier in the Union Budget 2016-17, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to tax EPF and NPS withdrawals with an effect from 1 April 2016. 


4.It was announced that 60 percent of the amount deposited in EPF account of the employee would be taxed at the time of withdrawal and remaining 40 percent would be tax free. 


5.However, the budget proposal had provided tax exemption if the employee re-invests 60 percent of the EPF in a pension or annuity fund. 


5.The proposal to tax EPF and NPS withdrawals was made to create a pensioned society, especially among employees in the private sector who have no provision for pension. 


6.What is Employee Provident Fund (EPF)? The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) is a retirement benefit applicable only to salaried employees. 


7.It is a fund to which both the employee and employer contribute fixed amount (percent) of the former’s basic salary amount each month. 


8.This percentage is pre-set by the government. At present, the entire EPF amount is tax free at the time of withdrawal if the employee has completed five years of continuous service.

E.ICICI Bank rolls out iWork@home for women employees

1.India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has rolled out iWork@Home programme for its women employees for up to a year. 

2.It was launched by Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank on the occasion of International Women’s Day (8th March). 

Key facts 

1.iWork@Home programme is an information and communication technology (ICT) initiative that seeks to prevent women employees from dropping out of its workforce.

2.It is based on face recognition technology that will facilitate women employee to work from home and provide access to the bank’s core banking servers under. 


3.The technology has been developed by ICICI Bank in partnership with students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. 


4.This platform creates seamless virtual office-like environment that allows women employees to access to their required operating systems in a safe and secure manner. 


5.It will allow women employees to carry out multiple tasks that include checking documents for loan disbursement, processing of export-import documents for payments and image-based verification of cheques for clearance etc. 


6.The platform is highly secured as it allows employees to access only after facial recognition and logs her out if she leaves her seat.

F.First ever NCC girls Everest expedition flagged off

1.The first ever all girls National Cadet Corps (NCC) Mount Everest expedition was flagged off by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Rao Inderjeet Singh in New Delhi. 

2.The aim of mountaineering expeditions in NCC is to strengthen the character and instill qualities of courage, discipline, comradeship and leadership in the cadets. 

3.The team consisting of ten girl cadets is led by Colonel Gaurav Karki, along with fifteen service personnel. 


4.They will reach Nepal on 31st March 2016 and likely to summit the peak between 15 and 25th May, 2016. 


5.These 10 girls were selected from 100 girl cadets who were nominated to undergo the Customised Mountaineering Course at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling. 


6.They were selected based on their performance in the first pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Deo-Tibba (19688 Feet) near Manali in Himachal Pradesh and second pre-Everest Expedition to Mt Trishul (23360 Feet). 


7.Mountaineering Expedition was introduced in NCC in 1970 as an adventure activity. Since then, every year NCC conducts two mountaineering expeditions one each for boy and girl cadets. So far NCC has launched more than 70 expeditions to various peaks.

G.57 countries to take part in first-ever Maritime India Summit 2016

1.57 countries are going to take part in the first Maritime India Summit 2016 scheduled to be held in April 2016 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. 

2.It was announced by the Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari on the sidelines of media launch of the Maritime India Summit 2016. 


About Maritime India Summit 2016 

1.The maiden Maritime India Summit is scheduled to be held in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It will be organised by Union Ministry of Shipping. 

2.It will be first such global summit of its kind that will also comprise of an Investors’ Summit along with exhibition and demo session. 


3.The main focus of summit is to give impetus to Make In India and blue economy. South Korea is the partner country for the summit. 


4.Earlier in February 2016, the Ministry of Shipping had launched website for maiden summit to facilitate investors and participants to access detailed information about the summit.


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