Notes:
Bengaluru will host the first edition of Karnataka International Travel Expo’ (KITE) at the Bangalore International Exhibition Center (BIEC) from February 28, 2018. The expo is being touted as the largest B2B travel event in India, which is providing a platform for over 400 registered buyers and media representatives from over 25 countries. The government expects to attract over 1,000 delegates and facilitate 10,000 or so meetings during the 3-day event. The purpose of expo is to project Karnataka globally and attract tourist footfall, with emphasis on promoting the state’s adventure and wildlife, business travel, pilgrimage, UNESCO world heritage sites, festivals of Karnataka, etc. The event would provide impetus to inbound travel and tourism and enhance the marketing efforts of Karnataka Tourism to promote destinations in the State.

Notes:
On 3rd January 2018, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has welcomed six new non-permanent members — Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Peru, and Poland. The six new countries, voted on by the 193-member General assembly for two-year terms, will have a strong voice in matters dealing with international peace and security during their time on the U.N.’s most powerful body. The U.N. Security council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has 15 members — five of which (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) hold permanent membership and veto power. The six countries who left the UNSC on 31st December 2017 are Egypt, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay.

Notes:
Turkey’s endangered ‘bird language’ has entered the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is an unusual and very efficient whistle language used as a means of communication by villagers in remote northern Turkey. UNESCO has accepted the “bird language” of Black Sea villagers as an endangered part of world heritage in need of urgent protection. Around 10,000 people, mostly in the district of Canakci in Giresun province, still use the highly-developed and high pitch system of whistling to communicate in the rugged terrain where most of the times they cannot see each other. This form of communication which dates to some 500 years ago, during the Ottoman Empire, was widespread across the Black Sea regions, but 50 years ago it suffered the impact of the progression of technology and nowadays the ever rapid growing of cellular mobile systems has put this cultural heritage under serious threat.

Notes:
Recently, the Rajasthan Government and HDFC Bank have signed MoU to promote and nurture startups in the state. As per pact, HDFC Bank will team up with the state government to provide end-to-end solutions including current accounts, credit cards and more under its SmartUp programme. HDFC Bank will also assist startups in showcasing their offerings to the general public.

Notes:
The State Bank of India (SBI) and NABARD have signed an agreement with 5 NGOs in Bengal for the promotion of 2,500 Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) in select districts of the State on January 2, 2018. JLGs are informal groups of 4-10 members engaged in similar economic activities and willing to jointly undertake the responsibility to repay loans taken by the group from a bank. They are typically credit groups of small or marginal tenant farmers who do not have a proper title of their farmland. Through these JLGs, SBI plans to extend assistance to the financially excluded sections of the society, especially landless farmers in the districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Burdwan and North 24 Parganas. Plans are also afoot to scale up the project in a phased manner to cover the remaining districts. NABARD has fixed a target of credit linking 80,000 JLGs in West Bengal in 2017-18. Till date, NABARD has sanctioned assistance for the promotion of 60,000 JLGs by various NGOs in the State through 339 projects in different districts.

Notes:
The 16th edition of the Sundaram Finance Mylapore Festival (SFMF-2018) has started at Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple and Nageswara Rao Park in Chennai, Tamil Nadu from January 4. The 4 day fest will include about 40 events, such as heritage walks, competitions and cultural performances. It has been organized by city based non banking finance company Sundaram Finance.

Notes:
Abhay, the 1986-batch police officer of Odisha cadre, has taken charge as the new chief of the of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) at the NCB headquarters in Delhi on January 2, 2018. He will hold the post the post till 18th of November 2019. Prior to this appointment, he was Additional DG (Training) in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The post of the NCB DG was lying vacant since April 2017 when the incumbent R R Bhatnagar was appointed as the CRPF DG. Special Secretary in the home ministry Rina Mitra was handling the additional charge of NCB DG since then. The NCB, under the command of the Union Home Ministry, is the apex coordinating and enforcement agency in the country against drug crimes and for countering drugs abuse.

Notes:
B Rajendran, the former Madras High Court judge, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal (REAT) for Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The monthly salary of the chairperson would be Rs 80,000. As per Section 43 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the State government has to establish the Real Estate Appellate Tribunal for Tamil Nadu. Under Section 45 of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the tribunal should consist of a chairperson and not less than two whole-time members, of which one shall be a judicial member and another has to be a technical or administrative member appointed by the government.

Notes:
The India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) to offer relevant training to the employees on issues pertaining payment banking. Under the agreement, IICA has been entrusted with the key responsibility of capacity building of IPPB through training of its officials/employees besides providing research support by instituting Research Chairs in the emerging area of payment banking. This joint venture is expected to enable the massive network of post offices with the ability to effectively deal with Financial Inclusion.

Notes:
The Khadakwasla Dam is 1.6 km long and has been built on the Mutha River, 20 km from Pune in Maharashtra. This dam across the river Mutha created an attractive lake “Khadakwasla Lake”, which is the main source of water for Pune and its suburbs.