Notes:
The World Bank (WB) in its latest report “Global Economic Prospects (GEP-2018)” has projected India’s GDP growth rate at 7.3% in 2018 and 7.5% for the next two years. As per report, despite initial setbacks from demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), India’s economy is estimated to have grown at 6.7% in 2017. Ayhan Kose, the Director of World Bank(WB)’s Development Prospects Group (DPG), stated that India’s growth potential will be around 7% for the next 10 years. For global economy, World Bank’s outlook, for the first time in many years, is better than expected with all regions seeing improved growth. However, it has warned that countries must make investments to improve their growth prospects, and the time to do that is before the next crisis hits, as it inevitably will.

Notes:
Aanchal Thakur, a 21-year-old from Himachal Pradesh, has created history by becoming the first Indian to register an international medal in skiing. She clinched bronze in the slalom race category at Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup organised by Skiing’s international governing body, Federation International de Ski (FIS) at the Palandoken Ski Centre, in Erzurum in Turkey on January 9, 2018.

Notes:
The Matunga suburban station on the Central Railway (CR) of Mumbai division has figured in the Limca Book of Records 2018 for having an all-woman staff. The achievement comes six months after Matunga became the first railway station in the country to be run by an all-woman staff. A team of 41 women staffers at the station includes personnel from the RPF, commercial and operating departments. These staffers work under the supervision of station manager Mamta Kulkarni. The staff has been handling all operations of the station round-the-clock for the last six months and results are positive and encouraging. The aim of the initiative is to create an environment where women are encouraged to take a decision about their own personal and professional well-being.

Notes:
Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, has launched a common mobility card scheme to aid seamless travel between the city’s bus transport and the Metro system on January 8, 2018. With this, Delhi has become the India’s first city to have a common mobility card, which can at present be used on 200 DTC and 50 cluster buses plying on different routes, apart from metro trains. The card, which will function like a debit card, will be operational in all DTC and cluster buses from April. The city has around 3,900 DTC and over 1,600 cluster buses.

Notes:
The Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), the research arm of Union Ministry of Railways, has launched “New Online Vender Registration System” on January 9, 2018. This new system provides major improvements and paradigm changes in the registration system over the earlier system. Public access to the information, expeditious process completion with defined timelines, simplification of procedures, round-the-year services, availability of all related information on RDSO Website, constant monitoring at all levels, reduction in cycle timelines, regular updation of online data, user friendly interface etc. are the hallmarks of the new system. And also, there is no need for vendors to visit RDSO office for any activity related to his case for registration.

Notes:
Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman has become the official brand ambassador of Sikkim. The declaration was made by Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling who felicitated the legendary music composer during an inauguration of the 2018 Sikkim Red Panda Winter Carnival at Palzor Stadium in Gangtok on January 8. The winter carnival is aimed at boosting tourism in the state and has music, dance, adventure sports and exhibition of organic food products of the state events lined up for the 11 days of the festival.

Notes:
The 34th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2018 and the 3rd China International Ice and Snow Tourism Summit has officially started on January 5 in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. The festival mainly features ice and snow-themed scenic spots such as the world’s largest ice and snow park and a snow sculpture art expo as well as diverse ice and snow sports and entertainments. Statistics show that during the 33rd ice and snow festival the number of tourists received by Harbin stood at 18.49 million, up 12.2% year on year.

Notes:
Iran has recently banned teaching of English language in primary schools to fight against western cultural invasion. Usually, the teaching of English starts in middle school in Iran, at the ages of 12 to 14, but some primary schools below that age also have English classes. The head of the state-run High Education Council, Mehdi Navid-Adham stated that teaching English in government and non-government primary schools in the official curriculum are against laws and regulations.

Notes:
The World Hindi Day (WHD) is observed every year on January 10 to mark the first anniversary of World Hindi Conference (WHC) which was held in 1975. The first WHC was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Apart from India, the language is also spoken in Nepal, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji and Mauritius. Apart from this, the National Hindi Divas (NHD) is celebrated every year in India on September 14 to mark the day on which the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the Official Language of the Union.

Notes:
The Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) is located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. It is an advanced research institute for freshwater aquaculture. It was founded in 1987 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. Its genesis lies in the Pond Culture Division of Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (CIFRI), Cuttack which started the training center at Kausalyaganga, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar for Developing and Training on Inland Fishery.