Notes:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently released its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) update in Davos, Switzerland on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. In it, India’s GDP growth forecast has projected to 7.4% in 2018 and 7.8% in 2019. According to WEO update, China is expected to grow at 6.6% and 6.4% for year 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Notes:
The 48th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF-2018) has started in Davos, Switzerland on January 22, 2018. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading the largest-ever Indian delegation. The theme of the 5-day summit is ‘Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World’, which aims to set an agenda to address political, economic and Social challenges of recent times. More than 3,000 world leaders from business, politics, art, academia and civil society would be participating in the summit and the Indian presence is the largest ever with over 130 participants.

Notes:
The International Conference on dam safety has started in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on January 23, 2018. The two-day conference will be jointly inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Water Resources Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The conference will see the participation of 550 delegates from over 20 countries. The dam safety conferences are organized as an annual event under the Dam Safety Rehabilitation and Improvement Project being run by the Water Resources Ministry. During the conference, dam safety guidelines and manuals developed under DRIP will also be released for implementation. Besides, a software programme – Dam Health and Rehabilitation Monitoring Application – will also be launched during the event. DHARMA is a web tool to digitize all dam related data effectively. It will help document authentic asset and health information pertaining to the large dams in the country, enabling appropriate actions to ensure need based rehabilitation.

Notes:
Young Indian shuttler Siddharth Pratap Singh has won the 2018 Swedish Open Junior International Series by defeating Denmark’s Mads Christophersen in the finals by 21-15, 21-11 in Uppsala in Sweden. It is his maiden international title. Siddharth, who has never played outside Asia, will next play in the Iceland International at Reykjavik to be held from January 25 to 28.

Notes:
S Somanath, an Indian aerospace engineer and rocket technologist, has taken charge as the new Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). He succeeded K Sivan, who has become the ISRO Chairman recently. Prior to this post, he was director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Valiamala in Thiruvananthapuram, the lead centre responsible for liquid engines and stages for all launch vehicles and satellite programs of ISRO. Somanath is known for his contributions to launch vehicle design, particularly in the areas of launch vehicle systems engineering, structural design, structural dynamics, and pyrotechnics.

Notes:
India will host the Ministerial Meeting of International Energy Forum in New Delhi from April 10 to 12, 2018. More than 60 Energy Ministers will participate in the event and it will be the largest global gathering of Energy Ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will deliver the concluding address. The International Energy Forum (IEF), with a membership of 71 countries (both producers and consumers), is the most representative international organization in the field of oil and gas. India is the member of IEF and currently the Chair of its Executive Board.

Notes:
To mark the silver jubilee of India-ASEAN partnership, the 2018 India-ASEAN Business & Investment Conference was organized by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in collaboration with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). It was held in New Delhi on January 22-23 to promote mutual trade and investment for shared prosperity. This initiative was held ahead of the landmark 2018 ASEAN-India commemorative summit on the 25th of January. India & ASEAN partnership began in 1992 completed 25 years in 2017. India adopted the Act East policy in 2014 which has led to ties with South Asian nations reaching new highs. Top leaders of all 10 ASEAN nations would also be guests of honour at the 2018 Republic Day celebrations. It would be the first time that the Republic Day parade would be graced by such a large number of heads of state or govt.

Notes:
The 2018 ICC Women’s World Twenty20 will be hosted by West Indies from 9 to 24 November 2018. The preliminary round matches will be held at the Guyana National Stadium and Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia, while Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua and Barbuda will stage the two semi-finals and the final. Hosts Windies will defend the title they won with an eight-wicket victory over Australia in Kolkata in 2016.

Notes:
N Biren Singh, the Chief Minister of Manipur, has launched a pioneering health assurance scheme “Chief Minister-gi Hakshelgi Tengbang (CMHT)” for the poor and disabled people on January 21, 2018. The CMHT will provide cashless treatment to the poor at government hospitals, health centres and other empanelled selected private hospitals. The scheme will provide cover up to Rs 2 lakh per eligible family identified from the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) in the treatment of seven critical identified critical ailments – cardiovascular diseases, kidney ailments, neurological conditions, liver ailments, cancer, neo-natal diseases and burns per year. The beneficiaries may get themselves enrolled for the scheme with the help of ASHA workers at the kiosks opened in nearby PHCs, CHCs and District Hospitals.

Notes:
Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs has launched the ‘Protocol for Star Rating of Garbage-Free Cities’ in Goa along with the Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar in order to fulfill India’s biggest dream of being a clean nation by October 2, 2019. . The star-rating initiative has been developed by the Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban. It will rate cities on a 7-star rating system based on multiple cleanliness indicators for solid waste management, which will include Door to Door Collection, bulk generator compliance, source segregation, sweeping, scientific processing of waste, scientific land filling, plastic waste management, construction and demolition management, dump remediation & citizen grievance redressal system etc.