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The 8th International Convention of Saurashtra Patel Cultural Samaj 2018 has started in California, United States on July 5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed International Convention through video conferencing on July 6. He appealed to NRI community to motivate at least five foreign families to visit India every year for Bharat Darshan. This can pave a new way to serve the purpose of Ek Bharat Shresht Bharat Abhiyan, ultimately providing a great boost to India’s tourism development. He also talked about how NRIs can contribute to the success of Mahatma Gandhi’s dream, Swachh Bharat. He also appealed to the NRI community to work towards the dream of creating a New India.

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The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has launched a mobile app ‘GST Verify’ to protect interest of consumers. It is an android app to verify if the person collecting GST from the consumer is eligible to collect it or not. It also provides the details of the person/company collecting GST. This app, developed by B Raghu Kiran joint commissioner GST Hyderabad, can be used all across the country. Here, after downloading the app, customers can check the bill if there is any GST amount mentioned, if yes verify through this app if she/he is genuinely registered person or not. This will help customers save the amount shown as tax from the fraudster if he is cheating them.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government and the delegates of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have recently signed a pact for the establishment of a Gaming Digital Learning Hub in the state. As per agreement, UNESCO will soon set up the Design University for Gaming in Visakhapatnam. For the installation of the university, UNESCO has asked the state government to allocate 100 acres of land in Visakhapatnam for developing the city as International Gaming and Digital Learning Hub. The hub is being seen as potential medium for creating around 50,000 jobs in 10 years. The UNESCO delegates stated that Gaming Technology will be the best source of income in future and IT giants like UBSoft, Samsung, Microsoft etc are ready to establish their centres in Visakhapatnam.

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The National Security Guard (NSG) will be the first central paramilitary force to opt for e-ticketing instead of the railway warrant under an agreement signed with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). The MoU was signed between NSG and IRCTC at the headquarters of the special force in New Delhi. This system will eliminate the need for carrying railway warrants by the NSG personnel. Under the MOU, the IRCTC will extend the ticketing facility to the NSG headquarters and it may be later provided to the field units. A railway warrant is a voucher issued for train travel for certain categories such as government employees, security force personnel and retirees at subsidised rates or free of charge, exchangeable for a ticket.

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Vishwas Patel, who is Director at Infibeam Avenues, has been appointed as new Chairman of Payments Council of India (PCI), the apex body representing the companies in the payments and settlement system. He succeeded Naveen Surya, who has been elevated to the post of Chairman Emeritus. PCI has also announced the appointment of Loney Antony, Managing Director, Hitachi Payment Services as its new Co-Chairman. PCI was formed under the aegis of Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] in 2013 to cater the needs of the digital payment industry.

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The Ministry of Coal has launched the Coal Mine Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) and ‘Khan Prahari’ mobile application in New Delhi. The basic purpose of CMSMS is reporting, monitoring and taking suitable action on unauthorised coal mining activities. The CMSMS is a Web-based GIS application through which location of sites for unauthorised mining can be detected. The basic platform used in the system is of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s (MeiTY) map which provides village level information. The leasehold boundary of all the coal mines will be displayed on this map. The system will use satellite data to detect changes by which unauthorised mining activity extending beyond the allotted lease area can be detected and suitable action can be taken on it. The ‘Khan Prahari’ app uses space technology to curb illegal coal mining activity in the coalfield areas of the country, and provides people with a platform where they can report such incidents. One can upload geo-tagged photographs of the incident along with textual information directly to the system.

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India will operate the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport as a Sri Lanka-India joint venture in Hambantota. The $210 million facility, 241km south-east of Colombo, is dubbed the “world’s emptiest airport” due to a lack of flights. Mattala airport, named after former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was funded through high interest Chinese commercial loans. The airport was officially opened in March 2013. It has the capacity to handle one million passengers a year and is expected to handle five million passengers, 50,000 tonnes of cargo and 6,250 air traffic operations per annum by 2028.

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On July 4, the Gujarat government launched a statewide mission ‘Poshan Abhiyan’ to eradicate malnutrition among children by providing them nutritious food through Anganwadi centres. The state government has also launched ‘Purna’ project to eliminate malnutrition among girls in the age group of 14 to 18. ‘Purna’ stands for Prevention of Under Nutrition and Reduction of Nutritional Anaemia among Adolescent Girls. The nationwide National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyaan) was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan on March 8, 2018.

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In a unique ruling, the Uttarakhand High Court has recently declared the “entire animal kingdom including avian and aquatic” as legal entities with a distinct persona and corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person. A Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Lokpal Singh bestowed the unique status on animal kingdom while issuing a series of directions to prevent cruelty against animals. All the citizens throughout the State of Uttarakhand are hereby declared persons in loco parentis as the human face for the welfare/protection of animals. The court also declared all Uttarakhand natives the guardians of animals and endowed them with the duty to ensure their welfare and protection.

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Bajrang Punia from India has clinched gold in the 65kg category at the 2018 Tbilisi Grand Prix tournament by defeating Iranian wrestler Mehran Nasiri in the final in Georgia on July 6, 2018The win shows that Bajrang will be a serious medal contender at the upcoming Asian Games in Indonesia. He will represent India in the 65kg after Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) handed him exemption from trials. . Punia is the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist.