Notes:
India’s first-ever mega trade event for the textiles sector has inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on June 30, 2017. The event ‘Textiles India 2017’ has been organised by the Union Ministry of Textiles with an aim to showcase the country as a global sourcing hub and investment destination. The three-day conference is expected to see participation from 2,500 international buyers, over a 1,000 international and domestic exhibitors and several top fashion designers.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian Delegation at the 12th edition of G20 Summit, which is scheduled to be held at Hamburg in Germany on July 7-8, 2017. The theme of the summit this year is “Shaping an interconnected world”. The summit will be organized around three pillars- Stability, Sustainability and Responsibility. The topics such as free trade, environment, terrorism, sustainable development, development in Africa, digitalization, migrations, instability are expected to dominate the discussions during the summit.

Notes:
Rajiv Kumar, the 1981-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh. He succeeded Rahul Prasad Bhatnagar, who has been made chairman of Greater Noida and investment commissioner. Prior to his latest assignment, Rajiv Kumar was Secretary in Shipping ministry, Government of India (GoI).

Notes:
The Uttarakhand state has been conferred with the award of excellence at the 2nd edition of Global Skill Development Summit (GSDM) – 2017 in Paris, France on June 23, 2017 for innovations and extensive use of IT for skill developments the state’s youth. The Embassy of India, Paris and Europe India Foundation for Excellence (EIFE) has organized the GSDM 2017 along with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) with central theme “Making India a Global Hub of Skilled Manpower – The Next Step”. The purpose of this event was to create awareness about the skill development scenario in India, looking at specific sectors and assessing the requirements.

Notes:
Dr Jitendra Singh, the Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Personnel, has launched a new training programme Online Modified Modules on Induction Training (COMMIT) for State Government officials. The main objective of this training programme is to improve the public service delivery mechanism and provide citizen-centric administration through capacity building of officials who interact with the citizens on a day-today basis. It is cost effective and has the potential to cover about 3.3 lakh officials annually, compared to 10,000 officials under existing 12-Day Induction Training Programme (ITP).

Notes:
The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has signed an agreement with Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (KHI) of Japan to manufacture stainless steel coaches and bogies for metro rail. The agreement covers establishing state-of-the-art design, engineering and manufacturing facilities at BHEL using Japanese technology. It will also entitle BHEL for all technology advances and upgrades. The KHI is also the manufacturer and supplier of Shinkansen High Speed Bullet Trains, proposed to be introduced in India on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor.

Notes:
The National Statistics Day (NSD) is celebrated every year in India on June 29 to create public awareness about importance of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation. The day also marks the birth anniversary of late Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the Father of Indian Statistics, in recognition of his valuable contribution in the fields of statistics and economic planning. The 2017 theme is “Administrative Statistics”.

Notes:
Raghubar Das, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, has recently inaugurated the India’s largest fresh water aquarium “Ranchi Machchli Ghar” at Bhagwan Birsa Munda Biodiversity Park in Ranchi to encourage tourism in the state. The aquarium is spread over in 36,000 sq feet area and it has 58 fish tank, where 120 species of 1500 fishes have been displayed. Besides Indian breeds, rare and popular species have been brought in from Bangkok, Malaysia and Singapore.

Notes:
India has donated $1 lakh (Rs 64.49 lakh) to the UN Trust Fund for International Cooperation in Tax Matters (the UN Tax Fund) that helps developing countries actively participate in the discussion of tax issues. With this, India has become the first country to make a voluntary contribution to UN Tax fund, which are currently unfunded. The UN Tax Committee is a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ESOSOC) that provide guidance on current issues such as double taxation treaties, transfer pricing (profit shifting) taxation of the extractive industries and taxation of services.. The purpose of the UN Tax Trust Fund is to support the work of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (the UN Tax Committee).

Notes:
Achal Kumar Jyoti, a retired 1975-batch IAS Officer of Gujarat Cadre, has been appointed as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for one year, when he will turn 65. He will succeed Nasim Zaidi, who will retire on July 6, 2017. Currently, A K Jyoti is the Election Commissioner of India along with O P Rawat. An EC or a CEC has tenure of six years in office or till he or she attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.