Notes:
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia has been designated as the new Finance Secretary of India. Adhia is a 1981 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre. The post was vacant after former Finance and Expenditure Secretary Ashok Lavasa retired on October 31, 2017. As per the convention, the senior most Secretary in the Finance Ministry is designated as the Finance Secretary. Adhia’s appointment comes ahead of the 10 November GST Council meeting in Guwahati that is likely to see a revision in the tax rates for some common use items and easier GST returns filing norms for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Notes:
The 2-day conference of Ministers for Power and New and Renewable Energy of States and Union Territories will be held at Rajgir in Bihar from November 10, 2017. The conference will be inaugurated by Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh. The objective of the conference is to review the implementation of various ongoing schemes and deliberate upon a host of issues pertaining to Power and Renewable Energy sectors. Ministers and Secretaries of States and senior officials will participate in the conference.

Notes:
The Union Power Ministry has constituted a 4-member committee to investigate into the causes of the recent accident that occurred on 1st November 2017 at NTPC’s Unchahar Thermal Power Plant in Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli district. The committee, headed by PD Siwal, Member of Central Electricity Authority, will submit its report to the Ministry of Power within a month. According to the term of reference of the committee, it will investigate the causes of the accident and fix responsibility for lapses, if any. It will also suggest remedial measures to avoid the recurrence of such incidents in the future. More than 30 people had lost their lives after a boiler exploded at the plant.

Notes:
A theme based India-Nepal Folk Crafts Festival has started at Kathmandu, Nepal on November 7, 2017. The 5-day festival is organised by South Asia Foundation (SAF) in association with Council of Handicrafts Development Corporations (COHANDS), Embassy of India in Kathmandu, Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi and BP Koirala India-Nepal Foundation. The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India (GoI), is sponsoring the event. The basic objective of the festival is to promote bilateral relations through crafts and strengthen the relationship between artisans of India and Nepal. Around 50 artisans will showcase their crafts during the event. A Khadi- fashion show will also be organized at India House, Embassy of India in Kathmandu on Nov 10 as part of the festival.

Notes:
The Union Government has reconstituted Multi-Agency Group (MAG) to probe into cases of Paradise Papers, which is also probing the Panama Papers leak. The reconstituted MAG headed by the Sushil Chandra, the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will have representatives from ED, RBI and Financial Intelligence Unit. The Paradise Papers revealed that India ranks 19 out of the 180 countries represented in the data of offshore entities. In all, 714 Indian entities and individuals figure in the list. The Paradise Papers include nearly 7 million loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork over nearly 50 years from inside Appleby, a prestigious offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and other places. Indians who figure in Paradise Papers include Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, defaulter businessman Vijay Mallya, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, film star Sanjay Dutt’s wife Manyata, Union minister Jayant Sinha and Rajya Sabha MP R K Sinha.

Notes:
Binoy Kumar, a 1983-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre, has been appointed the new Special Secretary in commerce ministry. He is the Director General of Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), the procurement arm of the central government that closed on October 31. The closure of the DGS&D follows the governments shift to the commerce ministry’s e-market platform (GeM) launched in 2016 for public procurement of goods and services. DGS&D has its origin in the India Stores Department, which was established in 1860 in London by the British for a centralised purchase of goods for India.

Notes:
India has pledged additional $100 million towards India-UN Development Partnership Fund to help the poorest nations achieve the world organisation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to reduce poverty and raise the quality of life. This contribution would be in addition to $10.582 million India is contributing to various other UN programmes. Anjani Kumar, a Counsellor in India’s UN Mission, announced the multi-year contribution at the 2017 UN Pledging Conference for Development Activities on November 6, 2017.

Notes:
Recently, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has released a global investigation ‘The Paradise Papers’ that reveals the offshore interests and activities of some of the world’s most powerful people and companies, including information about at least 31,000 persons or parties. India ranked 19th out of the 180 countries represented in the data in terms of the number of names. The vast of financial data could expose the secret wealth of hundreds of rich Indians, including politicians, corporate heavyweights and entertainment leaders, who are suspected to have used offshore tax havens to dodge taxes. In all, there are 714 Indians in the tally in biggest offshore data leak for alleged tax evasion. The headquarters of the ICIJ is located at Washington DC, United States.

Notes:
India has signed $119 million of financial agreement with the World Bank (WB) for Odisha Higher Education Programme for Excellence and Equity (OHEPEE) project. The purpose of the project is to improve the quality of ‘students’ equitable access to selected institutions and enhance governance of the higher education system in Odisha. The closing date for the project is 30th November, 2022.

Notes:
The Trishna Wildlife Sanctuary (TWS) is located in South Tripura District of Tripura and covers an area of about 163.08 square kilometres. It has a number of perennial water rivulets, water bodies and grass land. In this sanctuary, there are patches of virgin forests which are rich in rare vegetation. Indian Gaur (Bison) is an attraction of this sanctuary. Apart from it, there are varieties of Birds, Deers, Hollock Gibbon, Golden Langur, Capped Langur, Pheasant and many other animals and reptiles.