Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)

Dead Sea Scrolls

• The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient manuscripts that include the earliest existing copies of books from the Hebrew Bible, date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD.

• Around 900 scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea.

• Archaeologists have uncovered a new cave that once housed Dead Sea Scrolls.

• The cave discovered west of Qumran in the occupied West Bank contained no manuscripts, but there is ample evidence of their earlier presence.

Mission XI Million

• It is the biggest school sports outreach programme in the country launched in New Delhi.

• It aims to take football to at least 11 million boys and girls around the country

• The programme is to make football as the sport of choice in India, to encourage children gain healthy habits and learn important life lessons in teamwork and sportsman spirit.

Fairy Queen

• The ‘Fairy Queen’ is the oldest surviving functional steam engine in the world.

• The locomotive was constructed in England, in 1855, and reached Kolkata in the same year.

• It was certified by the Guinness Book of Records in 1998 as the world’s oldest steam locomotive in regular operation.

• It will once again run between Delhi and Rewari for a single day heritage trip.

Defence Procurement Organisation

• The government plans to set up a Defence Procurement Organisation (DPO).

• The Defence Procurement Process continues to be lengthy and complicated.

• DPO will simplify the defence purchase procedure by integrating procurement processes.

• The new agency will be established based on the recommendation of government appointed committee headed by Dr. Pritam Singh.

• The DPO will be under the Union Defence Ministry. 

Operation Clean Money

• The Income Tax Department (ITD) -had initiated ‘Operation Clean Money’ for the e-verification of large cash deposits made during the period from 9th November to 30th December, 2016.

• Email and SMS were sent to around 18 lakh taxpayers for submitting online response on the e-filing portal.

  The explanation of cash deposit submitted by the taxpayer is being analysed in the context of nature of business and business profile in the earlier returns of the taxpayer.

E-Cabinet

• Arunachal Pradesh became the first state in the northeast to implement e-Cabinet solution for the state cabinet members.

• Using this system, the cabinet members can access the cabinet notes before the meeting, prepare for cabinet meetings, conduct them and review minutes, entirely without paper.

• The entire business of the Cabinet can be conducted using the e-Cabinet solution.

• It is implemented by the department of Information Technology and Communication.

• The average length of the cabinet meetings will go down from 4-5 hours to just 30-90 minutes and the government can also eliminate the need to print and deliver thousands of pages of documents.

SARTTAC

• IMF’s South Asia Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) is an initiative of the Government of India and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and established in New Delhi.

• SARTTAC is a collaborative venture between the IMF, the member countries, and development partners.

• Its strategic goal is to help its member countries strengthen their institutional and human capacity to design and implement macroeconomic and financial policies that promote growth and reduce poverty.

• SARTTAC’s six South Asian member countries are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

• It the newest addition to the IMF’s global network of fourteen regional centers,

New Rule for Government Staff in Assam State

• The Assam State government has announced a new legislation to deduct the salary of government employees who failed to take care of their elderly parents.

• If the Employees working in the government, state PSUs and companies failed to take care of their parents, then a certain portion of the salary of such employees would be deducted to be given to their respective parents.

Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)

• It is the new scheme launched by the Ministry of Electronics and IT to make rural households digitally literate.

• This scheme is initiated under Digital India Programme and expected to be one of the largest digital literacy programs in the world.

• It would empower the citizens by providing them access to information, knowledge and skills for operating computers / digital access devices.

ISRO, to Study Killer Tides

• The phenomenon of ‘killer rip tides’ is being studied by ISRO in collaboration with a private lifeguard agency appointed by the Goa government to safeguard its beaches.

• The study Ripex 2017 is being conducted by a team of scientists at Space Applications Centre, ISRO Ahmedabad, along with Drishti Lifesaving.

• A rip tide is a strong sea current which pulls the water away from the shore, often catching unawares swimmers and people enjoying the sea in the shallows and can drag them into the sea.

• Rip currents are one of the most common problem-causing currents witnessed along Goa’s coast.

• Rip tides are one of the most common causes for drowning in the shallow waters off Goa’s popular coastline.

Thor Experiment

• Between 10 and 100 kilometres in the atmosphere, the interaction between charged particles produces a variety of dazzling electric phenomena like blue jets and red sprites.

• The Thor experiment investigates the electrical activity from thunderstorms by looking at them with a thundercloud imaging system from the vantage point of the International Space Station.

• The key aims of the study include understanding how these discharges influence water vapour levels, cloud formation, and eventually changes in climate.

Arc

• ‘Arc’ is a Green Building Performance Monitoring Platform developed by the US Green Building Council (USGBC)

• The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), Delhi has adopted first-of-its-kind ‘Arc’ for Terminal 3.

• It is already operational and the adoption of “Arc” is in line with the continued focus on Environment Sustainability and is aligned to make Delhi a Smart airport.

CBDT signs four ‘Advance Pricing Agreements’

In News: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has announced signing of four more unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs).

Key facts:

• The four APAs signed pertain to the manufacturing, financial and Information Technology sectors of the economy.

• The international transactions covered in these agreements include contract manufacturing; IT enabled services and software development services.

• With this, the total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has reached 130.

• This includes eight bilateral APAs and 122 Unilateral APAs.

• In the current financial year, a total of 66 APAs (five bilateral APAs and 61 unilateral APAs) have already been entered into.

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