NATIONAL
1. Cabinet approves 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan for covering 6 crore rural households
2. Arunachal Pradesh becomes first state in NE to adopt e-Cabinet solution
3. 4th BIMSTEC Summit to be held towards end of 2017
4. Cabinet apprised of MoU between India and France in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation
5. Cabinet approves MoU between India and Senegal in the field of Health and Medicine
INTERNATIONAL
6. Somalia's Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo chosen as new President
NATIONAL
1. Cabinet approves 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan for covering 6 crore rural households
• The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan' (PMGDISHA) to make 6 crore rural households digitally literate.
• The outlay for this project is Rs.2,351.38 crore to usher in digital literacy in rural India by March,.2019
• PMGDISHA is expected to be one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world.
• Under the scheme, 25 lakh candidates will be trained in the FY 2016-17; 275 lakh in the FY 2017-18; and 300 lakh in the FY 2018-19.
• To ensure equitable geographical reach, each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats would be expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates.
• The course content would also have emphasis on Digital Wallets, Mobile Banking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), etc.
2. Arunachal Pradesh becomes first state in NE to adopt e-Cabinet solution
• Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday 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.
• “e-Cabinet is a powerful tool that the Arunachal Pradesh government plans to use to streamline its decision-making process,”
• The system is a multi-user secure solution that keeps relevant information organized and updated in real time, giving ministers a clear overview of each item under discussion.
3. 4th BIMSTEC Summit to be held towards end of 2017
• The 4th BIMSTEC Summit will be held towards the end of 2017.
• the summit Foreign Ministers meeting will be held at Kathmandu in June 2017.
• Bairagi said that various core sectors including connectivity, trade, investment, energy, technology transfer and tourism were discussed in the meeting.
• All member states expressed firm commitment to effective implementation of the outcome document of BIMSTEC leaders retreat held at Goa last year.
• India would host the first ever meeting of BIMSTEC National Security Chiefs to discuss action against spread of terrorism, violent extremism and radicalisation.
• members decided to work together in various areas including free trade.
• Founded in 1997, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) brings together Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal,Thailand and Sri Lanka.
4. Cabinet apprised of MoU between India and France in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation
• The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of Cooperation between Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India and Bpifrance, a Public Investment Bank, France.
• The agreement will ensure exchange of best practices and setting up of coordinated measures to foster technological exchanges in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation through collaboration between companies, organizations and institutions of France and India.
• The agreement aims to carry out activities related to exchange of best practices in the field of Science & Technology through the Technology Development Board and Bpifrance.
5. Cabinet approves MoU between India and Senegal in the field of Health and Medicine
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Senegal in the field of Health and Medicine.
The main areas of cooperation between the Parties will include the following:
i. Integrated Disease Surveillance
ii. Medical Research
iii. Emergency Relief
iv. Hospital Management
v. Drugs and Pharmaceutical products/hospital equipments
vi. Traditional Medicine
vii. AIDS Control
viii. Any other areas of mutual interest
A Working Group will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of this MoU.
INTERNATIONAL
6. Somalia's Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo chosen as new President
• In Somalia, a former Prime Minister who holds dual Somali-US citizenship has been declared Somalia's new President. Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo was named the new leader after two rounds of voting yesterday and quickly took the oath of office.
• Incumbent President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud conceded defeat. The country is trying to put together its first fully functioning central government in a quarter-century
