1) Piyush Goyal launches mobile app 'SEVA' for quick tracking of coal dispatch
•Union Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal launched the Saral Eindhan Vitaran Application (SEVA), in News Delhi. The app is developed in-house by Coal India Limited (CIL) for power sector consumers.
•SEVA is a part of ‘Digital India’ initiative, which is aimed at increasing the Consumer Connect as well as the Transparency and Accountability in Coal dispatch. By using this app, the common man would be able to hold the Government accountable for the coal linkage allocations and would be able to check any pilferage or inefficiencies in coal consumption for power generation.
2) ‘Good morning’ squads to tackle open defecation in Maharashtra
•The Maharashtra government has decided to form ‘good morning’ squads to monitor and prevent open defecation in villages and districts across the state.
•These squads will comprise representatives of local bodies, self-help groups, NGOs, students and social workers working in the area of sanitation and cleanliness. A government resolution issued and stated that these squads have been asked to keep an eye on the areas where this practice is prevalent and to ensure that locals have access to toilets there.
3) Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' resigned as Nepal Prime Minister
•Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has resigned paving way for Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba to become the next Prime Minister. The resignation is to honor an accord signed in August 2016 when Prachanda was elected the prime minister with Deuba's support.
•According to the agreement, Prachanda was to remain in office until the local elections were held while polls at the provincial and central levels were to be conducted under Deuba as the Prime Minister. He was elected as the 39th prime minister of Nepal after forging an alliance with the Nepali Congress on August 3, 2016.
4) Kiren Rijiju unveils world's first philosophical novel on God
•In a rare feat, a young Indian IAS officer, Haulianlal Guite, who hails from Manipur state has recently published a book titled "Confessions of a dying mind: the blind faith of atheism" in New Delhi.
•The book was unveiled by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in presence of David Syiemlieth, Chairman, UPSC in august gathering at Civil Services Officers' Institute. The book is published by UK based Bloomsbury Publishing. Haulianlal Guite is hailed as the first civil servant to write on Philosophy after John Stuart Mill's work titled 'On Liberty' published in 1858.
5) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the new WHO Chief
•Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former Ethiopian health minister, has been chosen to head the World Health Organisation (WHO) and is the first African to do so since the creation of the United Nations agency in 1948. He will begin his five-year term on 1 July 2017.
•Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has replaced Margret Chan who steps down after ten years as the WHO chief. Ghebreyesus defeated British candidate and former Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Ebola David Nabarro for the ongoing 70th session of the World Health Assembly (WHA). Also, for the first time, the WHO Director-General was chosen through a secret ballot process.
6) First draft of nuclear ban treaty released by UN
•A United Nations-backed panel has publicly released a draft treaty banning the possession and use of all nuclear weapons. The draft treaty is the culmination of a sustained campaign, supported by more than 130 non-nuclear states, to prohibit nuclear weapons and persuade nuclear-armed states to disarm.
•Nine countries that are known to possess nuclear weapons are- the US, UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel has not supported the draft plan. The draft treaty obliges state parties to never under any circumstances develop, produce, manufacture, otherwise acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.
