1) Green flag to country’s first e-vehicle public transport
•Marking the third anniversary of the Narendra Modi government, Union surface transport minster Nitin Gadkari along with chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis flagged off taxi aggregator Ola's electronic vehicle (EV) services in the city.
•Nagpur will be the first in country to have such a service. A battery charging station for the vehicles was also inaugurated at the airport where the launch function was held. Fadnavis announced that the state government will soon come up with measures to promote setting up of charging stations. This is expected to be a major job provider especially to the technically educated youth.
2) Venkaiah Naidu & Delhi CM will jointly inaugurate Heritage Line stretch of Delhi Metro tomorrow
•Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will jointly inaugurate the Heritage Line stretch of Delhi Metro tomorrow.
•It has four stations : Kashmere Gate, Dilli Gate, Jama Masjid and Lal Quila. The new line is expected to take considerable load off Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazar stations of Yellow Line. It is essentially an extension of Violet Line that runs between Faridabad and ITO presently.
•Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesperson, Anuj Dayal said, the Heritage Line will be inaugurated at 10 am. It will be open for public from 12 noon.
3) Narayanasamy presents tax-free Puducherry budget
Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy presented a tax-free budget of ₹ 6,945 crore for 2017-18.
The contribution from own resources was estimated to be Rs. 4,022 crore.
With key focus on agriculture, animal husbandry and infrastructure development, the Chief Minister announced the government decision to provide free electricity to motor pump sets used by farmers.
The government had also decided to bear the expenditure towards farmer’s share of the insurance premium under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojan.’
The government also proposed to provide insurance cover for both Samba and Navarai crops covering 12,500 hectares.
4) Amul Thapar becomes second Indian-American judge of US Court of Appeals
Amul Thapar became the second Indian-American judge of an appeals court with the United States senate confirming his appointment to the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Thapar was confirmed by a 52-44 vote.
Shri Srnivasan, who was appointed to the DC circuit court of appeals by President Barak Obama and confirmed in 2013, is the first Indian American ever to be named as judge to the American counterpart of India’s high courts.
Thapar was also on Trump’s list of candidates for a vacancy on the Supreme Court, for which he eventually picked Neil Gorsuch, who has sicne een confirmed. Thapar is President Trump’s second judicial nominee to be confirmed.
Thapar, 47, was born in Detroit to immigrants from India, Raj Thapar and Veena Bhalla. He went to college in Boston, and studied law at University of California, Berkeley.
5) RBI allows co-operative banks to issue mobile wallets
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed co-operative banks, who are permitted to install ATMs and issue debit cards, to also issue prepaid payment instruments PPIs like mobile wallets.
In a notification, RBI laid down strict norms and conditions to be followed by co-operative banks before permitting them to issue wallets for utility bill payments and other activities up to a limit of Rs 10,000.
The apex bank also laid down various criteria like banks should be core banking or CBS compliant, with net non-performing assets being less than 3 per cent and also being profitable in the previous financial year.
Further, the RBI has also mandated that the bank should have internal and audit inspection processes both for its branches as well as the head office.
RBI has also mandated that there should be no monetary penalty being imposed on the entity during the last two financial years and the bank should also have a comprehensive customer grievance redressal mechanism.
6) India announces $500 mn assistance to Mauritius
•India announced a $500 million line of credit to Mauritius as the two countries resolved to deepen ties in a range of areas including the maritime domain. The two countries also signed a maritime security agreement after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth.
•In a statement, Modi stated he and Jugnauth agreed that effective management of conventional and non-conventional threats in the Indian Ocean is essential to pursue economic opportunities.
