1) Govt launches Tele Law to provide legal aid in rural areas via video conferencing
•The government of India has launched ‘Tele Law’ service to provide legal aid for the people living in rural areas through video conferencing. The service has been launched to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas.
•The Ministry of Law and Justice partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to provide legal aid services through its Common Service Centres, CSC at the panchayat level, spread across the country. The service was launched by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
•Under the scheme, the Tele-Law portal will be available across the CSC network connecting the citizens to legal service providers. In the first phase, the Tele-Law scheme will be tested as a pilot across 1000 CSCs in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
2) Kolkata to get India's first underwater Metro
•Kolkata, the ‘City of Joy’ is about to experience a wonder in the form of an underwater Metro train which will run beneath the Hooghly river. It’s one of the path-breaking projects in India as never before a tunnel has been dug beneath a flowing river.
•The entire project is 16.6 km long, out of which 10.8 km runs under the ground. Of this 10.8 km, 502 meters is under the water. The project connects Howrah to the west and Salt Lake to the east. The stretch of 16.6 km will have 12 stations, six of which will be under the ground, while the remaining six stations will be on elevated tracks.
•The train is said to run without a driver. The train would carry around 1,000 passengers in one go and will have six air-conditioned coaches. With the cost of Rs 60 crore, the project is expected to be completed by December 2019.
3) Dr. Jitendra Singh announces “Hill Area Development Programme” for Northeast
•The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh announced the launch of “Hill Area Development Programme” (HADP) for Northeast in Imphal, Manipur.
•He announced the launch of the program to address a meet of Investors and Entrepreneurs, organized by NEDF (North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd), with joint participation of the Union Ministry of DoNER and the Government of Manipur.
•The program aims to bridge the gap between the hill and valley districts in terms of infrastructure, quality of roads, health and education. HADP was launched during the Fifth Five Year Plan aimed at balanced regional development.
4) GST Council revises rates for 66 items
•India's most comprehensive indirect tax reform the goods and services tax (GST) is inching towards a July 1 rollout with the GST Council cutting the rate on household goods and other essential items, raising the threshold for the scheme that requires lesser compliance and approving another key set of rules relating to audit and accounts.
•At its meeting in New Delhi, the council revised rates on 66 items such as pickles, sauces, fruit preserves, insulin, cashew nuts, insulin, school bags, coloring books, notebooks, printers, cutlery, agarbattis and cinema tickets, following representations from industry.
•Restaurants, manufacturers and traders having a turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh can avail of the composition scheme with lower rates of 5%, 2%, and 1%, respectively, with lower compliance, against Rs 50 lakh previously. A GST rate of 5% will be applicable on outsourcing of manufacturing or job work in textiles and the gems and jewelry sector. Bleaching and cleaning of human hair, a big industry in Midnapore, will not face any tax.
5) India, Mauritius sign MoU to institutionalize cooperation between Parliaments
•India and Mauritius have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to institutionalize cooperation between Parliaments of the two countries. The MoU was signed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and Speaker of National Assembly of Mauritius Santi Bai Hanoomanjee in Port Louis.
•Mrs. Mahajan was on a five-day visit to Mauritius from 6th of June with a Parliamentary delegation. She stated that the MoU on a joint framework for parliamentary support and capacity building is a visionary step forward.
6) Rafael Nadal wins 10th French Open title
•Spain's Rafael Nadal made history by winning a record 10th French men's Open title with victory over Stan Wawrinka in the Paris final (French Open 2017). Nadal came through 6-2 6-3 6-1 against the Swiss third seed to claim his 15th major title. He becomes the first man or woman in the Open era to have won a Grand Slam tournament 10 times.
•Rafael Nadal won his first French Open title at the age of 19 in 2005. Only Australia's Margaret Court has more victories at a single Grand Slam tournament, with 11 Australian Open wins between 1960 and 1973. He extended his record at Roland Garros to 79 wins and two losses since his first victory in 2005, the only defeats coming against Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2014.
