1) President launches 3 digital initiatives over e-education
•President Pranab Mukherjee has launched digital initiatives - Swayam, Swayam Prabha and National Academic Depository - in New Delhi to push e-education in the country. The aim of the initiatives is to raise the Gross Enrollment Ratio in the higher education from 24.5 to 30 by 2020.
•Massive Open Online Courses, Swayam will host courses taught in classrooms from Class 9th to post-graduation, which can be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time. It will target those students who could not complete their studies and professionals who wish to upgrade their knowledge. Swayam Prabha is the platform of 32 DTH channels devoted to telecasting high-quality educational programmes 24X7 using GSAT-15 satellite. National Academic Depository will facilitate online verification of certificates. All the courses are interactive and available free of cost.
2) UNESCO declares Ahmedabad as world heritage city
•Ahmedabad city has been declared as a World Heritage City at the 41st session of UNESCO's world heritage committee being held at Krakow in Poland. Nomination of Ahmedabad was supported by close to 20 countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, Portugal, Peru and Kazakhstan. The walled city has 26 ASI-protected structures, hundreds of 'polls' that capture the essence of community living and numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived here from 1915 to 1930. Now, Ahmedabad will join the world heritage cities like Paris, Cairo and Edinburgh.
•Out of total 287 world heritage cities across the globe, there were only two cities in the Indian subcontinent- Bhaktpur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka. The UNESCO tag will add immense value to Ahmedabad city which will also boost tourism.
3) G-20 summit concludes in Hamburg, Germany
•India has expressed satisfaction over the G-20 Hamburg communiqué though it had long drawn negotiations, especially on climate change and global resilience.
•At the end of the two-day deliberations, the G-20 nations arrived at broad consensus over wide ranging issues under four key areas including Sharing benefit of globalisation, global resilience, sustainability and Responsiveness.
•Briefing media at the end of the deliberations, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman and India’s Sherpa for G-20 Arvind Panagariya said the member countries took more time to come to an agreement especially on issues like climate change, trade and investment and migration mainly due to change in stands of some countries due to change of power. He also said India made it clear that clean fossil fuel will remain part of its energy basket.
•He expressed satisfaction that the G-20 leaders have issued a joint statement on counter terrorism in line with the action plan mooted by Prime minister Narendra Modi.
4) India new global growth pole, to keep lead over China: Harvard study
•A new study by the Harvard University has said, India has emerged as the economic pole of global growth by surpassing China and is expected to maintain its lead over the coming decade.
•According to the University's Center for International Development growth projections, India will feature on top of the list of the fastest growing economies till 2025 with an average annual growth of 7.7 per cent, for a variety of reasons. The study attributed India's rapid growth prospects to the fact that it is particularly well positioned to continue diversifying into new areas, given the capabilities accumulated to date.
•The Center for International Development is a university-wide center that works to advance the understanding of development challenges and offer viable solutions to problems of global poverty.
5) RBI allows NBFCs to sell and market the new pension scheme
•The Reserve Bank of India has allowed systematically important non banking finance companies to sell and market the new pension scheme (NPS).
•NBFCs with asset size of ? 500 crore and above that have made a net profit in the preceding financial year be permitted to sell NPS to their clients after registration with the pension regulator.
•"Eligible NBFCs extending such services shall ensure that the NPS subscription collected by them from the public is deposited on the day of collection itself with the trustee bank" RBI said.
6) Harinder Sandhu wins South Australian Open title
•India’s Harinder Pal Sandhu beat Rhys Dowling of Australia 11-8 12-10 11-4 in the final to lift South Australian Open squash title, on Saturday.
•Sandhu was down 1-7 after winning the first game comfortably as the Australian fought back strongly.
•He mounted a comeback to win it on extra points. The third game was a no-contest as the Indian, a former national
champion, shut out Dowling’s challenge 11-4 to wrap up the victory, according to information received here
