1) Cabinet Approves "Scheme for Capacity Building in Textiles Sector"
•The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for a new skill development scheme covering the entire value chain of the textile sector excluding Spinning & Weaving in organized Sector, titled "Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)" from 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs. 1300 crore.
•The scheme will have National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) compliant training courses.
•The objectives of the scheme are to provide demand-driven, placement oriented skilling program to incentivize the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the organized textile and related sectors.
2) Cabinet Approves Establishing India's 1st National Rail and Transportation University
•The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved the Ministry of Railways' transformative initiative to set up India's first ever National Rail and Transport University (NRTU) in Vadodara, Gujarat to skill its human resources and build capability.
•The University will be set up as a Deemed to Be University under de novo category as per the UGC [Institutions Deemed to be Universities] Regulations, 2016. Government is planning to launch the first academic program in July 2018. The funding of the new University/Institute is to entirely come from Ministry of Railways.
3) DARPAN Project Launched For Financial Inclusion of Rural Population
•The Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha launched DARPAN- “Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” Project to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve 'financial inclusion' of the unbanked rural population.
•The goal of the IT modernization project with an outlay of Rs. 1400 Crore is to provide a low power technology solution to each Branch Postmaster (BPM) which will enable each of approximately 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices (BOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers across all the states.
4) Birmingham to Host Commonwealth Games in 2022
•The central English city of Birmingham will host the Commonwealth Games in 2022. The 2022 Commonwealth Games were originally given to Durban in 2015, but the South African city was stripped of the event this year because of financial difficulties.
•The multisports event was last in Britain in 2014 when it was held in Glasgow. Before that, Manchester hosted in 2002.
5) UK Tops Forbes' List of Best Countries for Business in 2018
•The United Kingdom has topped Forbes' rankings of best countries in the world for business in 2018 for the first time, up from fifth last year. The list ranks 153 countries on 15 factors including property rights, innovation, taxes and red tape.
•The UK is followed by New Zealand and the Netherlands, while India was ranked 62nd on the list. The UK's $2.6 trillion economy is the fifth largest in the world. The world’s second (China) and third (Japan) biggest economies rank 66th and 21st, respectively. Chad ranks last for the third straight year.
6) Justice UD Salvi Appointed Officiating Chief of National Green Tribunal
•The government has appointed Justice U D Salvi as officiating chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) following the superannuation of Justice Swatanter Kumar.
•Mr. Salvi will remain in the saddle until his retirement on February 13, 2018. The selection panel is headed by the Chief Justice of India or his nominee, with other members recommended by or from the Environment Ministry.
