1) Women & Child Development Ministry Inaugurated Online Portal NARI
•Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi inaugurated an online portal NARI in New Delhi for the empowerment of women. The portal will provide women with easy access to information on government schemes and initiatives for women.
•The portal summarises over 350 government schemes and other important information. It provides links to the Ministries, Departments and autonomous bodies offering these schemes as well as easy access to online applications and grievance redressal.
2) Assamese and Manipuri Versions of PM Modi’s Official Website Launched
•The Assamese and Manipuri language versions of Prime Minister’s Official website- www.pmindia.gov.in were launched.
•Now the PM INDIA website is available in 11 regional languages namely Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu in addition to English and Hindi.
3) 1st Draft of National Register of Citizens in Assam Released
•The citizen of Assam witnessed the release of the first draft of National Register of Citizens (NRC) containing the first batch of 19 million names of genuine Indian citizens in compliance with the Supreme Court 's orders.
•Registrar General of India Sailesh released the document. The first draft has listed 19 million people out of the 32.9 million applicants from within the state as legal Indian citizens.
4) Saudi Arabia, UAE Introduce VAT for First Time
•Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced value-added tax (VAT). These are the first two countries in the Gulf which have introduced the VAT system.
•The 5% levy is being applied to the majority of goods and services. The UAE estimates that in the first year, VAT income will be around 12 billion dirhams. Petrol and diesel, food, clothes, utility bills and hotel rooms all now have VAT applied. But some outgoings have been made exempt from the tax, or given a zero-tax rating, including medical treatment, financial services and public transport.
5) SBI Reduces Base Rate and Benchmark Prime Lending Rates Each by 30 bps
•The State Bank of India reduced the base rate and benchmark prime lending rates by 30 basis points each, which will benefit nearly 80 lakh customers on the old pricing regime.
•SBI revised down the base rate to 8.65 percent for existing customers from 8.95 percent, while the benchmark prime lending rates are down from 13.7 percent, to 13.4 percent. The one-year MCLR of the bank stands unchanged at 7.95 percent.
6) Vijay Keshav Gokhale Appointed Foreign Secretary
•Senior diplomat Vijay Keshav Gokhale has been appointed foreign secretary of India. He has succeeded S Jaishankar.
•Mr Gokhale served as Indian Ambassador to China, Germany and as Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia in the past. He is at present secretary (economic relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs.
