1) PM Modi to address World Government Summit in Dubai
•Twenty Heads of States, head of governments and International organizations are likely to participate in the World Government Summit.
•Talking to AIR, Ambassador Navdeep Suri said that Prime Minister in his address will speak on “Technology and Governance”, a subject which is close to his heart.
2) Rajnath Singh Inaugurates First Of Its Kind Spoken Sanskrit Centre
•Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has launched the Centre for learning Sanskrit language in Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.
•The centre will offer a six-month course for people on how to speak the language. The coordinator of the course, Atul Unagar stated it was possibly the first such course launched in India.
3) India And Palestine Sign 6 MoUs
•India and Palestine has signed six Memorandums of Understanding (MoU)s worth USD 40 million. This was welcomed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
•During the term of this Government, the President of India made the first ever visit to Palestine in 2015. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an official visit to India in May 2017 and now for the first time Prime Minister of India has made a visit to Palestine in 2018.
4) Direct Tax Collections Rise 19.3% In April- January
•Direct tax collections grew by nearly 20 per cent between April and January this year with strong growth in both corporate and personal income tax receipts. According to official data released, net direct tax collections grew by 19.3 per cent up to January 2018 to Rs 6.95-lakh crore.
•While net corporate income tax grew by 19.2 per cent, personal income tax receipts rose by 18.6 per cent in January this year. Gross tax collections also grew at a robust 13.3 per cent to Rs 8.21-lakh crore between April 2017 and January 2018.
5) India Retains Top Spot As Source Market For Dubai In 2017
•Dubai witnessed 15% growth in tourist arrivals from India in 2017, hosting 2.1 million visitors, retaining top spot as the source market. It also became the first country to cross the 2 million mark in a single year, according to the latest data published by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism).
•The growth is mainly due to the success of Dubai Tourism's ongoing collaboration with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the 'BeMyGuest' campaign.
6) NPCI Appoints Biswamohan Mahapatra As Non-Executive Chairman
•National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) appointed Biswamohan Mahapatra as non-executive chairman for two years with immediate effect.
•He succeeds B Sambamurthy who was the interim chairman.
