As per the International Organisation of Migration, about 18,500 Rohingya Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in the Rakhine State six days ago, while thousands more are stuck at the Bangladesh border or scrambling to reach it.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the U.S. to put pressure on Myanmar to stop the exodus of their nationals.
U.S. Conducts Missile Test
The U.S. military shot down a medium-range ballistic missile target off the coast of Hawaii.
The test was performed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy from the USS John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer.
No Negotiation over Boycott
According to Qatar`s Foreign Minister, his country was willing to negotiate an end to a Gulf diplomatic rift but had seen no sign that Saudi Arabia and other countries imposing sanctions on Doha were open to mediation.
Kuwait and the United States are trying to heal a bitter dispute between Qatar and four Arab countries that has damaged business ties and disrupted travel for thousands of citizens in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
Luxury cars and SUVs may become more expensive with the Union Cabinet approving an ordinance to raise the maximum compensation cess that can be levied over and above the 28% GST on such cars, from 15 % to 25%.
However, these changes will not come into effect immediately. The final decision of whether the cess should be raised, and by how much, will be taken by the GST Council.
The Cabinet has approved an amendment to the CGST (Compensation) law in pursuance of the GST Council’s last meeting.
Counterfeit Notes Detected in FY17
As many as 7,62,072 pieces of counterfeit notes were detected in the banking system last fiscal, a 20.4 per cent increase over the previous year.
During 2015-16, 6.32 lakh pieces of fake currency notes had been detected.
Six-fold Rise in Dubious Dealings
Demonetisation resulted in a near six-fold surge in the number of suspicious transactions reported by banks to the Financial Intelligence Unit during 2016-17 as banks chose to play safe and share data on high-value cash deposits, which did not tally with past trends.
According to RBI’s annual report, filings with FIU had increased almost 4.5 times. The filings include reports by insurance and housing finance firms as well as intermediaries such as stock brokers. But a large chunk is related to deposits made during demonetisation.
Scientists have discovered a new method to convert dried tree leaves into a porous carbon material that can be used to produce high-tech electronics.
Researchers in China used a multi-step, yet simple, process to convert phoenix tree leaves into a form that could be incorporated into electrodes as active materials.
In a major reform for the Indian Army, the government has accepted the first batch of 65 recommendations of the Lt. Gen. D. B. Shekatkar (retd.) headed committee which will result in redeployment of 57,000 personnel for roles to increase the "tooth to tail" ratio.
Tooth to tail ratio is a military term that refers to the amount of military personnel it takes to supply and support (tail) each combat soldier (tooth).
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