Brazil Recalls All Diplomats, Foreign Service Officials from Venezuela
Brazil recalled its entire corps of diplomats and Foreign Service officials from Venezuela while ordering the government of Nicolas Maduro to pull out its representatives in Brazil, further hardening ties between the two.
Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had already branded the government of radical leftist Maduro a dictatorship and he, in return, has called Bolsonaro a fascist.
Trump Replaces White House Chief of Staff
US President Donald Trump replaced his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, whose departure had long been rumoured.
North Carolina lawmaker Mark Meadows would take over the job.
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Mulvaney would become US special envoy to Northern Ireland.
Mr. Mulvaney was perceived to have implicated the President in last year's impeachment inquiry in an off-the-cuff remark at the White House podium.
SpaceX Announces Partnership to Send Tourists to ISS
The first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is taking shape as soon as next year (2021) under a deal involving NASA, SpaceX and a Texas-based company that will sell the mission.
Axiom Space said that it has signed an agreement with Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies for a flight of four tourists to the space station, possibly sometime late next year.
The initial trip to the ISS would last at least eight days. Axiom said that it is targeting two flights annually.
Govt. Reconstitutes National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction
The government reconstituted the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as its chairperson and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others, as its members. The NPDRR is a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral decision making body on disaster management. In a notification, the home ministry said that the functions of the NPDRR will be to review the progress made in the field of disaster management from time to time, appraise the extent and manner in which the disaster management policy has been implemented by the central and state governments, and other agencies concerned, and advise on coordination between the central and state governments.
The minister of state in-charge of disaster management in the home ministry and the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority will be the NPDRR's vice chairpersons. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri are among its members.
The minister of each state government and union territory dealing with disaster management, a member of the state disaster management authority, mayors of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and municipal commissioners of these cities will also be its members. Ten chairpersons of urban local bodies, to be nominated by the urban development ministry, 10 representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions, to be nominated by the panchayat raj ministry, four Lok Sabha members, two Rajya Sabha members, and the Union home secretary and secretaries of departments concerned will be the NPDRR's ex-officio members, the notification said.
Railways Conducts Gender Euality Cmpaign
The Railways is conducting a ten-day long 'Each for Equal' campaign from March 1 to 10 across the Zonal Railways in view of the upcoming International Women's Day.
The International Women's Day will be celebrated across the world on Sunday.
"The theme of the Campaign is #EachforEqual signifying that collectively each one of us can help create a gender equal world and Railway is also focussing on #SheInspiresUs highlighting the inspiring stories of women achievers.
In this campaign, Indian Railways is highlighting the steps taken to provide exclusive facilities to women passengers, to empower women employees and enhance the role of women employees working in Indian Railways.
Freedom in the World 2020 Report Ranks India among Least Free Democracies
According to the 'Freedom in the World 2020' report, which analyzes democratic values and people's freedom in 195 countries & 15 territories and ranks them category-wise, released by the Freedom House, a U.S (United States) -based watchdog that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, India ranked 83rd in the report along with Timor-Leste and Senegal in 'Free'category. Finland topped the list as the freest democratic country.
India and the United States have begun work on the draft paper of the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), the third of the "foundational" pacts that aims to bring the armed forces of the two countries closer. Work on the drafts has just begun after a successful meeting on BECA in Washington DC. After several rounds of discussions led by the Indian ministry of defence and the U.S. National Geospatial Agency, it was decided to begin work on the draft. Indian and U.S. armed forces officials were part of the meeting.
BECA is the third of the agreements, India already having signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) and the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA). Both sides are confident that the agreement could be signed by the end of the year.
In fact, both sides are working towards signing the agreement with the Trump administration before the November US Presidential polls. BECA would lead to sharing information relating to various kinds of data, whether it is imagery, hydrological, topographical or other kinds of data.
Information Commissioner Bimal Julka was appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).
President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office to Julka as CIC in the Central Information Commission at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Later, Julka administered the oath of office to Amita Pandove as Information Commissioner.
With her induction, the total number of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, including the Chief Information Commissioner, has gone up to seven.
The transparency watchdog was functioning without a chief after Sudhir Bhargava retired on January 11, 2020. It is operating at a reduced strength of six information commissioners, against the sanctioned strength of 10, excluding the CIC.
SBI Life Insurance Company Re-appoints Sanjeev Nautiyal as MD & CEO
The Board of Directors of SBI Life Insurance Company re-appointed Sanjeev Nautiyal as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer of the company(CEO) with effect from March 10, 2020 replacing Arijit Basu.
This approval is given by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and members of the Company.
He served as a Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the SBI Life since March 10, 2018.
Three Day Namaste Orchha Festival in Madhya Pradesh
The Madhya Pradesh Government (Tourism Board) organizes a three-day festival "Namaste Orchha" From March 6 to March 8, 2020 in the ancient town of Orchha in Bundelkhand region, Madhya Pradesh.
The aim of this festival was to promote tourism in the heritage city of Orchha, Madhya Pradesh.
It celebrated the cultural diversity, natural beauty and the architectural heritage of the town by showcasing music, dance, heritage walks, local cuisine, arts and handicrafts.
Orchha won the best heritage city national award for 2017-2018.
Veteran theatre director and teacher Barry John was chosen for Lifetime Achievement honour for 2020 at the upcoming Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META).
The 76-year-old, mentor including Shahrukh Khan, Manoj Bajpayi, Mira Nair and Lillete Dubey, will be conferred upon with the award on March 19 along with the winners of the 15th META festival.
Born and educated in the UK, John, who has lived and worked in India since 1968, was founder-director of Delhi''s most acclaimed company, "Theatre Action Group". Brain behind the CBSE curriculum for theatre, he was also on the faculty of the National School of Drama (NSD), where he taught and directed actors like Anupam Kher, Pankaj Kapoor, Anu Kapoor, Surekha Sikri and Manohar Singh.
Lok Sabha Passes Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Bill
Lok Sabha passed the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill amid noisy protests.
The bill seeks to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) so that successful bidders of insolvent companies are ring-fenced from any risk of criminal proceedings for offences committed by previous promoters of the companies concerned.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sought the cooperation of the members to pass the Bill in the House.
The Bill was declared passed by Rajendra Agarwal, who was in the chair, amidst continuous protests by Congress members, who have been demanding a discussion on the riots in Delhi.
The amendments in the law seek to remove bottlenecks and streamline the corporate insolvency resolution process, wherein successful bidders will be ring-fenced from any risk of criminal proceedings for offences committed by previous promoters of companies concerned.
Lok Sabha Passes Mines and Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill
The Lok Sabha gave its nod to the Mines and Mineral Laws (Amendment) Bill amid sloganeering by Opposition members over the Delhi violence and other issues.
The Bill proposes to remove end-use restrictions for participating in coal mine auctions, and it will open up the coal sector fully for commercial mining for all domestic and global companies. It would also pave the way for auctioning of iron ore mining leases which expire this month.
Female Labour-force Participation in India Declines
Female labour-force participation in India declined from 34 per cent in 2006 to 24.8 per cent in 2020.
According to the UNGC (United Nations Global Compact) India study, India is the only country among the 153 surveyed countries where the economic gender gap is larger than the political gap.
The study found that raising women's participation in the labour force to the same level as men can boost India's GDP by 27 per cent.
Gender stereotypes and lack of infrastructure has traditionally sidelined women from core manufacturing functions. As a result, not many are able to reach leadership roles.
Globally, 38.7 per cent of employed women are working in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, but only 13.8 per cent of landholders are women.
+91-85588-96644
