India wins 73 medals in 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games including 37 golds
- India’s special athletes gave an impressive performance and won 73 medals in the recently concluded 2017 Special Olympics World Winter Games held in Austria.
- This year’s edition witnessed 2,600 athletes from over 105 countries competing with each other and the Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) team won 37 golds, 10 silver and 26 bronze medals. This year’s Olympics included even disciplines including Alpine Skiing, Snow Boarding, Snow Shoeing, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Floor Hockey, Floor Ball (and Unified floor Ball).
- India dominated in three team events – Floor Hockey (male), Unified Floorball and Traditional Floorball bagging 30 medals in total which was the highest tally in a single day.
- Special women team won 16 bronze medals.
- Gold Medal in The Unified Floorball (Male) in which India defeated Nigeria.
- Floor Hockey team defeated Lithuania 7-2.
- India also won 10 medals in Alpine skiing including 3 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals.
- The snowboarding team also came out all guns blazing bagging 8 medals that included 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals. 5 more medals came in Snow Shoeing and 4 medals were won in Speed and figure skating.
- In the process, Himachal’s Megha became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the games
R Ashwin breaks Dale Steyn’s record of most wickets in a Test season
- R Ashwin has set another record of the most wickets (79) in a Test season. Ashwin eclipsed Dale Steyn’s tally of 78 which was set in 2007/08.
- Other bowlers who feature in the elite list are Ravindra Jadeja with 67* wickets in ongoing season, Glenn McGrath with 66 wickets in the 1998/99 season and Anil Kumble with 64 wickets in the 2004/05 season.
- He became the fastest to reach 250 wickets going past Dennis Lillee and Dale Steyn, who had reached this milestone in their 48th and 49th Test match, respectively.
- Currently, Ashwin is the fifth highest wicket taker for India in Tests. The 30-year-old spinner from Tamil Nadu, also completed 200 wickets in home Tests in his 30th Test and is among the quickest to do so.
- As of now Ashwin’s current Test bowling strike-rate of 52 is the best by a Test spinner (min 50 wkts) in the last 100 years.
GJEPC Hosted International Diamond Conference 2017
- The Gem and Jewelry Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) hosted the International Diamond Conference in Mumbai.
- It gathered leading miners, diamantaires, retailers, bankers and analysts from across the globe on a single platform to discuss issues faced by the global diamond industry, such as supply and demand, marketing and financing, and will cover all aspects of the diamond pipeline including mining, midstream, marketing & retail, international finance, valuation with KP and diamond certification.
- The theme of this conference was"Mines to Market 2017"
GJEPC
- Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is an organisation set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India) with aim to promote the Indian gem and jewellery industry and its products.
- It was established in 1966 and now represents almost 6,000 exporters in the sector.
- It has its headquarters in Mumbai and regional Offices in New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Surat and Jaipur.
ESIC launched Mobile Clinic Services in AP, Telangana
- The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) launched Mobile Clinic Services for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
- Union minister of state for labour and employment Bandaru Dattatreya, launched the ESIC Mobile Clinic Services by flagging off 'Jan Suraksha Vans/Ambulances
- It is for the first time in the country that the ESIC Mobile Clinic Services are launched in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the mobile clinics will be expanded and launched across the country by all ESI hospitals
Features of the services
- Each mobile clinic will have a vehicle with a doctor, pharmacist, attendant, driver and the necessary equipment and medicines, he said.
- The vehicle will visit two locations in a day for three hours each and do basic investigations. Each location will be covered twice in a week,
Employees' State Insurance Corporation
- Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), established by ESI Act, is an autonomous corporation under Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India. As it is a legal entity,
- It was founded on 25 February 1952
World Theatre Day 27 March 2017
- Since 1962, World Theatre Day has been celebrated by theatre professionals, theatre organisations, theatre universities and theatre lovers all over the world on March 27.
- This year, Malta is also joining the global celebrations under the banner of Viva t-Teatru, with a programme of events by Teatru Malta and Arts Council Malta.
- World Theatre Day was initiated in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on the 27th March by ITI Centres and the international theatre community.
- Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion.
Filmmaker Gurinder Chadha gets Sikh Jewel Award
- Indian-origin British director Gurinder Chadha has been honoured with the Sikh Jewel Award for 2017 for her immense contribution to British cinema.
- Chadha, whose films include Bhaji on the Beach, Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, received the award from UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon at the Vaisakhi Dinner organised by the British Sikh Association
- Chadha’s latest film, “Viceroy’s House” tells the true story of the final five months of British rule in India and coincides with the
Sebastian Vettel beats Lewis Hamilton to win Australian Grand Prix
- Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel beat Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in a straight fight as Formula 1's new era started at the Australian Grand Prix.
- Vettel's first win since the Singapore GP in September 2015 was final proof Mercedes' domination is over after the introduction of faster cars.
- In a repeat of last year’s race, Hamilton started on pole position but again had to settle for second, 10 seconds behind the winner, with his new Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas completing the podium line-up.
- Vettel said: "Unbelievable. It is a fantastic grand prix, it was quite mad in a positive way with the people running on the track going wild with the Ferrari flags."
- A disappointed Hamilton admitted he had struggled with his tyres.
HDFC’s Aditya Puri is one of the world’s 30 best CEOs, according to US magazine
- HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri’s name has featured in the list of world’s 30 best CEOs, published by American financial magazine Barron’s.
- According to the magazine, a 2014 trip to Silicon Valley made Puri a digital evangelist. In hallmark style, the banker swiftly set out to remake India's second-largest private-sector bank into the digital spot for anything money-related.
- Puri holds 23rd position
- Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg who is listed on the 30th spot.
Top Five
1. Mary Barra of General Motors
2. Gary Dickerson of Applied Materials
3. Stephen Hemsley
4. Jensen Huang
5. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadellaand Amazon’s CEO Jeffrey Bezos
Dr Randeep Guleria is new director of AIIMS-Delhi
- The country's premier medical institute, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here, got a new director today with the appointment of Dr Randeep...
- He has been appointed for five years from the date of assumption of charge or till attaining the age of 65 until further orders
- His predecessor Dr M C Mishra retired from the post of AIIMS director in January after serving for over three years.
- Dr Guleria has worked as a personnal physician to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and has also treated Union ministers like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley.
- Guleria is the first Indian to get a Doctorate of Medicine (DM) in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.
Purva Barve, Varun Kapur bag international titles at Li Ning-Israel Open
- Shuttlers Purva Barve and Varun Kapur handed India double delight by winning their respective age group sections in the Li Ning-Israel Open 2017.
- The tournament was held at the Sports Hall, Rishon LeZion in Israel.
- Ranked No. 70 in the world, Purva, the fourth-seed in the Under-19 Women's Singles, proved to be a runaway winner against the world No. 61 and third-seeded Lela Minadze (Russia) and signed off registering a 21-6, 21-4 scoreline in 18 minutes.
- For the 16-year-old Pune-born lass, the title was her first junior title in an international competition
- Meanwhile, in the Under-15 Boys Singles, top-seeded Varun emerged undefeated in the league cum knockout format in the 'Youth' segment.
- In the final, Varun steamrolled England's Toby Dillingham 21-10, 21-2 to bag his second International title in as many participated. Earlier, in December 2016 Varun had bagged the Under-15 crown at the Cyprus International Open
CBEC to be renamed CBIC under GST regime
- The apex policy making body for indirect taxes, CBEC is being rechristened as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) in the run up to the Goods and Services Tax regime to be rolled out from July 1.
- The Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) is being renamed as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), after getting legislative approval
- CBIC would supervise the work of all its field formations and directorates and assist the government in policy making in relation to GST, continuing central excise levy and customs functions
- The existing formations of central excise and service tax under the CBEC have been re-organised to implement and enforce the provisions of the proposed GST Laws,
- Indirect tax reform GST is expected to curb tax evasion, make commodities cheaper and add up to 2 per cent to India’s GDP growth. GST will subsume excise, service tax, VAT and other local levies.
- The CBIC will have 21 zones, 101 GST Tax payer Services Commissionerates comprising 15 sub-Commissionerates, 768 Divisions, 3,969 Ranges, 49 Audit Commissionerates and 50 Appeals Commissionerates.
Central Board of Excise and Custom
- The Central Board of Excise and Custom is the nodal national agency responsible for administering Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax & Narcotics in India.
- The Customs & Central Excise department was established in the year 1855 by the then British Governor General of India, to administer customs laws in India and collection of import duties/land revenue.
- It is one of the oldest government departments of India.
