BIHAR
- GST impact: Bihar records jump in revenue collection
- Call it the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), better compliance, or a growing base of taxpayers, but the upshot is that Bihar has witnessed an increase in its own revenue collection in the current financial year (FY).
- Provisional figures from various departments show an impressive increase of 26.6% in the state’s own revenue, which also includes non-tax revenue, for FY2018-19 compared to FY2017-18, the first year after the rollout of GST (on July 1, 2017). In terms of the state’s own tax revenue, the jump is even higher at 29.23% within a year.
- The impact of GST is visible on revenue collection by the department of commercial taxes. As per the provisional figures with the department of finance, the revenue from commercial taxes has increased from Rs 17,036.09 crore in FY2017-18 to Rs 23,006.15 crore in FY2018-19, a big jump of 35.04%.
INTERNATIONAL
- International Day of Yoga: 21 June
- International Day of Yoga is celebrated annually on 21 June since its inception in 2015.
- The idea of International Day of Yoga was first proposed by the current Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi.
- The International Day of Yoga aims to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practising yoga.
- 2019 Theme: Yoga for Climate Action
- Indian Navy launches Operation Sankalp in Gulf of Oman
- Indian Navy launched ‘Operation Sankalp’ in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Their main aim is to reassure safe passage of Indian flagged vessels transiting through the area. - This deployment depends on the following recent maritime incidents in the region.
INS Chennai and INS Sunayna deployed in the region to undertake maritime security operations. - An aerial surveillance in the area done by IN aircraft.
Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) of Indian Navy watch over the movement of ships in Gulf region.
- Italy won the bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics
- TheInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that the 2026 Winter Olympics will be staged at the Italian venue of Milan/Cortina d’Ampezzo. The Winter Games will happen from 6 February to 22 February in 2026. Italy beat off a bid from Stockholm/Are in Sweden. Italy won the bid bythe approval of the IOC members by 47 votes to 34.
- Italy has twice previously hosted the Winter Olympics twice. It first hosted Olympics in 1956 in Cortina d’Ampezzo and then in 2006 in Turin. It has been estimated that the Games will generate five billion euros ($5.69 billion) and create 20,000 jobs.
The2022 Winter Olympics will be staged in Beijing.
NATIONAL
- Government to launch Universal Smart Card Driving License
- Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to modify the format of driving licenses to smart card type driving licences.
- Ministry has prescribed a common standard format and design of the Driving Licence for the whole of the country.
- This Ministry, through its flagship application called SARATHI developed by NIC, has a common countrywide database of all driving license holders.
- The SARATHI application has the feature to identify duplicate records online in real time and access information about the challans if any.
- The code name of Balakot strike: Operation Bandar
- The air strike by the Indian Air Force (IAF) on a terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan, was code-named ‘Operation Bandar’.
- It was IAF’s first strike inside Pakistan since the 1971 Indo-Pak war.
- The airstrikes were conducted 12 days after the terror outfit claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Kashmir.
- IAF had deployed 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets for the attack.
- The two pilots launched Israeli-made Spice 2000 satellite-guided bombs at the target.
- Kerala tops health rankings in NITI Aayog report
- For the second year in a row, Kerala has retained its top rank in the national health index.
- The report analyses the overall performance and incremental improvement in all the states.
- According to the Health Index 2019 released by NITI Aayog, Kerala is the top performer with a score of 74.01 out of 100, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 65.13 and Maharashtra with 63.99.
- Uttar Pradesh was the worst-performing state with a score of 28.61, followed by Bihar and Odisha.
- Centre plans to add 500 GW of renewable energy to its electricity grid by 2030
- The Centre plans to add 500 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy to its electricity grid by 2030. The plan aims to clean up air in its cities and lessen the rapidly growing economy’s dependence on coal.
- The Ministry of new and renewable energy has planned to install 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 without taking into accountlarge hydro and 225 GW including large hydro.
- India is theworld’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The country has pledged to cut emissions and have clean energy account for at least 40 percent of its installed capacity by 2030, up from 21.4% now, while looking to manage its energy appetite as its population becomes more prosperous.
- Beekeeping Development Committee released its report
- The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister set up a Beekeeping Development Committee under the Chairmanship of Professor Bibek Debroy.
- The Beekeeping Development Committee (BDC) has released its report.
- BDC was constituted with the objective of identifying ways of advancing beekeeping in India, that can help in improving agricultural productivity, enhancing employment generation, augmenting nutritional security and sustaining biodiversity.