Daily Current Affairs, 01st July 2018

1) Goods And Services Tax Day: 1 July

•The Government of India has announced that 1st of July shall be commemorated as ‘GST Day’. Union Minister for Railways, Coal , Finance & Corporate Affairs  Shri Piyush Goyal will preside over as the Chief Guest of the event and Minister of State for Finance, Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla will be the Guest of Honour. The government of India is celebrating the 1st Anniversary of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) coming into force on 1st July 2017.

•Four Laws namely CGST Act, UTGST Act, IGST Act and GST (Compensation to States) Act were passed by the Parliament and since been notified on 12th April, 2017. All the other States (except Jammu & Kashmir) and Union territories with legislature have passed their respective SGST Acts.

2) Maharashtra Government Announces 'Kanya Van Samruddhi Yojana'

•The Maharashtra government announced a new scheme called 'Kanya Van Samruddhi Yojana', wherein farmers families where girl children are born will be given saplings for plantation.

•The scheme is aimed at empowering women and promoting tree plantation. The scheme was approved in the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

3) Asia's 1st Patent Arbitration Centre To Open In Tokyo

•Asia's first arbitration centre specialised in intellectual property is slated to open in Tokyo in September 2018 to resolve the growing number of disputes in the region. 

•The International Arbitration Centre in Tokyo (IACT) is set to have around a dozen arbitrators from around the world, who would try to resolve disputes within a period of one year.

4) Final Nepal-India EPG Meeting Concludes

•The ninth and final meeting of Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Nepal-India Relations concluded in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Representatives from Nepal and India deliberated upon various bilateral issues including 1950 Peace and Friendship treaty, trade, transit and border during the two-day meeting.

•The EPG is a joint mechanism consisting of experts and intellectuals from India and Nepal. It was set up in February 2016 to make suggestions for updating all existing bilateral treaties and agreements between both the countries. 

5) Nigeria Replaces India To Become World's Largest Poor Population: Brookings Report

•With the persistent decline in poverty, India is no longer a nation having the largest number of poor people in the world, according to a study published by the US-based think tank, Brookings. 

•The study, titled 'The start of a new poverty narrative' and published in the Brookings' blog, is authored by Homi Kharas, Kristofer Hamel and Martin Hofer. According to the study, Nigeria has already overtaken India as the country with the largest number of extreme poor in early 2018, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo could soon take over the number 2 spot.

6) Tata Steel-Thyssenkrup Joint Venture Approved

•The Tata Steel board gave the green flag to the joint venture with German steel giant Thyssenkrup. The Thyssenkrup supervisory board also approved the collaboration with the Indian steel manufacturer. This deal will see both steel majors combine their European businesses to form a 50:50 joint venture.

•The resultant entity, which will be called Thyssenkrup Tata Steel BV, will be the second-largest steelmaker in European steel sector after Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal. It will have around 48,000 workers and about 15 billion euros in sales. The definitive agreement signed will be formally executed shortly.