Daily Current Affairs, 25th February 2019

1) Tamil Nadu Becomes 1st State in Mainland to Get 2 Coast Guard Districts

•Tamil Nadu became the first state in the country to get a second Coast Guard district headquarters – Thoothukudi. The first district headquarters is Chennai.

•Inaugurated by state Governor Banwarilal Purohit, the Thoothukudi district headquarters has been set up with an aim to augment security mechanism on the eastern coast and the state in particular. Coast Guard DIG Arvind Sharma has taken over charge as the first district Commander of the district headquarters (Tuticorin).

2) Bihar Becomes The 1st State To Deploy Dog Squad To Check Liquor Smuggling

•Bihar has become the first state to deploy specially-trained dogs to check smuggling of liquor which continues to take place inspite of the total ban imposed in the state for the last 3 years. 20 liquor-tracker dogs were trained rigorously for nine months in Hyderabad, Telangana.

•They were trained at Hyderabad-based Integrated Intelligence Training Academy. Patna will witness deployment of 4 such dogs. This action was taken after the seizure of more than three million liters of illegal alcohol since April 2016.

3) Indian Government Launched Rail Drishti Dashboard

•Railway Minister Piyush Goyal launched Rail Drishti Dashboard in New Delhi. The dashboard has been launched to keep people informed about the work going on in the Railways across the country.

4) India To Attend OIC Meet for 1st Time in Abu Dhabi

•External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been invited to deliver an address at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi. This is the first time that a leader of the non-Muslim country has been invited to the OIC conference.

•Ms Swaraj will be the Guest of Honour and address the inaugural plenary of the 46th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC on the 1st and 2nd of March.

5) Women’s Livelihood Bond Launched By World Bank, UN And SIDBI

•World Bank, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) launched new social impact bonds exclusively for women, called Women’s Livelihood Bonds (WLBs), with an initial corpus of Rs 300 crore.

•It will enable individual women entrepreneurs in sectors like food processing, agriculture, services, and small units to borrow around Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh at an annual interest rate of around 13% to 14% or less and have a tenure of 5 years. They will be unsecured, unlisted bonds and offer a fixed coupon rate of 3% per annum to bond investors.

6) India Hosts ‘4th Global Digital Health Partnership Summit’

•J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated the ‘4th Global Digital Health Partnership Summit’ in New Delhi, in the presence of Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad Union Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology and Health Ministers from several countries.

•The global intergovernmental meeting on digital health is being hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP). 

7) GST Council Reduces GST Rate on Real Estate Projects

•The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council met for its 33rd meeting and slashed GST rate on under-construction residential properties and the affordable housing projects. The revised rates will be applicable from April 1, 2019.

•Here are the revised GST rates:

1.In case of non-affordable houses, the GST rate for under-construction flats and houses has been brought to 5% without Input Tax Credit (ITC), down from the present 12%.

2.In case of affordable houses, the GST rate has been reduced to 1% without ITC from 8%.

•The decision was based on recommendations of a Ministerial Panel headed by Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.