ASSAM

Defence ministry, MHA fight it out over Assam Rifles’ proposed merger with ITBP

The defence establishment and the home ministry (MHA) are once again at loggerheads over Assam Rifles, with the Army dead against either losing operational control over the paramilitary force or any move to merge it with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

Administratively, Assam Rifles is under the MHA’s control. But the defence ministry-Army combine have operational control over the country’s “only true paramilitary force”, which guards the 1,643-km long border with Myanmar as well as undertakes counter-insurgency operations in the north-east in conjunction with the Army.

This is certainly not going to go down well in the MHA, which apart from Assam Rifles controls six central armed police forces (ITBP, BSF, CRPF, CISF, NSG and SSB). There have been six to seven “draft” CCS notes prepared on the issue since 2009.

INTERNATIONAL

· Google honours mountaineer Junko Tabei with a doodle on her 80th birthday

Google honoured Junko Tabei, the first Japanese woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on her 80th birthday with a animated doodle.

She is also the first woman to ascend all Seven Summits by climbing the highest peak on every continent.

The doodle depicts a graph along with seven ice-capped mountains which symbolise all the “seven summits” – the highest peaks such as Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, Puncak Jaya, on each continent that was climbed by Tabei.

Apart from the mountains, the doodle also shows a moving animated cartoon representing Tabei.

· India to leverage its Strategic Energy Partnership with USA

ð India and USA plan to further strengthen their Strategic Energy Partnership launched in New Delhi in It includes larger energy imports from the US by the world’s third-largest oil importer state-run firms such as Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL).

ð Petronet LNG Ltd may ink a deal with US liquefied natural gas (LNG) developer Tellurian Inc for around $2 billion in the proposed Driftwood project in Louisiana.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit to the energy resource rich country where he will be addressing an energy round table in Houston China and India.

NATIONAL

CBDT sets up National e-Assessment Centre for faceless scrutiny of IT returns

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has set up a National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) for assessing tax returns electronically without any personal contact between officials and taxpayers.
The initiative is a part of government efforts to reduce human discretion in assessments and scrutiny, which in turn will eliminate possibilities of corruption, by leveraging new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, video conferencing, telecommunication application software and mobile applications.

The CBDT has appointed Krishna Mohan Prasad, a 1984 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, as the first Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PrCCIT) of NeAC.

· NASSCOM DSCI MeitY and Google India launched a nationwide Digital Payment Abhiyan

Nasscom’s Data Security Council of India (DSCI) collaborated with the electronics and IT ministry (MeitY) and Google India to launch a nationwide awareness campaign Digital Payment Abhiyan.

To drive the campaign objectives and amplify outreach to users across all states, DSCI has onboarded various digital payments ecosystem partners.

The Pan-India campaign crafted in seven languages namely Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi and will engage with users and make them aware of the dos and don’ts for different payment channels including UPI, wallets, cards as well as netbanking and mobile banking.

· Transport Ministry issues SOP for transport-related information presented in e-form

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways issued detailed Standard Operating Procedure-SOPfor acceptance of Driving License, Registration Certificate and other transport related information presented in electronic form.
According to the amended Central Motor Vehicles Rules, carrying hard copy of relevant documents is not necessary now as they can be carried in electronic form.
They are available on DigiLockeror mParivahan app to be legally recognized at par with the original documents.
The enforcement agencies can simultaneously access these details from eChallan app.

· Centre to set up National Police University

Centre has announced its plan to set-up state-of-the-artNational Police University (NPU) at Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The proposal was initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The aim is to establish a world-class NPU with a dynamic learning and working environment that is dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of education, research and scholarships of the highest quality in specialized niche areas of policing science, forensic science, cyber forensics, criminology, criminal justice, risk management, and related areas.

· IIT Bombay ranks among top institutes in QS Graduate Employability Rankings

ð Three Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and Delhi University have ranked among the top 200 in QS World Graduate Employability Rankings. The 2020 QS World University Rankings: Graduate Employability included revaluation of 758 institutions that comprises a 15% increase in the number of institutions on previous year’s edition.

ð Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay is ranked in the 111-120 range. It is among the top 24% institutes in the 2020 QS Graduate Employability Rankings with the score 54-55.1/100.

· Gully boy has been nominated for 92nd Oscar Awards

The movie Gully Boyhas been selected as India’s official entry to the 92nd Oscar Awards. The ceremony has been scheduled to take place on 9 February 2020.

92nd Academy Awards will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).The award honors the best films of the year 2019. The award ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on February 9, 2020.

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