CBI chief Rishi Kumar Shukla takes charge

Rishi Kumar Shukla took charge as the CBI chief on February 4. The former Madhya Pradesh Police chief has been appointed for a fixed tenure of two years. The 1983-batch IPS officer replaces Alok Kumar Verma, who was removed from the post on January 10. M. Nageswara Rao had been working as the interim CBI chief after Verma’s ouster. The development assumes significance as the Supreme Court had said it was “averse” to the arrangement of an interim CBI director and the Centre should “immediately” appoint a regular chief of the probe agency. Shukla played a key role in the extradition of underworld don Abu Salem, who was found guilty in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.

Anti-dumping duty on Chinese goods

To protect domestic players from cheap imports, India has imposed anti-dumping duty on as many as 99 Chinese products as on January 28, Parliament was informed. Chinese products on which the duty was imposed include chemicals and petrochemicals, fibres and yarn, machinery items, pharmaceutical, rubber and steel items. Countries carry out an anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of the WTO. The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trade practices and creating a level playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign exporters.

FDI fell by 11% during Apr-Sep 2018

Foreign direct investment into India declined 11 per cent to $22.66 billion during April-September of the current fiscal, according to official data. Foreign fund inflows during April-September 2017-18 had stood at $25.35 billion. Key sectors that received maximum FDI during the first six months are services ($4.91 billion), computer software and hardware ($2.54 billion), telecom ($2.17 billion), trading ($2.14 billion), chemicals ($1.6 billion), and automobiles ($1.59 billion). Singapore was the largest FDI source with $8.62 billion inflow, followed by Mauritius ($3.88 billion), the Netherlands ($2.31 billion), Japan ($1.88 billion), US ($970 million) and UK ($845 million).

Tourism fetched $234 bn revenue in 2018

Union Minister K.J. Alphons said the country’s tourism sector fetched $234 billion revenue last year, registering a growth of over 19 per cent. He said India was ranked third in the tourism sector, according to the 2018 report of the World Travel and Tourism Council. The revenue was contributed by 87 per cent domestic and 13 per cent foreign tourists, he said. “From foreign tourists, we earned $27 billion, which grew by 14 per cent compared to global growth of 7 per cent,” he said, adding that around 82 million people are employed in the tourism sector. About spiritual tourism, he said 60-70 per cent of the total domestic tourists fall under this category.

SC to hear CBI plea amid standoff

Amid a tense standoff between the CBI and the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court agreed to give an urgent hearing to applications moved by the investigating agency alleging destruction of evidence related to the Saradha chit fund scam case by the Kolkata police commissioner. The apex court will hear the applications on February 5. The CBI alleged that it has moved the applications as an extraordinary situation has arisen in which top officers of the West Bengal Police are sitting on a dharna along with a political party in Kolkata. The applications accusing Kolkata police chief Rajeev Kumar of destroying evidence and indulging in contempt of court was submitted by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjeev Khanna.

Oil PSU capex drops to four-year low

State-owned oil firms’ capital expenditure has hit a four-year low with PSUs such as ONGC and IOC planning to invest Rs 93,693 crore in oil and gas exploration, refining and petrochemicals in the 2019-20 fiscal year. The capital expenditure outlay of ONGC, IOC, GAIL, PCL, HPCL, Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals and their subsidiaries is the lowest since 2014-15, according to Budget documents. Oil PSUs had proposed an investment of Rs 89,335 crore in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, but will end up investing Rs 94,438 crore. This is lower than the Rs 132,003 crore invested in 2017-18, Rs 104,426 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 97,223 crore invested in 2015-16.

4,140 cities declared open defecation free

More than 4,000 urban cities have been declared open defecation free (ODF) under the Swachh Bharat Mission, an official at the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said. Out of the total 4,378 urban cities, 4,140 have already been declared ODF. The official said almost all the urban cities will become ODF by the next month under the Swachh Bharat Mission. “Of the actual target of building 62,42,220 individual toilets, more than 93 per cent have already been constructed. The ministry has also achieved the 100 per cent target of building community and public toilets with the construction of 5 lakh such toilets,” he said. Apart from this, door-to-door collection of solid waste is in place in 72,503 municipal wards out of 84,229 wards.

Merger of 3 PSU general insurers by FY20

The Centre expects to complete the merger of three state-owned general insurance firms by 2019-20. The merger of National Insurance, United India Insurance and Oriental India Insurance was first announced in Budget 2018-19 and the government intended to complete the process in the current fiscal. However, as per Interim Budget documents, the merger is under process and will see completion by next financial year. As on March 31, 2017, the companies had more than 200 products with a total premium of Rs 41,461 crore and a market share of 35 per cent. Their combined net worth is Rs 9,243 crore. The combined entity is likely to be India’s largest non-life insurance company, valued at Rs 1.2-1.5 lakh crore.

Google to help 108 ambulance service

Summoning help to the precise accident spot will soon get easier as one will be able to call the Centre-run 108 emergency ambulance services without specifying the location from a phone with no Internet connection. The Union health ministry recently entered into an agreement with technology giant Google and telecom service providers to offer the service in which the ambulance will reach the spot without being informed about the location, said a government official. The service will be run using twin technologies - Cell Tower Triangulation and Google Emergency Location Services. While Cell Tower Triangulation technology uses information from the telecom operator about the location, the Google ESL uses GPS to track the location in a more accurate way.

More systems to monitor air quality

In a bid to tackle rising pollution and monitor air quality in an efficient way, the Centre is aiming to install 300 more real-time ambient air quality monitoring systems across the country by 2024. Apprising about the number of Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Systems (CAAQMS), a senior official of the environment ministry said 150 real-time and 731 manual stations are currently installed in 70 cities - 48 of them in the national capital alone - for accurate and comprehensive evaluation of air quality. “We aim to increase the real-time monitoring systems to 450 and manual stations to 1,500 before 2024,” said Satyendra Kumar of the  Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

Major European nations recognise Guaido

Spain, Britain, Austria, Sweden and Denmark recognised Venezuela’s Opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president on February 4, while France said he had the right to organise an election given the socialist government’s refusal. The coordinated move from major European nations came after the expiry of an eight-day deadline they set last weekend for President Nicolas Maduro to call a new vote. The Venezuelan leader, accused of running the OPEC nation like a dictatorship and wrecking its economy, has defied that, saying Europe’s ruling elite are sycophantically following US President Donald Trump’s agenda. Guaido, who leads the Opposition-controlled National Assembly, declared himself temporary leader last month in a move that has split global powers.

The gene that makes us sleepy when sick

Scientists have identified a gene that makes a person sleepy when they are sick. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that a single gene, called nemuri, fights germs with its inherent antimicrobial activity and drives prolonged, deep sleep after an infection. Without the gene, flies were more easily aroused during daily sleep, and their acute need for an increase in sleep - induced by sleep deprivation or infection - was reduced. On the other hand, sleep deprivation, which increases the need for sleep, and to some extent infection, stimulated nemuri to be expressed in a small set of fly neurons nestled close to a known sleep-promoting structure in the brain. Over-expression of nemuri increased sleep in bacteria-infected flies and led to their increased survival compared to non-infected control flies.

Hubble discovers new dwarf galaxy

Astronomers accidentally discovered a new galaxy while studying the Milky Way. The Hubble Space Telescope made the discovery of the dwarf galaxy - nicknamed Bedin 1 - in our cosmic backyard, located just 30 million light years away. Researchers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study white dwarf stars within the globular cluster NGC 6752. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the aim of the observations was to use these stars to measure the age of the globular cluster, but in the process researchers made an unexpected discovery. In the outer fringes of the area observed with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, a compact collection of stars was visible, according to a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

Newsmakers

Veteran Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma said he would return the Padma Shri as a mark of protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, terming it “anti-Northeast”. The 83-year-old director was bestowed with the honour in 2006.

Nepal’s former law minister Nilambar Acharya has been appointed as the country’s ambassador to India. The position has been lying vacant since October 2017 when Deep Kumar Upadhyay resigned to join politics.