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Ministry of Communications & Information Technology recently launched the operations of the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) as two pilot branches at Raipur and Ranchi. Financial Inclusion is critical for the socio-economic development of the country, but there are significant gaps in this area and a large proportion of country’s population remain unbanked or under banked.
India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) will effectively leverage the ubiquitous post office network with its pan-India physical presence, long experience in cash handling and savings mobilisation, backed by the ongoing project of IT-enablement, to bridge this gap in Financial Inclusion.
Payments banks are a new model of banks conceptualised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). These banks cannot issue loans and credit cards. Both current account and savings accounts can be operated by such banks. Payments banks can issue services like ATM cards, debit cards, online banking and mobile banking. India Post Payments Bank is the third entity to receive payments bank permit after Bharti Airtel and Paytm.

The Bharat Parv event is organised by the Government of India at the Red Fort, Delhi from 26th to 31st January every year as part of the Republic Day Celebrations. The Ministry of Tourism has been designated as the nodal Ministry for the event.
The Bharat Parv event is organised by the Government of India at the Red Fort, Delhi from 26th to 31st January every year as part of the Republic Day Celebrations. The Ministry of Tourism has been designated as the nodal Ministry for the event

India's quest for energy security got a major push after a pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that will flow in as much as one sixth of the India's total emergency oil reserve.
Some features of this deal are as follows:

1) India signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates that allows the Gulf OPEC country to fill half of an underground crude oil storage facility at Mangalore, Karnataka.
2) The deal is part of New Delhi's strategic petroleum reserve system, an emergency underground storage of 36.87 million barrels of crude oil which can supply about 10 days of the country's average daily oil demand.
3) UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) will store about 6 million barrels of oil at Mangalore, taking up about half of the site's capacity.
4) This is the second agreement signed between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited and ADNOC in the area of storage and management oil at strategic facilities in India.
5) Three years ago, India began talks to lease part of its strategic storage to ADNOC. Under those discussions in 2014, India was to have first rights to the stored crude oil in case of an emergency.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully ground tested its indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage for GSLV MkIII. The cryogenic stage designated as C25 was tested for a duration of 50 seconds at ISRO Propulsion Complex.(IPRC) in Mahendragiri demonstrating all the stage operations. The performance of the Stage during the test was as predicted. This is the first test in a series of two tests.
The development of C25 cryogenic stage began with the approval of GSLV MKIII, the next generation launch vehicle of ISRO, capable of launching 4 ton class spacecraft into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The vehicle consists of two solid strap-on motors (S200), one earth storable liquid core stage (L110) and the cryogenic stage upper stage (C25).
The C25 stage is the most powerful upper stage developed by ISRO and uses Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) propellant combination.  The stage carries 27.8 tons of propellants loaded in two independent tanks.

Kambla in its traditional form is non-competitive with buffalo pairs made to race one after another in paddy fields, which is considered a thanksgiving to the Gods for protecting the animals from diseases.
Over the years, it Kamabala has however become an organised sport while the animal rights activists claiming that the buffaloes run in the race due to fear of being beaten, which the organisers dismiss, saying no violence is involved and that several modifications had been made to ensure that it is an animal-friendly event.

In the Western Ghats, the fragmented forests of the highest ranges have divulged a secret that is music to the ears of naturalists. Researchers exploring these “sky islands” have designated two new endemic genera and a new species of songbird. The research published in the latest issue of BMC Evolutionary Biology was undertaken by V. V. Robin; Sushma Reddy; C .K. Vishnudas; Pooja Gupta; Frank E. Rheindt; Daniel M. Hooper and Uma Ramakrishnan.
The research team has designated two new genera, the Western Ghats short-wings as Sholicola (closely related to flycatchers) and the laughing thrushes as Montecincla (closely related to babblers). The newly described Sholicola Ashambuensis is confined to the Agasthyar Malai mountain ranges. The species in the Montecincla genera include Montecincla jerdoni, Montecincla cachinnans, Montecincla fairbanki and Montecincla meridionalis belongs to Montecincla genus. Sholicola major and Sholicola albiventris belongs to Sholicola genus.

Scientists of Pune based the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) are likely to unveil in December a computerised model that can forecast the impact of climate change on the Indian monsoon until 2100.
The computerised model is significant because it is the first time India will be submitting a home-grown assessment to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body convened by the United Nations and highly influential to policymakers and governments on the risks posed by climate change. A test version of the model is already available on websites of research groups affiliated to the IPCC.
The IPCC summarises projections from such models, developed by scientists from around the world, to report on the level of consensus, among scientists, of the extent to which specific pollutants and gases — from carbon dioxide to particulate matter — interfere with weather patterns and ocean temperatures.

Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based corruption watchdog has put India at rank 76 out of 168 countries in its latest Corruption Perception Index.
India’s 2015 corruption perception score remains the same as last year’s – 38/100 – showing lack of improvement. India shares its rank along with six other countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Thailand, Tunisia and Zambia. China fared worse than India and Brazil at rank 83 with a score of 37. TI has also noted that Pakistan is the only country among the SAARC countries, to have improved its score this year, though its rank remains poor at 117.
Major scandals such as the one in Brazil’s state oil giant Petrobras involving massive kick-backs have resulted in the country's rankings plunging sharply this year. Graft allegations surrounding Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has also been cited as an instance of why that country scored poorly at 50 over its last year’s score of 52.

The Yettinahole project envisages pumping about 24 tmc ft of water from Yettinahole, a tributary of River Netravathi. It involves construction of dams and reservoir, pumping of water, flowing of water with gravitational force and finally filling of lakes. As per the project, 24 tmc ft of water from Yettinahole and a couple of other tributaries of Netravathi River will be drawn by constructing minor dams.
The project envisages diverting the water to drought prone Chikkaballapur, Kolur, Tumkur and Bangalore rural districts. The Yettinahole Project has come in for very strong opposition from environmental groups.

The Indian Navy’s Annual Theatre Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX) is a month long exercise which has ships and aircraft of both the Western and Eastern Naval Commands, as also assets from the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard exercising together.
TROPEX 17 assumes special significance in the backdrop of the current security scenario. The exercise is aimed at testing combat readiness of the combined fleets of the Indian Navy, and the assets of the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard. It will also strengthen inter-operability and joint operations in a complex environment.

In the Western Ghats, the fragmented forests of the highest ranges have divulged a secret that is music to the ears of naturalists. Researchers exploring these “sky islands” have designated two new endemic genera and a new species of songbird. The research published in the latest issue of BMC Evolutionary Biology was undertaken by V. V. Robin; Sushma Reddy; C .K. Vishnudas; Pooja Gupta; Frank E. Rheindt; Daniel M. Hooper and Uma Ramakrishnan.
The research team has designated two new genera, the Western Ghats short-wings as Sholicola (closely related to flycatchers) and the laughing thrushes as Montecincla (closely related to babblers). The newly described Sholicola.
Ashambuensis is confined to the Agasthyar Malai mountain ranges. The species in the Montecincla genera include Montecincla jerdoni, Montecincla cachinnans, Montecincla fairbanki and Montecincla meridionalis belongs to Montecincla genus. Sholicola major and Sholicola albiventris belongs to Sholicola genus.

Scientists of Pune based the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) are likely to unveil in December a computerised model that can forecast the impact of climate change on the Indian monsoon until 2100.
The computerised model is significant because it is the first time India will be submitting a home-grown assessment to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body convened by the United Nations and highly influential to policymakers and governments on the risks posed by climate change. A test version of the model is already available on websites of research groups affiliated to the IPCC.
The IPCC summarises projections from such models, developed by scientists from around the world, to report on the level of consensus, among scientists, of the extent to which specific pollutants and gases — from carbon dioxide to particulate matter — interfere with weather patterns and ocean temperatures.

Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based corruption watchdog has put India at rank 76 out of 168 countries in its latest Corruption Perception Index.
India’s 2015 corruption perception score remains the same as last year’s – 38/100 – showing lack of improvement. India shares its rank along with six other countries: Brazil, Burkina Faso, Thailand, Tunisia and Zambia. China fared worse than India and Brazil at rank 83 with a score of 37. TI has also noted that Pakistan is the only country among the SAARC countries, to have improved its score this year, though its rank remains poor at 117.
Major scandals such as the one in Brazil’s state oil giant Petrobras involving massive kick-backs have resulted in the country's rankings plunging sharply this year. Graft allegations surrounding Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has also been cited as an instance of why that country scored poorly at 50 over its last year’s score of 52.

The Yettinahole project envisages pumping about 24 tmc ft of water from Yettinahole, a tributary of River Netravathi. It involves construction of dams and reservoir, pumping of water, flowing of water with gravitational force and finally filling of lakes. As per the project, 24 tmc ft of water from Yettinahole and a couple of other tributaries of Netravathi River will be drawn by constructing minor dams.
The project envisages diverting the water to drought prone Chikkaballapur, Kolur, Tumkur and Bangalore rural districts. The Yettinahole Project has come in for very strong opposition from environmental groups.

The Indian Navy’s Annual Theatre Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX) is a month long exercise which has ships and aircraft of both the Western and Eastern Naval Commands, as also assets from the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard exercising together.
TROPEX 17 assumes special significance in the backdrop of the current security scenario. The exercise is aimed at testing combat readiness of the combined fleets of the Indian Navy, and the assets of the Indian Air Force, Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard. It will also strengthen inter-operability and joint operations in a complex environment.

DRDO successfully test fired the Guided PINAKA from Launch Complex-III, ITR, Chandipur on January 24, 2017 for further enhanced range. PINAKA Rocket Mark-II, equipped with navigation, guidance and control kit, is transformed to a Guided PINAKA. The conversion has facilitated to enhance the range and improve the accuracy of PINAKA. The Mission met all the objectives. The Radars, Electro Optical and Telemetry Systems at ITR Chandipur tracked and monitored the vehicle all through the flight path. The guided PINAKA is developed combinedly by ARDE Pune, RCI and DRDL, Hyderabad. ITR, Chandipur provided the range and launch support.  Its first successful test flight was conducted from the same venue on January 12, 2017.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval to ratify the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol on containing the emission of Green House Gases (GHGs). The second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 2012. So far, 75 countries have ratified the Second Commitment Period.
Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by India will encourage other developing countries also to undertake this exercise. Implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects under this commitment period in accordance with Sustainable Development priorities will attract some investments in India as well. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and the 1st commitment period was from 2008-2012. At Doha in 2012, the amendments to Kyoto Protocol for the 2nd commitment period (the Doha Amendment) were successfully adopted for the period 2013- 2020. Developed countries have already started implementing their commitments under the 'opt-in' provisions of the Doha Amendment.

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, 2017, under which the IIMs would be declared as Institutions of National Importance which will enable them to grant degrees to their students.
Following are the salient features of the Bill:
a. IIMs can grant degrees to their students
b. The Bill provides for complete autonomy to the Institutions, combined with adequate accountability.
c. Management of these Institutions would be Board driven, with the Chairperson and Director of an Institution which will be selected by the Board.
d. A greater participation of experts and alumni in the Board is amongst other important features of the Bill.
e. Provision has also been made for inclusion of women and members from Scheduled Castes/Tribes in the Board. 
f. The Bill also provides for periodic review of the performance of Institutions by independent agencies, and placing the results of the same on public domain.
g. The Annual Report of the Institutions will be placed in the Parliament and CAG will be auditing their accounts.
h. There is also a provision of Coordination Forum of IIMs as an advisory body

Ministry of Commerce & Industry launched Rubber Soil Information System (RubSIS), an online system for recommending application of appropriate mix of fertilizers to the specific plantations of rubber growers depending upon their soil nature. RubSIS, developed by Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) under the Rubber Board in collaboration with three agencies brings soil data to the fingerprints of rubber growers and recommends the optimum mix and quantities of chemical fertilizers that his holding requires.
It is a cost effective tool for sustainable &scientific management of rubber growing soils. Apart from preventing indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and soil degradation, adoption of RubSIS will lead to reduction in the cost of production of rubber, increase in productivity and reduction in environmental pollution. The scientific and user friendly online fertiliser recommendation system was launched for Kottayam (Kerela), the largest rubber growing district of India which will be extended to the entire traditional rubber growing region i.e. the states of Kerela and Tamilnadu.

The “Bharat Parv” event is being organized by the Government of India at the Red Fort, Delhi from 26th to 31st January 2017, as part of the Republic Day 2017 celebrations. The prime objective of organizing the event is to generate a patriotic mood, promote the rich cultural diversity of the country, to ensure wider participation of the general public and to popularise the idea of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’.
The Ministry of Tourism has been designated as the nodal Ministry for the event, the highlights of which include display of the Republic Day Parade Tableaux, Performances by the Armed Forces Bands (static and moving), a Multi-Cuisine Food Court, Crafts Mela, Cultural Performances from different regions of the country and a Photo Exhibition by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.

The Mahanadi is a major river in East Central India. It drains a large area of around 141,600 square kilometres. The word Mahanadi literally comes from two odia words 'maha' and nadi' meaning 'The Great River'. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Its left bank tributaries are Seonath, Mand, Ib, Hasdeo and right bank tributaries are Ong, Jonk, Telen respectively.

The Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana 2017 will be implemented through Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) during the current financial year to  provide social security during old age and protect elderly persons aged 60 years and above against a future fall in their interest income due to uncertain market conditions.
The scheme will provide an assured pension based on a guaranteed rate of return of 8% per annum for ten years, with an option to opt for pension on a monthly/quarterly/half yearly and annual basis. The differential return, i.e., the difference between the return generated by LIC and the assured return of 8% per annum would be borne by Government of India as subsidy on an annual basis.

Jallikattu is a traditional festival activity in which a Bos indicus bull, commonly of the Kangayam breed, is released and multiple human participants attempt to grab the large hump of the bull to tame it. Participants hold the hump for as long as possible, attempting to bring the bull to a stop. In some cases, participants must ride long enough to remove flags on the bull's horns.
Jallikattu is typically practiced in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu as a part of Pongal celebrations on Mattu Pongal day. Jallikattu has been known to be practiced during the Tamil classical period (400-100 BC).
Later, it became a platform for display of bravery and prize money was introduced for participation encouragement. Bos indicus bulls are bred specifically by people of the village for the event. Bulls that are able to participate successfully in the Jallikattu event are used as studs for breeding. 

The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is an international organisation consisting of the coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean. It is based on the principles of open regionalism for strengthening economic cooperation particularly on trade facilitation and investment, promotion as well as social development of the region.
The Association comprises 21 member states and 7 dialogue partners, the Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation and the Indian Ocean Research Group has observer status.