The Daily Brief – 9th March 2019

India and Russia have signed an agreement for the leasing of a nuclear-powered attack submarine for the Indian Navy for a period of 10 years. Russia will be leasing the Akula class submarine, to be known as Chakra III, to the Indian Navy by 2025 at the cost of USD 3 billion. Chakra III will be powered with 190 mW nuclear reactor.

PM inaugurated Nagpur metro. With this, Nagpur has become the second city of the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai to get a Metro Rail. The Nagpur Metro consists of two corridors with a total length of 38 kilometres. To emphasise on Women Safety and empowerment each train will comprise of a special “Nari Shakti” women’s coach. Nagpur Metro is also hailed as the green Metro since 65% of its electricity consumption from solar energy.

The government of Uttarakhand has launched the Mukhyamantri Anchal Amrit Yojana to provide 100 ml milk twice a week for 2.5 lakh children at 20,000 Anganwadi Centres in the state. The scheme will come handy in tackling the malnutrition and building of fit and healthy children by providing them with a balanced diet as there are about 18,000 children suffering from malnutrition in Uttarakhand.

The government has increased the tax-free gratuity income limit to Rs 20 lakh. This move will benefit the public as well as private sector employees. The Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 makes it mandatory for the employers to pay their employees gratuity at the time of quitting, provided certain conditions were met. An organisation comes under the purview of the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 if it has 10 or more employees on any single day in the preceding 12 month.

International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8th March every year to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities. It celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The theme for this year was “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change” The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day in the International Women’s Year, 1975.

Monster Salary Index Report, prepared by Monster India in collaboration with Paycheck.in (managed by WageIndicator Foundation) with IIM-Ahmedabad as a research partner has been released.as per it, the gender pay gap is still high in India and women in the country earn 19 per cent less than men. The survey reports that the gap has narrowed only by one per cent in 2018 from 20 per cent in 2017.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 7, 2019 released the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle (1857-1947) at an event in Lok Kalyan Marg, New Delhi. This five-volume dictionary contains account of the martyrs from India’s First War of Independence in 1857, to India’s Independence in 1947. This is the first ever attempt by the Government to compile the names of martyrs on this scale.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has appointed Indian-American television personality and food expert Padma Lakshmi as its new Goodwill Ambassador, in support of its fight against inequality and discrimination around the world. Lakshmi has a strong record of speaking out for those who have been left behind and of fighting discrimination. Her first cookbook, Easy Exotic was awarded Best First Book at the 1999 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards at Versailles.