The Daily Brief – 12th July 2018

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Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Gujarat Government’s Industries and Mines Department and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) to strengthen trade, industrial relations. KOTRA is national trade and investment promotion organisation operated by South Korea Government. Under this MoU, both Industries Department of Gujarat and KOTRA will assist each other to provide in-market support. Gujarat’s export to South Korea was around $1 Billion in 2017-18, which is approximately 25% of India’s total export to South Korea.
The Indian Railways has introduced a commercial service to run double-stack dwarf containers on trains to capture the lost traffic through a new delivery model for domestic cargo. The introduction of the double stacked dwarf container service has helped the Indian Railways receive increased revenue worth Rs 18.50 lakh. It will also help significantly reduce the cost, as rail transport is cheaper than road. The double- stack dwarf container trains would be able to generate more than 50 per cent of the revenue at the general freight rate. The freight train with the dwarf containers was flagged off for its maiden commercial run on July 7 from Western Railway’s Rajkot railway station.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched national campaign “The Eat Right Movement” to improve public health and combat lifestyle diseases. FSSAI also launched Eat Right tool kit and Safe and Nutritious Food at Workplace campaign. It is voluntary and collaborative movement built on two broad pillars – “Eat Healthy and Eat Safe”. It is collective effort to encourage people towards making right food and dietary choices. FSSAI is a nodal statutory agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health in India through regulation and supervision of food safety established under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
The government released the latest ranking of states and UTs under the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP), 2017. Andhra Pradesh has topped the third edition of the government’s “Ease of Doing Business” Index 2018 with a final score of 98.42 percent, for the second year in a row. Andhra Pradesh was followed by neighbouring Telangana(98.33 percent score) and Haryana (98.07 percent score) at the second and third position, respectively. The index was jointly prepared by the World Bank and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). The index data was collected on an online dashboard maintained by the DIPP.
The India-Korea Technology Exchange Centre was inaugurated by Minister of State (I/C) MSME Giriraj Singh and Minister of SMEs and Start-ups of South Korea, Hong Jong- hak at National Small Industries Corporation premises in New Delhi. The centre will work towards identifying Indian technologies which can be exported to Korea and find suitable Korean partners for the same. It will also create Technology Data Bank from each side to encourage technology transfers, production of high quality products in India.
The Rajya Sabha on July 10, 2018, for the first time in 76 years since it came into being, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Senate of Rwanda for promoting inter-parliamentary dialogue. Venkaiah Naidu, vice-president and Rajya Sabha chairman, became the first Chairman of Rajya Sabha to sign such MoU with the visiting President of the Senate of Rwanda Bernard Makuza. The MoU with 6 articles of cooperation seeks to promote Inter-Parliamentary dialogue, capacity building of parliamentary staff, organisation of conferences, forums, seminars, staff attachment programmes, workshops and exchanges.
In recently released Global Innovation Index (GII) 2018, India was ranked 57th among 130 countries whereas Switzerland topped the list. It was 11th edition of GII and was jointly released by Cornell University, INSEAD and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). This year, India has moved up 3 places as compared to 60th rank in GII 2017 and emerged as top-ranked economy in Central and South Asia.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has adopted Resolution 2427 aimed at providing legal framework for mainstreaming protection, rights, well-being and empowerment of children throughout the conflict cycle. The resolution has won unanimous approval of the 15 members of the council. The resolution strongly condemns recruitment and use of children in armed conflicts as well as their re-recruitment, killing and rape, maiming and other forms of sexual violence and abductions.