Pakistan and Bangladesh happier than India: UN report
(i) Former Union Minister G.K. Vasan was on Friday formally elected as the chief of Tamil Maanila Congress at the party’s first general council meeting here.
(i) Maharashtra government is planning to formulate a separate law for the state on the lines of the Centre’s Motor Vehicles Act, which will allow it to take action against those who flout transport rules.
(i) Indians are less happy than their counterparts in Pakistan and Bangladesh, according to a report published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which is a global initiative for the United Nations.
(ii) India comes in at the 117th spot out of 158 countries in the 2015 World Happiness Report. The report takes into account GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.
(iii) India’s rank dropped six notches from the 2013 report, when it was on the 111th spot.
Pakistan is ranked 81 and Bangladesh, 109. Places like Ukraine (111), Palestine (108) and Iraq (112) too come up higher than India on the index.
(iv) Switzerland has been named the happiest country in the world. The other countries in the top five are Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada.
Govt allows investing 5% of EPFO corpus in stock markets
(i) Government has allowed retirement fund body EPFO to invest 5 per cent of its corpus in exchange traded funds which will result into an inflow of around Rs. 5,000 crore into the stock markets during this fiscal.
(ii) “We will invest 5 per cent of the investible funds of EPFO into the ETF. The new investment pattern has been notified about two-three days ago,” Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal told reporters here.
(iii) The Ministry will bring two notifications. One for the unexempted firm which are managed by the EPFO and another for exempted firms which run their PF trusts for managing their workers funds and PF accounts.”
(iv) He added: “As per the new investment norms notified for exempted firms, they can invest minimum of 5 per cent into equity and equity-related instruments which can be up to 15 per cent of their corpus.”
Vasan elected chief of Tamil Maanila Congress
(ii) Mr. Vasan, who had quit the Congress in November last year along with his supporters, was unanimously elected as party president at the meeting in which TMC functionaries from across the state participated.
(iii) A demand seeking total prohibition of liquor in Tamil Nadu was among the 23 resolutions adopted at the meet.
KCR re-elected TRS chief unopposed
(i) Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who is also the president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), was formally elected as the party chief again on Friday at the party's plenary that began here on Friday.
(ii) Party electoral Returning Officer Nayini Narsimha Reddy, who is also the Home Minister, announced Mr. Rao's election amidst bursting of crackers.
Sunitha Krishnan to get Yudhvir Foundation award
(i) Sunitha Krishnan, co-founder of anti-trafficking organisation `Prajwala' has been named the recipient of the 24th Yudhvir Foundation Memorial Award.
(ii) Ms. Sunitha gets the award for her extraordinary achievement in the rescue, restoration and rehabilitation of victims of trafficking and her exemplary care and support of persons with HIV.
(iii) She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards including Stree Shakti Award by Centre in 2003, Perdita Houston International Human Rights Award by United Nation (2006) and Outstanding Woman Award by National Commission for Women, India (2013).
(iv) She is member of Andhra Pradesh State Women’s Commission and honorary Director, Social Justice Department, Kerala Government for Nirbhaya State Policy, which she drafted in 2011 to combat trafficking.
(v) The Yudhvir Foundation was established in 1991 to further the work of late Yudhvir, who started Daily Hindi Milap in 1949 in Urdu and in Hindi in 1966.
(vi) The ambition of the Foundation is to honour those, who contribute to national integration, social service and those whose endeavours, in any field have triumphed in the face of adversity.
Vellore ranks second in family planning
(i) The numbers says it all. Efforts to promote family planning are paying off, with Vellore district improving its achievements in performing sterilisation procedures.
(ii) The district has been doing well in family planning activities. A total of 21,203 persons underwent sterilisation in the district during 2012-2013 taking it to the third rank in the State with Kanyakumari and Ariyalur districts in the first and second places respectively.
(iii) It bettered its performance during 2013-2014 bagging the second rank in the State with 22,381 cases. Kancheepuram came first, while Nagapattinam stood third, K.G. Srithar, deputy director, medical services and family welfare, Vellore said.
National Institute of Electronics signs pact with Snapdeal
(i) National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), on Thursday, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with e-commerce giant Snapdeal to roll out digital marketing courses, aimed at helping small and medium business and artisans wanting to take the online route to become entrepreneurs.
(ii) The digital marketing courses will help the trainees understand the fundamentals of digital marketing and effectively utilise the online sales channel.
(iii) As a knowledge partner, Snapdeal will provide inputs on the course and will facilitate industry interactions for the participants.
(iv) We want to create one million successful online entrepreneurs in India because in the success of these small businesses lies our success,” Snapdeal Co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said.
(v) To begin with, the course will be launched in six centres — Srinagar, New Delhi, Aurangabad, Kolkata, Calicut and Chennai.
Maharashtra govt plans to formulate own Transport Act
(ii) If Maharashtra succeeds in enacting such a law, it would become the first state in the country to have its own Transport Act.
(iii) The law will give powers to the state government to take action against school buses ferrying more than the stipulated number of children at a time, and trucks carrying excessive load of goods.
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