1. FOREX RESERVES REACH $386.53 BILLION
- India’s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves have increased to touch a record high of $386.539 billion in the week that ended 30th June 2017.
- The components of India’s Foreign Exchange Reserves include Foreign currency assets (FCAs), Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), Gold and RBI’s Reserve position with International Monetary Fund (IMF).
FOREIGN CURRENCY ASSETS
- FCAs forms major part of the overall reserves.
- It consists of US dollar and other major non-US global currencies.
- It also comprises of investments in US Treasury bonds, bonds of other selected governments, deposits with foreign central and commercial banks.
- FCAs also include with them the effects of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies like the euro, pound, and yen and is expressed in terms of dollars.
2.DIGITAL INITIATIVES TO PUSH e-EDUCATION
- Launched on Guru Purnima.
- They are Swayam, Swayam Prabha, National Academic Depository and National Digital Library.
- 1. Swayam: It an indigenously designed massive open online course (MOOC), It will host all the courses, taught in classrooms from 9th class till post-graduation.
- 2. Swayam Prabha: It will provide high quality educational contents, developed by experts, through 32 DTH (direct to home) Television Channels.
- 3. National Academic Depository: It is a digital depository of academic awards for authenticating all certificates issued by institutions.
- 4. National Digital Library: It is a large online library containing 6.5 million books.
3.INDIA’s FIRST WORLD HERITAGE CITY
- The Walled City of Ahmedabad has been declared World Heritage City by the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO.
- It will be third city from the Indian subcontinent to have this status along with Bhaktapur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka.
- The committee also added Asmara (capital of Eritrea), Hebron-Al Khalil Old Town (Palestine) and W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (Benin, Burkina Faso) to the list.
- The Walled City of Ahmedabad was founded by Sultan Ahmed Shah I of Gujarat Sultanate in in 1411.
4.MERGER OF MINISTRIES OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT,HOUSING AND URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION
- The Union Government has merged the Ministries of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation to form the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
- With this merger, the Union Government now has 51 ministries.
- The first government in independent India had just 17 ministries.