 Union Ministry of Culture launched Seva Bhoj Yojna, a new scheme to provide financial assistance on purchase of specific food items by Charitable Religious Institutions (CRIs) for free distribution among people. Under this scheme, Centre’s share of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and Interstate GST charged on raw food materials purchased by the religious institutions will be refunded. |
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| Beneficiaries: Religious and charitable institutions such as temples, gurudwara, mosque, church, dharmik ashram, dargah, matth, monasteries etc. having existence for at least five years and serve free food to at least 5000 people in month. Grant will be given to such institutions if they are covered under Section 10 (23BBA) of Income Tax (IT) Act or are institutions registered as Society under Societies Registration Act (XXI of 1860) or as Public Trust under any law for time being in force of statuary religious bodies or institutions registered under Section 12AA of IT Act |
| Selection: All eligible religious and charitable institutions first must registered with Darpan portal of NITI Aayog and get Unique ID generated by it. Thereafter, they shall enroll themselves in CSMS Portal on the Ministry of Culture’s website in prescribed format. The applications will be examined by committee constituted for purpose. On basis of recommendation of committee, competent authority in Ministry of Culture will register these institutions for reimbursing claim of CGST and Central Government share of IGST paid on mentioned specific items. |
 Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu attended the 6th East Asia Summit- Economic Ministers’ Meeting (EAS-EMM) and 15th India-ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Meeting (AEM) in Singapore. Singapore is currently holding the Chair of ASEAN. The 6th East-Asia Economic Ministers’ Meeting was chaired by Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Trade and Industry, Singapore, and was attended by Economic Ministers from 10 ASEAN countries and their eight dialogue partners, Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the Russian Federation and the United States of America. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 National Health Agency (NHA) under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the apex body for the implementation of Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), and Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme under the Digital India Programme, have signed an MoU to provide information and eligibility validation services to beneficiaries, especially in remote areas. J P Nadda, Minister of Health and Family Welfare and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Law and Justice & Information Technology presided over the MoU signing ceremony. As the benefits under AB-NHPM are based on entitlement and not on enrolment, over 3 lakh CSCs spread across the rural India can become the key point of information for potential beneficiaries and help in validating their entitlement. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) and Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC) have signed pact for making mining equipment. The MoU will result into additional Rs 150-200 crore revenue for both PSUs. It will reduce working capital and create capability for high capacity equipment. The mining products could be co-branded and will come under ‘Make in India’ initiative. Coal India is a major client for this mining equipment. |
| Source- The Moneycontrol |
 Government has approved 122 new research projects of 112 crore rupees under its Impacting Research Innovation and Technology ‘IMPRINT-2’ scheme. The initiative aims to advance research in energy, security and healthcare domains in the high education institutions. According to Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, out of over two thousand proposals, 122 best proposals were selected for funding under IMPRINT-2. |
| Source- DD News |
 Gopalkrishna Gandhi has been chosen for the 24th Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for his contribution in promoting communal harmony, peace and goodwill. Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former governor of West Bengal. He will be presented with this award at an event on 20th August 2018 at Jawahar Bhawan in Delhi. The award contains a citation and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh. The award is presented on the birthday anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. |
| Source- The Hindu |
 In 3rd Bi-monthly Policy Statement, the Reserve bank of India’s (RBI’s) monetary policy committee (MPC) raised policy rates by 25 basis points to 6.5% on account of inflationary pressures arising due to hike in minimum support price. The committee has increased the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 25 basis points to 6.5%. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands adjusted to 6.25%, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.75%. RBI also raised the average inflation projection for the second half of the year to 4.8% from 4.7% in June. The central bank expects inflation to edge higher to 5% in the first quarter of next fiscal year. The policy statement also cited the implementation of minimum support price hike as the primary factor stoking inflation this year. The government has fixed the MSP at 150% of the cost of production of all kharif crops. |
| Source- The RBI |
 Dustin Johnson won the 2018 RBC Canadian Open at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville in Canada.Dustin Johnson shot a 6-under par 66 and won his first RBC Canadian Open at 23-under par. He is currently in world number one position. Now he has become the first player after Tiger Woods (2005-09) with at least three wins in three consecutive seasons. Dustin Johnson was awarded $1,116,000 for the win. |
| Source- BBC Sports |
 Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won a gold medal in the Savo Games in Lapinlahti, Finland. Neeraj Chopra made a throw of 85.69 metres and won the gold medal. Chao-Tsun Cheng of Chinese Taipei made a throw of 82.52m and won a silver medal. Chao-Tsun Cheng is the only Asian to have thrown the javelin to a distance more than 90m. |
| Source- ESPN Sports |
 India has jumped 22 places to 96th rank to break into the top 100 of the United Nation’s E-Government Development Index (EGDI) 2018. Denmark, with an index value of 0.9150, topped the 2018 E-Government Development Survey. The E-Government survey is released by the United Nations in every two years. The 2018 edition was titled as 'Gearing E-Government to Support Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies'. |
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India, which was ranked 118 in 2014, jumped 11 places to be ranked 96 in 2018. The EGDI is a composite index based on the weighted average of three normalised indices:
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| The Top 6 Countries in the list along with the Score are: |
| S.No. | Country | Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Denmark | 0.9150 |
| 2. | Australia | 0.9053 |
| 3. | Republic of Korea | 0.9010 |
| 4. | The United Kingdom | 0.8999 |
| 5. | Sweden | 0.8882 |
| 6. | Finland | 0.8815 |
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