Hamesha Vijayee Exercise Held in Rajasthan

• The Indian Army’s Southern Command had conducted exercise ‘Hamesha Vijayee‘ in the deserts of Rajasthan to evaluate the capability of the armed forces to strike deep into the enemy territory in an integrated air-land battle.
• The military exercise is being carried in the general area of Barmer and Jaisalmer and aimed at fine-tuning surveillance and destruction mechanisms to support precision strikes and manoeuvres by network-enabled forces.

India-Switzerland Deal Inked for Information Exchange

• In a move aimed at combating black money stashed abroad, India signed an agreement with Switzerland that would allow automatic sharing of tax-related information from January 1, 2017.
• The agreement was signed by CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra and Swiss Ambassador to India Andreas Baum at the North Block.

Cabinet Approves “Scheme for Capacity Building in Textiles Sector”

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for a new skill development scheme covering the entire value chain of the textile sector excluding Spinning & Weaving in organized Sector, titled “Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS)” from 2017-18 to 2019-20 with an outlay of Rs. 1300 crore.
• The scheme will have National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) compliant training courses.
• The objectives of the scheme are to provide demand-driven, placement oriented skilling program to incentivize the efforts of the industry in creating jobs in the organized textile and related sectors.

DARPAN Project Launched For Financial Inclusion of Rural Population

• The Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha launched DARPAN- “Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India” Project to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve ‘financial inclusion’ of the unbanked rural population.
• The goal of the IT modernization project with an outlay of Rs. 1400 Crore is to provide a low power technology solution to each Branch Postmaster (BPM) which will enable each of approximately 1.29 Lakhs Branch Post Offices (BOs) to improve the level of services being offered to rural customers across all the states.

Justice UD Salvi Appointed Officiating Chief of National Green Tribunal

• The union government appointed Justice U D Salvi as officiating chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) following the superannuation of Justice Swatanter Kumar.
• He will remain in the saddle until his retirement on February 13, 2018.
• The selection panel is headed by the Chief Justice of India or his nominee, with other members recommended by or from the Environment Ministry.