04.08.

2015
Government signs historic peace accord with North East militant outfit
NSCN (IM)

With an aim of ending Indias longest running insurgency that caps almost
two decades of peace talks government on Monday signed a historic peace
accord with a leading Naga group National Socialist Council of Nagaland
(Isak-Muivah)

The peace accord was signed in the presence of the Prime Minister, Home
Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval by the outfit's
leader T Muivah and government's interlocutor R N Ravi

National Socialist Council of Nagaland

The NSCN was formed by Isak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and SS
Khaplang in early 1980 opposing the Shillong Accord signed by the
then Naga National Council with the Indian government.

The objective of the group was to establish a sovereign nation called

Nagalim through insurgency. The NSCN and Indian government agreed to
hold talks and declared ceasefire on many occasions, but nothing concrete
came out of them.

In 1988, the NSCN split into two groups NSCN (Isak-Muivah) and NSCN
(Khaplang) over disagreements between the group's leaders on holding
peace talks with the Indian government.

The Khaplang group is held responsible for the deadly attack on a

convoy of 6 Dogra that left 20 soldiers dead. This led the Indian Army to
carry out cross-border raids inside Myanmar against the northeast insurgent
groups based there.

Dipa Karmakar bags bronze medal at Asian Gymnastics Championships

Ace Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar won the women's vault bronze medal at
the 6th Senior ART Gymnastics Asian Championships in Hiroshima.

Chinese Yan Wang defended her title with 14.988 points followed by Japanese
Sae Miyakawa with 14.812 points.

Dipa, who won a bronze in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow,

stood third at the podium with 14.725 points.

About Dipa Karmakar

Dipa Karmakar was born on 9 August 1993, Agartala she is an Indian artistic
gymnast who won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games,
becoming the first Indian woman Gymnast to do so in the history of
the games

In February, Karmakar competed in the 2011 National Games of India

representing Tripura. She won five golds in Floor, Vault, All Round,
Balance beam and Uneven Bars

IOC gives Olympic Sport recognition to Frisbee

International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recognised Flying disc sports, including
Ultimate Frisbee as Olympic Sport. It should be noted that Disc-based games are
played in 58 countries around the world by thousands of athletes.
The World Flying Disc Federation is the international governing body of all flying disc
sports. The World Flying Disc Federation includes 62 member associations and
spans 58 countries.World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) governs several disc-based
activities, including Ultimate Frisbee, Disc Golf and Freestyle. Unlike the majority of
other team sports, it is does not have a referee and instead relies on
"sportsmanship and fair play"
HDFC Bank ties up with Snapdeal for co-branded credit card
Indias second largest private sector lender, HDFC Bank and e-commerce
company Snapdeal have jointly launched co-branded credit card.

The card is aimed at getting Snapdeal's customers, 70 per cent of whom are
from smaller cities and towns, to make online payments instead of availing
the cash on delivery option

A customer can apply for the card from Snapdeal's website, mobile
site or mobile application. The applicant's credit eligibility will be checked
instantly. For faster processing of application, the eligibility & CIBIL checks will
be conducted while customer is filling the application form.

The card is aimed to encourage Snapdeals customers from tier 2 and 3

markets to adapt to digital payments

HDFC Bank is currently the leading issuer of credit cards in the country
with over 6 million cards in circulation according to the latest data by the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Sjostrom breaks womens 100m butterfly record

Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom broke the women's 100m butterfly world record in
the semi-finals of the world swimming championships

Sjostroms time of 55.64 seconds broke her previous mark of 55.74, which
she set in the semi-finals on Sunday.

Tenure of ED Chief Rajan S Katoch extended for third time

The tenure of senior IAS officer Rajan S Katoch as the chief of the
Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been extended by another three-months as
the . This is the third extension being given to the 1979-batch IAS officer in
the post.

An order issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC),

headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the government has "approved
continuation" of the additional charge of Katoch in ED for three more months
beyond July 31, which is till October 31.

Katoch is handling the ED charge in an additional capacity since August 2014

after he was promoted and appointed Heavy Industries Secretary. Upon his
elevation, he was asked to hold the ED Director's charge till January 2015
after which he was given an extension to continue on the post till April 30.

Rajan S Katoch is an IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, Katoch has been
heading ED, under the Finance Ministry, for about three-and-a-half years now
after he was first appointed in March 2012.

The ED Chief's post is an Additional Secretary-rank position in the Union

government

About Enforcement Directorate

The Directorate General of Economic Enforcement is a law enforcement

agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic
laws and fighting economic crime in India

It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance. It comprises

officers of the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Police Service and the Indian
Administrative Service

Establishment :- It was established on the 1st day of June, 2000 by the Central
Govt. of India to investigate provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act,
1999
Objective:- The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement
of two key Acts of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange
Management Act 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002
(PMLA)
Spices Board launches subsidy scheme to boost production

The Spices Board has launched certain crucial measures to support farmers
by offering various subsidies and sensitise them on the need to enhance the
quality of spices through post-harvest improvement techniques, as a part of
boosting spices production in the country.

Spices Board will also provide financial assistance to farmers for irrigation,
land development, mechanisation, replanting, soil conservation and organic
farming of various spices. It will also give financial aid to purchase irrigation
and farming equipment and tools.

The initiatives are part of the Boards 12th Plan to improve export-oriented
production of small cardamom and post-harvest improvement of other spices
across spice-growing regions in the country

The eligibility criteria for availing the benefits are based on land held by the
grower and is different for each programme

Under the schemes, small cardamom cultivators in Kerala and Tamil Nadu will
get up to Rs 70,000 for replanting, while farmers in Karnataka will receive up
to Rs 50,000. They will also receive an aid for planting material production.
Keralas Idukki district is having the largest cardamom plantations across the
country and produces about 6,000 tonnes annually

Board will provide financial assistance up to 25 per cent of the actual cost for
acquiring pump sets, sprinkler sets, equipment for gravity-fed irrigation
system, and up to 50 per cent for water storage structure to support
irrigation and land development.

Farmers would be given a subsidy of Rs.1 lakh for purchasing improved

cardamom curing devices and 50 per cent subsidy for GAP (Good Agricultural
Practices) kits and bee-keeping boxes.

Department of Telecommunication bans 857 porn websites on grounds of

decency and morality

Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has released the document that lists 857
adult websites that were ordered to be blocked by the Department of
Telecommunication (DOT).

Since Saturday, Indians have been unable to access more than 800 websites,
as the government of India has banned access to at least 857 websites it
considers pornographic in a bid to protect social decency. The order was
directed to the internet service providers (ISPs) citing that they violate
morality and decency of Article 19 (2) of the Constitution and Section 79(3)
(b) of the IT Act

The ban has provoked a furious debate online about extreme and
unwarranted moral policing by the government.The sites that are banned
include some of the world's biggest porn sites like Pornhub and Xvideos. A

copy of the government's order, which has been marked as 'restricted', has
been leaked by the Centre of Internet Studies
Only 8.15% of Indians are graduates, Census data show

The office of the Census Commissioner and Registrar-General of India

released new numbers on the level of education achieved by Indians as of
2011. They show that with 6.8 crore graduates and above, India still has more
than six times as many illiterates.

Although there has been big increase in college attendance, especially

among women, but even tha fewer than one out of every 10 Indians is a
graduate, new Census data show.

While rural India accounts for only a third of all graduates, the rate of
increase in graduates was faster in rural than in urban India over the last
decade, and fastest of all among rural women.

From 26 lakh graduates 10 years ago, nearly 67 lakh rural women are now
graduates. Rural Indians are more likely to have non-technical graduate
degrees than urban Indians, while urban India accounts for 80 per cent of all
Indian technology and medicine graduates.