FACTS FOR PRELIMS :
ECONOMICS :
FACT 1: GDP INDIA : Accelerating growth and employment over the next six months would be the top priority of the recently reconstituted Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC- 5 members- chairman Bibek Debroy) Priority area of the council : The priority areas include economic growth, employment and job creation, informal sector and integration, fiscal framework, monetary policy, public expenditure, institutions of economic governance, agriculture and animal husbandry, patterns of consumption and production, and the social sector.
FACT 2: INDIA'S GDP A WORLD'S FORECAST : India’s GDP may slow from 8.6 per cent in 2015 to 7.0 per cent in 2017 because of disruptions by demoneti-sation and the Goods and Services Tax, the World Bank has forecast The International Monetary Fund too had lowered India’s growth projection to 6.7 per cent in 2017, 0.5 percentage points less than its earlier forecast.
ENVIRONMENT : GANGA CLEANING : The Ganga won’t be clean before March 2019, Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari said- deviating from predecessor, Uma Bharati, who had stated during her tenure as Water Minister that the river would be clean by 2018
BIG PLAYERS : Essel Infra Projects, owned by businessman and BJP MP, Subhash Chandra, and HNB Engineers Pvt Ltd, have bagged the first projects under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), worth Rs. 324 crore.
LAW : CHILD MARRIAGE AND RAPE ! SC - sexual intercourse by a man with his minor wife, aged below 18, with or without her consent, amounts to rape will have an immediate effect by legal experts .
Result : Those who are already in a child marriage will be forced to live separately till the girl turns 18.
Achievements / awards : 22- year-old Rudrali Patil, called by British High Commission to serve as its commissioner to India for a day.
Why ? The student was chosen after she won a video-making competition on girls’ rights conducted by the Commission.
Space : Possible source of sand on Mars spotted Source : NASA’s Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter has beamed back an image showing one possible place where sand grains are being produced on the red planet .
