-Law Commission headed by Justice A.P. Shah has recommended independent candidates should be debarred from elections.
- Commission submitted its 255th issue of electoral reforms.
- Paid news should also be made an electoral offence leading to disqualification.
- Changes will also be made to rules governing election funding, as per the Law Commission.
Proposing for amendment in 10th schedule of Constitution to empower President and Governor instead of Speaker to disqualify an MP or MLA in case of defection.
Other recommendations
Restrict a candidate from contesting from more than one constituency
Making the appointment of the CEC and the two ECs through a collegium
Drop the idea of compulsory voting
Regulate and restrict govt-sponsored advertisements six months prior to the date of expiry of the House.
-Union Government has indicated PSU banks should step up lending to minorities to ensure that they get loans in proportion to the population.
-Decision for increasing lending to minorities was taken by Minority Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram at a recent meeting with bankers.
-It has been decided to increase percentage share of leading to each minority in relation to their concerned share in the minority population.
Leading start-up investor Rocket Internet has acquired 52% stake in Foodpanda through a INR 688 crore funding round in the online food ordering site.
India has signed 4 agreements with Indian Ocean nation Seychelles for boosting maritime collaboration and security.
According to Chinese scientists, a green material taken from natural silk can boost the performance of lithium ion batteries employed in electric cars and portable gadgets.
Search engine company Google has introduced cloud storage services for users to store and retain “cold data” accessing it faster than run of the mill services
- Google Cloud Storage Nearline enables users to access stored data in close to 3 seconds and charge them 1 cent per gigabyte of data at rest
Alibaba Group has invested USD 200 million in photo messaging application Snapchat,
- The Silicon Valley deal is the latest in the move by the Chinese e-commerce business to built up mobile services
India has offered a USD 500 million line of credit which is concessional to Mauritius for basic infrastructure projects
- The two nations also signed 5 pacts including on ocean economy during the Indian PM’s visit to the strategic Indian Ocean nation
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has unearthed clues that there is hot water on Enceladus, the moon of Saturn
- This gives the clue about current hydrothermal activity which resembles deep oceans across the Earth and provides conditions for life to evolve
Senior sports journalist K. Baskaran died following a brief illness at the age of 80.
- He is survived by his wife, son and three daughters
- He had worked for the Free Press Journal, Newsday, Indian Express and TOI
To bring more transparency for clearance process for forests, environment and wildlife, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change/MoEFCC is launching a portal for online submission and monitoring of environment, forests and wildlife clearance, integrating wildlife along with forest and environment
Mahindra Two Wheelers has signed a partnership with mobile commerce Paytm for the online retail sale of Mahindra Centuro motorcycles and Mahindra Rodeo UZO scooters range
Government of India today appointed nine Executive Directors in Public Sector Banks. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointments.
The appointment of nine Executive Directors in 9 Public Sector Banks are as follows:
| 1. Mr Charan Singh | New Executive Director of UCO Bank |
| 2. Mr K.Venkata Rama Moorthy | New Executive Director of Bank of Baroda. |
| 3. Mr R.P.Marathe | New Executive Director of Bank of India |
| 4. Mr Harideesh Kumar B | New Executive Director of Canara Bank. |
| 5. Mr N.K.Sahoo | New Executive Director of Allahabad Bank |
| 6. Mr Pawan Kumar Bajaj | New Executive Director of Indian Overseas Bank. |
| 7. Mr Ravi Shankar Pandey | New Executive Director of Syndicate Bank |
| 8. Mr Kishore Piraji Kharat | New Executive Director of Union Bank of India. |
| 9. Mr R.C.Lodha | New Executive Director of Central Bank of India. |
Source: PIB,The HIndu, The Financial Express