Supreme Court takes government to task over farmer suicides

• The Supreme Court expressed grave concern over farmers’ suicide due to indebtedness andcrop failure and said it felt the government was going in a “wrong direction” in tackling the real problem.
• Chief Justice J.S. Khehar said the issue of farmers’ suicide was of “extreme importance” and paying compensation to the families of such victims “post-facto” was not the real solution.
• “Farmers’ suicides have been happening for so many decades and it is surprising that no action has been taken to address the causes behind suicides.”
• The Bench, also comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and S.K. Kaul, said “if the matter is moved on a right track, a lot can be achieved” andfixed the plea for further hearing on March 27.

Election Commission rejects AIADMK reply on Sasikala’s elevation

• The Election Commission rejected on Friday the response of Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK party on the elevation of VK Sasikala as its general secretary, saying TTV Dinakaran, who signed the letter, was not in its list of the party’s office-bearers.
• Sasikala is at present lodged in a Bengaluru jail.
• The AIADMK had defended the decision to appoint Sasikala as its interim general secretary, saying the general council of the party has the authority to make such an appointment.

India signs Financing Agreement with World Bank for US$ 63 Million for Tejaswini: Socio-Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Project

• Financing Agreement for IDA credit of US$ 63 million (equivalent) for the “Tejaswini” Socio-Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Project” was signed with the World Bank on 23rd February, 2017.
• The Financing Agreement was signed by Mr. Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World
  Bank (India) on behalf of the World Bank. A Project Agreement was also signed by Mr. Mukhmeet Singh Bhatia, Principal Secretary, Department of Women, Child Development, Government of Jharkhand and Mr. Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank.
• The project will be delivered in 17 Districts of Jharkhand.
• The project has three main components, (i) Expanding social, educational and economic opportunities (ii) Intensive service delivery (iii) State capacity-building and implementation support. About 680,000 adolescent girls and young women in the project Districts are expected to benefit from the program.

India & Ukraine to strengthen bilateral cooperation

• India and Ukraine have agreed to strengthen the bilateral cooperation between the two countries through the medium of Cinema. The cooperation would be worked out through a policy and institutional framework to showcase films through the medium of Film Festivals and utilizing the Film Facilitation Office platform established by India.

• The screening of films with subtitles was also discussed in order to reach out to people. These issues were discussed during the meeting between Shri M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Ukrainian delegation led by Mr. Iurii Artemenko, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine and Chairman of the National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine today in New Delhi.
• Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore and Secretary I&B were also present during the discussions.
• Mr. Iurii Artemenko, said that Ukraine Government were taking efforts to organise an Indian Film Festival in Ukraine to promote Cultural ties between the two countries through the medium of Cinema.
• He extended a personal invitation to I&B Minister for the Film Festival to be organised in the near future. He also expressed interest for showcasing programmes based on Indian weddings, Touristic places such as Rajasthan and different Indian Cuisines.

Tata Docomo truce may aid Japan firm invest $790 million

• India’s Tata Sons will split a dispute settlement payment of $1.18 billion owed to NTT DoCoMo over the Japanese firm’s exit from a telecoms joint venture, leaving it with about two-thirds of the amount to invest in India
• Tata Sons will pay the fair value of DoCoMo’s 26% stake outside India, or roughly $390 million according to Reuters calculations, the Japanese company would need to invest the balance of $790 million in India, either for expansion or other joint ventures, the source added.
• Tata Teleservices, a unit of salt-to- software conglomerate Tata Sons, and DoCoMo formed a telecoms partnership in 2009.

Dubai Tennis Championships: Rohan Bopanna, Marcin Matkowski reach final

• India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Polish partner Marc in Matkowski reached the men’s doubles finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships after beating Leander Paes and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in three sets.
• The unseeded Indo-Polish pair knocked out the Indo-Spanish combination 6-3 3-6 10-6 in the semi-finals of the USD 2,617,160 hard court tournament.
• In the final, Bopanna and Matkowski will clash with the winner of the second semifinal between top seeded duo of Henri Kontinen and John Peers, and fourth seeds Rojer Jean-Julien and Tecau Horia.
• There is no Indian competing in the singles. Prajnesh Gunneswaran had lost in the first round of the Qualifying event, suffering a 2-6 2-6 defeat against Romania’s 124th ranked Marius Copil.