KNOWLEDGE SIR

With SA President Cyril Ramaphosa's presence at Republic Day, India consolidates ties with African continent KNOWLEDGE SIR    India invites SA prez Cyril Ramaphosa on 70th Republic Day  First lady of SA Tshepo Motsepe, President of SA Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian President Ramnath Kovind, first lady Savita Kovind and Narendra Modi The visit of South African President  Cyril Ramaphosa's  comes even as New Delhi tries to increase engagement with the continent where China has made rapid strides.   Ramaphosa, along with his wife and First lady of SA, Tshepo Motsepe, arrived in New Delhi on January 25.  It's the 11th time an African leader has been called at  India's Republic Day since 1950. In 1971, India invited the then President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere as the chief guest. He was the first African leader to be at present during India's Republic Day.  Before 2019, it was in 2002 when India invited an African leader...

Noida-Greater Noida Metro: UP CM Yogi Adityanath inaugurates Aqua line metro, to open for public from tomorrow KNOWLEDGE SIR The much-awaited metro rail linking the twin-cities of Noida and Greater Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar was inaugurated on Friday by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The rail corridor, also known as the Aqua Line, would run between Sector 71 station in Noida and the Depot Station in Greater Noida. There are a total of 21 stations on the corridor - 15 of them in Noida and six in Greater Noida -- spread over a distance of 29.7 km. "Today we dedicate the Noida Greater Noida metro rail to the people of the region. The Aqua Line, which has been completed in record time, will provide better connectivity to the region and prove to a milestone in development of the region," Adityanath said. Senior officials of the Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) said that with its inauguration, the rail service would begin for citizens on Satu...

Piyush Goyal asks taxmen to refrain from being overzealous, urges businesses to pay ethically KNOWLEDGE SIR Finance Minister Piyush Goyal Friday asked tax officers to refrain from being overzealous in tax administration, while appealing the industry to conduct business ethically.Addressing the Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC) officers on the occasion of International Customs Day, Goyal asked the tax officers to consider crowdsourcing of feedback from stakeholders as to what more could be done towards adopting a taxpayer friendly approach by the department. Goyal, who was earlier this week given the additional charge of Finance Ministry, asked the taxmen to trust the customers with a great degree of intelligence, while adopting a customer friendly approach."After all, we are here to do a job, to ensure that the revenues of the government, which are rightfully due to be collected and which go to serve the poor of India, to create infrastructure, which go to de...

Trump boasts he got India to slash Harley-Davidson tariffs by 50% in 'about two minutes' KNOWLEDGE SIR  President Donald Trump has said he struck a "very fair deal" with India by making it cut the tariffs on the iconic motorcycle Harley-Davidson by half in just about two minutes, but rued the "high" Indian duties on American whisky. India in February last year slashed the customs duty on imported motorcycles like Harley-Davidson to 50% after Trump called it "unfair" and threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian bikes to the US. At a White House event on the Reciprocal Trade Act on Thursday, Trump flashed out a green colour board with examples of non-reciprocal tariffs from various countries. "Look at motorcycles as an example. (In) India, it was 100%. I got them down to 50%, just by talking for about two minutes. It's still 50% vs 2.4% (on imported motorcycles to the US). Again, other than that, it's a ve...

Supreme Court agrees to examine Centre's decision to grant 10% EWS quota to general category KNOWLEDGE SIR The Supreme Court Friday decided to examine the Centre's decision to grant 10 percent reservation in jobs and education to poor candidates belonging to general category. A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to the central government on various petitions challenging the validity of the Constitution (103 Amendment) Act, 2019, which paved the way for grant of quota to poor belonging to general category. "We are examining the matter and hence issuing notice returnable within four weeks," the bench said. The bench, however, did not stay the operation of the Centre's decision granting quota to the poor in the general category. In poll year, the Narendra Modi government had come out with the constitutional amendment bill giving quota benefits to the poor among general category candidates. The pe...

Most of the choreography in ‘Mere Gully Mein’ is improvised, reveals Ranveer Singh KNOWLEDGE SIR Ranveer Singh  and choreographer Bosco Martis’ have given some smashing hits like Gallan Gudiyan from  Zoya Akhtar ’s Dil Dhadakne Do and Tune Maari Entriyan from Gunday. Ranveer Singh’s energy and  Bosco ’s steps were almost the perfect formula for the two songs to turn into a rage. Ranveer and Bosco have collaborated once again for Zoya Akhtar’s much anticipated next -  Gully Boy . Speaking about how Bosco nailed the choreography of Meri Gully Mein, Ranveer says, “Of course, Bosco is always bursting with ideas so he was trying a few things and ultimately we decided that we just go on set and improvise in the space. And that’s more or less how it happened – Bosco was coming up with these moves on the spot and giving it to us and we were doing them. He used a lot of our improvised rapping to camera portions as well. So it’s mostly improvised.” He had also...

Women power in focus at Republic Day 2019: Major General Rajpal Punia, Deputy Parade Commander KNOWLEDGE SIR From INA veterans to women leading contingents, Republic Day 2019 will see many firsts. This time, an Antonov An-32 aircraft of the Indian Air Force will fly on biofuel. WION spoke to Major General Rajpal Punia, Chief of Staff of the HQ Delhi Area, and Deputy Parade Commander of Republic Day 2019, on what is special about this year's Republic Day Parade.  WION : What will be the focus this time? Maj Gen Rajpal Punia : Well, this time, for the first time, Indian National Army soldiers will be participating in the parade. Besides this, we have all-women contingent, where in all the participants in the contingent will be women. It is Assam Rifles contingent that will be participating. We have four contingent commanders who are lady officers. That will also happen for the first time. Because individually, lady officers have commanded contingents, but not in such...