GST Council: Article 279A of the Indian Constitution gives power to the President of India to constitute a joint forum of the Centre and States called the GST Council, consisting of the – Union Finance Minister(Chairperson), The Union Minister of State in charge of Revenue of finance, The Minister-in-charge of finance or taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State Government. The GST Council is an apex committee to modify, reconciles or make recommendations to the Union and the States on GST, like the goods and services that may be subjected to or exempted from GST, model GST laws, etc. Decisions in the GST Council are taken by a majority of not less than three-fourths of the weighted votes cast. Centre has one-third weightage of the total votes cast and all the states taken together have two-thirds of the weightage of the total votes cast. All decisions taken by the GST Council have been arrived at through consensus.
Global Peace Index: It is released annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
The 2023 Global Peace Index (GPI) ranked 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. It measures the state of peace across three domains:Societal safety and security; Ongoing domestic and international conflict; Militarization. The average level of global peacefulness deteriorated by 0.42 per cent. Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world – a title it has held since 2008. It is accompanied at the top by Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Austria. Conversely, Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the eighth consecutive year. It is followed by Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. India has occupied the 126th spot in the rankings, two higher than its previous position. The report stated that India experienced an improvement of 3.5 per cent in overall peacefulness over the past year, owing to improvements in violent crime, neighbouring countries’ relations, and political instability.
Annapurti: GrainATM, Annapurti, is an automated multi-commodity dispensing solution that provides fast, clean, and precise access to commodities (rice, wheat, grains) to beneficiaries, post biometric authentication. It is developed by World Food Programme (WFP) in India.GrainATM ensures 24×7 access to full entitlements for people entitled to monthly subsidized grains through India’s Public Distribution System. It does away with the possibility of spillage, waste and short-weighing. Annapurti dispenses one or two-grain commodities, up to 50 kilograms, in five minutes, with an error rate of 0.01 per cent. The entire solution, including the volume of the storage unit, is modular or easily assembled and can be put together depending on the amount of space available. To ensure food security with efficient energy access, the machine has been designed to consume only 0.6 Watts per hour. It can also be attached to solar panels, inverter batteries and elevators for automatic refilling.
JIMEX 2023: .The Indian Navy is hosting the bilateral Japan-India Maritime Exercise 2023. This edition marks the 11th anniversary of JIMEX, since its inception in 2012. This exercise will witness the participation of INS Delhi, INSKamorta, fleet tanker INS Shakti, a submarine, maritime patrol aircraft P8I and Dornier, ship-borne helicopters and fighter aircraft. Other Exercises: Malabar: India and Japan with the United States and Australia participate in the naval war gaming exercise named Malabar, SHINYUU Maitri (Air Force), Dharma Guardian (Military Exercise)
