RAJASTHAN

• Tourist arrivals in Rajasthan witnesses double-digit growth

• Tourist arrivals in Rajasthan has clocked double-digit growth in a row for the second year in 2017.

• Despite a higher base of 17% growth in 2016, the arrivals increased by 10.50% to 45.91 million visits in 2017 riding on the rush of domestic travelers and an improvement in foreign tourists inflows. The buoyancy in domestic tourism was fuelled by destinations like Jaipur, Mount Abu, Pushkar, and Jaisalmer.

• The department organized Rajasthani cultural evenings in Brazil, participated in International French Travel Market in Paris, ITB Asia (Singapore), World Tourism Mart (London), international tourism trade fair FITUR in Spain and recently ITB Berlin.

INTERNATIONAL

• World Consumer Rights Day: 15 March

• The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is celebrated every year on March 15 to pay solidarity with the international consumer movement and give more attention to promote basic rights of consumers.

• It provides an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all consumers and demand those rights that must be respected and protected.

• The theme for World Consumer Rights Day 2018 will be ‘Making digital marketplaces fairer’.

• Finland tops 2018 global happiness index

• The World Happiness Report published ranked 156 countries by happiness levels, based on factors such as life expectancy, social support and corruption.

• According to report, Finland is the happiest place to live. Norway and Denmark ranked second and third respectively.

• India ranked 133rd in the report. Burundi ranked last in the index.

• Angela Merkel elected to fourth term as German chancellor

• Angela Merkel was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany after lawmakers voted to re-elect her as leader in a close vote on Wednesday morning.

• She will now begin a historic fourth term as Chancellor.

• The vote in parliament ended almost six months of political turmoil after the federal election.

• Indian film ‘Halkaa’ bags award at Montreal fest

• Indian filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda’s “Halkaa” has bagged the Grand Prix de Montreal at the gala.

• “Halkaa” was selected among seven international children’s films from different countries in the official competition of the festival.

• The film is a take on a slum child’s heroism, aspirations, and dreams.

• Stephen Hawking: Visionary physicist dies aged 76

• World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76.

• The British scientist was famed for his work with black holes and relativity, and wrote several popular science books including ‘A Brief History of Time’.

• At the age of 22 Prof Hawking was given only a few years to live after being diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease.

• Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.

·        IATA Partners With Civil Aviation Ministry in India

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) signed a MoU with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the National Aviation University to enhance human resource availability in India’s aviation industry.
• Under the agreement, the signatory institutions would also leverage “the existing infrastructure for training in India to expand the reach of vocational training in aviation disciplines”.

NATIONAL

• Pune tops in improved quality governance: Survey

• Pune has emerged as the top city to show improvement in quality of governance, according to a survey.

• The other cities that came in the top five include Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat.

• The survey was conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy.

·        Exports in February Up 4.5% To $25.8 Billion

• India’s exports grew by 4.5% in February-2018 to 25.8 billion dollars.
• It was 24.7 billion dollar during the same period in February-2017.
• This announcement was made by the Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia.
• During April to February period of the current fiscal, exports recorded a growth of 11% to $273 billion. Imports also rose by 10.4% to $37.8 billion during the last month.

• “Innovation Cell” to be set up in HRD Ministry to boost Innovation

• An Innovation Cell in the Ministry of Human Resource Development will be created to further strengthen the innovation efforts.

• It will be headed by a Scientist and comprise of a senior Ministry official and young professionals who bring to the table new ideas in promoting innovation.

• This was stated by Minister for Human Resource Development,  Shri Prakash Javadekar after a high level review meeting.