KARNATAKA

Scheme to use unspent funds of legislators
The State government has come out with a new programme — Siddu Sarakarada Nade Sevegala Kade (Siddaramaiah government towards providing services) — for utilising unspent fund of ₹406 crore sanctioned under the MLA and MLC Area Development Fund.

With the Legislative Assembly elections expected to be held in April-May, the government has decided to utilise available funds for taking development works by calling short-term tenders.

As of now, it was decided to utilise funds for repair works of 2,700 school buildings, 309 hospitals and 346 anganwadis across the State.

Owing to various reasons such as delay in preparing action plans and approvals and unscientific project proposals, several legislators had not spent funds sanctioned for their constituencies. In fact, funds sanctioned for the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes too have not been utilised properly with just 45% expenditure as on November-end.

INTERNATIONAL

Michael Jordan becomes the world’s highest-paid athlete of all time

In the latest list released by Forbes, Michael Jordan has been named as the highest-paid athletes of all time.

Meanwhile, former world number one golfer Tiger Woods is standing at the second spot, with an eye-popping $1.7 billion pretax.

· Sri Lanka becomes 163rd nation to accede to landmine ban treaty

Sri Lanka becomes the 163rd nation to accede to the anti-personnel mine ban convention, fulfilling the pledge it made last year to join the international community in supporting the ongoing landmine clearance programme, the foreign ministry. The Ministry Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, commonly referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty or Ottawa Treaty, was adopted on September 18, 1997, at the Diplomatic Conference on an International Total Ban on Anti-Personnel Land Mines at Oslo, Norway.

According to the report by Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, last year 8,605 mine or explosive remnants of war casualties were reported, in which at least 2,089 people were killed.

· Norway Becomes First Nation to Shut National Broadcasts on FM

Norway became the world’s first country to shut down national broadcasts of its FM network by completing its transition to digital radio.
The transition will allow for better sound quality, a greater number of channels and more functions, at a cost eight times lower than FM radio.
The transition concerns only national radio channels.

NATIONAL

MHA releases Rs 174 crore to six states for border development

The Home Ministry has released Rs 174 crore to six states having an international border for development of infrastructure in forward areas.

The states that will be benefited under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP) are Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

· Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu to inaugurate World Telugu Conference

Telangana government under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is gearing up for the five- day long mega literary festival of World Telugu Conference beginning from tomorrow.
For the first time after the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the international convection is being organized at Hyderabad.
Around 8,000 delegates and 250 cultural organizations across the globe would be participating in the five-day long Conference at LB Stadium.
The amount of Rs 50 crore has already been sanctioned by the Telangana government.

· Union Government to set up 12 Special Courts to deal with cases against tainted lawmakers

The Union Government framed a scheme to set up 12 Special Courtsfor a year to fast-track the trial of criminal cases against 1,581 MPs and MLAs.

The initially, 12 courts would be constituted.

Two special courts will handle cases against 228 MPs and remain 10 courts will be set up in 10 states.

· Winter Session of Parliament Begins

The winter session of Parliament begins with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging all political parties to extend co-operation for smooth conduct and pressing for a “national consensus” on the issue of simultaneous elections in the country.
This year’s Winter Session of the Parliament will end on 5th January 2018 has only 14 proposed sittings. As per government data available, 14 sittings is the lowest for any winter session since 1999.

· Go Fearless Mumbai Metro passengers: SecuCare safety app

Mumbai Metro launched a new security app ‘Secucare’,which can be downloaded on Android and IOS platforms, for raising an alarm to ensure passengers’ safety.
Through the app, commuters can raise an alarm in case of any problem.
The control room will be alerted once the alarm is raised. The security personnel in the control room will be able to track the exact location of the passenger through the application.

Lucknow’s Jitesh Singh Deo wins Mr. India World 2017 title

Jitesh Singh Deo from Lucknow has bagged the Mr. India World 2017 title. He will represent India at the Mr World competition.

Prathamesh Maulingkar, a model and entrepreneur from Goa, won the Mr India Supranatural 2017 title.

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