Gharib Nawaz Skill Development Centre

• Ministry of Minority Affairs has inaugurated India’s first Gharib Nawaz skill development centre in Hyderabad.
• It is launched for providing short term job oriented skill development course for youths belonging to minority communities.
• It offers certificate course in Goods and Services Tax accounting/programming and other related subjects. 

World Petroleum Congress

• World Petroleum Congress is widely recognized as the `Olympics` of the oil and gas industry.
• It is conducted tri-annually and various countries in World Petroleum Council bid to host the session in their country.
• Turkey has won the bid to host 22^nd World Petroleum Congress – 2017.
• It attracts Ministers, CEOs of Oil and Gas MNCs, experts and academics from the hydrocarbon sectors and provides an ideal forum to showcase potential of hydrocarbon sector in various countries.
• World Petroleum council – It is a non-advocacy, non-political organisation with charitable status in the U.K. and has accreditation as a Non-Governmental Organization from the United Nations.
• The WPC is dedicated to the promotion of sustainable management and use of the world’s petroleum resources for the benefit of all.

e-vehicles

• In a bid to push electric vehicles in the country, Government has announced few ambitious plans for mass shift to e-vehicles.
• No permits required for commercial electric vehicles (EVs), state-owned power utilities to set up fast-charging stations.
• It introduced a new scheme for setting up of depots for e-buses to swap drained batteries with fully-charged ones across key metros.
• This is in line with National Electric Mobility Mission Plan which aims to get 6-7 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2020 and going all-electric in terms of new car sales by 2030.
• Global trend in e-vehicles - Norway, which has the highest penetration of electric cars in the world, has set a target of permitting sales of only electric cars by 2025 and Netherlands has proposed a ban from 2025 on petrol and diesel cars.

Gomira Dance

• Gomira dance is a rural dance form mainly practiced in the rural districts of West Bengal.
• It is a masked dance form and is performed during the harvest season of mangoes.
• The dance has its roots from in Shakitaism and the dancers wear the masks of deities to invoke their powers.
• In 2013, a MoU was signed between the West Bengal government and UNESCO to promote culture-based livelihoods.

Chinese FDI in South Asia

• The Government of India has begun its first ever in depth assessment of Chinese investments in India’s neighbouring countries.
• It has been initiated by the PMO and National Security Adviser.
• Apart from South Asia, the project will track Chinese investments in Afghanistan and Maldives.
• The study will also analyse the impact of Chinese investments including those being made as part of Belt and Road initiative on India’s national security.
• The exercise comes in the backdrop of the country’s tense border stand-off with China in Sikkim.

Wings 2017

• It is an event hosted by Ministry of Civil Aviation for expanding regional connectivity.
• It brought together various stakeholders to facilitate interaction with various airlines and operators.
• India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets and currently the ninth largest civil aviation market in the world.
• It is projected to be the third largest aviation market by 2020.