The Cabinet has approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between India and Malaysia for Mutual Cooperation to raise the status and prestige of the Practicing Company Secretary in both countries and to facilitate the movement of the Company Secretaries across borders in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Cabinet also approved the proposal for a MoU between India and the Electoral Commission of Namibia and with Electoral Tribunal of Panama on cooperation in the field of electoral management and administration.

Cabinet also gave its nod to the Memorandum of Understanding between India and Norway on India-Norway Ocean Dialogue. The MoU will promote cooperation in the areas of mutual interest pertaining to the development of the blue economy. 

Cabinet also approved Memorandum of Understanding between India and Brazil on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy.
The Union Cabinet accorded ex post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, India and the Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resource and Agriculture, Maldives signed on 17th of December during the State visit of President of Maldives to India. 

The Union Cabinet approved the proposal of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to introduce the Cinematograph Amendment Bill, 2019 and amend the Cinematograph Act, 1952. The Bill aims to tackle film piracy by instituting penal provisions for unauthorized camcording and duplication of films by making it a legal offence and punishing the offender with a three-year jail term and a fine of Rs. 10 lakh. The Cinematograph Act, 1952 deals with provisions for the certification of cinematograph films for exhibition and for regulating exhibitions by means of cinematographs.

The Bill requires the insertion of a new Section 6AA in the Cinematograph Act to ensure the prohibition of unauthorized recording.

“Notwithstanding any law for the time being in force, no person shall without the written authorization of the author be permitted to use any audio visual recording device to knowingly make or transmit or attempt to make or transmit or abet the making or transmission of a copy of a film or a part thereof," the section says.

Another section requires the introduction of penal provisions for violating provisions of section 6AA. “If any person contravenes the provisions of section 6AA, he shall be punishable with an imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years or with fine which may extend to 10 lakh rupees or with both," it says.

Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani launched the India Size project in Mumbai yesterday.  A first-of-its-kind project in the history of the country, India Size aims to arrive at a standard Indian Size for the ready-to-wear clothing industry, on the lines of the standardized sizes available in countries such as the USA and the UK.

Addressing the gathering the Minister said that India size project will benefit manufacturers, consumers and generate data which will help tap into the potential of the sector. The Minister also launched a Study of Apparel Consumption in India. The report of this study would be ready for release by July 2019.

Bureau of Police Research and Development, BPRD will organize the 2nd National Conference of Micro Missions of National Police Mission in New Delhi today.

The two day Conference will discuss the issues of Skills and Competence at the grass-root level, Attitudinal Changes in Police, Gender Sensitization, harnessing technology and Community Policing. Former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir N. N.Vohra will inaugurate the conference.

A mega-d version of National Police Mission Compendium on the projects developed by the Mission will also be released. National Police Mission Awards will be given to 09 officers for their contribution in Micro Missions and successful preparation of the implementable projects.

In Tennis, four Indians led by Prajnesh Gunneswaran have stormed into the Singles pre-quarterfinals of the ATP Chennai Open Challenger tournament. In the second round yesterday, Prajnesh, who is the top seed, defeated Daniel Altmaier of Germany in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Eleventh-seeded Saketh Myneni beat compatriot Vijay Sundar Prashanth, 6-4, 6-3.
Arjun Khade got the better of 13th seed Jose Hernandez-Fernandes of the Dominican Republic with a 6-3, 6-2 win. Arjun will meet Prajnesh for a place in the quarterfinals today.
  
The fourth Indian to progress to the Round-of-16 is Sasi Kumar Mukund who saw off Germany's Sebastian Fanselow, 6-3, 6-1.

In the Doubles, Sumit Nagal and Vijay Sundar Prashanth, with their team-mates, and the team of Sidharth Rawat and Manish Sureshkumar made it to the quarterfinals.

The Reserve Bank of India will announce the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2018-19 this morning. The three-day policy review meeting by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began in Mumbai on Tuesday. 

The MPC is headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. 

"The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) began its three-day meet to decide on key rates amid expectations that it would change stance to neutral on low inflation but may not cut rates due to fiscal challenges and rising oil prices. 

In its last bi-monthly monetary policy, the bank had kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 percent and the reverse repo rate at 6.25 percent. 

The central bank has maintained status quo on interest rate in its last three bi-monthly monetary policies after hiking the repo rate twice this fiscal by 25 basis points each. 

The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal for the establishment of Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog for conservation, protection and development of cows and their progeny. 

It will lead to the development of the cattle population in the country including the development and conservation of indigenous breeds. It will result in the growth of the livestock sector which is more inclusive, benefit women, and small and marginal farmers. 

The Aayog will work in collaboration with Veterinary, Animal Sciences or Agriculture University or departments or organizations of the Central or State Government engaged in the task of research in the field of breeding and rearing of the cow, organic manure, biogas etc. Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog was announced in the budget on the 1st of this month.

The government has approved a plan to use space technology in border management to check intrusion. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said, over three thousand incidents of intrusion on country’s borders took place in the last four years. He said, 27 such incidents were also reported till the 24th of last month.

Mr Rijiju said Island development, border security, communication and navigation, Geographic Information System and border infrastructure development are the areas which have been identified for use of space technology in improving border management. 

The Minister said, to execute the project, a short, medium and long term plan has been approved for implementation in five years in coordination with Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO and Ministry of Defence.

The Union Cabinet on February 6 approved the proposal to amend Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, a move that is aimed to put an end to the hazard of illicit deposit schemes and prevent such schemes from duping the poor and gullible.

According to the Bill, a deposit-taking scheme will be considered unregulated if it is not registered with regulators such as Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), RBI, SEBI, among others.

"The Bill contains a substantive banning clause which bans deposit takers from promoting, operating, issuing advertisements or accepting deposits in any Unregulated Deposit Scheme. The principle is that the Bill would ban unregulated deposit taking activities altogether, by making them an offence ex-ante rather than the existing legislative-cum-regulatory framework which only comes into effect ex-post with considerable time lags," a government release said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Tuesday said it has imposed a total penalty of Rs 2.2 crore on private sector lender Axis Bank in two separate cases. A penalty of Rs 2 crore has also been imposed on UCO Bank and Rs 1 crore on Syndicate Bank for violation of norms. The RBI said penalty of Rs 2 crore has been imposed each on Axis Bank and UCO Bank for non-compliance of norms related to payment through cheques.

In another case, a penalty of Rs 20 lakh has been imposed on Axis Bank for contravention of the directions related to detection and impounding of counterfeit notes.

The penalty on Syndicate Bank has been imposed for violation of guidelines related to checking fraud and managing risk. The RBI, however, said the action on banks is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.