General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2015

Mar 2015

Sep 16, 2021

India-Africa Defence Dialogue to be Held Biennially at every DefExpo

Two years after the first India-Africa Defence Ministers' Conclave held in February 2020 in Lucknow, India will hold the India-Africa Defence Dialogue on the sidelines of DefExpo in March next year.
India has proposed to make it a regular event, to be held with the biennial DefExpo military exhibition.
The dialogue will help build on existing partnerships between African countries & India" and will "explore new areas of convergence for mutual engagements.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will host the Defence Ministers of African nations in the next India-Africa Defence Dialogue in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, in March 2022.

Vice President, PM, Lok Sabha Speaker Jointly Launch Sansad TV

Sansad TV was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, coincidentally on the International Day of Democracy.
Sansad TV is a merger of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV channels. The channel will be operational 24-hours. It will aim to showcase the democratic ethos and functioning of democratic institutions of the country to target both national and international audiences.
The decision to merge Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV was taken in February 2021 and retired IAS officer Ravi Capoor was appointed as its CEO in March.

Maoist Violence Highest in Chhattisgarh in 2020

According to the annual report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Chhattisgarh recorded the highest number of crimes committed by Maoists in 2020. The NCRB statistics show that Chhattisgarh topped in number of murders, attempted murders, loot and arson by Maoists by a long margin followed by Jharkhand and Maharashtra. The statistics only goes on to show the grim reality of left-wing extremism in the state.
Chhattisgarh also lost most police personnel in Maoist attacks and counter-insurgency operations, the data shows.
As per NRCB, a total of 533 cases against Maoist were registered in eight states in 2020 and Chhattisgarh accounted for 296 of these, followed by Jharkhand (133) and Maharashtra (32). In 2019, total cases registered against Maoist numbered 514, including 310 in Chhattisgarh and 70 in Maharashtra.

Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh Sworn in as Uttarakhand Governor

Lt Gen (Retd) Gurmit Singh was sworn in as the new governor of Uttarakhand.
Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court Justice R. S. Chauhan administered the oath of office to Singh.
The function was attended by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Uttarakhand Assembly Speaker Premchand Aggarwal and a number of senior government officials.

Sep 15, 2021

Sushmita Dev Nominated to Rajya Sabha

The TMC nominated Sushmita Dev, who recently joined the party after quitting the Congress, to the Upper House of Parliament.
Dev, who was one of the national spokespersons of the grand-old party and its women's wing chief, switched over to the Mamata Banerjee-led camp last month.
She has been assigned the job of looking after the party's functioning in Assam and Tripura.

Iqbal Singh Lalpura is Chairman of National Commission for Minorities

Former IPS officer Iqbal Singh Lalpura has been appointed chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, sources said on Wednesday. Lalpura, a BJP spokesperson who hails from Punjab and belongs to the Sikh community, has authored several books on Sikh philosophy and history.
He has also won several awards such as the President's Police Medal, Police Medal for Meritorious Services, Shiromani Sikh Sahitkar Award and Sikh Scholar Award.
Lalpura, during his tenure as IPS officer, served as SSP Amritsar, SSP Tarantaran, and Additional inspector general CID Amritsar. He joined BJP in 2012 after retirement.
Before being appointed as national minorities commission chairman, he was a national spokesperson for BJP and a popular face on television debates.

West Bengal Advocate General Resigns

Citing personal reasons, West Bengal Advocate General (AG) Kishore Datta put in his papers abruptly.
He has been replaced by senior advocate of Calcutta High Court Gopal Mukherjee. Now, Mukherjee will represent the state government in various high-profile cases in the Calcutta HC, such as the post poll violence cases, Narada sting video case involving heavyweight Trinamool Congress politicians, the case over making Mukul Roy chairman of the PAC and so on.
The job of Advocate General is turning out to be an extremely slippery one for incumbents with four AGs stepping down from the office, one after another, midway through their terms.

PMK Walks out of AIADMK-led Alliance

The PMK exited the AIADMK-led front, announcing unilaterally that it would go alone in the rural local bodies elections, scheduled for October, in nine districts. It allied with the AIADMK for the 2019 Lok Sabha election and the 2021 Assembly election.
The elections will be held in Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi.

Sep 14, 2021

Chandigarh Gets First Pollen Calendar

The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Panjab University have come up with India's first city-based pollen calendar for Chandigarh.
The calendar is titled on the seasonal periodicities of airborne pollen species was published in the Atmospheric Environment journal.

PM Modi to Lay Foundation of University Named After Jat king in Aligarh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of a university named after Jat king Mahendra Pratap Singh in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh, according to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
PM Modi will address a gathering and then visit the exhibition models of the Aligarh node of the Uttar Pradesh defence industrial corridor and Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University. This will be the first of the many visits of PM Modi ahead of the 2022 assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the PMO, the university is being established by the Uttar Pradesh government in memory and honour of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh, who was a freedom fighter, educationist and social reformer. The university is being set up in a total area of over 92 acres at Lodha and Musepur Kareem Jarouli villages of Aligarh's Kol tehsil. It will provide affiliation to 395 colleges of the Aligarh division.

SC to Pass Interim Orders in Pegasus Case

The Supreme Court decided to pass interim orders after the government refused to respond, through a "detailed" affidavit, to allegations that it used Israeli-based Pegasus software to spy on citizens.
The government said such an affidavit in the top court would be too public and compromise national security.
The petitioners demanded that either the Cabinet Secretary file an affidavit or the court itself form a committee, led by a sitting judge, to probe the snooping controversy.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said there cannot be any "beating around the bush" on the issue.

Sep 13, 2021

Bhupendra Patel Elected as New Chief Minister of Gujarat

Bhupendra Patel was elected as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat. Patel is MLA from Ghatlodia seat. Patel was unanimously elected BJP legislature party leader. His name was proposed by CM Vijay Rupani, whose resignation from the post surprised many.
Patel won the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections from Ghatlodia constituency, defeating Congress candidate Shashikant Patel.

Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh is New Governor of Uttarakhand

Lieutenant General Gurmit Singh, who retired as the Deputy Chief of Army, was appointed the Governor of Uttarakhand, a post which fell vacant after Baby Rani Maurya tendered her resignation.
A highly-decorated officer, Lt Gen Singh superannuated from the Army in February 2016 after nearly four decades of service, during which he held prestigious appointments of Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Adjutant General and Corps Commander of Strategic XV Corps that overlooks the Line of Control in Kashmir.
Besides this fresh appointment, the President also ordered shuffling of governors of some states which includes shifting Banwarilal Purohit from Tamil Nadu to Punjab. He was earlier holding additional charge of Punjab.
IPS officer RN Ravi was shifted from Nagaland to Tamil Nadu as its new Governor. Jagdish Mukhi, at present Governor of Assam, was appointed to discharge the functions of the Governor of Nagaland in addition to his charge till a fresh appointment is made.

India and Australia Hold Inaugural 2+2 Talks

India and Australia held the inaugural foreign and defence ministerial dialogue to boost overall strategic ties in the backdrop of an unsettling phase of geopolitical flux in the region.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajath Singh held the 'two-plus-two' talks here with their Australian counterparts Marise Payne and Peter Dutton.
The talks took place at a time the global focus is on the situation in Afghanistan after its takeover by the Taliban last month, and it is understood that the issue figured in these deliberations.
The two sides held extensive talks on all key issues of strategic interests including the situation in the Indo-Pacific in the face of China's growing muscle-flexing in the region.
The dialogue between the Foreign and Defence Ministers was instituted as part of an overall goal to expand strategic cooperation between the two countries.

DMK Submits Demand to Vice-President Seeking Statehood for Puducherry

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam submitted a memorandum to Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu about granting Statehood to Puducherry.
In his representation, Opposition leader and DMK convenor R. Siva said that the demand for Statehood was the democratic right of the people of Puducherry.
During the time when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, a committee headed by former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj had looked into the issue of Statehood for Puducherry.

Vijay Rupani Quits as Gujarat CM

In a surprising political development, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani submitted his resignation to Governor Acharya Devvrat. Rupani, who made the announcement but did not reveal what prompted Vijay Rupani to step down.
The unexpected move comes ahead of Assembly elections in PM Modi's home state early next year.
Vijay Rupani took the state's Chief Ministerial position on August 7, 2016, and is representing Rajkot West in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.
Rupani is the fourth BJP Chief Minister to step down in recent months. In July, B. S. Yediyurappa resigned as CM of Karnataka and Uttarakhand witnessed two CMs' exit, where Tirath Singh Rawat quit barely 4 months after replacing Trivendra Rawat.

Shiv Sena to Contest UP Elections

The Shiv Sena has announced that it will field candidates for all 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, scheduled to be held next year.
The party has not yet allied with any political party yet but has signalled the possibility of an alliance.
UP Shiv Sena chief is Thakur Anil Singh.
As per reports, the Shiv Sena is open to an alliance with the Congress since the latter is already its ally in Maharashtra.

Sep 12, 2021

Government Constitutes Task Force, Expert Committee on Coal-based Hydrogen Production

The Centre has constituted a task force and expert committee to prepare a road map for coal-based hydrogen production. This is aimed at contributing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of a hydrogen-based economy in a clean manner.
Ministry of Coal has constituted 2 Committees, one to oversee the program and another of experts to give guidance to the Ministry.
The task force has been constituted under the chairmanship of Coal Additional Secretary Vinod Kumar Tiwari. Its broad terms of reference include monitoring of activities towards achieving coal-based hydrogen production and usage and coordination with Coal Gasification Mission and NITI Aayog.

Centre Appoints G.S. Pannu as Officiating ITAT President

The Central Government has appointed G.S. Pannu as President of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. G. S. Pannu is presently a Vice-President, ITAT, New Delhi and will be Officiating President of ITAT with effect from September 6, 2021, till the appointment of regular President.
Mr. Pannu was born on 01 Aug 1962 at Hoshiarpur (Punjab), he is a C.A and joined Government Service 14 September 2000. Presently posted as Vice-President at ITAT, New Delhi. Before joining ITAT, practised as a Chartered Accountant at New Delhi from 1986-2000.

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