General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2015

Jul 2015

Aug 07, 2021

Assam, Meghalaya to Set up Committees for Inter-state Border Disputes

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K. Sangma said that the two states will set up committees to resolve the inter-state border disputes.
Two panels to be headed by cabinet ministers of each state will be set up.
The committees will aim at resolving the border disputes in a phased manner in six of the 12 disputed sites initially.
Each panel will have five members, including a cabinet minister of each state besides bureaucrats, Sarma said, adding that local representatives may be part of a committee.
Members of both the panels will visit the sites, interact with civil society members and complete discussions within 30 days.

BSP to Support Centre if it Takes Steps to Hold OBC Census

BSP chief Mayawati said that it will support the central government in parliament and outside if it takes constructive steps for conducting census of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Her remarks come close on the heels of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the tricky issue of caste-based census which the Centre has proposed to hold only for SCs and STs.
BSP has been demanding census of OBCs in the country.

CDRI Now Has 25 Countries, Seven International Organisations

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, has 25 countries and seven international organisations as members now with Bangladesh being the latest entrant.
As per MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, the objective of the CDRI is to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development.

Aug 06, 2021

Manjunatha Prasad is Bommai's Principal Secretary

Following the formation of the government headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, postings of senior IAS officers were reshuffled.
Senior IAS officer Manjunatha Prasad N., Principal Secretary, has been appointed as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. He replaces Ramana Reddy E.V.
Mr. Prasad is also placed as in charge of the post of Principal Secretary, Department of Information and Public Relations, Bengaluru. Earlier, Mr. Prasad had also served as Commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Principal Secretary, Social Welfare Department.

Poll Strategist Prashant Kishor Resigns as Punjab CM's Principal Advisor

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor resigned as Principal Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, and said that he is resigning in view of his decision to take a temporary break from public life.
The political strategist was appointed as Principal Advisor to Punjab CM on March 1, 2021.

Aug 05, 2021

Cabinet Okays Continuation of 1,023 Fast-track Special Courts

The Union Cabinet approved continuation of 1,023 fast track special courts, including 389 exclusive POCSO courts, as a centrally sponsored scheme for another two years.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur said that out of 31 states and union territories, 28 have started the scheme.
The scheme would continue from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2023 with an outlay of Rs. 1572.86 crore – Rs. 971.70 crore as central share and Rs. 601.16 crore as state share.
The scheme was launched on October 2, 2019.

No New Cases to be Registered against Gorkha community at Foreigners' Tribunals

Assam cabinet has decided that no new cases will be registered against the Gorkha community in the state at the Foreigners' Tribunals and already registered cases will be withdrawn.
The decisions, which were part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's vision document ahead of the 2016 assembly polls, have been welcomed by the Gorkha community in Assam.
According to the Assam unit of Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh (BGP), nearly 22,000 Gorkha people in the state have been declared as 'doubtful voters' or D-voters, issued summons to appear before foreigners' tribunals to prove citizenship and some even put in detention centres meant for illegal immigrants under the citizenship law.
"Nearly 2,500 Gorkhas actually faced charges as D-voters, some were issued summon and some even spent time in detention centres. With our efforts, most of these cases have been resolved, but some are still pending," Nanda Kirati Dewan, national secretary of BGP said.

India Builds World's Highest Road in Eastern Ladakh

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has constructed the highest motorable road in the world at the height of 19,300 feet at Umlingla Pass in eastern Ladakh. The BRO has constructed a 52-km long black-topped road through Umlingla Pass, bettering the previous record of a road in Bolivia connecting to its volcano Uturuncu at 18,953 feet.

Retired Justice V M Kanade appointed Lokayukta in Mumbai

Maharashtra Governor, Bhagat Singh Koshyari has approved the appointment of retired Bombay high court judge Justice V M Kanade as the new Lokayukta of Maharashtra, on the advice of the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. Maharashtra was without a full-time Lokayukta for almost a year. The previous Lokayukta, (retd) Justice M L Tahaliyani had completed his tenure in August 2020.

New Ministers in Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai's Cabinet

A week after taking over as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai expanded his new cabinet, by inducting 29 ministers.
The new Ministers were administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan.
Bommai has by and large gone with old faces, as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous B. S. Yediyurappa cabinet, while six are new.

Aug 04, 2021

Governors Can Pardon Prisoners, Including Death Row Ones

The Supreme Court held that the Governor of a state can pardon prisoners, including death row ones, even before they have served a minimum 14 years of prison sentence.
In fact, the Governor's power to pardon overrides a provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure — Section 433A —which mandates that a prisoner's sentence can be remitted only after 14 years of jail, a Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and A.S. Bopanna observed in a judgment.
"Section 433-A of the Code cannot and does not in any way affect the constitutional power conferred on the President/Governor to grant pardon under Articles 72 or 161 of the Constitution. If the prisoner has not undergone 14 years or more of actual imprisonment, the Governor has a power to grant pardon.
In fact, the court noted that the sovereign power of a Governor to pardon a prisoner under Article 161 is actually exercised by the State government and not the Governor on his own.
The scope of the pardoning power of the President under Article 72 is wider than the pardoning power of the Governor under Article 161.

Kejriwal Launches 'Delhi@2047'

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched 'Delhi@2047', an initiative that seeks partnership with corporate houses and philanthropic bodies to help realise Delhi government's long-term goals across sectors.
While launching the vision card for Delhi for the next 25 years, Kejriwal said the initiative is to prepare a roadmap for the development of the city in all sectors, including health and education.
He asserted that the Aam Aadmi Party government has presented a small portion of vision for Delhi till 2047 during the last annual budget, setting a target to increase Delhi's per capita income at par with Singapore by 2047.

Aug 03, 2021

PM Modi's Adviser Sinha Resigns

A senior bureaucrat in the Prime Minister's Office, Amarjeet Sinha, has resigned from his post.
A retired IAS officer, Sinha was an advisor in the PMO and handled projects related to the social sector.
A Bihar-cadre IAS officer of 1983 batch, Sinha had superannuated as the rural development secretary in 2019 and was then appointed to the PMO.
He is the second top officer to quit the PMO in recent months after former cabinet secretary P. K. Sinha, who worked there as principal advisor, resigned in March 2021.

Jawhar Sircar Elected Unopposed to RS

The Trinamool Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha by-election, Jawhar Sircar, was declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal.
After the scheduled period for withdrawal of candidature was over and there was no other nomination from the Opposition BJP and the ISF, Mr. Sircar was declared elected unopposed and was handed over the certificate in the State Assembly. The BJP had last week announced that it would not field any candidate for the bypoll to the Upper House of Parliament, paving the way for Mr. Sircar, a former CEO of Prasar Bharati, to be elected without contest from the State.

UP's Firozabad District Name Change

As per reports, the newly elected Firozabad Zila Panchayat has passed a proposal to rename the district Chandra Nagar. Firozabad is famous for its glassware, particularly bangles. The proposal was passed at the first meeting of the district's panchayat board and it will be sent to the government for approval.
Yadav, who moved the proposal, said that the district was earlier known as Chandrawad, but was later renamed Firozabad in the 15th century by Emperor Akbar. It is necessary to change the name to Chandra Nagar.
The official website of the Firozabad district administration mentions, "The ancient name of this town was Chandwar Nagar.

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