General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2015

Jul 2015

Jul 03, 2021

Former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala Released from Tihar Jail

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who was serving a 10-year prison term in a teacher recruitment scam case, was released from the Tihar Jail after completing due formalities.
Last month, the Delhi government had passed an order granting a six-month special remission to those who have served nine-and-half years of their 10-year prison sentence to decongest jails in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to officials, since Chautala has already served nine years and nine months of his sentence, he was eligible to get out of prison.
Chautala was jailed in 2013 in connection with the teacher recruitment scam case. He was on emergency parole since March 26, 2020, due to the Covid pandemic and was scheduled to surrender on February 21, 2021.

NITI Aayog Releases Report on 'not-for-profit' Hospital Model in India

NITI Aayog released a comprehensive study on the 'not-for-profit' hospital model in the country, in a step towards closing the information gap on such institutions and facilitating robust policymaking in this area.
The not-for-profit hospital sector provides not only curative but also preventive healthcare. It links healthcare with social reform, community engagement, and education. It uses government resources and grants to provide cost-effective healthcare to people without being concerned about profits. However, over the years, this sector has remained understudied.

Jul 02, 2021

India Asks Pakistan to Speed up release and Repatriation of Indian Civilian Prisoners

India called on Pakistan to ensure early release and repatriation of Indian civilian prisoners and missing defence personnel languishing in Pakistani jails.
The two countries exchanged lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen in each other's custody in line with the provisions of a 2008 agreement.
India handed over a list of 271 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 74 fishermen who are in Indian custody.
Pakistan shared a list of 51 civilian prisoners and 558 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or are believed-to-be Indians.

India's Oldest Running Newspaper, Mumbai Samachar, Turns 200

In July 2021, India's oldest running newspaper, Mumbai Samachar, entered its 200th year.
The Gujarati newspaper, with its office located in an iconic red building at Horniman Circle in Mumbai's Fort area, was first published in 1822. It was founded by a Parsi scholar Fardoonji Murazban, who had experimented with various other publishing options before landing on this successful print run.
Formerly called Bombay Samachar, in Gujarati the paper has always run as Mumbai na Samachar. It started as a weekly edition, primarily covering the movement of goods across the sea and other business news, such as the sale of property, and passed through several hands until bankruptcy turned it over to the Cama family in 1933.
Currently, more than 200 staff members and offices across four other centres apart from Mumbai, bring out a single daily edition of the paper, making it the oldest running vernacular newspaper in India. Mumbai Samachar also publishes a panchang (astrological almanac).

SP to Form Alliance with Small Parties

Ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Samajwadi Party chief and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav announced that his party will form alliance with smaller parties.
Reiterating that the 2022 UP Assembly polls will usher in a democratic revolution in the state, he claimed that that his party is making inroads to gain dominance in the state.

Jul 01, 2021

BJP Wins 21 Zila Panchayat chairperson Seats in UP

The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh has managed to win zila panchayat chairpersons seats in 21 districts even though it did not have the required numbers.
The seats were won, after the rival contestants, either withdrew from the fray or turned their support to the ruling party.
The 17 districts where the BJP candidates got elected unopposed were Chitrakoot, Agra, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Amroha, Moradabad, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Banda, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Mau and Varanasi.
In Saharanpur, Bahraich, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur, the BJP-supported candidates got a walkover after the opposition-backed candidates withdrew their nomination.
The lone seat that the Samajwadi Party (SP) won unopposed is Etawah where SP President Akhilesh Yadav's cousin Anshul Yadav won the seat without any contest.

Cabinet Approves MoU between India, Gambia on Governance Reforms

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India and the Public Service Commission, Office of the President, Republic of Gambia on Refurbishing Personnel Administration and Governance Reforms.
The main objective of the MoU is to strengthen and promote bilateral cooperation between the two countries in Personnel Administration and Governance Reforms, as this will facilitate a dialogue between Indian Government agencies and the agencies of the Republic of the Gambia. More so, Gambia is keen to engage with India to promote cooperation in areas such as Improving Performance Management System in Government, Implementation of contributory Pension Scheme and, e-Recruitment in Government.
The MoU with the Republic of the Gambia will provide a legal framework to the cooperation between the two countries in Refurbishing Personnel Administration and Governance Reforms so as to improve upon the existing system of governance by learning, sharing and exchanging administrative experiences in the area of Personnel Administration and Governance Reforms and instill a greater sense of responsiveness, accountability and transparency.

Home Ministry Extends AFSPA in Nagaland for Another Six Months

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has declared entire Nagaland as a "disturbed area" for six more months till December 31, 2021, under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) that empowers security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without prior notice.
While Nagaland became a separate state in 1963, the AFSPA has been in force in northeast since 1958.
There have been demands from various organisations in the Northeast as well as in Jammu and Kashmir for repealing the AFSPA, which, they allege, gives "sweeping powers" to security forces.
The AFSPA has not been withdrawn even after a framework agreement was signed on August 3, 2015 by Naga insurgent group NSCN-IM General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and government interlocutor R.N. Ravi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shambhu Nath Srivastava is Chairman of IFUNA

Justice (Retd.) Shambhu Nath Srivastava, a former judge of Allahabad High Court and former chief Lokayukta of Chhattisgarh, has been appointed the chairman of the Indian Federation of United Nations Associations (IFUNA). Indian Federation of United Nations Associations, a non-profit organisation to promote objectives of the United Nations and its specialised agencies. IFUNA enjoys special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN.

Balaji Srivastava Gets Additional Charge as Delhi Police Commissioner

Senior IPS officer Balaji Srivastava took additional charge as the Commissioner of Delhi Police after incumbent S. N. Shrivastava retired.
Balaji Srivastava was posted as Special Commissioner (Vigilance) of the Delhi Police.
A 1988-batch IPS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, he has previously worked as the DGP of Puducherry and Mizoram and Special Commissioner, Intelligence, Economic Offence Wing and Special Cell, Delhi.
He has also served in the Cabinet Secretariat for nine years and handled sensitive assignments.

Jun 30, 2021

Amitabh Kant Gets another Extension

Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant was given a year's extension till June 2022.
This is a third extension for the 65-year-old civil servant in the post.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension in tenure of Kant for a further period of one year beyond June 30, 2021, i.e up to June 30, 2022, or until further orders, it said. He was appointed as the CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti Aayog) on February 17, 2016, for a fixed two-year term.
Kant was later given an extension till June 30, 2019.
His term was further extended for two years till the end of this month in June 2019.

Jun 29, 2021

Umesh Sinha Gets Extension as Dy. Election Commissioner

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension for Umesh Sinha, lAS (UP:86) (Retd.) as Deputy Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India on contract basis for another year up to July, 2022.
Mr. Sinha is a former U.P. cadre IAS officer who has been with the Election Commission of India for several years. The government re-employed him after he superannuated from the service.

BSP Pulls Out of UP Panchayat Election

BSP president Mayawati said that her party will not contest the zila panchayat chairpersons' elections so that it can focus on next year's assembly polls, drawing accusations from the Congress that she is pulling out to help the ruling BJP. She said that people wanted the Bahujan Samaj Party to form the government next year --- and it will go to the polls with the slogan that Uttar Pradesh must be 'saved'.

Justice Malimath is Acting Chief Justice of HP High Court

Justice Ravi Vijaykumar Malimath was appointed as the acting Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
As per a notification issued by the Department of Justice, Justice Malimath, the senior-most judge of Himachal Pradesh High Court, will perform the duties of the office of the chief justice of that high court with effect from July 1 consequent upon the retirement of Justice Lingappa Narayana Swamy, Chief Justice, Himachal Pradesh High Court.

Modi Govt. Decides to Extend Tenure of Venugopal as A-G

The central government has decided to extend the tenure of K. K. Venugopal as the Attorney General by one year.
Though the attorney general usually has a tenure of three years, when his first term as A-G was to end last year, Venugopal had requested the government to give him a one-year tenure keeping in mind his advanced age.
Keeping in mind the high profile cases he is handling in the Supreme Court and his experience at the Bar, the government has decided to extend his tenure for one more year.
Venugopal took over as the Attorney General in July 2017. He succeeded Mukul Rohatgi as the top law officer of the Union government.

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