General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Apr 16, 2020

Agricultural, Allied Activities Including Fishery Allowed To Operate In 2nd Phase Of Lockdown

Agricultural and allied activities including dairy, fisheries as well as tea, coffee and rubber plantation are allowed to function in the second phase of the COVID-19 lockdown the government said issuing fresh guidelines.
Operations of tea, coffee and rubber plantations are allowed with maximum 50 per cent workers. Processing, packaging, sale and marketing of these commodities as well as cashew have been allowed with maximum 50 per cent workers.

UPSC Chairman, Members To Forego 30 Per Cent Of Basic Pay For 1 Year

The chairman and members of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), that conducts civil services examination to select country's bureaucrats and diplomats among others, have decided to forego 30 per cent of their basic pay for one year to aid the government's fight against coronavirus. The commission reviewed the harm caused to the national economy by the coronavirus pandemic in a special meeting held to review the current situation.
"Recognising the need to conserve financial resources at the national level, the chairman and members of the UPSC have decided to voluntarily forego 30 per cent of the basic pay received by them from the Commission for a period of one year, with effect from April 2020," the communique issued by the Personnel Ministry.

Colour Coding To Help Manage COVID-19 Pandemic

The government decision to divide all districts across the country into hotspots, non hotspots and green zones will help in managing the Covid-19 pandemic as well as partial opening up of economic activities during the extended period of the nationwide lockdown. This would help in management of hotspots and spread of pandemic.
The health and family welfare ministry, which has come out with a new set of guidelines for the second phase of lockdown till May 3, 2020 has identified 170 hotspot districts, 207 non-hotspot districts reporting cases and 359 green zone districts not reporting any cases across the country.

Apr 15, 2020

India Post Office hit all time high crossing 1 lakh mark to record 1.09 lakh transactions a day

India Post Office has hit an all time high crossing one lakh mark to record 1.09 lakh transactions a day in disbursing cash through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System.
The postal department has disbursed around 23 crore rupees of cash in a day to people at their doorsteps or Post Offices nearby using a simple fingerprint authentication. This was to ensure availability of cash in people's hand during the ongoing lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Ordinance To Give States Flexibility To Raise Work Hours Of Employees

The Centre will soon bring an ordinance to give state governments the flexibility to increase the work hours of employees across establishments to 12 hours per day from eight hours, a move aimed at addressing the issue of labour shortage and facilitate companies to maintain social distancing once factories resume operations after lockdown imposed due to Covid-19.
Labour ministry will soon bring an ordinance to enforce the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH&WC) that empowers states or 'appropriate authority' to notify work hours. The ordinance is being contemplated as the Code, which is in parliament, is yet to be passed.

Government initiates dialogue to resurrect agri sector exports in the aftermath of current COVID-...

Government has initiated a dialogue with the exporters of Agri and Allied commodities to address issues affecting the sector as a fallout of the lockdown to check the COVID-19 disease.
Following directions from the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, the Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare, Shri Sanjay Agarwal held a video conference to gain a first- hand account of the problems being faced by the exporters of Agri and Allied commodities and initiate necessary steps by making meaningful interventions for early redressal of their problems to help them sustain though the current Covid-19 crisis.
Exporters, representatives of Associations of producers/exporters of agri commodities namely, Fruits, Vegetables, Basmati and Non-basmati Rice, Seeds, Flowers, Plants, Organic produce, Agriculture Equipment and Machinery participated in the meeting.

GiveIndia Starts India COVID Response Fund with Rs 75 cr In Initial Donations

Donation platform GiveIndia has launched the 'India COVID Response Fund' (ICRF) with initial donations worth Rs 75 crore to support the on-ground COVID relief efforts being carried out by its network of verified non-profits.
Some of the early donors to the fund include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google.org, HSBC India, Omidyar Network India, UBS Optimus Foundation, Marico, Uber India (through Uber Care driver fund), Binny Bansal and A.T.E. Chandra Foundation.
The fund will use a data-backed approach to identify the most critical areas of intervention and scale the relief efforts pan India, a statement said.

Narendra Singh Tomar Launches Agri Transport Call Centre

The union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched the All India Agri Transport Call Centre. This will facilitate inter-state movement of perishables in the current situation of lockdown due to the COVID-19 threat
This round the clock Agri Transport Call Centre is an initiative of the union agriculture ministry for coordination between States for inter-state movement of perishables - Vegetables and Fruits, Agri Inputs like seeds, pesticides and fertilizer etc.

Apr 14, 2020

Govt Starts Call Centre To Coordinate Inter-State Transportation Of Agri Commodities

The Centre has started an all-India level call centre for addressing the transportation problems being faced in inter-state movement of both perishable and non-perishable agricultural commodities.
The All India Agri Transport Call Centre is accessible from numbers: 18001804200 and 14488. These numbers can be called from any mobile or landline phones, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Labour Ministry Sets Up 20 Control Rooms Under CLS To Address Wage Related Grievances

Labour ministry has set up 20 control rooms under the chief labour commissioner (CLC) across India to address wage related grievances of workers employed in central sphere besides mitigating the problems of migrant workers through coordination with various state governments during the lockdown period.
These call centers can be accessed by the workers through phone numbers, whatsapp and emails.

E-NAM Completes Four Years Of Implementation

e-NAM was launched by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in 21 mandis on 14th April in 2016.
The pan-India Agriculture trading portal e-NAM completes four years of implementation on April 14, 2020.
On this occasion, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that e-NAM helped in realising the vision of One Nation One Market for agri produce.
He also said that e-NAM is being expanded to cover additional 415 mandis which will take the total number of e-NAM mandis to 1000 soon.

Information commissioners to take 30 pc cut in basic salary for 1 yr

The chief information commissioner and information commissioners will take a 30-per cent cut in their basic salary to contribute to government's move to pool in all resources to face "unprecedented damage" caused to the economy due to COVID-19, a CIC resolution.
The matter was discussed during an extraordinary meeting of the Central Information Commission on April 10 through video-conferencing and it was decided that CIC Bimal Julka and all the six information commissioners will take a voluntary 30 per cent deduction in their basic salary for a year starting April 1, 2020.

Google Pay Launches 'Nearby Spot' To Help Users Find Local Stores Selling Essentials

Google has launched 'Nearby Spot' under Google Pay using which users in Bengaluru can see local stores selling essentials like groceries that are open, amid the lockdown. The Nearby Spot will be launched in Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi soon.
With the lockdown and social distancing norms in place, digital payments have become more important than ever and Google Pay is an additional surface to provide key information regarding COVID-19.

CEC, ECs To Take 30% Reduction In Their Basic Salaries For One Year

The Election Commission of India's Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra had volunteered to take a 30% reduction in their basic salaries for one year in order to contribute to the efforts against COVID-19.
The government and civil society's efforts would require huge amount of resources, and that reducing the burden on the state exchequer would help, says the Election Commission of India.

GMR To Build A Greenfield Airport In AP's Bhogapuram

GMR Airports Ltd (GAL) received a Letter of Award (LoA) from the Government of Andhra Pradesh for the development of a greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram.
The project involves design, build, finance, construction, development, upgradation, modernization, operation and maintenance of the airport for 40 years, extendable by additional 20 years through international competitive bidding process, with GMR airports limited having Right of First Refusal of 10 per cent.
GAL, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, emerged as the highest bidder for the PPP project in February, 2019.

Apr 13, 2020

ADB Assures $2.2 Billion Support Package To India For COVID-19 response

The Asian Development Bank has assured India $2.2 billion in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa, who assured FM Nirmala Sitharaman of the multilateral lender's support, commended India's decisive response to the pandemic, including a national health emergency programme.

Maharashtra CM, Cabinet To Take A 60% Pay Cut For This Month

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the country, and to financially assist the state, Maharashtra announced a pay cut for all government employees.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is also the state finance minister, said the decision has been taken after consultation with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and various unions of employees.

Freightwalla Launched App To Offer All Remote Services

Freightwalla, a Digital freight forwarding startup, has launched a mobile application to offer all the services. The app is a part of a larger "work from anywhere, anytime" initiative. The startups aim to make logistics and supply chain accessible 24x7, from anywhere, on any device.The apps are to make it possible for logistics managers and business owners to plan, manage and track their shipments right on their mobile screens.

Indian Ministers, MPs To Take 30% Pay Cut For One Year

In the wake of a financial crisis stemming from the new coronavirus pandemic, the Union cabinet cleared an ordinance to cut salaries of all ministers and members of Parliament for a year. Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the cabinet decided to amend the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act through an ordinance, to cut salaries of all ministers, including himself, for a year by 30 percent. This has been done to reflect the social responsibility of parliamentarians.

MHRD Launches 'Bharat Padhe Online' Campaign, Invites Ideas To Improve Online Learning System

The Union Minister of Human Resource Development, MHRD, Ramesh Pokhriyal launched a week-long 'Bharat Padhe Online' campaign. This launch was specifically for crowdsourcing of ideas to improve online education ecosystem of India. Currently due to the COVID19 Lockdown imposed many schools and colleges have opted online platforms for education imparting.

Ahmedabad Railway Station Gets Sanitizing Tunnel

The Ahmedabad Railway station at Kalupur has become the first in the country to install a walk through mass sanitizing tunnel. The tunnel was opened following its final inspection by divisional railway manager Deepak Jha.
The mass sanitizing tunnel is an attempt to ensure that the threat of Covid-19 does not affect the staff and passengers entering the Ahmedabad station at Kalupur.

MHRD launched YUKTI web-portal in New Delhi

Centre launched a web-portal "Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation" (YUKTI) in New Delhi. The web-portal was launched by the Union Minister for Human Resource Development Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank."
♦ YUKTI portal is a unique portal and dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of the Ministry of Human Resource Development /6
(MHRD). The portal aims to cover the different dimensions of COVID-19 challenges in a very holistic and comprehensive way.
♦ The primary aim is to keep the Indian academic community healthy, both physically & mentally. It also aims to enable a continuous high-quality learning environment for learners. The portal is an effort of MHRD to achieve the goal in these difficult times.
♦ The portal will cover various initiatives and efforts of the institutions in academics, research especially related to COVID-19, social initiatives by institutions and the measures taken for the betterment of the total well-being of the students.
♦ The portal will cover both qualitative and quantitative parameters for the effective delivery of services to the academic community at large.
♦ Through this portal, several institutions can share their strategies for various challenges to tackle COVID-19 and other future initiatives.
♦ The portal will give inputs for better planning and will enable MHRD to monitor effectively its activities for the coming six months.
♦ The portal focuses on establishing a two-way communication channel between the MHRD and the institutions in the country. Through this, the Ministry aims to provide the necessary support system to the institutions.

Mar 31, 2020

Jharkhand Govt launches Pragyaam App for Essential Deliveries

Jharkhand Govt has launched the Pragyaam app to issue e-passes to those working in essential services. Jharkhand CM, Hemant Soren launched this app on March 30, 2020. The District Transport Officers will be responsible to issue e-passes to the vehicles carrying the essentials.
Pragyaam is an android app that can be easily downloaded from Google play store. The locally-designed app will issue passes to those associated with medical supply services, banking, regular supplies, and other essential services.

Team Trifed Van Dhan India shows the way 'Work From Home'

Continuing working from home, located in 27 States of the country, a group of over 500 officials from TRIFED, an organisation under the M/o Tribal Affairs, have unleashed the power of Webinars to keep in touch with each other and keep moving and working.Working on their computers from home, they have raised the bar very high, achieving unbelievable results.
Braving all odds, "The Tech for Tribals", a project to train tribal entrepreneurs at 16 premier IITs &IIMs of the country, was launched on line on 19 March 2020. This scheme will link almost 3.5 lakh tribal entrepreneurs living in villages to the premier institutions of the world.
The Trifed VanDhan GIS based website, the future medium of communication for 50 lakh tribal gatherers was launched on line for testing with 27 State teams participating, on 27 March 2020. TRIFED is arranging atleast 2 team meetings every day and the Team is reaching out to partners to keep moving forward.

Indian Army Prepares to Assist in Virus Response Measures

Amid a nationwide lockdown in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID–19) pandemic, the Indian Army has started training personnel to participate in assisting state authorities in enforcement efforts. India's lockdown, affecting some 1.3 billion people, is the largest national policy response of its type to the ongoing pandemic in the world.
The Indian Army has started training troops on how they might collaborate with law enforcement authorities to make sure that lockdown rules are followed.

Mandatory for Cable Operators to Carry 25 DD, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha TV Channels

The government asked cable operators to mandatorily broadcast 25 Doordarshan channels and Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha TV, saying "non-carriage" of these channels is liable for action under the law.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry said action against cable operator could be taken under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995.
The ministry has notified 25 DD and Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV channels that are to be mandatorily carried by the multiple system operators (MSOs) and cable operators on their networks.

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