General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Mar 24, 2020

Delhi's Shaheen Bagh Cleared Of CAA Protesters, Some Detained

Protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh were removed and some detained, more than 100 days after they started the agitation, amid a lockdown in the national capital over the coronavirus outbreak.
Police said they have taken all the tents and billboards agitators had put up in Shaheen Bagh, which has been placed under heavy security.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan Returns As Madhya Pradesh CM For The Fourth Time

Shivraj Singh Chouhan returned as Madhya Pradesh chief minister for the fourth time after the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) legislative party picked him for the top job in a meeting held in Bhopal.
Chouhan was sworn in by governor Lalji Tandon in a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan. He was the only leader to be administered the oath in view of the health protocols necessitated by the Coronavirus outbreak.
The legislative party meeting was held three days after the resignation of Congress chief minister Kamal Nath. Chouhan lost power to Nath in December 2018 after the BJP failed to return to power in the state for the fourth consecutive time.

Rajya Sabha Passes Six Bills On Last Day Of Session

In the Budget session that began on January 31, the Upper House passed only 12 Bills, six of which were passed, the last day of the curtailed session.
The six Bills include Finance Bill, 2020 which was passed without any discussion in both Houses of Parliament.
The last day of the session saw many vacant seats. Members of the Trinamool Congress, NCP, SP, BSP, Shiv Sena among others were absent. Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu read out the leave application of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was absent due to ill-health.

Bihar Diwas 2020

Bihar Diwas, or Bihar Day, is observed on 22 March every year. It marks the formation of the state of Bihar when the state was carved out from the Bengal Presidency by the British in the year 1912.

Supreme Court To Go On Digital Mode For Social Distancing

The Supreme Court decided to further restrict its functioning on account of the COVID-19 scare and resort to the digital mode to maintain social distancing and prevent spread of infection. The court premises would be completely shutdown.
In a meeting among judges, lawyers and the government through the Solicitor General, it was decided that only extremely urgent cases would be taken up by a Bench(es) through a video app.
The Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde used its extraordinary powers under Article 142 to lift the limitation period for all cases across tribunals and courts in the country until further notice.

Mar 23, 2020

Entire Nation Observed Janata Curfew Voluntarily Following PM's Appeal To Check Spread Of Corona ...

The entire country is observed Janata Curfew following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal for people to voluntarily stay indoors to check the spread of Corona virus. In his address to the nation on 19th March of this month, he urged public to avoid stepping out of their homes.
Prime Minister said the steps we take now will help in the times to come. People's restraint and determination will defeat the epidemic.
Mr Modi asked everyone to express gratitude towards doctors, nurses, hospital staff, sanitation workers, airlines employees, government staff, police personnel, media people, people associated with train-bus-auto rickshaw services and home delivery agents.

Mar 20, 2020

No International Flights to Enter India for 7 Days

The government banned all international commercial flights from landing in India for a week starting March 22 and instructed states to enforce a work-from-home protocol for all private sector employees, except essential services, as part of a raft of measures aimed at staving off the coronavirus epidemic that has claimed four lives in the country.
In an advisory, the Centre also advised children below 10 and citizens above 65, except government servants, medical professionals and public representatives, to stay at home and not venture out.
The decision was taken after a meeting of the group of ministers (GOM) formed to monitor the outbreak, which included Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

APEDA Signs MoU with SFAC

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC). This MoU aims for better synergy with this organization for the development of agriculture, allied sectors and its exports for bringing better value to the stakeholders.
The MoU was signed between Ms. Neelkamal Darbari, Managing Director of SFAC and Mr. Paban Kumar Borthakur, Chairman of APEDA.
This collaboration focuses to reach large farmers for improving the production base of agri products quantitatively and qualitatively.
The APEDA and SFAC together work to achieve their goal and double the farmer's income by linking the FPOs/FPCs (Farmer Producer Organizations and Farmer Producer Companies) with the exporters.

Change in Premium Subsidy Sharing Pattern between Centre & NER from 50:50 to 90:10

The government has changed the premium subsidy sharing pattern between Centre and North Eastern States from 50:50 to 90:10 for PM- Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS). Simply, Central Share in Premium Subsidy increased to 90% for North Eastern Reagion (NER) or North Eastern States. For remaining States, subsidy sharing pattern will continue as 50:50.
This change in ratio will allow more states to notify the schemes and also facilitate greater coverage of farmers under the schemes.

SC Orders Reconvening Assembly, Directs Nath Govt . to Undergo Floor Test

In a jolt to the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court directed Assembly Speaker N. P. Prajapati to reconvene a special session with sole agenda of conducting the floor test that must conclude by 5 pm on 20th March.
Observing that the state of uncertainty must be effectively resolved by issuing a direction for convening a floor test, the top court directed that there shall be single agenda before the assembly whether the Congress government continues to enjoy the confidence of the House and the voting shall take place by show of hand.
A bench, comprising Justices D. Y. Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta, issued as many as eight interim directions after the conclusion of two-day hearing on cross pleas of former MP CM and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan and of MP Congress party.

Mar 19, 2020

Uttarakhand Government Removes Quota in Promotion for SC/ST Employees

The government of Uttarakhand decided to remove reservation in promotions for SC/ST employees.
Around two lakh General and OBC employees in the government were demanding the removal of the reservation to SC/ST employees and had been protesting since March 2.
The Chief Secretary issued a letter to all government departments to inform them of the government's move. With this, the state government also lifted restrictions on promotions in the state.

Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale among 37 Elected Unopposed to Rajya Sabha

A total of 37 candidates, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh, were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha after the end of deadline for withdrawal of nomination.
The nominations were filed for 55 Rajya Sabha seats in 17 states for the election scheduled to take place on March 26. The returning officers declared the names of candidatesdeclared elected unopposed to all seven seats in Maharashtra, six seats in Tamil Nadu, two seats each in Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Telangana; four seats in Odisha, five seats each in Bihar and West Bengal; three seats in Assam and one seat in Himachal Pradesh.
Elections for the remaining 18 seats will be held on March 26. The seats where election will be held are - four each in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, three each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two in Jharkhand and one each in Manipur and Meghalaya.

All J&K Residents to Get Free Health Insurance

The Jammu and Kashmir administration accorded sanction to rolling out the J&K Health Scheme to provide free of cost Universal Health Coverage to all residents of the Union Territory in convergence with Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY.
The decision was taken by the administrative council which met under the chairmanship of Lt. Governor G. C. Murmu.
Lt. Governor G. C. Murmu said that now around 1.25 crore residents of the Union Territory would get all benefits provided under the centre's Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
At present, 31 lakh people are eligible for benefits under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, the official said, adding around 15 lakh additional families will be covered under the J&K Health Scheme.
As part of Universal Health Coverage, the beneficiaries will be entitled to free health insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year on floater basis and there is no restriction on family size, age or gender.
All pre-existing illnesses shall also be covered besides; cashless services shall also be available in all the empanelled hospitals. The beneficiaries under the scheme shall have access to 20,853 (public and private) hospitals across the country and avail benefits with facility of inter-state portability.
A total of 1,469 medical and surgical packages or procedures including life consuming diseases such as cancer and kidney failure will be covered under the scheme.

Mar 18, 2020

Ajay Kumar India's High Commissioner to Uganda

Ajay Kumar was appointed as India's next High Commissioner to Uganda, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Kumar, a 2001-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is currently serving as the Joint Secretary in the MEA.

India Orders 1 mn Probes for Testing from Germany

With delays in procuring diagnostic and drug raw material from China because of the Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak in Wuhan last year, India has turned to Europe for the probes needed for testing for the deadly infection.
India ordered one million probes from Germany, which is expected to reach in a day or so. For Reverse Transcript-Polymerase Chain Reaction assays – which is the test for Covid-19 -- primers, probes and positive and negative controls are needed.

Haryana Renames Amin Village as Abhimanyupur

The Central Government approved renaming the Amin village as Abhimanyupur in Kurukshetra district of Haryana as per the request of the State government. The decision was taken by the Union Home Ministry after getting permission from a few central organisations.
The Union Ministry approves the change of name of any place after taking no-objections from the Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts and Surveys of India.
These organisations have to confirm that there is no such city, town or village in their records with a name similar to the proposed one.
In order to change the name of the village or a town or a city an executive order is needed and for renaming a state requires amendment of the constitution with a simple majority in the Parliament.
The Central Government has approved renaming at least 25 towns, villages or districts across the country in the last 3 years, including Uttar Pradesh's (UP) Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj.

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