General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Mar 07, 2020

Freedom in the World 2020 Report Ranks India among Least Free Democracies

According to the 'Freedom in the World 2020' report, which analyzes democratic values and people's freedom in 195 countries & 15 territories and ranks them category-wise, released by the Freedom House, a U.S (United States) -based watchdog that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, India ranked 83rd in the report along with Timor-Leste and Senegal in 'Free'category. Finland topped the list as the freest democratic country.

Railways Conducts Gender Euality Cmpaign

The Railways is conducting a ten-day long 'Each for Equal' campaign from March 1 to 10 across the Zonal Railways in view of the upcoming International Women's Day.
The International Women's Day will be celebrated across the world on Sunday.
"The theme of the Campaign is #EachforEqual signifying that collectively each one of us can help create a gender equal world and Railway is also focussing on #SheInspiresUs highlighting the inspiring stories of women achievers.
In this campaign, Indian Railways is highlighting the steps taken to provide exclusive facilities to women passengers, to empower women employees and enhance the role of women employees working in Indian Railways.

Govt. Reconstitutes National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

The government reconstituted the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as its chairperson and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others, as its members. The NPDRR is a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral decision making body on disaster management. In a notification, the home ministry said that the functions of the NPDRR will be to review the progress made in the field of disaster management from time to time, appraise the extent and manner in which the disaster management policy has been implemented by the central and state governments, and other agencies concerned, and advise on coordination between the central and state governments.
The minister of state in-charge of disaster management in the home ministry and the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority will be the NPDRR's vice chairpersons. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri are among its members.
The minister of each state government and union territory dealing with disaster management, a member of the state disaster management authority, mayors of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and municipal commissioners of these cities will also be its members. Ten chairpersons of urban local bodies, to be nominated by the urban development ministry, 10 representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions, to be nominated by the panchayat raj ministry, four Lok Sabha members, two Rajya Sabha members, and the Union home secretary and secretaries of departments concerned will be the NPDRR's ex-officio members, the notification said.

Mar 06, 2020

India & US Sign Deal for Missile Protection Suites for New Boeing-777 VVIP Planes

India signed Rs. 1,200 crore deal with the United States to procure the missile protection suites for two new Boeing-777 VVIP planes. The missile protection suites will be code named as 'Air Force One' and it will be expected to arrive India in middle of 2021 to begin VVIP planes.
Boeing-777 VVIP planes are being acquired for the purpose of President and Prime Minister's Domestic and International visits.
The features of self-protection suites include infrared and electronic warfare countermeasures suites, countermeasure dispensing systems, and missile warning sensors.
The aircraft will be operated by Indian Air Force pilots trained by Air India, which already maintained four Boeing 777 planes earlier.

Punjab Govt. to Install Statues of Religious Figures and Freedom Fighters

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh approved the installation in the state statues of Hindu deity Parshuram, iconic king Maharaja Agrasen, legendary Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, freedom fighter Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and Father of the Indian Constitution Dr. B R Ambedkar. The decision has been taken to promote the nation's and the state's rich historical legacy.
The chief minister described the initiative as an instrument to connect the youth with the glorious past of their ancestors.
The Chief Minister gave approval to install a bronze statue of Lord Parshuram at Ludhiana and that of legendary Indian king of Agroha, Maharaja Agarsen, at Bathinda.
The statue of legendary Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur would be installed at Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district, the statue of Ambedkar will be erected by Punjab Technical University in and around Phagwara or Jalandhar, while a bust in the memory of Baba Sohan Bhakna, to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the legendary freedom fighter, will be put up in Amritsar district.
Singh also gave in-principle approval for the installation of the statue of Baba Maharaj Singh in his native village Uchi Rabbon in Ludhiana district.
Recognising the immense contribution of Victoria Cross recipient and hero of Saragarhi battle Sepoy Ishar Singh, the CM also asked the steering committee to install his statue as a humble tribute to the iconic Sikh soldier in Ludhiana.

Maharashtra Government Renames Aurangabad Airport

The Maharashtra Government renamed the Aurangabad Airport as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport.
The airport has been renamed after Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The BJP, a former ally of Shiv Sena, had reportedly demanded that the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government rename the city of Aurangabad as 'Sambhajinagar'.

MHA Approved Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS)

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the automated facial recognition system (AFRS) by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for better identification of unrecognized bodies, missing children, persons and criminals without violating the privacy. To provide this information, AFRS will use police records and it can be accessed only by law enforcement agencies.
Launched in 2019, AFRS is world's largest facial recognition system for automatic tracking, identification, and verification of person from digital images, photos, digital sketches, video frames and video sources by comparing selected facial features of the image from an already existing image database.
Currently, the leading face recognition software are Amazon Rekognition; Face Recognition and Face Detection by Lambda Labs, Microsoft Face API (application program interface); Google Cloud Vision and IBM Watson Visual Recognition, among others. In China, startup Megvii and AI unicorns like SenseTime, CloudWalk and Yitu have made facial recognition commonplace in China.

Mar 05, 2020

Airports Set for Mammoth Corona Screening Exercise

All international passengers entering India will be screened at airports for the novel coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19).
The decision came on the day India reported a sharp rise in infections — from six on Tuesday to 29 on Wednesday.
At a high-level meeting that I held with various stakeholders, it was decided to extend the universal screening to all international flights, and not just 12 countries.
The decision effectively means all passengers entering the country via seaports will also be screened.
So far, India was screening passengers from 12 countries. Italy, one of the hot spots of the disease outside China, where the virus surfaced at the end of 2019, has now been added to the list.

Government Names Directors for 6 AIIMS

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked directors for six new AIIMS in Bathinda, Bibinagar, Deogarh, Kalyani, Rae Bareli and Gorakhpur.
Dr. Arvind Rajwanshi of PGIMER, Chandigarh, was chosen as Director of AIIMS, Rae Bareli.
Dr. Rajwanshi is currently Professor and Head, Department of Cytology and Gynaecological Pathology at PGI, Chandigarh.
Dr. Dinesh Kumar Singh, who is at present serving as Director of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, was appointed Director of AIIMS, Bathinda.
Kalyani AIIMS will be headed by Dr Ramji Singh, and Dr Saurabh Varshney has been named as Director of AIIMS, Deogarh.
AIIMS, Gorakhpur, will be headed by Dr Surekha Kishor, Prof, Community and Family medicine stocks, AIIMS, Rishikesh.

India to Set Up Lab in Iran to Test Citizens before Evacuation

As per reports, Indian is preparing to set up a make-shift laboratory in Iran to test 1,200 of its citizens stuck in the country before evacuating them. Those stranded in Iran are mostly students and pilgrims.
Four scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research have reached Tehran, the Iranian capital, with equipment and testing kits to facilitate mandatory testing before the people board a plane to India.
As per a senior health ministry official, it should take about 4-5 days before we get to know whether we will be able to test these people. Iran is dealing with a high case load itself so they are testing their own people on priority. We have the capacity to test, and we are ensuring that is done, but it will finally depend on local conditions.

Gairsain to be Summer Capital of Uttarakhand

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat declared Gairsain in Chamoli as the summer capital of Uttarakhand.
His announcement came as a surprise move in the House at a time when opposition Congress was demanding it to be declared as the capital of state amid debate on the issue. Statehood agitators and regional outfit Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, had been demanding to declare Gairsain as the permanent capital of the hill state.

35th Edition of the Food and Hospitality Fair 'AAHAR 2020' Commences in New Delhi

A 5-day-long 35th edition of the Food and Hospitality fair 'AAHAR 2020' commenced in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal. This fair specially focused on promoting the agriculture-community as well as tourism sectors especially hospitality companies.
The fair, open for business visitors is jointly organised by India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in partnership with the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Development Authority (APEDA), Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries and and several apex industry associations.
It saw the participation over 750 people from India and from countries like Hong Kong, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, UK (United Kingdom), UAE (United Arab Emirates) etc.

Fall in India's Democracy Ranking

A US-based human rights watchdog said that India registered the steepest decline in its rankings of the world's 25 largest democracies because of the scrapping of Kashmir's special status, the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the controversial new citizenship law.
Freedom House, the United States government-funded watchdog, said in its Freedom in the World 2020 report that the changes in Kashmir, the NRC and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) had "shaken the rule of law in India and threatened the secular and inclusive nature of its political system".
The annual report ranked 195 countries using 25 indicators covering seven areas – electoral processes, political processes and pluralism, functioning of government, freedom of expression and belief, rule of law, individual rights and association and organisational rights.
India, though included among "free" countries, dropped from a score of 75/100 in 2019 to 71/100 in 2020.
In contrast, Pakistan and Bangladesh scored 38/100 and 39/100 and China, included among "not free" nations, scored 10/100.

Mar 04, 2020

Government Appoints Sanjay Kumar Panda as Ambassador to Turkey

Senior diplomat Sanjay Kumar Panda was appointed as India's Ambassador to Turkey.
Panda, a 1991 Indian Foreign Service officer, is presently Consul General, Consulate General of India, San Francisco. He is expected to take up the assignment shortly.
Panda's appointment to the post came at a time when India-Turkey relations are under strain.
Last month, India had asked Turkey to refrain from commenting on the internal affairs of the country and also cautioned Ankara against encouraging cross-border terrorism.
India's reaction came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised the country after communal riots in Delhi left at least 42 people dead.

Jharkhand Announces Financial Assistance to Jobless Youth

The Jharkhand government presented the Rs. 85,000 crore budget for the financial year 2020-21.
Presenting the budget, state Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon announced Rs. 5000 to Rs. 7000 per annum assistance to unemployed graduate and post-graduate youth.
Oraon also proposed subsidised lungi dhoti and sari to 57 lakh poor families of the state.
The state government also introduced the plan to provide 100 units free electricity and 100 'mohalla clinics' across the state.
Moreover, one meal at the price of Rs. 5 will be given to poor people under the Mukhyamantri Dal Bhat Yojna (MDBY) to tackle severe poverty in the state.

U.N. Rights Body to Move Supreme Court on CAA

In an unprecedented and rare move, the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) announced that it plans to file an application in the Indian Supreme Court, asking to be impleaded in the petitions challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
And the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the United Nations body had no right to file a petition that will ask the court to appoint the Commissioner for Human Rights as an assistant or 'amicus curiae' in the case.
The OHCHR plan has been criticised by diplomatic and legal experts here, including one of the 22 petitioners in the case, as an "overreach" by it.
The High Commissioner (Michelle Bachelet) intends to submit an 'amicus curiae' brief shortly on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the Indian Supreme Court, in accordance with the Court's established procedures, and she has informed the Indian Permanent Mission in Geneva of her intention," Rupert Colville, OHCHR spokesperson based in Geneva, confirmed.
The amicus curiae will focus on providing an overview of relevant and applicable international human rights standards and norms to support the Court's deliberations in the context of its review of the CAA.

Mar 03, 2020

PM Modi Thinking of Going Offline

Social media was abuzz after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced, on social media, that he was thinking of giving up social media this Sunday.
"This Sunday, thinking of giving up my social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube," he said on Twitter. It wasn't immediately clear whether the Prime Minister, one of the most followed people on social media, plans to give up these platforms for good, or merely practice digital detox, which he has previously advocated, for a day a week.
PM has 53.3 million followers on Twitter, 44 million followers on Facebook, 35.2 million followers on Instagram, and 4.5 million subscribers on YouTube.

Centre Declares National Chambal Sanctuary in MP as Eco-sensitive Zone

The Centre declared the National Chambal Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, home to gangetic dolphins and 75 per cent population of critically endangered species gharial, as eco-sensitive zone (ESZ).
The ministry also directed the Madhya Pradesh government to prepare a Zonal Master Plan, which shall provide for restoration of denuded areas, conservation of existing water bodies, management of catchment areas, watershed management, groundwater management, soil and moisture conservation, needs of local community and such other aspects of the ecology and environment that need attention.
Spread over 435 square kilometres, the National Chambal Sanctuary lies across Sheopur, Morena and Bhind districts of Madhya Pradesh with a length of more than 400 kilometers.
It is home to naturally living population of 75 per cent of gharial. The sanctuary also harbours national aquatic animal – the fresh water gangetic dolphins, nine species of fresh water turtles and more the 180 species of migratory birds.
In its notification, the government prohibited any new construction of hotels and resorts within one kilometre from the boundary of the wildlife sanctuary or up to the extent of the ESZ, whichever is nearer.

AP Appoints Subhash Chandra Garg as Adviser to Y. S. Jagan

The Andhra Pradesh government appointed retired former Union finance secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg, as adviser to Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, to help the cash-strapped state mobilise resources.
Garg was given the rank of a cabinet minister in the state government and a tenure of two years. The order said Garg, in the capacity of adviser to CM (resource mobilisation) shall spend 15 days in a month on the assignment including 7-10 days at the state headquarters.

D. P. Pandey Takes over as First Director General of the Territorial Army

Lieutenant General D. P. Pandey took over as the first director general of the Territorial Army. Until now, the Territorial Army — a voluntary force comprising around 55,000 men — has been headed by an additional director general of major general rank. Lieutenant General Pandey has previously served as the army's additional director general of public information.

HC Fines Punjab and Haryana Rs. 100 cr Each

Punjab and Haryana were fined Rs. 100 crore each for causing damage to the catchment area of Sukhna Lake.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court bench of justices Rajiv Sharma and H. S. Sidhu also ordered the demolition of all the structures in the catchment area and ordered that those whose building plans were approved would be relocated and compensated with Rs. 25 lakh each.
The order came in a 2009 suo motu petition initiated over the depleting water level in the lake. The lake was created by Le Corbusier in 1958. By 1988, 66% of the original water holding capacity of the lake was lost due to silting. Though check dams were constructed in the catchment area, the water level has again started going down. The lake has the capacity of 500 hectare-metres against the original capacity of over 1,074 hectare metres.
The Rs. 200 crore fine would be deposited with the ministry of environment, forest within three months and would be utilized for restoration of the lake.

J&K Renames Historic City Chowk as 'Bharat Mata Chowk'

The historic City Chowk, which was a commercial center in Old Jammu, was renamed as 'Bharat Mata Chowk'. A resolution in this regard was passed by the General house of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-led Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), after which it was done.
Along with this, the starting point of the circular road near Panjtirthi in the city has also been changed to 'Atal Ji Chowk' in the memory of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
This is the first major change in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) after becoming a union territory (UT).
The tricolor is hoisted at City Chowk in Jammu on the occasion of Republic Day and Independence Day every year. BJP leaders have been demanding to change the name of this square to Bharat Mata Chowk for many years.

Soon Passengers can Access Wi-Fi Aboard Domestic Flights

Indian airlines have finally been given a go-ahead to provide in-flight Wi-Fi services to passengers after an official notification from the central government.
The Pilot-in-Command may permit the access of Internet services by passengers on board an aircraft in flight, through Wi-Fi on board, when laptop, smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, e-reader or a point of sale device is used in flight mode or airplane mode.
Currently, this service is available only for defence personnel. However, all devices using in-flight Wi-Fi will have to be on airplane mode.

Punjab Prohibits Online Supply of Food from FBOs Not Possessing Hygiene Rating

Punjab government's Food and Drug Administration has prohibited Online Food Supply Aggregators (OFSAs) related to those Food Business Operators (FBOs) who are not possessing hygiene rating, by invoking provisions under Section 18(1)(a) of food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 to ensure safe food to public.
It also prohibits OFSAs from sourcing the food from FBOs where rating is less than three out of five.
The prohibition orders would be effective for one year beginning April 30, 2020.

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