General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Aug 19, 2019

Centre Forms Committee To Rationalise Taxes On Jet Fuel

The Aviation Ministry has formed a committee to rationalise additional taxes that airlines have to pay while uplifting aviation turbine fuel (ATF) at airports across India.
Airlines have to pay charges such as 'throughput charges', 'into plane charges' and 'fuel infrastructure charges' when they take ATF at any airport for their planes.
Aviation Ministry has formed a committee comprising representatives from airlines, airport operators, oil companies, among others.
As per government estimates, if a direct billing mechanism is implemented, airlines would be able to save around Rs.400 crore per year.
In India, aviation turbine fuel accounts for almost 40% of any airline's total expenditure. Therefore, any taxation on ATF always has a huge impact on airline companies.

Lucknow's Iconic Hazratganj Chauraha Renamed As 'Atal Chowk'

Lucknow city's iconic Hazratganj Chauraha has been renamed as the 'Atal Chowk', in honour of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The decision was taken by the Yogi Adityanath government in memory of Vajpayee, who passed away in 2018on August 16 at the age of 93 after a prolonged illness.
The Hazratganj Chauraha in Lucknow is located in the heart of the city near its major shopping area 'Hazratganj'.

Raj To Set Up Heinous Crime Monitoring Unit

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced the formation of a Heinous Crime Monitoring Unit to investigate sensational crimes in a speedy way.
The unit will function under the supervision of ADG (crime) and help in effective pursuance of such cases in court.
The in-charge will be an IG rank officer with one DIG and two SP rank officers, and two law officers. Further in every range and police commissionerate, one additional SP will be part of this unit.

Aug 18, 2019

AAP's Mishra and Party's Women's Wing Chief Richa Join BJP

Disqualified rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Kapil Mishra and the party women's wing chief, Richa Pandey, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BJP vice-president Shyam Jaju and Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari handed over the membership slips to Mishra and Pandey at an event, where Mishra's mother, Annapurna Mishra, a senior BJP leader and former east Delhi mayor, was present .
On August 2, 2019, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel disqualified Mishra for sharing the stage with prominent BJP leaders and campaigning against the ruling AAP in Delhi in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections 2019.
Mishra, who was elected from Karawal Nagar, has challenged his disqualification in the high court.

India Studying Early Chinese Proposals On Boundary Issue

The 22nd round of the India-China Special Representatives dialogue on the boundary issue will take place in New Delhi.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is evaluating the "early harvest" proposals sent by Beijing to build trust between the two sides ahead of the meeting.
The foreign ministers dialogue on August 11-13 (2019) in Beijing and the Special Representative talks are precursors to the October 11-12 (2018) informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in India for which Varanasi is being considered as the potential venue.

Modi Embarks On Two-Day Bhutan Visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering held wide ranging talks during which they discussed steps to further expand the bilateral partnership across several sectors as the two countries inked 10 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to infuse new energy in their ties.
Modi inaugurated 740 MW Mangdechhu hydroelectric power plant and also launched stamps to commemorate five decades of India-Bhutan Hydropower cooperation.
The two countries signed 10 agreements in the field of space research, aviation, information technology, power and education. One of the MOUs include establishment of SATCOM Network in Thimphu for the utilisation of South Asia Satellite.
The two leaders jointly inaugurated the Ground Earth Station and SATCOM network, developed with assistance from ISRO for utilization of South Asia Satellite in Bhutan.
Modi also launched RuPay Card in Bhutan by making a purchase at Simtokha Dzong, built in 1629 by Shabdrung Namgyal, which functions as a monastic and administrative centre and is one of the oldest dzongs in Bhutan.
The two leaders also unveiled e-plaque of the interconnection between India's National Knowledge Network and Bhutan's Druk Research and Education Network.
He also announced to increase the supply of LPG from India from 700 to 1000 MT per month.

Aug 17, 2019

Commencement Of Container Train Services By CONCOR At Suranussi

Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR) joined hands to commence container train operations from Suranussi, located near Jalandhar in Firozpur Division of Northern Railway.
A land license agreement was signed at Firozpur Division between Railways and CONCOR at a glittering ceremony graced by TP Singh, GM (Northern Rly); Rajesh Agrawal, DRM/Firozpur; Sanjay Swarup, Director (International Marketing & Ops.)/CONCOR; Kamal Jain, Exe. Director, CONCOR (Northern Region) and other senior officers from railways.

SC Clears Chardham Highway Project

The Supreme Court has cleared the decks for the Chardham highway project, which will connect four holy places in the hills of Uttarakhand through 900-km all-weather roads, by modifying an NGT order to constitute a fresh committee to look into environmental concerns.
It ordered the ministry of environment and forest to form the high-powered committee (HPC).
NGO Citizen for Green Doon had petitioned the apex court, after the National Green Tribunal on September 26, 2018 gave its conditional approval to the connectivity project in view of larger public interest, saying the project would cause an irreversible damage to regional ecology.
The NGT had constituted a committee headed by a former Uttarakhand high court judge to monitor the project.
Hearing the NGO's petition against the project, the apex court bench, comprising justice RF Nariman and Surya Kant only modified September 2018 NGT order by constituting a fresh HPC.

Piyush Goyal Launches CORAS

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry launched Commando for Railway Security (CORAS) of Indian Railways and new establishment manual for Railway Protection Force at State Entry Road in New Delhi.
VK Yadav, Chairman, Railway Board; Arun Kumar, DG, RPF and TP Singh, General Manager, Northern Railway along with others were present.It has been carved out from young staff of RPF/RPSF.
With an average age between 30 and 35 years, CORAS will always be a motivated staff. There are high physical standards to join it.
Commando Coys shall be deployed in Left Wing Extremism or terrorism-affected areas.Railway Minister Piyush Goyal inducted the Commando for Railway Security (CORAS) and promised to set up a commando training centre in Haryana to modernize and train commandos of the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
The Minister said the RPF's crack commando team of 1,200 officers will get the most modern equipment and world-class training.
This will help train the other 60,000-65,000 fellow officers of RPF. The Minister said a network of CCTV cameras will be set up at every station.

Arnala Police Station 1st To Get ISO certification

The Arnala Coastal police station has become the first ISO 9001:2015 certified police station in Palghar district, for efficient and quality policing.

Aug 16, 2019

Narendra Modi Independence Day 2019 speech

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort on the occasion of 73rd Independence Day. In his speech, which lasted for 92 minutes, PM Modi talked about the key problems facing the nation and how India could remove all obstacles to reach Rs 5-trillion economy mark.

The major highlightes of PM's Independence Day speech are:

India to have chief of defence staff
Rs 100 lakh crore to be invested on infrastructure
PM promotes small family
Promoting exports top priority
PM Modi emphasised on the need to boost exports in his address to the nation.
'Made in India' products should be priority PM Modi said the county should think of consuming local products, improving rural economy and the MSME sector.
Water conservation top priority
Free India from single use plastic

Aug 15, 2019

Govt Launches Swachh Survekshan 2020 And Swachh Nagar App

Swachh Survekshan League 2020 was launched with the objective of sustaining on the ground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance on cleanliness.
Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020), the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey.
SBM Water PLUS Protocol, Swachh Nagar app, Swachh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit and AI-enabled mSBM App were also launched.

Punjab CM Dedicates 3rd Phase Of Jung-e-Azadi Memorial To Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Victims

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh dedicated the third phase of the 'Jung-E-Azadi' memorial at Jalandhar to the people who were killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the unsung heroes who were incarcerated in the Andaman Cellular jail during the freedom struggle.
The memorial would go a long way in spreading awareness among the younger generations about India's glorious past and the sacrifices made by the hundreds of thousands of people who fought to free Indians from the British shackles.
On the occasion, the chief minister also digitally launched a slew of other projects for Jalandhar district, as part of Rs 450 crore worth of development and welfare projects inaugurated across the state on the eve of Independence Day.

Aamir Khan Launches Mission Shakti Sports Initiative

Film actor Aamir Khan attended the launch function of Mission Shakti, an initiative by Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to train athletes from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli for international events like the Olympics.
Khan felicitated a team of tribal mountaineers who had recently scaled Mount Everest as part of 'Mission Shaurya'.

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