General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Dec 28, 2018

Niti Aayog's Achiever District List

The NITI Aayog released the second delta ranking of the districts of the country reflecting the incremental progress made by them between June and October with Tamil Nadu's Virudhunagar emerging as the top performer.
As per the think-tank, the districts have been ranked on parameters including health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development and basic infrastructure.
Nuapada in Odisha, Siddharthnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Aurangabad in Bihar and Koraput in Odisha were ranked from 2nd to 5th respectively on top performers' list.
In its first such ranking released in June, Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara came at the bottom while Gujarat's Dahod topped the chart in terms of improvement made by them.

Plastic Ban in Tamil Nadu

A ban on plastic, sparing a few products such as packaged foods, will come into force across Tamil Nadu on New Year's Day after the Madras High Court dismissed a petition challenging the order.
A vacation bench comprising justices S. Vaidyanathan and P. T. Asha dismissed a legal challenge brought by the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Plastics Manufacturers Association, clearing the decks for the ban.
The judges also suggested a total ban on all sorts of plastic.

Six Months Extension to Complete NRC Updation

The Centre has given an extension of six months to complete the ongoing exercise for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam by June 30.
On December 6, 2013, the government had issued the first notification setting a deadline of three years for completion of the entire NRC process.
However, since then, five extensions were given by the government in regular intervals as the exercise has not yet been completed.

Portfolios in Rajasthan Cabinet

The newly inducted Ministers in Rajasthan were allocated portfolios by Governor Kalyan Singh on the advice of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot was given the portfolios of Public Works, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. Various departments were distributed among the 13 Cabinet Ministers and 10 Ministers of State.
According to the orders issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, Mr. Gehlot has been allocated Finance, Home and Justice, Excise, Planning, Policy Formulation, Personnel, General Administration and Information Technology departments and the State Bureau of Investigation.

Dec 26, 2018

Increase in BC Quota in PR Polls

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has demanded the State Government to withdraw the ordinance amending PR Act 2018 to bring down the reservations for Backward Classes in Panchayat Raj elections.
In a letter to the CM, he demanded that the government implements the High Court order on conducting caste-wise enumeration of BCs in the State along with a socio-economic survey on their conditions.

Bhupesh Baghel Cabinet Expanded

The Bhupesh Baghel cabinet in Chhattisgarh was expanded, taking its total strength to 12.
T. S. Singh Deo and Tamradhwaj Sahu had taken oath as ministers on December 17 along with Bhupesh Baghel.
The new ministers are: Mohammad Akbar, the only Muslim minister, Ravindra Choubey, Umesh Patel, Anila Bhedia, Kawasi Lakhma, Premsai Singh Tekam, Shiv Kumar Daharia and Rudra Guru.

MP Gets First Muslim Minister in 15 Years

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath expanded his cabinet inducting 28 ministers including Arif Aqueel, the lone Muslim face in the new council of ministers.
Aqueel, MLA from Bhopal North, is the first Muslim minister in the state after 15 years.
Kamal Nath inducted nine MLAs from the Malwa Nivad region, six from central Madhya Pradesh, five representing the Gwalior-Chambal region and three from Bundelkhand in his cabinet.
The ministerial team includes 11 loyalists of the Chief Minister, nine from Congress veteran's Digvijay Singh's camp, seven from Jyotiraditya Scindia's camp and one from former state party chief Arun Yadav's camp.

Ashok Gehlot to Reverse Vasundhara Raje's Order

The Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan is set to reverse an order of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
The Congress has decided to do away with a logo comprising photograph of Jan Sangh founder Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay on government letterheads and notifications, and replace the same with Ashok Stambh, the national emblem.
During the tenure of the BJP government, it was made mandatory to use the Deen Dayal Upadhyay logo on all government orders, notifications and letterheads.
The Congress party had protested when the order was issued.

Dec 25, 2018

Tenth Naval Hospital

The Indian Navy commissioned a hospital ship INHS Sandhani at Naval Station Karanja in Uran in Maharashtra's Raigad district. INHS Sandhani is the tenth Naval Hospital of the Navy.
The hospital had modest beginnings as a small primary health centre in 1955. With the steady expansion of the naval station over the last few decades, a need was felt for a multispecialty hospital.
The sanction for the same was given by the Ministry of Defence in September 2016.

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot's Cabinet

The Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan will have 23 ministers, including 17 new faces. It will have 13 cabinet ministers and ten ministers of state.
The strength of the council of ministers in Rajasthan cannot exceed 30 or 15% of the total number of seats in the 200-member state assembly.
The MLAs who are going to be a part of the state cabinet are: Bulaki Das Kalla (Bikaner west), Parsadi Lal Meena (Lalsot), Shanti Dhariwal (Kota North), Lalchand Kataria (Jhotwara), Raghu Sharma (Kekri), Vishvendra Singh (Deeg-Kumher), Harish Choudhary (Baytoo), Ramesh Meena (Sapotra), Master Bhanwarlal Meghwal (Sujangarh), Pratap Singh Khachariyawas (Civil Lines), Udai Lal Anjana (Nimbahera), Saleh Mohammad (Pokaran), Govind Singh Dotasara (Lachhmangarh), Mamta Bhupesh (Sikrai), Arjun Bamania (Banswara), Bhanwar Singh Bhati (Kolayat), Sukhram Bishnoi (Sanchore), Ashok Chandna (Hindoli), Tikaram Jully (Alwar Rural), Bhajan Lal Jatav (Weir), Rajendra Singh Yadav (Kotputli) and Subhash Garg from Bharatpur (Rashtriya Lok Dal).

Chhattisgarh to Return Tribal Land

The newly-elected Congress government in Chhattisgarh has said it will return the land acquired from tribal farmers in Bastar in 2005 by the state government for the proposed Tata Steel project, which did not take off.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has issued directions to the concerned department and the process of returning the land of the tribals will start soon.
The Congress had promised in its manifesto that since the land is lying idle for more than five years it would be returned to the tribals as per Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, 2013, if they come to power.

Dec 22, 2018

Agencies Allowed to Monitor Computers

The government and the Opposition sparred over a notification allowing 10 central agencies and Delhi police rights to snoop into anyone's computer, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi raising the spectre of a "police state" and finance minister Arun Jaitley and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad clarifying that this was merely a repetition of rules passed during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime in 2009.

Three States top Development Index

According to a first-of-its-kind index released by NITI Aayog, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been ranked highest in terms of being on track to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The index comprises a composite score for each State and Union Territory based on their aggregate performance across 13 of the 17 SDGs.
The score, ranging between 0 and 100, denotes the average performance of the State/UT towards achieving the 13 SDGs and their respective targets.
The average Indian score was 57.

Dec 21, 2018

Live Streaming Counselling

In a first for a government hospital in the country, Jipmer is all set to introduce live streaming of the counselling process of post-graduate entrance examination in a bid to enhance transparency.
As per Jipmer director Dr. R. P. Swaminathan, with this move, the counselling process would become more transparent and avoid legal issues.
This facility is being done using National Knowledge Network (NKN) internet connectivity provided by National Informatics Centre (NIC) Puducherry.

UPA Sealed Bihar Alliance

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) received a shot in the arm with the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) of Upendra Kushwaha, a former constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), joining its grouping in the electorally crucial state of Bihar which sends 40 representatives to the Lok Sabha.
Kushwaha told that his party will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as part of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar.
Apart from the Congress and the RLSP, the other major parties in the grand alliance are the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

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