General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Dec 02, 2018

Mufti Writes to PM Modi to Open Sharada Peeth Pilgrimage

Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him to initiate the process of opening the Sharada Peeth pilgrimage on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor.
The ancient Sharada Temple across the line of Control in the PoK is of immense significance for Kashmiri Pandits.

SC Dismisses Petition Regarding NJAC

The Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking review of its October 2015 verdict that declared National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) unconstitutional and revived the Collegium system of judicial appointments.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the review petition filed by the National Lawyers' Campaign for Judicial Transparency and Reforms, saying it was delayed and devoid of merit.
In accordance with the practice followed in the Supreme Court, the review petition was taken up 'in chamber' and it was dealt with 'by circulation' without advocates being allowed to advance arguments.
The review of the 2015 verdict was primarily sought on the ground that it went against the doctrine of separation of powers as the top court assumed the role of both Parliament and the Executive.
It has resulted in a "ridiculous scenario" where Articles 124 and 217 of the Constitution (which deal with appointment of SC and HC judges) were to be read diametrically opposite to what they stated, the review petitioner contended. However, the review Bench - which also included Justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph (since retired), AM Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan - was not convinced.
A five-judge Constitution Bench had on October 16, 2015 struck down the NJAC Act, 2014 and revived the Collegium system under which a panel of top judges appoint judges of the Supreme Court and high courts following a 1993 verdict that reduced the role of the executive to mere checking of antecedents and issuance of formal warrant of appointment.

Maharashtra Government Notifies 16% Maratha Quota

The Maharashtra government issued a gazette notification confirming 16% reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and education.
With this, the Marathas, who form around 30% of the state's population, can get reserved seats in government jobs, in addition to aided and unaided educational institutes in the state, with immediate effect.
The state legislature had cleared the Maratha quota bill. The bill got the assent of the Maharashtra governor C. Vidyasagar Rao.
The move has effectively increased the caste-based quota in Maharashtra to 68%, breaching the Supreme Court-mandated cap on caste-based reservation of 50%. The quota is likely to face a legal challenge, with OBC groups planning to move court.

Dec 01, 2018

Drones to Soon Transport Organs

India could soon see the use of drones for transporting organs and other emergency medical supplies between hospitals under the new policy for remotely piloted aircraft, the official registration process for which began on Friday.
As per Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, the government is examining the possibility of creating "drone ports" in hospitals to permit this kind of transportation.
Drone ports in hospitals can allow quick transportation of harvested organs to recipients under the Drone Policy 2.0 or the next generation of our policy that was recently announced.

IITS and IISC Lead Race for Patents

The Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay, Madras and Delhi, along with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, are at the forefront of centrally funded technical institutes leading in research and innovation this year.
According to latest data available with the human resource development (HRD) ministry, IIT Madras leads the race with 132 patents filed by its students and faculty this year.
IIT Mumbai is second with 104 patents as on November 25, IISc Bangalore is close behind with 101 patents and IIT Delhi has registered 96 patents.
Only three institutes had crossed the century mark last year, with IIT Mumbai registering 185 patents, IIT Madras 132 and IISc Bangalore 106.

India Launches Passport Seva Project

The Indian government has launched an initiative in major consulates in the US to simplify the overall passport applications procedure and reduce the turnaround time for applicants from 10 days to 48 hours or less.
The Passport Seva Project (PSP) prints Indian passports in the US and reduces turnaround for applicants.
The Consulate General of India, Houston, inaugurated the PSP in Houston along with a team led by Minister of State for External Affairs, General (Rtd) V. K. Singh.
The team has been in the US to launch the project at Indian Embassy, Washington DC and in five Consulates, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York and San Francisco.

Nov 30, 2018

Maharashtra Assembly Passed Bill for Maratha Quota

The Maharashtra legislature unanimously approved a bill to offer 16% reservation in government jobs and university seats to Marathas, a politically influential community that makes up 30% of the state's population.
The passage of the bill takes caste-based reservation in the state to 68%, breaching a Supreme Court-mandated cap of 50% and making a legal challenge likely.
Both houses of the state legislature passed the Maharashtra State Reservation (of seats for admission in education institutions in the state and for appointments in the public services and posts under the state) for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018.
This will make Maharashtra the state with the second-highest reservations in the country, after Tamil Nadu, which has 69% caste-based quotas.

Nov 29, 2018

India among Countries Worst Hit by Climate Change

Ahead of the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change begins in Katowice, Poland, a Lancet report has raised concern on the debilitating impact of climate change on human health across the world. India is one of the countries worst hit by heat stress and labour hours lost as a result.

According to the Lancet Countdown 2018 on Health and Climate Change report, globally each person was exposed to an additional 1.4 days of heat wave between 2000 and 2017 compared to the baseline period of 1986 to 2005. In 2017, an additional 157 million heat wave exposure events took place, which is 18 million more heat exposure events than in 2016.

India Won't Attend SAARC Meet

According to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, India will not attend the SAARC summit in Pakistan and unless the neighbouring country stops sponsoring terror activities even as she welcomed Islamabad's decision to build the Kartarpur corridor.

India had pulled out of the 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit that was to be held in Islamabad in 2016 after the deadly terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year.

UPSC Gets New Chairman

Arvind Saxena has been appointed as chairman of the Union Public Service Commission, which conducts examination to select bureaucrats, diplomats and police officers.

Saxena will have a tenure till August 7, 2020, when he attains the age of 65 years.

He has been working as acting head of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) since June 20.

Saxena joined the UPSC as a member in May 2015. Prior to joining the UPSC, he was working as director of the Aviation Research Centre (ARC).

Nov 28, 2018

Defence IPRs

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated an ambitious mission, "Raksha Gyan Shakti", to promote self-reliance in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in defence.

Under the mission, the target for the year 2017-18 is to train 10,000 personnel of Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU) and Ordnance factory Board (OFB) on IPR and facilitate filing of at least 1,000 new IPR applications.

ABHM Will Contest 2019 Lok Sabha Polls Independently

The Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) leader and granddaughter of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajashree Choudhury, said that the Mahasabha will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls independently. However, the organisation is yet to decide the number of seats it would contest in the general elections and has kept open the alliance possibilities as well.

On alliance, she said that it will depend on decisions and situation, and wondered which party will come close to ABHM's strict and distinct ideologies.

She also made it clear that the Ram temple issue at Ayodhya will be the poll plank of the mahasabha along with eradication of corruption, and establishing Hindutva ideologies.

Giridhar Malviya Next Chancellor of BHU

Former Allahabad High Court judge Giridhar Malviya was elected as the Chancellor of BHU, which was founded by his grandfather Madan Mohan Malviya.

Justice (retd) Malaviya, a BHU alumnus, will succeed Karan Singh.

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