General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - September 2015

Sep 2015

Nov 27, 2018

Neiphiu Rio Launches Tourist Police

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio launched the Nagaland Tourist Police which will work for the safety and security of the tourists and report any crime against them to the nearest police station. He also flagged off tourist police vehicles and inaugurated an Integrated Police Control Room for tourists.

Iravatham Mahadevan Passes Away

Iravatham Mahadevan one of the world's leading scholars on the Indus Valley Script, the pre-eminent scholar on the Tamil Brahmi script, and a man of many accomplishments, passed away.

A former member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Mr. Mahadevan joined the service in 1954 and took voluntary retirement in 1980, after holding various positions in the Central and Tamil Nadu governments.

In August 1987, he became the Editor of the Tamil daily, Dinamani and served the paper for four years.

Mr. Mahadevan was awarded the Padma Shri in April 2009.

He was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1970 for his research on the Indus script and the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of Historical Research in 1992 for his work on the Tamil Brahmi inscriptions.

Lakshminarayana Joins Politics

Former joint director of Central Bureau of Investigation V. V. Lakshminarayana, who took voluntary retirement this March, announced his entry into politics.

The Andhra IPS officer of Maharashtra cadre joined Lok Satta, a political party founded by retired IAS officer and former legislator Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan.

Lakshminarayana will be reviving the party that had gone defunct four years ago after Jayaprakash Narayan wound it up as a political force and has been running it as a social organisation. He declared that the party would contest the next assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

Next Chief Election Commissioner

President Ramnath Kovind has cleared the appointment of former bureaucrat Sunil Arora as the Chief Election Commissioner.

Arora, who is currently election commissioner, will take over the top job at the poll panel on December 2, when the incumbent O. P. Rawat demits office. Ashok Lavasa is the second election commissioner.

A former secretary in the ministry of information and broadcasting, Arora has also served as the secretary in the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship. A 1980-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Arora has served stints in ministries such as finance, textiles and planning commission and served as joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation.

Nov 26, 2018

Indus Waters Treaty

The Government of India has decided to fast-track three projects, including construction of two dams, to arrest the unutilised water of its share under the bilateral Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan.

The three projects include the Shahpur Kandi dam project, a second Sutlej-Beas link in Punjab and the Ujh Dam project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Under the Indus Waters Treaty, waters flowing in three of Indus tributaries, the Sutlej, Beas and Ravi, have been allotted to India; while the Chenab, Jhelum and Indus waters have been allotted to Pakistan.

InterGlobe Aviation Chairman Passes Away

InterGlobe Aviation, which operates the country's largest airline IndiGo, said that its chairman Devadas Mallya Mangalore passed away. He was also a non-executive independent director. He had served as the CMD of Bank of Baroda and Bank of Maharashtra.

Nov 25, 2018

Centre Looks Abroad for Ideas

The Centre is in talks with experts from Germany, Laos, Austria and Egypt, among others, to evolve a Ganga River Basin Management Plan.

Though it already has a preliminary draft from a consortium of seven IITs, it is in the process of soliciting wider consultation from countries that have such river basin management plans.

Vice-President to Lay Stone for Corridor

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu will lay the foundation stone for the construction of the visa-free corridor from the Indian side to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan on November 26.

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari and Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh will be present.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to perform the ground-breaking ceremony for construction work on its side of the border on November 28.

Nov 24, 2018

Delhi's New Chief Secretary

Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Dev has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary in the Delhi government.

Mr. Dev, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT cadre, takes over from Anshu Prakash, a 1986-batch officer of the same cadre.

Mr. Prakash had taken over as Delhi Chief Secretary on December 4, 2017.

RTI Request Denied

The Centre has denied a Right to Information (RTI) request for a copy of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018, which had been notified for introduction in the monsoon session of Parliament.

The Bill sought to give the Centre power to set the tenure and salaries of State and Central Information Commissioners. Critics worry this could threaten the independence of Commissioners. An RTI request for details on the applicants and search committee set up to fill the vacancies on the Central Information Commission (CIC) has also been denied. The CIC is the final appellate authority for all Central public authorities. By December 1, there will be eight vacancies in the 11-member Commission.

Constitution Will Be Available in Braille

The Constitution will be made available in Braille for the first time ahead of the Constitution Day on November 26.

In a joint project undertaken by The Buddhist Association for the Blind along with Saavi Foundation and Swagat Thorat, who started India's first Braille newsletter 'Sparshdnyan' , the Constitution will be made available in five parts in Braille for the benefit of visually challenged individuals.

Nov 23, 2018

IIMC Granted Deemed Varsity Status

The HRD Ministry has issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) to the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) to grant it deemed university status.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had in August recommended the HRD Ministry to grant deemed university status to the IIMC.

The institute, one of the prestigious journalism schools in the country which functions under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism, advertising and public relations. The deemed university status will enable the institute to grant degrees instead of diplomas.

Jute Packaging Mandatory for All Food Grains

The government approved a proposal making jute packaging mandatory for all food grains. The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by the Prime Minister. The jute sector in India employs approximately 3.7 lakh workers directly.

Polluting Units Sealed

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has sealed 124 illegal commercial units, which stored tar oil, in Ashoka Park, near Karol Bagh on the orders of the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority. The units were being illegally operated out of a residential area in violation of the provision of the Delhi Master Plan 2021.

Corridor to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur

India and Pakistan will build a corridor on their respective sides to let Sikh pilgrims visit the iconic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur on the banks of the river Ravi in the neighbouring country.
The plan to build a corridor on the Indian side leading to the border near the gurdwara was among a slew of proposals cleared during a Cabinet meeting to mark Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary in 2019.

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