General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2015

Dec 2015

May 24, 2022

Andhra Pradesh Joins WEF's Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs

Andhra Pradesh joined the Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs (AMHUBs) of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The state government and WEF exchanged the platform partnership on "Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains".
An agreement to this effect was signed on the sidelines of the annual meeting of WEF which began at Davos. Officials from both sides inked the agreement in the presence of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
AMHUBs engages regional production ecosystems, including stakeholders from public and private sectors, academia and civil society to support the development and scaling of local efforts aimed at preparing industry for the future of manufacturing and production.

Vinai Kumar Saxena is New Lt Governor of Delhi

Vinai Kumar Saxena, the chairperson of Khadi & Village Industries Commission, was appointed as the new Lt Governor of Delhi.
Saxena succeeded Anil Baijal who resigned from the post citing personal reasons.
Baijal, a 1969-batch IAS officer, was appointed as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in December 2016 after the sudden resignation of Najeeb Jung.
Saxena was born on March 23, 1958, and is a Kanpur University alumnus with a Pilot license.
In March 2021, he was appointed by the Union government as a member of the national committee to commemorate 75 years of India's independence. In November 2020, he was nominated as a member of the Padma Awards selection panel for the year 2021.
In 1991, he founded the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), a non-profit NGO with its headquarters in Ahmedabad. NCCL is recognised by the Ministry of Law and Justice.

May 23, 2022

IFS Vivek Kumar is PS to Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Indian Forest Service (IFS) Officer, Vivek Kumar was appointed as the Personal Secretary (PS) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Joint Secretary level. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved the proposal for the appointment of Vivek Kumar as PS to Modi.
Vivek Kumar is an IFS officer of the 2004 batch, who joined the Prime Minister`s Office as a Deputy Secretary in 2014.
He completed his B.Tech in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay and has served in diplomatic positions in Russia and Australia.

Dome of Newly Built Meghalaya Assembly Collapses

A portion of the Rs. 177.7 crore newly built Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building collapsed.
According to a PWD Executive Engineer overseeing the construction, a 70 tonne dome of the building collapsed, which could have been due to a design fault. The weight of the steel dome was perhaps too much for the columns and the beams to bear. This resulted in the entire structure coming down.

PM Modi Participates in Quad Summit in Tokyo

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders which was aimed at further bolstering cooperation among the member nations of the influential grouping and discussing developments in the Indo-Pacific region. Besides Mr. Modi, the Quad summit in Tokyo on May 24 was attended by U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese.
The Quad or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue comprises India, the U.S., Japan and Australia.

GeM signs MoU with SEWA to boost Women-led Enterprises

Government eMarketplace (GeM) and Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the advocacy, outreach, mobilisation and capacity-building of last-mile women-led micro and small enterprises and women entrepreneurs.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GeM will train SEWA members to assist and enable women-led micro and small enterprises, women entrepreneurs and SHGs among others, with GeM processes related to seller registration and on-boarding on the platform, upload/ update of product/ service catalogues, acceptance of orders, participation in bids floated by Govt buyers etc.
As per P. K. Singh, CEO, GeM, Inclusion is a core value at GeM, and this partnership would leverage the wide network of women entrepreneurs through SEWA to ensure the inclusion and participation of last-mile women entrepreneurs and women SHGs on GeM.
Presently, 1.31 lakh women MSE entrepreneurs are registered on the GeM portal and they have fulfilled approximately 5.7 lakh orders worth Rs. 10,752 crore in gross merchandise value.

May 22, 2022

500,000 People in Assam to Get Houses Under PMAY-G

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh presented sanction letters to 12 beneficiaries as a part of providing houses to five lakh people. Sarma said that the process of giving five lakh houses to the beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G) started from Jorhat and it will be replicated throughout the state.
He said that since 2014, the Centre has sanctioned 19 lakh houses for Assam with a financial outlay of Rs 27,000 crore.
The chief minister said that of the 12,000 beneficiaries in Jorhat district, 4,000 belong to tea garden communities.

Sidhu Surrenders Before Patiala Court after SC Jails Him in Road Rage Case

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu surrendered in a court in Patiala a day after he was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment by the Supreme Court in a 1988 road-rage case. Accompanied by some party leaders including Navtej Singh Cheema, he reached the district court, which is closed to the former Congress president house, in the afternoon.
The Supreme Court sentenced Sidhu to one-year rigorous imprisonment in the road-rage case, saying any undue sympathy in imposing an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice system and undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law. A 65-year-old man had died in the road rage incident.

May 21, 2022

PM's Economic Advisory Panel Proposes Urban Job Guarantee Scheme

A report commissioned by the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to the Prime Minister suggested that the government roll out a universal basic income (UBI) scheme to reduce stark income gaps. The report also said to launch a guaranteed employment programme for the urban unemployed.
The report titled The State of Inequality in India, prepared by the Gurgaon-based Institute for Competitiveness was released by EAC chairman Bibek Debroy.
Citing the results of the three rounds of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the council noted that in the three years to 2019-20, the top one per cent of the population held six to seven per cent of the total incomes earned. The report called for raising minimum income and ensuring better distribution of earnings in the labour market.

Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai Held

Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the leather industry in India will aim at net-zero carbon footprint to meet the environmental norms. He was speaking at the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of the Central Leather Research Institute, a research centre under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Chennai. He said, the new vision for the leather sector for the next twenty-five years would be on sustainability, total recyclability, income parity for workers and brand building.
Central Leather Research Institute or CLRI is the world's largest leather research institute in terms of research papers and patents. The institute located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu was founded on 24 April 1948 as a constituent laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Amritsar-Jamnagar Greenfield Corridor to be Completed by September 2023: Nitin Gadkari

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the Amritsar-Jamnagar Greenfield Corridor is being constructed in a full capacity. This corridor is one of the most important Greenfield Corridors being developed by the National Highways Authority of India. The complete corridor is targeted to be completed by September 2023.
Bikaner to Jodhpur section of 277 kilometres is targeted to be completed and opened to public by the end of 2022.
The flagship Amritsar - Bhatinda - Jamnagar Corridor is being developed at a total capital cost of 26 thousand crore rupees and will connect the economic towns of Amritsar, Bhatinda, Sangaria, Bikaner, Sanchore, Samakhiyali and Jamnagar across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

May 20, 2022

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal Resigns, Cites Personal Reasons

Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal resigned citing "personal reasons" and submitted the resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind. Baijal, a 1969-batch IAS officer, was appointed as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi in December 2016 after the sudden resignation of Najeeb Jung.
His over five-year tenure was marked by frequent run-ins with the AAP dispensation over administrative jurisdiction and governance-related issues, including one in which Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers staged a dharna at the LG office in 2018. In Delhi, three subjects --- land, services and law and order, directly come under the purview of the Lieutenant Governor. The matter regarding control over the services department is still in the Supreme Court.
Baijal was the Union home secretary in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He has also served as additional secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation. He was also the Chairman and MD of Indian Airlines and CEO of Prasar Bharati.

Kerala to Launch India's First State-owned OTT Platform

In a first in the country, Kerala will launch a state-owned over-the-top (OTT) platform, CSpace, on November 1, offering film lovers an array of movies, short films and documentaries of their choice. The launch of CSpace, which boasts of several unique features, will coincide with the state's formation day on November 1.
Noting that this was a first-of-its-kind initiative in India, Minister for cultural affairs Saji Cheriyan said the launch of the state-owned OTT will mark a new beginning and will considerably help in the growth of Malayalam cinema.
OTT platform will also showcase films with artistic value irrespective of their performance at the box office, along with internationally-recognised and award-winning films, best films screened at the annual International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), short films and documentaries.

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