General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2015

Dec 2015

Apr 10, 2022

India-US 2+2 Talks

India said that its 2+2 dialogue with the US next week will provide an opportunity to exchange views on important regional and global developments and how both sides can work together to address common interests and concerns.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will hold the talks with US Defence Secretary Llyod Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on April 11 in Washington.
The unfolding situation in Ukraine is expected to be discussed.
The dialogue would enable both sides to undertake a comprehensive review of cross-cutting issues in the India-US bilateral agenda related to foreign policy, defence and security.

Chhattisgarh Tops States with Lowest Unemployment rate in Country

The state government set up the 'Chhattisgarh Employment Mission' intending to create around 15 lakh new employment opportunities in the next five years.
Chhattisgarh ranks first in the country with the lowest unemployment rate while the country's unemployment rate stood at 7.6 per cent in the same month (March)
According to the latest data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), Chhattisgarh has registered an unemployment rate of 0.6 per cent this March, which is the lowest so far.
The state government took several steps and formulated new policies for generating employment opportunities especially for the youth, resulting in a constant decline in the unemployment rate.
As per the data, Haryana has the highest unemployment rate at 26.7 per cent, followed by Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir at 25 per cent each and Jharkhand at 14.5 per cent.

Apr 09, 2022

Andhra Pradesh Cabinet Dissolved, All 24 Ministers Submit Resignations to CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy dissolved the state cabinet ahead of a major reshuffle. All 24 members have tendered their resignations.
This comes after the Chief Minister met Governor Biswabhusan Harichandran at the Raj Bhawan on Wednesday. The chief minister will submit the list of new ministers to Governor.
The new council of ministers will be inducted on April 11.
Reacting to the cabinet reshuffle, Perni Venkataramaiah, former information and public relations minister said the decision was taken with a focus on the 2024 state elections.
When Jagan Reddy took over as Chief Minister on May 30, 2019, he announced that he would undertake a complete overhaul of his cabinet after two and a half years and take in a new team. The cabinet revamp was scheduled for December 2021, but was postponed due to Covid.

Yogi Adityanath's Govt. to Build Rainwater Harvesting Pits in Villages

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to form water committees and ensure conservation of water leaking from pipelines by construction of rainwater harvesting pits on a war footing. The purpose is to conserve rainwater and reuse the same.
The responsibility for this has been entrusted to Namami Gange and Rural Water Supply Department.
It has been decided that programmes will be expedited to complete village to village water conservation schemes on a war footing.

LS Speaker: 'One Nation, One Legislative Platform' by 2023

The proceedings of all legislatures, both Houses of Parliament and state assemblies and legislative councils, will be available on one platform by 2023, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said.
Birla said that the government is working on bringing proceedings of all state legislatures on one platform. I think we will be able to do it by 2023.
He said that the platform would provide lot of information to public. Besides, the endeavour is to provide all the documents through metadata so that people can access the proceedings of the House.
The idea of such a platform was mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at the inaugural session of 82nd All India Presiding Officers' Conference on November 17, 2021.

Govt Mandates Vehicles' Fitness Testing via Automated Stations from 2023

The government made fitness testing of vehicles through Automated Testing Stations (ATS) mandatory in a phased manner starting April 2022. An Automated Testing Station (ATS) uses mechanical equipment to automate the various tests required to check the fitness of a vehicle. Fitness testing for personal vehicles (non-transport) is done at the time of renewal of registration (after 15 years).
According to the notification, renewal of certificate of fitness will be for two years for commercial vehicles (transport) that are up to eight years old and one year for commercial vehicles (transport) that are older than eight years.

Apr 08, 2022

India Plans to Issue E-passports to its Citizens Starting this Year:

E-passport will be a combined paper and electronic passport, with an embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip and antenna embedded as an inlay in the back cover. Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Thursday said that the government is planning to issue e-passports to its citizens, starting in 2022-23.
The passport's critical information will be printed on its data page as well as stored in the chip. The characteristics of the document and the chip are specified in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) document 9303
The e-passports will be produced by the India Security Press, Nashik, which has issued letters of intent for the procurement of 4.5 crore ICAO-compliant electronic chips along with its operating system

Delhi Govt. Offers Subsidy of Rs. 5,500 for First 10,000 Buyers of e-cycles

Delhi government announced to provide Rs. 5,500 in subsidy to each of the first 10,000 buyers of e-cycles as a part of its big push to electric vehicles in the city.
In addition to this, first 1,000 buyers of passenger e-cycles would also be eligible for an additional subsidy of Rs. 2,000 under the Delhi Electric Vehicle (EV) Policy, said Kailash Gahlot, Minister of Transport, Delhi. He also claimed that Delhi became the first state in the country to provide subsidy in e-cycle segment.
The residents of Delhi will be eligible for the subsidy scheme that will be linked with Aadhaar, Gahlot said, adding that all the members of a family having an Aadhaar card will be able to get the subsidy.

Maharashtra Govt. Starts Using Blockchain for Caste Certificate Validation

The Maharashtra government started using a system based on the blockchain technology for caste certificate validation.
Caste certificate validation currently involves a lot of manual intervention and is prone to frauds and forgery. Fraudulent caste certificates can deprive eligible persons of job or education opportunities.
The state government will now record all the necessary details related to a caste certificate and it will be issued to the applicant. Once issued, the data will be saved in the form of a QR code, using the blockchain technology. Any government department can then scan the QR code of a candidate and cross-check his or her caste certificate
The Etapalli sub-division of Gadchiroli district was selected for the first project. The technology was developed by LegitDoc, a start-up which won the Maharashtra government's 'hackathon' event in 2019.

Apr 07, 2022

Government Establishes a Semicon India Advisory Committee

The government announced the formation of a Semicon India advisory committee, which will include top government officials, established academicians, as well as industry and domain specialists. The Minister of Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, will head the Committee, with Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Minister of State, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), as Vice-Chairperson. The convenor will be MeitY, the Secretary.
It will spend a total of Rs. 76,000 crore to strengthen the country's semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem.
The group would meet at least once every three months to provide crucial insights to help India's ecosystem expand sustainably and committee's term will be one year, after which it will be reformed with the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology's consent.

BJP Celebrates its 42nd Foundation Day

The Bharatiya Janata Party marked its 42nd foundation day. BJP president JP Nadda hoisted the party flag at the party headquarters in the national capital. He also garlanded the statues of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.
Home Minister Amit Shah said that the BJP since 2014 has been striving while becoming a medium for the fulfilment of the aspirations of crores of poor, farmers, downtrodden and women of the country.
All the party leaders, including JP Nadda, were seen sporting the new party caps. The design of the cap seems to be inspired by the caps in Uttarakhand and the Brahm Kamal that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore during the Republic Day celebrations.

Chennai Declared World's Cheapest FDI Location for Electronics R&D

In a major boost to the Tamil Nadu government's push for new investments, Chennai was ranked as the world's cheapest foreign direct investment (FDI) location for electronics research and development.
Chennai emerged as the cheapest location in the top 100 electronics FDI destinations, with estimated annual operating costs of $1.24 million for a 50-person R&D centre. Malaysian city of Penang took the second spot with a cost of $1.32 million, followed by Gurgaon with $1.52 million and Pune with $1.53 million.
Among the world's competitive locations, Chennai was ranked second, only after Seol, which is home for large campuses of players like Samsung and LG Electronics. Chennai was followed by Chinese cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Three Indian cities – Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon – grabbed a spot among the top 10 cities in this list.

Apr 06, 2022

Government Launches Broadcast Seva Portal for TV, Radio Stations

It would provide online facilities to the applicants for seeking permissions, subsequent change in permissions and payment of fee. With an aim to open a "new chapter" in Ease of Doing Business in the Broadcasting sector, the Government launched the 'Broadcast Seva Portal', an online portal solution for speedy filing and processing of applications for various kinds of licences, permissions and registration among other services.

Government Implements Schemes to Set up 50 Solar Parks of Aggregate Capacity 40,000 MW in the Cou...

The Government is implementing a scheme for setting up of 50 Solar Parks of aggregate capacity of 40,000 MW in the country. These parks are meant to provide developed infrastructure to facilitate installation of solar power projects. Central Financial Assistance of up to Rs. 25 lakhs for preparation of Detailed Project Report and Rs. 20 lakhs per MW or 30% of the project cost, whichever is lower, is provided for development of such Parks under the scheme.
This information was given by Shri R.K Singh, Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

Ayush Ministry to Celebrate Yoga Mahotsav on World Health Day at Red Fort in New Delhi

Ayush Ministry will celebrate Yoga Mahotsav on World Health Day at Red Fort in New Delhi. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and several Union Ministers will demonstrate Common Yoga Protocol on 75th day of the countdown of the International Day of Yoga.
During the event, Members of the Parliament, Ambassadors of various countries, prominent Sports Celebrities and Yoga Gurus will participate.
The Ministry with its various stakeholders has chalked out a 100 days' countdown programme of 8th International Day of Yoga wherein 100 organizations are promoting yoga in one hundred cities.

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