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NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2015

Dec 2015

Jun 17, 2021

India and Kyrgyzstan Review Bilateral Cooperation in Diverse Areas

India and Kyrgyz Republic reviewed the bilateral cooperation in diverse areas including political, economic, commercial, defence, development partnership, capacity building, consular matters and cultural cooperation. Special emphasis was laid on timely implementation of decisions taken and MoUs and agreements signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Kyrgyz Republic in June 2019.
Both the sides also exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and agreed to enhance cooperation in the UN and multilateral arena. The 11th round of Foreign Office Consultations between the two countries was held through virtual mode.

DMK Demands Separate Bypolls to Three RS Seats

DMK Parliamentary party leader T.R. Baalu urged the Election Commission of India to conduct separate byelections to the three Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu without further delay.
The vacancies have been caused by the death of AIADMK member A. Mohammedjan and the election of two other members R. Vaithilingam and K.P. Munusamy to the State Assembly in the 2021 election.
The delay impedes Tamil Nadu from being adequately represented in the Rajya Sabha, and goes against the spirit of democracy and goals enshrined in the Constitution.

R. Selvam is Speaker of Puducherry Assembly

BJP legislator R. Selvam was elected unopposed as Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly.
Pro tem speaker K. Lakshminarayanan announced the election of Selvam as Speaker of the House.
Selvam was elected to the House from Manavely constituency and he is among the first legislators.
Selvam is the 21^st Speaker of territorial Assembly.

PM Modi Virtually Addresses 5th Edition of VivaTech in Paris

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi virtually addressed the 5th edition of VivaTech. VivaTech is one of the largest digital and start-up events of Europe, held in Paris every year since 2016. PM Modi was invited as a Guest of Honour to deliver the keynote address at VivaTech 2021, which has been organised from 16-19 June 2021 in Paris. During his address, PM Modi invited the world to invest in India based on the five pillars: Talent, Market, Capital, Eco-system and, Culture of openness.
Other prominent speakers of the event include the President of France Mr. Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister of Spain Mr. Pedro Sanchez, and Ministers/MPs from various European countries.
VivaTech is jointly organised by Publicis Groupe, a prominent advertising and marketing conglomerate, and Les Echos, a leading French media group.
The event brings together stakeholders in technology innovation and the startup ecosystem.

Drone Survey Mandatory for All National Highway Projects

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) mandated the use of drones for monthly video recording of all national highway projects during their different stages of development, construction, operation and maintenance.
NHAI has mandated that contractors and concessionaires will carry out the drone video recording in the presence of the Supervision Consultant, and upload comparative of the current and last month on NHAI's portal 'Data Lake', capturing all project-related developments in a month.
Supervision consultants will analyse these video recordings and provide their inputs/comments in the digital monthly progress reports covering various aspects of the project development.

Jun 16, 2021

Jaishankar, Sitharaman to Headline UK's India Global Forum

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were confirmed as the headline speakers at a global event that will lay out India's vision for post-pandemic growth.
India Global Forum, organised from London as a hybrid event between June 29 and July 1, will bring together a range of worldwide experts.
From India, other senior ministers set to address a host of sessions includes Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Women & Textiles Minister Smriti Irani.

India to Finance Building of Eswatini's New Parliament

India will help finance the new parliament building of Eswatini with the Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) extending a line of credit of $108.28 million. Eswatini is a landlocked country in Southern Africa and has Mozambique and South Africa as its neighbours. The country was earlier known by the name Swaziland.
The line of credit (LoC) agreement for this was signed between the General Manager of Exim Bank, Nirmit Ved, and the Finance Minister of Eswatini, Neal H. Rijkenberg.
India is also involved in the financing of new Parliament in Burundi's national capital Gitega and two ministerial buildings in Bujumbura, the country's largest city and main port.

Chirag Paswan Removed as LJP's National President

Chirag Paswan was removed from the post of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) national president after an emergency meeting of LJP national working committee.
The decision was taken at a meeting of five LJP MPs at the residence of Pashupati Kumar Paras in Delhi.
Notably, within a year of the demise of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) founder Ram Vilas Paswan, son Chirag is facing opposition from within the party.

Andhra CM Unveils Annual Credit Plan Outlay

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy unveiled the state's annual credit plan outlay of Rs. 2.83 lakh crore during the 215th state level bankers' committee (SLBC) meeting.
Out of the total credit plan, 54 per cent will be channelled into the agriculture sector, with a target to disburse loans worth Rs. 1.48 lakh crore. The state plans to provide Rs. 2.13 lakh crore as loans to the primary sector.
Despite the imposition of curfew in view of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Andhra Pradesh crossed the stipulated target of loan disbursement and 105 per cent of the target was achieved in priority sectors, including 114 per cent in agriculture sector.

Jun 15, 2021

S. Jaishankar to Visit Italy for G20 FMs Meet

India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will be in Italy's Matera on 29th June for the G20 Foreign minister's (FM) meet. Italy is the host of the G20 grouping this year and will hold the leader's summit in Rome on October 30th and 31st.
Last year, G20 under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia held its meetings, including the leaders meet virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The G20 FMs meet will see the participation of FM of other countries as well. China, Russia, the US, UK, France, and others are part of the grouping and naturally, this will provide an occasion for several bilateral meetings as well.

Pashupati Kumar Paras is Lok Janshakti Party Leader in Lok Sabha

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) leader Pashupati Kumar Paras has been notified as the new parliamentary leader of the party in Lok Sabha. A day after five LJP MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and handed over a letter to him regarding the removal of party chief Chirag Paswan from the position of Lok Sabha Parliamentary party leader.
As per Paras, this step has been taken to save the party.
Paras is currently representing the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.

AAP Will Contest all Seats in Gujarat in 2022 Polls

According to the party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest all seats in Gujarat in the 2022 state Assembly elections.
The AAP Supremo on a one-day visit to Ahmedabad kicked off the Mission 2022 campaign.
During his visit, Kejriwal inaugurated the party's Gujarat state office in Ahmedabad.
The Gujarat House has 182 seats.

Jun 14, 2021

Patriarch of 'World's Largest Family' dead

Zion-a Chana, patriarch of a Christian cult who held the world record for being the head of the world's largest family, passed away at a private hospital in Aizawl in 2021. He was 76.
Mr. Chana headed the Chana Pawl, a cult that his father Khuangtuaha had founded in June 1942. The cult believes in polygamy and has about 2,000 members, most of them living in the self-sustaining Baktawng Tlangnuam.
Mr. Chana had 181 members living under one roof — his 39 wives, 94 children, 33 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He and his family featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not.

FAME-II Electric 2-wheeler Discount Policy

The news that electric two-wheeler makers can give a discount of almost 40 per cent of their scooter or bike value has definitely lifted the sentiments of buyers as well as manufacturers.
The amendments to the FAME-II electric vehicle policy was rolled out and manufacturers have lauded the efforts in adopting EV mobility in the country.
This scheme also favours electric rickshaws as well as buses, but the details of these have to be worked out. We have got the reaction of the electric vehicle manufacturers on the changes to the FAME-II policy.

Govt Refuses to Exempt Websites of News Channels, Print Media From of New IT Rules

The Centre refused to exempt digital news websites of mainstream TV channels and newspapers from the ambit of the IT Rules, 2021 and asked them to take "urgent steps" to comply with the provisions of the digital media rules immediately.
In a clarification to digital news publishers, publishers of online curated content or OTT platforms and associations of digital media publishers, the Ministry of Information and Technology (MeitY) said that the rationale for bringing the websites of the organisations under the purview of the law is well reasoned.
"Making any exception to the nature proposed will be discriminatory to the digital news publishers who do not have a traditional TV/print platform," the ministry said.

Delhi Master Plan 2041

"Foster a Sustainable, Liveable and Vibrant Delhi". That is the aim of the Delhi Master Plan 2041 (DMP) put out last week for the public to offer their comments and suggestions.
According to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the "anchor agency for the master plan", it is "one of the key instruments that facilitates Delhi's development by assessing the present condition and guiding how to achieve the desired development".
The draft of DMP says that the first-ever master plan for the National Capital was put together in 1962.

Jun 13, 2021

15 Lakshadweep BJP members resign

About 15 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and workers in Lakshadweep resigned from the party after a sedition case was filed against filmmaker Aisha Sultana allegedly for her comments against the Centre's Covid-19 management in the union territory.
In their resignation letter to Lakshadweep party president, they said that their resignation is against the case where Aisha Sultana was named who, during a channel discussion, stated how Lakshadweep went from zero Covid cases to rampant Covid cases with the arrival of the present administrator.
They also called the administrator's decisions 'unscientific and irresponsible'.
Over the last few days, there has been an uproar against Lakshadweep administrator Praful Khoda Patel over the new reforms introduced by him, which many allege are against the interest of the islanders.

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