General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2015

Dec 2015

Feb 12, 2021

Odisha Govt. Approves Re-promulgation of Farm Reform Ordinance

Even as the agitation by farmers demanding repeal of three farm laws rages on across the country, the Naveen Patnaik government decided to re-promulgate the ordinance to reform the Odisha Agricultural Produce Markets Amendment Act to enable geographically restriction-free trade and transaction of agricultural produce including livestock across the state.
The state cabinet which met under the chairmanship of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, gave assent to the re-promulgation of the Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing promotion and facilitation) Ordinance for the third time, enabling the state to move ahead with the abolition of notified market area in so far as enforcement of regulation by Agricultural Produce and Livestock Market Committee (APLMC) was concerned.
The ordinance would also help the government create an environment for setting up and operating private market yards and farmer consumer market yards (Krushak Bazar), sub-market yard and market sub yard with the aim to enhance competition for the farmer's produce to the advantage of farmers.

Feb 11, 2021

Tamil Nadu Parties United in Call for Single Phase State Elections

Ruling and opposition political parties in Tamil Nadu have urged the Election Commission to make it a single phase assembly election in the state. An election commission delegation, led by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, arrived in Chennai on a two-day visit to assess poll preparedness in Tamil Nadu.
In complaints to the poll body, the DMK alleged deletion of voters' name, spotlighted AIADMK's spending on advertisements in newspapers, among others.
"Previously, we have submitted six representations to the EC for clarifications in the voters' list, but they did not answer," said DMK's organising secretary R.S. Bharathi.
Though the state has always had single-phase elections, all parties made this request following the three-phase voting in Bihar last year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. They had made a similar request when election officials visited the state in December.

Telangana CM Announces Rs. 1,000 crore Scheme for Dalit Empowerment

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced the launch of an exclusive scheme for the uplift of Dalits in the state with a budgetary allocation of Rs. 1,000 crore.
As per K. Chandrashekar Rao, the "CM Dalit Empowerment Scheme" would be rolled out in the forthcoming budget.

Priyanka Gandhi set to launch Congress' 'Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan Abhiyan' in UP

All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is launched her party's 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan Abhiyan' in UP's Saharanpur district, where she also addressed Kisan Panchayat in Behot area.
Uttar Pradesh Congress called upon this campaign to take on the BJP government on the issue of three farm laws against which the farmers are agitating for more than 70 days at different borders of the national capital.
With this campaign, Congress' strategy is to establish a stronghold among the peasant, especially Jats, Gurjars, and Muslim communities.

Indian Govt. Rules Out Granting Dual Citizenship

The government said that it is not considering any proposal to grant dual citizenship.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said in Lok Sabha that over 6.76 lakh Indians gave up Indian nationality between 2015 and 2019 and took up citizenship of other countries.

Feb 10, 2021

Shahnawaz Hussain Inducted into Nitish Cabinet

Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and BJP's national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain has finally been rehabilitated in active politics with a position in the Bihar government led by BJP's partner, JD-U's Nitish Kumar.
One of Saffron party's prominent Muslim faces -- apart from union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajya Sabha member Syed Zafar Islam, Hussain was the first to be administered the oath of office by Governor Phagu Chauhan at a ceremony held in the Raj Bhavan.
Out of electoral politics since 2014, Hussain was recently named by the BJP as its MLC candidate from Bihar, thus marking his return albeit at the state level.
The Cabinet strength of the Nitish Kumar Government is now 34.

India and China Discuss UNSC Coordination

India and China held consultations on cooperation on issues relating to UN Security Council in an attempt to cool tensions and set the stage for substantial talks on a concrete disengagement schedule in the border areas of eastern Ladakh.
The Chinese delegation was led by Yang Tao from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indian team by Prakash Gupta, Joint Secretary in MEA. Both sides discussed a wide range of issues on the UNSC agenda. The Indian delegation briefed the Chinese side on India's priorities during its UNSC tenure. Both sides agreed to continue their engagement on key issues on the UNSC agenda, stated a MEA release. India will occupy a seat on UNSC for two years till the end of 2022 while China is one of the five permanent members.

Feb 09, 2021

India and EU Discuss Possibility of Opening New Areas in Trade Cooperation

In its first high-level dialogue on bilateral trade and investment, India and the European Union exchanged views on the possibility of opening new areas of cooperation, especially on the resilience of global value chains and regulatory mechanisms besides key market access issues.
India hosted the first India-EU high-level dialogue (HLD) through virtual mode. The HLD was co-chaired by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal and European Commission Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis.
The dialogue has been established as part of the commitment made during the 15th India-EU Leaders' virtual Summit held on July 15, 2020, to provide ministerial-level guidance to the bilateral trade and investment relations.
As per reports, Dombrovskis and Goyal discussed trade and investment issues with an emphasis on the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as vaccine production and distribution mechanisms, including value chain linkages.

Sharmila Prepares to Launch New Regional Party in Telangana

The stage is set for the launch of a new regional party in Telangana soon by Y. S. Sharmila, who is the sister of Y.S.R. Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
For the last few days, there have been speculations on social media groups of the YSRC about Sharmila's plans to launch a new political outfit exclusively in Telangana, independent of her brother Jagan's party, which is currently in power in Andhra Pradesh.
However, there has been neither denial nor confirmation from Sharmila's camp. The leader quoted above said there had indeed been talk about her plans to launch a new political outfit. "It is still not known why she has chosen to launch a new political party in Telangana and what her strategies are. She might give some clarity at Tuesday's meeting," the leader said.

Sasikala Announces Return to Tamil Nadu Politics

Spelling more trouble for the already jittery All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), expelled general secretary V. K. Sasikala, returned to Chennai with fanfare, announced her return to politics and urged the party cadre to unite to take on common foe M.K. Stalin's Dravida Munnetra Kaqzhagam (DMK) in upcoming assembly elections.
Sasikala's release from prison and her return to Chennai ahead of the assembly elections adds an intriguing new factor to the political dynamics of Tamil Nadu, where the DMK and the Congress are preparing to take on the AIADMK and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while she was in prison, the AIADMK expelled her from the party, and said that she wouldn't be taken back into the party's fold.

Nitish Kumar to Expand Bihar Cabinet

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will expand his cabinet. Induction of new members in the state cabinet will take place at Raj Bhavan where they will be administered the oath by Bihar Governor Phagu Chauhan.
The newly elected members of the state legislative council (MLC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shahnawaz Hussain and Vikassheel Insaan Party's Mukesh Sahni are expected to get ministerial berths in the cabinet expansion.

Feb 08, 2021

Pact Signed to Establish India's First Geothermal Field Development Project in Leh

A historic tripartite agreement for establishing India's first-ever geothermal field development project here has been signed, with Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R K Mathur terming it a step towards achieving the goal of carbon-neutral Ladakh.
The pact was signed between Union Territory Administration Ladakh, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Leh and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy Centre.
In Phase-1 of this pilot project, 1 megawatt (MW) power generation capacity shall be generated and 100 per cent free power shall be supplied to the public, the spokesperson said adding that ONGC Energy Centre is the implementing agency for this pilot project.
The Phase-2 shall involve deeper and lateral exploration of geothermal reservoir by drilling optimal number of wells and setting up of a higher capacity demo plant in Ladakh, while Phase-3 shall be a commercial project as per discovered capacity.

PM Modi Inaugurates Key Projects Including LPG Import Terminal in Poll-bound Bengal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched multiple development projects including an LPG import terminal built by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in Haldia of Purba Medinipur district in West Bengal.
The other development projects launched by the Prime Minister include -- Dobhi-Durgapur Natural Gas Pipeline section of the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project and a Four-Lane ROB-cum-Flyover at Ranichak, in Haldia.
Addressing the inauguration event, Prime Minister Modi said that these projects would help transform Haldia into a big import-export centre of India.

UP Govt. Announces 16-digit Unicode to Identify Landholdings

The Uttar Pradesh government has introduced a system of issuing a unique 16-digit Unicode to mark all kinds of landholdings in the state.
Every piece of land in the state will have its own unique identity from now onwards that would check cases of land disputes and save people from falling into the trap of fraudsters.
The revenue department will be issuing the Unicode for marking all kinds of agricultural, residential and commercial land and a person will now be able to know the details of the land with a single click, he said.
The Unicode number of the land will be 16 digits with the first six digits based on the population of the land, the next 4 digits determining the unique identity of the land. The digits from 11 to 14 will be the number of the division of the land. The last 2 digits will have the details of the category, through which, the agricultural, residential and commercial land will be identified.

Congress Looks for Ghulam Nabi Azad's Replacement in the Rajya Sabha

As Rajya Sabha's Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad's term comes to an end on February 15, the Congress is weighing its options to pick his replacement.
Former Congress floor leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, the party's deputy leader in the RS Anand Sharma and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram are among the names doing the rounds for the post, those familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity. The possibility of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh becoming the next LoP was also not discounted.
The Rajya Sabha will have no representatives from Jammu and Kashmir by February 15, when the four Upper House members from the Union Territory (UT) carved out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019 complete their stints.
As the UT does not have an elected assembly at present, there will be no representatives in the upper chamber of Parliament until elections are held in J&K.

AIMIM to Contest in Gujarat Civic Body Polls in Alliance with BTP

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) will contest the municipal elections in Gujarat in alliance with the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP).
Owaisi addressed two public meetings--one in Bharuch and one in Ahmedabad.
AIMIM supremo added that his party will contest the municipal elections in the state and said, "This is the first time we are contesting elections here, hope the people bestow us with love."
The six cities in Gujarat are going to have civic body election-- Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar--on February 21.

2021 Uttarakhand glacial outburst flood

On 7 February 2021, a glacial lake outburst flood centered on the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand led to massive flooding along the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers.
Primary reports suggest the reduced snowfall this winter in Uttarakhand played a part in the disaster.
The Rishiganga power project on the Rishiganga River, a tributary to the Dhauliganga River, was damaged and 35 laborers working on the project are missing. The district of Chamoli in Uttarakhand appeared to have been hit the hardest by the surging Dhauliganga River.

PM Modi Visits Poll-bound Assam to Launch 'Asom Mala',

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Assam to lay the foundation stone of two hospitals and launch 'Asom Mala', a programme for state highways and major district roads, at Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district in Assam.
- This was PM Modi's second visit to these two election-bound states in a month after his last visit on the occasion of Parikrama Diwas celebrated on January 23.

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