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NATIONAL AFFAIRS - February 2016

Feb 2016

Oct 07, 2020

NDA Seals Bihar Poll Pact

The NDA declared its seat-sharing formula for the upcoming Bihar elections.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that of the 243 Assembly constituencies, the JD-U would contest 122 and the BJP 121.
While the JD-U would give seven seats from its quota to Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM(S), the BJP would allot some (expectedly nine) to Mukesh Sahani-led Vikassheel Insaan Party, which had walked out of the RJD-led "Mahagathbandhan" a couple of days back.

Palaniswami ADMK's CM Candidate for Tamil Nadu Assembly Poll

Incumbent Chief Minister K Palaniswami will be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the AIADMK for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Party co-coordinator Palaniswami announced constitution of a 11-member steering committee which includes Ministers Dindigul C Sreenivasan, P. Thangamani, and S. P. Velumani.
The decision has been taken unanimously in consultations led by party presidium chairman E. Madusudanan.
Apart from him, Palaniswami, party deputy coordinators K. P. Munusamy, R. Vaithilingam and members of the Steering Committee have unanimously resolved to nominate Palaniswami as the AIADMK's Chief Ministerial candidate.

PM Narendra Modi Enters 20th Year in Public Office

In yet another political milestone for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the prime minister on 7th October entered his 20th year in a public office without a break.
PM Modi was appointed as Chief Minister of Gujarat by the BJP when the saffron party was battling infighting among its own leaders. It would not be wrong to say that PM Modi used his 3 terms as Gujarat CM to strengthen the party and helped the BJP end the Congress' domination at the Centre.
Modi took charge as Gujarat chief minister on October 7, 2001 soon after the devastating earthquake which had rocked Bhuj. However, he took several steps to help in the development of the state at a rapid pace. Under Modi's leadership, Gujarat became self-sufficient on several fronts and 'Gujarat Model' became popular across the country. The massive development work done by PM Modi as the Gujarat CM played an important role in increasing his popularity across the country and the BJP used this very well during Lok Sabha election in 2014.

Oct 06, 2020

Government Appoints New MPC Members

The government has appointed economists Shashank Bhide, Ashima Goyal and Jayanth R. Varma as independent members to the Monetary Policy Committee.
Shashank Bhide is currently a senior advisor at the New Delhi-based think tank National Council for Applied Economic Research, while Goyal is a professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai. Jayant R. Varma is currently a professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Their appointment had been cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The panel is chaired by RBI governor and has as members deputy governor incharge of monetary policy and one RBI official appointed by the central board. The term of the independent members will be for a period of four years or until further order, whichever is earlier.

Jaishankar Holds Talks with Mike Pompeo in Tokyo

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Tokyo, focusing on various aspects of bilateral ties and ways to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
Jaishankar and Pompeo are in the Japanese capital to attend a ministerial meeting of the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition comprising India, the US, Australia and Japan.
It is learnt that Jaishankar and Pompeo also deliberated on overall ties, including evolving security scenario around India.
In November 2017, the four countries gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.
The first meeting of foreign ministers of the four countries under the 'Quad' framework had taken place in New York in September 2019.

NSCN (IM) Wants Naga Peace Talks to Shift to 3rd Country

The NSCN (IM) has demanded direct involvement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the talks to resolve the festering insurgency in the northeastern state and insisted that the negotiations be held in a "third country".
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi written in February, but kept secret so far, Thuingaleng Muivah, the general secretary of the group and chief Naga negotiator in the talks with the government, also spoke about the framework agreement (FA) signed in 2015 and its proposal that the state should be allowed to have a Constitution and national flag.
The outfit said that it was making public the letter for "lack of response" from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
Muivah, who is the Ato Kilonser (Prime Minister) of the self-styled Naga government, referred to the circumstances in which he and the then chairman of the outfit Isak Chishi Swu first arrived in India in 2002 and "patiently" stayed here since 2010 to conclude an "acceptable and honourable political settlement.

GoI Appoints Monetary Policy Committee Members

The Government of India appointed economists Jayant R Varma, Shashank Bhide and Ashima Goyal as members of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Their appointments were cleared by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet chaired by PM Modi.
The current MPC was set up by the GoI in 2016 following the finalisation of Monetary Policy Framework Agreement. The framework introduced inflation targeting.
The MPC frames monetary policies for the country using monetary tools such as bank rate, repo rate, reverse repo rate, cash reserve ratio. These tools are called monetary policy instruments. There are two types of Monetary Policy instruments. They are
Qualitative Instrument: Moral Suasion, Change in margin money and direct action
Quantitative Instrument: Cash Reserve Ratio, Repo Rate, Bank Rate, Statutory Liquidity Ratio, Liquidity Adjustment Facility and Marginal Standing Facility
The Committee was constituted by the GoI under Section 54ZB of RBI act.
The committee consists of six members. Of these three are nominated by GoI as done recently. A Government official cannot be appointed to the committee.
The other three member of the committee are appointed within RBI.
The Governor is the ex-officio chairperson of the committee.
The Deputy Governor is the Executive Governor of the bank.
The members appointed by the GoI are selected through a search-cum-selection committee. This committee constitutes of RBI Governor, three experts in the field of economics (or finance or banking) and economic affairs secretary.
The members are appointed for a period of four years. The members are not eligible of reappointment.

Oct 05, 2020

Shreyasi Singh Joins BJP

Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter Shreyasi Singh, whose father Digvijay Singh was a seasoned socialist leader from Bihar, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and may fight the state assembly elections.
She joined the BJP at the party headquarters in the presence of its general secretaries Bhupender Yadav, who is in charge of its Bihar affairs, and Arun Singh. She later met party president J. P. Nadda.
The 29-year-old Arjuna Awardee, who won a gold medal in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, is likely to be fielded by the BJP in the assembly polls.
Her father was elected to Lok Sabha several times from Banka and had also served as a member of Rajya Sabha.
His wife Putul Singh also represented Banka as an independent in Lok Sabha following his death in 2010. She later joined the BJP but was expelled from the saffron party during the Lok Sabha polls last year after she filed her nomination as an independent from Banka as the seat was allocated to the JD(U).

Assam BJP Banks on its Schemes to Make Inroads into Minority Areas

The ruling BJP in Assam is targeting to win at least seven Muslim-dominated seats even as it trains its sights on winning 100-plus seats in the assembly polls slated for early next year.
State BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said that we are surveying and strategising to field Muslim candidates in 7-8 constituencies. Accordingly, we will send the proposal to the Central leadership." BJP has only a single Muslim legislator in the present Assam assembly.
The Muslim community has benefited from the housing scheme, social welfare and developmental schemes launched by our government. The government has rolled out the 'Orunodoi' scheme which proposes to alleviate the financial problem of improvised families through substantial income support. This scheme will cover every community."
Meanwhile, the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front, which has substantial support among the Muslims, is inching closer for seat sharing for the 2021 assembly polls.
Muslims comprise 34% of the 3.12 crore population in Assam.

LJP Walks Out of NDA in Bihar, But Ready to Back BJP-led Govt.

After months of bickering with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD-U, NDA ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) finally made public its decision to exit the alliance and contest independently in Bihar.
The decision did not come as a surprise to the BJP, which was aware of LJP president Chirag Paswan's plan ahead of its Central Election Committee meeting held later in the day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda were present.
The BJP may now end up contesting a larger chunk of seats than the JD-U, which also has to accommodate Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM(S) from its quota of seats. Amid speculation over a fixed match between the BJP and LJP, the latter gave a hint with its public assurance of support to the BJP in case it forms the government in Bihar under its own CM.
The LJP said that it would contest 143 seats, mostly the ones the JD-U was contesting, and at the same time it would continue to be part of the NDA at the Centre.

India and Bahrain Discus on Bilateral Cooperation in Financial Sector

India's new Ambassador to Bahrain, Piyush Srivastava and Bahrain's Minister of Finance and National Economy Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa held a meeting in October 2020 and discussed bilateral cooperation between the two nations. They discussed several ways to strengthen India-Bahrain cooperation in the financial and business sectors. Both the countries reviewed the economic partnership and ways of strenghten it in order to provide to provide more promising investment opportunities. They also had a discussion on issues of common interest and the latest global economic developments.
India is a close ally of Bahrain. The share political, socio-economic, military and cultural ties between them. Bahrain along with its GCC partners are amongst the world's most prominent supporters of India's candidacy for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Relations between India and Bahrain goes back to 5000 years ago. Origins of the relation lies to the period of Dilmun Civilization in Bahrain and era of Indus valley civilisation in India. It is believed that Ancient Bahraini traders have carried out trade of Bahraini pearls with Indian spices from India. Further, many of Bahrain's most prominent figures share close ties with India. For instance, poet Ebrahim Al-Arrayedh was grew up in Bombay.
Developments
December 2007- Bahrain India Society was launched in Manama in order to promote ties between the two countries. It was headed by the former Minister of Labour Abdulnabi Al-Shoala. Society is aimed at taking advantage of the development in civil society
2014- Bahrain's ruler Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa visited India. The two countries then signed a number of MOUs including a US$450 million of bilateral trade and investment. India provided its support for Bahrain's bid for a non-permanent seat in the Security council for 2026-27.
Recently, in August 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bahrain. This was the first an Indian Prime Minister visited the country. 3 MoUs on space, culture, the International Solar Alliance and the RuPay card were signed in the meeting. PM of India also inaugurated a US$ 4.2 million project to redevelop the Shreenathji temple complex in Manama. Further, Bahrain issued pardons to 250 Indian citizens imprisoned there.

Oct 04, 2020

NSO Time Use Survey In India

The National Statistical Office operating under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation conducted the Time Use Survey in India for the first time between January and December, 2019.
The main objective of the survey is to measure participation of women and men in unpaid and paid activities. The survey also provides information on time spent on volunteer work, caregiving activities, unpaid domestic works. Also, it provides information on socializing, learning, leisure activities and self-care activities.
An India- women spends 19.5% of her time in unpaid care giving services or unpaid domestic work. This is over four hours a day on an average. On the other hand, an Indian man spends 25 minutes a day in these activities. Thus, women spends 10 times more on these activities as compared men
Indian women of age 60 years and above see a sharp fall in their domestic work burden. On the other hand, men of this age devote greater time towards domestic work
The survey has found an inverse relationship between amount of time spent by women on household chores and age.
Around 2% of Indians of age six years and above were engaged in employment related activities in 2019
Around 57.3% of males and 18.4% of females were engaged in employment related activities.
The proportion of males engaged in gainful employment related activities is higher in cities as compared to rural areas. In cities, the employment related activities was 59.8% and in rural areas 56.1%.

NITI Aayog Releases Data Governance Quality Index

The NITI Aayog and Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO conducted the Data Governance Quality Index Survey. According to the survey, the Department of Fertilizers that works under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers was ranked third. The department scored 4.11 out of 5 on Data Quality Index. Around 65 departments and ministries were surveyed.
The main aim of the index is to bring in healthy competition among the ministries and departments. It also intends to promote the habit of learning and adopting the best practices from each other. Thus, the index will help improve efficacy in implementing government schemes, policies and programmes. It will in turn drive to achieve target goals on time and with ease.
The themes of the index are as follows
Use of Technology
Data Quality
Data Generation
Data Analysis, use and dissemination
Data Security
Human Resource Capacity and case studies
The index classified the ministries into six categories such as strategic, administrative, infrastructure, economic, social and scientific.

CT Ravi Quits Yediyurappa Cabinet

C.T. Ravi, Karnataka Minister for Kannada, Culture and Tourism, tendered his resignation, days after being appointed BJP national General Secretary.
The four-time MLA from Chikkamagaluru submitted his resignation to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa.
The 53-year-old's decision to quit the Cabinet was not unexpected.
Ravi's resignation also comes in the midst of reports that the Chief Minister may go in for a Cabinet reshuffle and expansion soon.

As LJP Remains Undecided, JD(U), BJP Seal 50:50 Seat-sharing Formula

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda chaired a meeting over Bihar assembly election at the latter's residence in New Delhi.
Also present at the meeting were Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, MoS MHA Nityanand Rai and BJP's in-charge for Bihar Bhupender Yadav.
BJP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U) have not yet announced the seat-sharing agreement for the Bihar Assembly elections. However, as per reports, they have reached a seat-sharing agreement in principle with an almost even split - days before the October-November state election. An announcement on the same is expected soon, said sources.
According to sources, the JD(U) will contest on 124 seats in the House of 243 whereas BJP will fight on 119 seats. The Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi will be allocated the remaining seats.
According to sources, the JD(U) has asked BJP to take a call on Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party. Paswan is currently admitted to a Delhi hospital where he underwent heart surgery.

Tejashwi Yadav to Lead Alliance; RJD to Contest on 144 Seats, Congress Gets 70

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has been backed as the face of the multi-party coalition and unanimously chosen as the Chief Ministerial candidate of the opposition alliance in Bihar Assembly Election 2020, the Congress announced.
According to the seat-sharing agreement that has been agreed upon by the alliance partners ahead of the three-phase election starting on October 28, the RJD will contest on 144 seats, while the Congress will contest from 70 seats. Notably, the 70 seats which Congress have been given is nearly twice as many as it had contested in the 2015 assembly polls in alliance with the RJD and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U).
Announcing the seat-sharing formula in presence of leaders of Congress, CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M), Tejashwi said his party will accommodate old alliance partner Vikashheel Insaan Party (VIP) and JMM its ally in adjoining Jharkhand from its quota of 144 seats in the 243-strong assembly.

Oct 03, 2020

AYUISH Grid to Integrate with National Digital Mission

The AYUSH Grid emerging as the IT backbone of AYUSH Sector is to be integrated with National Digital Health Mission. This will help the public in availing varied options for their health needs. Also, it will accelerate the mainstreaming of AYUSH disciplines of health care.
The AYUSH Grid project was initiated by the Ministry of AYUSH in 2018 to create an IT backbone for AYUSH. The project aims to bring all facilities of AYUSH such as Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Yoga, Sidha, Unani and Honeopathy onboard. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of AYUSH have collaborated to digitalise the AYUSH sector under the project.
The AYUSH Health Management Information System (AHMIS) is the most significant part of AYUSH Grid. It aims to improve patient care, improve work efficiency, improve research, effective documentation, and eliminate chances of errors in AYUSH hospitals and to collect data on National AYUSH morbidities.
The AHMIS captures data in real time. It integrates all the AYUSH systems. Also, it has inbuilt standards such as National AYUSH Morbidity Code. It is highly secured and integrates all AYUSH systems. It is based on THERAN. THERAN is THE Research Application Nexus.
The AHMIS provides effective clinical documentation and data management including retrieval of medical data. It supports full range of Data Management functions.
It was introduced by PM Modi while he addressed at the celebrations of the 74th independence day. It was a part of three digital announcements of the PM. The other two are optical fibre connectivity and cyber security policy.
The Mission was launched with four key features namely Digi Doctor, Health ID, Personal health records and health facility registry. The mission is to include telemedicine services and e-pharmacy at later stages.
The mission is implemented by National Health Authority which is also implementing Ayushman Bharat.

Data Governance Quality Index: Department of Fertilizers Ranked 2nd amongst the 16 Economic Minis...

A Survey was conducted by the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), NITI Ayog in order to assess performance of different Ministries or Departments' on the implementation of Central Sector Schemes (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS).
Department of Fertilizers under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has been ranked 2nd amongst the 16 Economic Ministries or Departments and
It has also been ranked 3rd out of the 65 Ministries or Departments.
The total score of the department was 4.11 on a scale of 5 in the Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI),
The DMEO, Niti Aayog has undertaken DGQI exercise "Self-assessment based review of data preparedness levels" to produce a DGQI score card.
Survey was initiated with an objective to assess data preparedness of Ministries or Departments on a standardised framework.
The survey was also meant to drive healthy competition among them and promote a cooperative peer learning from best practices.
For the survey, an online questionnaire was prepared under six major themes of DGQI:
1. Data Generation;
2. Data Quality;
3. Use of Technology;
4. Data Analysis, Use and Dissemination;
5. Data Security and
6. HR Capacity and Case Studies.
Development Monitoring And Evaluation Office (DMEO) office was constituted in September 2015 by merging the Program Evaluation Office (PEO) and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). It is an office under NITI Aayog. DMEO's vision is to improve the sustainable outcomes and impacts of the government. It is aimed at enabling the high-quality monitoring and evaluation of government programs in order to improve effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and equity of the service delivery, outcomes and impacts.

PM Modi Inaugurates World's Longest High-altitude Tunnel

Atal Tunnel which reduces the travel time between Manali to Leh by four to five hours, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The world's longest highway tunnel by altitude connects Manali to Lahaul-Spiti valley throughout the year. The valley was earlier cut off for about six months every year due to heavy snowfall. The decision to construct the tunnel was taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government back in June of 2000. It was previously referred to as Rohtang Tunnel. The Narendra Modi-led government later decided to name it Atal Tunnel in memory of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The 9.02-kilometre long tunnel is built with ultra-modern specifications in the Pir Panjal Range of Himalayas at an altitude of 3,000 metres from the Mean Sea Level (MSL).
The tunnel, built at a cost of about Rs. 3,300 crore, is extremely significant from the point of view of the country's defence. The most difficult stretch was the 587-metre Seri Nalah Fault Zone. The breakthrough from both ends was achieved on October 15, 2017.

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