General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Mar 17, 2021

Union Cabinet Cleared Proposal For Setting Up Of Development Finance Institution

Union Cabinet has cleared the setting up of a Development Finance Institution.
Development Finance Institution will also have some tax benefits for a 10-year long period.
Cabinet approved introduction of Bill for setting up of a new infrastructure focused Development Financial Institution as a provider, enabler and catalyst for infrastructure financing.

As Many as 22 of World's 30 Most Polluted Cities are in India: Report

Twenty-two of the world's 30 most polluted cities are in India, with Delhi being ranked as the most polluted capital city globally.
The report is prepared by Swiss organisation, IQAir, in the form of the 'World Air Quality Report, 2020', which has released globally.
The report, however, shows that Delhi's air quality improved by approximately 15 per cent from 2019 to 2020.
It said that despite the improvement, Delhi ranked as the 10th most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the world.
Besides Delhi, the 21 other Indian cities among the 30 most polluted cities in the world are Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Agra and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Bhiwari in Rajasthan, Faridabad, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bandhwari, Gurugram, Yamunanagar, Rohtak and Dharuhera in Haryana, and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

Mar 16, 2021

Ayush Export Promotion Council to be Set up

The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, informed the Parliament that AYUSH ministry is holding consultations with the stakeholder to explore the setting up of an AYUSH Export Promotion Council (EPC). The government is also exploring the procedural steps which would be involved in setting up the council.
The "Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)" has been tasked to coordinate with the Department of Commerce and the Indian Industry members who have shown their interest in forming the corpus for AYUSH export promotion council. Ministry of AYUSH has also set up a task force to expand the trade classification, quality control and standardization of Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) & Herbal Products. The recommendations provided by the task force are under examination by the government current.

IPU President on a Week-long Visit to India

Inter Parliamentary Union President Mr. Duarte Pacheco called on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and witnessed the proceedings of the Upper House.
Mr. Pacheco is on a week-long visit to India on the invitation of Indian Parliament. He is scheduled to attend a felicitation ceremony and address the Parliament Members under the auspices of the Indian Parliamentary Group (IPG) in Central Hall of Parliament House.
Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) formed in 1889, is one of the oldest and largest international Parliamentary body consisting of more than 179 Members. IPU espouses for the cause of promoting democracy across the world and take up issues of international importance, such as, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Climate Change, Gender Equality, etc.

Punjab Second among all States in Contributing to Army's Rank and File

Piping its neighbours, Punjab, often referred to as the sword army of the nation, has the second highest number of soldiers, other than officers, serving in the Army amongst all states and union territories in the country.
The strength of army personnel from Punjab is 89,088, according to information placed by the Ministry of Defence in Parliament. This accounts for 7.7 per cent of the Army's rank and file, even though its share of the national population is 2.3 per cent.
With 1,67,557 soldiers, Uttar Pradesh tops the list of states contributing manpower to the Army. While Uttar Pradesh, the nation's most populous state, makes up 16.5 per cent of the country's population, its share in the rank and file is 14.5 per cent. Maharashtra, with 87,835 soldiers occupies the third slot followed by Rajasthan, with 79,481 soldiers.

Mar 15, 2021

Andhra CM Seeks Bharat Ratna Award for Designer of Indian Flag

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy urged the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna upon Pingali Venkaiah who designed the National Flag, posthumously.
He also felicitated Ghantasala Sitamahalakshmi, daughter of late Venkaiah, marking the inauguration of the 75-week-long "Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav" in the state.
The Chief Minister presented Rs. 75 lakh to Sitamahalakshmi and wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that the Centre confer the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna on Venkaiah posthumously.
Pingali Venkaiah, from Krishna district, designed the National Flag and presented it to Mahatma Gandhi during his visit to Vijayawada city on April 1, 1921.
On July 22, 1947, the Constituent Assembly adopted the flag designed by Pingali Venkaiah as the National Tricolour.

Vietnam to Open Consulate in Chandigarh

Seeking increased cooperation from North-based industries and travel community, the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to India is planning to open a consulate in Chandigarh. It also plans to propose a direct flight from Chandigarh to main cities of Vietnam.
"We are working on modalities, and soon we will have our consulate in Chandigarh to seek greater cooperation with industries and travel community in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, J&K, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Both Punjab and Haryana have emerged as significant markets sharing economic and tourism potentials with Vietnam. Punjab is a hub of textile-based industries, including yarn, ready-made garments and hosiery, pharmaceutical and agricultural products, whose exports feature Vietnam among India's top 15 trading partners.

Merger of Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) with the Janata Dal (United)

After months of speculation, Upendra Kushwaha merged his Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) with the Janata Dal (United) in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Kushwaha had left the JD (U) in 2013 and formed the RLSP that year.
Soon after the merger, Nitish Kumar announced the appointment of Kushwaha as Chairman of National Parliamentary Board of JD (U), with immediate effect.

Bengaluru Airport Gets India's first Dedicated Express Cargo Terminal

Kempegowda International Airport Bengaluru (KIAB) announced the opening of the country's first dedicated express cargo terminal, which would help the private airport operator to handle over 25 per cent more cargo annually.
The express cargo market for business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sectors has tremendous potential to grow over the next decade.
It is on account of a larger playing field with multiple service providers, improved transit time, and value-added services and the new facility, set up exclusively for export and import of international couriers, would cater to this demand.

Jaishankar Discusses Bilateral Cooperation with Syrian Foreign Minister

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar discussed bilateral cooperation with his Syrian counterpart Dr. Fayssal Mekdad.
India has taken steps to strengthen food security in Syria and had gifted 2000 MT of rice last month.
The two countries have historically enjoyed close and friendly relations.
India has always stood in solidarity with the people of Syria and the bilateral engagement has continued apace even during the years of internal conflict there through a number of development and capacity building projects.

Haryana Govt. Presents Rs. 1.55 Trillion Budget

The Haryana government presented a Rs. 1.55-trn Budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year, with health, agriculture, and infrastructure identified as key priority areas. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar who also holds the finance department portfolio, presented his second Budget in the State Assembly.
Presenting the paperless Budget, Khattar proposed no fresh tax. He proposed a budget of Rs. 1.55 trillion for FY22, an increase of 13 per cent over FY21 of Rs 1.38 trillion. The Budget outlay comprises 25 per cent as capital expenditure of Rs. 38,718 crore and 75 per cent as revenue expenditure of Rs. 1.17 crore. Khattar proposed to raise the Old Age pension to Rs. 2,500 per month from April 1 of this year from present Rs. 2,250.

Chhattisgarh Ranks First in Country in Terms of Providing Employment under MGNREGA

Chhattisgarh ranked first in the country in terms of providing employment under MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).
As per an official release from the state government, in the current financial year 2020-21, employment of 16,06,84,000 man-days has been created so far, against the target of creating 15 crore man-days of employment, as sanctioned by the central government.
The statement said that this year, a new record of providing employment for the highest number of man-days under MGNREGA has been set in the state, adding that more than 107% of the given target for providing employment under MGNREGA has been achieved this year so far, with more than two weeks left for the completion of the financial year.

Uttarakhand CM Expands His Cabinet

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat expanded his Cabinet, inducting 11 ministers who were sworn in by the state governor. Governor Baby Rani Maurya administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers in a simple function at the Raj Bhavan.
Earlier on March 10, Chief Minister Rawat was sworn in all alone. Barring the newly-appointed state BJP president Madan Kaushik, all other state ministers during former Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat's term have been made ministers in the new government.
Besides the old ministers, four new faces have also been inducted into TS Rawat's council of ministers.

Panel for Air Quality Management Shuts Down

The central government's Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas has been shut down within five months of its constitution.
The commission, which was established by the Centre in October last year, has shut down as the ordinance under which it was set up has lapsed.
Union Environment Secretary R P Gupta said that since the ordinance was not introduced in Parliament within six weeks of its convention, it has lapsed and consequently, the commission also stands shut.
The ordinance never became an Act. Any ordinance has to be introduced within six weeks of the convening of Parliament. It did not happen, so the ordinance has lapsed and hence, the commission is dissolved.

Mar 14, 2021

UP BJP Announces State Working Committee

The Uttar Pradesh BJP announced the names of 323 members of its state working committee, and also listed permanent and special invitees to the panel.
Twenty-eight senior party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, UP Chief Minister Adityanath and several state and central ministers, have been included as permanent invitees.
All the party's district presidents, district in-charges and mayors will be invitee members of the state working committee.
A total of 94 leaders, including MPs and cabinet ministers like Suresh Kumar Khanna, Swami Prasad Maurya, Satish Mahana, Ashutosh Tandon and Anil Rajbhar, have been made special invitees.

Vietnam Agrees to Work Closely on Key Issues with India

India and Vietnam held bilateral consultations on United Nations Security Council issues using the VTC platform where both sides agreed to work closely together on key issues on the UNSC agenda.
According to a release by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the Vietnamese delegation was led by Do Hung Viet, Director-General, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam along with officials from the Department of International Organisations, Department of Southeast Asia, South Pacific of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Vietnam at New Delhi and the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the UN.
Prakash Gupta, Joint Secretary (UNP & Summits) led the Indian delegation and was joined by officials from the Southern Division of MEA, the Permanent Mission of India to the UN in New York and the Embassy of India in Hanoi.

Mar 13, 2021

Xcelerator Bengaluru Programme

Karnataka launched the "Xcelerator Bengaluru Programme" in the bid to provide support to the women-owned micro-businesses.
The state presented the Budget for 2021-2022 in which it has granted Rs. 37,188 crore for the women-centric programmes. Similarly, the government is also encouraging the small scale or micro entrepreneurs, employees, working women, rural self-help groups with the help of several initiatives like prominent Elevate Women programme.
The "Xcelerator Bengaluru" is a curated six-month accelerator programme. It seeks to provide its support to the women so as to help in scaling the women-owned micro-businesses. This initiative is jointly organised by the UBUNTU Consortium of Women Entrepreneurs' Associations, Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI).

Govt. Employees Cannot be Election Commissioners, Rules SC

The Supreme Court ruled that any persons employed with the central or state governments could not be appointed as election commissioners in the country. The ruling aims at ensuring independence of the election commissions.
A bench of justices Rohinton F. Nariman and BR Gavai issued the direction exercising its powers under Articles 142 and 144 of the Constitution. Under Article 142, the apex court is empowered to issue directives to do "complete justice" whereas Article 144 obligates all authorities to act in aid of the Supreme Court.
The judgment came as the top court censured the Goa government for appointing its law secretary as the state election commissioner for conducting municipal council elections in the state. The law secretary was given the additional charge as the state election commissioner.

Meghalaya Opposition to Table Privilege Motion against CM Conrad Sangma

The opposition Congress in Meghalaya will table a privilege motion against Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma for allegedly misleading the House on the power purchase agreement signed with NTPC in 2007.
Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma stating this regretted that the attempt to mislead and misinform the House has come from none other than the leader of the House.
He alleged that the chief minister had deliberately with a predetermined motive misinformed the House about the PPA signed by the then Congress-led government with the NTPC in 2007.
In order to prevent this precedent to carry on in the future, it requires the members of the House to come up with a complaint for breach of privilege. Therefore, a privilege motion against the Chief Minister was has been decided.

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