General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Dec 17, 2020

Justice Pankaj Mithal Next CJ of Jammu and Kashmir HC

Justice Pankaj Mithal of the Allahabad High Court will be the next Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde has also recommended Calcutta High Court's Justice Sanjib Banerjee for appointment as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia of the Uttarakhand High Court has been recommended for appointment as the new Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court.
In a major reshuffle, the Collegium in its December meeting also recommended transfer of Chief Justices of high courts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Sikkim and Odisha.

Kerala Local Body Elections

The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF in Kerala appeared to make a sweep of the local body elections in the state, while the BJP seemed to have made some gains, leading in Pandalam, the centre of protests against women's entry into Sabarimala, among others.
The Left Front was leading in 514 gram panchayats, five corporations and 11 district panchayats, prompting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to attribute the good show to the people of the state. The outcome of the polls is seen as an indicator of the public mood ahead of the 2021 assembly elections in the state. The Opposition Congress-led UDF was in the second spot, leading in over 400 local bodies.

TMC Leader Suvendu Adhikari Resigns as MLA from West Bengal Assembly

Nearly three weeks after resigning as West Bengal Transport minister, rebel Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari submitted his resignation as an MLA to the Assembly Speaker and subsequently met a few other rebel party leaders, one of whom said that the likes of them have no option but to join BJP.
Adhikari has a big support base in Medinipur area.
Adhikari represented Nandigram constituency in Purba Medinipur district and was the face of the Nandigram movement, which catapulted Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011.

Dec 16, 2020

Delhi Roads to be Redesigned on Lines of European Cities

The Delhi government has appointed a consultant for redesigning of national capital roads on the lines of European cities, and it is likely to be completed by early 2023.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the consultant should submit the detailed project report by February 2021 for rapid progress of the project.
The consultant is responsible for preparing and submitting a detailed project report by February 2021 based on which tenders will be given and the operations will begin by June 2021.
The Delhi government is working to redesign 540 km of 100-feet-wide roads on the built-operate-transfer (BOT) model and the construction company will take care of the maintenance for 15 years.

Aam Aadmi Party Will Contest UP Assembly Elections in 2022

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that his party — Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — will contest the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2022.
Kejriwal, who is AAP's national convener, slammed the political parties in Uttar Pradesh, accusing them of stabbing the people in the back.
The Aam Aadmi Party had earlier contested assembly elections in Delhi, Punjab, Goa and Haryana and the 2019 general election. Thanks to its successful education, health and free electricity-water policies, AAP has succeeded in forming the government for the third time in Delhi by winning 62 seats out of 70 in the 2020 Delhi Assembly Elections.

Dec 15, 2020

NITI Proposes 'Surveillance Information Platform' to Boost Public Health

Government think tank NITI Aayog proposed setting up a surveillance information platform to strengthen India's public health surveillance system.
According to a report titled 'Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance in India: A White Paper', which is jointly prepared by NITI Aayog and University of Manitoba, Canada -India's public health surveillance will be a predictive, responsive, integrated and tiered system of disease and health surveillance.
Going forward, India's public health surveillance will be based on individual Electronic Health Records (EHR) that capture and amalgamate individuals' health-care related information through the use of a unique health identifier (UHID).
According to the Aayog, this is used in every clinical, laboratory, or pharmacy visit and for vertical disease control programmes.

No Winter Session of Parliament This Year

The Centre said that there will be no winter session of Parliament this time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi confirmed this in a letter responding to Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, who has demanded for a short Winter Session.
According to Joshi, all parties supported the scrapping of the Winter session in order to curb the spread of coronavirus and hold the Budget Session in January.
It is expected that the Budget session would be held in the last week of January and Budget would be tabled on February 1.

Demands for Renaming Certain Areas Justified

Amid demands by some leaders of the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh to change names of certain places, state Culture Minister Usha Thakur said that such demands are absolutely valid if they are backed by facts and evidences.
Some leaders of the BJP from Bhopal and Indore have demanded that the existing names of some areas be changed.
If the names of some places in the state are changed on the basis of facts and evidence, and in accordance with the Constitution, then these changes must surely take place.
MP Assembly Speaker and senior BJP leader Rameshwar Sharma recently demanded that the name of Idgah Hills in Bhopal be changed to "Guru Nanak Tekri".
Indore Lok Sabha MP Shankar Lalwani had said that local people wanted the area adjacent to the famous Ganesh temple in Khajrana locality be renamed, either as Ganesh Nagar, Ganesh Dham or Ganesh Colony.

Dec 14, 2020

Telangana CM KCR Seeks Sanction from Centre for Six New Airports in State

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao requested the Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to speed up the process to build six more airports in the state.
Rao requested the Ministry of Civil Aviation to kindly expedite finalising the sites and getting all statutory clearances on a single-window basis so that the government can commence the infrastructure work.
Telangana had proposed new airports to be built at Basantnagar (Peddapally district), Mamnoor (Warangal urban), Adilabad, Jakranpally (Nizamabad), Devarkadra (Mehboobnagar) and Bhadradri Kothagudem.
Following discussions with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), it was decided that only no-frills airports for smaller aircraft will be developed, which may be expanded in the future for commercial operations depending on demand.

BJP, UPPL and GSP Join Hands for Formation of Bodoland Territorial Council

The BJP decided to join hands with the United Peoples' Party Liberal (UPPL) and the Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) to jointly form the next Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) after the just concluded polls resulted in a hung House. The 40-member new Council will be headed by UPPL Chief Promode Bodo, Sonowal.
The decision was taken following deliberations among North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, state BJP President Ranjit Dass, BJP National General Secretary and Mangaldoi MP Dilip Saikia, UPPL Chief Promode Bodo and GSP Chief and Kokrajhar MP Naba Kumar Sarania.

Dec 13, 2020

Rivals Congress, BJP Join Hands at Two Places, Ditch Own Allies

In unlikely collaborations, rivals Congress and BJP came together at two places in Rajasthan to thwart local Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) leaders in the elections for zila pramukhs and panchayat samiti pradhans.
The BTP, a Congress ally which supported Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot during the revolt in his party earlier this year, is upset that the ruling party candidates chose the BJP over it in the tribal Dungarpur district, where the small outfit is trying to expand its influence.
The opposition BJP did not help its ally, Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal's RLP, bag a village head's post in Nagaur district. Instead, its candidates went for an independent nominee, supported also by the Congress.

India and Nepal Inching Closer to Finalise Cross Border Electricity Sales Regulatory Modality

India and Nepal are inching closer to finalize the regulatory modality for allowing Nepali power producers access to Indian power market which will provide an outlet for Nepal's surplus power in the coming months.
The power/energy secretaries of India and Nepal co-chaired the 8th meeting of Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on cooperation in the Power sector that was held through video conference.
Both sides discussed, inter alia, development of suitable rules and guidelines for allowing access to Nepali power producers to Indian markets, development of energy banking mechanism, development of cross border high voltage transmission lines as well as reviewing the progress of the SJVN Limited- developed 900MW Arun-III Hydro Electric Project in Nepal and agreeing to further facilitate its expeditious implementation.

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