General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Nov 08, 2020

Gupkar Alliance Members to Jointly Fight DDC Elections

The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) said that it would contest the upcoming District Development Council elections in Jammu and Kashmir and would not let the democratic space be marauded by divisive forces.
The seven-party alliance, led by NC chief Farooq Abdullah, took the decision after a crucial first meeting in Jammu, where members of the amalgam met around 30 separate delegations on a set of listed agenda, including the DDC polls.
The eight-phase DDC elections apart from polls to fill vacant posts of sarpanch and panch are scheduled from December 1 to December 24.

PM Modi is to Launch Ro-Pax Ferry Service

PM Modi is to launch Ro-Pax ferry service between Ghogha and Hazira in Gujarat.
The Ro-Pax ferry vessel called the "Voyage Symphony" is a three-deck vessel. It has a load capacity to load thirty trucks, 100 passenger cars and 500 passengers. The Ro-Pax terminal has a wide range of facilities such as parking area, office building, water tower and a substation.
The ferry will work as a Gateway to Saurashtra and South Gujarat. It will reduce the distance between Hazira and Ghogha from 370 km to 90 km. It reduces the cargo travel time from 10 to 12 hours to 4 hours. It helps to save large fuel. Approximately 9,000 litres of fuel is saved per day.
The ferry will transport 5 lakh passengers, 50,000 two-wheelers, 30,000 trucks and 80,000 passenger vehicles.
The ferry service will increase ease of access to the Saurashtra region. It will boost tourism especially, religious tourism in the regions of Somnath, Porbandar, Dwarka and Palitana.

Nov 07, 2020

Bihar Assembly Election 2020

The political future of 12 ministers of the Nitish Kumar government is at stake in the third and final phase of the Bihar assembly elections. In the third phase, elections for 78 seats will be held. In this phase, voters will also decide the political future of several veteran leaders of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).
In this phase, more than 235 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 78 assembly constituencies in 15 districts for which 33,782 polling booths have been set up.
The constituencies of this phase are located in the Kosi and Seemanchal regions. The main contest in this phase is being considered between the NDA and the Grand Alliance, but former MP Pappu Yadav`s party, the Jan Adhikar Party, the Lok Janshakti Party and the AIMIM have also fielded candidates, which has increased the worries of both the major alliances.

PM to Attend Virtual SCO Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will share screen-time with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Imran Khan during the virtual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The SCO summit, to be chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is scheduled for November 10, 2020 will also seek participation by leaders of four Central Asian states as well.
Though bilateral disputes are not aired at the SCO, the preparatory meetings and events have had their share of drama. At a virtual meeting of SCO National Security Advisors, the Pakistani representative pointedly hung a map incorrectly depicting its boundaries from India's point of view. This led to a symbolic walkout by NSA Ajit Doval.
India also did not participate in an SCO military drill that had Chinese soldiers as it took place in the middle of an aggressive confrontation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

Manipur By-elections in Four Assembly Seats

Voting for the by-elections to four assembly constituencies in Manipur is underway amid tight security and strict adherence to the COVID-19 protocol.
Around 1.35 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in 203 polling stations in the by-elections to Lilong and Wangjing-Tentha seats in Thoubal district, Saitu in Kangpokpi and Wangoi in Imphal West.
The fate of 11 candidates will be decided in Manipur by-elections the four seats.
The by-elections were necessitated after Congress MLAs of the four constituencies had resigned from the state Legislative Assembly and also quit the party. They had joined the BJP.

Nov 06, 2020

Tamil Nadu will Act to Ban Online Gambling

The State government will take steps to ban online gambling in the wake of multiple suicides across the State, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami said.
He told journalists that legislation to deem those who "conduct and indulge in online gambling" as criminals would be brought in soon. He said online gambling was destroying the lives of youth and driving them towards suicide.

Baghjan Blowout

The Oil India Limited (OIL)-owned Baghjan 5 well, which erupted on May 27, 2020 has been burning for more than five months now.
The snubbing unit is a special technology that has been brought from Calgary, Canada and reached the site. OIL resorted to the technology when they failed to control the well after reaching the penultimate stage of operations in mid-August.
On May 27, a blowout or an uncontrollable release of natural gas was reported at well number 5 in the Baghjan oilfield in Assam's Tinsukia district. On June, the well erupted in flames.
Meanwhile, a National Green Tribunal (NGT)-constituted expert panel recommended legal action against the OIL, reiterating the various transgressions by the company while operating the Baghjan 5 well.

Prasar Bharati Signs MoU with Electronics and IT Ministry to Launch 51 Education TV Channels

India's public broadcaster Prasar Bharati entered into an MoU with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to launch 51 direct-to-home (DTH) education TV channels.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Prasar Bharati and Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology aims to bring quality educational programmes to every household, including those in rural and remote areas.
Under the ambit of this MoU, 51 DTH education TV channels comprising Swaymprabha (22 channels) (M/o Education), e-Vidya for classes 1 to 12 (12 channels) of NCERT, Vande Gujarat (Govt. of Gujarat) (16 channels) and DigiShala under M/o Electronics and IT (1 channel) shall be available as DD co-branded channels to all DD FreeDish viewers.

Rupsi Airport at Kokrajhar all Set to Start Commercial Operation by January 2021

In Assam, Rupsi Airport at Kokrajhar district is all set to start commercial operation under Regional Connectivity Scheme by January 2021.
Airport has been re-developed at an estimated cost of 69 crore rupees and has also received its license by Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Spread across 337 acres of land, the newly developed airport has a terminal building with an area of 3,500 sqm.
Equipped with 10 check-in counters, the terminal is designed to process 200 passengers during peak hours.

Puri Launches Nurturing Neighborhoods' Challenge

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched the Nurturing Neighborhoods Challenge, under which cities will be provided technical assistance and capacity-building to re-imagine parks and create accessible, safe, walkable streets for children and families.
At an online event, Puri also launched data maturity assessment framework (DMAF) to evaluate data ecosystems of cities and training programme for city data officers (CDOs) of 100 Smart Cities.

SC Reserves Judgment in Central Vista Case

The Supreme Court reserved its judgment in petitions challenging the Central Vista redevelopment project in the national capital.
A Bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said the court would examine whether the project complied with land use and environmental regulations peculiar to the area which houses Parliament and the Central Secretariat buildings.

Nov 05, 2020

Gujarat Assembly By-polls

According to the state Election Commission, a total of 60.75 per cent voter turnout was recorded in by-elections to eight Assembly seats in Gujarat.
The eight seats where by-elections were held are -- Abdasa, Karjan, Morbi, Gadhada, Dhari, Limbdi, Kaprada and Dang.
As many as 11,39,163 out of 18,75,032 registered voters exercised their franchise.
Kaprada constituency in Valsad district registered the highest turnout at 77.50 per cent, followed by Dang at 75.01 per cent and Karjan at 70.01 per cent.

Union Cabinet Approves MoU between India and Israel on Health and Medicine

The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of MoU between India and Israel for cooperation in the field of health and medicine.
The MoU covers areas of cooperation such as exchange and training of medical doctors and other health professionals, assistance in development of human resources and setting up of health care facilities and exchange of information regarding regulation of pharmaceutical, medical devices and cosmetics.
It also includes sharing expertise for vulnerability assessment for health of citizens against climate risk and public health actions targeted towards mitigation and adaptation, sharing of expertise for facilitating climate resilient infrastructure as well as providing support for development of 'Green Healthcare' (climate resilient hospitals) and promoting mutual research in various relevant areas, besides any other area of cooperation as may be mutually decided upon.

Nov 04, 2020

Govt. Affects Major Additional Secretary-level Bureaucratic Reshuffle

Senior bureaucrat Sanjay Malhotra was appointed the Chairman and Managing Director of REC Ltd, as part of a major additional secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle affected by the Centre. Malhotra, a 1990-batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, is at present Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power.
Vineet Joshi, Director General, National Testing Agency, has been appointed as Additional Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education.
V.L Kantha Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production, has been appointed as Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence.
Sanjay Jaju will be Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production.

Bihar Assembly Polls 2nd Phase

Bihar witnessed an estimated turnout of 53.51% in the 2nd phase of the state's assembly election 2020. As per the latest data, Muzaffarpur recorded the highest poll percentage at 59.98% of the 17 districts, while Patna reported the lowest turnout at 48.24%.
Bihar voted for nearly 1,500 candidates in 94 legislative assembly constituencies in the most crucial of the three phases of assembly polls.
The estimated district-wise turn out: Muzaffarpur - 59.98%, Begusarai - 58.48%, Sitamarhi - 57.40%, East Champaran - 56.75%, Khagaria - 56.10%, Shivhar - 56.04%, Samastipur - 56.02%, Western Champaran - 55.99%, Gopalganj - 55.09%, Bhagalpur - 54.54%, Darbhanga - 54.15%, Saran - 54.15%, Madhubani - 52.67%, Vaishali - 51.93%, Siwan - 51.40%, Nalanda - 51.06% and Patna - 48.24%.

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