General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

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%.

Nov 03, 2020

Government Releases First Installment of Rs. 2200 crore to Improve Air Quality

The Government of India released Rs. 2,200 crores to 15 states to improve air quality measures. The air quality improvement measures are to be executed in more than million plus cities.
The amount was released based on the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission. The fund will help states undertake air quality measures and capacity building in local bodies.
The amount was released to states such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
The Fifteenth Finance Commission is to submit its report for the fiscal years 2020-21 to 2025-26 on November 9, 2020 to President Ram Nath Kovind.

Ten Rajya Sabha Candidates Elected Unopposed from Uttar Pradesh

Eight candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and two candidates of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP candidates who have been elected include Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh, Haridwar Dubey, Brij Lal, Neeraj Shekhar, Geeta Shakya, Seema Dwivedi and BL Varma.
Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was declared elected unopposed while the BSP`s Ramji Gautam was also elected to the Upper House.
Senior BJP leader Naresh Bansal was declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Uttarakhand today with no other party in the contest.

Marked Improvement in RS Panels' Functioning

The eight department-related Parliamentary Standing Committees (DRSCs) of the Rajya Sabha reported a marked improvement in their functioning during 2019-20, clocking the best performance in the past three years.
According to them, each meeting of these panels lasted for an average of two hours and ten minutes 2019-20, thus crossing the two-hour mark for the first time and this also marked an improvement of 55 per cent over that of 2018-19 and a 25 per cent increase over the average of the previous two years.
The average attendance at 117 meetings of these eight committees comes to 49.20 per cent during 2019-20, again the best in the past three years. The average attendance crossed the halfway mark with 50.73 per cent for the first time during the first half of 2019-20.

Nov 02, 2020

UP Emerges as Top Destination in World for Investment

In a bid to create jobs across the state, the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh announced that following the investments from several foreign companies in infrastructure and industrial development projects, over 1.35 lakh jobs will likely be generated.
The Infrastructure & Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Alok Tandon said that 10 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany and South Korea have proposed to invest in Uttar Pradesh. These companies will reportedly invest Rs. 45,000 crore.
These companies have already been allotted a 426-acre land for several projects.
The entrepreneurs are being provided 166 services through 'Nivesh Mitra' portal, which is a single-window system of the Uttar Pradesh government.

J&K Gears Up to Conduct Elections for Local Bodies

The Jammu and Kashmir administration is preparing to compress the election schedule for panchayats, urban local bodies and the recently formed district development councils between November last week and December 15.
Officials have been directed to formulate a plan and coordinate with the security grid to finalise the schedule of all the three elections, which would be conducted simultaneously.
The apex and divisional level committees formed last month to formulate the schedule of the district development councils' election will also submit their report.

Nov 01, 2020

CPM and Congress Join Hands for Bengal and Assam Poll

Ending months of specualtions, the Communist Part of India (Marxist) has decided to have electoral understanding with the Congress for the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, due for mid-next year.
In Kerala, the CPM will continue to contest election as part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and in Tamil Nadu it will be part of the DMK-led alliance.
In West Bengal, the CPM and the Left Front will have an electoral understanding with all secular parties, including the Congress, which seek to defeat the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.

Rajasthan Introduces 4 Bills to Counter Farm Laws

The Rajasthan government introduced four bills to counter the farm laws recently enacted by the Central government.
Parliamentary affairs minister Shanti Dhariwal tabled the Essential Commodities (Special Provisions and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services (Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020 and the Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation and Rajasthan Amendment) Bill 2020 during the special session of the Rajasthan Assembly.
According to the statement of objects, the bills seek to "protect the interest of farmers, farm labourers, those engaged in ancillary and incidental activities relating to production, sale and marketing of agricultural produce as also consumers and for adherence to the minimum support price mechanism".

Oct 31, 2020

India and Mexico Eighth Joint Commission Meeting

India and Mexico held the eighth Joint Commission Meeting. The countries appreciated the recent progress in the bilateral trade between them.
The bilateral cooperation includes areas such as trade, agriculture, investment, health and education. The meeting was presided by the foreign ministers of the countries. They agreed to add new momentum to the relations between the countries in the areas of science and technology, health, trade and commerce, energy, space.
The countries during the meet agreed to use their forthcoming term in United Nations Security Council to strengthen multilateralism.
Mexico enjoys "Privileged Partnership" with India since 2007. The countries in 2015, agreed to work on "Strategic Partnership". The countries have signed since then signed bilateral agreements on Extradition, Investment Promotion and Protection, Space Cooperation and Administrative assistance in customs matters.

Public Affairs Index 2020

The Public Affairs Index 2020 was released by Public Affairs Centre, a non-profit organisation. According to the index, Kerala was the best governed the state. The report was released by the committee headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Kasturirangan.
The states were ranked in the context of sustainable development. The governance of the states was analysed based on three pillars namely growth, equity and sustainability.
Kerala was awarded with the top most ranking and Uttar Pradesh with the bottom most ranking.
In large state category, Kerala topped the listing with an index of 1.388 followed by Tamil Nadu with 0.91, Andhra Pradesh with 0.5 31 and Karnataka with 0.468. The bottom most ranking was occupied by Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar in the same category
In the small state category Goa topped the list followed by Meghalaya and Himachal Pradesh. The bottom most states in this category were Manipur, Delhi and Uttarakhand.
In the category of Union Territories Chandigarh was the top performing region followed by Puducherry and Lakshadweep. Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir were the least performing Union Territories.

Shiv Sena Likely to Nominate Urmila Matondkar to the MLC

The Shiv Sena is likely to get actress Urmila Matondkar to be the Sena nominee to the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC).
As per reports, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had called up Matondkar to seek her consent and Shiv Sena leaders say that she has agreed.
The Sena sounding out Matondkar to include her name in the list of four MLCs who would be nominated to the Legislative Council comes even as the equations between Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi have been frosty at best.
Twelve MLCs can be nominated under the governor's quota to the Legislative Council under the social, cultural and sports category. This rule is seldom followed by political parties in many states who send politicians to the Legislative Council.
However, sending politicians under the Governor's quota would be difficult this time as there are possibilities that Koshyari may reject the names if they don't come under the social, cultural and sports fields. Koshyari has been at logger heads with the MVA ever since the government was formed.

Nation's First Elevated Rail Track

Having missed several deadlines in the past one year, the Railways have now fixed December 5 as a new deadline to complete the entire work of the nation's first elevated railway track in Rohtak City.
As per reports, electrification work was underway and it was likely to be completed by November 20. Thereafter, the final trial of electric train on this 4.8 km long track would be conducted while the track would be ready for operation by December 5.
The foundation stone of the Rs. 350-crore ambitious project was laid by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in March 2018 and a deadline of 18 months was fixed to complete it.
The project missed the first deadline in November 2019 due to encroachment on the one side of the track. The work could not also be completed before the second deadline on April 30 and third on June 30. The deadline was extended twice thereafter.

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