General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Oct 10, 2020

Shiv Sena to Contest 50 Seats in Bihar Polls

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that his party can contest from as many as 50 seats in the forthcoming Bihar Assembly elections, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and State Minister Aaditya Thackeray will address virtual rallies there.
Elections to the 243-seat Bihar Assembly will be held in three phases--October 28, November 3, and 7, and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.

Goa First State to Complete Har Ghar Nal Jal Yojna

Goa became the first state in the country to provide 100 per cent tap water connections in rural areas covering 2.30 lakh households.
The government's Jal Jeevan Mission aims to provide piped water to all rural households by 2024.
Two districts -- North Goa with 1.65 lakh rural households and South Goa with 98,000 rural households in 191 gram panchayats -- are "fully saturated" with assured piped water supply through tap connections.

Oct 09, 2020

Smriti Irani Launches First ever Brand & Logo for Indian Cotton

Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani launched the first ever Brand and Logo for Indian Cotton on Second World Cotton Day through video conferencing.
Now India's premium cotton would be known as 'Kasturi Cotton' in the world cotton trade. The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness.
She said that cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of the country and it provides livelihood to about six million cotton farmers. India is the second largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world.
It produces about six million tonnes of cotton every year which is about 23 per cent of the world cotton. India produces about 51 per cent of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India's effort towards sustainability.

Leh Gears up for Hill Council Election

Leh is preparing for the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) elections scheduled for October 22, ahead of which both the BJP and Congress have promised to protect land, culture, jobs and identity of the people if voted to power.
The contest in the hill council elections is mainly between the two national parties, as the regional parties including the National Conference and People's Democratic Party haven't filed any nominations.
The new entrant in the contest is Aam Aadmi Party, which has fielded candidates on 19 out of 26 seats going to the polls. A total of 94 candidates have filed nominations – 26 each from the BJP and Congress and 23 independent candidates – while 67 candidates have withdrawn their nominations.

Oct 08, 2020

Cabinet Approves India-Japan MoU on Cyber Security

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Memorandum of Understanding signed between India and Japan on cyber security.
The MoU aims to enhance cooperation between the countries in the area of cyberspace and share information on cyber security. A joint mechanism is to be developed under the agreement to mitigate cyber threats and enhance the security of information communication technology infrastructure in the countries.
The digital economy of India comprises of 14 to 15 percentage of the total economy. India aims to increase this to 20% by 2024. There are more than 120 recognised data centres in India. In 2013, India launched National Cyber Security Policy and thereby became one of the few countries in the world to have such a policy.
In 2016, the banks of the country announced that the details of at least 3.2 million debit cards were leaked. Therefore, it is important for India to update it cyber security measures and infrastructure. The updation can be achieved through joint cooperation with foreign countries that possess well established cyber security measures.
Unlike Singapore, UK and US where the cyber security is dealt under a single umbrella organisation, India has 36 different central bodies. Most of the Indian Ministries have their own strategies and reporting structures in regard to cyber security. Every state government has its own CERT.

Ladakh Signs MoU with National Diary Development Board

The Union Territory of Ladakh and National Dairy Development Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct survey in the rural livelihood of Ladakh.
The survey will collect data required to create a road map towards promotion and development of dairy sector in Ladakh. The road map will act as a guide to enhance the income of rural population in the area.
The list of households to be included in the road map irrespective of their diary animal holding status has been released by the National Dairy development board.
The survey is to be conducted based on crucial aspects such as suitability of breeds, climatic conditions, artificial intelligence support, animal health, feed and fodder availability and impediments in logistics and supply chain management.
The technical and managerial support for the services to be provided by the National Dairy development board.
The union territory administration of Ladakh will finalise a plan based on the discussion with the stakeholders.
The National Dairy and Development Board will provide training to nominated coordinators from the districts of Kargil and Leh. The coordinators in turn will identify investigators from the villages. These investigators will be involved in the survey to monitor and supervise the field work.
India is the largest producer of milk in the world. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation India contributes 22% of the world annual milk production.

Centre Approves Ratification of Seven Organic Pollutants

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the ratification of seven Chemicals that are listed under Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants. Further, the cabinet delegated its powers of ratification to the union ministry of external affairs and ministry of environment forest and climate change. These Ministries are already regulating the persistent organic pollutants under the domestic regulations.
The 7 persistent organic pollutants that are currently being ratified by the government of India are Chlordecone, Hexabromobiphenyl, Hexabromodiphenyl ether and Heptabromodiphenylether (Commercial octa-BDE), Tetrabromodiphenyl ether and Pentabromodiphenyl ether (Commercial penta-BDE), Pentachlorobenzene, Hexabromocyclododecane and Hexachlorobutadiene.
These pollutants were listed in Stockholm convention already. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change notified regulation of Persistent organic pollutants rules. Under these rules, the manufacture, trade, use, import and export of these seven Chemicals were prohibited. This was completely domestic and not in accordance to the Stockholm Convention.
India has ratified the convention in January 2006. However, India till date stays in an opt-out position following domestic rules on usage of POPs.

Head of Afghan Peace Council Abdullah Abdullah Meets PM Modi

Afghanistan's top peace negotiator Abdullah Abdullah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the ongoing peace initiative to bring back stability in the war-ravaged country.
Following the meeting, Abdullah said that Modi assured him of India's continued support for the peace process in Afghanistan.
As per Anurag Srivastava, Modi reaffirmed India's long-term commitment to further deepen ties with Afghanistan.
Abdullah is in India on a five-day visit as part of the efforts to build a regional consensus and support for the Afghan peace process.

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.

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