General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Aug 24, 2020

BJP to Fight Bengal Elections Without Projecting Chief Minister Face

As per repports, the BJP will not project any Chief Ministerial candidate for West Bengal Assembly polls and bank on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development plank to fight against the TMC.
The saffron camp will pick its Chief Minister, once voted to power.
Incidentally, in 2016, too, the BJP had fought the Assembly polls without any CM face. But a lot of water has flown under the Howrah Bridge over the last four years, with the saffron party having emerged as the prime challenger of the ruling TMC in Bengal, by pushing the traditional opposition parties—the CPI (M) and the Congress—to distant third and fourth positions.
The saffron camp reached its all-time high in Bengal politics last year when it stunned political pundits by bagging 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, four less than the ruling TMC, and with a staggering vote share of 41 per cent.

NCC Looks at Paramilitary for Training Facilities

With the expansion of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) underway, the organisation has approached the Ministry of Home Affairs for utilising training facilities available with the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).
In a letter written to the Union Home Ministry, the Directorate General, NCC, has sought details of the CAPF training areas that can be made available to the organisation for the conduct of its annual camps and proposed that the Ministry's permission be accorded for the same.
While the NCC functions under the operational, administrative and financial control of the Ministry of Defence and draws its officers and instructional staff form the armed forces, the CAPF like the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force, Border Security Force or the Central Reserve Police Force, come under the purview of the Home Ministry.
NCC cadets are entitled to additional weightage in marks for recruitment in the CAPF if they hold A, B, or C certificates.

BJP, JD(U) and LJP to Jointly Fight Polls

Putting an end to speculation and drawing the line for NDA's warring Bihar partners LJP and JD(U), the BJP chief, J. P. Nadda, said that the party-led coalition would contest the Assembly elections as one force with CM Nitish Kumar as the face of the alliance.
Nadda's remarks, at a virtual meet of the Bihar BJP, come amid a war of words between the Janata Dal (U) and the Chirag Paswan-headed Lok Janshakti Party. Chirag has been targeting Nitish over his handling of the migrant crisis, Covid pandemic and floods. However, Nadda not only praised the Bihar Government's handling of the pandemic and floods, but also made it clear that the polls would be fought under Nitish.
It will be the first time that the three parties will be contesting together.

National Council for Transgender Persons Formed

The Centre constituted the national council for transgender persons, headed by the Union social justice minster and comprising representatives from 10 central departments, five states and members of the community.
The council – India's first and formed under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 – was announced in a gazette notification.
According to the legislation, the council has five main functions -- advising the central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons; monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons; reviewing and coordinating the activities of all the departments; redressing grievances of transgender persons; and performing such other functions as prescribed by the Centre.
The council will have joint secretary-level members from the ministries of health, home, minority affairs, education, rural development, labour and law. In addition, there will be a member from the department of pensions, Niti Aayog, National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women.
Representatives from five states or Union Territories, on a rotational basis, will be members of the commission. The first such clutch comprises Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tripura and Gujarat.

Aug 23, 2020

Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti to Launch Political Party for Fighting Assam Polls

The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) announced that it will launch a political party to fight the Assam elections in 2021, and its jailed leader Akhil Gogoi will be the CM candidate.
The KMSS leadership said that the proposed party's name will be announced by Gogoi once he is released from jail.
The new outfit will be a non-compromising political force and it will not be named after KMSS' earlier venture Gana Mukti Sangram-Asom, but a new name will be given.

Aug 22, 2020

MEA and Thailand's Foreign Ministry Organise 6th Round Table of AINTT

Ministry of External Affairs in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand organized the 6th Round Table of ASEAN-India Network of Think Tanks (AINTT) through video conference on 20-21 August 2020. The ASEAN-India Centre (AIC) at the Research and Information System for Development Countries (RIS) and ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC) at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok were the organizing partners of the Round Table. The theme of the Round Table was 'ASEAN-India: Strengthening Partnership in the Post COVID Era'.
The Round Table was jointly inaugurated by External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Thailand Mr. Don Pramudwinai. ASEAN Secretary General Mr. Lim Jock Hoi also addressed the inaugural session. SOM Leaders / their representatives from all ten ASEAN Member States were also present in the Session.
The Round Table had five thematic sessions spread over two days namely, Changing Landscape of Global Order and ASEAN-India relations in the post Covid-19 Era; Emerging Value Chains: Opportunities for ASEAN and India in the post Covid-19 Era; New Normal and Significance of 4IR on ASEAN-India Partnership and Future Collaborations; ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI): Complementarities and Cooperation; and Way Forward. Each Session saw presentation of research papers by 4-5 panelists from prominent think-tanks, universities, institutes both from India and ASEAN, followed by Q&A.
More than 400 people from academia, industry, government and diplomatic community attended the Round Table.
The ASEAN-India Round Table comprising think tanks, policy makers, scholars, media and business representatives was established at the 7th ASEAN-India Summit in Thailand in 2009 to provide policy inputs to Governments on future direction of cooperation. The forum serves as a high quality research platform and provides long-term perspectives to further strengthen ASEAN-India Strategic Partnership.

Aug 21, 2020

IIT Roorkee and BIS Sign MoU to Cooperate in Standardisation and Conformity Assessment

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and Bureau of India Standards (BIS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration in areas of Standardisation and Conformity Assessment based on equality and reciprocity.
In Accordance with the agreement, the collaboration will include several fields like Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Earthquake Engineering, Development and Management of Water Resources and Renewable Energy Projects, Infrastructure Development, Medical Biotechnology and Nanotechnology biomaterials.
IIT Roorkee and BIS will participate in the standardisation activity through technical committees of BIS at the national and international levels.
Research and Development projects related to standardisation and conformity assessment will be undertaken.

Madhya Pradesh First State to Offer Govt. Jobs on Basis of NRA Test Score

Madhya Pradesh will become the first state in the country to offer government jobs on the basis of marks obtained in the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) test.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's announcement came a day after the Union cabinet approved the setting up of NRA to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for selecting candidates for a majority of central government jobs. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that the decision will allow job seekers to take one common test and save costs and time spent on writing multiple exams.
Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country to take this unprecedented decision of giving government jobs to youths of the state on the basis of their NRA score. Other states can also emulate it to give relief to their sons and daughters.
NRA will conduct a separate CET each for graduates, higher secondary (Class 12) students and Class 10 candidates for non-technical posts to which recruitment is currently carried out by SSC, RRBs and IBPS. It will benefit around 25 million aspirants who apply for multiple government jobs every year and have to apply for each exam separately.

Three RJD MLAs Join the Ruling Janata Dal (United)

In a major development ahead of the Assembly poll in Bihar, three Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs joined the ruling Janata Dal (United) in Patna.
The three MLAs Chandrika Rai, Faraz Fatmi and Jaivardhan Yadav joined the Nitish Kumar-led JDU in the presence of senior party leaders and ministers Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Sravan Kumar.
The Assembly Election in Bihar is scheduled to take place in October-November this year.

Aug 20, 2020

India in Talks with 13 Nations for Air Bubble Arrangement

According to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, India is negotiating with 13 countries, including Australia, Japan and Singapore, to establish separate bilateral air bubble arrangements for international flight operations.
Under a bilateral air bubble pact, airlines of both the countries can operate international flights with certain restrictions.
Since July, India has established such bubbles with the following countries - the US, the UK, France, Germany, the UAE, Qatar and the Maldives.
Puri said that the government is taking these efforts forward and is negotiating with 13 more countries to establish such arrangements.
These countries include Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.
As per Puri, air bubbles have also been proposed with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

Maharashtra Exempts All Serving and Retired Soldiers from Panchayat Property Tax

As per Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif, Maharashtra, all serving and retired soldiers in Maharashtra will be exempted from the Gram Panchayat property tax. A government resolution for this was issued.
The decision was taken following pursuance by Agriculture Minister Dadaji Bhuse.
Till now, the recipients of defence gallantry awards or their dependents were exempted from the Gram Panchayat property tax for one residential building.
Now, the relaxation has been widened to cover all serving and retired soldiers.
This decision was taken to honour the soldiers who protect the country by risking their lives.

President Accepts Ashok Lavasa's Resignation as Election Commissioner

President Ram Nath Kovind accepted the resignation of Ashok Lavasa as Election Commissioner.
Lavasa had sent his resignation as Election Commissioner to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Lavasa was next in line to head the poll panel. He would soon be joining the Asian Development Bank as vice president, sources said. He would be joining the Philippines-based ADB sometime in September 2020.
The ADB had appointed Ashok Lavasa as Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public-Private Partnerships. He will succeed Diwakar Gupta, whose term will end on August 31.
Lavasa's term in the EC would have ended in October 2022 had he become the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). He is the second election commissioner to step down from the poll panel before the completion of his term. In 1973, CEC Nagendra Singh resigned after he was appointed a judge in the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

National Recruitment Agency for Conducting Common Eligibility Test for Various Govt. Jobs

The Union Cabinet approved a proposal to set up National Recruitment Agency that will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for selection to non-gazetted posts in the central government and public sector banks. As per Narendra Modi, the National Recruitment Agency will prove to be a boon for crores of youngsters.
There will be single entrance examination for all non-gazetted posts — Group B and C posts. Candidates who qualify this Common Entrance Test (CET) can apply to any recruitment agencies for higher level of examination. The score will be valid for three years during which candidate can apply for jobs in different sectors depending upon his/her aptitude and preferences.
Through the Common Eligibility Test, it will eliminate multiple tests and save precious time as well as resources. This will also be a big boost to transparency.
Cabinet's decision to set up National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct Common Eligibility Test (CET) for preliminary selection to various Government vacancies is a revolutionary reform.
National Recruitment Agency will conduct a common eligibility test for Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and the Institute of Banking Service Personnel (IBPS). "There are almost more than 20 recruitment agencies in central govt. At present the exams are only for three agencies common as of now.

Railways Procures Drones to Protect Assets

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Railways has procured unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for monitoring its assets and ensure safety for passengers.
The Mumbai Division of Central Railway has procured two Ninja UAVs for better security and surveillance in railway areas like station premises, railway track sections, yards, workshops.
Eye in the Sky: Improving Surveillance System, Railways has procured Ninja Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. With real-time tracking, video streaming & automatic failsafe mode.
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has planned extensive use of drones for the purpose of railway security.
Nine drones have been procured by RPF so far at a cost of Rs. 31.87 lakh at South Eastern Railway, Central Railway, Modern Coaching Factory, Raebareilli and South Western Railway.
It is further proposed to procure 17 more drones in future at a cost of Rs. 97.52 Lakh. Nineteen RPF personnel have so far been trained in operation and maintenance of drones out of which four have received licenses for flying drones.

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