General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Jul 05, 2020

Anil Baijal Inaugurates World's Largest COVID-19 Care Facility

The world's largest, 10,000-bed Sardar Patel's COVID Care Centre and Hospital (SPCCCH) at Radha Soami Satsang Beas in Chhatarpur area became operational in the national capital.
Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, inaugurated the facility. The facility has been created on an emergency basis by the South Delhi District Administration with support of the Ministry of Home Affairs in a record time of 10 days.

AIR Starts Weekly Sanskrit 'News Magazine' Programme 'Sanskrit Saptahiki'

The All India Radio (AIR) broadcasted its first- ever 'News Magazine' programme in Sanskrit on Saturday which has news from the world of Sanskrit and prominent developments of the week.
The programme titled, 'Sanskrit Saptahiki', is aired for 20 minutes duration. It can be heard on All India Radio FM News Channel (100.1 MHz frequency) every Saturday with a repeat broadcast on Sundays.
Its components will be Sukti, Prasang, Saptahiki, Sanskrit Darshan, Gyan Vigyan, Bal Vallari, Ek Bharat-Shreshtha Bharat and Anvikshiki.

Jul 04, 2020

Government Launches 'Swachh Survekshan 2021'

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched the 'Swachh Survekshan 2021' -- the sixth edition of the annual cleanliness survey -- and said that the exercise this year will focus on wastewater treatment and other parameters. According to the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, state ranking will also be announced under the survey, to be measured based on their fund utilisation and support to respective local bodies, among others.
As per Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Puri, every year, the 'Swachh Survekshan' is redesigned innovatively to ensure the process becomes more robust with focus on sustaining the behaviour change.
The minister also announced new category of awards titled 'Prerak Daaur Samman' as part of 'Swachh Survekshan 2021'.
The Prerak Daaur Samman has five additional sub-categories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring) - with top three cities being recognised in each.

Union HRD Minister and Union Health Minister Launch Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020

Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', the Union Minister of HRD (Human Resource Development) and Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare and minister of Science and Technology launched the Drug Discovery Hackathon (DDH 2020) through an online platform in the presence of Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State (HRD). It is a first of its kind national initiative supporting the Drug Discovery Process.
The objective of DDH 2020 is to identify drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 by in-silico drug discovery through the hackathon and follow up by chemical synthesis and biological testing utilizing computational methods such as machine learning, AI and big data.
The DDH2020 is a joint initiative of the Ministry of HRD, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and is supported by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), My Gov, Schrodinger and ChemAxon.

Jul 03, 2020

Telangana Amends State FRBM Act 2005

The Governor of Telangana Dr. Tamilisai Sounderarajan has promulgated an ordinance No.3 of 2020, amending the Telangana Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act-2005 which will enable the State to increase the borrowing limit by 2% to 5% from earlier 3%. With the new Telangana FRBM (Amendment) Act 2020, state government's additional borrowing limit can go up to Rs. 20,000 crore now, without any hassles.
With this amendment, the Telangana State government has accepted the recent decision of the Central government to expand the borrowing limit of the States under FRBM Act, 2003 from 3% to 5% allowing the States to borrow more as there is fall in state's revenues due to COVID-19 induced lockdown.
As per ordinance, due to the shortfall in the devolution of share of Central taxes, Telangana has been allowed an additional borrowing of Rs. 1,435 crore during 2019-20 over and above the normal fiscal deficit limit of 3% as a one-time special dispensation. However, due to the current crisis, the limit needs to be raised in FY20-21 too.

Shivraj Expands MP Cabinet

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan inducted 28 new ministers in his cabinet, including 12 former Congress leaders, three months after he assumed office for a fourth term.
The ministers include 20 cabinet ministers and eight ministers of state. The council of ministers now has 34 members, with only one ministerial berth lying vacant. The 12 former Congress leaders inducted are considered loyal to Rajya Sabha MP and senior BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel, who was sworn in as the acting governor on Wednesday due to the hospitalisation of governor Lalji Tandon in Lucknow, administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers in a simple function organised at the Raj Bhavan premises.

Jul 02, 2020

Central Govt. Implemented Amendments in the Indian Stamp Act, 1899

From July 1, 2020, Central Government has enforced the amendments to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, and the Indian Stamp (Collection of Stamp-Duty through Stock Exchanges, Clearing Corporations and Depositories) Rules as proposed under Part I, Chapter IV of the Finance Act, 2019 on 10th December, 2019. Therefore, the rate of stamp duty will change for debentures, transfer of demat securities, futures, options, currency and interest rate derivatives, government securities and repo on corporate bonds. Off-market transactions, including transfer of shares at the time of inheritance, gifts and transactions in unlisted securities among others, will also be charged a fee.
These amendments are introducing a uniform rate of stamp duty on trading of shares and commodities which was being charged at different rates by different states.
The present system of collection of stamp duty on securities market transactions led to multiple rates for the same instrument, resulting in jurisdictional disputes and multiple incidences of duty, thereby raising the transaction costs in the securities market and hurting capital formation. The Central Government has now created the legal and institutional mechanism to enable states to collect stamp duty on securities market instruments at one place by one agency.

Home Ministry Extends Armed Forces (Special power Act) (AFSPA) 1958 in Nagaland

Union ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the Armed Forces (Special power Act) (AFSPA) 1958 in Nagaland for six month.
The union home ministry notification stated whereas the Central government is of the opinion that the area comprising the whole of state of Nagaland is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary.
Nagaland governor R. N Ravi had written to the Chief Minister, N Rio citing collapse of law and order in the state.
Ravi in the letter has proposed important law and order decisions like transfers and postings of officials entrusted with maintenance of law and order will be only after the approval of the Governor.

NITI Aayog in Collaboration with RMI Releases 'Towards a Clean Energy Economy' Report

The new report on clean energy transition in India titled "Towards a Clean Energy Economy: Post-Covid-19 Opportunities for India's Energy and Mobility Sectors" brought out jointly by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog and the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to support India's clean energy future. The report has recommended specific actions and laid down four principles as a framework by which India can revive two of our economic powerhouses – the transport and power sectors from the COVID-19 effect that has impacted their demand and supply.
The principles are Invest in least-cost-energy solutions, support resilient and secure energy systems, prioritise efficiency and competitiveness, promote social and environmental equity.
As per the report, India's transport sector can save 1.7 gigatonnes (GT) of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and avoid about 600 million tonnes of oil equivalent in fuel demand by 2030 through shared, electric, and connected passenger mobility and cost-effective, clean, and optimised freight transport.

Giriraj Singh Launches the 1st Edition of "Matsya Sampada"

Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, launched the 1st edition of "Matsya Sampada" – newsletter fisheries and aquaculture published by the Department of Fisheries and the operational guidelines of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
Matsya Sampada is aimed to educate the fishers and fish farmers on the latest advancement in and best practices in fisheries and aquaculture.
Starting from the first quarter of 2020-2021, this newsletter will be published on a quarterly basis.
This newsletter will serve as a communication platform in informing the development in the sector to the stakeholders like fishers, fish farmers and the entrepreneurs all over the country and assist them with their businesses.

Committee for Reform in Criminal Law to Start Online Consultation Soon

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted a national level committee for reform in criminal law.
The committee, which has several leading legal academicians on board, would be gathering opinions online, consulting with experts and collating material for their report to the government.
The consultation exercise would start this month and go on for the next three months.
The committee includes Ranbir Singh, chairperson, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University (NLU), Delhi; G.S. Bajpai, member and convenor, Registrar, NLU Delhi; Balraj Chauhan, member, Vice-Chancellor, Dharmashastra NLU Jabalpur; Mahesh Jethmalani, member, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India; and G.P. Thareja, member, former District and Sessions Judge, Delhi.

Jun 30, 2020

Syed Ali Geelani Resigns as Head of Hurriyat Conference

Jammu and Kashmir-based separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani, under house arrest since last August (2019), resigned as chairman of Hurriyat Conference. He was chosen as lifetime chairman of the Hurriyat.
As per Geelani, there have been certain issues which forced him to resign.
The leader referred to inaction by the Hurriyat members post the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and the division of the erstwhile state into two Union territories.
Geelani had been leading the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference while the moderate faction is helmed by cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

India Bans 59 Chinese Apps

India banned 59 apps originating from China, including very popular ones like the short video platform TikTok, UC Browser, file sharing app ShareIt, and CamScanner, which allows iOS and Android devices to be used as image and document scanners.
The ban has been imposed under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009. The government also cited complaints about data on Indian users being transferred abroad without authorisation.
The move could come as a blow to China's Digital Silk Route ambitions, eroding the valuation of the companies. It could also lead to more countries following India's cue and acting against these apps.

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