General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Jun 24, 2020

Setback to RJD, 5 MLCs Join JD(U)

In a major jolt to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ahead of Legislative Council polls in Bihar, five sitting party MLCs joined Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) or JD(U). The assembly polls in the state are also due in October-November this year.
The RJD, which has eight MLCs, is now left with only three MLCs. The MLCs who defected to JD(U) are Radha Charan Shah (2015), Sanjay Prasad (2015), Dilip Rai (2015), Md Kamar Alam (2016) and Ranvijay Kumar Singh (2016).
All the MLCs who joined the JD(U) do not face the anti-defection law as they form the two-third of the total number of MLCs of the RJD. A letter about formal joining of the RJD MLCs was forwarded by chief whip of the JD(U) Reena Devi to acting chairman of the legislative council.
Tuesday's development has made the JD(U) with 21 MLCs as the single largest party in the 75-member council, which presently has a strength of 46 as 29 seats are lying vacant. The BJP has 16 MLCs in the council and also has the support of an independent MLC. The polling for nine seats is schedule in July 2020.

India Asks Pakistan to Reduce High Commission Staff

India asked Pakistan to reduce its staff in its High Commission by half within the next seven days and announced a reciprocal trimming of Indian strength in Islamabad, in a significant downgrading of diplomatic ties.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that the Charge d' Affaires of Pakistan High Commission was summoned and informed about the decision which was based on instances of alleged involvement of Pakistani officials in "acts of espionage" and dealings with terrorist organisations.

Jun 23, 2020

India Gets Permanent Signatory Status of Washington Accord

The Union HRD Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank informed that India has got the Permanent Signatory status of Washington Accord for 6 more years.
In the Washington Accord, India is represented by the National Board of Accreditation.
The membership of the Washington Accord is an international recognition of the quality of undergraduate engineering education offered by the member country and is an avenue to bring it into the world-class category.
It encourages and facilitates the mobility of engineering graduates and professionals at the international level.
Earlier in 2014, India had become a permanent signatory of the Washington Accord.

Finance Ministry Clears Way for Individual, Institutional Contributions to NDRF

The Finance Ministry cleared the way for individual and institutional contributions to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), nearly 15 years after it was set up.
The letter from the Department of Expenditure, Finance Ministry addressed to Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on the issue of contributions or grants by individuals and institutions under Section 4(1)(b) of the Disaster Management Act, said that it has no objection to the proposal.
The matter has been consulted with the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs and the department has no objection to the proposal of contributions/grants from individuals/institutions towards the NDRF as per Section 46(1)(b) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Rajasthan Signs Pact With POWERGRID & EdCIL

As per Rajasthan Education Minister Govind Singh Dotasara, the Rajasthan government signed a tripartite agreement with the Power Grid Corporation of India (POWERGRID) and the Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL) to set up smart classrooms in 100 schools with a cost of Rs. 1.85 crore.
The initiative is to promote online education during COVID-19 lockdown.
E-content syllabus will be available for students from classes 1 to 12. In each schools 4 teachers will be trained to teach in the smart classrooms
The priority for establishing the smart classrooms will be given to schools located in remote areas where computer teachers and laboratory assistants have already been appointed.

Jun 22, 2020

Govt. Plans to Cut Import Dependence

The government is working on a sectoral strategy to reduce import dependence by building local capacity, creating value chains and quickly attaining self-reliance in at least half-a-dozen areas ranging from footwear and furniture to technical textiles and medical equipment to electronics and defence production.
The sectors will receive fiscal incentives credit support and tariff protection from an influx of cheaper imports, particularly from China.
All custom duty exemptions would be comprehensively reviewed and many of them will go as they are hurting domestic manufacturing.
The sectors are being identified carefully on the basis of availability of supply chains and skilled workers, besides their potential to create job opportunities.

MoHUA Signs MoU to Engage SIDBI as Implementation Agency for PM SVANidhi

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) inked Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to make latter as the implementation Agency for Prime Minister Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) – a Special Micro-Credit Facility for Street Vendors.
The MoU was signed Sanjay Kumar, Joint Secretary on behalf of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Shri V. Satya Venkata Rao, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI, in the presence of Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) MoHUA during a meet in New Delhi.
SIDBI will implement the PM SVANidhi Scheme under the guidance of MoHUA.
It will manage the credit guarantee to the lending institutions through Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).
It will develop and maintain a customised and integrated IT Platform providing end-to-end solutions through a Portal and a Mobile App, to ensure engagement and information flow between Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), Lending Institutions, Digital Payment Aggregators and other stakeholders.

Jun 21, 2020

Modi Launches Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan with the aim of providing employment to migrant workers who returned to their villages during the two month long nationwide lockdown imposed to curb spread of coronavirus.
The programme aims to provide jobs to labourers in rural areas which have been worst affected by reverse migration. According to the government, the scheme focuses on 116 districts across six states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha. The 116 districts that have been chosen, together account for over 67 lakh migrant workers which is nearly two thirds of the total returnee migrants.

Rajnath Singh to Visit Russia for Victory Day Parade in Moscow

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is to visit Moscow next week on a three day visit to participate in a ceremony to mark the 75th World War II Victory Day parade on 24th June.
The visit of the defence minister will strengthen the longstanding special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia.
Singh will be meeting top Russian leaders and those of other countries but there is no meeting scheduled with Chinese delegates who will be in Moscow at the same time for the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.
Singh will be accompanied by Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and and a senior officer from each of the three wings of the armed forces.

Jun 20, 2020

UP Provides Employment to 57 lakh 12975 Migrant Workers under MGNREGA

In accordance with the official government data, released earlier this month, Uttar Pradesh (UP) has provided employment to 57 lakh 12975 workers in 56,981 village panchayats of the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), making it the top Indian state to provide highest employment under MGNREGS.
This employment is 18% of the total work generated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the country.
UP is followed by Rajasthan, which has engaged 53.45 lakh workers, Andhra Pradesh (AP) with 36 lakh workers, West Bengal (WB) with 26 lakh and Madhya Pradesh (MP) with 23.95 lakh workers.

India's 1st Ever Climate Change Assessment - Climate Change Tracker

India released its first national report on the state of the climate crisis titled "Assessment of climate change over the Indian region" prepared with the support of the Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) and edited by the scientists of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.
This report is published as an open access book by Spring Nature.
The average temperature of India has raised by 0.7 degree celsius in 1901 – 2018 due to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and projected to rise by 2.7 degrees celsius by 2099 in the best the best care scenario and in the worst case scenario a rise will 4.4 degrees celsius.
The findings of the report states that the sea level in Mumbai and Bengal coast are rising at a rate of 3 cm and 5 cm per decade respectively which is projected to rise to 30 cm by 2099.
The temperature of the Indian ocean including the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal has risen by 1 degree celsius in 1951-2015 which is higher than the global average.

Rajya Sabha Elections

Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Sanajaoba Leishemba, who is Manipur's titular king, won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state by securing 28 votes amid an ongoing power tussle between the two parties following the defections of nine lawmakers from the governing coalition. Leishemba defeated Congress's T. Mangibabu.
The ruling YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh won all the four Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
The four YSRC candidates – Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and Parimal Nathwani were declared elected as they polled the number of votes required for their election.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday scored facile victories to enter the Rajya Sabha through rival parties in Madhya Pradesh.
The BJP, which was placed comfortably to win two seats in the changed circumstances after toppling the Kamal Nath government, got a mild jolt when one of its legislators Gopilal Jatav voted for Congress candidate "by mistake". Another MLA Jugal Kishore Bagri had his vote rejected on technical grounds.
The Congress won two Rajya Sabha seats in Rajasthan while the Bharatiya Janata Party won one in the biennial elections.
Congress candidates KC Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi, and BJP`s Rajendra Gehlot were declared the winners to the Rajya Sabha by Returning Officer and Assembly Secretary PK Mathur after the votes were counted.

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