General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

Jun 09, 2020

Indian Air Force Develops Airborne Rescue Pod

The Indian Air Force has designed, developed and inducted an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT) that will be utilised for the evacuation of critical patients with infectious diseases including COVID-19 from high altitude areas, isolated and remote places.
The requirement of an air evacuation system with a facility to prevent spread of infectious aerosol from a coronavirus patient during air travel was felt by IAF when COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic.
Only indigenous materials have been used to fabricate this pod, in view of the "Atmanirbhar Bharat.
It has been developed at a mere cost of Rs. 60,000, compared to the imported systems costing up to Rs. 60 lakh.

Gairsain Summer Capital of Uttarakhand

Gairsain in Chamoli district was declared as the summer capital of Uttarakhand.
A notification in this regard was issued by Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh after Governor Baby Rani Maurya gave her assent to the move.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had made the announcement about Gairsain being made the summer capital of Uttarakhand during the budget session of the state assembly in March.

Govt. Changes Public Procurement Rules

In accordance with the revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017, the government has modified public procurement norms for giving maximum preference to companies whose goods and services have 50% or more local content.
The objective behind this is to promote 'Make in India' and making the country self-reliant.
In revised Public Procurement Order, 2017, a concept of Class-I, II and non-local suppliers was introduced based on which they will get preference in government purchases of goods and services.
-Class-I local suppliers will get the most preference in all government purchases because their domestic value addition is 50% or more. They will be followed by Class-II suppliers, whose value addition range is more than 20% but less than 50%. On the other hand companies with less than 20 per cent of domestic content in their goods or services will not able to participate in most of the government tenders and they are categorised as non-local suppliers.

BJP Names Kadadi, Gasti as Rajya Sabha Candidates from Karnataka

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has sidestepped recommendations of its Karnataka unit and nominated two relatively unknown persons as candidates for Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
The party has named Ashok Gasti and Eranna Kadadi as candidates.
Ashok Gasti is a lawyer by profession and former general secretary of BJP's OBC Cell. He is the former chairperson of the Backward Class Development Corporation.
Eranna Kadadi started his active political career in 1989 and unsuccessfully contested the assembly election from Arambhavi constituency in 1994 on a BJP ticket. He had also served as the Belagavi district Panchayat president in 2010.

"Bande Utkala Janani" Gets State Anthem Status

The Odisha Cabinet chaired by Naveen Patnaik, approved the proposal to give the status of State anthem to "Bande Utkala Janani", a poem written by Kantakabi Laxmikanta Mohapatra in 1912.
The song gained immortality when it was sung as the opening song in the Utkal Sammilani during the formation of Odisha as a separate province in 1912.
In 1994 the Assembly of Odisha was set on to sing "Bande Utkala Janani" at the end of every session and considered to make it the anthem of the state.
The song reflects the glory and natural beauty of Odisha.
According to the resolution passed the song will hereby be sung in every government programmes, sessions of the legislative assembly and other special events organised by the government in schools, colleges.

Jun 08, 2020

Jharkhand Gives BRO Approval to Employ Workers for Border Projects

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has permitted the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to employ more than 11,800 workers from the state for critical national projects, including projects near the China border in Ladakh, after getting a written assurance about their welfare.
Jharkhand is also set to sign a first-of-its-kind memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the BRO for ensuring the welfare of workers in all recruitments in the future.
The 11, 815 workers that the BRO had requested for recruitment are needed for Operation Vijayak in Ladakh (about 8,000 workers required), Project Shivalik in Uttarakhand, Project Deepak in Himachal Pradesh, Project Beacon in Jammu and Kashmir, they said.
The road projects in the border areas assume significance as they come amid a confrontation between Indian and Chinese militaries in eastern Ladakh.

Deve Gowda to Contest Rajya Sabha Election from Karnataka

At the request of party legislators, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and many other leaders, former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) (JD-S) leader HD Deve Gowda has decided to contest Rajya Sabha elections.
Four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka are falling vacant this month after Rajeev Gowda and BK Hari Prasad of the Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and D Kupendra Reddy of the JD(S) retire.

Jun 07, 2020

Modi Proposes Plan for India's UNSC Seat

With India and China enmeshed in a standoff on their border with each other, India unveiled Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new 'panchsheel', or five principles, that will shape its approach in its bid to get elected to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
These 'five S's' are samman (respect), samvad (dialogue), sahyog (cooperation), and shanti (peace), to create conditions for universal samriddhi (prosperity).
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar launched a brochure outlining India's priorities for its forthcoming campaign to secure an elected seat on the UNSC at elections slated for June 17, 2020.
The Council is composed of 15 members: five permanent members in China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US, and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly.

Jun 06, 2020

J&K Lt Governor Launches Salary Tracker Mobile App "MeraVetan (Version-1)"

The Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu launched the first version of the Salary Tracker Mobile app "MeraVetan" developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) – J&K State Centre on the Android Platform to provide end to end computerisation of JK Payment System (JKPaySys) application, at the Raj Bhavan.
The Application will be available on the JKPaySys main page.
Benefits of MeraVetan:
i. The Government employees and the officials posted in remote and rural areas with no access to DDO can access their salary and other details.
ii. The information such as Pay Scale, GPF/NPS subscription, Allowances, Deductions, GPF/NPS statement, Income Tax Statement, State Life Insurance (SLI) statement etc will be provided in the app.

Cabinet Approves MoU between India and Bhutan on Cooperation in the Areas of Environment

The Union cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Bhutan to improve cooperation in the areas of environment.
MoU will help establish and promote the long term cooperation between the two countries in the field of environment protection and management of natural resources based on equity, reciprocity and mutual benefits, taking into account the applicable laws and legal provisions in each country.
The MoU covers the following areas of the environment, namely- Air, Waste, Chemical Management, Climate Change, and any other areas jointly decided upon, by considering the bilateral interest of both countries.
It enters into force on the date of signature and remains in force for a 10 years.

Jun 05, 2020

Setback for Congress Ahead of RS Polls

Two Congress lawmakers have resigned from the Gujarat assembly and brought down the party's tally in the 182-member House to 66 ahead of the June 19 elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
The resignations prompted the Congress to divide its remaining legislators into seven groups and rush them to different places in the state to prevent further desertions until the polling is held. The Gujarat seats are going to the polls along with 20 others across the country.
A party needs 35 first preference votes to win a seat as the strength of the Gujarat assembly is now 173. Five Congress legislators earlier resigned from the assembly in March. Two more seats remain vacant in the state assembly because of litigation due to poll-related disputes.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 103 seats needs two more votes to win three of the four Rajya Sabha seats.

Haryana Government to Open Schools from July

As per Haryana Education Minister Kanwar Pal, the government will reopen schools in a phased manner from July and take feedback from teachers, parents and experts about holding classes in shifts, keeping in mind the norms of social distancing.
First, Classes 10, 11 and 12 will be started in July, in the next phase Classes 6, 7, 8 and 9, and then Classes 1 to 5 will start. We will also run demo session of classes to see how social distancing will be ensured. Any other possible problems that could be faced would be known when the schools open.
Mr. Pal said that colleges and universities will open in August.

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