General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2016

Jul 2016

May 01, 2020

YASH launched by Department of Science and Technology

On April 30, 2020, programme YASH was launched by Department of Science and Technology.
YASH is Year of Awareness on Science and Health. The awareness is being created to focus on COVID-19.
The initiative aims at encouraging public engagement and enable communities to increase their sense of awareness against COVID-19. By this, the governments can take informed decisions and mange associated risks.

Ministry of Shipping Launches New Website

Ministry of Shipping has revamped its website shipmin.gov.in and launched it on 30th April, 2020. The new website is based on open source technology and is deployed on NIC cloud Meghraj.
The website is designed as per Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) issued by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India.
The new website has a well designed and dynamic Homepage. Social Media Integration with better video uploading facility is a new feature in this website.

Maharashtra, Gujarat Celebrates State Formation Day

Maharashtra Day and Gujarat Day is celebrated in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat on 1 May every year. The day commemorates the formation of the state on this day in 1960.
In 1960, the Bombay Reorganization Act, 1960 was passed by India's Parliament to divide the multilingual state of Bombay into Gujarat and Maharashtra. Bombay formerly consisted of speakers of different languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, and Kutchi.
As a result of the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti movement, the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were formed.

Nitin Gadkari Launches Research Portal on MSMEs

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari today launched bank of schemes, ideas, innovation and Research portal - http://ideas.msme.gov.in on MSMEs. The portal gives access to all schemes of Union, States and Union Territory Governments and has the provision for uploading ideas, innovations and researches in the sector.
It has unique features of not only crowd sourcing of ideas, but also evaluation and rating the ideas by crowd sourcing. It can also facilitate inflow of venture capital, and foreign collaboration. Besides, the portal will benefit the potential entrepreneurs as one stop compendium of ideas, innovation and research ready for commercialization.

Apr 30, 2020

Tata Technologies to set up 2 CIIITs in Jammu Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir signed an MoU with Tata Technologies to set up two Centres of Invention, Innovation, Incubation and Training (CIIITs) in the Union Territory.
According to the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) of J-K, these centres will be set up at the Government Polytechnic colleges in Jammu and Baramulla.

Cauvery Water Management Authority brought under Jal Shakti Ministry

The Centre has officially brought the Cauvery Water Management Authority under the Jal Shakti Ministry.

The officials said the CWMA was earlier under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

However, with the Modi government forming the Jal Shakti Ministry to deal with water-related issues, the Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has taken the form of a department under it.

The decision is a mere formality that specifies allocation of business, which means the authority will have to report to the Jal Shakti Ministry.
In 2018, the Centre constituted the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) to address the dispute over sharing of river water among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.

Over 5 Million people were Displaced in India in 2019 Reports 2020 GRID

Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) released its Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) 2020. The reports stated that 5 million people were displaced in India in 2019, the highest in the world, due to disasters, including cyclones and monsoon floods.
India reported 50,37,000 displacements in 2019.
As per the report Political and electoral violence, primarily in Tripura and West Bengal in the first half of the year, accounting for more than 7,600. Conflict and violence triggered about 19,000 new displacements and 2,89,000 people were evacuated in Gujarat in June ahead of cyclone Vayu in 2019. Also, Cyclone Bulbul in Odisha and West Bengal triggered 1,86,000 displacements.
India's neighbouring countries Bangladesh recorded 40,86,520 displacements, Afghanistan recorded 40,86,520 displacements, Pakistan recorded 1,16,000 displacements, Nepal recorded 1,21,000 displacements.
South Asia recorded a total of 9.5 million new displacements associated with disasters in 2019.

Chhattisgarh Tops Among Other States in Providing Employment to Workers Under MGNREGS

Chhattisgarh has topped the list of states in providing employment to over 18 lakh unskilled labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

Around 77.85 lakh people are engaged in different work under the scheme across the country.

Chhattisgarh has topped the country in providing employment to 18.51 lakh workers under MGNREGS.

Rajasthan is at second and has provided employment to 10.79 lakh workers under the rural employment guarantee scheme and Uttar Pradesh is at third position with around 9.06 lakh workers engaged by it.

West Bengal is at the fourth position with 7.29 lakh workers engaged under MGNREGS, Madhya Pradesh at fifth with 7.24 lakh workers, Bihar at sixth with 6.71 lakh workers, Odisha at seventh position with 4.93 lakh workers and Karnataka at the eight position with 3.65 lakh labourers employed under the scheme.

Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline presents its Final Report to Finance Minister

The Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) submitted its Final Report on NIP for FY 2019-25 to the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. The Summary Report of the Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline for 2019-2025 has already been released by the Finance Minister on December 31st, 2019.
Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech 2019-20 announced that Rs. 100 lakh crore would be invested on infrastructure over the next five years.
NIP is a first-of-its-kind, whole-of-government exercise to provide world-class infrastructure across the country, and improve the quality of life for all citizens. It aims to improve project preparation, attract investments (both domestic and foreign) into infrastructure, and will be crucial for target of becoming a $5 trillion economy by FY 2025.

Apr 29, 2020

Officials Of Deemed University Covered Under Anti Graft Law: SC

The Supreme Court has held that the 'deemed to be university' would be covered under the Prevention of Corruption Act, since such a varsity and its officials performed no less or any different public duty than the one undertaken by regular university.
A bench of Justices N V Ramana, Mohan M Shantanagoudar and Ajay Rastogi said that the very object of anti-corruption law was not only to prevent the social evil of bribery and corruption but also to make it applicable to individuals who might conventionally not be considered public servants.
The top court termed as "incorrect" the Gujarat HC's judgement of February 2, 2018, wherein it had held "deemed University" is excluded from the ambit of the term "University" under the PC Act.

Govt notifies International Financial Services Centres Authority

The finance ministry has established the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) through a notification. The body will be headquartered in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
With this, the government has established a unified authority to regulate all financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in the country.

UIDAI Allows CSCs to Offer Aadhaar Updation Facility

In a major relief to rural population, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has allowed the Common Service Centre, an SPV (special purpose vehicle) under the Ministry of IT and Electronics, to start the Aadhaar updation facility at 20,000 centres that operate as Banking Correspondents (BCs).
As per the Supreme Court order, the Aadhaar work through CSCs was discontinued in December 2018.
The CSCs had generated 20 crore Aadhaar cards, before it was discontinued.

Apr 26, 2020

World Bank Approves Rs 585 Cr For Himachal Pradesh State Roads Transformation Project

The World Bank has approved 82 million US dollars (585 crore rupees) for the Himachal Pradesh State Roads Transformation Project (HPSRTP) for upgradation of major roads and modernization of the Public Works Department in the state.
It may be recalled that the work of construction and maintenance of road projects in the State has been adversely affected due to the lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Himachal Pradesh Chief minister Jairam Thakur said, efforts should be made to fix renewed targets taking a realistic view of the situation. He said that local labour must be optimally utilized so that work on ongoing projects could be expedited.

Government Declares Banking Industry As Public Utility Service Till October 21

Government has declared banking industry as a public utility service for six months till October 21, 2020 under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act.
Bringing banking services under the provisions of this Act means that the banking sector would not see any strikes by employees or officers during the operation of the law starting from April 21, 2020.
In a circular, Department of Financial Services said the labour and employment ministry through a notification has declared "banking industry as a public utility service" for six months.

Apr 25, 2020

CISF Launches 'E-Office' App For Movement Of Files

An e-office application, that enables movement of files and documents without physical touch, has been launched for usage in the 1.62 lakh personnel-strong Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to prevent coronavirus infection.
The application called 'e-karyalay' (electronic office) has been designed by the in-house technical team of the force.

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