General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - November 2016

Nov 2016

Feb 11, 2022

India's First Biomass-based Hydrogen Plant

India's first commercial-scale biomass-based hydrogen plant will be constructed in Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh.
From 30 tonnes of biomass feedstock, Biomass-based hydrogen plant will produce a tonne of hydrogen per day.
It will also produce biochar and methane.
It will be put up with an investment of Rs. 24 crore.
The plant is being put up by Watomo Energies Ltd in association with Biezel Green Energy.
Watomo Energies is headquartered in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh. Watomo Energies is a 'consulting, implementation, marketing, and project management company'. It is more like a farmer-producer organization.
Biezel Green is a company promoted by Prof Preetam Singh, from IIT BHU. It is the technology partner, owning the technology for 'thermally accelerated anaerobic digestion (TAD) reactor'.
The plant is likely to go on streem by July 2022.

PM Modi Virtually Address High-level Segment of One Ocean Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the high-level segment of the One Ocean Summit through a video message.
The high-level segment of the summit was also addressed by several other heads of states and governments including Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and Canada.
The summit was organised by France from February 9-11 in Brest in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank.
The objective of the summit was to mobilise the international community to take tangible action towards preserving and supporting healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems.

4,844 Foreigners Granted Indian Citizenship in Past 5 Years

According to Union Minister Nityanand Rai, as many as 4,844 foreigners were granted Indian citizenship in the past five years under the Citizenship Act 1955.
The minister informed that 1,773 foreigners were granted Indian citizenship in 2021, 639 in 2020, 987 in 2019, 628 in 2018 and 817 in 2017.

Feb 10, 2022

Atal Tunnel is 'Longest Highway Tunnel above 10,000 Feet'

Atal Tunnel, named after former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was officially certified by the World Book of Records as the `World`s Longest Highway Tunnel above 10,000 Feet`.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the recognition came during a landmark ceremony in New Delhi. Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry, Director General of Border Roads Organisation (DGBR) received the award for the stupendous achievement of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in constructing this engineering marvel connecting Manali to the Lahaul - Spiti Valley.
World Book of Records, UK, is an organisation that catalogues and verifies extraordinary records across the world with authentic certification. Notably, Atal Tunnel was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 3, 2020.
The 9.02 km long, strategically significant, Atal Tunnel, that runs under the `Rohtang Pass` was constructed on the Manali - Leh Highway under the challenging conditions of freezing temperatures in extremely difficult terrain.

Wrestler, the Great Khali, Joins BJP in Delhi

Professional wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, also known as The Great Khali, joined BJP in Delhi.
Born August 27, 1972, Dalip Singh Rana is an Indian professional wrestler and wrestling promoter, who has also been seen in films - both Hollywood and Bollywood. He is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name The Great Khali. Khali had made his professional wrestling debut in 2000. He was an officer for the Punjab Police, before he began his WWE career. Khali also went on to become the WWE Champion.
Khali's inclusion into BJP comes days ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls. Punjab will go to the polls on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.

Deloitte Women in Boardroom: Report

The Women in the Boardroom report was released by Deloitte Global. This was the seventh edition of the report. According to the report, women hold only 17.1% board seats in India. However, this has increased. In 2014, it was 9.4%. 2014 has been taken as base year of comparison because in 2013, the companies act mandated that every board should have at least one woman member.
As per the report, only 3.6% of the chairpersons are women in the country. The women representation in chair positions has come down in the last four years. Globally, the women representation in boards is 19.7%. This has increased by 2.8% as compared to 2018. Between 2016 and 2018, the increase was 1.9%. At this pace, the equality in representation all over the world shall be achieved only by 2045.
In 2021, the number of women taking up CEO roles in India increased. Around 4.7% of the CEOs in India were women in 2021. It was 3.4% in 2018. Globally, the women CEO percentage was 33.5%. It was 19.4% in 2018.

Feb 09, 2022

Centre Issues New Media Accreditation Guidelines for Journalists

The Central government released the Central Media Accreditation Guidelines-2022, under which the accreditation will be withdrawn or suspended if a journalist acts in a manner prejudicial to the country's security, sovereignty and integrity, friendly relations with foreign States, public order or is charged with a serious cognisable offence.
Among the other circumstances under which the accreditation can be withdrawn/suspended are actions prejudicial to decency, or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.
According to the guidelines, accredited media persons have been prohibited from using the words "Accredited to the government of India" on public/social media profile, visiting cards, letter heads or on any other form or any published work.

RPF Launches Nationwide "AAHT Operation" to Curb Human Trafficking

Indian Railway Protection Force launched a nationwide operation to curb human trafficking. As part of "Operation AAHT", special teams were deployed on all long-distance trains/routes with a focus on rescuing victims, particularly women and children, from the clutches of traffickers. The Railways, which operate about 21,000 trains across the country daily, is the most reliable mode of transportation for the traffickers who often moved their victims on long-distance trains.
The RPF that rescued more than 2,000 women and children between 2017-21 from the clutches of traffickers intensified the crackdown on human trafficking with the increasing number of cases. The National Crime Records Bureau registers about 2,200 cases of Human Trafficking cases on an average each year.

Feb 08, 2022

Power Minister Launches Powerthon-2022

Union Minister for Power and New Renewable Energy R. K. Singh virtually launched Powerthon-2022, a hackathon competition under RDSS (Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme) to find technology driven solutions to solve the complex problems in power distribution and to ensure quality and reliable power supply.
In this hackathon, Technology Solution Providers (TSPs), start-ups, educational institutions, research institutes, equipment manufacturers, state power utilities and other state and central power sector entities, shall be briefed on the current challenges/ problem statements faced across the power distribution sector and invited to showcase their technology driven solutions to solve the complex problems.

J&K Becomes First UT to be Integrated with National Single Window System

Jammu and Kashmir became the first Union Territory to be integrated with the national single window system as Lt Governor Manoj Sinha launched the J&K single-window portal, integrating it with the national single-window system.
While 130 industrial services have been made online on a single-window system, over 160 more services would be integrated this year.

Feb 07, 2022

Yechury Announces CPI(M) Support to SP in UP

Ahead of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury announced his party's support to Samajwadi Party to ensure defeat of the ruling BJP in the State, and dropped a major hint to support Congress in Punjab.
This will be a shot in the arm to Samajwadi Party-led alliance which is having a faceoff with the BJP in UP.
The Samajwadi Party has allied with seven political outfits including, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), Apna Dal (Krishna Patel) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Congress Punjab CM Candidate is Charanjit Singh Channi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi declared Charanjit Singh Channi as party's Chief Ministerial candidate for the Punjab assembly elections 2022. Rahul Gandhi made the big announcement during a party event in Ludhiana, with both - Charanjit Singh Channi and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu - sharing stage with him.

B. K. Tyagi Next CMD of Shipping Corporation of India

The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) selected B. K. Tyagi for the post of Chairman & Managing Director, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI). Presently, Tyagi is working as Functional Director, Shipping Corporation of India.
Subject to requisite clearances and ACC ratification he will replace H. K. Joshi, the incumbent CMD retiring May this year.
He is graduated from Meerut University and joined SCI in 1990 as a trainee nautical officer. He served on-board various ships in different ranks including master of the ships.
He has overall 30 years of rich experience in various aspects of shipping.

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