General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - November 2016

Nov 2016

Jan 12, 2022

Kevadia Railway Station Renamed as Ekta Nagar Railway Station

From now, Indian Railways' Kevadiya station to be known as Ekta Nagar railway station! The Ministry of Railways has approved the renaming of the Statue of Unity's Kevadiya railway station. This Gujarat's railway station which falls under the Vadodara division has been renamed as 'Ekta Nagar' railway station. The station code of Ekta Nagar railway station will be EKNR and the numerical code of the station will be 08224620.

S. Jaishankar Speaks with Counterparts from Poland and Portugal

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke to his counterparts from Poland and Portugal, focusing on ways to expand overall bilateral cooperation.
After the phone talks with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, Jaishankar said that the focus was on the importance of more political exchanges, expanded trade and smoother travel.
Following his talks with Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva, Jaishankar said that India counts on Portugal's strong support for expanding its relations with Europe.
In the last few days, Jaishankar spoke to his counterparts from the US, Russia, the UK, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Nigeria.

Registered Unrecognised Political Parties Doubled in 2010-2021

As per poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the number of registered unrecognised political parties increased more than twice between 2010 and 2021 and disproportionately during the year of parliamentary elections.
Either newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in assembly or general elections to become a state party, or those which have never contested elections since being registered are considered unrecognised parties.
In a new report, the ADR said from 1112 parties in 2010, the number spiked to 2,301 in 2019 and now in 2021, the number rose to 2,858.

Goa Minister Govind Gaude Resigns as Independent MLA

A day after two BJP MLAs resigned from the party, Govind Gaude, an independent legislator and the state's Art and Culture Minister resigned as MLA and said that he would be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party later in the day.
While four MLAs have quit the BJP so far over the last one month, three sitting MLAs namely Ravi Naik (Congress), Rohan Khaunte (Independent) Jayesh Salgaokar (Goa Forward) have so far joined the BJP.

ICHR Gets New Chairman

Raghuvendra Tanwar, a professor emeritus and former registrar of the Kurukshetra University, was appointed as chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi.
Prof. Tanwar's tenure as ICHR chairman is for three years.
Tanwar served the KU history department for 42 years and held very important positions including the chairperson, dean of the faculty, dean of students welfare, and professor emeritus.
He was appointed the director of Haryana Academy of History and Culture in 2016. He also served as a UGC national fellow, a prestigious position in academia, from 2002-2005.
Prof. Tanwar is a world-renowned expert in the field of partition studies and Jammu & Kashmir and has published a large number of books and research papers in the national and international journal in these areas.

NCP to Contest Assembly Polls in Goa, UP, Manipur

Nationalist Congres Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar announced that his party will contest the forthcoming assembly elections in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur.
The NCP chief said that the party is going to contest elections with Samajwadi Party and other smaller parties in Uttar Pradesh.

Jan 11, 2022

Capt Amarinder's Punjab Lok Congress Gets 'Hockey Stick and Ball' as Poll Symbol

The Election Commission of India allotted 'Hockey Stick and Ball' as election symbol to Punjab Lok Congress, led by former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections.
Punjab will vote on February 14, while the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
An election symbol is a standardised symbol allocated to a political party. They are used by the parties during their campaigning and are shown on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), where the voter chooses the symbol and votes for the associated party.
The pictorial symbol helps the large percent of illiterate voters to identify the party they want to vote for.
The party symbols are allocated by the Election Commission under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

Odisha Raises Upper Age Limit for Govt. Jobs

The Odisha cabinet raised the upper age limit from 32 to 38 years for recruitment into government jobs.
Chief secretary Suresh Mohapatra said that the upper age limit for various recruitments of the state government was raised to enable aspirants, who missed out the opportunity because of the Covid situation over the last two years, to appear for recruitment examinations.
The relaxation in the upper age limits will be initially applicable for three years- 2021, 2022 and 2023. The upper age limit for candidates belonging to SC/ST and SEBC categories have been increased to 43 years. Similarly, the upper age limit will be 43 years for women candidates.

Jan 10, 2022

Elections to Start from Western UP on February 10

Voting for the high-stakes Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases, starting from the western part of the politically crucial state on February 10 and moving eastwards.
Punjab (117 seats), Uttarakhand (70 seats) and Goa (40 seats) will have single-day voting on February 14, coinciding with the second phase of polls in UP.
For Manipur, the poll panel has decided to conduct voting in two phases - 38 seats on February 27 and 22 seats on March 3.

U.P's New Revenue Villages

Uttar Pradesh government declared four villages across the Nepal border in the Bahraich district as revenue villages.
The four villages are Bhavanipur, Tedhia, Dhakia and Bichhia.
They are located in Mihinpurwa tehsil of the Bahraich district.
All these villages are Vantangiya villages.
A revenue village is a small administrative region, having defined borders. One revenue village may comprise of many hamlets. It is a geographic area comprising many Tehsils, which in turn cover villages. The Revenue Divisional Officer exercises some fiscal and administrative powers over its jurisdiction. It is headed by a Revenue Divisional Officer.
Seven districts in UP share border with Nepal. These districts are- Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Bahraich, Kheri, Balrampur, Shravasti, Maharajganj and Siddharthanagar. The border is under the jurisdiction of Central Police force SSB.

GoI Extends Navrang Saini's Term as Interim Chief of IBBI

The Government of India extended the tenure of Navrang Saini as interim Chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) for three more months till March 05, 2022. Mr. Saini, who is a Whole Time Member of IBBI, was assigned additional charge of Chairperson in addition to his existing duties in October 2021 for three months till January 2022. The post of full-time Chairperson has been lying vacant after M.S. Sahoo retired upon completing a five-year tenure on September 30, 2021.

Uttarakhand Polls: BJP Eyes Second Consecutive Term

With power shuttling between the BJP and the Congress every five years in Uttarakhand, the ruling BJP faces the challenge of repeating its government for a second consecutive term when the state goes to polls on February 14.
The challenge is only stiffened by an anti-incumbency worsened by the fact that the party in power gave three Chief Ministers to the state in less than five years, changing two of them in quick succession despite storming to power with a huge mandate in 2017.

Punjab Appoints V. K. Bhawra as New Police Chief

Senior IPS officer Viresh Kumar Bhawra was appointed as the new director-general of Punjab police.
The order came just hours before the announcement of the dates for the assembly elections in five states including Punjab.
Bhawra, who was the DGP of Punjab Home Guards, replaced officiating DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyaya.
The Charanjit Singh Channi government selected the 1987 batch officer Bhawra out of a panel of three officers shortlisted by the Union Public Service Commission.
The other two officers in the panel were senior IPS officers Dinkar Gupta and Prabodh Kumar.

World War II era Agartala Airport to be 3rd International Airport in NE

The Agartala airport, which was first built in 1942 after the land was donated by the then Tripura king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur and was used as a technical base for the Royal Air Force during World War II, would likely be declared an international airport soon to boost air connectivity with the neighbouring countries.
Agartala airport, earlier known as Singerbill Airport, was renamed after Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur in July 2018. It is being used in a big way by Bangladesh nationals, for whom Agartala sometimes is the first stop to a destination in India or overseas as the airport is much closer to their areas than their own country's airports.

Jan 09, 2022

Govt. Re-appoints Vijay Paul Sharma as CACP Chairman

The Centre re-appointed Vijay Paul Sharma as the chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) after he relinquished the post in May last year following completion of the five-year tenure. The role of the CACP chairman will be crucial in the proposed committee on the minimum support price (MSP) and other reforms. Sharma, a professor at the Centre for Management in Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, was appointed CACP Chairman for the first time in June 2016.
The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, established in 1965, is an apex advisory body under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. It's an expert body that recommends the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) by taking into consideration various factors.

Jan 08, 2022

India Turns Down Pakistan's Proposal for SAARC Summit

India rejected Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's proposal for a SAARC summit in Islamabad on grounds that there has been no material change in the situation since the 18th gathering of eight South Asian leaders in Kathmandu in 2014.
The 19th SAARC summit was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016. But India announced its boycott after a terrorist attack on an Army camp in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. Subsequently, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the Maldives and Bhutan also refused to attend the summit, leading to its indefinite postponement.

India, Indonesia FMs Discuss Aceh-Andaman Connectivity

India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi discussed a range of issues including the Aceh and Andaman Nicobar Island connectivity.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2018 visit to Indonesia, among several agreements both sides decided to cooperate in connectivity between Andaman and Nicobar Island and Aceh province of Indonesia.
Sabang Port in Aceh is just 90 nautical miles from the Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar. During the 2018 visit, it was also decided to set up a Joint Task Force to undertake projects for port-related infrastructure in and around Sabang by both the neighboring countries.

Former Jammu and Kashmir CMs to Lose SSG Security Cover

The strength of Special Security Group (SSG) protecting the four former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir will be reduced.
As per reports, Special Security Group (SSG) Cover of four former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir— Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and Ghulam Nabi Azad— is likely to be taken back as the union territory's administration has decided.
The decision was taken by the Security Review Committee, which reviews the threat perception of important leaders in Jammu and Kashmir.
Among four former chief ministers, three of them reside in Kashmir and only Azad dwells in Dehli. Among them, only Farooq and Azad will have special security as they are covered by Z+ security.
Mehbooba and Omar will get security district police and JK security wing after assessment of threat perception.

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