General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2016

Dec 2016

Jun 11, 2020

New Panel for Freedom Fighters

MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) reconstituted a new committee for the welfare of the freedom fighters with the chairman G Kishan Reddy and 9 other "eminent freedom fighters" from across the country. Along with Reddy, former Congress MLA from Gujarat Dinakar Bhai Desai, who took part in 1942 Quit India Movement is one among the 9 member panel.
The Ministry has a separate division to serve the freedom fighters who are alive and their families.
Ministry of Home Affairs had spent Rs. 730.73 crore for pension in 2019-20. About 30,000 freedom fighters and their families had benefited with this pension.
This panel will verify if someone has given affidavits to two or more applicant and also examine the demands to build memorials and museums for freedom fighters.

Mumbai India's most Expensive City

According to Mercer's '2020 Cost of Living Survey', India's financial capital Mumbai emerged as the most expensive city in the country for expatriates in terms of cost of living.
According to survey, Mumbai is the 60th most expensive city for expatriates globally, while it ranks 19th in Asia.
Mumbai is the most expensive among Indian cities surveyed, followed by New Delhi (101st globally) and Chennai (143rd globally).
Bengaluru (171) and Kolkata (185) are the least expensive Indian cities in the rankings
The global list was topped by Hong Kong, followed by Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) in second position. Japan's Tokyo and Switzerland's Zurich remain in the third and fourth positions, respectively, whereas Singapore is in fifth position, down two places from last year.
This year's ranking includes 209 cities across five continents.

Jun 10, 2020

India and Denmark Sign MoU for Cooperation in Power Sector

Denmark and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that aims at developing a deep, strong, and long-term cooperation in the power sector. The memorandum was signed between Denmark's Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate and India's Power Ministry.
The MoU signed between two countries will provide collaboration in areas such as long term energy planning, offshore wind, flexibility in the grid, forecasting, consolidation of grid codes to operate and integrate efficiently variable generation options, variability in renewable energy production, incentivise power plant flexibility, flexibility in the power purchase agreement, etc.

India to Set up First Coal Trading Exchange

As India is the world's second-largest producer of coal, it has decided to set up its first coal trading platform -a sort of 'Coal exchange', where a large number of sellers and buyers can get together to trade coal as a commodity.
It is to be noted that the coal ministry is likely to initiate auctions of about 50 coal blocks for commercial coal mining later this month (June).
It will be an online platform where there will be transparency in terms of price & it can be determined according to demand and supply.
The coal exchange will actually be on the lines of commodity exchange, power bourses or the proposed gas exchange.

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.

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