General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2016

Dec 2016

Feb 10, 2020

J&K Services Selection Board Gets New Chairman

Two days after a major reshuffle among police personnel, the Jammu and Kashmir administration ordered postings and transfers of six Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers, replacing the incumbent chairman of the Services Selection Board (SSB) and three deputy commissioners. Khalid Jahangir, currently posted as Anantnag deputy commissioner, was transferred and posted as chairman, J&K Services Selection Board, replacing Bashir Ahmad Dar, who will be the new deputy commissioner of Anantnag, an order issued by the General Administration Department said. Angrez Singh Rana, deputy commissioner, Kishtwar, was transferred and posted as member, J&K, Services Selection Board, while Rajinder Singh Tara will be the new deputy commissioner of Kishtwar. On February 7, the Union Territory administration made a major reshuffle with the posting and transfers of 60 police officers, including 14 IPS officers.

Cong, 2 NDA Allies Don't Agree with SC's Quota Ruling

Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies, the Lok Janshakti Party and the Janata Dal (United), and the Congress expressed their disagreement with the Supreme Court's ruling that the government is not bound to provide reservation for appointments and promotions to public posts.
The Congress alleged that rights of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are not secure under the BJP. The LJP and JD(U), constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), sought immediate measures to ensure the reservation benefits remain unchanged.

Amid Outbreak, PM Offers Assistance to China

Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to Chinese President Xi Jinping India's readiness to provide assistance to the country in dealing with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
According to the latest data released by Chinese authorities, a total of 811 people have died of the coronavirus infection in China so far while the number of confirmed cases has gone up to 37,198.
The virus has spread to almost every province in China as well as around 25 countries in the world, forcing the World Health Organization to declare it a global emergency.
In his letter to Xi, Modi offered India's assistance to China to deal with the challenge and also conveyed condolences at the unfortunate loss of lives due to the outbreak.

Women's Turnout in Delhi Polls Drops

As the overall voter turnout in Delhi's assembly polls dropped by five percentage points in comparison to the 2015 assembly polls, the turnout of women voters showed an almost equivalent drop.
While the women's voters' turnout was 66.50% in 2015, the state poll body said that 62.55% women voted in the elections, a drop of 3.95 percentage points.
There has been an overall drop in voting turnout. So, an almost 4% drop in women's turnout should not be seen as alarming, since it goes along with the overall drop in turnout.
The Delhi electoral roll has 6,680,277 female and 8,105,236 male voters.

Pension Cost Cut Top on Military Agenda

Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs are in intensive discussions on reducing the burgeoning pension cost to the exchequer by gradually increasing the retirement age of some non-combatants, prioritising hardware purchases and generating internal resources for military housing in cantonments.
With the military pension budget mounting to Rs. 1.33 lakh crore, or 0.5% of gross domestic product, in fiscal 2020-21, from Rs. 41,000 crore in 2010, and Rs. 6-7,000 crore of expense looming in June for the equalisation of pension under the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme, Gen Rawat is learnt to be in favour of increasing the retirement age of certain classes of non-combatants and medical staff to 58 years from 39 to cut the bill.
In 2019-2020, the pension bill amounted to Rs. 1.13 lakh crore.
Although the military top brass is still to come to terms with the proposal on concerns that it will lead to a greying force, Gen Rawat's move could entail a longer stint in service for around 400,000 non-combatants, saving around ~4,000 crore in pension cost. The plan includes retiring 60 non-combatants in each of the 450 infantry battalions at the age of 58 and the same applies to armoured regiments. The increase in the retirement age to 58 is expected to be gradual.

Feb 09, 2020

Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti Booked Under PSA

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who have been detained since the nullification of special status to the erstwhile state, have been booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the local administration.
Besides the former Chief Ministers, two leaders from their parties – National Conference's Ali Mohammed Sagar and Peoples Democratic Party's Sartaj Madani – were also booked under PSA.

New Delhi Hosts Ministerial-level Defence Dialogue 2020 Between India & South Korea

The Ministerial-level Defence dialogue 2020 between India and South Korea was held at South Block in New Delhi, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Jeong Kyeong-doo, Minister of National Defense of South Korea discussed many important issues & affirmed to deepen bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.
As per Rajnath Singh, India made considerable progress in the defense sector along with South Korea in recent years. India's Indo-Pacific policy shares many similarities with South Korea's new southern policy & the unity of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) should be important in developing the Indo-Pacific Vision.
The dialogue saw the participation of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, Army Chief General MM Naravane and Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh.

Feb 08, 2020

PM Modi Announces 15-member Trust for Ayodhya Temple

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Parliament about the formation of a trust to oversee the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. In this regard, 67.703 acres of land near the temple area was allocated to the trust.
This 15 member's trust will also include a Dalit representative who would be in-charge of the entire land.
The trust has been set up on the lines of Supreme Court direction to the central government in November 2019 to formulate a scheme with necessary provisions for the setting up of a trust within three months for the construction of the temple.

Dissent Brews within K'taka BJP after Cabinet Expansion

Ten new MLAs were inducted into the seven-month -old BS Yediyurappa-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka amid murmurs of discontent from party loyalists even as members officially played down any talk of dissent. All the ten new ministers had shifted from Congress and Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), helping the saffron party topple the 14-month-old coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy. The BJP had promised the defectors ministerships after they won bypolls.

India-Africa Look to Boost Anti-terror Ties

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that New Delhi looked forward to deepening cooperation with African nations, especially in combating terrorism, extremism, and for strengthening maritime security.
Addressing the first India- Africa Defence Ministers' Conclave held as part of the DefExpo- 2020 in Lucknow, Singh said that India was interested in taking its defence engagements with African countries to the next level. He recalled how this year's African Union theme was in sync with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision for the India Pacific region.
Spurred by Prime Minister's SAGAR vision, India in recent years has enhanced maritime cooperation with the Indian Ocean littoral states in Africa. Indian Navy has been actively engaged in anti-piracy operations.
Singh's African counterparts also thanked India for taking the initiative in organising the first Indo-African Defence Ministers' Conclave and both India and African nations decided to hold such interactions frequently.

Feb 06, 2020

Madhya Pradesh to Pass Resolution against CAA

Madhya Pradesh Cabinet passed a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre to repeal the new legislation.
Notably, Kerala, Punjab, West Bengal and Rajasthan assemblies have already passed a resolution against the CAA and it is expected that Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh would also pass a resolution against the CAA in the Budget session of its Assembly. The Telangana government has also announced that it will not implement the CAA but the state assembly is yet to pass any resolution against the new legislation.

Feb 05, 2020

Jaishankar may Highlight India's Stance on CAA at Munich Meet

The Indian government will have an opportunity to highlight its position on the country's new citizenship law and discuss regional issues such as the situation in Afghanistan when External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visits Germany and Belgium later in Feb 2020.
Jaishankar is expected to attend the Munich Security Conference, which will bring together top leaders from around the world during February 14-16, and to travel to Brussels for meetings with leaders of European Union (EU) states.
The trip to Brussels will also help prepare the ground for the India-EU Summit that is expected to be held on March.
The Munich Security Conference, which bills itself as the world's leading forum for debating global security policy, will be attended by Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Canada's PM Justin Trudeau and other leaders.

RJD Picks for RS Election

As per reports, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, currently in jail, is keen on sending his wife, former Chief Minister of Bihar Rabri Devi to the Upper House of Parliament and it is likely that she will be the official nominee of the party in the April Rajya Sabha polls.
Former union minister and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Prem Chand Gupta is likely to be the second candidate of the party in the polls. The party is hoping to win two seats out of the five vacancies from Bihar in the Upper House of Parliament.

Andhra Free to Decide on its Capital

As per the Centre, it is the prerogative of the state to decide the location of its capital city, indicating that it cannot interfere in the decision of the Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh to shift the administrative capital of the state from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.

No Decision Yet on Pan-India NRC

The Centre informed the Lok Sabha that it had not taken any decision on preparing the National Register of Citizen (NRC) at the national level.
This was the Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai's written response to a question on whether the government has any plan to introduce NRC across the country.
Members of Parliament (MPs) Chandan Singh and Nama Nageswara Rao, who belong to the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) respectively, had also sought clarification from the Home Ministry on "whether the government is aware that NRC will put extra burden on Indian citizens" and "whether all the state governments are being taken into confidence before introduction of NRC".

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

October GK, September GK, August GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services and Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26