General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2016

Dec 2016

Apr 27, 2019

Prominent Leaders in Punjab File Papers

Prominent leaders of the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance filed their nomination papers for the Lok Sabha poll in Punjab, slated for May 19.
Former Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal filed his nomination papers for the Ferozepur constituency, while his wife and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal filed her nomination for the Bathinda seat.
Congress candidate Amarinder Singh Raja Warring also filed his nomination for Bathinda.
Congress Punjab unit president and sitting MP Sunil Jakhar filed his nomination for the Gurdaspur seat.

Apr 25, 2019

Perform or Perish in Punjab

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said that the Congress has decided to raise the bar by fixing responsibility for the victory of its candidates on Ministers and MLAs. The decision has been taken by the high command under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi to achieving Mission 13 in the Lok Sabha election. The Ministers who do not succeed in ensuring victory, especially in constituencies they represent, would be dropped. The MLAs will not be given ticket again.

Karnataka Registers Highest-ever Turnout

Karnataka recorded its highest ever voter turnout of 68.62%, 1.42% more than 2014, as voting for 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state ended.
The state has seen a pitched battle between the Congress Janata Dal (Secular) alliance, currently in power, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The saffron party has won more than half the seats in the state in the past three general elections.

Parties File Review Petition for VVPAT Verification

Citing issues with electronic voting machines (EVM) in the first few phases of polling for the Lok Sabha election, 21 opposition parties filed a review petition in the Supreme Court reiterating their demand for verification of 50% EVMs using voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips.
The petition claims that after the first phase of polling, in many cases, EVMs were found to be defective and faulty. It has been reported that in some cases where voters would vote for one party, EVMs would record their vote having been cast for another party.
The Election Commission of India (EC) has consistently maintained that the glitches experienced in the first three phases of the seven-phase election are within acceptable limits in terms of number of defects.

Release Malik Says PDP Chief

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti asked the Centre to shift JKLF chief Yasin Malik to Srinagar.
She said that JKLF chief Yasin Malik should be released immediately as he is unwell. In case of any eventuality, the situation in Kashmir will worsen and may go out of hand.
The candidate from the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, Ms. Mufti also sought an end to the ban on the highway for civilian movement and asked the Centre to revoke the decision to stop the cross-Line of Control trade.

Apr 24, 2019

Third Phase of the Lok Sabha Election

The third phase of the Lok Sabha election, in 116 constituencies across 13 States and two Union Territories, registered an overall tentative voter turnout of more than 66% compared with 69.3% in 2014.
Assam recorded the highest polling of 80.74% (75.74% in 2014), followed by Tripura with 79.36% (83.03%). Karnataka recorded a small increase in the turnout.
However, the turnout declined sharply in the Anantnag constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, from 39.37% in 2014 to just 12.86%.
The five constituencies of Odisha, where the third phase of the Assembly election was held simultaneously, had a lower participation of 64% as against 72.45% in 2014. In Kerala too, the tentative figure of 71.47% was a dip from 74.02%.

Panjab Varsity to Confer D. Litt on Sudha Murthy

A prominent senator of Panjab University has sought the intervention of the Chancellor, who happens to be the Vice-President of the country, regarding conferring of the D.Litt degree on philanthropist Sudha N. Murthy.
The PU Senate at a special meeting on Sunday approved conferring the honoris causa (D.Litt) on Dr. Murthy, Trustee of the Infosys Foundation, Bengaluru, despite dissent from two senators — Prof. Chaman Lal and Prof. Shelley Walia.
The approval comes after a syndicate meeting was convened earlier in which it was unanimously approved that the honoris causa degree will be conferred on Dr. Murthy.

Wait Gets Longer for Krishna University

The much-awaited shifting of Krishna University from the temporary buildings of the National College to the 100-acre permanent campus at Rudravaram is likely to be delayed further.
The Central Public Works Department has made it clear that it will not hand over the administrative and academic buildings to the KRU until the latter clears the pending amount of Rs. 12 crore.

Apr 23, 2019

India Completes Vital Ladakh Road

One of the most treacherous and strategically vital road routes in the Himalayas has been completed, providing the military with an all-weather road access to north-eastern Ladakh.
Building the DS-DBO section of the road was a key thrust area of the Ministry of Defence for this strategic northernmost corner of India — termed Sub-Sector North (SSN) by the military.
A previous effort to build the DS-DBO section of the road (between 2000 and 2012) at a cost of Rs 320 crore had failed.

The Third Phase of the Lok Sabha Elections

The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections will see as many as 117 seats going to vote.
Among the seats will be a solitary seat from Tripura, Tripura East, where elections were delayed by one phase due to security reasons.
The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections will cover the highest number of seats in any phase across 13 states and 2 Union Territories - Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The third phase of the Lok Sabha elections will see all 26 seats of Gujarat, 20 seats of Kerala and both the North and South Goa seats coming out to vote.
In the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha, voters from 10 Lok Sabha constituencies will exercise their franchise. In Bihar, where the BJP is in an alliance with the Janata Dal (United), 5 out of the state's 40 seats will go to vote.

Congress Releases All Seven Names for Delhi

The Congress released the names of all seven candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi, while the BJP, which had renominated four sitting MPs, announced the names of former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir and incumbent MP Meenakshi Lekhi from East Delhi and New Delhi seats respectively.
Former three-term Chief Minister and Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit is the party's candidate from North East Delhi against Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.
Former Union Minister Ajay Maken will fight from the prestigious New Delhi seat and former MPs J.P. Agarwal and Mahabal Mishra have been named from Chandni Chowk and West Delhi constituencies respectively.

Apr 22, 2019

BJP's Amritsar Candidate

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released list of five candidates, nominating Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri from Amritsar and renominating four of its MPs.
The BJP has an alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, and it will contest three out of 13 seats of Punjab.
Amritsar-born Puri is a diplomat-turned-politician was inducted as a minister for housing and urban affairs in the Narendra Modi government in September 2017. He later became a member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh in January 2018.
The BJP also fielded Shankar Lalwani from Indore, replacing Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who opted out of the race after the party decided not to field any 75-plus leaders.
In Delhi, the party has fielded Harsh Vardhan from Chandni Chowk, Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Pravesh Verma from West Delhi, Ramesh Bidhuri from South Delhi and Harinarayan Rajbhar from Ghosi.

BJP Finds Itself on Slippery Terrain

With hardly four days to go for election to the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa, the ruling BJP in Goa is struggling to retain the seats it won with big margins in 2014. By-elections to three Assembly seats are also being held on April 23 in the State. The biggest setback to the BJP is the leadership void in the government and the organisation following the death of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

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