General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2016

Dec 2016

Sep 17, 2018

India and France Plan to Launch Satellites

India and France have planned 8-10 satellites as part of a "constellation" for maritime surveillance.

This will be India's largest space cooperation with any country.

The launch of 8-10 maritime surveillance satellites will focus on the Indian Ocean, a region that has been witnessing increasing Chinese presence.

France will also share its expertise with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on inter-planetary missions to Mars and Venus, the Indian space agency's two major missions.

Andhra Pradesh a Strategic Base

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has come up with major plans for Andhra Pradesh to make it a strategic base.

Prime among them are IAF's plans to set up a major helicopter training facility at Donakonda in Prakasam district.

The other plans put forth before the AP government are establishing a drone manufacturing facility in Anantapur district, a cyber security centre in Amaravati and making Rajahmundry and Vijayawada airports asset positioning bases.

Facial Scan to Replace Boarding Pass

Rajiv Gandhi Hyderabad International Airport will soon become the first airport in the country where passengers will not have to carry a boarding pass.

According to GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd that runs the airport, an automated facial recognition machine is being put in place to verify the credentials of the passenger.

First Local Elections Since 2011

Syrians in government-controlled areas cast their ballots in the first local elections there since 2011, when the country's ill-fated uprising erupted against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

More than 40,000 candidates would compete for 18,478 seats on local administrative councils.

India's First Smart Fence Project

India's first 'smart fence' pilot project, which entails deploying laser-activated fences and technology-enabled barriers to plug vulnerable gaps along frontiers, will be launched by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in two 5-km each patches along the Indo-Pak border.

The new system provides for round-the-clock surveillance on the border and in different weather conditions be it dust storm, fog or rain.

Sep 16, 2018

Swachhata Hi Seva Campaign

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the "Swachhata Hi Seva" ("cleanliness is service") campaign, and took up a broom to clean a school named after Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar. Union Ministers and BJP leaders and workers participated in similar exercises across the country.

According to religious leaders and noted personalities the sanitation coverage in India had increased from 40% to over 90% in the four years of the "Swachh Bharat" (Clean India) project.

Prashant Kishor Joins JDU

Election strategist Prashant Kishor joined the Janata Dal United (JDU) in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna, Bihar. Kishore joint the JDU at the party state executive meeting, attended by Senior JDU leader KC Tyagi, among others.

Sep 15, 2018

Uttarakhand's Plan to Boost Farm Production

The Uttarakhand government may soon take the help of foreign investors to boost the declining farm sector. Plans are on to lease out abandoned land to foreign investors to grow crops, which would boost the hill farmers' income and help check their forced migration.

Seoul, Delhi Etch Pact

The Delhi government signed a "Friendship and Cooperation Agreement" with the Seoul Metropolitan Government under which the two cities would exchange expertise for betterment in 12 fields including environment, transport, tourism, solid waste management and public health.

Donwa Dethwelson Lapang Quits Congress

In a major blow to the Congress in Meghalaya, five-time Chief Minister Donwa Dethwelson Lapang resigned from the party, accusing the leadership of adopting a policy of "phasing out" senior leaders.

India in UN's Human Development Index

Amid existing disparities, India has climbed one notch to 130 out of 189 countries in the latest human development rankings released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

India's Human Development Index (HDI) value for 2017 is 0.640, which put the country in the medium human development category.

SC Awards Rs. 50 lakh to ISRO Ex-scientist

The Supreme Court ordered the Kerala Government to pay within eight weeks a compensation of Rs. 50 lakh to former ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan whose life got ruined after he was falsely implicated in the 1994 ISRO spy scandal.

Sep 14, 2018

Delhi Metro Stations Renamed

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced the renaming of metro stations falling in Haryana segment on Bahadurgarh to Mundka Metro line and on the Mujesar (YMCA Chowk) to Ballabhgarh Metro Corridor.

The Modern Industrial Estate (MIE) Metro Station, Bus Stand Metro Station, City Park Metro Station will be renamed as Pandit Shree Ram Sharma Metro Station, Bahadurgarh City Metro Station and Brigadier Hoshiar Singh Station respectively.

India's Next CJI

President Ram Nath Kovind has cleared the appointment of Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India. He will take over from CJI Dipak Misra on October 3 and continue in office till November 17, 2019.

Justice Gogoi, who will take over as the 46th CJI, will be the first in the post from the Northeast. He is from Assam.

Sep 13, 2018

Indo-Kazakhstan Joint Military Exercise

A joint military training exercise between Indian Army and Kazakhstan Army commenced in Otar Military Area, Kazakhstan.

The exercise, KAZIND-2018, is the third edition of a joint military training exercise between the two countries. It is a 14-day-long joint exercise.

The aim of the joint training is to build and promote army to army relations and exchange skills and experiences between Indian Army and the Kazakhstan Army.

Chairman of Lok Sabha Ethics Panel

L. K. Advani has been renominated as the chairman of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The Committee examines complaints relating to unethical conduct by members of parliament.

P. Karunakaran has also been renominated as chairman of the Committee on Absence of Members from the Sittings of the House and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will head the Committee on Government Assurances.

Policy on Extraction of Himalayan Aphrodisiac

The Uttarakhand cabinet approved a policy for yarsa gumba, the Himalayan aphrodisiac, in which all those who will extract the medicine from the wild will have to be registered with the government.

The policy focuses on checking trafficking of the miracle fungus which is formed by a symbiotic association of a caterpillar and mushroom specie. Yarsa is found at an altitude of over 14,000 ft in Himalayan ranges. In Uttarakhand, Pithoragarh and Chamoli are two of its potential sites.

Professional Education of Labourers' Children

The Rajasthan labour department took a decision that the state will bear the total education expenses of children of registered labourers who pursue any professional course, such as medical and engineering courses, in any government college in the state.

Centre Bans 328 Drugs

The government prohibited the manufacture, sale and distribution of 328 Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) drugs for human use with immediate effect. Several popular drugs including painkillers combinations such as Saridon.

It has also restricted the manufacture, sale or distribution of six FDCs subject to certain conditions.

Handing Sittwe Port in Rakhine to Myanmar

Nearly two decades after the launch of the Kaladan multi-modal link project, President Ram Nath Kovind will hand over the India-developed Sittwe Port in Rakhine to a state-designated operator in Myanmar in December, a move that opens India's landlocked north-east to the Bay of Bengal through Mizoram as well as provide alternative connectivity to Kolkata without goods taking the circuitous route through the Siliguri corridor.

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