General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2018

Mar 2018

Feb 01, 2024

IAS Officer Radha Raturi Appointed First Woman Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand

Senior IAS officer Radha Raturi was appointed as the first woman Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand.
Raturi, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1988 batch, replaced Sukhbir Singh Sandhu whose tenure ended. She is the first woman to hold the top administrative post in Uttarakhand.
During her long administrative career, Raturi has held several important positions. She has worked as a bureaucrat both in undivided Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which came into existence in November 2000.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman Presents Her Sixth Straight Budget

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman equalled the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai as she presents her sixth straight budget on February 1. Nirmala Sitharaman has presented five full budgets since July 2019 and is the first full-time woman Finance Minister of the country. With the presentation of interim budget on February 1, Nirmala Sitharaman surpassed the records of her predecessors- Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P. Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha- who presented five budgets in a row.
Morarji Desai, as Finance Minister, presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959-1964. He holds the tag of presenting 10 budgets- the maximum by any Finance Minister.
After the PM Modi government came to power in 2014, Arun Jaitley took charge of the finance ministry and presented five budgets in a row from 2014-15 to 2018-19.
Piyush Goyal presented the interim budget for 2019-20 on February 1, 2019.
After the 2019 general elections, Nirmala Sitharaman was given the charge of the finance portfolio, becoming the second woman to have presented budget after Indira Gandhi, who had presented the budget for financial year 1970-71.
The interim budget is presented when general elections are due in the country. The new government, which is likely to be formed around June, will come up with a final budget for 2024-25 sometime in July.

ED Arrests Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren

Hemant Soren, the Jharkhand Chief Minister and head of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), was arrested after more than seven hours of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate over alleged ownership of a piece of land. The agency had also seized Rs. 36 lakh in cash and a luxury SUV from his Delhi residence a day earlier.
Not long before his arrest, Soren submitted his resignation to Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan at Raj Bhavan.

Jan 31, 2024

Anil Kumar Lahoti is New TRAI Chairman

The government appointed former railway board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anil Kumar Lahoti as Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The post was lying vacant for nearly four months since the retirement of P. D. Vaghela on September 30, 2023.
During his more than 36 years of career in railways, Lahoti worked in various capacities over Central, Northern, North Central, Western and West Central Railways and in Railway Board.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India was established on February 20, 1997 by an Act of Parliament to regulate telecom services and tariffs in India. Earlier, regulation of telecom services and tariffs was overseen by the Central Government.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Revokes Suspension of 11 Opposition MPs

The Rajya Sabha Privileges Committee held 11 suspended opposition MPs guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council of States, but Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar revoked their suspension allowing them to attend the Budget session.
The MPs held 'guilty of breach of privilege and contempt of the Council' of States were Jebi Mather Hisham, L. Hanumanthaiah, Neeraj Dangi, Rajmani Patel, Kumar Ketkar, G. C. Chandrashekhar, Binoy Viswam, Sandosh Kumar P, M. Mohamed Abdulla, John Brittas and A. A. Rahim.

Jan 30, 2024

Nitish Kumar Forms Govt. in Bihar with NDA

Nitish Kumar, who resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, formed a government in the state once again in alliance with the BJP.
In the aftermath of the alliance with the BJP, two Deputy Chief Ministers were appointed—Vijay Sinha and Samrat Choudhary. A total of 8 leaders took oath as cabinet ministers in the new government led by Nitish Kumar. The newly formed Cabinet includes members from both the BJP and JD(U), along with representatives from other parties. The list of ministers who took oath includes Samrat Choudhary, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dr. Prem Kumar, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Shravan Kumar, Santosh Kumar Suman, and Sumit Kumar Singh.

IREDA Releases Vigilance Journal 'Pahal'

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Government of India enterprise under the administrative control of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, released 'Pahal'- the insightful house journal of its Vigilance Department. The journal was unveiled by Chairman & Managing Director of IREDA, Pradip Kumar Das. The ceremony took place at the registered office of IREDA in New Delhi, where Chief Vigilance Officer Ajay Kumar Sahani and other senior officials graced the occasion. The initiative marked a significant step towards transparency, accountability, and the promotion of renewable energy initiatives by IREDA.

Centre Extends Ban on SIMI under UAPA for another 5 Years

The Centre extended ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) as an 'unlawful association' for five years under the UAPA.
The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was first banned on February 1, 2014 by the Indian government. The ban was extended by five years in 2019. Founded in 1977 in UP's Aligarh with Mohammad Ahmadullah Siddiqi, professor of Journalism and Public Relations at the Western Illinois University Macomb as its founding president, this organisation operates on the agenda to convert India into an Islamic nation. SIMI was first declared as an outlawed outfit in 2001 and has been banned on several occasions.
SIMI operated in states including Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat.

Beating Retreat Ceremony 2024

Beating retreat ceremony that officially marked the end of Republic Day festivities was held at Vijay Chowk.
The ceremony began with the massed band's 'Shankhnaad' tune, which was followed by the enthralling tunes such as 'Veer Bharat', 'Sangam Dur', 'Deshon ka Sartaj Bharat', 'Bhagirathi', and 'Arjuna' by Pipes and Drums band. The CAPF bands will play 'Bharat Ke Jawan' and 'Vijay Bharat' among others.
The principal conductor of the ceremony was Lt Col Vimal Joshi. While the Army Band conductor was Subedar Major Moti Lal, MCPO MUS II M Antony and Warrant Officer Ashok Kumar was the Conductors of Indian Navy and Indian Air Force respectively. The conductor of CAPF band was Constable G. D. Ranidevi. The Buglers performed under the leadership of Naib Subedar Umesh Kumar, and Pipes and Drums band was played under the instructions of Subedar Major Rajender Singh.
President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Mister Rajnath Singh were among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony.

Jan 29, 2024

Nitish Kumar Resigns as Bihar Chief Minister amidst Alliance Turmoil

Nitish Kumar, who was uniting the Opposition to take on BJP, took oath as Bihar Chief Minister with BJP as the new alliance partner.
The Bihar leader dumped his partner RJD and resigned as Chief Minister earlier.
After meeting the governor, he said, that I have resigned from the post of Chief Minister. The new Grand Alliance that was created (in August 2022) is not in a good condition. The situation is not looking good.

BJP Appoints LS Poll in-charges: Panda Gets UP, Tawde Bihar

The BJP appointed its election in-charges and co-in-charges for states and Union Territories for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Baijayant Panda was given the charge of the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh while Vinod Tawde was appointed as election in-charge of political affairs in Bihar, where JD(U) president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA. Some of the other names included Bihar ex-minister Mangal Pandey in West Bengal, Tripura ex-CM Biplab Kumar Deb in Haryana and BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh in J&K and Ladakh.

Rajasthan, MP, Centre Sign MoU for Modified River Linking Project

An MoU was signed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti for implementation of the Modified Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal-ERCP (Modified PKC-ERCP) Link Project.
The project envisages integration of original PKC river link project with Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project to implement it as an inter-state river linking project under the national perspective plan of interlinking of rivers (ILR) programme of the Government of India.

Jan 28, 2024

UNICEF Joins Hands with NIUA to Empower Young People for Urban Governance

The Urban Youth Unit at NIUA and YuWaah - UNICEF came into a partnership to solidify their commitment to empowering young people for urban governance. The Statement of Intent was exchanged between Lovlesh Sharma, Head, Urban Youth Unit and Abhishek Gupta, COO, YuWaah at the National Youth Day celebrations hosted by National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
Over the next three years, the organisations will co-create and implement scalable youth-driven solutions to address the challenges faced by cities. The primary focus of this partnership is enhancing youth leadership, participation and action research towards strengthening civic behaviours and urban governance.

Lok Sabha Speaker Inaugurates Presiding Officers' Conference

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla inaugurated the 84th All India Presiding Officers' Conference (AIPOC) in Mumbai.
During the two-day conference, the attendees held discussions on strengthening people's trust in democratic institutions and the need to maintain discipline and decorum in Parliament and the legislatures of states and Union Territories. It also deliberated on how to make the committee system more purposeful and effective.
The Presiding Officers' Conference was preceded by the 60th Conference of Secretaries of Legislative bodies in India.
Lok Sabhac Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh chaired the Conference of Secretaries of Legislative bodies in India in which they discussed 'Making Use of Cutting Edge Technologies in the Service of Legislature'.

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