General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - May 2018

May 2018

Jun 06, 2024

Priyanka Jarkiholi : Youngest Tribal Woman to Win from an Unreserved Seat

Congress nominee and Minister Satish Jarkiholi's daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi won from Chikkodi, defeating incumbent MP and BJP leader Annasaheb Jolle.
Priyanka Jarkiholi from Chikkodi became the youngest tribal woman to enter Parliament from an unreserved seat in Karnataka since Independence.
Priyanka Jarkiholi also has a few firsts. She became the first woman from the tribal community to win from an unreserved seat in Karnataka. She also became the second leader from a reserved community to win from a general seat, after Kotturu Hariharappa Ranganath who was a Lok Sabha member from Chitradurga during 1984-89.

CBIC Chairperson Inaugurates GST Bhawan at Rohtak, Haryana

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, officially launched the GST Bhawan, the official complex of the Central Board of Indirect Tax (CGST) Rohtak Commissionerate, in Rohtak, Haryana. At the inaugural ceremony were Shashank Priya, Member of CBIC (GST, Legal, CX & ST), together with officers and staff from the CGST Rohtak Commissionerate, Panchkula Zone, and senior CBIC officers.
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (erstwhile Central Board of Excise & Customs) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

President Droupadi Murmu Dissolves 17th Lok Sabha

President Droupadi Murmu dissolved the 17th Lok Sabha on June 5 on the advice of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet, according to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Cabinet advised the President to dissolve the current Lok Sabha with immediate effect.
The President accepted the advice of the Cabinet on 05.06.2024 and signed the Order dissolving the 17th Lok Sabha in exercise of the powers conferred upon her by Sub-clause (b) of Clause (2) of Article 85 of the Constitution.
The term of the current Lok Sabha was to end on June 16.

Jun 05, 2024

Om Birla Becomes First Lok Sabha Speaker in 20 years to be Re-elected as MP

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla won the Kota parliamentary seat by a margin of more than 41,139 votes, thus became the first presiding officer in 20 years to be re-elected to the Lower House.
Birla, an experienced politician, has been the 17th Speaker of the Lok Sabha since June 2019. He was elected as Speaker by defeating Congress candidate Mallikarjun Kharge and represents the Kota-Bundi constituency in Rajasthan as a member of the BJP.
Birla became Speaker after being re-elected to the Lok Sabha for a second term, defeating Congress's Ramnarayan Meena by 2.5 lakh votes.
Before joining the Lok Sabha, Birla served three terms in the Rajasthan Assembly, elected in 2003, 2008, and 2013.

Zupee Collaborates with Gurugram Cyber Police for Cyber Security Awareness

In a bid to bolster cyber security awareness, Zupee, India's largest skill-based Ludo platform, partnered with Gurugram Cyber Police for the 11th edition of the Cyber Security Summer Internship Program, titled 'Cyber Warriors'. The month-long internship aims to train selected candidates in cyber security under the guidance of experts, fostering responsible digital citizenship and tackling real-world cyber threats.
The Gurugram Police Cyber Security Summer Internship Program (GPCSSI 2024) is a flagship event of the Gurugram Police since 2013. The month-long internship started on June 3 and ends on July 3.

BJP Creates History Marking End of Naveen Era

In the Odisha assembly election 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scripted history by securing a clear majority against the popular government of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), ending Naveen Patnaik's 24-year-long tenure. This is the first time that a BJP government will be formed in Odisha.
Odisha, with a total of 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 147 Assembly constituencies, went to polls across four phases with the first phase held on May 13, and the following phases held on May 20, May 25, and June 1. Voting in Odisha concluded on June 1, along with the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha polls. The assembly polls in Odisha were conducted simultaneously along with the parliamentary elections.

India Creates World Record with 64.2 crore People Voting in Lok Sabha Poll

India created a world record with 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participating in the Lok Sabha Election 2024. Chief Election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the number is 1.5 times of the voters of all G7 countries – US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. In this (2024) Lok Sabha polls, 31.2 crore women voters cast their votes which is also the highest ever in the world. He also said, only 39 repolling were conducted in this election unlike 540 repolling in 2019 General Election. Kumar said, over 68 thousand monitoring teams and 1.5 crore polling and security personnel were involved in the electoral exercise. He also pointed out that Jammu and Kashmir recorded their highest turnout in four decades, with an overall turnout of 58.58 per cent and 51.05 per cent in the Valley.
India, the world's largest democracy, has concluded its seven-phase parliamentary election, and the results are now eagerly awaited. This colossal democratic exercise, which spanned over two and a half months, stands out as the world's largest and most complex election.

Jun 04, 2024

NHRC Member Sayani Appointed its Acting Chairperson

With former Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra demitting office as chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission after a three-year stint, the Centre appointed Vijaya Bharathi Sayani as acting chairperson.
The President, under Section 7(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, authorised Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, Member, National Human Rights Commission, to act as the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, with immediate effect, until the appointment of a new Chairperson in the NHRC to fill such vacancy.
The National Human Rights Commission of India (abbreviated as NHRC) is a statutory body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993. It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (PHRA).
The NHRC consists of the chairperson and five members (excluding the ex-officio members).
A Chairperson, who has been a Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court
One member who is, or has been, a Judge of the Supreme Court of India and one member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court.
Three members, out of which at least one shall be a woman to be appointed from amongst persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights.

Centre Launches New Mobile Number Series for Service, Transactional Calls

The Centre introduced a new numbering series, 160xxxxxxx, for making service or transactional calls, to help citizens easily identify legitimate calls and curb unsolicited voice calls from telemarketers using 10-digit mobile numbers.
Currently, 140xxxxxxx series was allocated to telemarketers for making promotional/service/transactional voice calls.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that since the 140xx series is being used extensively for promotional calls, consumers normally do not respond to such calls, and many important service/transactional calls are missed.
This has resulted in the wide use of regular 10-digit numbers by genuine entities for making service/transactional calls. This also gave opportunity to fraudsters to deceive consumers using 10-digit numbers.
To address this, the DoT has allocated a new numbering series, 160xxxxxxx which will exclusively be used for service/transactional voice calls by the Principle Entities.
For example, the service/transactional calls originating from Financial Entities like by RBI, SEBI, PFRDA, IRDA, etc shall start from 1601.

Life Imprisonment to ex-Brahmos Engineer Nishant Agarwal for Spying for Pak ISI

The Nagpur district court handed life imprisonment to former BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd engineer Nishant Agarwal under the Official Secrets Act for spying for Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI.
Agarwal will also have to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 14 years and was also fined Rs. 3000.
Additional sessions court judge M. V. Deshpande stated in the order that Agarwal was convicted under section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code for an offence punishable under section 66 (f) of the IT Act and various sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Agarwal, employed in the technical research section of the company's missile centre in Nagpur, was arrested in a joint operation by the military intelligence and Anti-terrorism squads (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in 2018.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.

Jun 03, 2024

Ruchira Kamboj, India's First Woman Permanent Representative to UN, Retires

India's first woman Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj retired after 35 years of service, during which she served as Indian envoy in Bhutan, South Africa and the UNESCO.
She became Permanent Representative/Ambassador of India to New York, on August 2, 2022. Fluent in three languages, Hindi, English and French, Kamboj began her diplomatic career in Paris as the Third Secretary in the Indian Embassy to France from 1989-91. Kamboj was Counsellor at India's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York from 2002-05, where she dealt with a wide range of political issues, including UN Peacekeeping, UN Security Council Reform, the Middle East crisis etc, according to the Indian Mission's website.

Assembly Polls 2024: Sikkim's Ruling SKM Registers Landslide Victory

As per the data released by the Election Commission, the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) registered a landslide victory in the Himalayan state by securing 31 of the 32 seats in the assembly polls.
The opposition Sikkim Democratic Front only won one seat.
Incumbent Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang thank the people of Sikkim and and party workers.

Assembly Polls 2024: BJP Storms Back to Power in Arunachal Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious in Arunachal Pradesh for the third straight time in a row as the saffron party secured 46 seats in the 60-member assembly and won the majority.
The counting of votes concluded in the 50 seats for which the polling was held in the northeastern state of India on April 19. The remaining 10 seats were secured by the BJP uncontested.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu is one of the 10 candidates who won unopposed.

Hyderabad No Longer Joint Capital of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Hyderabad officially ceased to be the joint capital of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. According to Section 5(1) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, Hyderabad was designated as the common capital for both states for a period not exceeding ten years from June 2, 2014.
Section 5(2) of the Act stipulates that after this period, Hyderabad would become the sole capital of Telangana, and a new capital would be established for Andhra Pradesh.
Currently, Andhra Pradesh has not yet established a permanent capital, with ongoing disputes over Amaravati and Visakhapatnam still pending in courts.

Justice M. S. Sonak of Bombay High Court Becomes First Person in Goa to Register 'Living Will'

Justice M. S. Sonak, the senior most presiding judge of Bombay High Court at Goa, registered his 'living will' at an Indian Medical Association event, and became the first person to register such a will in the coastal State.
A living will/advance directive is a document that persons with deteriorating health or the terminally ill can execute in advance, through which they can choose not to remain in a vegetative state with life support system if they enter into a state when it will not be possible for them to express their wishes
This document could then be presented to a hospital for appropriate action in the event the executant's health worsens.

Jun 02, 2024

India Reiterates Support for Palestinian Statehood

India reaffirmed its backing for the statehood of Palestine. Norway, Spain, and Ireland recently recognized Palestine. Following these European nations' recognition of Palestine, India reiterated its long-standing stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal discussed India's longstanding support for the two-state solution and Palestinian statehood.

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