General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2018

Dec 2018

Aug 10, 2021

Manish Tewari Calls for Vote of No-confidence Motion against NDA Govt.

Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari suggested that the Opposition must consider bringing a vote of a no-confidence motion against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
As the logjam in Parliament continues over the issues including farmers' agitation, Pegasus issue and COVID-19 mismanagement, Congress MP tweeted, "Since NDA/BJP Govt is showing a level of obduracy unwitnessed before in annals of Parliamentary Democracy by not discussing l'affaire Pegasus, Farmers agitation and COVID mismanagement joint opposition should seriously consider bringing a vote of no-confidence against NDA/BJP Govt."

Chidamabaram, Jairam Ramesh Poll Observers for Goa, Manipur

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed senior leaders P. Chidamabaram and Jairam Ramesh to oversee election strategies and overall coordination for Goa and Manipur respectively.
Both the states will have elections in the early part of 2022. In the last Assembly elections, though the Congress had emerged as the single largest party in both the States, the BJP formed the government with the help of post poll alliances and some defections from the Congress.

Aug 09, 2021

Passage of 8 Bills Boosts Rajya Sabha Productivity

The passage of eight bills in the Rajya Sabha during the third week of the Monsoon Session has helped increased productivity of the House to 24.2 per cent.
This has gone up from last week when the productivity was 13.70 per cent. In the first week, the Upper House of Parliament registered high productivity of 32.20 per cent, according to the data with the Rajya Sabha research department.
The overall productivity of the House for first three weeks of the Monsoon Session has been 22.60 per cent.

Apna Dal Demands Caste-based Census, Ministry for OBC Welfare

With an eye on the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year, the BJP's ally Apna Dal(S) demanded a separate Union ministry for the welfare of the OBC and a caste-based census across the country to ascertain the exact population of the community.
Apna Dal(S), an Uttar Pradesh-based party, is the second ally of the ruling BJP after the JD(U) which has raised the demand for a caste-based census.
The demand assumes significance just months before the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the single largest chunk of voters belongs to the OBC category.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba Gets Extension

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has been given one-year extension by the government.
Gauba, former Union Home Secretary, was in 2019 appointed to the country's top bureaucratic post for two years.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved extension in service to Gauba, a 1982-batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, as Cabinet Secretary for a further period of one-year beyond August 30, 2021.
Gauba is said to be the key architect of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act under which Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union territories following the abrogation of the special status given to the erstwhile state under Article 370 of the Constitution.

MP Assembly Publishes Booklet on Unparliamentary Language

Henceforth, when an MLA stands up in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly to talk on anything, he or she can easily refer to a booklet, which mentions words, phrases or sentences that are best avoided during the proceedings of the House as such utterances can get expunged.
On the eve of the four-day long monsoon session, the state Assembly released this 38-page booklet, which lists out a number of unparliamentary words, phrases and sentences - mostly in Hindi.
The collection carries a total of 1,161 words and sentences that were expunged from the records of the Vidhan Sabha since 1954.
It was released at the Vidhan Sabha Bhavan by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state Congress chief Kamal Nath, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra and Assembly Speaker Girish Gautam.

Karnataka CM Allocates Portfolios

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai allocated portfolios to Ministers in his new cabinet, with most of them retaining the Ministries they had in the previous B. S. Yediyurappa government.
In a surprising move, debutant ministers have got plum portfolios like Araga Jnanendra- Home and V Sunil Kumar- Energy, along with Kannada and Culture.
The Chief Minister who had on Wednesday expanded his new cabinet, by inducting 29 Ministers, had tried to play it safe with by and large retaining old faces, as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous Yediyurappa cabinet, while six were new.
Bommai has retained the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DAPR), Finance, Intelligence, Cabinet Affairs, Bengaluru Development and all unallocated portfolios with himself.

Aug 08, 2021

Zoological Survey of India Gets First Female Director in 100 Years

India's Zoological Survey (ZSI) has got a female head for the first time in its 105 year history. The inspiring Dhriti Banerjee becomes the first woman appointed there.
The Indian government approved the appointment of Dhriti Banerjee as the director of ZSI. Banerjee who is a prolific scientist, conducting research in zoogeography, taxonomy, morphology and molecular systematics, will be taking charge sometime in the next week.
Founded in July 1916, the ZSI has its headquarters in Kolkata. It has 16 regional centres under the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change. ZSI started hiring women scientists as late as 1949, nearly three decades since its inception. Mira Mansukhani created a benchmark by entering the male dominated organisation as the first women employee.

Rekha Sharma Gets 3-year Extension as NCW Chairperson

Rekha Sharma was given a three-year extension as the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW).
Sharma assumed the charge of NCW chairperson in August 2018.
She has been associated with the Commission as a member since August 2015 and held the additional charge as the chairperson from September 29, 2017, before becoming its regular chief.

Aug 07, 2021

Assam, Meghalaya to Set up Committees for Inter-state Border Disputes

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad K. Sangma said that the two states will set up committees to resolve the inter-state border disputes.
Two panels to be headed by cabinet ministers of each state will be set up.
The committees will aim at resolving the border disputes in a phased manner in six of the 12 disputed sites initially.
Each panel will have five members, including a cabinet minister of each state besides bureaucrats, Sarma said, adding that local representatives may be part of a committee.
Members of both the panels will visit the sites, interact with civil society members and complete discussions within 30 days.

BSP to Support Centre if it Takes Steps to Hold OBC Census

BSP chief Mayawati said that it will support the central government in parliament and outside if it takes constructive steps for conducting census of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Her remarks come close on the heels of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday seeking an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the tricky issue of caste-based census which the Centre has proposed to hold only for SCs and STs.
BSP has been demanding census of OBCs in the country.

CDRI Now Has 25 Countries, Seven International Organisations

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, has 25 countries and seven international organisations as members now with Bangladesh being the latest entrant.
As per MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, the objective of the CDRI is to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development.

Aug 06, 2021

Manjunatha Prasad is Bommai's Principal Secretary

Following the formation of the government headed by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, postings of senior IAS officers were reshuffled.
Senior IAS officer Manjunatha Prasad N., Principal Secretary, has been appointed as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. He replaces Ramana Reddy E.V.
Mr. Prasad is also placed as in charge of the post of Principal Secretary, Department of Information and Public Relations, Bengaluru. Earlier, Mr. Prasad had also served as Commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Principal Secretary, Social Welfare Department.

Poll Strategist Prashant Kishor Resigns as Punjab CM's Principal Advisor

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor resigned as Principal Advisor to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, and said that he is resigning in view of his decision to take a temporary break from public life.
The political strategist was appointed as Principal Advisor to Punjab CM on March 1, 2021.

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