General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - November 2019

Nov 2019

Mar 09, 2020

Modi Launches 'She Inspires Us' Campaign

On the occasion of Women's Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over his social media accounts to women whose life, work inspire us. The Prime Minister made an announcement on his Twitter handle, as he launched the She Inspires Us campaign.

Mar 08, 2020

Centre Constitutes Delimitation Panel

The union government started the process of redrawing the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. In 2002, the last delimitation was conducted across India but these states were left out due to various reasons.
A law ministry notification said that former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai has been appointed as the chairperson of the Delimitation Commission. In 2002, retd. Justice Kuldeep Singh acted as the chairman. Election commissioner Sushil Chandra and state election commissioners of J&K and the four states will be the ex officio members, the notificaiton said.
The Commission will delimit the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the provisions the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, and of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland in accordance with the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002.
The delimitation in J&K comes nine months after the Article 370 was scrapped and the state was divided into two union territories. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 which was cleared in Parliament in August 2019, mentioned new delimitation to redraw the constituencies of J&K according to section 62 of the Act.
In the four states of North East India, delimitation could not be carried out along with other Indian states due to prevailing security reasons. But now, the government thinks the situation has changed.

Agartala and Ghojadanga Authorised Land Immigration Posts

Tripura capital Agartala and West Bengal's Ghojadanga were designated by the government as authorised land immigration check posts to enter or exit India.
Both Agartala and Ghojadanga are located along the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Mar 07, 2020

Freedom in the World 2020 Report Ranks India among Least Free Democracies

According to the 'Freedom in the World 2020' report, which analyzes democratic values and people's freedom in 195 countries & 15 territories and ranks them category-wise, released by the Freedom House, a U.S (United States) -based watchdog that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, India ranked 83rd in the report along with Timor-Leste and Senegal in 'Free'category. Finland topped the list as the freest democratic country.

Railways Conducts Gender Euality Cmpaign

The Railways is conducting a ten-day long 'Each for Equal' campaign from March 1 to 10 across the Zonal Railways in view of the upcoming International Women's Day.
The International Women's Day will be celebrated across the world on Sunday.
"The theme of the Campaign is #EachforEqual signifying that collectively each one of us can help create a gender equal world and Railway is also focussing on #SheInspiresUs highlighting the inspiring stories of women achievers.
In this campaign, Indian Railways is highlighting the steps taken to provide exclusive facilities to women passengers, to empower women employees and enhance the role of women employees working in Indian Railways.

Govt. Reconstitutes National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

The government reconstituted the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) with Union Home Minister Amit Shah as its chairperson and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others, as its members. The NPDRR is a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral decision making body on disaster management. In a notification, the home ministry said that the functions of the NPDRR will be to review the progress made in the field of disaster management from time to time, appraise the extent and manner in which the disaster management policy has been implemented by the central and state governments, and other agencies concerned, and advise on coordination between the central and state governments.
The minister of state in-charge of disaster management in the home ministry and the vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority will be the NPDRR's vice chairpersons. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank', Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri are among its members.
The minister of each state government and union territory dealing with disaster management, a member of the state disaster management authority, mayors of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, and municipal commissioners of these cities will also be its members. Ten chairpersons of urban local bodies, to be nominated by the urban development ministry, 10 representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions, to be nominated by the panchayat raj ministry, four Lok Sabha members, two Rajya Sabha members, and the Union home secretary and secretaries of departments concerned will be the NPDRR's ex-officio members, the notification said.

Mar 06, 2020

India & US Sign Deal for Missile Protection Suites for New Boeing-777 VVIP Planes

India signed Rs. 1,200 crore deal with the United States to procure the missile protection suites for two new Boeing-777 VVIP planes. The missile protection suites will be code named as 'Air Force One' and it will be expected to arrive India in middle of 2021 to begin VVIP planes.
Boeing-777 VVIP planes are being acquired for the purpose of President and Prime Minister's Domestic and International visits.
The features of self-protection suites include infrared and electronic warfare countermeasures suites, countermeasure dispensing systems, and missile warning sensors.
The aircraft will be operated by Indian Air Force pilots trained by Air India, which already maintained four Boeing 777 planes earlier.

Punjab Govt. to Install Statues of Religious Figures and Freedom Fighters

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh approved the installation in the state statues of Hindu deity Parshuram, iconic king Maharaja Agrasen, legendary Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, freedom fighter Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna and Father of the Indian Constitution Dr. B R Ambedkar. The decision has been taken to promote the nation's and the state's rich historical legacy.
The chief minister described the initiative as an instrument to connect the youth with the glorious past of their ancestors.
The Chief Minister gave approval to install a bronze statue of Lord Parshuram at Ludhiana and that of legendary Indian king of Agroha, Maharaja Agarsen, at Bathinda.
The statue of legendary Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur would be installed at Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district, the statue of Ambedkar will be erected by Punjab Technical University in and around Phagwara or Jalandhar, while a bust in the memory of Baba Sohan Bhakna, to mark the 150th birth anniversary of the legendary freedom fighter, will be put up in Amritsar district.
Singh also gave in-principle approval for the installation of the statue of Baba Maharaj Singh in his native village Uchi Rabbon in Ludhiana district.
Recognising the immense contribution of Victoria Cross recipient and hero of Saragarhi battle Sepoy Ishar Singh, the CM also asked the steering committee to install his statue as a humble tribute to the iconic Sikh soldier in Ludhiana.

Maharashtra Government Renames Aurangabad Airport

The Maharashtra Government renamed the Aurangabad Airport as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport.
The airport has been renamed after Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The BJP, a former ally of Shiv Sena, had reportedly demanded that the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government rename the city of Aurangabad as 'Sambhajinagar'.

MHA Approved Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS)

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the automated facial recognition system (AFRS) by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for better identification of unrecognized bodies, missing children, persons and criminals without violating the privacy. To provide this information, AFRS will use police records and it can be accessed only by law enforcement agencies.
Launched in 2019, AFRS is world's largest facial recognition system for automatic tracking, identification, and verification of person from digital images, photos, digital sketches, video frames and video sources by comparing selected facial features of the image from an already existing image database.
Currently, the leading face recognition software are Amazon Rekognition; Face Recognition and Face Detection by Lambda Labs, Microsoft Face API (application program interface); Google Cloud Vision and IBM Watson Visual Recognition, among others. In China, startup Megvii and AI unicorns like SenseTime, CloudWalk and Yitu have made facial recognition commonplace in China.

Mar 05, 2020

Airports Set for Mammoth Corona Screening Exercise

All international passengers entering India will be screened at airports for the novel coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19).
The decision came on the day India reported a sharp rise in infections — from six on Tuesday to 29 on Wednesday.
At a high-level meeting that I held with various stakeholders, it was decided to extend the universal screening to all international flights, and not just 12 countries.
The decision effectively means all passengers entering the country via seaports will also be screened.
So far, India was screening passengers from 12 countries. Italy, one of the hot spots of the disease outside China, where the virus surfaced at the end of 2019, has now been added to the list.

Government Names Directors for 6 AIIMS

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked directors for six new AIIMS in Bathinda, Bibinagar, Deogarh, Kalyani, Rae Bareli and Gorakhpur.
Dr. Arvind Rajwanshi of PGIMER, Chandigarh, was chosen as Director of AIIMS, Rae Bareli.
Dr. Rajwanshi is currently Professor and Head, Department of Cytology and Gynaecological Pathology at PGI, Chandigarh.
Dr. Dinesh Kumar Singh, who is at present serving as Director of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, was appointed Director of AIIMS, Bathinda.
Kalyani AIIMS will be headed by Dr Ramji Singh, and Dr Saurabh Varshney has been named as Director of AIIMS, Deogarh.
AIIMS, Gorakhpur, will be headed by Dr Surekha Kishor, Prof, Community and Family medicine stocks, AIIMS, Rishikesh.

India to Set Up Lab in Iran to Test Citizens before Evacuation

As per reports, Indian is preparing to set up a make-shift laboratory in Iran to test 1,200 of its citizens stuck in the country before evacuating them. Those stranded in Iran are mostly students and pilgrims.
Four scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research have reached Tehran, the Iranian capital, with equipment and testing kits to facilitate mandatory testing before the people board a plane to India.
As per a senior health ministry official, it should take about 4-5 days before we get to know whether we will be able to test these people. Iran is dealing with a high case load itself so they are testing their own people on priority. We have the capacity to test, and we are ensuring that is done, but it will finally depend on local conditions.

Gairsain to be Summer Capital of Uttarakhand

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat declared Gairsain in Chamoli as the summer capital of Uttarakhand.
His announcement came as a surprise move in the House at a time when opposition Congress was demanding it to be declared as the capital of state amid debate on the issue. Statehood agitators and regional outfit Uttarakhand Kranti Dal, had been demanding to declare Gairsain as the permanent capital of the hill state.

35th Edition of the Food and Hospitality Fair 'AAHAR 2020' Commences in New Delhi

A 5-day-long 35th edition of the Food and Hospitality fair 'AAHAR 2020' commenced in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal. This fair specially focused on promoting the agriculture-community as well as tourism sectors especially hospitality companies.
The fair, open for business visitors is jointly organised by India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in partnership with the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Development Authority (APEDA), Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries and and several apex industry associations.
It saw the participation over 750 people from India and from countries like Hong Kong, Israel, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, UK (United Kingdom), UAE (United Arab Emirates) etc.

Fall in India's Democracy Ranking

A US-based human rights watchdog said that India registered the steepest decline in its rankings of the world's 25 largest democracies because of the scrapping of Kashmir's special status, the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the controversial new citizenship law.
Freedom House, the United States government-funded watchdog, said in its Freedom in the World 2020 report that the changes in Kashmir, the NRC and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) had "shaken the rule of law in India and threatened the secular and inclusive nature of its political system".
The annual report ranked 195 countries using 25 indicators covering seven areas – electoral processes, political processes and pluralism, functioning of government, freedom of expression and belief, rule of law, individual rights and association and organisational rights.
India, though included among "free" countries, dropped from a score of 75/100 in 2019 to 71/100 in 2020.
In contrast, Pakistan and Bangladesh scored 38/100 and 39/100 and China, included among "not free" nations, scored 10/100.

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