General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - November 2019

Nov 2019

Feb 13, 2020

Second Batch of Foreign Envoys Visit Jammu and Kashmir

The second batch of foreign envoys arrived for a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir for a first-hand assessment of the situation in the Union Territory six months after the nullification of Article 370.
The envoys of over 20 countries arrived at the Srinagar airport but could not visit Baramulla town in north Kashmir as per the schedule due to inclement weather.
Those who were part of the delegation include envoys from the European Union, South America and the Gulf countries.

President of India Addresses the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of National Institute of Bank Manage...

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, graced and addressed the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) in Pune Maharashtra.
The President said that banks are fulcrum of our economic system. Their efficiency in this role has earned trust and respect of people. Our Constitution promised economic justice for all citizens. Banks were considered the crucial vehicle to deliver this Constitutional commitment. He commended banks for charting out a mandate well beyond their traditional role as a financial intermediary. He said that our banks have done a commendable job in changing banking from an elitist pursuit to a service available to common man. Millions of lives have been touched through direct transfer of funds under various welfare schemes to bank account of poor and needy.

State Government Staff to Work Five Days a Week

In a move that is set to benefit around 10-12 lakh Maharashtra government employees, the state cabinet gave its approval for the five-day working week system, starting February 29.
However, employees will have to work for an additional 45 minutes every day to compensate for the two additional holidays every month. According to the current rules, staffers have a five-day working week twice a month, with every second and fourth Saturday being given as a holiday.

Govt. Treasury Gets Rs. 52L Bounty from Poll Losers

Out of the total 672 candidates who were in fray in the Delhi assembly polls, 529 contestants, including those of national parties, lost their deposits, as per figures from the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
A candidate has to deposit a sum of Rs. 10,000 while filing their nominations. The deposit is forfeited if they fail to secure a sixth (16.66%) of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.
Besides the Congress party that bagged less than 5% of the total votes polled and 67 of its candidates had to forfeit their deposits (including four of its ally the Rashtriya Janata Dal [RJD]). All candidates fielded by four other national parties could not save their deposits.

Assam NRC Goes Offline

Wipro, the company tasked with providing storage space on cloud for keeping National Register of Citizenship (NRC) data in Assam, said that the contract was not renewed by the government due to which the data went offline.
The IT services contract was not renewed by the authorities upon its expiry in October, 2019. However, as a gesture of goodwill, Wipro continued to pay the hosting service fee until January-end, 2020.
Wipro is willing to continue providing these services if the IT services agreement is renewed by the authorities.

Feb 12, 2020

Trump to Begin India Visit on Feb. 24

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will visit India during February 24-25, with a limited trade package and a public event featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to be highlights of the trip.
Trump's maiden visit to India will take him to New Delhi and Ahmedabad, with the two sides saying the trip will strengthen the strategic partnership and provide an opportunity for the leaders to review progress in bilateral ties.

Marandi-led JVM(P) to Merge with BJP

The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) led by Babulal Marandi announced its decision to merge with the BJP on February 17.
A central committee meeting of the party unanimously approved the party's merger with the BJP.
The former Jharkhand Chief Minister said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J. P. Nadda will be present at the merger ceremony at Prabhat Tara maidan on February 17.
Marandi also said that the expulsion of party MLAs Pradip Yadav and Bandhu Turkey has been approved by the central committee of the party.

AAP Sweeps Delhi with 62 Seats

Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were voted back to power with a massive mandate in the Delhi Assembly election as the party won 62 seats in the 70-member House.
The party dropped just five seats and less than a percentage point in vote share from its stellar 2015 showing.
Despite a hard-fought and oftentimes bitter campaign that saw big guns, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah address rallies, the BJP managed to win only 8 seats, up 3 from its 2015 tally.
The Congress, yet again, failed to open its account — the party's candidates looked set to forfeit their deposits on 63 of the 66 seats contested.

BSY Reshuffles Portfolios

Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa reallocated portfolios to some newly inducted members of the cabinet a day after the allocation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader had allocated the portfolios to 10 of the 11 turncoat MLAs who had defected from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) to contest elections on the BJP slate. The MLAs were inducted into the cabinet on February 6.
Some of the new ministers had publicly expressed their dissatisfaction over the portfolio allocation.

Feb 11, 2020

Web Portal Launched for Star Rating of Mines in India

In order to promote green, safe and sustainable mining practices using technology as a tool, Ministry of Coal (MoC) has launched a web portal for star rating of coal mines. Union Minister for Coal & Mines Shri Pralhad Joshi launched this portal in New Delhi which enables all operational coal mines across India for self-rating, their subsequent validation by Coal Controller's Organization (CCO), further evaluation and finally award of star rating.
Based on the star ratings obtained through a well-defined mechanism on this web portal, the highest scoring mines in the country will be awarded in a public ceremony. Besides, all the mines will be given an official certificate by the CCO mentioning their star rating and the particular reporting year. The mines that score from 91 to 100% will get 5 star, 81 to 90% 4 star, 71 to 80% 3 star, 61 to 70% 2 star, 41 to 60% 1 star and mines that score from 0 to 40% will get No star on the portal as per laid down procedures of the Star Rating Policy for Coal Mines in India.

National conference on e-governance 2020 concludes in Mumbai

National Conference on e-Governance 2020 concluded in Mumbai after two days of rich deliberations on issues, opportunities and challenges in transforming governance using digital technologies. In a keynote address at the valedictory session, E-Governance is the key to the future of India's developmental journey in the 21st century. The minister stated that whether it is e-NAM or Ayushman Bharat, e-Governance is essential to good governance. The Mumbai Declaration on e-Governance has been unanimously adopted on a concluding day.

SC slaps fine of Rs 5 lakh on Centre, States for failing to file reply on PIL for community kitchen

Irked over repeated failures of the Centre and States to file their replies, the Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily and imposed cost of Rs five lakh on them for not complying with its directions to file their affidavits on a PIL seeking setting up of community kitchens across the country.
Punjab, Nagaland, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand -- and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar, who have filed their responses on the PIL filed by Arun Dhawan, will not pay any fine.
Five months have passed since the apex court had issued notice and except for five states and one union territory, no other states and UTs have filed their response.
69 per cent of children under the age of five who have lost their lives are due to malnutrition and it is high time that States take steps to set up community kitchens.

Bhupesh Baghel inaugurates Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi as Chhattisgarh's 28th district

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday inaugurated Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi as the 28th district of the state.
The new district, carved out of Bilaspur, has three tehsils and three development blocks namely Gaurela, Pendra and Marwahi.
It comprises 166 gram panchayats, 222 villages and two nagar panchayats, with an area of 1,68,225 hectares.
Baghel had made an announcement about the formation of this district last year during his Independence Day speech.

Feb 10, 2020

J&K Services Selection Board Gets New Chairman

Two days after a major reshuffle among police personnel, the Jammu and Kashmir administration ordered postings and transfers of six Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers, replacing the incumbent chairman of the Services Selection Board (SSB) and three deputy commissioners. Khalid Jahangir, currently posted as Anantnag deputy commissioner, was transferred and posted as chairman, J&K Services Selection Board, replacing Bashir Ahmad Dar, who will be the new deputy commissioner of Anantnag, an order issued by the General Administration Department said. Angrez Singh Rana, deputy commissioner, Kishtwar, was transferred and posted as member, J&K, Services Selection Board, while Rajinder Singh Tara will be the new deputy commissioner of Kishtwar. On February 7, the Union Territory administration made a major reshuffle with the posting and transfers of 60 police officers, including 14 IPS officers.

Cong, 2 NDA Allies Don't Agree with SC's Quota Ruling

Two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies, the Lok Janshakti Party and the Janata Dal (United), and the Congress expressed their disagreement with the Supreme Court's ruling that the government is not bound to provide reservation for appointments and promotions to public posts.
The Congress alleged that rights of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are not secure under the BJP. The LJP and JD(U), constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), sought immediate measures to ensure the reservation benefits remain unchanged.

Amid Outbreak, PM Offers Assistance to China

Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed to Chinese President Xi Jinping India's readiness to provide assistance to the country in dealing with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
According to the latest data released by Chinese authorities, a total of 811 people have died of the coronavirus infection in China so far while the number of confirmed cases has gone up to 37,198.
The virus has spread to almost every province in China as well as around 25 countries in the world, forcing the World Health Organization to declare it a global emergency.
In his letter to Xi, Modi offered India's assistance to China to deal with the challenge and also conveyed condolences at the unfortunate loss of lives due to the outbreak.

Women's Turnout in Delhi Polls Drops

As the overall voter turnout in Delhi's assembly polls dropped by five percentage points in comparison to the 2015 assembly polls, the turnout of women voters showed an almost equivalent drop.
While the women's voters' turnout was 66.50% in 2015, the state poll body said that 62.55% women voted in the elections, a drop of 3.95 percentage points.
There has been an overall drop in voting turnout. So, an almost 4% drop in women's turnout should not be seen as alarming, since it goes along with the overall drop in turnout.
The Delhi electoral roll has 6,680,277 female and 8,105,236 male voters.

Pension Cost Cut Top on Military Agenda

Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and the three service chiefs are in intensive discussions on reducing the burgeoning pension cost to the exchequer by gradually increasing the retirement age of some non-combatants, prioritising hardware purchases and generating internal resources for military housing in cantonments.
With the military pension budget mounting to Rs. 1.33 lakh crore, or 0.5% of gross domestic product, in fiscal 2020-21, from Rs. 41,000 crore in 2010, and Rs. 6-7,000 crore of expense looming in June for the equalisation of pension under the One Rank, One Pension (OROP) scheme, Gen Rawat is learnt to be in favour of increasing the retirement age of certain classes of non-combatants and medical staff to 58 years from 39 to cut the bill.
In 2019-2020, the pension bill amounted to Rs. 1.13 lakh crore.
Although the military top brass is still to come to terms with the proposal on concerns that it will lead to a greying force, Gen Rawat's move could entail a longer stint in service for around 400,000 non-combatants, saving around ~4,000 crore in pension cost. The plan includes retiring 60 non-combatants in each of the 450 infantry battalions at the age of 58 and the same applies to armoured regiments. The increase in the retirement age to 58 is expected to be gradual.

Feb 09, 2020

Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti Booked Under PSA

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who have been detained since the nullification of special status to the erstwhile state, have been booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) by the local administration.
Besides the former Chief Ministers, two leaders from their parties – National Conference's Ali Mohammed Sagar and Peoples Democratic Party's Sartaj Madani – were also booked under PSA.

New Delhi Hosts Ministerial-level Defence Dialogue 2020 Between India & South Korea

The Ministerial-level Defence dialogue 2020 between India and South Korea was held at South Block in New Delhi, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Jeong Kyeong-doo, Minister of National Defense of South Korea discussed many important issues & affirmed to deepen bilateral defence cooperation between the two countries.
As per Rajnath Singh, India made considerable progress in the defense sector along with South Korea in recent years. India's Indo-Pacific policy shares many similarities with South Korea's new southern policy & the unity of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) should be important in developing the Indo-Pacific Vision.
The dialogue saw the participation of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, Army Chief General MM Naravane and Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh.

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