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NATIONAL AFFAIRS - November 2019

Nov 2019

Dec 25, 2019

Rohtang Pass Strategic Tunnel Named after Late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee

  • On 25th December, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PM Narendra Modi launched the Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL) and named the Strategic Tunnel under Rohtang Pass after Vajpayee, at an event held in New Delhi.
  • The decision to construct a strategic tunnel below the Rohtang Pass was taken by former PM Vajpayee.
  • Prime Minister Modi said that the Rohtang Tunnel, connecting Manali, Himachal Pradesh with Leh, Ladakh and Jammu Kashmir, will now be known as the Atal Tunnel.

Railway Board Rejig, Services Merger Part of Overhaul Plan

  • The Union Cabinet approved an organisational restructuring of the Indian Railways, unifying eight services into one and making the Railway Board leaner in an attempt to overhaul and rightsize the 150-year-old state transport mammoth that operates 22,000 trains every day.
  • The national transporter was due for rationalisation, with the government setting up several committees to chart a road map.
  • The Cabinet cleared the proposal for a single cadre, named the Indian Railway Management Service, that will replace the current eight Group A services. It will be created in consultation with the Department of Personnel and Training and the Union Public Service Commission to facilitate hiring in the next recruitment year.

Govt. Okays First among Equals in Armed Forces

  • The government cleared the appointment of India's first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) who will be a four-star officer and head the department of military powers in the defence ministry, Union minister Prakash Javadekar announced at a cabinet briefing. The development, perhaps the most significant reform in top military management in India, comes four months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his Independence Day speech the creation of the post for more effective coordination between the three armed forces.
  • The appointment of the CDS — pending for almost two decades after the Kargil Review Committee recommended it — is a major reform in India's higher defence management. The CDS will have the same salary and perquisites as the three service chiefs (who are also four-star officers).
  • The government is yet to announce who will be the country's first CDS, but army chief General Bipin Rawat is widely believed to be the front-runner for the post. His term as army chief ends on December 31 and the government is likely to name the CDS before that.

National Population Register

  • The Union Cabinet approved the updation of the National Population Register (NPR), announcing an expenditure of Rs. 3,941.35 crore for the NPR. The aim of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every resident of India.
  • Union Minister Prakash Javadekar asserted that the NPR will be a self-declaration, and no document or bio-metric will be required for it. The NPR was prepared in 2010 under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship Rules, 2003, which was subsequently updated in 2015 by seeding it with Aadhaar. The NPR will be updated, except in Assam, along with House listing and Housing Census from April to September 2020.

Panel for 2-tier Slab to Boost GST Revenue

  • A committee of officers set up to suggest ways to boost Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue has proposed a two-slab structure of 10% and 20%, besides a higher rate on luxury and sin goods; imposition of cess on items such as cosmetics, gambling and recreational services; and withdrawal of exemptions on public school education, high-end healthcare facilities and air-conditioned public transport. The changes were suggested in a presentation made to the GST Council last week.
  • The proposed rates of 10% and 20% will subsume the existing three rates of 5%, 12% and 18%. The presentation is silent on the rate at which luxury and sin goods are to be taxed, the people added, indicating that this could be different from the current 28%.

National Population Register

  • The Union Cabinet approved the updation of the National Population Register (NPR), announcing an expenditure of Rs. 3,941.35 crore for the NPR. The aim of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every resident of India.
  • Union Minister Prakash Javadekar asserted that the NPR will be a self-declaration, and no document or bio-metric will be required for it. The NPR was prepared in 2010 under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship Rules, 2003, which was subsequently updated in 2015 by seeding it with Aadhaar. The NPR will be updated, except in Assam, along with House listing and Housing Census from April to September 2020.

Shah Wants Party Offices in All Regularised Areas

  • Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah told party leaders and MPs in Delhi to set up offices in each of the 1,731 unauthorised colonies in the city, as the party steps up efforts to take credit for regularising these residential areas in the run up to assembly elections in Delhi.
  • A BJP leader in the party's Delhi unit said that Shah issued the directions to the Delhi state general secretary Siddharthan, and asked that each of the 1,731 offices start functioning within the next two days.

Dec 24, 2019

Cabinet Likely to Consider Funding Update of NPR

  • The Union Cabinet is likely to consider a proposal to allocate funds for updating the National Population Register (NPR), an exercise which is to commence from April 2020.
  • The proposal is a part of the agenda of the cabinet meeting.
  • The NPR is a list of "usual residents" of the country. A "usual resident" is defined, for the purposes of NPR, as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.
  • The data for NPR was collected in 2010 along with the house-listing phase of Census of India 2011.
  • The update of this data was done during 2015 by conducting door-to-door survey. The digitisation of the updated information has been completed. It has been decided to update the NPR along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 during April to September 2020 in all the states/UTs except Assam, according to the website of the Office of the registrar general, and census commissioner.
  • The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country.

Surge in Tribal Support Key to Victory for JMM-led Alliance

  • The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 25 assembly constituencies (ACs) in Jharkhand, 12 less than what it won in the 2014 assembly elections, which it contested in an alliance with the All Jharkhand Students' Union Party (AJSU). The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance, which also includes the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), won 47 ACs, 22 more than what these parties won in 2014.
  • An analysis by regions shows that the biggest reason for the BJP's political reversal is a surge in support for the JMM alliance in Scheduled Tribe (ST) dominated regions of the state.

Hemant Set for Second Term

  • Hemant Soren, who led the charge from the front in the JMM-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alliance, is set to become the state's Chief Minister for the second time. He addressed 182 rallies, public meetings and road shows in a span of 40 days, adding firepower to the Opposition's campaign in polling spread over five phases and about three weeks.
  • He competed with the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) star campaigners, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The PM campaigned in both the seats Soren contested, Dumka and Barhait; the JMM leader won both.

Urban India Declared ODF, Except Bengal Local Bodies

  • According to the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, the Swachh Bharat Mission (U) achieved its target of making urban India open defection-free, except 52 urban local bodies of West Bengal.
  • Out of a total of 4,372 cities, 4,320 have declared themselves ODF, of which 4,167 cities have been certified through third party verification.

Dec 23, 2019

Nitin Gadkari Addresses Valedictory Session of Regional Conference

  • Union Minister Nitin Gadkari stated that positive approach, transparency, corruption-free system, fast track decision making and social sensitivity are essential for good governance. He was addressing valedictory session of the regional conference organized in Nagpur on 'Improving Public Services Delivery - Role of Government'. The 2-day conference was organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and the Maharashtra State Commission for Right to Public Services. Union Minister of State Dr. Jitendra Singh was also present on this occasion.

Dec 22, 2019

Jaypee Loses F1 Land

  • The Yamuna Expressway authority cancelled the lease deed of 1,000 hectares of land to Jaypee International Sports Company on which India's only Formula One motor racing circuit is built in Greater Noida over non-payment of dues. The decision was taken by the board of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (Yeida) in a meeting.
  • Jaypee had built and opened country's first Formula One track — Buddh International Circuit (BIC) — in October 2011. Designed by German architect and racetrack designer Hermann Tilke, BIC was venue for the Formula One Indian Grand Prix from 2011 to 2013. The venue was taken out of the F1 calendar in 2014. Jaypee developed several other sports facilities, including a cricket stadium and other associated buildings for F1 races, on the plot along the 165km Yamuna Expressway, which connects Greater Noida with Agra.

Maharashtra Government to Waive Off Farm Loans

  • The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government announced a loan waiver of up to Rs. 2 lakh for farmers.
  • Loans taken before September 30, 2019, will be waived off, the chief minister announced on the last day of winter session of the state legislature.
  • Opposing the move, Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis alleged the Thackeray government has not kept its promise of complete loan waiver.

Warrant against Shashi Tharoor

  • A Trivandrum court issued an arrest warrant for Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in connection with a case filed against him for allegedly defaming Hindu women in one of his books, 'The Great Indian Novel'. After Tharoor failed to present himself or through his lawyer at the court, Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial First Class Magistrate issued a warrant to arrest Tharoor. Tharoor is also an MP from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.
  • Belonging to the genre of satires, 'The Great Indian Novel' was first published in 1989. It presents the story of Mahabharata in the context of the Independence movement and the first 30 years after the country's independence.

Assam May Push Indigenous Rights

  • Amid protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the Assam Cabinet approved a slew of measures, including making Assamese language mandatory in all schools and a law to protect land rights of the indigenous people. In the coming Assembly session, the state government will bring in two new laws.

House Panel Likely to Assess Impact of Laws

  • An in-House panel may, for the first time, come out with a report on how to comprehensively assess the impact of a law before and after its roll-out. The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law decided to come out with a report on legislative impact assessment and way forward, following Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu's willingness to find out qualitative dimensions of Indian laws.
  • The study will take into account how a particular law may affect society and also formulate a comprehensive way to study its economic, social and administrative impacts. While policymakers regularly seek feedbacks on bills and policies from different quarters, this would provide a structured view covering all aspects of a law by a multi-party panel.

India and China to Intensify Efforts for Border Peace

  • India and China agreed to intensify efforts to find a mutually acceptable solution to their border dispute and work on more confidence-building measures (CBMs) to maintain peace and tranquillity along the frontier.
  • Against the backdrop of fresh irritants such as China's recent attempt to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council, the special representatives on the border issue agreed that both sides should respect each other's sensitivities and concerns to build trust.
  • The talks between the special representatives – national security adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi – in New Delhi were described by the ministry as constructive with focus on taking forward the India-China Closer Developmental Partnership as per the guidance provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping" at their second informal summit in Mamallapuram in October.
  • The special representatives exchanged views on important bilateral, regional and global issues. Wang also called on vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Dec 21, 2019

Three Parties Agree to Finalise Chabahar Protocol

  • Days ahead of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's visit to Tehran, India, Afghanistan and Iran agreed to finalise a protocol to streamline transit, customs and consular matters at the Chabahar Port.
  • This was decided at the second meeting in New Delhi of the committee formed by the three countries to oversee the Chabahar agreement. The panel also agreed to include Mormugoa and New Mangalore Ports, in addition to Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mundra, Kandla and Cochin, in the designated route under the agreement.

India Holds Talks with Canada

  • The process of re-engagement between India and Canada commenced with a meeting between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his counterpart François-Philippe Champagne.
  • This was the first ministerial-level bilateral meeting in more than a year-and-a-half, as ties had come to a standstill since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ill-fated visit to India in 2018.
  • Issues such as Kashmir and the revocation of the state's special status figured in the discussions. Trudeau met Jaishankar, who tweeted, "We agreed to raise the quality of our relationship and chart a path for the next 5 years."

Kerala Puts on Hold NPR Work

  • The Kerala government ordered a stay on all activities in connection with the National Population Register (NPR) in the state considering 'apprehensions' of the public that it would lead to NRC in the wake of the controversial Citizenship Act.
  • The step by the CPI(M)-led government came amid raging protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state and in several other parts of the country.
  • Earlier this week, the West Bengal government stayed all activities relating to the preparation and updation of the NPR in the eastern state amid the furore over the CAA.

Pro-CAA Agitation in Central Park

  • Scores of people staged a demonstration in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Central Park in Cannaught Place.
  • The protesters raised slogans in favour of the Narendra Modi government and hailed the central government for bringing the law.
  • Slogans of 'Vande Matram' reverberated the venue as the demonstrators celebrated the enactment of CAA, terming it a great win for minority refugees from the neighbouring country.
  • The pro-CAA demonstrations come amid multiple protests against the new legislation in several parts of the national capital for the last few days. A similar rally was held in Rajghat.

Vizag Recommended as Andhra Capital

  • A six-member expert committee formed by the Andhra Pradesh government recommended that Visakhapatnam be the main capital of the state instead of Amaravati.
  • In its report submitted to Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the committee headed by retired IAS officer G Nageshwar Rao said Visakhapatnam would be the seat of state administration – secretariat, department offices and the chief minister's office, besides a separate high court bench and the assembly complex for the budget session. Amaravati will have Raj Bhavan and the assembly complex that will host the monsoon and winter sessions, besides the Amaravati bench of the state high court.
  • The committee also recommended that the Raj Bhavan and the assembly building be relocated between Mangalagiri and Nagarjuna University area in Guntur which is not flood-prone.

AAP Kicks Off Election Campaign with a New Slogan

  • 'Acche beete paanch saal, lage raho Kejriwal (The last five years went well, keep going, Kejriwal)' will be the Aam Aadmi Party's campaign mantra for the Delhi assembly elections, scheduled to be held early next year (2020), as the party kick-started its campaign to seek a re-election for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
  • Besides the new slogan, the party also introduced a new colour scheme — a black background to accompany the party's conventional white and blue — for its election advertisements with poll strategist Prashant Kishor's I-PAC being given the charge of designing the AAP's poll campaign.
  • The party's slogan in the 2015 elections, in which it won 67 of the 70 seats, was 'Paanch saal Kejriwal (Kejriwal for five years)'.
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