General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - July 2020

Jul 2020

Jul 13, 2020

Chhattisgarh Organises India's First E-Lok Adalat

Chhattisgarh State Legal Service Authority and the High Court organised India's first e-Lok Adalat to ensure the administration of justice and to solve the financial crisis of the parties and lawyers amid COVID-19 pandemic. High Court Chief Justice P. R. Ramchandra Menon inaugurated the e-Lok Adalat through video conferencing.
Lok Adalat is one of the alternative dispute grievance mechanisms or a forum where pending cases or disputes in the court of law are settled or compromised whereas e-lok adalat will be handled virtually.

Jul 12, 2020

Man Held for Opening Duplicate SBI Bank Branch

An alleged attempt by a 19-year-old man to open a branch of the State Bank of India at Panruti, Tamil Nadu was arrested for forgery.
The man, son of retired SBI employees, had readied fake seals and challans of the public sector lender, and had other paraphernalia like a cash counting machine needed "to run a bank branch," on an upper floor of his residence at Panruti.
The man's late father had worked for SBI and his mother had retired from the same bank some time back.

Hardik Patel Appointed Working President of Gujarat Congress

Patidar leader Hardik Patel was appointed the new working president of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee.
Congress president has approved the proposal of the appointment of Hardik Patel as the working president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect.
Mr. Patel rose to prominence when he led an agitation by the Patidar community in 2015, demanding that the community should get benefits of the quota for backward castes.
He joined the Congress on March 12, 2019, but did not contest the Lok Sabha election that year due to his conviction in a case.
Amit Chavda is the president of the state unit, which already has two working presidents -- Tushar Chaudhary and Karsandas Soneri.

Parliament Panel to Review Border Road Construction in Ladakh

In the wake of the recent violent clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakh, the parliament's PAC meeting decided to review the construction of border roads at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and procurement of high-altitude clothing for the armed forces, and may call the Defense Secretary and other top officials to be briefed on the same.
The meeting of the 22-member Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by the leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was attended by 17 out of the total 20 members.
Members of the PAC, in which BJP enjoys majority and is led by senior party leader Bhupender Yadav, thwarted Mr Chowdhury's attempt to select the PM Cares Fund for examination, saying its amount was not sanctioned by the parliament and therefore, it cannot be taken up by the committee.
MPs from BJD and JD(U) also supported the BJP on the issue.
Meanwhile, the PAC has decided to examine various subjects with special focus being given to the CAG report number 5 of 2017, a performance audit of the Sino-India Border Roads, and CAG report number 13 of 2019 which is on the provisioning and procurement of high altitude-clothing, equipment, ration and housing for soldiers.

Jul 11, 2020

Jannayak Janata Party Dissolves National and State Units

The Jannayak Janata Party dissolved all its units including national and state executives, paving the way for a revamp of the one-and-a-half-year-old party's organisational structure.
The decision to dissolve the units was taken on the suggestion of JJP founder and former MP Ajay Singh Chautala.
As per reports, that after the 2019 assembly election, the JJP was thinking of revamping its organisational structure.
During the party's first foundation day on December 9, 2019, in Sirsa and at another meeting of national executive in March 2020 held in Chandigarh, the final decision was left on Chautala.
The JJP, which won 10 seats in the Haryana Assembly polls, extended support to the BJP after the saffron party could manage to win only 40 of the 90 seats. They formed a coalition government in the state.
The JJP was formed on December 9, 2018, after a split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) due to infighting in the Chautala family.

India and China Agree on Complete Disengagement of Troops at LAC

India and China resolved to push ahead with complete disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh in a timely manner for full restoration of peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
As Chinese troops continued to withdraw from Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh, the two countries held another round of diplomatic talks, and decided that senior commanders of the two armies will meet soon to discuss further steps to ensure complete disengagement and de-escalation in a timely manner.

PM Modi Inaugurates Asia's Large 750 MW Ultra Mega Solar Power Project at Rewa

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Asia's largest 750 MW solar power project at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh via video conferencing. According to the government, the project will reduce emissions up to 15 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
Apart from Rewa, work is underway on solar power plants in Shajapur, Neemuch and Chhatarpur.
The project will be the first to supply renewable energy to an institutional customer, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), outside the state. Delhi metro will get 24 per cent of project's energy capacity. The remaining 76 per cent will be supplied to the state discoms of Madhya Pradesh. Central financial assistance of Rs. 138 crore was provided to Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited (RUMSL) for the development of the solar park. The RUMSL is a joint venture company of Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVN), and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a Central Public Sector Undertaking.
The mega solar power project comprises three solar generating units of 250MW each located on a 500-hectare plot of land situated inside a solar park.

Jul 10, 2020

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik Launches 'BLUIS', First of its Kind in India

The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, launched the Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System (BLUIS), a flagship development of the General Administration and Public grievances departments.
Odisha became the first state in India to use high resolution satellite imagery utilising space technology and artificial intelligence to monitor government lands.
The lack of transparency and accountability of the enforcement in the current mechanisms and the increasing encroachment of government lands in Bhubaneswar resulted in the development of BLUIS.
BLUIS is a web and mobile based solution to monitor the unauthorised change of land use and to prevent the encroachment of government lands.
The BLUIS, the geo tagged repository of all the government lands detects all the changes that are taking place over the government lands.

Indian Army Asks Personnel to Delete 89 Apps

Indian Army has asked its personnel to delete 89 apps from their smartphones including Facebook, TikTok, Tinder, PUBG, and Instagram to plug leakage of information.
Snapchat, Tinder, OkCupid, UC Browser, Bumble, ShareIt, Xender, Helo, CamScanner, Club Factory etc are among those 89 apps.
This came days after the Government banned 59 apps, mostly Chinese including TikTok, UC News, and CamScanner amid the standoff with China.
Some of the 89 apps are among those which the Centre has already banned stating "they are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order".
The list of apps the Indian army personnel have reportedly been asked to delete from their smartphones is divided into numerous categories like messaging apps - (We Chat, Helo, Share Chat, Viber, IMO, Hike and others), video hosting (Tik Tok, Likee, Samosa, Kwali, and others), contents sharing (ShareIt, Xender, Zapya, and others), web browsers (UC Browser and UC Browser Mini), video and live streaming (Zoom, LiveMe, Vmate, Uplive and others), utility apps (CamScanner, Beauty Plus, and True Caller), gaming apps (PUBG, Clash of Kings and others), eCommerce apps (Club Factory, AliExpress, Chinabrands, and others), dating apps (Tinder, OkCupid, Badoo, Bumble, Happn, Couch Surfing, and others), news apps (News Dog and Daily Hunt), lifestyle apps (POPXO), music apps (Hungama and Songs.pk) and blogging/microblogging apps (Tumblr, Reddit, and others).

Rajnath Singh Inaugurates 6 Bridges in J&K

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated six bridges in border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, and asserted that development of remote areas in the region will continue to be a key priority for the NDA government.
Four bridges were constructed on the Akhnoor-Pallanwala road in Akhnoor, while two bridges were built on the Tarnah Nallah in Kathua district.
The total cost of construction of the bridges was Rs. 43 crore.
The inauguration of the bridges, built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) comes at a time when India and China are engaged in a border row in eastern Ladakh.
Officials said that the dedication of the bridges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir carries a bigger message that India will continue to develop key infrastructure in border areas notwithstanding hostilities by any adversary.

IIT-H and NVIDIA to Establish Joint AI Research Centre

The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) is collaborating with NVIDIA, a multinational technology company, to establish India's first 'NVIDIA AI Technology Centre' (NVAITC) to accelerate research on Artificial Intelligence and its commercial adoption.
An event was held on Thursday to mark the commencement of operations of this centre. II-TH already houses two NVIDIA DGX-1TM systems and an NVIDIA DGX-2TM system dedicated to research being undertaken at the institute. The NVAITC will accelerate research for the 220 faculty at IITH, which is already among India's foremost research institutions.
This collaboration will focus on advancing AI research in the areas of agriculture and Smart Cities besides Language Understanding. The projects that would be taken up include increasing crop yield using AI algorithms and applying AI-based solutions to support safer transportation systems and better ways of managing traffic, among others.

Jul 09, 2020

Uddhav Thackeray E-Inaugurates World's 2nd Largest and Asia's Largest Data Centre

Maharashtra Chief Minister, Uddham Thakeray and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications, Electronics and Informational Technology inaugurated the World's 2nd largest and Asia's largest data center, NM1, of Yotta Infrastructure of Hiranandani Group at Panvel data centre park, Mumbai over a virtual platform.
To utilise India's full potential to become a data driven economy, the government is working on bringing investments in building data centres across the nation.
The center can offer a high scale infrastructure which is capable of hosting global cloud, content and Over-the-top (OTT) operators besides the critical applications of the government and other organisations.
The NM1 data centre will occupy one of the five buildings of the 18 acres Panvel park of total capacity of 30000 racks and 210 Megawatt (MW) power.
The NM1 data centre offers 7200 racks and 50 MW of power with 48 hour backup support.
The NM1, Yotta's largest data centre, received the fault tolerant tier IV certification of the Design Documents Certification from the Uptime Institute, USA.

USAID and MNRE Announce Partnership to Develop Clean Energy

A new partnership was announced by the US Agency for Development (USAID)-supported South Asia Group for Energy (SAGE) and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to increase US-India collaboration for clean energy development.
MNRE Secretary, Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi and USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia, Javier Piedra, launched the partnership according to US-India Strategic Energy Partnership (SEP) meetings.
South Asia Group for Energy (SAGE) provides advanced technical knowledge on clean energy development.
SAGE will act as a powerhouse of science, engineering and technology for India and the entire South Asia region.
The SAGE Consortium, with the MNRE and its technical institutions, the National Institute of Wind Energy and the National Institute of Biomass Energy, has identified several key topics for clean energy development.
The SAGE consists of USAID, the US Department of Energy, and three of the Department of Energy"s National Laboratories – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

India Backs Bangladesh's Efforts to Repatriate Rohingya Home

India has acknowledged the urgency on the issue of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and backed efforts for their early, safe and sustainable repatriation to Rakhine state in Myanmar.
India's position was conveyed by external affairs minister S Jaishankar to his Bangladesh counterpart A. K. Abdul Momen earlier this month. Jaishankar expressed India's appreciation for the "humanistic spirit of the government and the people of Bangladesh in hosting displaced people from the Rakhine state of Myanmar".
India has maintained a cautious position on the Rohingya refugees in view of its good relations with both Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Indian Navy Completes Operation Samudra Setu

Operation Samudra Setu, which was launched on May 5 as part of the national effort to repatriate Indians from overseas amid the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic culminated after successfully bringing 3,992 Indian citizens back to their homeland by sea.
Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa (Landing Platform Dock), and Airavat, Shardul and Magar (Landing Ship Tanks) participated in this operation which lasted over 55 days and involved traversing more than 23,000 kilometres by sea.
Indian Navy had previously undertaken similar evacuation operations as part of Operation Sukoon in 2006 (Beirut) and Operation Rahat in 2015 (Yemen).
The greatest challenge for the Indian Navy was to avoid any incident of outbreak of infection onboard the ships during the evacuation operation. Rigorous measures were planned and medical/ safety protocols unique to the operating environment of ships were implemented. These were strictly followed onboard the ships undertaking Operation Samudra Setu resulting in the safe return of 3,992 of our citizens to their homeland.

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