General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - May 2022

May 2022

Jun 08, 2024

Senior Jharkhand IAS Officer Takes Charge as ESIC Director General

Kamal Kishore Soan, a senior IAS officer from Jharkhand Cadre (Batch: 1998), took over the additional charge of Director General of Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) under Ministry of Labour & Employment.
Soan has extensive experience of managing various departments in the state of Jharkhand. He has served in the government of Jharkhand in various capacities including land revenue management, district administration, agriculture and cooperation, health, building construction, transport, finance, energy, water resources, social justice and empowerment, etc.

NSA Ajit Doval Term Ends

The tenure of the 5th National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, as per the terms of his appointment, ended on June 5, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet demitted the office.
Going by available information, Doval is likely to be persuaded by the new government to continue on the post. Notably, Doval is also the country's special representative for the boundary talks with China that have been continuing for the past two decades. He enjoys the trust of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is set to form the government for the third time.
He was appointed as National Security Adviser with effect from May 31, 2019.
Brajesh Mishra, then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, was appointed as the first National Security Advisor of India. The post was created on 19 November 1998 by then government headed by Atal Bihari Bajpayee.

Jun 07, 2024

NOTA Creates Record in MP's Indore Lok Sabha Seat

NOTA created a record with 2.18 lakh voters in Madhya Pradesh's Indore opting for the 'none of the above' option in the Lok Sabha elections. Of the total voters, 14.01 per cent opted for 'None of the Above', introduced in 2013 following a Supreme Court order.
Since 2013, the majority of Indian elections have offered voters the option to select None of the Above, or NOTA. A citizen has the option to abstain from voting for any of the candidates running in the elections by indicating that they prefer none of the following. The Election Commission of India was ordered by the Supreme Court of India to incorporate NOTA in elections for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies in the 2013 ruling in PUCL v. Union of India. The 2013 legislative assembly elections that took place in four states- Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh as well as the union territory of Delhi marked the first usage of the NOTA option.

PM Launches 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' Campaign

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' campaign to commemorate the World Environment Day. He planted a Peepal tree sapling at Buddha Jayanti Park in Delhi. He was accompanied by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena.

Jun 06, 2024

Priyanka Jarkiholi : Youngest Tribal Woman to Win from an Unreserved Seat

Congress nominee and Minister Satish Jarkiholi's daughter Priyanka Jarkiholi won from Chikkodi, defeating incumbent MP and BJP leader Annasaheb Jolle.
Priyanka Jarkiholi from Chikkodi became the youngest tribal woman to enter Parliament from an unreserved seat in Karnataka since Independence.
Priyanka Jarkiholi also has a few firsts. She became the first woman from the tribal community to win from an unreserved seat in Karnataka. She also became the second leader from a reserved community to win from a general seat, after Kotturu Hariharappa Ranganath who was a Lok Sabha member from Chitradurga during 1984-89.

CBIC Chairperson Inaugurates GST Bhawan at Rohtak, Haryana

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Chairman, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, officially launched the GST Bhawan, the official complex of the Central Board of Indirect Tax (CGST) Rohtak Commissionerate, in Rohtak, Haryana. At the inaugural ceremony were Shashank Priya, Member of CBIC (GST, Legal, CX & ST), together with officers and staff from the CGST Rohtak Commissionerate, Panchkula Zone, and senior CBIC officers.
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (erstwhile Central Board of Excise & Customs) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

President Droupadi Murmu Dissolves 17th Lok Sabha

President Droupadi Murmu dissolved the 17th Lok Sabha on June 5 on the advice of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet, according to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The Cabinet advised the President to dissolve the current Lok Sabha with immediate effect.
The President accepted the advice of the Cabinet on 05.06.2024 and signed the Order dissolving the 17th Lok Sabha in exercise of the powers conferred upon her by Sub-clause (b) of Clause (2) of Article 85 of the Constitution.
The term of the current Lok Sabha was to end on June 16.

Jun 05, 2024

Om Birla Becomes First Lok Sabha Speaker in 20 years to be Re-elected as MP

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla won the Kota parliamentary seat by a margin of more than 41,139 votes, thus became the first presiding officer in 20 years to be re-elected to the Lower House.
Birla, an experienced politician, has been the 17th Speaker of the Lok Sabha since June 2019. He was elected as Speaker by defeating Congress candidate Mallikarjun Kharge and represents the Kota-Bundi constituency in Rajasthan as a member of the BJP.
Birla became Speaker after being re-elected to the Lok Sabha for a second term, defeating Congress's Ramnarayan Meena by 2.5 lakh votes.
Before joining the Lok Sabha, Birla served three terms in the Rajasthan Assembly, elected in 2003, 2008, and 2013.

Zupee Collaborates with Gurugram Cyber Police for Cyber Security Awareness

In a bid to bolster cyber security awareness, Zupee, India's largest skill-based Ludo platform, partnered with Gurugram Cyber Police for the 11th edition of the Cyber Security Summer Internship Program, titled 'Cyber Warriors'. The month-long internship aims to train selected candidates in cyber security under the guidance of experts, fostering responsible digital citizenship and tackling real-world cyber threats.
The Gurugram Police Cyber Security Summer Internship Program (GPCSSI 2024) is a flagship event of the Gurugram Police since 2013. The month-long internship started on June 3 and ends on July 3.

BJP Creates History Marking End of Naveen Era

In the Odisha assembly election 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) scripted history by securing a clear majority against the popular government of Biju Janata Dal (BJD), ending Naveen Patnaik's 24-year-long tenure. This is the first time that a BJP government will be formed in Odisha.
Odisha, with a total of 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 147 Assembly constituencies, went to polls across four phases with the first phase held on May 13, and the following phases held on May 20, May 25, and June 1. Voting in Odisha concluded on June 1, along with the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha polls. The assembly polls in Odisha were conducted simultaneously along with the parliamentary elections.

India Creates World Record with 64.2 crore People Voting in Lok Sabha Poll

India created a world record with 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participating in the Lok Sabha Election 2024. Chief Election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the number is 1.5 times of the voters of all G7 countries – US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. In this (2024) Lok Sabha polls, 31.2 crore women voters cast their votes which is also the highest ever in the world. He also said, only 39 repolling were conducted in this election unlike 540 repolling in 2019 General Election. Kumar said, over 68 thousand monitoring teams and 1.5 crore polling and security personnel were involved in the electoral exercise. He also pointed out that Jammu and Kashmir recorded their highest turnout in four decades, with an overall turnout of 58.58 per cent and 51.05 per cent in the Valley.
India, the world's largest democracy, has concluded its seven-phase parliamentary election, and the results are now eagerly awaited. This colossal democratic exercise, which spanned over two and a half months, stands out as the world's largest and most complex election.

Jun 04, 2024

NHRC Member Sayani Appointed its Acting Chairperson

With former Supreme Court judge Arun Mishra demitting office as chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission after a three-year stint, the Centre appointed Vijaya Bharathi Sayani as acting chairperson.
The President, under Section 7(1) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, authorised Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, Member, National Human Rights Commission, to act as the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, with immediate effect, until the appointment of a new Chairperson in the NHRC to fill such vacancy.
The National Human Rights Commission of India (abbreviated as NHRC) is a statutory body constituted on 12 October 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance of 28 September 1993. It was given a statutory basis by the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (PHRA).
The NHRC consists of the chairperson and five members (excluding the ex-officio members).
A Chairperson, who has been a Chief Justice of India or a Judge of the Supreme Court
One member who is, or has been, a Judge of the Supreme Court of India and one member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court.
Three members, out of which at least one shall be a woman to be appointed from amongst persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights.

Centre Launches New Mobile Number Series for Service, Transactional Calls

The Centre introduced a new numbering series, 160xxxxxxx, for making service or transactional calls, to help citizens easily identify legitimate calls and curb unsolicited voice calls from telemarketers using 10-digit mobile numbers.
Currently, 140xxxxxxx series was allocated to telemarketers for making promotional/service/transactional voice calls.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that since the 140xx series is being used extensively for promotional calls, consumers normally do not respond to such calls, and many important service/transactional calls are missed.
This has resulted in the wide use of regular 10-digit numbers by genuine entities for making service/transactional calls. This also gave opportunity to fraudsters to deceive consumers using 10-digit numbers.
To address this, the DoT has allocated a new numbering series, 160xxxxxxx which will exclusively be used for service/transactional voice calls by the Principle Entities.
For example, the service/transactional calls originating from Financial Entities like by RBI, SEBI, PFRDA, IRDA, etc shall start from 1601.

Life Imprisonment to ex-Brahmos Engineer Nishant Agarwal for Spying for Pak ISI

The Nagpur district court handed life imprisonment to former BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd engineer Nishant Agarwal under the Official Secrets Act for spying for Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI.
Agarwal will also have to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 14 years and was also fined Rs. 3000.
Additional sessions court judge M. V. Deshpande stated in the order that Agarwal was convicted under section 235 of the Criminal Procedure Code for an offence punishable under section 66 (f) of the IT Act and various sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Agarwal, employed in the technical research section of the company's missile centre in Nagpur, was arrested in a joint operation by the military intelligence and Anti-terrorism squads (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in 2018.
BrahMos Aerospace is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the military Industrial Consortium (NPO Mashinostroyenia) of Russia.

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