Sakshi Education
- Rajya Sabha passed Epidemic Diseases Amendment Bill 2020
Rajya Sabha, the Upper House, passed the Epidemic Diseases Amendment Bill, 2020 on 19 September 2020.
The Bill aims to punish the individuals who attack health workers or doctors who are fighting the covid-19 outbreak or during any situation similar to the current pandemic.
Epidemic Diseases Amendment Bill, 2020:
The Bill seeks to make sure that there is an attitude of zero tolerance towards violence against people working in the healthcare sector, especially amid the covid-19 pandemic.
As per the Bill, if any damage is caused to clinical establishments, quarantine & isolation facilities of patients, any other property associated with healthcare personnel or mobile medical units during a pandemic, penal provisions can be provoked.
It approves a penalty ranging from Rs.50,000 to Rs.2,00,000 on any individuals who is involved in the commission or abetment of such acts of violence.
The Bill provides a jail term of up to 5 years for those who attack doctors and health care personnel.
Background:
The GoI implemented the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 with an aim to provide protection to health care service personnel, their living premises, and their workplaces against any violence during the course of a pandemic.
- Niti Aayog partners with ISPP for capacity building
Niti Aayog has partnered with the Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP) for mentoring, training, and capacity building of government officials and public policy scholars.
A statement of intent (SOI) was signed between the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) of the NITI Aayog and the ISPP regarding this.
Highlights:
The partnership aims to build collaboration for faster intermediation of knowledge and use within the public system.
Under the partnership, communications, and outreach, evidence building exercises, organizing joint conferences, and podcast series will be conducted. The ISPP scholars will interact and interview the DMEO and Niti Aayog's experts on current policy issues, evaluations, and perspectives during all the activities and conferences.
Also, Live projects for ISPP scholars, internships, exchange of experts between DMEO and ISPP will be explored.
- DRDO set up 8 technology centres for research on Military Applications
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has set up eight advanced technology centres to carry out research on futuristic military applications.
The centres will provide support to academia to undertake research on new technologies in niche areas for military use.
Highlights:
DRDO aims to create an enabling infrastructure for developing futuristic military weapons.
It formed a committee headed by Prof V Ramagopal Rao, Director of Delhi IIT, to suggest new measures to improve the efficiency of the DRDO laboratories in India. The main objective is to boost domestic defence production.
The move comes as the Government of India aims to focus on making India self-reliant in defence manufacturing.
Currently, DRDO has over 50 laboratories in India that are engaged in developing defence technologies covering disciplines like aeronautics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, armaments, missiles, advanced computing, and naval systems.
- Country of Origin Rules: CAROTAR, 2020
The Customs (Administration of Rules of Origin under Trade Agreements) Rules, 2020 (CAROTAR, 2020), will come into force from 21st September 2020. It was notified on 21st August 2020.
The importers and other stakeholders were given a 30-day period to familiarise themselves with new provisions.
Key Points
Importers will have to ensure that imported goods meet the prescribed ‘rules of origin’ provisions for availing concessional rate of customs duty under Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).
Importers have to prove that imported products have undergone value addition of at least 35% in the countries of origin.
Earlier, merely a country of origin certificate, issued by a notified agency in the country of export was sufficient to avail the benefits of FTAs.
This was exploited in many cases, i.e. the FTA partner countries have been claiming to have produced the goods in question without having the necessary technological capacity for the required value addition.
- Free Internet Gadget and Package to Poor Students
The Delhi High Court has directed both private and government schools in Delhi to provide gadgets and Internet packages free of cost to poor students for attending online classes.
Key Points
If a school decides to opt for online mode as a medium of instruction, it will have to ensure that students belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Disadvantaged Group (DG) category also have access and are able to avail of the same.
Private unaided schools will be entitled to claim reimbursement of reasonable cost for procurement of the gadget and Internet package from the government under Section 12(2) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
The ruling is aimed at narrowing the Covid-19 pandemic-induced digital divide.
According to the recently released UN Report on the Impact of Covid-19 on Children, almost 24 million children could drop out or not have access to school next year due to the economic impact of Covid-19.
According to the NSO report on Education, nearly 4% of rural households and 23% of urban households possessed computers and 24% of the households in the country had internet access.
Among persons of age 15-29 years, only 24% in rural areas and 56% in urban areas were able to operate a computer.
According to the Global Education Monitoring Report, 2020, released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Covid-19 had worsened the inequalities in education systems worldwide.
During the height of school closures in April 2020, almost 91% of students around the world were out of school.
About 40% of low and lower middle income countries have not supported learners at risk of exclusion during this crisis, such as the poor, linguistic minorities and learners with disabilities.
- Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation & Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020
Finance Minister introduced the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020 in the Lok Sabha for consideration.
The bill will replace the ordinance which was promulgated to provide relaxations related to compliance by extending the time limit and waiving penalty in relation to certain specified laws.
These laws include the Income Tax Act, 1961 (IT Act), some Finance Acts, the Central Excise Act, 1944, the Customs Act, 1962, and the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.
The ordinance which was brought earlier also extended the deadline for filing declaration and due amount under the Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme.
The bill provides these relaxations in view of spread of the coronavirus pandemic in India.
The bill proposes amendment in the IT Act to provide that donations made by a person to the PM CARES Fund will be eligible for 100 per cent deduction in the taxable income.
BACKGROUND:
Clause 4 of the Bill seeks to amend certain provisions relating to Income-Tax Act, 1961.
The proposed amendment to clause (4D) of section 10 provides for calculation of income of non-resident in the prescribed manner.
The proposed amendment of the clause (23C) of section 10 empowers the Board to prescribed form and manner for application for approval to funds or trust or institution or any university or other educational institutions or any hospital or other medical institutions.
The proposed insertion of new section 12AB relating to procedure for fresh registration empowers the Board to provide by rules the form and the manner in which the order under the said sub-section shall be passed.
The proposed amendment to section 35 seeks to insert new proviso to subsection (1) which empowers the Board to provide by rules the form and manner of giving intimation by the research association, university, college or company, to the prescribed authority.
The proposed amendment to sub-section (5) of section 80G empowers the Board to provide by rules the statement, time period, form and manner of verification, particulars and time for delivery of correction statement for rectification of any mistake in the information furnished in the said statement. It further proposes to empower the Board to make rules with regard to the manner, particulars and time for certificate of donation.
The proposed insertion of sub-section (1A) in section 115AD provides for calculation of income that is attributable to units held by non-resident in the prescribed manner.
The matters in respect of which rules may be made are matters of procedure and administrative detail and it is not practicable to provide for them in the Bill itself. The delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character.
- Labour Reforms
The recent versions of three labour codes namely Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020, Code on Social Security Bill, 2020 and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill, 2020 have been introduced in Lok Sabha.
Key Points
Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020 has raised the threshold for the requirement of a standing order to over 300 workers which implies that industrial establishments with up to 300 workers will not be required to furnish a standing order.
Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 makes it obligatory for employers of an industrial establishment where 100 or more workers are employed to clearly define the conditions of employment and rules of conduct for workmen, by way of standing orders/services rules and to make them known to the workmen employed.
The new provision for standing order will be applicable for every industrial establishment wherein 300 or more than 300 workers are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months.
It was earlier suggested by the Standing Committee on Labour which also suggested that the threshold be increased accordingly in the Code itself and the words ‘as may be notified by the Appropriate Government’ be removed because reform of labour laws through the executive route is undesirable and should be avoided to the extent possible.
After becoming a law, orders will not be dependent on whims and fancies of executives of state governments.
Without the need of a standing order in increased industrial establishments due to the raised threshold, the process of hiring and firing workers will be more flexible and faster for employers which would result in increased employment.
It also introduces new conditions for carrying out a legal strike. The time period for arbitration proceedings has been included in the conditions for workers before going on a legal strike as against only the time for conciliation at present.
No person employed in any industrial establishment shall go on strike without a 60-day notice and during the pendency of proceedings before a Tribunal or a National Industrial Tribunal and sixty days after the conclusion of such proceedings.
At present, a person employed in a public utility service cannot go on strike unless they give notice for a strike within six weeks before going on strike or within fourteen days of giving such notice, which the IR Code now proposes to apply for all the industrial establishments.
It has also proposed to set up a re-skilling fund for training of retrenched workers with contribution from the employer, of an amount equal to 15 days last drawn by the worker.
- Ethical Code for Electronic Media
The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to include its ethical code in the Programme Code of the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994.
The ethical code is against airing malicious, biased and regressive content.
NBA represents the collective voice of the news and current affairs broadcasters in India. It is an organisation funded entirely by its members.
Key Points
A plea was made to stop the telecast of a programme 'Bindas Bol' on Sudarshan TV containing objectionable content against the Muslim entries into the civil services.
The SC held that the content was prima facie “plainly hurtful” to the community and asked the NBA to suggest measures to strengthen the self-regulatory mechanism to prevent or penalise airing of communal or derogatory content in the electronic media.
The News Broadcasters Services Authority (NBSA) should be granted recognition as an independent self-regulatory mechanism to receive and deal with complaints which would strengthen News Broadcasting Standards Regulations of NBSA.
NBSA is an independent body set up by the NBA. Its task is to consider and adjudicate upon complaints about broadcasts.
Submission to the NBSA regulatory mechanism should be made mandatory for granting/renewal of uplinking/downlinking permissions by the government.
The orders passed by the NBSA should be made binding and enforceable on the channels and the penalties should be made stringent.
- No Confidence Resolution against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman
Rajya Sabha members of 12 opposition parties moved a no-confidence resolution against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman over the passage of two controversial farm Bills by the voice vote.
Key Points
The Deputy Chairman has violated all the canons of law, procedure, parliamentary procedures, practices and fair play. The Deputy Chairman did not allow points of order to be raised and did not allow large numbers of members of Rajya Sabha, from diverse political parties, to even speak against farm bills.
This no confidence resolution is for the removal of the Deputy Chairman. It is not the same as the No Confidence Motion specified in Rule 198 of the Rules of Procedure and conduct of Lok Sabha, which can lead to the resignation of the Council of Ministers. Article 75 of the Constitution specifies that the Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of People.
Some Precedents: Earlier resolutions moved against the first Lok Sabha Speaker G V Mavalankar in 1951, Speaker Sardar Hukam Singh in 1966, and Speaker Balram Jakhar in 1987.
All of these resolutions were negated by the House.
- FACT signed MoU with ITI Kalamassery to improve industry-institute interaction
Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), a PSU under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Kalamassery to improve industry institute interaction.
The Executive Director (Production Co-ordination) of FACT Sri KesavanNampoothiri and Principal of ITI Kalamassery Sri Raghunadhan signed the MoU agreement.
Highlights:
The MoU aims to implement anthe adoption programme to share training facilities and facilitate academic interaction between ITI students and FACT employees.
The MoU will enhance exchange knowledge, conduct factory visits, enable experts from FACT to impart training, organize joint projects, participate in research, provide on-the-job training in FACT, mutually intimate courses, seminars, workshops, etc.
- Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit
Prime Minister will inaugurate the virtual global summit of NRI Researchers called VAIBHAV on 2nd October 2020 on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Summit will reflect in-depth on the collaboration and cooperation instruments between NRI and resident academia and researchers.
Aim
Developing mechanisms for involving Indian Diaspora working in top universities and R&D organizations across the world, to further enhance the knowledge-base of Indian Research and Academic Institutions.
The goal is to create an ecosystem of Knowledge and Innovation in the country through global outreach.
Details
This is a joint effort of all S&T and Academic organisations.
With Indian roots, global outlook and experience, accomplished scientists, researchers and academicians of Indian descent, around the world can play a vital part in the “AatmaNirbhar Bharat” initiative.
Bring Indian luminaries in academic institutes and R&D Organisations across the world, on a single platform to debate upon the collaboration mechanisms and methods to strengthen S&T base in India, with their counterparts working in India.
Bring together varied experiences and proficiency of diverse academic cultures together to push forward the research outcomes.
- Ministry of AYUSH signed MoU with Ministry of Women and Child Development for Controlling Malnutrition
Ministry of AYUSH signed MoU with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in New Delhi. The MoU is aimed to control Malnutrition as a part of POSHAN Abhiyaan.
Highlights:
The MoU aims time-tested and scientifically proven Ayush-based solutions being adopted for controlling malnutrition in the country.
The MoU is aimed to tackle the problem of malnutrition in mothers and children in the country.
Centre aims to establish Nutri-gardens and medicinal gardens in every Anganwadi in near future.
The MoU will enable co-operation between the Ministries in identified areas including Integration of AYUSH into POSHAN Abhiyaan and Control of malnutrition through the principles and practices of Ayurveda, Yoga and other Ayush systems.
- Centre launched National Conservation Strategy for Indian One-Horned Rhino
Environment Ministry launched a National Conservation Strategy for Indian One-Horned Rhino. It was launched by the Union Minister Prakash Javadekar. The conservation initiatives for rhino has also enriched the grassland management as it helps in reducing the negative impacts of climate change.
National Rhino Conservation Strategy:
The Strategy was launched to conserve the greater one-horned rhinoceros.
It aims to work for the conservation of the rhino species under five objectives namely strengthening protection, expanding the distribution range, research, monitoring, and adequate and sustained funding.
Background:
India is home to a huge number of Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros in the world. The population of the Rhinos are high in number in Assam, West Bengal and UP. In the beginning of the 20th Century, One-horned rhino was close to extinction with a population of less than 200. Rhino is the only large mammal species in Asia to be down-listed from endangered to vulnerable in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List in 2008.
- Rajya Sabha passed IIIT Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Rajya Sabha passed Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in New Delhi on 22 September.
The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Act of 2014 and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Public-Private Partnership) Act, 2017 are the unique initiatives of the Government of India.
The aim is to impart knowledge in the field of Information Technology to provide solutions to the challenges faced by the country. The IIIT Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed in Lok Sabha on 20th March 2020.
Highlights:
IIIT Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 encourage IIITs to promote the study of information and technology (IT) through their innovative and qualitative methods in the country.
The Bill will amend the principal acts of 2014 and 2017.
The Bill will declare five IIITs in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode at Agartala, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Raichur and Surat as Institutions of National Importance by granting them statutory status under the IIIT (PPP) Act, 2017. Already 15 IIITs are granted the National Status Importance.
With this status and the passed Bill, the institutions will be entitled to use the nomenclature of Bachelor of Technology (http://B.Tech) or Master of Technology (http://M.Tech) or PhD degree like the one issued by a University or Institution of National Importance.
The Bill will enable the Institutes to attract enough students required to develop a strong research base in the field of Information Technology (IT) in India.
- Government launched YuWaah, a multi-stakeholder platform to make young people career ready
Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) have signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with Generation Unlimited (GenU), a global multi-stakeholder platform in India, to establish YuWaah, to make young people career ready.
This information was passed by the Union Minister of State (IC) for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju.
YuWaah:
The project aims to:
Support young people by providing entrepreneurship classes, both online and offline, with successful entrepreneurs and experts. The aim is to establish an entrepreneurial mindset among young people.
Boost the skills of the 21st-century young people, digital skills, life skills, through online and offline channels and support them through self-learning, for their productive lives and the future of work.
Create economic opportunities to connect young people with employment opportunities, including building pathways to connect them with jobs or self-employment. It will engage innovative solutions and technology platforms to take maximize the scale and reach.
It will provide career guidance support to young people through career portal and through job-readiness and self-exploration sessions to make young people career-ready.
- All about Essential Commodities Amendment Bill, 2020
Rajya Sabha passed the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020 on 22 September.
The bill was introduced by the Minister of State (MoS) for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution DanveRaosahebDadarao on 14th September 2020 in the Lok Sabha.
The Bill will replace ordinances promulgated on 5th June 2020. The bill was passed by the lower house on 15th September 2020.
Highlights:
Under the Bill, with provisions to remove commodities like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, potatoes and onions from the list of essential commodities.
The EC (Amendment) Bill 2020 aims to remove fears of private investors of excessive regulatory interference in their business operations.
The Bill seeks to produce, distribute and supply to harness the economies of scale and attract private sector/foreign direct investment (FDI) into the agriculture sector.
The Bill aims to drive up investment in cold storages and modernization of the food supply chain.
Background:
The Bill was introduced as India has become a surplus in most Agri-commodities. The farmers have been unable to get better prices due to lack of investment in cold storage, warehouses, processing and export due to the Essential Commodities Act.
Farmers suffer huge losses, especially of perishable commodities. It is expected that the Bill will drive up the investment in cold storages and modernization of the food supply chain.
The Bill is expected to serve both farmers and consumers while bringing in price stability; create a competitive market environment; prevent wastage of agri-produce that happens due to lack of storage facilities.
- O-SMART Scheme
he Ocean Services, Modelling, Applications, Resources and Technology (O-SMART) Scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet in August 2018 and is implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Key Points
It aims at stepping up ocean research and setting up early warning weather systems.
It addresses ocean development activities such as services, technology, resources, observations and science and provides necessary scientific and technological background required for implementation of various aspects of Blue Economy.
Objectives:
To generate and regularly update information on Marine Living Resources and their relationship with the physical environment in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
To periodically monitor levels of seawater pollutants for health assessment of coastal waters of India, to develop shoreline change maps for assessment of coastal erosion due to natural and anthropogenic activities.
To develop a wide range of state-of-the-art ocean observation systems for the acquisition of real-time data from the seas around India and to cater to the testing and sea trial activities of ocean technology.
To generate and disseminate a suite of user-oriented ocean information, advisories, warnings, data and data products for the benefit of society.
To develop high-resolution models for ocean forecast and reanalysis systems.
To develop algorithms for validation of satellite data for coastal research and to monitor changes in the coastal research.
Acquisition of Coastal Research Vessels (CRVs) for coastal pollution monitoring, testing of various underwater components and technology demonstration and to support their operation and maintenance.
To develop technologies to tap the marine bioresources, generate freshwater and ocean energy and develop underwater vehicles and technologies.
- DRDO Successfully test-fired Laser-Guided ATGM
DRDO successfully test-fired Laser-Guided Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) from MBT Arjun Tank at KK Ranges, Armoured Corps Centre and School (ACC&S) Ahmednagar on 22 September 2020.
The missile has been developed with multiple-platform launch capability. The ATGM is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials from the gun of MBT Arjun.
Laser Guided Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM):
ATGM was developed by Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) Pune in association with High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) Pune, and Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE) Dehradun.
During the test, ATGM successfully defeated a target located at 3 km.
Using Laser designation, the Laser guided ATGMs lock and tracks the targets to ensure precision hit accuracy.
The missile employs a tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead to defeat Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) protected armoured vehicles.
- Shri Narendra Singh Tomar assumed charge of Ministry of Food Processing Industries
Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar assumed charge as the Minister of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) in PanchsheelBhawan on 23 September 2020.
The Minister met all the senior officials and reviewed the schemes of the ministry. Tomar currently holds the charge of the Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Minister of Rural Development, and Minister of Panchayati Raj.
The main objective of the Ministry is to:
Reduce the wastage at all stages in the food processing chain by developing infrastructure for storage, transportation and processing of agro-food produce
Improve farmer's income by better utilization and value addition of agricultural produce
Encourage Research & Development (R&D) in food processing for product and process development.
It aims to improved package policy support, and support for the creation of Infrastructure
To increase capacity expansion/ Upgradation and other supportive measures form the growth of these sectors;
Introduce advanced & modern technology into the food processing industries from both external and domestic sources
Promote the export of processed food products.
- What is the name of Hackathon launched by National Agricultural Higher Education Project of ICAR?
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) has launched a hackathon named “KRITAGYA”.
The aim is to promote potential technology solutions to enhance farm mechanization with special emphasis on women-friendly equipment.
Kritagya Hackathon:
Students, faculties and innovators/entrepreneurs from any university / technical institution across the country can apply and participate in the event in the form of a group.
A group can have a maximum of 4 participants with not more than one faculty and/or more than one innovator or entrepreneur.
The participating students can collaborate with local start-ups, students from technology institutes. They can win Rs.5 lakhs, Rs.3 lakhs and Rs.1 lakh as first, second and third prize.
The registration started on 15th September 2020.
The hackathon aims to be an important role to enhance the farm productivity and profitability as the Centre aims to enhance the innovation in farm mechanization in several meeting and provided the overall guidance in organizing this event.
This event will provide an opportunity to the students, faculties, entrepreneurs, innovators and other stakeholders to showcase their innovative approaches and technology solutions to promote farm mechanization in India.
The hackathon will be in line with the vision of high-quality higher education with equity and inclusion as envisaged in NEP-2020.
- MedSpark in Kerala
Kerala is set to lay the foundation stone for MedSpark, one of the first medical device parks in the country, in Thiruvananthapuram.
Medical devices include surgical equipment, diagnostic equipment like Cardiac Imaging, CT scans, X-ray, Molecular Imaging, MRI and Ultrasound-imaging, life support equipment like ventilator, etc. as well as implants and disposables.
Medical devices, unlike pharmaceuticals, are dependent on a mix of technologies such as engineering, electronics, material sciences and information technology (IT).
Key Points
Technical Research Centre for Biomedical Devices Programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
SreeChitraTirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), an autonomous institute of the DST.
SCTIMST has made substantial contributions to the biomedical devices sector and is fully aligned with the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. (KSIDC) which is the industrial and investment promotion agency of the Government of Kerala.
Funding from the state and central governments will meet the capital expenditure and deficit in income against expenses during the initial stages.
The business model for the MedSpark is self-sustaining in which its operational expenses will be generated from its revenue streams.
- Guru Nanak Dev’s 481st Death Anniversary
The Jyoti Jot (death anniversary) of Guru Nanak Dev (Founder of Sikhism) was observed at his final resting place Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur in Pakistan.
On the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak the Kartarpur Corridor which connects India and Pakistan was opened to the public.
Key Points
Guru Nanak, first of the ten Sikh Gurus in Sikhism, is believed to have died at Kartarpur on 22nd September 1539.
Guru Nanak was born in Talwandi Rai Bhoe, near Lahore, Pakistan which was renamed later as Nankana Sahib.
He was a greatest thinker, philosopher, poet, traveller, political rebel, social leveller, mass communicator and spiritual master.
His political, social and spiritual beliefs were based on love, equality, fraternity and virtue. He is also viewed as a symbol of peace and servicing.
His followers came to be known as Sikhs, which means a learner or a disciple.
He used the medium of music, poetry, song and speech to preach the love of God and to attack the socially oppressive practices of casteism of the orthodox Brahmanical Hindu religion.
He also spoke in favour of an equitable social status for women.
Guru Nanak was also a great traveller. He went on long journeys (called Uddasian) to far off places along with his two companions BhaiBala, a Hindu, and BhaiMardana, a Muslim, to hold dialogues with many saints and Sufis.
- RS passed three Labour Codes to pave way for enactment of Labour Laws
Rajya Sabha passed three labour codes namely,
Industrial Relations Code, 2020
Code on Occupational Safety, Health & Working Conditions Code, 2020
Social Security Code, 2020.
Highlights:
These Labour Codes seeks to enhance the welfare of the workers in the country.
The Social Security Code provides a framework to include organized and unorganized sector workers under the ambit of comprehensive social security.
It contains provisions relating to Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), Employees' State Insurance (ESIC), building construction workers, maternity benefits, gratuity and social security fund for unorganized sector workers.
These codes are in line with Centre's Universal Social Security.
Labour Codes will harmonize the needs of workers and industry and will prove an important milestone for the welfare of the workers
The Labour Codes is expected to give a big boost to SabkaSath, SabkaVikas with SabkaVishwas
New Labour Codes will cover over 50 crore workers from organized, unorganized and self-employed for minimum wages, social security
It will enhance the setting up of “Social Security Fund” for 40 crore unorganized workers along with GIG and platform workers.
The Codes will help in widening Universal Social Security coverage.
It will Pay parity to women workers as compared to their male counterparts
Under the Laws, working journalists definition will include Digital and Electronic Media.
Helpline to redress grievances of Migrant Workers will be established
These Labour Codes will establish answerable, transparent, and simple mechanism reducing to one registration, one license and one return for all codes.
- CAG Survey Report on School Toilets
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has flagged irregularities in the construction of toilets in schools by Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) in an audit report tabled before Parliament.
Key Points
There are 10.8 lakh government schools in the country. Overall, more than 1.4 lakh toilets have been built by 53 CPSEs, with significant support coming from power, coal and oil companies as part of the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan.
The CAG audit conducted a physical survey of a sample of 2,695 toilets built by these companies in 15 States.
Out of the 1,967 coeducational schools surveyed, 99 schools had no functional toilets while 436 had only one functional toilet, meaning that the objective of providing separate toilets for boys and girls was not fulfilled in 27% of the schools.
75% of toilets did not follow the norm for daily cleaning at least once a day.
72% of constructed toilets had no running water facilities inside, and 55% had no hand washing facilities at all, an even greater necessity in Covid-19 affected times.
Out of the sample of 2,695 toilets, CPSEs identified but did not construct 83. Another 200 toilets were reported to be constructed, but were non-existent, while 86 toilets were only partially constructed.
Thus, almost 40% of toilets were non-existent, partially completed or unused.
The audit also noticed cases of defective construction of toilets, non-provision of foundation, ramp/staircase and damaged or overflowed leach pit, which led to ineffective use of toilets.
Prefabricated structures were used for constructing many toilets leading to extra expenditure, dilution in durability and non-compliance with direction.
- All about Monsoon Session 2020 of Parliament
Monsson Session 2020 of Parliament commenced on 14th September 2020. The session was scheduled to culminate on 1 October 2020, but due to COVID-19 pandemic risks, the session was adjourned sine-die on 23 September 2020.
During the Session, 22 Bills (6 in Rajya Sabha and 16 in Lok Sabha), were introduced. The Lower House and the Upper House individually passed 25 Bills each. 27 Bills were passed by both the Houses of Parliament.
Some of the important Bills are listed below:
Salary, Allowance and Pensions of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020
Agriculture Bills:
Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020
Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Prices Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020
Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Education Bills:
National Forensic Sciences University Bill, 2020
Rashtriya Raksha University Bill, 2020
Health Sector:
National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Bill, 2020
National Commission for Homeopathy Bill, 2020
Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, 2020
Labour Bills:
Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code Bill, 2020
Code on Social Security Bill, 2020
Industrial Relations Code Bill, 2020
Economic Sector Bills:
Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Bilateral Netting of Qualified Financial Contracts Bill, 2020
Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Bill, 2020
- PM launched Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 'Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols' via virtual conferencing, on the first-anniversary occasion of the Fit India Movement.
Fit India Dialogue:
Fit India Dialogue focuses on the fitness interests of every age group.
The main objective is to bring into play different dimensions of fitness.
The Dialogue aims to draw ideas of health and fitness from citizens in taking the Fit India Movement forward.
The Age Appropriate Fitness Protocols are laid for three age groups namely 5–18, 18–65 and above 65.
Fit India Movement:
Fit India Movement is a nation-wide campaign. The movement aims to encourage drill physical activity and sports in their everyday lives. The entire program has been conceptualized by PM Modi.
The movement was launched on the occasion of National Sports Day in 2019. National Sports Day is celebrated on 29 August every year, to honour the legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand Singh.
- All about Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020 was passed by the Parliament. The Bill amends the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.
Key Points
Prohibition to accept foreign contribution: The Bill bars public servants from receiving foreign contributions.
Public servant includes any person who is in service or pay of the government, or remunerated by the government for the performance of any public duty.
The FCRA 2010 also bars certain persons to accept any foreign contribution. These include: election candidates, editor or publisher of a newspaper, judges, government servants, members of any legislature, and political parties, among others.
Transfer of foreign contribution: The Bill prohibits the transfer of foreign contribution to any other person.
The term ‘person’ under the Bill includes an individual, an association, or a registered company.
The FCRA 2010 allows transfer of foreign contributions to persons registered to accept foreign contributions.
The Bill makes Aadhaar number mandatory for all office bearers, directors or key functionaries of a person receiving foreign contribution, as an identification document.
In case of a foreigner, a copy of the passport or the Overseas Citizen of India card for identification is required.
The Bill states that foreign contribution must be received only in an account designated by the bank as FCRA account in such branches of the State Bank of India, New Delhi. No funds other than the foreign contribution should be received or deposited in this account.
The person may open another FCRA account in any scheduled bank of their choice for keeping or utilising the received contribution.
Restriction in utilisation of foreign contribution: The Bill allows the government to restrict usage of unutilised foreign contribution. This may be done if, based on an inquiry the government believes that such person has contravened provisions of the FCRA.
Reduction in use of foreign contribution for administrative purposes: The Bill proposes that not more than 20% of the total foreign funds received could be defrayed for administrative expenses. In FCRA 2010 the limit was 50%.
The Bill allows the central government to permit a person to surrender their registration certificate.
The government may do so if, post an inquiry, it is satisfied that such person has not violated any provisions of the FCRA 2010, and the management of its foreign contribution has been vested in an authority prescribed by the government.
- Lok Adalat
A daily wager in Odisha’s Kandhamal district has moved the Lok Adalat against the Prime Minister of India but the hearing is yet to begin.
He allegedly failed to get an Aadhaar card registered in his name despite various attempts due to technical glitches in taking his fingerprint.
Key Points
About:
The term ‘Lok Adalat’ means ‘People’s Court’ and is based on Gandhian principles.
As per the Supreme Court, it is an old form of adjudicating system prevailed in ancient India and its validity has not been taken away even in the modern days too.
It is one of the components of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system and delivers informal, cheap and expeditious justice to the common people.
The first Lok Adalat camp was organised in Gujarat in 1982 as a voluntary and conciliatory agency without any statutory backing for its decisions.
In view of its growing popularity over time, it was given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. The Act makes the provisions relating to the organisation and functioning of the Lok Adalats.
- India ranks 105th on 2020 Global Economic Freedom Index
India has ranked 105th position on the Global Economic Freedom Index 2020. India has fallen 26 spots as it stood at the 79th spot in last year's rankings. Hong Kong topped the rankings. It was followed by Singapore.
Highlights:
The report stated that the increasing economic freedom in India depend on next generation reforms in factor markets and in greater openness to international trade.
The rankings are done based on various parameteras and the scores are given for 10, which indicates a higher level of economic freedom.
India reported marginal decrease in size of government from 8.22 to 7.16, freedom to trade internationally from 6.08 to 5.71, legal system and property rights from 5.17 to 5.06, and regulation of credit, labour and business from 6.63 to 6.53.
China ranked 124th as per the rankings.
Top 10 countries:
1.Hong Kong
2.Singapore
3.New Zealand
4.Switzerland
5.US
6.Australia
7.Mauritius
8.Georgia
9.Canada
10.Ireland
10 lowest-rated countries
1.African Republic
2.Democratic Republic of the Congo
3.Zimbabwe
4.public of Congo
5.geria
6.an
7.gola
8.bya
9.dan
10.ezuela
- PM inaugurated PMAY-G in Madhya Pradesh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the ‘GrihPravesham’ event in Madhya Pradesh through video conferencing. During the event 1.75 Lakh Families were delivered pucca houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Grameen (PMAY-G).
Highlights:
The move comes as a part of the Housing for All by 2022, for which a flagship programme of PMAY-G was launched on 20th November 2016.
Over 1.14 crore houses have already been built, so far, across the country under the programme.
In Madhya Pradesh, 17 lakh poor households have benefited from this scheme so far.
Under PMAY-G, each beneficiary is given a 100% grant of Rs.1.20 lakh.
The amount will be shared between Centre and State at the ratio of 60:40.
Funds for all these houses constructed under PMAY-G are given by way of 4 installments directly into the bank account of the beneficiary after verification of various stages of construction through Geotagged photographs.
The scheme envisages aims to construct 2.95 crore houses by the year 2022.
Also, the beneficiaries under the scheme are provided support of unskilled labour wages for 90/95 person days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and assistance of Rs.12,000 for the construction of toilets through Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin.
- MoRTH organized the Orientation and Training Programme of iRAD App
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways conducted 2-days Orientation and Training programme on iRAD App on 7 & 8 September for the selected districts of Karnataka, and on 10th & 11th September 2020 for some districts of Uttar Pradesh.
iRAD app:
The basic iRAD App has been developed. The app will be customized/integrated as per the requirements of concerned States/UTs.
The Mobile app of iRAD is currently available for the Android platform, and for other platforms like iOS will be available shortly.
The App will enable the stakeholders such as the Police, Transport, Health, etc to use their mobile phones to collect accident data on the spot.
Integrated Road Accident Database Project (iRAD) was proposed on the IT-based system for capturing the spot accident data using a mobile app configured for this purpose.
The data thus collected can then be utilized for various purposes like finding the causes of the accidents and remedial measures to improve the road infrastructure, to record the accident data for the use of police, health services, and other concerned departments.
- "Continue Virtual Courts Even After COVID-19 Is Over": Parliament Panel
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice has presented its report “Functioning of the Virtual Courts/Courts Proceedings through Video Conferencing”.
This is the first report to be presented by any parliamentary panel on the impact of the pandemic.
Key Points
Pre-Covid-19 period, the video-conference (VC) set up was primarily used for conducting remand matters to prevent movement of prisoners between courts and jails.
Such VC facilities have been operationalised between 3,240 court complexes and corresponding 1,272 prisons.
In August 2019, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana launched its first virtual court at Faridabad to deal with traffic challan cases from across the state.
The report suggests that a full-fledged virtual court should be piloted in the first instance and recommends the continuation of virtual courts in a post-Covid-19 scenario.
It argued that transfer of certain categories of cases, like cases pertaining to traffic challans or other petty offences, from regular court establishments to virtual courts will reduce the pendency of cases.
Currently, there are 30 million pending cases.
- Hindi Diwas celebrated on 14 September
Every year, 14th September is celebrated as Hindi Diwas in India.
Key Points
Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, was adopted as the official language of the Republic of India on 14th September, 1949.
Kaka Kalelkar, Maithili Sharan Gupta, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Seth Govindadas made important contributions to make Hindi the official language.
Besides Hindi, English is the other official language (Article 343 of the Constitution).
Hindi is also an eighth schedule language.
Article 351 pertains to ‘Directive for development of the Hindi language’.
BACKGROUND:
The Central Hindi Directorate was established in 1960 by the Government of India under the Ministry of Education.
Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has established ‘Hindi Chairs’ in various foreign universities/institutions abroad.
LILA-Rajbhasha (Learn Indian Languages through Artificial Intelligence) is a multimedia based intelligent self-tutoring application for learning Hindi.
E-Saral Hindi VakyaKosh and E-MahaShabdaKosh Mobile App, both initiatives of the Department of Official Language, aim to harness information technology for the growth of Hindi.
Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar and Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar recognise contributions to Hindi.
- Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force
The Uttar Pradesh government is going to constitute a Special Security Force (SSF) in the state.
Key Points
On the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force, SSF will be responsible for security of vital government and private buildings, and industrial establishments.
It can also be hired by private establishments by paying a fixed cost.
It will be headed by an Additional Director General (ADG)-ranked officer and will be headquartered in Lucknow.
Powers: It will not require magistrate’s order or warrants to make an arrest or conduct searches.
Its powers will be governed by a set of rules made by the state government.
Background: The UPSSF will set up on the basis of orders of the Allahabad High Court, which had expressed its displeasure over the security at civil courts in December 2019 over shootout incidents at Bijnor and Muzaffarnagar courts.
The court had directed the state government to form an exclusive force for security on court premises.
- First-ever Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Tripura
Tripura Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of the state’s first ever Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Sabroom, the southernmost tip of Tripura before Bangladesh, 130 Km from Agartala.
Highlights
With this SEZ, Sabroom will become the commerce capital of NE India and gateway to South Asia.
This SEZ will generate employment, contribute in developing Atmanirbhar Tripura.
The SEZ will be set up at Paschim Jalefa village of Sabroom.
The SEZ, would specially focus on four sectors including agro-based processing including food processing, rubber, bamboo sectors and textile sector.
Farmers and traders would derive benefits from the SEZ as it would facilitate export and import.
SEZ is expected to generate nearly 5,000 jobs.
The SEZ is being developed by the Tripura Industrial Development Corporation.
It is located at close proximity to Chittagong Port in Bangladesh and an Indo-Bangla bridge being built over River Feni at Belonia.
100 percent Income Tax exemption would be provided on export income for SEZ units under Section 10 AA of the Income Tax Act for the first 5 years after setting up the SEZ.
50 percent exemption would be provided for the next 5 years and 50 percent of the ploughed back export profit for next 5 years.
- Three projects related to Petroleum in Bihar
Prime Minister dedicates 3 projects related to Petroleum sector in Bihar.
The projects include the Durgapur-Banka section of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur pipeline augmentation project and two LPG bottling plants in east Champaran and Banka.
The Bottling Plants will empower the 'Atmanirbhar Bihar' by meeting the rising demand for LPG in the state.
Highlights
LPG Bottling Plants in East Champaran and Banka have a combined bottling capacity of 80 thousand cylinders per day.
The two plants were envisaged under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
The 193-kilometre long Durgapur-Banka pipeline section is a part of the Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur Pipeline Augmentation Project.
Durgapur-Banka section is the extension of the existing 679-kilometre long Paradip-Haldia-Durgapur LPG pipeline to the new LPG bottling plant at Banka in Bihar.
- When is Engineers Day observed?
Engineer’s Day is observed on 15 September every year in India. The day is aimed to commemorate the birthday of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Sir MV).
The day aims to celebrate the achievements of the Engineers in each and every field of science and technology.
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya:
Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya is known as India's most prolific civil engineer, economist, dam builder, and statesman.
Sir MV’s work boosted the irrigation facilities in the country and saved a huge number of people from floods. Sir MV is famously known as “Father of Modern Mysore” for his significant contributions in industrial, economic, and social projects.
In the year 1955, he was awarded Bharat Ratna for his outstanding contribution to the building of India. He was awarded the British knighthood by King George V, which gives the honour “Sir” before his name.
- Cabinet approves establishment of new AIIMS at Darbhanga, Bihar
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the establishment of a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Darbhanga, Bihar.
The establishment of new AIIMS under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The total cost will be Rs.1264 crore and is likely to be completed within a period of 48 months from the date of the approval of the Government of India.
The Cabinet also approved the creation of one post of Director in the basic pay of Rs.2,25,000 (fixed) plus NPA (however pay + Non Performing Assets (NPA) would not exceed Rs.2,37,500) for the above AIIMS.
Highlights:
As per the approval, the new AIIMS will involve the creation of a Hospital, Teaching Block for Medical & Nursing courses, residential complex, and allied facilities/services, broadly on the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi, and other six new AIIMS taken up under Phase-I of PMSSY.
The main objective is to establish the new AIIMS as an Institution of National Importance for providing quality tertiary healthcare, medical education, nursing education, and research in the Region.
Under the approval, New AIIMS will add 100 UG (MBBS) seats and 60 B.Sc (Nursing) seats
New AIIMS will have 15-20 Super Specialty Departments
New AIIMS will add 750 hospital beds
As per data of current functional AIIMS, it is expected that each new AIIMS will cater to around 2000 OPD patients per day and around 1000 IPD patients per month.
PG and DM/ M.Ch Super-specialty courses will also be started in due course.
- Steel Industry in India
According to recent information shared by the Union Minister for Steel in Lok Sabha, Indian steel companies including the public sector steel companies have consistently enhanced their capacities, production and sales including exports over the years.
Key Points
India was a net exporter of steel in 2019-20 and during the period of April-August, 2020, steel exports from India have increased by more than 153% in comparison to the same period in 2019-20.
Capacity for domestic crude steel production has been expanded from 109.85 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) in 2014-15 to 142.29 MTPA in 2019-20.
Crude steel production has gone up from 88.98 MTPA in 2014-15 to 109.14 MTPA in 2019-20.
These improvements can be attributed to the continuous efforts of skill training and government initiatives in the country.
By Skill Training Centres under the Ministry of Steel. For example, National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology (Punjab), Institute for Steel Development and Growth (Kolkata), etc.
By Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) like Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) and RashtriyaIspat Nigam Ltd. (RINL).
Both CPSEs have been making continuous efforts towards reducing the operational costs through technology induction, enhanced productivity and streamlining procurement
- Methane Hydrates in Krishna-Godavari Basin
A study on biogenic methane hydrate in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin was conducted by the researchers at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
Key Points
Biogenic Methane: It is the methane produced from the metabolic activities of living organisms. The research team has identified the methanogens that produced the biogenic methane trapped as methane hydrate, which can be a significant source of energy.
Methanogens: These are microorganisms that produce methane as a metabolic by-product in hypoxic (low levels of oxygen) conditions.
The ARI team has documented a predominance of genus Methanosarcina in the KG basin, followed by a few other genera Methanoculleus, Methanobacterium.
Methane hydrate is formed when hydrogen-bonded water and methane gas come into contact at high pressures and low temperatures such as in oceans.
- Promotion of Buddhist Sites
The Ministry of Tourism has undertaken development of tourism related infrastructure and facilities at various Buddhist Sites in the country under its flagship schemes of Swadesh Darshan & PRASHAD.
Key Points
Swadesh Darshan Scheme has included Buddhist circuit and Spiritual circuit abong its 13 thematic circuits under which buddhist sites are being promoted.
30 projects for development of infrastructure have also been undertaken under the PRASHAD Scheme.
Buddhist Sites at Bodhgaya, Ajanta & Ellora have been identified to be developed as Iconic Tourist Sites (aimed at enhancing India’s soft power).
Buddhist Conclave is organised every alternate year with the objective of promoting India as a Buddhist Destination and major markets around the globe.
Signages have been installed in Chinese language at buddhist monuments in Uttar Pradesh and in Sinhala language (official language of Sri Lanka) at Sanchi monuments in Madhya Pradesh.
- India becomes member of UN's Commission on Status of Women
India has been elected as a member of the United Nation's Commission on Status of Women (CSW), a body of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), permanent representative of India to the United Nations.
India will be a member of the United Nation's Commission on Status of Women for four years - 2021 to 2025.
Key points
Election to the ECOSOC body is an endorsement of India's commitment to promoting gender equality and women's empowerment.
India, Afghanistan and China had contested the elections to the Commission on Status of Women.
While India and Afghanistan won the ballot among the 54 members, China did not make it past the half-way mark.
Established in June 1946, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.
United Nations Economic and Social Council
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social fields of the organization, specifically in regards to the 15 specialised agencies, the eight functional commissions and the five regional commissions under its jurisdiction.
ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues and formulating policy recommendations addressed to member states and the United Nations system.
- Re-measuring Mount Everest
China and Nepal are soon expected to announce Mount Everest’s latest official height.
In 2019, both countries agreed to re-measure the elevation of the world’s highest mountain and announce the findings together.
Key Points
Mount Everest (also called Sagarmatha in Nepal) is Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, located in the Himalayas between China and Nepal with their borders running across its summit point.
Its current official elevation is 8,848m which places it more than 200m above the world’s second-highest mountain, K2, which is 8,611m tall and located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Mount Everest gets its English name from Sir George Everest, a colonial-era geographer who served as the Surveyor General of India in the mid-19th century.
It was first scaled in 1953 by the Indian-Nepalese Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary.
Need for Re-measurement:
Everest’s current official height has been widely accepted since 1956 when the figure was measured by the Survey of India.
However, the height of a summit changes due to tectonic activities like the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
Its measurement over the decades has also depended on who was surveying.
Previous measurements of the mountain were by Indian, American or European surveyors.
The joint effort represents national pride for Nepal which will come up with its own findings on the height.
- Mekedatu Project on the Cauvery river
The Karnataka government is likely to pressurise the Centre for approval of the construction of the Mekedatu Project on the Cauvery river.
Mekedatu, meaning goat’s leap, is a deep gorge situated at the confluence of the rivers Cauvery and its tributary Arkavathi.
Ontigondlu is the proposed reservoir site, situated at Ramanagara district in Karnataka about 100 km away from Bengaluru. It is the midst of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Rs. 9,000 crore project aims to store and supply water for drinking purposes for the Bengaluru city. Around 400 megawatts (MW) of power is also proposed to be generated through the project.
Key Points
The project was first approved by the Karnataka state government in 2017.
It received approval from the erstwhile Ministry of Water Resources for the detailed project report and is awaiting approval from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
The approval from MoEFCC is crucial because 63% of the forest area of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary will be submerged.
5,051 hectares of forests would be submerged, including 3,181 hectares in the sanctuary and 1,870 hectares in the reserve forest.
4.75 thousand million cubic feet of water could be drawn from the reservoir to partially meet the drinking needs of Bengaluru.
Tamil Nadu has approached the Supreme Court (SC) against the project even if Karnataka has held that it would not affect the flow of water to Tamil Nadu.
In June 2020, during the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s meeting, Tamil Nadu reiterated its opposition to the project.
- India ranks 116 in Human capital Index of World Bank
India has ranked 116th position in the latest edition of the World Bank's annual Human Capital Index 2020. Last year, India ranked 115 out of 157 countries. The index benchmarks key components of human capital across countries.
Highlights:
The Human Capital Index 2020 update included health and education data for 174 countries up to March 2020. It covered around 98% of the world’s population.
The analysis showed that pre-pandemic, most countries made steady progress in building the human capital of children. It also stated that the biggest strides made in low-income countries.
India’s score increased to 0.49 from 0.44 in 2018, as per the Human Capital Index report released by the World Bank.
The index also stated that there has been a major decline in remittances and total income is going down by 11 or 12%.
- AFMC Hosts IMPACT 2020 Virtually
The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) the first-ever completely online conference cum workshop IMPACT 2020 from 16-18 Sep 2020.
The unique conference has been designed with the medical researcher in mind. The conference is organized by the Medical Journal Armed Forces India (MJAFI) as it celebrates its 76th publishing volume this year.
Highlights:
The three-day event will feature distinguished faculty from among reviewers, authors, and editors will conduct interactive sessions on contemporary issues in medical publishing.
The new guidelines for the promotion of teachers in the medical profession will be released during the conference. The new guidelines mandate the publication of research articles in peer-reviewed indexed journals.
IMPACT 2020 will hold multiple sessions including workshops on biostatistics, medical writing, peer review, ethics in research, and so on.
MJAFI-MOOCs will play a major role as it will also contain up-to-date guidelines for all the issues related to medical writing.
Over 100 delegates from around the country are participating in the conference, apart from the faculty and students of AFMC.
- Parliament passed the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill
Rajya Sabha passed the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, 2020 on 16th September 2020. The Bill was passed in Lok Sabha on 19 March 2020.
The Bill will establish a state-of-the-art Ayurvedic institution called the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA) at Jamnagar, Gujarat. The Bill also confers the status of Institution of National Importance (INI) to the Institute.
Institutes at Gujarat Ayurved University campus Jamnagar. This is a cluster of highly reputed institutions.
Highlights:
ITRA has been planned to be established by conglomerating the presently existing Ayurveda, namely,
Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda
Shree GulabKunverba Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya
Institute of Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical sciences
Maharshi Patanjali Institute for Yoga Naturopathy Education & Research
The Institute is expected to develop patterns of teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate education in Ayurveda and Pharmacy.
ITRA will demonstrate high standards of education and emerge as a lighthouse institution to the entire AYUSH Sector.
The institute will provide the highest level of training of personnel in all important branches of Ayurveda including Pharmacy, and research in the field of Ayurveda.
ITRA will be the first institution with INI status in the AYUSH Sector
The INI STatus will enable the institution to be independent and innovative in the matter of deciding course content and pedagogy.
- Gujarat announced subsidy support for e-bike, e-rickshaw
Gujarat State government has announced a subsidy scheme to encourage use of electric vehicles.
The scheme will augment e-vehicle charging facilities, the State government has also announced financial assistance of Rs.50 lakh to set up charging infrastructure. The scheme aims challenges posed by climate change.
Scheme Highlights:
The scheme aims to provide subsidy support to students studying above Class 9 to purchase two-wheelers.
Also, individuals and institutional beneficiaries will get subsidy support for three-wheelers.
The scheme will offer subsidy of Rs.12,000 for a battery-operated electric two-wheeler, and Rs.48,000 for an e-rickshaw (three-wheeler).
The subsidy will be provided for the first 10,000 two-wheelers and 5,000 three-wheelers.
To support the initiatives for climate change, the Gujarat State government has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with 10 organisations for various objectives.
- Lok Sabha passed two Farm reform Bills
Lok Sabha passed the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.
The Bills were aimed to transform agriculture in the country and raising farmers’ income. The Bills were introduced in Lok Sabha by Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar on 14th September 2020. The Bills will replace ordinances promulgated on 5th June 2020.
Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020:
The Bill seeks to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders can sell and purchase of farmers' produce which facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels.
The Bill will promote efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-State and intra-State trade and commerce of farmers' produce outside physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various State agricultural produce market legislations.
The Bill also provides a facilitative framework for electronic trading and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The Bill open more opportunities for the farmer, reduce marketing costs for the farmers and help them in getting better prices.
The Bill will help farmers of regions with surplus produce to get better prices and consumers of regions with shortages, lower prices.
It also proposed an electronic trading in transaction platform for ensuring a seamless trade electronically.
Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020
The Bill aims to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services.
The Bill will transfer the risk of market unpredictability from the farmer to the sponsor. This will enable the farmers to access modern technology and better inputs.
It seeks to reduce the cost of marketing and improve income of farmers.
- Support to Self-Employment Schemes: MSME
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has announced expansion of and doubling of support to beneficiary-oriented Self-Employment schemes aimed at contributing to Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
Key Points
The government will provide assistance to artisans engaged in Pottery Activity and Beekeeping Activity.
Previously, the Ministry of MSME approved a programme for the benefit of artisans involved in manufacturing of Agarbatti under the Gramodyog Vikas Yojana.
The assistance includes technical knowhow, quality standardization of products, skill-development to Self Help Groups (SHGs), encouragement to the successful traditional potter to set up units under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) scheme, necessary market linkages by tying up with exports and large buying houses etc.
PMEGP is a credit-linked subsidy scheme which promotes self-employment through setting up of micro-enterprises.
It also includes setting up of clusters in Terracotta, Red clay pottery, with new innovative value added products to build pottery to crockery/tile making capabilities under the SFURTI scheme.
The Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) aims to make traditional industries more productive and competitive by organizing the traditional industries and artisans into clusters.
- New Parliament Building
The TATA Group of Companies have won the bid to construct a new Parliament building.
BACKGROUND:
The redevelopment project of Central Vista, the nation's power corridor, envisages a new triangular parliament building.
The central chamber will be enlarged in order to accommodate 1400 members.
The project will also revamp the three-kilometre-long Rajpath that extends from Rashtrapati Bhawan to India Gate.
The entire project will be maintained by The Central Public Works Department.
The new building will have spacious seating arrangements for around 1,400 MPs.
Once the new building is built, the existing parliament building will be used for other purposes.
The total plinth area of the proposed building is approximately 65,000 sqm.
The building will be ground plus two storeyed with one basement.
Gujarat-based architecture firm HCP Designs has designed the Central Vista Redevelopment Project.
The firm has the responsibility of preparing the master plan of the project, including designs landscape and traffic integration plans, and parking facilities among others.
The government is likely to demolish buildings such as Udyog Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan and Shastri Bhawan to facilitate new Central Secretariat which will house offices of several ministers.
Current Parliament House
The Sansad Bhavan (Parliament House) is the seat of the Parliament of India, which contains the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha located in New Delhi.
Originally called the House of Parliament, it was designed by the British architects Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker in 1912-1913 as part of their wider mandate to construct a new administrative capital city for British India.
Construction of the Parliament House began in 1921 and it was completed in 1927.
- Atal Beemit Kalyan Yojana
Employees' State Insurance Corporation, ESIC has issued instructions for submission of claims by the affected workers to claim relief under recently expanded Atal Beemit Kalyan Yojna.
Under the scheme, relief is to be paid to those ESI members who lost their job.
Atal Beemit Kalyan Yojana
ABKY is a welfare measure being implemented by the Employee's State Insurance (ESI) Corporation.
It offers cash compensation to insured persons when they are rendered unemployed.
The Scheme was introduced w.e.f. 01-07-2018.
The scheme is implemented on pilot basis for a period of two years initially.
The scheme provides relief to the extent of 25% of the average per day earning during the previous four contribution periods (total earning during the four-contribution period) to be paid up to maximum 90 days of unemployment once in lifetime of the Insured Person.
The claim for relief under the Atal BeemitKalyaan Yojana will be payable after the three months of his/her clear unemployment.
Eligibility
Employees covered under Section 2(9) of the ESI Act 1948.
The Insured Person (IP) should have been rendered unemployed during the period the relief is claimed.
The Insured Person should have been in insurable employment for a minimum period of two years.
The Insured Person should have contributed not less than 78 days during each of the preceding four contribution periods.
The contribution in respect of him should have been paid or payable by the employer.
The contingency of the unemployment should not have been as a result of any punishment for misconduct or superannuation or voluntary retirement.
Aadhar and Bank Account of the Insured Person should be linked with insured person database.
- India Pulls Out of Kavkaz 2020
Recently, India has withdrawn its participation from Kavkaz 2020, a multinational tri-services exercise in Russia, citing Covid-19 as the official reason.
Key Points
Participation of Chinese, Turkish and Pakistani troops.
The standoff at Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China has been ongoing since May 2020 and several rounds of talks for disengagement have failed to end the impasse.
However, in June 2020, Indian and Chinese military contingents marched at the Victory Day Parade at Red Square in Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of World War II.
Turkey has been critical of India’s policies on Kashmir.
Participation of Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the exercise which have been recognised only by Russia and few other countries.
India does not recognize these breakaway regions.
Kavkaz-2020 Exercise:
It is a strategic command-post exercise, and also known as Caucasus-2020.
The tri-service exercise is part of a four-year exercise cycle of the Russian army. Previous editions of the exercise were held in 2012 and 2016.
In 2020 it will be conducted in the Astrakhan province of Southern Russia.
Member countries of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Central Asian countries would be participating.
- September is observed as Poshan Maah
Under Poshan Abhiyaan, the month of September is observed as Poshan Maah i.e. Nutrition month every year, since 2018.
Agricultural Fund of Indi’ is being created to have complete information about the crops that are grown in each district and their related nutritional value.
Key Points
It includes a month-long activities focused on antenatal care, optimal breastfeeding, aneamia, growth monitoring, girls education, diet, right age of marriage, hygiene and sanitation and eating healthy (food fortification).
The activities focus on Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) and are based on Jan Andolan Guidelines.
SBCC is the strategic use of communication approaches to promote changes in knowledge, attitudes, norms, beliefs and behaviors.
Jan Andolan is one of the strategies under the Poshan Abhiyaan.
A food and nutrition quiz as well as meme competition will be organized on the My Gov portal.
A unique kind of Nutrition Park has been created at Statue of Unity (Gujarat), where one can witness nutrition related education along with fun and frolic.
- Kerala to set up First International Women's Trade Center in India
Kerala State Government aims to set up India’s first International Women’s Trade Center (IWTC), in consonance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at Angamaly. The aim is to accelerate women entrepreneurship.
IWTC:
The Center will secure gender parity and provide women with a safe place away from home to start new businesses, set up or expand, and get their products marketed globally.
Scaling up opportunities for MSME Women Entrepreneurs in Kerala is organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Kerala State Council.
Resource Enhancement Academy for Career Heights (REACH) is aimed to empower women with the required skills to ensure success in life.
It aims to scale up the women-led endeavors through comprehensive support measures.
It aims to enhance its competitiveness to tap market opportunities.
IWTC will enable women entrepreneurs to come forward and participate in international trade, enjoy greater economic benefits.
- Jal Jeevan Mission to measure and monitor water supply
Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aims to create a smart rural water supply eco-system to measure and monitor the service delivery of the water supply in rural areas. The National JJM has constituted a Technical Expert Committee.
The aim is to prepare a road map for measurement and monitoring of the water service delivery system in rural areas. The committee constitutes members from academia, administration, technology, and specialists from the water supply sector.
Highlights:
National Jal Jeevan Mission and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) is to conduct an ICT Grand Challenge.
The ICT grand challenge is to bring an innovative, modular, and cost-effective solution to develop a ‘Smart Water Supply Measurement and Monitoring System’ to be deployed at the village level.
The ICT grand challenge will invite proposals from Indian Tech start-ups, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Indian Companies, Indian LLPs.
JJM has partnered with State Governments and sector partners and started facilitating a sensor-based water supply system on a pilot basis in various villages.
Gujarat State govt. has begun navigating the sensor-based rural water supply systems in 1,000 villages spread across five districts.
Pilot projects have been started in other States.
The project will ensure to minimize service delivery outage and water loss and monitor the quantity and quality on a long-term basis.
- Onam Festival
Onam Festival is celebrated in Kerala on 31st August. In 2020, the Onam festival began on 22 August.
The main celebrations were held on 31 August on Thiruvonam Day or the Sacred Onam Day. The festival ends on 2 September. The festival is celebrated in Kerala.
History:
According to the Legends, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.
Onam is celebrated as the festival of paddy harvest.
During the Onam festival, people dress in their traditional attire and prepare the Onam Sadhya. They take part in a variety of group activities such as the Pookolam (rangoli made with fresh flowers), Vallam Kali (boat race), Pulikali (tiger dance), Kai Kottu Kali (Onam dance), Kummattikali (mask dance), and various other activities.
- IIT Bombay students launched Indian alternative to Scanning Apps
Students from the Indian Institutes of Technology, Bombay (IIT-Bombay) has AIR Scanner, a free-of-cost mobile application. It was developed by Rohit Kumar Chaudhary and Kavin Agrawal from IIT-Bombay.
The mobile application falls in line with the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat. The innovation is aimed to help people in education.
AIR Scanner app:
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) based Reading Assistant & Document Scanner app can scan documents. It can be used to read to users who have difficulty in reading English.
The document that is scanned using the mobile camera will be saved in PDF format and will be stored in the device only.
The app will not collect any information about the user and all the documents are stored in the phone’s local storage.
AIR Scanner app is free of cost and secure.
The AI feature of the app reads out the scanned pages. It also provides the meaning of the selected word to the user in 40 different languages.
This new indigenous app is an alternative to Chinese document-scanning apps. It has been launched after the Government of India’s decision to ban 59 Chinese mobile apps.
The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.
- Reservation to In-service Doctors in PG: SC
Supreme Court has allowed states to grant the benefit of reservation of seats to in-service doctors in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) postgraduate degree courses.
The five-judge Constitution Bench of the apex court also held that the Medical Council of India (MCI) has no power to provide or not provide reservation for in-service doctors in admission to PG courses.
MCI is a creation of a statute under Entry 66 of List-I of the Constitution and its role is to coordinate and determine the standards of medical education.
Entry 66 of List-I: Coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical institutions.
Key Points
The Bench held that MCI regulations barring such reservations are unconstitutional and arbitrary and that the state legislature has the authority to provide reservation for in-service doctors.
It held that a State has the legislative competence and authority to provide for a separate source of entry for in-service candidates seeking admission to postgraduate degree/diploma courses in the exercise of powers under Entry 25 of List-III.
Education, including technical education, medical education and universities, subject to the provisions of entries 63, 64, 65 and 66 of List I; vocational and technical training of labor.
The Constitution provides for a three-fold distribution of legislative subjects between the Union and the states, which are List-I (the Union List), List-II (the State List) and List-III (the Concurrent List), described in the seventh schedule.
It has asked states to formulate a scheme for rural/remote service by in-service doctors after completing PG degree and the doctors must sign a bond for five years in service in such areas.
- Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020
Air Force Sports Control Board was conferred with ‘Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020’ for the outstanding contribution in helping sports persons to excel in their respective disciplines and implement robust sports welfare measures.
Key Points
The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar scheme was introduced by the government in 2009 to encourage involvement of corporate companies and sports promotion boards in the development of sports in the country.
The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports has revised the Scheme of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar in the year 2015.
According to the revised plan, this award is given in the following four categories:
Identification and nurturing of budding/young talent.
Encouragement of sports through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Employment of sports persons and sports welfare measures.
Sports for Development.
Background:
Air Force Sports Control Board (AFSCB) is the apex body for the planning and conduct of sports activities within the Indian Air Force and at the Inter-Services level.
Army Sports Institute: Army Sports Institute, Pune was raised as part of the Indian Army’s “Mission Olympics” programme in 2001.
Aim: To train the vast reservoir of talent in the Army with an ultimate aim of winning medals at the Olympics in selected seven disciplines including Archery, Athletics, Boxing, Diving, Fencing, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
The institute draws its sportsmen from the Army as well as from young raw and proven talent in ‘Boys Sports Companies’ (8-14 years age).
In the last three years, the sportsmen trained at ASI have won 450 International and 1118 National medals.
- Govt bans PUBG and other 117 mobile apps: Check complete list here
Ministry of Information & Technology on Wednesday banned PUBG and 117 other mobile applications. PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik, PUBG MOBILE LITE, WeChat Work and WeChat reading are among the 118 banned mobile apps. Earlier in June this year, Indian govt had banned 59 apps with Chinese links, including TikTok, UC Browser, Weibo.
"Government blocks 118 mobile apps which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, Defence of India, Security of State and Public Order," the ministry said in a statement.
"The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India invoking it’s power under section 69A of the Information Technology Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 and in view of the emergent nature of threats has decided to block 118 mobile apps since in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order," the Ministry said in an official release.
The list of banned apps is -
APUS Launcher Pro- Theme, Live Wallpapers, Smart
APUS Launcher -Theme, Call Show, Wallpaper, HideApps
APUS Security -Antivirus, Phone security, Cleaner
APUS Turbo Cleaner 2020- Junk Cleaner, Anti-Virus
APUS Flashlight-Free & Bright
Cut Cut – Cut Out & Photo Background Editor
Baidu
Baidu Express Edition
FaceU - Inspire your Beauty
ShareSave by Xiaomi: Latest gadgets, amazing deals
CamCard - Business Card Reader
CamCard Business
CamCard for Salesforce
CamOCR
InNote
VooV Meeting - Tencent Video Conferencing
Super Clean - Master of Cleaner, Phone Booster
WeChat reading
Government WeChat
Small Q brush
Tencent Weiyun
Pitu
WeChat Work
Cyber Hunter
Cyber Hunter Lite
Knives Out-No rules, just fight!
Super Mecha Champions
LifeAfter
Dawn of Isles
Ludo World-Ludo Superstar
Chess Rush
PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik
PUBG MOBILE LITE
Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade
Art of Conquest: Dark Horizon
Dank Tanks
Warpath
Game of Sultans
Gallery Vault - Hide Pictures And Videos
Smart AppLock (App Protect)
Message Lock (SMS Lock)-Gallery Vault Developer Team
Hide App-Hide Application Icon
AppLock
AppLock Lite
Dual Space - Multiple Accounts & App Cloner
ZAKZAK Pro - Live chat & video chat online
ZAKZAK LIVE: live-streaming & video chat app
Music - Mp3 Player
Music Player - Audio Player & 10 Bands Equalizer
HD Camera Selfie Beauty Camera
Cleaner - Phone Booster
Web Browser & Fast Explorer
Video Player All Format for Android
Photo Gallery HD & Editor
Photo Gallery & Album
Music Player - Bass Booster - Free Download
HD Camera - Beauty Cam with Filters & Panorama
HD Camera Pro & Selfie Camera
Music Player - MP3 Player & 10 Bands Equalizer
Gallery HD
Web Browser - Fast, Privacy & Light Web Explorer
Web Browser - Secure Explorer
Music player - Audio Player
Video Player - All Format HD Video Player
Lamour Love All Over The World
Amour- video chat & call all over the world.
MV Master - Make Your Status Video & Community
MV Master - Best Video Maker & Photo Video Editor
APUS Message Center-Intelligent management
LivU Meet new people & Video chat with strangers
Carrom Friends : Carrom Board & Pool Game-
Ludo All Star- Play Online Ludo Game & Board Games
Bike Racing : Moto Traffic Rider Bike Racing Games
Rangers Of Oblivion : Online Action MMO RPG Game
Z Camera - Photo Editor, Beauty Selfie, Collage
GO SMS Pro - Messenger, Free Themes, Emoji
U-Dictionary: Oxford Dictionary Free Now Translate
Ulike - Define your selfie in trendy style
Tantan - Date For Real
MICO Chat: New Friends Banaen aur Live Chat karen
Kitty Live - Live Streaming & Video Live Chat
Malay Social Dating App to Date & Meet Singles
Alipay
AlipayHK
Mobile Taobao
Youku
Road of Kings- Endless Glory
Sina News
Netease News
Penguin FM
Murderous Pursuits
Tencent Watchlist (Tencent Technology)
Learn Chinese AI-Super Chinese
HUYA LIVE – Game Live Stream
Little Q Album
Fighting Landlords - Free and happy Fighting Landlords
Hi Meitu
Mobile Legends: Pocket
VPN for TikTok
VPN for TikTok
Penguin E-sports Live assistant
Buy Cars-offer everything you need, special offers and low prices
iPick
Beauty Camera Plus - Sweet Camera & Face Selfie
Parallel Space Lite - Dual App
"Chief Almighty: First Thunder BC
MARVEL Super War NetEase Games
AFK Arena
Creative Destruction NetEase Games
Crusaders of Light NetEase Games
Mafia City Yotta Games
Onmyoji NetEase Games
Ride Out Heroes NetEase Games
Yimeng Jianghu-Chu Liuxiang has been fully upgraded
Legend: Rising Empire NetEase Games
Arena of Valor: 5v5 Arena Games
Soul Hunters
Rules of Survival
- Which companies signed with Govt. to supply Army regiment with Pinaka missiles?
The Ministry of Defence has signed a contract to supply six Pinaka regiments, a system of rocket launchers, to the Indian Army. The approximate cost of the missiles is Rs.2,580 crore by 2024.
Highlights:
The contract has been approved by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The contract is signed with the Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, Tata Power Company Ltd and Larsen & Toubro.
In this project, at least 70% of indigenous content will be used.
The 6 Pinaka regiments are expected to be made operational along the country's Northern and Eastern borders.
The aim is to enhance the Indian Army's preparedness in the region against the increased provocative military movements of the Chinese troops.
Pinaka:
Pinaka is a multi-barrel rocket launch (MBRL) system produced in India for the Indian Army. It is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
These missiles have a guidance kit bolstered by an advanced navigation and control system. It has an extended range of 70 to 80 km. It has 6 launcher vehicles; each has 12 rockets with 6 loader-replenishment vehicles.
Pinaka has 2 command post vehicles with fire control computer and DIGICORA MET radar. It has the ability to fire all the rockets at a time or only a few in a different direction with the help of its control computer.
Pinaka saw service during the Kargil War, where it was successful in neutralizing enemy positions on the mountain tops.
- India to achieve 100 MT coal Gasification target by 2030
Government of India is aiming for 100 million tonnes (MT) Coal Gasification by 2030. The announcement was made by Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal and Mines at a webinar organized by the Ministry of Coal (MoC) in New Delhi.
Highlights:
To achieve the target, Center is to invest over Rs.4 lakh crores.
The aim of the revised target is to boost the production of synthetic natural gas, energy fuel, urea for fertilizers, and the production of other chemicals.
Earlier, in order to encourage the use of clean sources of fuel, GoI has provided for a concession of 20% on the revenue share of coal used for gasification.
These will fall under the development of Surface Coal Gasification in India.
Also, in this regard, GoI has constituted a Steering Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Member of NITI Aayog. The board comprises of members from the Ministry of Coal.
On the other hand, CIL is to set up at least 3 gasification plants (besides Dankuni) on Build-Own-Operate (BOO) basis through global tendering. For this, CIL has signed an MOU with GAIL for marketing synthetic natural gas.
- Rare Renati Chola era inscription unearthed
A rare inscription dating back to the Renati Chola era has been unearthed in a remote village of Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh.
Background:
The inscription was written in archaic Telugu.
It was assigned to the 8th century A.D. when the region was under the rule of the Chola Maharaja of Renadu.
The inscription also throws light upon the priority given to morality in those days.
Renati Cholas:
The Telugu Cholas of Renadu (also called Renati Cholas) ruled over the Renadu region, the present-day Kadapa district.
They had the unique honor of using the Telugu language in their inscriptions belonging to the 6th and 8th centuries.
The inscriptions at Gandikota at Jammulamadugu and Proddatur are proof of this fact.
- Cabinet approvals
The Union Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the following:
Cabinet approved MoU between India and Finland for cooperation in the field of Geology and Mineral Resources. The MoU will enhance the cooperation in the field of geology and mineral resources between the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Ministry of Mines, the Government of India (GoI), and Geological Survey of Finland, Ministry of Employment and the Economy, Finland.
Provisions of MoU:
The MoU will facilitate cooperation between the two countries in the field of geology, training, 3/4D modeling, mineral prognostication, and suitability analysis, Seismic and other Geophysical surveys with the intent to reinforce and strengthen scientific links between the two Organisations.
Under the MoU, a framework and a platform will be provided to promote cooperation in the fields of geology, mineral resources between the Participants for mutual economic, social, and environmental benefit.
Both the countries will share experiences on geological data management and information dissemination to promote exploration and mining, in the areas of geology and mineral resources.
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Textiles Committee, India, and M/s Nissenken Quality Evaluation Center, Japan. The MoU was aimed to improve the quality and testing of Indian textiles and Clothing for the Japanese market.
MoU Provisions:
M/s Nissenken Quality Evaluation Center, Japan will assign the Textile Committee as their cooperative Testing and Inspection service providers in India for Textiles & Apparel products including Technical Textiles and any other products that are mutually agreed upon at a later date for both domestic and overseas clients/buyers.
- Third Annual Leadership Summit of the USISPF Highlights
The Third Annual Leadership Summit of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) is being held from 31st August.
Prime Minister NarendraModi will deliver the Special Key Note Address at the USISPF 3rd Annual Leadership Summit through video conference.
Highlights:
The summit will be held for 5 days from 31 August.
The theme of the 5-day Summit is "US-India Navigating New Challenges."
The theme will cover various subjects such as India's potential in becoming a Global Manufacturing Hub, Opportunities in India’s Gas Market, Ease of Doing Business to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India.
The Common Opportunities and Challenges in Tech Space, Indo-Pacific Economic issues, Innovation in Public Health, and others.
Union Ministers and Senior Officials from India are participating in the Virtual Summit.
USISPF - The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum is a non-profit organization that works for the partnership between India and the United States.
- RPF personnel honored with Jeewan Raksha Medals
Three RPF personnel was awarded JeevanRaksha Medals by President of India Ram NathKovind. The honored Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel are Late ShriJagbir Singh, ShriShivcharan Singh, ShriMukesh Kumar Meena.
Highlights:
1. Sanvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak (posthumous) - Late ShriJagbir Singh, Constable/Northern Railway
Recognized For:
Late ShriJaghir Singh was honored as he laid down his life on duty while saving the precious lives of 4 children on railway premises. He saved them near Adarshnagar-Azadpur railway section Delhi. He went beyond the call of his duty and without caring for his own life saved the lives of these children.
2. Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak- ShriShivcharan Singh, Constable/ Western Railway
Recognized For:
On 10 August 2019, Shivcharan Singh while performing train escorting duty on Train No. 12959 noticed some persons trapped in heavy flood shouting for help, when the train stopped due to water logging on the tracks near Shymkhayali railway station. Without caring for his own life, he rushed to their rescue and saved the precious lives of 9 persons.
3. Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak- ShriMukesh Kumar Meena Head Constable/North Western Railway
Recognized For:
On 19 September 2018, Mukesh Kumar Meena, Head Constable/RPF/Jodhpur division, while on train escorting duty in Train No. 22478, saved the life of a lady passenger along with 2 children. MukeshMeena jumped from the running train and pulled out the lady passenger from the gap between the platform and the train along with both her children.
- Arjun Munda inaugurates the two day National Tribal Research Conclave
The two days National Tribal Research Conclave will be held virtually on 3rd and 4th September 2020. The Conclave Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda will chair the two day National Tribal Research Conclave.
The Conclave is organized by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA).
Highlights:
The conclave is conducted by IIPA as it is working on Tribal Talent Pool and aims to Strengthen of TRIs in partnership with Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA).
This is the second workshop of its kind. The first workshop was organized in January 2020.
The themes of the conclave are Health, Livelihood, Education, digitalization, water conservation, data sciences and development models for aspiration and model villages.
During the conclave, the outcome of various projects will be implemented under different partnerships and the best practices to be showcased to all stakeholders. In the conclave, 10 research partners will be sharing their projects.
MoTA funds over 24 TRIs for research under Grant to TRIs. The Ministry is engaged in quality research in collaboration with Government and Non Government Organizations across the country.
The move by the Ministry is to provide end to end solution, identifying problem, finding solution and execution of the project as part of Action research which can be implemented by policy initiatives
- IISc stands top from India in THE World University Rankings 2021
Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2021 has been released and under the overall category, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, has topped the list.
From India, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, has been placed in the 301-350 category in overall global rankings.
Highlights:
The IISc Bengaluru has slightly improved its overall score, from 45.6 to 47.9.
The seven older IITs did not participate in the THE-World University Rankings 2020.
TheTHE World University Rankings 2021 includes more than 1,500 universities across 93 countries and regions in 2020.
The participating universities are ranked based on their performance in knowledge transfer, teaching, research, and international outlook.
THE World University Rankings analyzed more than 80 million citations across over 13 million research publications and included survey responses from 22,000 scholars globally.
- Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020
Union Cabinet has approved the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020 to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament.
Key Points
The Bill will include Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi as official languages in the newly-created Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Only English and Urdu were official languages in the former State, which was bifurcated on 5th August 2019, with Ladakh becoming a separate Union Territory.
Dogri along with Bodo, Maithili and Santhali was added to the scheduled languages under the Eighth Schedule by 92nd Amendment Act of 2003, which consists of the following 22 languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution.
Sindhi language was added by the 21st Amendment Act of 1967.
Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992.
The Bill not only fulfills a long-pending public demand of the region but also keeps with the spirit of equality.
- Sub-categorization of OBCs
A commission headed by Justice (Retd.) G Rohini has been examining sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBC) for almost three years now.
The issue of the sub-categorization of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for reservations is also in the highlights after the Supreme Court (SC) has referred it to a larger Bench.
Key Points
OBCs are granted 27% reservation in jobs and education under the central government but only a few affluent communities among the over 2,600 included in the Central List of OBCs have secured a major part of this.
Sub-categorization or creating categories within OBCs for reservation would ensure “equitable distribution” of representation among all OBC communities.
However, sub-categorization can be used to appease one vote-bank or the other within the category and thus a cause of social justice would end up being politicized.
The commission requested for an appropriate budget provision for a proposed all-India survey for an estimate of the caste-wise population of OBCs.
The reason given was the absence of data for the population of various communities to compare with their representation in jobs and admissions as the data of the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) were not considered reliable.
In August 2018, it was announced that the data of OBCs will also be collected in Census 2021 but there have been no other announcements after that.
- What is India’s rank in 2020 Global Innovation Index?
India has ranked 48th position in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020. India has jumped to four places since 2019.
The index was compiled by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) along with Cornell University and the INSEAD business school, presents the latest global innovation trends and annual innovation ranking of 131 economies.
Highlights:
Switzerland topped the GII ranking. It is followed by Sweden, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.
As per the Index, India became the third most innovative lower-middle-income economy in the world. It is attributed to newly available indicators and improvements in various areas of the GII.
China is the only middle-income economy that ranked among the top 30 and currently holds the 14th place.
India:
India ranked in the top 15 in indicators such as ICT services exports, graduates in science and engineering, government online services, and R&D intensive global companies.
As per the report, India increased the most in Institutions (61st), business sophistication (55th), and creative outputs (64th).
The report also stated that India, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam have made the most progress on the index in recent years.
- List of AP Cabinet Approvals
On September 3, the Andhra Pradesh state cabinet approved the construction of two more new barrages below the Prakasam barrage to protect the Krishna Delta from flooding.
The construction of these two new barrages is estimated to cost Rs 2,565 crore. This barrage structure will increase groundwater… the sea water does not rise... the Krishna Delta can be tested and drinking water problems can be solved.
Some other decisions taken by the Cabinet ...
Decision was taken to undertake Varikipudisela upliftment scheme to meet drinking and irrigation needs of Palnadu. Through this scheme, Veldurthy, Durgi and Bollapalli zones of Guntur district will be covered with vegetation. The uplift scheme will cost Rs 1,273 crore.
Cabinet approved administrative clearances for construction of 14 reservoirs, embankment schemes and other works in the famine Rayalaseema area. The decision was taken to undertake these works as part of the Rayalaseema Drought Prevention Plan.
- AP cabinet approves APSDC; What is its purpose?
On September 3, the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet approved formations of the Andhra Pradesh State Development Corporation Limited (APSDC). APSDC was set up as a ‘public limited company’ with one hundred per cent government ownership.
The purpose of the APSDC...
The Corporation prepares plans for the implementation of Nadu-Nedu (Manabadi), Nadu-Nedu (Medical), Amma Odi, YSR Cheyuta, YSR Asara, YSR Farmer Assurance Schemes, Funding (Fund Raising) as well as Social and Economic Development Projects.
- Babu Jagajjivan Ram Uttaranchal Sujala Sravanti project approved
The Cabinet also approved the Babu Jagajjivan Ram Uttaranchal Sujala Sravanti project to divert Godavari waters to Uttaranchal and rejuvenate it.
The decision was taken to divert 63.2 TMC of water and provide irrigated land of about 8 lakh acres in Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram and Srikakulam districts. The project will cost Rs 15,389.80 crore.
- Andhra Pradesh Fisheries Ordinance 2020 approved
The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet on September 3 approved the Andhra Pradesh Fisheries Ordinance 2020 for the Andhra Pradesh Fisheries University to be set up in West Godavari district.
The university, which will be set up for comprehensive development in the fisheries sector, will spend Rs 300 crore over the next five years. The government intends to achieve integrated development in the fisheries and aqua sectors in the state through this varsity.
There is a loss of Rs 2,500 crore a year due to shortage of experts in the aqua sector and it is estimated that the loss could be avoided by setting up a varsity. It is estimated that about 90,000 aqua farmers and another eight lakh people who depend on it will benefit from this.
- Impact of Lockdown on Indian Corporates
An investment information and credit rating agency analysis looked into the effect of prolonged nationwide lockdown on Indian corporate sector.
Key Points
Around 500 companies which were surveyed have shown aggregate revenues contracting by 31.1% year-on-year basis in the first quarter of Financial Year 2021.
Stress is visible across major sectors, with the exception of select sectors like IT, telecom, sugar and pharmaceuticals.
The contraction in revenues was visible across most major sectors, but it was sharpest in consumer-oriented sectors where revenues contracted to nearly half of the previous year’s levels.
Sectors like airlines, hotels, retail, automotive and consumer durables, which primarily comprise discretionary purchases, are significantly impacted.
Discretionary spending: It refers to non-essential items, such as recreation and entertainment that consumers purchase when they have enough income left over after paying the necessary expenses such as the mortgage and utilities.
FMCG and consumer foods were relatively less impacted given the essential nature of these purchases.
Commodity-linked sectors contracted by 34% on a y-o-y basis with almost all the major commodity sectors, including oil and gas, metals and mining, iron and steel and cement, reporting revenue contraction on the back of tepid realizations due to benign commodity prices and subdued volumes.
Commodity-linked sectors: Sectors which are dependent upon the commodity market (involves buying, selling, or trading a raw product, such as oil, gold, or coffee).
Industrial and infrastructure-oriented sectors also contributed to the slowdown with 29% and 38% y-o-y de-growth respectively during the quarter, given the restrictions on activity.
Non-pharma exporters, real estate and construction companies also face one of their worst years.
Banking Sector: Poor credit growth, including retail loans, along with rising Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and credit costs will be harmful for banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs).
- What is Section 29(2)(f) of Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, in connection to English medium in Govt schools?
Supreme Court refused to stay the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order striking down the state government’s decision to make English the medium of education for government school students from Classes I to VI beginning 2020-21 academic year.
The Court pointed out that Section 29(2)(f) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 says that the medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in a child’s mother tongue.
Key Points
Article 29 (Protection of interests of minorities) gives all citizens right to conserve their language and prohibit discrimination on the basis of language.
Article 120 (Language to be used in Parliament) provides for use of Hindi or English for transactions of parliament but gives the right to members of parliament to express themselves in their mother tongue.
Part XVII of the Indian Constitution deals with the official languages in Articles 343 to 351.
Article 350A (Facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at primary stage) provides that it shall be the endeavour of every State and of every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups.
Article 351 (Directive for development of the Hindi language) provides that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language.
The Eighth Schedule recognises following 22 languages as official languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 says that the medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in a child’s mother tongue.
- Foundation Day of AREAS
On the 6th Foundation Day (27th August 2020) of the Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of States (AREAS), the government has launched a website and telephone directory for AREAS.
Key Points
Agenda Behind AREAS: State Nodal Agencies (SNAs) for Renewable Energy (RE) interact and learn from each other’s experiences and also share their best practices and knowledge regarding technologies and schemes/programmes.
The Union Minister for New & Renewable Energy (NRE) is the Patron of the Association and Secretary, MNRE is the ex-officio President of the Association. All SNAs are members of the Association.
It got registered under Society Registration Act, 1860 on 27th August 2014.
Renewable Energy Initiatives in India
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the nodal Ministry of the Government of India for all matters relating to new and renewable energy.
New and Renewable Energy sources include solar energy, geothermal energy, wind power, hydropower, biomass, etc.
In September 2019, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, India announced increasing the renewable energy target to 450 GW by 2030 from 175 GW by 2022.
In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), India has pledged to increase the share of non-fossil fuels-based electricity to 40% by 2030.
The Green Energy Corridor Project aims at synchronizing electricity produced from renewable sources, such as solar and wind, with conventional power stations in the grid.
Indian Railways has contacted solar power developers to meet the net zero carbon emission target by 2030.
- Notification of Rules of Transaction of Business for J&K
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has notified Rules of Transaction of Business for the Government of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
Key Points
The rules have been notified under the Section 55 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019
According to Section 55 of the act “the Lieutenant Governor (LG) shall make rules on the advice of the Council of Ministers for the allocation of business to the Ministers; and for the more convenient transaction of business with the Ministers including the procedure to be adopted in case of a difference of opinion between the LG and the Council of Ministers or a Minister.
The rules provide details of work allocation, distribution of the business among the departments, their powers, executive powers of LG etc. in J&K.
As per the rules, there will be 39 departments in the J&K such as school education, agriculture, higher education, horticulture, election, general administration, home, mining, power, Public Works Department, tribal affairs and transport.
Police, Public order, All India Services and Anti-corruption will fall under the executive functions of the LG.
This implies that the Chief Minister or the Council of Ministers will have no say in their functioning.
Proposals or matters which affect or are likely to affect the peace and tranquility of the UT or the interest of any minority community, the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the Backward Classes shall essentially be submitted to the LG through the Chief Secretary, under intimation to the Chief Minister, before issuing any orders.
Any matter, which is likely to bring the government of the Union Territory into a controversy with the Centre or a State government, shall, as soon as possible, be brought to the notice of the LG and the Chief Minister through the Chief Secretary.
All important communications received from the Centre shall, as soon as possible, be submitted to the Chief Secretary, the Minister in charge, the Chief Minister and the LG for information.
In case of difference of opinion between the LG and a Minister when no agreement could be reached even after a month, the decision of the LG shall be deemed to have been accepted by the Council of Ministers.
- Punjab passed a resolution against Farm Ordinances
Punjab State Government passed a resolution against the Centre’s farm ordinances. The resolution was tabled by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. The resolution termed these ordinances as anti-farmer and against the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime.
Highlights:
The ordinances were against the federal structure and the rights of the farmers.
The resolution is against:
Farmers’ Produce Ordinance, 2020
Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020
Essential Commodities Ordinance, 2020
Electricity Amendment Bill 2020
It is because, as per the Punjab State
Government, Agriculture falls under List II of Constitution and hence falls under the State List.
The ordinance promulgated by the Punjab state government is a direct encroachment on the functions of these states.
- GoI launched Chunauti, the Next Generation Start-up challenge contest in Bihar
Government of India has launched "Chunauti", the Next Generation Start-up challenge contest in Bihar. The aim is to further boost software products and startups with a special focus on Tier-II towns of the country.
The contest was launched by the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on 28 August. For this programme, the cost of Rs.95.03 crore has been earmarked over a period of three years.
Highlights:
In the Chunauti contest, over 300 startups will be selected and provided various support from the Government through the Software Technology Parks of India centers across India.
Centre will provide a seed fund of up to Rs. 25 Lakh and also be provided with cloud credits from leading cloud service providers.
The Ministry invites startups in areas namely:
Medical Healthcare, Diagnostic, Preventive & Psychological Care
Edu-Tech, Agri-Tech & Fin-Tech Solutions for masses
Supply Chain, Logistics and Transportation Management
Infrastructure and Remote monitoring
Jobs & Skilling, Linguistic tools & technologies
- Dr. Harsh Vardhan chaired 20th meeting of GoM on COVID-19 pandemic
Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, chaired the 20th meeting of the High-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 on 29 August.
Officials including Sh. Hardeep S. Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs (MEA), Sh. MansukhLalMandaviya, Minister of State, Shipping (Independent Charge), Chemicals and Fertilizers, Sh. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare, and Sh. NityanandRai, Minister of State, Home Affairs. Dr.Vinod Paul, Member (Health) NitiAayog, participated in the virtual meeting.
Highlights:
The Health Ministry was instructed to develop SOPs for the Members of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly sessions comprising COVID protocols and preventive measures.
A detailed report on surveillance efforts undertaken in India during the pandemic through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network.
The group was tasked with facilitation of vaccine development including issues of trial and stockpiling, sorting out issues of financing, risk management, selection of potential beneficiaries and their order of reference, envisioning logistics, scale-up, digital system, defining principles for selecting beneficiary categories, and defining the scientific basis for selecting vaccine.
So far, three meetings of the Expert Group have been held. The last GoM was held on 31st July 2020.
- National Sports Day is observed on 29 August
National Sports Day is observed on 29 August 2020. The day is to commemorate the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand. The main objective of the Day is to spread awareness of the importance of sports and daily activities in every individual's life.
The day was first inducted into the list of celebratory days in the year 2012. On the National Sports Day, President presented the National Sports and Adventure Awards.
Dhyan Chand:
Dhyan Chand Singh, popularly known as the Wizard of Indian Hockey, was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.
He has secured over 400 international goals and 1,000 goals in his entire career in 22 years during the period from 1926 to 1948. Under the leadership of Dhyan Chand, the Indian Hockey team has achieved several victories.
He has led India into 3 Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936. By winning the Olympic gold medal on three occasions and marked his position in the pages of history.
- Telugu Language Day is observed on 29 August
Telugu Language Day, also known as Telugu Bhasha Dinotsavam, is celebrated on 29 August every year. The day is observed to commemorate the birthday of one of the earliest modern Telugu linguists Gidugu Venkata Ramamurthy.
Telugu is referred to as "The Italian of the East" as the language ends with vowels just like the Italian language.
Gidugu Venkata Ramamurthy:
Gidugu Venkata Ramamurthy's contribution to the Telugu language specifically Vyavaharika Bhasha or Vaaduka Bhasha (Colloquial language) is immense.
He simplified the Granthika Bhasha into Vyavaharika Bhasha for textbooks and literature and made it available to the people.
He played a vital role in bringing to the forefront of the beauty of the colloquial language.
Published date : 10 Oct 2020 01:24PM
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