1) Punjab to observe 2015-16 as Year of Development.
- Punjab government has announced year 2015-16 will be observed as development year to give further fillip to the all-round development of the state.
- It was announced by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, in Dhuri Assembly segment of the state.
- During this phase, focus of the State government will be to provide ultra modern civic amenities to the people in urban and rural areas.
In urban areas state government will focus to provide the facility of:
- Water supply,
- Sewerage,
- Sewerage Treatment Plants (STPs),
- Streetlights,
- Roads
- Parks.
- Whereas in rural areas provision of roads, disposal of waste water, potable drinking water and toilets will be state government thrust areas.
2) Govt simplifies defence rules to woo foreign companies.
- The Union Government simplified the defence rules to boost defence manufacturing in the country and encourage foreign players such as Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin to explore business opportunities in the country.
- In order to provide a level-playing field to private players, the government withdrew excise and Customs duty exemptions enjoyed by the Ordinance Factory Board and defence PSUs.
About Defence sector of India:
- The government has systematically opened up the sector for private investment by increasing FDI cap in defence of up to 49 per cent and rationalising certain conditions.
- Almost 60 percent items required for industrial licence have now been de-reserved.
- Defence manufacturing is one of the key sectors among the 25 sectors identified under the Union Government`s Make-in-India campaign.
- The Indian aerospace and defence market is among the most attractive as the country is the highest importer of defence items in the world.
3) Maharashtra Cabinet approves policy on renewable energy.
- Composite Renewable Energy Policy worth 4156.43 crore rupees was approved by Maharashtra Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to attract investment of 1 lakh crore rupees.
- Till 2020, the motive of the policy is to achieve 14400 MW of installed capacity from the present 6700 MW.
- The policy marks to increase the share of renewable energy in total electricity production in the state to 15% from 9%.
- Out of the total 14400 MW installed capacity 400 MW from small hydro, 5000 MW from wind energy, 1000 MW from bagasse based co-generation, 7500 MW would come from solar energy, 200 MW from industrial waste and 300 MW from agriculture waste-based products.
4) Khoya Paya web portal launched.
- Khoya Paya web portal will establish citizen to citizen contact and will allow India to take part in search for missing children.
- The Khoya Paya portal was launched by Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Union Minister, Women and Child Development and Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of communications and IT.
- The app/portal has been developed by the Ministry of Women and Child development and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
5) Union Minister of Women and Child Development launches the IAP HealthPhone programme.
- The Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi launched the IAP (Indian Academy of Pediatric) HealthPhone programme in New Delhi.
- The IAP HealthPhone programme is the world’s largest digital mass education programme for addressing the malnutrition in women and children.
- This programme is launched by the Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, UNICEF and supported by Vodafone India.
- This programme aims to tackle the challenge of malnutrition in mothers and children across India.
About IAP Health Phone programme:
- It is a public-private partnership (PPP) initiative that seeks to educate over 6 million girls and women between 13 and 35 years of age and their families on better health and nutrition practices by 2018 by leveraging penetration of mobile phones in the country.
- It will promote and distribute four re-edited videos from the Poshan (nutritional videos) series in 18 Indian languages, which are jointly produced by Union Ministry Women and Child Development and UNICEF.
- The three-year intensive awareness campaign under IAP HealthPhone programme is expected to benefit to improve health of around 60 million children born by 2025 in India and also play important transformative role in india’s fight against malnutrition.
6) Maharashtra Government Cracks Down on Ration Mafia.
- Maharashtra government has invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against ration mafia.
- About:
- This is the first time that MCOCA was applied against ration mafia and was done with an aim of weeding out the widespread corruption in public distribution system.
- The first case in this regard was registered against five persons from Nashik for allegedly being ration mafia and was involved in the pilferage of food grains meant for PDS.
- The accused were involved in the infamous Surgana scam which had misappropriated nearly 3,000 metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain supplied under the PDS to the tribal-dominated Surgana region of Nashik.
About Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA):
- The law enacted by Maharashtra state in 1999 to combat organised crime and terrorism in the state.
- MCOCA was enacted to remove drawbacks of existing legal framework which was inadequate to curb or control the menace of organised crime.
7) India joins the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI).
- India has signed a multilateral agreement that would pave the way for effective exchange of financial account information on an automatic basis among countries.
- This agreement is called the multilateral competent authority agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI).
- The declaration to comply with the provisions of the MCAA was signed by Mohan Kumar, Ambassador of India to France in a signing ceremony held in Paris.
- Under the agreement, all the signatory countries, including India, are bound to collect and automatically exchange tax information as prescribed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
- To be able to comply with the agreement, amendments have been made to section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as incorporated in the Finance Act, 2014.
About Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA):
- It has been developed by the OECD(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s) in cooperation with G20 and the European Union (EU).
- So far, 60 countries, including India, joined the agreement and it is set to become operational in 2017, by which about 94 countries are expected to sign it.
- When fully implemented, these standards will enable India to receive information from almost every country in the world including offshore financial centres. Thus, it will help to prevent international tax evasion and avoidance.
- It will be also instrumental in getting information about assets of Indians held abroad and their beneficial owners.
- Thus, it will directly help the Government to curb tax evasion and deal with the menace of black money stashed abroad.
8) Govt warns of action against Nestle, brand ambassadors if Maggi fails FSSAI test.
- Maggi brand ambassadors including Bollywood star Actor Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta were warned of action by the government if their advertisements for Nestle’s popular noodle product were found to be misleading.
- Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (UP FDA) had asked Nestle India to withdraw a batch of Maggi noodles from the market after they had found that it contained high level of lead and Monosodium glutamate (MSG), a taste enhancer.
- The Consumer Affairs Ministry said the central food safety regulator FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) is testing samples from all states and that strict action will be taken for any violation.
- All test reports are expected to come within 2-3 days. A case has already been lodged against Nestle India by UP food regulator FSDA in a Barabanki court in Uttar Pradesh over safety standards of its product Maggi.
About Monosodium glutamate:
- Monosodium glutamate is a kind of amino acid.
- It occurs naturally in many agricultural products.
- Monosodium glutamate is added artificially to packaged food to enhance flavour.
- Health impact: Large doses of MSG can cause headaches and other feelings of discomfort collectively known as Chinese restaurant syndrome.
9) Jayalalitha announces Rs. 40.97 crore aid for Cauvery delta farmers.
- Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha announced a financial aid of Rs. 41 crore for farmers in the Cauvery delta region to improve the kuruvai cultivation (short-term cultivation).
- The `kuruvai package` announced by the government includes supply of 12 hours of three-phase power, increased mechanization of planting and promoting the use of organic fertilizers.
10) Jaipur Metro’s Phase-1 inaugurated by Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje.
- The phase 1A is from Mansarovar to Chandpole has been started with this inauguration while work on phase 1B from Chandpole to Badi Chaupad is underway.
- About Jaipur Metro’s Phase-1:
- Developed by Jaipur Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (JMRCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Rajasthan Government.
- Will provide an affordable and reliable public transport system to people and help to spur economic development of the city.
- Up to 30 percent of metro’s operation and maintenance staff, including train operators and station controllers are women.
- With this, Jaipur became the sixth city in India to have metro service. Other five cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Kolkata.
11) Cabinet approves Jharkhand Special Court Ordinance-2015.
- The Jharkhand cabinet approved Jharkhand Special Court Ordinance-2015 which is aimed at filing cases against those who are involved in disproportionate assets case.
- The cabinet, chaired by chief minister Raghubar Das, gave the nod for the Jharkhand Special Courts Ordinance, 2015 to make Jharkhand rid of corruption by setting up adequate special courts to speed up trials of corruption-related cases.
- These Special Courts will be established for speedy trail of corruption cases and will help in creating a corruption-free state.
12) Delhi Metro gets its first driver-less train from South Korea.
- The Delhi Metro received its first train which is capable of running without a driver.
- The six-coach train has been manufactured at Changwan in South Korea and had arrived by sea at the Mundhra port in Gujarat and was brought to Delhi by road.
- The train is equipped with several advanced features and will be operational from by the end of 2016.
About Driver-less metro train:
- This train can accommodate 2280 passengers, which is 240 more than the regular six-coach Metro train because of absence of cabin for the operator coach.
- It is designed for a maximum speed of 95 kmph and operational speed of 85 kmph
- Such driver-less trains will ply on sections of Phase-III of the Delhi metro network. They will run on the over 58 km-long Majlish Park-Shiv Vihar and the over 38 km-long Janakpuri (West)-Botanical Garden corridors of the Phase-III.
- A total of 20 six-coach trains will be manufactured in South Korea by the end 2015. While, 61 trains will be manufactured at the Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) plant located in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
13) Govt. launches Jan Aushadhi medical store in Delhi.
- Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) first-ever Jan Aushadhi Generic Drug (JAGD) Store was inaugurated at its headquarters in IP Estate, New Delhi.
- The store will offer over 118 commonly used drugs at a 10 to 20 per cent lesser price than market value.
- Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir inaugurated the Jan Aushadhi Generic Drug Store.
- JAGD store have been approved and quality controlled by the Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India (BPPI) under the aegis of Department of Pharmaceuticals.
14) Union minister Uma Bharti launches `Jal Kranti Abhiyan` in Rajasthan.
- Government of India has launched a nationwide Jal Kranti Abhiyan, a scheme aimed at transforming one water scared village in each district of the country to water surplus village.
- The Jal Kranti Abhiyan will be celebrated across the country during 2015-16 to consolidate water conservation and management through a holistic and integrated approach.
- As pilot project, activities under this nation campaign will be run in one water stressed village in each 672 districts in the country.
- The campaign would continue till the objective of solving water problems in every house and farm is resolved.
Activities proposed under the campaign include:
- Rain water harvesting.
- Recycling of waste water.
- Micro irrigation for using water efficiently and mass awareness program.
- Along with it, a cadre of local water professional Jal Mitra will be created and they will be given training to create mass awareness.
15) High Court of Himachal Pradesh asked state government to establish separate homes for differently-abled people.
- The High Court of Himachal Pradesh asked the state government to establish separate homes for differently-abled, shelter less, destitute and mentality challenged people.
- The court also directed the Principal Secretary (Social Justice and Empowerment) to release adequate funds for the purpose within eight weeks.
16) India gets first green police station at New Delhi’s Maurice Nagar.
- India’s first green police station was inaugurated on the occasion of World Environment Day at Maurice Nagar in north Delhi.
- It was inaugurated by Delhi Police Commissioner Bhim Sain Bassi. The police station has various provisions for preservation and safety of the environment.
Key features of green police station:
- The station has Medieval Indian Construction Methodology of applying coating of fresh lime that will increase ‘Albedo’ and reduce the heat which helps to save electrical power.
- Consumption of electricity will be reduced as all light fittings at the police station have been changed to LED lights.
- All fans installed at this police station will be of five star ratings. Police are also planning to use solar panels to light the police station.
- The toilets installed are almost waterless in nature.
- To reduce the carbon presence, 400 areca palm plants have been planted in the police station and its nearby surroundings.
- Public will be provided recycled paper for filing their complaints.
17) Union Government inks loan pact with World Bank for Tamil Nadu Urbanisation Project.
- Union Government has signed a loan and project agreement with World Bank to provide $400 million to the Tamil Nadu government for its Sustainable Urban Development Project.
- The loan agreement, signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Onno Ruhl, Country director of World Bank (India).
- Tamil Nadu’s sustainable Urban Development Project aims at improving urban services in participating Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in a financially sustainable manner.
- The project consists of three parts:
- Investment in urban services including water, municipal solid waste, sewerage, urban transportation and storm water drainage.
- Results-based grants for urban governance.
- Urban sector technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of ULBs and urban sector officials.
- Union Government inaugurated Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre for Mumbai and JNPT Harbour.
- Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the India’s first of its kind Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre (OSRC) for Mumbai & JNPT Harbour (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust). This will enable India in tackling pollution and oil spills in and around Mumbai easily.
- The objective behind setting up this centre is to develop appropriate and effective systems for the detection and reporting of spillage of oil in order to ensure adequate protection to the marine environment and public health.
Facts about Tier-I Oil Spill Response Centre (OSRC):
- OSRC is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment in operational readiness for combating Tier-I oil spill upto 700 tones.
- This centre will also ensure prompt and appropriate response technique to control, combat and prevent oil pollution and dispose recovered waste material in an environmental friendly manner.
- The OSRC is equipped with skilled and trained personnel and wireless communication facilities for immediately responding to any oil spill. It will monitor on 24/7 basis.
- It also includes various plans like Contingency Plan, Health Safety and Environment Plan.
- The facility is funded by Participating Oil Companies (POCs). While, MPT will take the responsibility for tendering and monitoring of Tier-I OSR facility.
18) Harvard watches Marathi film on Alzheimer’s.
- A Marathi film ‘Astu’ which sensitively explores the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease on the elderly was recently screened at Harvard University.
- Astu - So Be It` based on Alzheimer`s in the elderly, symptoms of dementia and societal attitude recently attracted the attention of Harvard University in the US.
- The university invited the film`s crew for a screening on its campus to spread awareness and highlight issues like the lack of human interaction and care that the elderly face.
- Astu` (2013) is directed by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar with Agashe and Iravati Harshe as lead actors.
About Alzheimer’s disease:
- Alzheimer`s disease (AD), also known as Alzheimer disease, or just Alzheimer`s, accounts for 60% to 70% of cases of dementia.
- It is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time.
- The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss).