Categories

National Current Affairs
National Current Affairs November 4th Week 2019
Category : National Current Affairs
posted Date :
Total No.of views :
Total No.of Comments :
Rating: 
0 / 5 (0 votes)

Guwahati to host annual Modi-Abe summit in December:

The 19th-century colonial riverside bungalow and a cruise on the Brahmaputra are expected to be among the highlights of the annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe held in Guwahati in mid-December.The date for which are yet to be formally announced in view of the focus on India’s northeastern states under the Act East Forum launched by India and Japan, two years ago, the considerable development assistance provided to the region by Tokyo, people familiar with planning for the summit. One is expected to be the venue for a business summit to be co-hosted by CII.

DC Bungalow:

The DC’s bungalow, a 19th-century colonial structure atop the Sukreswar Hill overlooking the Brahmaputra, is the focus of a ~9.86-crore project to renovate it and convert it into Bahniman Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre as part of a riverfront development scheme.The two prime ministers are expected to visit a World War 2 peace memorial built by the Japanese in 1994 and the Imphal Peace Museum at Red Hill or Maibam Lokpa Ching.

Imphal Peace Museum:

The Imphal Peace Museum which is 20 km southwest of Imphal, was developed on 10 acres at the foot of Red Hill with support from Japan’s Nippon Foundation and in collaboration with Manipur Tourism Forum and the state government.The 70,000 Japanese soldiers and more troops from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army are believed to have died in battles in Kohima and Imphal in early 1944. The government intends to invest about 13,000 crore in the region.The Act East Forum, which is chaired by the Japanese envoy and India’s foreign secretary, aims to expand bilateral cooperation in the northeast and to strengthen ties between Japan and the region. The main focus on connectivity, developmental infrastructure, industrial linkages, and people-to-people contacts through tourism, culture, and sports.Japan is assisting with water supply and sewage projects in Assam, road projects in Meghalaya, forest management projects in Tripura, Nagaland, and Sikkim, and an irrigation project in Mizoram.

Andhra Pradesh Govt Launches Helpline to Deal with Graft-Related Complaints:

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched 14400 a citizen helpline number meant to enable people to complain about corruption in government departments.

The call center and enquired about its functioning. The citizens could directly call the helpline and complain about corruption in any government department and asked officials to ensure the grievances are resolved within 15 to 30 days. The complaints on corruption and the action taken on them, adding the call center is another step in the government`s efforts to curb corruption in administration at all levels.

The state government engaged the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to study the structural issues in government departments corruption with measures required to tackle them. The IIM-A team is expected to submit its report in February 2020.

Cabinet approved MoU signed between India, Saudi Arabia to establish the Strategic Partnership Council: 

The Union Cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved Post Facto the Agreement signed by Prime Minister on 29 October 2019. The agreement was signed between India and Saudi Arabia for the establishment of the Strategic Partnership Council.

Agreement:

♦ The Agreement between India and Saudi Arabia aims to enable the leadership at the highest level to meet regularly and monitor progress in the ongoing initiatives and projects under the various strategic partnership. 

♦ It will help identify new areas for forging strategic engagement and will define the goals to be achieved and benefits to be derived.

♦ It will benefit the Indian citizens with improved economic and commercial linkages with Saudi Arabia

♦ It will also open new avenues of partnership in strategic areas like security, counter-terrorism, defence, energy security, and renewable energy.

Cabinet increased the authorized capital of FCI to Rs.10000 crore:

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the PM Narendra Modi approved to increase the authorized capital of Food Corporation of India (FCI) to Rs.10,000 crore. Earlier the capital allocated for FCI was Rs.3,500 crore.

The increase of authorized capital will fund the foodgrains stock, perpetually held by FCI. This will reduce the borrowings of FCI, save interest cost of FCI and reduce food subsidy in consequence. The operations of Food Corporation of India require maintaining perpetual stock of foodgrains which needs to be funded by the Govt. of India through equity or long term loan. The government has been providing equity to FCI for maintaining stocks.

Food Corporation of India (FCI):

FCI was established in 1965 by the government of India. It was constituted under the Food Corporations Act, 1964. It functions under the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. FCI is responsible to implement the food policy of the Government of India. 

The primary objective of FCI is to ensure the minimum support price to farmers and maintain a buffer stock of food grains. It also distributes food grains under the National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes initiated by the Government of India. The current Chairman & Managing Director of FCI is D. V. Prasad.