General Awareness : National Events - March, 2014

(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) National Events

March - 2014

Reservation for Jat

Jat leaders has welcomed the decision of the Union Cabinet to include Jats in nine states in the central list of Other Backward Classes and said the move will help youths from the community in getting jobs.
Ghatwalakhap council head Harkishan Singh Malik and Balyankhap council head NareshTikait said it was the best gift for the Jat community and would help them in employment and improve their living standards.
The Union Cabinet has approved the inclusion of the Jat community in the Central list of OBCs for the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarrakhand, Uttar Pradesh and the National capital territory of Delhi.

Provision of NOTA in general elections

Voters will be able to exercise the “None of the Above” (NOTA) option for candidates in the upcoming LokSabha polls.
Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath said the entire election will be held using electronic voting machines (EVMs), and that the NOTA option will also be provided.
The option was first made available in the November-December assembly polls in five states last year.

LokSabha elections, 2014

The Election Commission has announced a nine-phase poll for the 16th LokSabha from April 7 to May 12. The counting of votes will be taken up on May 16. The model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect. The LokSabha has a strength of 543 (excluding two nominated members) and the term of the present 15th LokSabha ends on May 31.
The nine phases of polls are to be held on: April 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 24, 30, May 7 and May 12.
The elections to the 294-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly will be held on April 30 and May 7 along with the respective LokSabha constituencies in the State.
It will be three phase poll in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, two phases in Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Odisha, Rajasthan and Tripura. All the remaining States and the Union Territories wil have a single phase poll.

Arunachal assembly polls

Elections to the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh assembly will be held along with LokSabha polls on April 9.
The decision of the poll body came days after state governor Lt Gen (Retd) Nirbhay Singh recommended dissolution of the state assembly on March 6.
LokSabha elections for the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh will also be held on April 9.
The tenure of the 60-member Arunachal assembly ends on November 4 this year.
The notification for the assembly polls will be announced on March 15 while nominations can be filed till march 22.
The Commission had on March 5 announced the schedule for elections to the 16th LokSabha and assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim.

Human development indicators improve in BIMARU States

Human development indicators across the poorer States with a high concentration of marginalised groups are catching up with the national average, according to the latest figures released by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR) under the Planning Commission. The data suggest that these socially disadvantaged groups are starting to share benefits of the process of human development.
However, when comparing the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes with Muslims in terms of human development input and outcome indicators, Muslims have consistently improved better than other marginalised groups.
The eight poorer States — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand — are home to nearly 48 per cent of all the SCs, 52 per cent of all the STs and 44 per cent of all Muslims in the country.
The report — an updated version of the Human Development Report-2011: Towards Social Inclusion — ranks Delhi, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab among the best performing States in human development indicators, while Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha are the worst performers. Most other States, including Gujarat, have more or less remained the same.

Third gender

An expert committee has recommended that ‘transgender’ be declared the third gender, with the individual having the right to choose gender, and has asked the government to prepare a law to prevent discrimination and atrocities against these people.
Importantly, it has asked the National Crime Records Bureau to collect and compile statistics of crimes against transgender persons and cases registered against them.
The committee, set up by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment last year and chaired by the Additional Secretary of the Ministry, has said action must be taken against parents who neglect or abuse their gender non-conforming children and doctors who practise electro-shock or other kinds of unethical “conversion” therapy.
Criminal and disciplinary action must be taken against delinquent police officers for violation of human rights of transgender persons.
Its report, submitted a few weeks after the Supreme Court criminalised same gender consensual sex, wanted laws against sexual assault and harassment and domestic violence made transgender-inclusive. Now Section 375 of the IPC, as amended, does not cover the transgender persons as victims of sexual assault. Section 375 should be included to cover sexual assault on them.

Fossil India

Fossil India, a subsidiary of American luxury brand Fossil Inc, which recently opened its first single brand retail store after being cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board last year, is ‘bullish on manufacturing’ in India.
Among the first four companies to be allowed to set up wholly-owned ventures, after the government allowed 100 per cent FDI in 2012, Fossil India plans to ramp up its manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh to produce at least five lakh watches by the end of the year (both for exports and domestic sales).
‘AQUATM’
Residents of Mumbai can now buy water from an ‘ATM’, that too at an affordable price of Rs 1 per litre.
In a first-of-its-kind for Mumbaikars, non-profit group Vandana Foundation had started ‘AQUATM’, a water vending machine. It can be operated through prepaid cards.
The ATM can vend up to 1,000 litres per day.
The vending machine has been set up at Mankhurd where there are water contamination problems.

India Human Development Survey

According to a survey conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research, four out of ten women in India still have no say in their marriage, eight out of ten need permission to visit a doctor, six out of ten practise some form of head covering, and the average Indian household gives over Rs. 30,000 in dowry.
The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) conducts the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), the largest household survey in India after the government's Nation Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) surveys, and the NCAER is the only independent body that conducts such large-sample panel surveys.
The data shows that India has made progress in child marriage, with 48% of women over 25 reporting in 2011-12 that they were married before the age of 18 as opposed to 60% in 2004-5. The average number of children that women (over 40) reported they had had has also come down slightly to 3.55, indicating that fertility is falling. The practice of marrying a cousin or relative – more common in the south than the north – is becoming less common, but over 20% in Andhra Pradesh and Karnata still marry relatives.
However, women's autonomy remains severely constrained. 41% of women had no say in their marriage and just 18% knew their husbands before marriage, a statistic that has not improved. Women's say in marriage rose with their level of education, with income and with level of urbanisation and the southern states did better.
The average Indian family gives over Rs. 30,000 in cash as dowry and 40% admitted to giving large items like TVs and cars as dowry. The practise of giving large items as dowry was most common among forward caste Hindus and lowest among Muslims. Wedding expenses ranged from nearly Rs 1 lakh in the poorest village to Rs 1.7 lakh in small cities, a big jump over the 2004-5 survey. Kerala and Delhi had the most expensive weddings.

Amnesty report

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected the mercy petitions of 18 prisoners on death row in 2013, the highest number of rejections by any President in the last 25 years, according to Amnesty International’s annual review of the death penalty worldwide.Only one execution took place in India – that of Mohammad Afzal Guru in February last year.
Amnesty has raised concerns about the fairness of Afzal Guru’s trial, noting that he did not receive legal representation of his choice or a lawyer with adequate experience at the trial stage.
Despite a marked global trend towards the abolition of the death sentence, the pattern was disrupted by a sharp spike in the number of executions in Iran (369) and Iraq (169) in 2013, leading to a 15 per cent increase in the global figure for executions as compared to 2012.
Amnesty International says that it stopped publishing Chinese execution numbers from 2009 in protest against the Chinese government’s refusal to provide the organisation with figures.
Nevertheless, it claims China accounts for the single largest number of executions, running “into thousands.”
Significantly, the USA is the only country to have carried out executions in the Americas, although the numbers fell by four between 2012 and 2013 that saw 39 executions.
There were 3108 people on death row last year, with Texas accounting for 41 per cent of all executions in the country.

EC’s intervention in gas price hike

After the AamAadmi Party (AAP) sought the Election Commission’s intervention in stalling the gas price hike from April 1, the poll panel has sought details from the government on the proposed increase.
Earlier, the Commission had said that it has taken note of AAP leader ArvindKejriwal’s complaint that on a proposal by Reliance Industries, the Petroleum Ministry is going to hike gas prices from April 1.
Mr. Kejriwal had in a letter to EC termed the gas price hike as violation of the model code of conduct and alleged that the decision was aimed at providing windfall gains to Reliance Industries.
However, petroleum minister VeerappaMoily has made it clear that the government will not go back on its decision to hike rates from April 1.
Odisha’s ‘special category status’
BahujanSamaj Party, if voted to power, will accord special category status to Odisha.
Addressing BahujanSamaj Party’s first ever State-level election rally here, Ms. Mayawati lambasted Congress and other parties, who were in power at Centre, saying these parties were responsible for the backwardness prevailing in the country.
The BahujanSamaj Party further said the regions that lag behind in different development parameters will be given attention on priority basis.

CBI to submit reports to CVC

The CBI will submit reports on investigations against 20 companies, as part of the preliminary enquiries instituted into the coal block allocations scam to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), for a review following a Supreme Court directive.
Few days ago, the court had directed the CVC to review the 20 cases, asking the CBI to submit the reports to the Commission within five days.
The apex court has also asked the CVC to review the cases against two companies — Vikas Metals Private Limited and Kamal Sponge and Power Private Limited — in which the CBI has filed closure reports.
This after the CBI Deputy Inspector-General Ravi Kant Sharma, who is supervising investigations into the coal block allocation cases, submitted before the Supreme Court that he wanted to file charge sheets against the two companies. The probe against 20 other firms under scrutiny for alleged irregularities in allotment of coal blocks was closed despite some officials’ opinion that it should have been carried further.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court directed the CVC to look into these cases and submit its recommendations within four weeks. The CBI has so far registered five preliminary enquiries, including the two in connection with the missing coal block allocations-related files. While 18 cases have been registered, the agency has filed charge sheets in two cases.
The agency has registered two latest cases against Prakash Industries and Central Collieries.

NCAER survey

Families with an annual income of Rs 1.5 lakh are among the richest 20 per cent in the country, data from the 2011-12 round of India Human Development Survey (IHDS) conducted by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) shows.
While incomes have grown considerably in the last seven years, access to adequate public services is still severely lacking, says the data collected from 42,000 households across the country.
The NCAER, is the only research organisation with a large sample survey to estimate household income. The government’s National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) collects data on consumption expenditure, which is often used as a proxy for income.
The situation on the public services front is still grim. Piped water available indoors has grown by only 2% and is now available to 27% households. In urban areas, piped water is available to between half and two-thirds of families. Of families which get piped water, less than a third get three hours of supply a day.
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Delhi have the highest coverage of families for piped water (60%). Delhi gives its residents water for the most number of hours in a day.
Flush toilets are now accessible to one-third of all households and over two-thirds of urban households. Toilet coverage is the highest in Kerala (92%), Delhi (79%) and Punjab (74%).
Access to electricity is inching towards becoming universal with 83 per cent of all households getting supply. Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi have 100% access to ‘some electricity’. No State had reached this milestone in 2004-05. Just 45% households with access to power get 18 hours or more of electricity in the day. Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi and Gujarat lead the country in terms of supply of 18 hours or more.

Cobrapost’ sting

The sting operation carried out by `Cobrapost’ giving details of alleged conspiracy by right-wing organisations to bring down Babri Masjid in 1992 has no evidentiary value for CBI as it has already completed the investigation.
Highly placed sources of the agency said investigation in the cases has been completed after collecting all the legally tenable evidence based on which the cases are at trial stage.
They said the so-called revelations made by Cobrapost prima facie do not look to be legally tenable evidence.
There are two sets of cases -- one against BJP leader L K Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya in December 1992 when Babri Masjid was demolished, while the other case is against lakhs of unknown ‘karsevaks’ who were in and around the disputed structure.
The amendment to Representation of the People Act
The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on a petition challenging the amendment introduced to Section 62 (5) of the Representation of the People Act to treat persons in lawful custody in a criminal case as voters and allow them to contest elections.
A Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde issued the notice on the petition filed by advocate ManoharLal Sharma against a Delhi High Court order rejecting his plea.
Section 62 (5) of the Representation of the People Act says: “No person shall vote in any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police, provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to a person subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being in force.”