(General Awareness For Bank's Exams) National Events

August - 2014

Govt. to consider UPSC exam in all 8th Schedule language

• The Centre on said there was “force” in the argument that the Civil Services Examination should be conducted in all languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and assured the Lok Sabha that this demand would be considered.
•  At present, while question papers are set in English and Hindi and the main examination can be attempted in any language in the Eighth Schedule, the preliminary examination are available only in English and Hindi.
•  As protests continued within and outside Parliament over the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT), the government reiterated that the preliminary examination would be held as scheduled on August 24.
•  The Union Public Service Commission is yet to clear the air on whether it has accepted the government’s view that the English comprehension skill component of CSAT — paper II of the prelims — should not be counted for merit or gradation, and how this will be implemented.

e-rickshaws finally get the legal stamp

•  The Delhi High Court advised the Delhi Government to organise camps for registration of e-rickshaws to protect the operators from further loss of earnings.
•  However, it refused to lift the ban on them plying on the Capital’s roads till the drivers have licences, registration certificates and insurance papers in their possession.
•  Filing the draft guidelines to regulate the battery-operated rickshaws, the Centre sought two months to finalise and notify them and urged the Court to let the vehicles ply during the this period. But the Court declined.

Committee set up to review Parliament security

•  Security of Parliament, which was targeted by terrorists 13 years back, is set to be strengthened further with a special committee being set up to suggest measures for it within a month.
•  The committee will be headed by former Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh and will include former Rajasthan DGP Harish Chandra Meena and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh.
•  The committee would give suggestions on training, adequacy of manpower and other relevant issues. It would also review all security equipments installed and future projections for further strengthening security.
•  In the previous Lok Sabha, a committee on security in Parliament complex, headed by then Deputy Speaker Karia Munda, was set up in the aftermath of the pepper spray attack inside Lok Sabha by a Congress MP that sparked massive outrage.
•  This committee had examined security-related matters, which also included ways to prevent bringing of dangerous and life-threatening material into the chamber of the House by the Members of Parliament themselves..

Government issues alert for early detection of Ebola Virus

•  Union Govt. told Parliament that advisories were issued to the State Disease Surveillance Units to be on alert for early detection and management of travel related Ebola virus cases reported from the community.
•  In view of the reports of outbreak of the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria in West Africa, Govt. recommended that non-essential travel to these countries be deferred till such time that the situation is brought under control.
•  Though there is no vaccine or curative therapy for this disease, outbreaks can be contained through early detection and isolation of cases, contact tracing and monitoring, and following rigorous procedures for infection control.

Government to auction coal mines after obtaining necessary approvals

•  The government will auction captive coal mines to companies engaged in production of steel, cement and sponge iron after obtaining necessary clearances and detailed exploration of the blocks.
•  Notice Inviting application was issued on February 26, 2014, offering three coal blocks for mining to companies engaged in production of steel, cement and sponge iron.
•  The Ministry of Coal had offered three blocks for auction for captive use for steel, cement and sponge iron companies — two in Jharkhand and one in West Bengal. The mines have total reserves of 500 million tonnes.
•  Official auditor CAG had earlier said allotment of 57 mines to private firms without auction had resulted in a notional loss of Rs. 1.8 lakh crore to the exchequer.
•  Last year, the government had allocated 17 coal mines to Central and State public sector units, including four to NTPC. It had planned to auction 54 coal blocks with total estimated reserves of about 18 billion tonnes.

SC agrees to hear plea on extending legal limit on abortion

•  The Supreme Court to hear detailed arguments on a petition seeking to extend the legal limit on abortion under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (1971).
•  The petition was filed by the NGO, Human Rights Law Network, on behalf of two women identified as only Mrs. X and Mrs. Y, who suffered pain and indignity caused by the 20-week limit on medical termination of pregnancy.
•  The petition said this limit extends to even cases of severe fetal abnormalities, forcing women to carry pregnancies to term even where the foetus may not survive delivery.

New Education Policy on the anvil: Smriti

•  Government is formulating a new Education Policy aimed at meeting the challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in educational institutions.
•  Education being a subject in the Concurrent List of 7th Schedule of the Constitution, the responsibility of education lies primarily with the State Governments.
•  However, all States will be advised to develop syllabi and Text Books keeping in view the New Education Policy, taking into consideration State specific concerns.
•  The National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986, as amended in 1992, has been the guiding document for the policies of the Central Government in the education sector.
•  In the last twenty years, the education scenario has been a monumental change with the emergence of several new paradigms like rights based approach to elementary education, the endeavour to extend universalization to secondary education, reshape the higher education scenario and its impact on the innovation environment and providing an impetus to skill development through vocational education.

India’s first moored observatory deployed in Arctic

•  Country’s first multi-sensor moored observatory IndARC was successfully deployed in Kongsfjorden Fjord of the Arctic roughly halfway between North Pole and Norway.
•  This observatory, designed and developed by ESSO-NIOT and ESSO-NCAOR with ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, was deployed from the Norwegian Polar Institute’s research vessel R.V. Lance.
• A team of scientists from the Earth System Science Organisation-National Institute of Ocean Technology (ESSO-NIOT) Chennai and ESSO-National Centre for Antartic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) termed the same as a milestone in India’s scientific endeavours in the Arctic region.

Centre constitutes committee to look into changes in Lokpal rules

•  A committee under the chairmanship of the Attorney General (AG) has been formed by the Centre to look into the amendments in Lokpal search panel rules, which were notified by the last United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
• The search panel is mandated to recommend names for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal. This panel has faced some objection in the past, the search panel has to choose these persons from among the panel provided by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
•  As per the existing rules, an eight-member search panel is tasked to draw up a panel of persons for consideration by the selection committee led by the Prime Minister for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal.
•  The government is likely to empower the search committee to also include people from outside the list to be provided by the DoPT for consideration by the selection committee.

PM hopes to link lives across open borders

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to open a new chapter in India-Nepal relations , while hoping to connect lives across our open borders seamlessly.
•  Mr. Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to pay a bilateral visit to Kathmandu in 17 years. The visit is significant, given he will return to Kathmandu later this year for the SAARC Summit.
•  In his statement, Mr. Modi outlined the areas he hoped to forge agreements on: “trade and investment, hydropower, agriculture, environment, tourism, education, culture and sports.”
•  The two sides are expected to announce a power trading agreement, which will lead to the signing of a 900-MW hydropower agreement during the visit

Modi offers $1-bn package to Nepal

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed India’s commitment and assistance to Nepal’s development and promising to take the two countries’ relations to a new height.
•  Mr. Modi referred to the Nepal-India relationship as “older than the Himalayas and the Ganga,” even as he announced a $1 billion Line of Credit for Nepal’s infrastructure development. Mr. Modi also promised to help Nepal in the field of hydropower, infrastructure, space technology and agriculture.
•  He assured that the work on Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project would begin in a year. After years of negotiations, work on this joint venture project has not begun. Nepal could prosper by selling electricity to India.
•  The Indian Prime Minister assured Mr. Koirala that the ongoing peace process in Nepal was entirely a Nepali matter and should be concluded as per Nepal’s requirements.
•  In the presence of the two Prime Ministers, the officials signed three memorandum of understanding (MoU) – tourism development in Nepal, Goitre Control Programme in Nepal, and co-operation between the state-controlled television channels – Doordarshan and Nepal Television (NTV). They also exchanged terms of reference (ToR) on Pancheshwar Development Authority.
•  Mr. Modi would offer prayers at the Pahuspati Temple on Monday before heading to the President’s Office to meet President Dr Ram Baran Yadav.

Move to scrap Planning Commission raises Constitutional questions

•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to scrap the Planning Commission has raised administrative and Constitutional questions that the Centre will have to address in the coming days.
•  The first of these is what happens to the ongoing 12th Five Year Plan? “The 12th Plan is an ideologically-neutral, NDC-approved, growth policy document with inclusion and sustainability as its pillars and technically the Centre cannot on its own decide to junk it,” a high-level source said.
•  Second, since indications are that the role of making plan allocations to States for development spending will be transferred to the Finance Ministry, there are likely to be implications of this for India’s federal system. Will the States, especially those governed by the Opposition parties, readily accept allocations from the Union Finance Ministry is the question, says Y.K. Alagh, who was Planning Minister in the Deve Gowda government.

Crowd-sourced ad for I&B Ministry

•  The idea behind this exercise is to involve people in governance and bridge the divide between the rulers and the ruled.
•  With this same end in view, the Human Resource Development Ministry has recently launched an internship programme where college and research students can work in various education departments and help in policy formulation.
•  According to the Ministry, it got 1,000 entries of which 10 were shortlisted by a panel of field experts, artists and academics.
•  This is the second time that a Ministry has crowd-sourced an advertisement for an occasion, the first instance was on World Day to Combat Desertification on the request of Environment and Forests Ministry
  Google ‘polluted Internet’ with classified material: Survey of India
•  Surveyor General of India Swarna Subba Rao has alleged that the Internet giant did not refrain from mentioning classified sites even after having been asked not to do so.
•  The Survey of India, India’s national survey and mapping organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, is the complainant in the case. After initial probe by the Delhi Police, the case was handed over to the CBI as the investigation involved a company which is based in the US.
•  Google had not taken permission from SoI before organising a mapping competition in February-March 2013 in which they asked citizens to map their neighbourhoods, especially details related to hospitals and restaurants.
•  As per the National Map Policy 2005, “the responsibility for producing, maintaining and disseminating the topographic map database of the whole country, which is the foundation of all spatial data, vests with the Survey of India”.
•  It was alleged that Google India had launched a nationwide contest and people might have passed on maps and other key details of strategic installations located in other cities and states to the U.S. company, the sources added.
•  For SoI, it was clarified that the company never took any permission before undertaking the mapping exercise, and from national security point of view, civil and military Vital Areas, Vital Points (VPs) cannot be shown in the map/data published in public domain

Women’s quota Bill lapses due to lack of consensus

•  Dashing the hopes of women and all other sections who espoused the cause, the Women’s Reservation Bill has lapsed. After being passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, the Bill, which provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies, was sent to the Lok Sabha for approval, but did not see the light of the day for lack of political consensus and will.
•  Article 107 (5) of the Constitution states: A Bill which is pending in the House of People or which having being passed by the House of the People is pending in the Council of States shall, subject to provisions of Article 108 (joint sitting of both the Houses), lapse on a dissolution of the House of People.
•  The Bill was approved in the Rajya Sabha after unprecedented pandemonium leaving the Chairman with no option but to suspend seven members of the RJD and the Samajwadi Party who were adamant on stalling it at any cost.
•  It would now be an uphill task for the NDA to take up the initiative particularly as it is woefully short of majority in the Rajya Sabha for passage of a controversial constitutional amendment Bill.

DGCA issues Ebola advisory for airlines

•  DGCA will monitor whether airlines are keeping a record of all passengers who are returning to India after staying or transiting through four West African countries.
•  With airlines forming the first line of defence against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in India, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has become active in enforcing Government guidelines in this respect.
•  In particular, the DGCA will monitor whether airlines are keeping a record of all passengers who are returning to India after staying or transiting through four West African countries and are passing on the information to Airport Health Officers. This will be tallied against Indian missions in these countries sending in advance details of passengers boarding from the affected countries.
•  The DGCA has also supplied airlines with an announcement format that has to be included in in-flight announcements. The accent is on self reporting by passengers whose symptoms match with the onset of EVD.
•  Passengers are also being provided with a form in which they have to fill their health details in case they have visited any of the four EVD hit countries over the past three weeks.
•  For people heading out to West Africa, the advice is to avoid travel to the EVD affected countries if they are suffering from flue or taking medicines to combat an infectious disease. This is because in both cases there is a weakening of immunity making the person more susceptible to EVD. They will also be asked to avoid visiting hospitals treating EVD affected patients

Six-member National Judicial Commission to select judges for higher courts

• The Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014 passed in the Lok Sabha provides for setting up of a six-member National Judicial Commission to select and recommend judges to the High Courts and Supreme Court.
•  The Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill, 2014 and the ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill’ seek to give constitutional status to the NJC, comprising the Chief Justice of India (Chairperson); two other senior-most judges of the Supreme Court; the Union Law Minister and two eminent persons to be nominated by the Prime Minister, the CJI and the Leader of Opposition of the Lok Sabha. One of the eminent persons shall be nominated from amongst the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities or women.
• The object of constituting the Commission is to enable participation of judiciary, executive and eminent persons and will ensure greater transparency, accountability and objectivity in the appointment of judges to higher judiciary.
•  On the recommendations of the Commission, the President will appoint the High Court and Supreme Court judges. However, if for some reason, the President requests the Commission to reconsider certain recommendations and the recommendation is reiterated the President is bound to make the appointment.
•  The Bill mandates the Commission to make regulations specifying the criteria of suitability with respect to the appointment of Judges of High Courts and Supreme Court, the procedure and conditions for selection and procedure for transfer of judges from one High Court to another.

BJP may extend Parliament Session to enable passage of bills

•  The current Session of Parliament may be extended to enable the passage of bills, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu told BJP MPs .
•  Government is keen to get important bills passed like the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, Apprentices (Amendment) Bill, Constitution (121st Amendment) Bill, Repealing and Amending Bill, Factories (Amendment) Bill, the Insurance Bill, the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill and the Labour Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining Registers by Certain Establishments) Amendment Bill.

India ranked 5th amongst top 10 wind power producers: Report

•  India ranked fifth amongst top ten wind power producers in the world by adding 1,700 MW capacity in 2013, a report said.
•  “China was the leading wind power producer by adding 16,100 MW capacity in 2013, followed by USA, Germany and Spain,” Renewables 2014 Global Status Report said.
•  By the end of 2013, China, the US, Brazil, Canada and Germany remained the top countries for total installed renewable power capacity, the report said.
•  According to the report, over the past few years the costs of electricity generation from onshore wind and particularly solar PV (photo-voltaic) have fallen sharply which has resulted in an increase in wind and solar power projects being built without public financial support.
•  In terms of annual investment in the wind energy sector and production, China ranked number one followed by Germany, UK, India and Canada.
•  Worldwide more than 35,000 MW wind power capacity was added taking the total number to 3,18,000 MW in 2013 to which India contributed 1,700 MW.

Aircel launches 4G services in Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir

•  Telecom operator Aircel on Monday launched 4G services in Tamil Nadu and Jammu & Kashmir, becoming the only private telecom operator to offer all the three existing technologies of 2G, 3G and 4G in these markets.
•  Aircel holds 20 MHz of spectrum in the 2,300 MHz band, called broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, across eight circles — Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and North East and Jammu & Kashmir.
•  This spectrum can be used for 4G services. Aircel is the second company in India, after Airtel, to launch 4G services using LTE technology.
•  Aircel now is left with two service areas — West Bengal and North East — where it has to start services using BWA spectrum.
•  As per rules, 2015 is the last year for all companies who won BWA spectrum to roll out services in at least 90 per cent of the service areas, failing which the Department of Telecom will have the right to withdraw the radio waves.
•  The licensee will have to ensure that at least half the areas under rural telecom exchanges get the required street level coverage.
•  Other holders of this spectrum include Reliance JioInfocomm, Tikona Digital and Augere, who are yet to start their services.

Arvind enters e-commerce space

•  Textile and apparel retailer Arvind announced that its in-house start-up venture, Arvind Internet Ltd., will set up an e-commerce site, which will sell customised apparel under the brand Creyate.
•  KulinLalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind, said that the company saw e-commerce as a key growth driver.
•  The company aims at garnering revenues of over Rs.1,000crore in three years.
•  Part of the road map for this are plans to launch stores in 15 cities across the country by the end of this year. At present, the retailer has stores in Bangalore, Delhi and Ahmedabad.

India confident of solution to food security issue at WTO

•  India said both the issues of permanent protection for its minimum support prices for food grain procurement from farmers against dated caps of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a Trade Facilitation deal were likely to be resolved with talks resuming in Geneva next month.
•  India will remain firm on its stand that the setting up of a work programme for finding a permanent solution on the food grain stock pile issue should be the pre-requisite for approving the trade facilitation agreement (TFA).
•  Despite the missed TFA protocol deadline, the officials clarified, the interim Peace Clause (PC) will continue to be in place.
•  The PC provides protection against the WTO farm caps until a permanent solution is found.

Modi invites ideas on new body to replace plan panel

•  “We need a new body with a new soul. We will have to think about giving a new shape to the Planning Commission,” Mr. Modi had said in his August 15 address.
•  Modi tweeted, “Inviting you to share your ideas on what shape the new institution to replace the Planning Commission can take. A special Open Forum has been created on my government website for suggestions on the new institution. Let the ideas flow.”
•  “We envision the proposed institution as one that caters to the aspirations of 21st century India and strengthens participation of the States,” he added. The tweet also had a link through which people can put forward their suggestions.
•  Among the first to react to the tweet was former MP and economist N.K. Singh: “Making Planning Commission a Reforms Commission casts a new obligation for initiating innovative ideas on economic and social reforms. No other government had the zest to restructure Planning Commission, which has outlived its utility and fallen out of sync with economic realities.”

New ad norms for skin lightening products

• The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a self-regulatory body, has released a set of guidelines for advertising skin lightening and fairness products in India. It had circulated draft guidelines in June 2014.
•  The final guidelines are based on industry and public feedback. As per the new guidelines, advertising should not communicate any discrimination as a result of skin colour. “These ads should not reinforce negative social stereotyping on the basis of skin colour.”
•  “These ads should not portray people with darker skin in a way which is widely seen as at a disadvantage of any kind, or inferior, or unsuccessful in any aspect of life particularly in relation to being attractive to the opposite sex, matrimony, job placement, promotions and other prospects.”
•  Further, in the pre-usage depiction of product, special care should be taken to ensure that “the expression of the model/s in the real and graphical representation should not be negative in a way which is widely seen as unattractive, unhappy, depressed or concerned.”
•  ASCI guidelines say that advertising should not associate darker or lighter colour skin with any particular socio-economic strata, caste, community, religion, profession or ethnicity and advertising “should not perpetuate gender based discrimination because of skin colour.”

Govt. to observe "SadbhavnaDiwas"

•  The Union Government will continue with the 22-year-long tradition of observing the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as “SadbhavanaDiwas” on August 20.
•  The theme of “SadbhavanaDiwas”, which is celebrated across the country every year, is to promote national integration and communal harmony and spread the message of goodwill towards everyone and eschewing violence.

Can’t regulate coaching centres, Centre tells SC

•  The Ministry of Human Resource and Development told the Supreme Court that it is not responsible for “regulating or controlling” unrecognised private entrance coaching centres mushrooming across the country.
•  Instead, the ministry, in an affidavit filed before a Bench led by Justice H.L. Dattu , said its Constitutional duty is only limited to the “co-ordination and determination of standards” in institutions of higher learning and research.
•  The Ministry said it is actually the respective State governments’ duty to keep an eye on these coaching centres.
•  The affidavit was filed in a public interest petition by Students Federation of India, students' wing of the CPI(M) party, asking the Centre to regulate the functioning of “unrecognised” centres functioning in an “institutionalised” way in the name of preparing students for admission to IITs and medical colleges.

World’s first ‘green’ Hindu temple opened in UK

• A Hindu temple, claimed to be the world’s first ‘eco-temple’ featuring solar panels and a rainwater harvesting system, has been opened in northwest London in the UK.
•  The ornate 20 million pounds ‘Shree SwaminarayanMandir’ in Kingsbury combines traditional Indian architecture and carvings with ‘green’ technology.
•  It also features solar panels on the roof and a rainwater harvesting system.
•  The temple blends traditional Indian architecture, intricate carvings and masterful artistry with green technologies to create what is believed to be the world’s first ‘eco-temple’ by design.

No LoP post for Congress: Speaker

•  LokSabha Speaker SumitraMahajan has written to the Congress that neither “rules” nor “tradition” permits her to accede to the party’s demand for the post of Leader of the Opposition as it had failed to win at least 10 per cent of the seats in the House.
•  The Speaker’s decision came in response to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s letter to her, seeking the post for MallikarjunKharge, the party’s leader in the LokSabha.

SC to interpret LoP provision for Lokpal selection

• The Supreme Court asked the Centre to decide by September 9 on the status of Leader of Opposition (to represent the Lokpal Selection committee) and made it clear that the Lokpal legislation could not be put into cold storage.
•  Time and again the CJI has been stressing the importance of striking a balance in separation of powers among the various organs of the Judiciary, Executive and the Legislature. The CJI’s observations on the role and status of LoP assume significance in this context.

India blocks film on Indira Gandhi assassination

•  India has blocked the release of a film on the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, saying it glorifies her killers and could trigger violent protests.
•  The film certification board says that the movie glorified the two Sikh bodyguards who killed Gandhi to avenge her suppression of an insurgency that culminated in an army assault on Sikhism’s holiest shrine.
•  The film “Kaum De Heere,” or Diamonds of the Community, was scheduled to be released.
•  Certification board Chief Leela Samson says panel members saw the film and decided it could not be released as it poses a threat to public order.

Foreign funding: SC notice to Centre

•  The Supreme Court refused to stay a Delhi High Court judgment directing initiation of action against political parties including the Congress party on receipt of funds from foreign companies for election campaign.
•  Acting on a public interest writ petition, the Delhi high court had found prima facie violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and said as the donations accepted by the political parties from Sterlite Industries and Sesa accrued from foreign sources within the meaning of law.

PM Modi's Digital India project: Government to ensure that every Indian has smartphone by 2019

•  The Digital India project that aims to offer a one-stop shop for government services would use the mobile phone as the backbone of its delivery mechanism.
•  The government hopes the Rs 1.13-lakh crore initiative that seeks to transform India into a connected economy to also attract investment in electronics manufacturing, create millions of jobs and support trade.
  PMO now a strategic HR manager, to analyse officials’ skills to fill up top vacancies
•  Over the past fortnight, two senior bureaucrats, recently empanelled as secretaries to the government of India, were surprised when they got a call from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
•  They were asked about their areas of interest and the departments they might be interested in handling as and when an opening comes up.

Coal block allocations since 1993 illegal: SC

•  The Supreme Court pulled up the Centre on coal block allocations and declared all 218 allocations made from 1993 to 2011 illegal and arbitrary.
•  A Bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justices Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph said the entire allocation of coal blocks as recommended by the Screening Committee from July 14, 1993, in 36 meetings and the allocation made through the government dispensation route suffered from the vice of arbitrariness and legal flaws.
•  In February 2012, the court ordered the cancellation of spectrum allocations and directed fresh auction.
•  The Bench said the consequences of declaring the allocations illegal would be considered on September 1 taking into account the investments made by companies for various projects and the procedure to be adopted for cancellation.

SC terms pleas against NJAC premature

• The Supreme Court has said it is “premature” to interrupt the ongoing legislative process and examine the constitutionality of the Constitution amendment and National Judicial Appointments Commission Bills before they were made law.
•  The Court refused to entertain a bunch of public interest litigation pleas.

Right to travel abroad is no ‘absolute right’

•  The ‘right to travel abroad’ is a fundamental right, but it is “not an absolute one,” and it is subject to certain limitations, the Madras High Court has said.
•  Justice M. Venugopal made the observation in response to a contention by an accused, charge-sheeted by the CBI in a serious crime, that no one could be deprived of his or her right to travel abroad under Article 21 of the Constitution, except according to the procedure established by law.
•  Dismissing the petition, Mr. Justice Venugopal said the right to go abroad was an individual’s personal liberty. There was no order to impound the petitioner’s passport.
  DoPT to notify amendments to Lokpal search panel mandate
•  The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) may soon issue a notification regarding amendments to the mandate of the Lokpal Search Committee for recommendations of candidates for the appointment of the Lokpal.
•  Following allegations of a flawed selection procedure, the government had earlier decided to amend the selection rules framed under the Lokpal Act.
•  The amendments were to be carried out in consonance with the report of a three-member committee set up by Prime Minister NarendraModi.

Child rights panel vacancies remain unfilled

•  Six important vacancies in the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) have been unfilled since the past ten months.
•  The panel currently needs to fill posts for Member (Education), Member (Child Health, Care, Welfare or Child Development) Member (Juvenile Justice or Care of neglected or marginalised children or children with disabilities), Member (elimination of child labour or children in distress), Member (child psychology or sociology) and Member (laws relating to children).
•  There are four other vacancies, including those of Deputy Superintendent of Police and inspector.

Set minimum qualification for MPs, MLAs: SC

•  The time has come for Parliament to prescribe some minimum qualifications for arliamentarians/Legislators as prescribed in other fields, the Supreme Court observed.
•  Justice MadanLokur, in his separate but concurring judgment on the PIL filed in 2005 seeking removal of tainted Ministers, recalled the words of the first President, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, in the Constituent Assembly that he would have liked to have some qualifications laid down for Members of Legislatures.

Aadhaar not mandatory

• Opening a savings bank account just got easier and faster. With the launch of PradhanMantri Jan DhanYojana, customers can walk into a public or private sector bank with their Aadhaar card and open a zero-balance SB account instantly. But Aadhaar is not mandatory.
•  A National Payment Corporation of India platform is being built to enable customers to access their accounts on mobile devices.

No review of nuclear doctrine, says PM

•  India will not review its nuclear doctrine adopted during the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, Prime Minister NarendraModi said.
• The Prime Minister said Delhi would continue to work for the strengthening of non-proliferation efforts.
•  “As to the CTBT [Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty], we are committed to maintaining a unilateral and voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing,” he said in advance of discussing civil nuclear cooperation with Japan.

PM’s Yojana faces access deficit

•  For Prime Minister NarendraModi’s newly launched Jan DhanYojana to be successful, India needs to provide over 100 million households access to banks, data show.
•  An even harder step, however, is likely to be access to credit.
•  As of March 2012, the most recent year for which relevant Reserve Bank of India (RBI) statistics are available, India had over 900 million deposit accounts. Of these, over 770 million were in the names of individuals.

New panel to probe IGNOU functioning

•  A ‘Visitorial Committee’ has been set up by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry under the convenorship of former Indian Institute of Science Director Goverdhan Mehta to look into the functioning of Indira Gandhi National Open University from 2006.
•  The committee will look into the massive expansion that was undertaken during the Vice-Chancellorship of V.N. RajasekharanPillai and the subsequent closure of a large number of courses during the current regime of M. Aslam.
•  The three-member committee will examine all aspects of IGNOU’s decision to enter into MoUs and MoAs with organisations for imparting programmes and courses “leading to dilution of standards of education through distance and open learning.”
•  Financial irregularities in the grant of recognitions will be scrutinised, so also the conduct of both serving and former officials.
•  The committee has also been asked to address the problem of those students who have completed their courses but are awaiting their degrees/diplomas.

Tribunal stays CCI order on Adani Gas

• The Competition Appellate Tribunal has stayed Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) Rs.25- crorepenalty and modification of the gas sale contract order against Adani Gas Ltd., the city gas distribution arm of Ahmedabad-based Adani Group.
• In July, the Fair trade watchdog had slapped a fine of Rs.25.67 crore on Adani Gas for violating competition norms by abusing its dominant market position.
•  Adani Gas is a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, which is a part of the diversified Adani Group.
•  The Commission’s ruling had come on a case related to supply and distribution of natural gas by Adani Gas Ltd. in Faridabad.
  
   

  Click Here to Buy General Awareness Magazine for IBPS, Bank Exams

  <<Go Back To Main Page