Category: All Current Affairs

Lt General S K Saini Appointed as Vice Chief of Indian Army

General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Command Lt General Satinder Kumar Saini relinquished the command of Southern Army. He has been appointed the Vice-Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army. The post fell vacant after Lt Gen MM Naravane was elevated to the post of Chief of Army Staff.

The appointment was made by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) headed by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat and this was the first order of a senior military appointment made through DMA.

He had also served as the Deputy Chief Military Personnel Officer in UN Mission in Iraq, attended an exercise on peacekeeping conducted by the Global Peace Operations initiative in Mongolia and a counter-terrorism exercise in Australia.

Besides, the commander has played a crucial role in undertaking massive flood relief and rescue operations in 34 districts spread over five states, including Maharashtra. Over 45,000 people of these states were moved to safe locations during the operations.

New appointments as Joint Secretaries in various departments

The Centre appointed senior bureaucrats Rajeev Singh Thakur and Shantanu as Joint Secretaries in the newly-created Department of Military Affairs headed by Chief of Defence Staff, CDS General Bipin Rawat. Rajiv S Thakur, a 1995 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan Cadre will have a tenure till December 2022 while Shantanu, a 1997 batch Tripura Cadre IAS officer has been appointed to the post till March 2024.

A total of 31 IAS officers have been appointed as Joint Secretaries in different Central Government departments which includes:

• Odisha Cadre IAS officer Vishal Gagan will be Joint Secretary of Department of Defence for a tenure of five years.
• Assam Cadre  officer Ashutosh Agnihotri has been appointed Joint Secretary in Home Ministry.
• Jammu and Kashmir Cadre officer Ashok Kumar Parmar will be Adviser in Inter-State Council Secretariat under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Bharat Khera, 1995 batch Himachal Pradesh Cadre officer has been appointed Joint Secretary in Cabinet Secretariat. 
• Vimalendra Anand Patwardhan, an officer of Indian Audit and Accounts Service, has been named as joint secretary and financial adviser in ministry of civil aviation
• IAS officer Nagaraju Maddirala will be joint secretary in the coal ministry.
• S Suresh Kumar has been appointed in department of commerce
• Puneet Agarwal has been appointed as joint secretaries in dept of defence production
• Vineet Mathur will be Joint Secretary, department of consumer affairs
• Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officer Sanjukta Mudgal has been appointed as joint secretary in culture ministry.
• IAS officer Tanmay Kumar has been appointed joint secretary in the power ministry.
• Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer Hari Ranjan Rao will be joint secretary, department of telecommunications for five years.

Motion to ratify 126th Constitutional Amendment passed by Haryana Assembly

Following footsteps of Assam, Bihar, now, the Haryana Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a motion to ratify the 126th Constitutional Amendment to extend reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Punjab for another 10 years.

After passing the ratification, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta adjourned the Vidhan Sabha. The session of the assembly was held to pass a resolution ratifying the bill cleared by both Houses of Parliament.

Not only Assam, the state of Bihar also ratified the Constitution (126th) Amendment Bill, extending quota to SCs/STs in Lok Sabha and state legislatures by another 10 years. Whereas, the state of West Bengal is also looking forward to ratify the bill.

Harvest festival ‘Magh Bihu’ celebrated in Assam

Magh Bihu, an auspicious harvest festival, is being celebrated in Assam. People begin the day by gathering at a temple and offered prayers, recited mantras and beat up the drums. They also took a walk around the bonfire.

There are three Bihu- Rongali Bihu, Kati Bihu, and Magh Bihu. On this day various special dishes are made to enjoy with families. Magh Bihu falls in the local month of ‘Magh‘ during mid January. It is also called ‘Bhogali Bihu‘ as it is celebrated with community feasts after the annual harvest takes place.

The highlight of this festival is the food, which is made from the abundance of grains after the harvest. The night before Magh Bihu, is called ‘Uruka‘ meaning the night of feasts. The villagers make bamboo huts called ‘Bhelaghor‘ or community kitchen where they begin with the preparations for the festival.

Bharat Electronics Ltd commissions real time train info system

Bharat Electronics Ltd, a public sector undertaking, has commissioned the first phase of the real time train information system for Indian Railways to increase its operational efficiency and improve passenger safety.

The system has been commissioned through the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), under the technical guidance of Space Applications Centre at ISRO. RTIS provides real-time positional information of locomotives to the Railways.

It facilitates automatic acquisition of train movement data, including that of arrival, departure and run-through timings, at the stations en route. The control chart of trains, which has RTIS-enabled locomotives, gets plotted automatically in the Control Office Application system of the Railways.

West Bengal becomes top State in vegetable production

West Bengal has emerged as the top state in the country in vegetable production in 2018-19, according to horticulture production data released by the Central government recently. West Bengal witnessed a production of 29.55 million tonne (MT) of vegetables during 2018-19 which was the maximum in the country in that period.

Uttar Pradesh was in the second place with 27.71 million tonne of vegetable production in the same period. UP produced 14.9 per cent of the country’s vegetable production, while Madhya Pradesh recorded 9.6 per cent followed by Bihar 9 per cent and Gujarat 6.8 per cent. In 2017-18, West Bengal was in the second place with 27.70 MT of vegetable production while UP held the top position with a production of 28.32 MT.

While in the Production of Fruits, Andhra Pradesh continued to hold on to the top position in with 17.61 mt, followed by Maharashtra (10.82 mt) and UP (10.65 mt). While Andhra Pradesh marginally improved its position, Maharashtra overtook Assam, which occupied the second position in 2017-18. UP, too, moved several notches up from 2017-18 levels to reach the third rank.

Loan amount of nearly Rs. 70,000 crore disbursed under MSMEs scheme

As per the data by the Ministry of Finance, loan amount of nearly Rs 70,000 crore has been disbursed till 13 January 2020 under the scheme of providing loan to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within 59 minutes.

The government has introduced loan provision to MSMEs through a dedicated online portal- www.psbloansin59 minutes.com for ease of access to credit for MSMEs.

The portal acts as a single interface portal which facilitates in principal approval of bank loans to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises upto Rs 5 crore within 59 minutes.

Uber Eats India acquired by Zomato in an all-stock transaction

Online food delivery and restaurant discovery platform Zomato has acquired the Indian operations of Uber Eats, the food delivery business run by Uber, for around $350 million (Rs 2,485 crore). The all-stock transaction will give the US-based ride-hailing company 9.99% shareholding in Gurgaon-based Zomato.

Uber Eats will cease to exist as a separate brand locally and users on its platform will be redirected to Zomato’s app. Zomato will not absorb Uber Eats’ team in India. This means around 100 executives will either be reallocated to Uber’s other verticals here or laid off.