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.

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.

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.

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.

Government approves appointment of heads of 4 PSBs

The government approved the selection of heads of four public sector banks (PSBs) – State Bank of India (SBI), Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India.

The appointments committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Department of the Financial Services for appointment of Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the MD of SBI for a period of three years. He is currently serving as the deputy MD of the SBI.

Sanjiv Chadha has been appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bank of Baroda. Chadha, who is at present Deputy Managing Director in State Bank of India, has been appointed to the new post for a period of three years.

Lingam Venkata Prabhakar, Executive Director in Punjab National Bank, will be MD and CEO in Canara Bank. His tenure, from the date of assumption of charge on or after February 1, will be till December 31, 2022.

Atanu Kumar Das has been appointed as the MD and CEO in Bank of India for a three-year term. He is at present working as the Executive Director in the same bank.

IMF cuts India’s growth rate for 2019-20 further

The number of agencies revising India’s growth estimate is increasing, with the latest being the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF on Monday slashed India’s GDP growth rate to 4.8 per cent for the current fiscal and 5.8 per cent for 2020-21.

The agency also said that a more subdued growth forecast for India accounts for the lion’s share of the downward revisions in global forecast. In its update to the World Economic Outlook, the agency lowered the growth projection for entire Asia from the October forecast.

The growth markdown largely reflects a downward revision to India’s projection, where domestic demand has slowed more sharply than expected amid stress in the non-bank financial sector and a decline in credit growth.