Daily Current affairs - September 22nd, 2017 for all competitive exams
Each year the International
Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly
has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both
within and among all nations and peoples.
- The theme for 2017 is “Together
for Peace: Respect, Safety and Dignity for All.”
- The theme honours the spirit of together, a global
initiative that promotes respect, safety and dignity for everyone forced
to flee their homes and those leaving in search of a better life.
Centre planning to introduce Women’s Reservation Bill
in Parliament
The centre is planning to introduce the Women’s Reservation Bill in the upcoming session
of the parliament.
- The Women’s Reservation Bill was first conceived
more than 20 years back on September 12, 1996. This bill pushed for a 33%
reservation of all Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies for women.
- The Rajya Sabha passed the bill on 9 March 2010.
However, the Lok Sabha never voted on the bill. The bill lapsed after the
dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.
- The Constitution (One Hundred and Eighth Amendment)
Bill, 2008 seeks to reserve one-third of all
seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies. The
allocation of reserved seats shall be determined by such authority as prescribed
by Parliament.
Cabinet to soon take up $5 bn
convention centre project
The Union Cabinet will soon
take up the proposal for a “$5 billion-worth world-class and state-of-the-art”
Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (ECC) in the national capital — billed as the
largest such facility in Asia when completed by 2021.
- By this month-end, the Cabinet will consider for
discussion a note on approval of the project and formation of a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to implement the same.
- The SPV will be given the rights to activities,
including sub-leasing of land parcels, sub-contracting project components,
granting long term concessions to private developers as well as fixing
lease rentals.
Centre announces new PPP Policy to promote private
investments in affordable housing
Central Government has announced a new PPP Policy for Affordable Housing
that allows extending central assistance of up to Rs.2.50 lakh per each house
to be built by private builders even on private lands besides opening up
immense potential for private investments in affordable housing projects on
government lands in urban areas.
- This policy seeks to assign risks among the
government, developers and financial institutions, to those who can manage
them the best besides leveraging under utilized and un-utilized private
and public lands towards meeting the Housing for All target by 2022.
Rohingya are illegal
immigrants, not refugees
The Home Ministry has
clarified its position through its affidavit in the Supreme Court that they are
illegal immigrants and they will be deported.
- The Rohingya are not refugees. There is a procedure
to get refugee status and none of them has followed this procedure.
- No Rohingya has received asylum in India nor has
anyone applied for it. They are illegal immigrants.
- Mr. Singh’s statement drew a sharp rebuttal from
National Human Rights Commission Chairperson H.L. Dattu.
- The retired Chief Justice of India said the human
rights body was helping the Rohingya on “humanitarian grounds” as they
faced persecution in Myanmar.
Calcutta HC allows idol
immersion on all days
Calcutta High Court allowed
the immersion of idols on all days following September 30 (Vijay Dashami).
- The order by a Division Bench was issued in
connection with three public interest litigation pleas. It sets aside
curbs on Durga idol immersions placed by the government on account of
Muharram after 10 p.m. on September 30 and for the entire day on October
1.
Agricultural varsities to
create seeds bank
The agricultural
universities in Rajasthan will shortly create banks of indigenous varieties of
seeds to promote farming of local crops suitable for the 10 agro-climatic zones
in the State.
- The decision will also help promote agricultural
research activities.
- The initiatives launched by the research bodies
would help farmers bring about changes in their farm practices.
Apex body demanded for Eastern
Ghats
With anthropogenic pressure
adversely impacting the ecologically sensitive Eastern Ghats, environmentalists
have demanded constitution of an apex body to guide conservation efforts in the
entire region.
- The 1,700-km-long Eastern Ghat spread across Odisha,
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the east coast of
India is an important physiographic unit with immense bio-geographic,
environmental, socio-economic, cultural and spiritual significance.
- However, according to NGO Greens’ Alliance for
Conservation of Eastern Ghats (GrACE), deforestation, haphazard mining,
construction of dams, rapid land use changes, forest fires, temple
tourism, agricultural and industrial encroachments, and burn cultivations
have caused severe damage to the eco-system.
Kaziranga to open on Oct. 2
The Kaziranga National Park
(KNP) in Assam, home to the one-horned Indian rhino, will reopen for tourists
on October 2 after it was closed in May this year.
- The UNESCO declared World Heritage Site will reopen
at 5 a.m. at Mihimukh under the Kohora Range of the Park in the presence
of Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma and local MLA-cum-Agriculture
Minister Atul Bora, KNP Divisional Forest officer Rohini Ballav Saikia.
- The Agoratoli Range, famous for migratory birds,
will remain closed due to massive destruction by floods during the recent
devastating deluge that claimed the life of several rhinos and other
animals there, he said.
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and the
International Road Federation, Geneva (IRF Geneva) have signed a Statement of
Intent (SoI) to cooperate in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems
(ITS).
The objective of the SoI is to create a national platform, involving all
relevant Government of India stakeholders, Indian and foreign companies active
in the sector, and relevant technical experts for the purpose of developing a
National ITS Policy covering:
- Traffic Management.
- Parking Management.
- Electronic Enforcement of Traffic Rules and
Regulations.
- Fleet Management and Monitoring.
- Innovation in the field of ITS.
- Education in the field of ITS.
The work of this National Platform will provide a coherent and consistent
National ITS Policy covering domains such as traffic and parking management,
enforcement, and security.
First Of 6 Scorpene-Class Submarines, Kalvari, Handed
Over To Navy
Kalvari, the first of the six Scorpene-class submarines, has been handed
over to the Indian Navy by shipbuilder Mazgaon Dock limited, paving way for its
commissioning soon.
- The development marks a major milestone in Indian
Navy’s submarine programme as the vessel is expected to bolster India’s
maritime prowess.
- Kalvari is named after a deep-sea tiger shark. The
Scorpene is part of the ambitious Project 75 of Indian Navy’s submarine
programme.
India, Russia to hold joint military exercise in October
In the midst of evolving security situation in the region, India and Russia
will hold a mega military exercise- Indra– in October involving their armies, navies and the air
forces for the first time to further ramp up military ties.
- The Russian army, navy and air force are holding
bilateral exercises separately but this is for the first time, both
the countries will carry out a tri-services exercise. The exercise “Indra” will primarily focus on achieving
coordination between forces of the two countries in a tri- services
integrated theatre command scenario.
- It will be for the first time that India will participate
in a tri-services military exercise with a foreign country with such a
large scale participation by the Navy, the Army and the Air Force (IAF).
Bihar unveils ecotourism plan
for Balmikinagar Tiger Reserve
The Bihar government
unveiled a plan to encourage ecotourism at Balmikinagar Tiger Reserve in Bagha
district in the state.
- Unveiling the contours of the plan for Balmikinagar
tiger reserve, setting up Swiss tents, house boats would be started
similar to that of Kashmir to attract tourists.
Green nod for Kaleshwaram
segment
The Union Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change has granted the second-stage forest
clearance to the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (not the Kaleshwaram
Irrigation Project) intended to irrigate 45,742 acres land in Manthani
constituency of Jayashankar-Bhupalapally district.
- Also known as Kannepalli lift irrigation scheme, the
project is envisaged to lift 4.5 TMCft water from the Godavari and fill 14
minor irrigation tanks in Mahadevpur mandal and also to provide drinking
water to 63 villages of four mandals in the constituency by drawing
another 0.3 TMCft water.
- The project comprises construction of intake canal,
pumping stations, pressure main and gravity canals.
Milky Way not a typical
galaxy: study
Scientists said, Milky Way
may not be as “typical” as previously thought and studying the universe based
on the model of our own galaxy may be misleading.
- The Milky Way, which is home to Earth and its solar
system, is host to several dozen smaller galaxy satellites. These smaller
galaxies orbit around the Milky Way and are useful in understanding the
Milky Way itself.
- Early results from the Satellites Around Galactic
Analogs survey indicate that the Milky Way’s satellites are much more
tranquil than other systems of comparable luminosity and environment.
Frog species that could eat
dinosaurs
A study suggests, A large,
now extinct, frog species that lived about 68 million years ago in Madagascar
would have been capable of eating small dinosaurs.
- Researchers studied the bite force of South American
horned frogs from the living genus Ceratophrys , popularly known
as Pacman frogs for their characteristic round shape and large mouth,
similar to the video game character Pac-Man.
- Scientists, including those from University of
Adelaide in Australia, found that living large South American horned frogs
have similar bite forces to those of mammalian predators.
DGCA grants aerodrome licence
to Shirdi airport
The Directorate General of
Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued an aerodrome licence to Shirdi airport, which has
a runway long enough for an Airbus A-320 and Boeing 737 aircraft to land.
- In a statement, DGCA said it issued the licence to
Shirdi airport for day operations after ensuring compliance with all
relevant standards.
- Zoom Air, Alliance Air and TruJet have expressed a
desire to start operations.
Ranil presents interim report
on new Constitution
Sri Lankan Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe presented an interim report on the drafting of a new
Constitution, underscoring that all parties had agreed to an “indivisible
state”.
- The interim report follows an exercise undertaken by
an all-party steering committee that Mr. Wickremesinghe chairs. Since
March 2016, it has met as many as 74 times, discussing various aspects of
the likely Constitution.
- Observing that no Constitution in Sri Lanka has thus
far been framed on the basis of consensus amongst its different people and
the two main parties, the current exercise was the first such opportunity.
VASTRA 2017
The 6th edition of VASTRA i.e. “VASTRA – An International Textile and Apparel Fair 2017” (VASTRA – 2017) was recently inaugurated at Jaipur.
- Rajasthan State Industrial Development and
Investment Corporation Ltd. (RIICO) is the organiser and Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is the co-organiser of
the fair.
- VASTRA, an all-encompassing trade fair and conference on Textiles and Apparel, presents a fusion of the finest and the latest in textile products – from fibre to fashion, services and technology.
