General - Current Affairs for July, 2015

Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan focuses on connecting school-based knowledge to life outside the school and making the learning of science and mathematics a joyful and meaningful activity. It also aims at nurturing a spirit of inquiry and creativity and the effective use of technology amongst children.

1000 crore rupees sanctioned for the laying of 15.06 km long tracks to connect Indian Railways with Bangladesh through the North East. Out of 15.06 km length connecting Agartala with Akhaura railway junction in Bangladesh, 3.7 km would comprise of elevated corridor.

A tiny village located at Siddipet mandal in Medak district where 30 megalithic burials, believed to be dated between 1,000 B.C. and 200 A.D. were unearthed.

In an interim order, the court on 26th July’15 directed Tamil Nadu Uniform Services Recruitment Board to permit K Prathika Yashini to go through the process of physical test scheduled on August 5. Passing the interim order, the bench held that she does qualify for the horizontal reservation stipulated by Supreme Court. The court said, she should go through the selection process, and that results will be subject to the result of the writ petition - meaning her eligibility and final selection would hinge on the outcome of the case. Yashini had first approached the court for permission to take part in written exam held in May this year. The physical test is the second stage of selection process.

In Punjab, almost 12-hour long operation in Dinanagar police station in Punjab’s boder district of Gurdaspur has successfully accomplished with the killing of three highly armed terrorists. that four police personnel including one Superintendent of Police Baljit Singh and three home guard Jawans laid down their lives fighting terrorists who were holed up in the police station since about 5.30 in the morning.

During the period of the mourning, the national flag will fly at half-mast on all the buildings throughout the country where it is flown regularly and there will be no official entertainment.

OROP is a long standing demand of ex-servicemen. The scheme will grant retired armed forces personnel pension parity with officers and jawans of the same rank who are retiring now. Joining ex servicemen in their protest, Mr Hazare warned the government to not go back on their promise to implement the OROP scheme. He also said war widows get a meager amount as pension in present times. The social activist said he will travel to other parts of the country to raise the issue and launch an indefinite fast on October 2 at Ramlila Ground.

Model, actor and international level athlete Milind Soman, who is revered for his lead role in series 'Captain Vyom', successfully completed the 'Ironman Triathlon'. The triathlon is considered one of the world's toughest races and had 2,000 participants which included seven Indians. The triathlon includes a 3.8-km swim, a 180.2-km cycle ride and 42.2-km run raced in that order without a break which the participants are required to complete within 16 hours to win the title of 'Ironman'.

According to Defence sources, this system is first of its kind in the country and also part of Navy’s initiative to strengthen coastal security. The system is capable of detecting, identifying, tracking and generating warning for all types of surface and underwater threats to harbour security. It was designed by Israel Aerospace Industries and consists of advance coastal surveillance radars, sensors and sound navigation and ranging systems. Presence of divers and under water threats could be detected with the help of this automatic system.

Such a system is fitted in over 150 locations across the world. Kochi is the first harbour in the country to commission this integrated surveillance system. It will be commissioned in other parts also in the later stage.

India has given a grant of $50,000 to the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Centre at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA for conducting lectures, workshops and film screenings. Likewise, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C. has been given 70,000 U.S. dollars to support a lecture series on rising India. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj gave this information in the Rajya Sabha on 30th July’15.

The website airmenselection.gov.in was launched by Air Officer-in-Charge Personnel, Air Marshal S Neelakantan and dedicated to the nation today. Now aspiring candidates for airmen selection would be able to apply online for all recruitment tests.

The philatelic advisory committee which met under the Chairmanship of Minister for Communication & IT, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad 27th July’15 also decided that stamps with picture postcards may be release on tourist places in India such as Taj Mahal, Ajanta and Ellora, Belur Math, Khajuraho etc.

The police officer will match biometric data, photo, and address of the applicant in the NPR, Aadhar data and check criminal antecedent on CCTNS, a comprehensive database for crimes and criminals that connects around 14,000 police stations across the country.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu, made it clear that this interim order would not be applicable in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case in which the Centre's plea against the Tamil Nadu Government's decision to grant remission for release of the seven life convicts is under consideration. The apex court modified its July 9, 2014 order by which it had restrained all states from exercising power of remission for releasing life convicts from jail in the wake of the controversy triggered by the Tamil Nadu Government's decision to grant remission for release of three such convicts, whose death sentence in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case was commuted to life term by it on February 18, 2014.

He is currently lodged in the Nagpur central jail, will be executed by hanging on 30 July 2015. He had applied for curative petition after his review petition was rejected earlier by the SC upholding the death sentence to him.

South-Eastern Railway is the first to introduce Suvidha train to connect Kolkata and Ernakulam, a distance of 2,294 kilometer in just 37 hours. The first Suvidha train of South-Eastern Railway will start running from first of next month between Howrah and Ernakulam.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R F Nariman said that the issue has already been decided and there was no vested right in favour of Jat applicants. The apex court on March 17 had set aside the erstwhile UPA government's notification to include Jats in the central list of OBCs to accord quota benefits to them.

CCTNS will provide a number of citizen friendly services including police verification for passports, reporting a crime,linkage with UIDAI, National Population Register and transport database. A list of proclaimed offenders,sex offenders and most wanted criminals will also be published on this portal which will help law enforcing agencies as well as citizens.

On 9th July’15, PCI chairman Justice C K Prasad said the government may enact a law for the safety of journalists and the cases involving murder of journalists should be automatically referred to CBI. According to the report more than 80 journalist were killed in the country in the last two decades. It said, 60 journalists were killed in states like Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and not a single person was convicted. It has recommended that all the cases of attacks on journalists shall be referred to special courts and trial should be completed within a year of filing of charge sheet.

The facility was formally launched at the Baluakhani Taxi stand in Gangtok by the State Transport Minister DT Lepcha and Tourism Minister Ugen Gyatso. A total of 40 vehicles have been exclusively earmarked for operations under the prepaid scheme. The aim of launching the prepaid Taxi service is to ensure uniformity in taxi-fairs and saving the tourists from fleecing by the unscrupulous taxi operators.

This helpline will serve as a very useful mechanism for rail passengers. Any person can make calls on this all-India Helpline Number from anywhere across the country.

The clinic has been set up at a very low cost of around Rs 15 to Rs 20 lakh, whereas earlier a dispensary used to cost much higher. The Chief Minister said that the clinics will be able to cure 95 percent of the patients and will reduce the rush at hospitals.

The initiatives include Phase-I of PARIVARTAN School MIS portal, ITI online admission portal, Knowledge Lit Career courses introduced by Haryana Knowledge Corporation Limited and implementation of digital university framework in Kurukshetra University.

As per the statement made by R S Sharma, Secretary Electronics and IT, the government has targeted to connect every Panchayat through broadband by December 2016.

On 5th July’15 Bibipur Panchayat launched “Digital India with Laado”, a campaign to replace names of family-heads in the nameplates with their daughter’s moniker. The representatives would visit every home in Jind and convince people to replace names of the head of the house with that of their daughters.

Kruti had secured 47th rank in this year's JEE Advanced and came first among the women candidates. Kruti will be associated with the Digital India campaign for the next one year, for which she will travel extensively across the country.

It was commissioned in Indian Navy in 1984 at Visakhapatnam.

The Nakshtra Vatika is the garden of plants with medicinal values and represents the Nava Grahaas and the 27 stars in the lunar calendar. The plants are arranged in such a manner to coincide the planetary arrangements.

The RVTIs are being established all over the country by central government’s Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. There are till now 11 RVTIs all over India including Tura, Hissar, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai and the twelfth one has been started now in Trichy.

In a notification, RBI said Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is prohibited in the manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes, of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes.

The One Stop Centre at Raipur is located in the premises District Hospital, Raipur. It will provide access to integrated range of services under one roof including medical aid, police assistance, legal aid/case management, psychosocial counseling, temporary support services to women affected by violence.

The bust of Gurudev Rabindranath Thakur was unveiled at Bukhoro Square in Dushanbe on 13th Jult’15.

The website of Indian Space Research Organisation's commercial arm Antrix was hacked. The home page of the Antrix Corporation Limited website seems to have been hacked as per the statement made by the ISRO official.

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) of Churachandpur in Manipur emerged winner from a list of 64 JNVs spread across 8 regions of Navodaya Vidyalaya Saimiti in the country.

Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam on 9 July 2015 launched the Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan (RAA) in New Delhi. The Abhiyan aims to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and love for Science and Mathematics in school children.

The AIDS epidemic can end by 2030 highlighting the global response that has averted 30 million new HIV infections worldwide in the last 15 years including in India, which ranks among the top five worst affected countries.

The army fired on the crowd on the orders of British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, killing hundreds in the cold blood .That was also the day of Baisakhi.

The aim is to prevent people unqualified in medicine from posing as doctors. Chinese patients are accustomed to seeking medical advice on the Internet, which is widely popular in the country.

The painting, pigments on silk, has been done by an artist, Bhaskar Mahapatra of Raghurajpur in Puri district of Odisha. The message behind gifting it seemed to be the emphasis on sustenance of life and clean environment ahead of the global meet on climate change that France will be hosting in December this year. The tree, as a divine gift central to human life, is a recurring element in Indian artistic practice.

Thane city won the bid among the three finalists Thane, Pune and Rajkot in the Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) 2015 conducted by World Wide Fund. Meanwhile, total 13 cities had been participated in the 2015 Earth Hour Challenge.

Kansas became the first state on 8th Apr’15 to ban a common second-trimester abortion procedure that critics describe as dismembering a fetus.

This is applicable to account holders who are aged 18 to 50 years.

TRAI said in its recommendations that similar to the '911'an all-in-one emergency service in the US, government can integrate all existing emergency numbers such as 100, 101, 102 and 108 into the proposed '112'helpline number. The regulator suggested existing emergency numbers can be retained as secondary numbers.

With this hike, the DA now has gone up to 113 per cent of the basic pay from 107 per cent. A decision in this regard was taken at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula based on the recommendations of the 6th Central Pay Commission. According to an official release, the decision will benefit 48 lakh government employees and 55 lakh pensioners in the country. The impact on the exchequer on account of increase will be of over 6762 crore rupees annually.

The Goa Police summoned two top officials of Fabindia in connection with the voyeurism case. Four employees of the store were arrested and booked by the police under various sections. However, they were later granted bail by a local court. Fabindia has denied that it had placed hidden cameras in any of its stores.

The index will cover Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The index will be later expanded to 46 more cities having a population of more than one million, besides 20 state capitals.

According to the health Ministry, these districts have been selected under the programme, keeping in view that nearly 50 percent of all un-vaccinated or partially vaccinated children are in these 201 districts. It said, of them 82 districts are concentrated in the four states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The immunisation programme aims at covering all children below two years of age who have either not been vaccinated or partially vaccinated against seven diseases which can be prevented through vaccines. The diseases are Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, Whooping Cough, Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis.

A bench of Justices T S Thakur and C Nagappan said there is no reason to allow the application seeking court's monitoring of the probe. The court had earlier rejected a similar plea of West Bengal government. The bench gave time to the agency to come out with suggestions to ensure effective investigation of huge number of such cases in West Bengal.

It was started in the year 1880. Now this service will be replaced by Electronic Money order and Instant Money Order.

RBI allowed sole proprietor firms to open accounts in co-operative banks by submitting a single proof of their business. The RBI decision has come after being told that such firms were facing difficulties with regard to furnishing two documents as business activity proof while opening accounts of sole proprietary firms in certain cases.

The new service will be used by people to lodge complaints, if they are harassed for bribe by the government officials. The anti-corruption helpline was first launched during Aam Aadmi Party's 49-day stint in power after the 2013 Assembly elections, but was later discontinued.

The Prime Minister's direction came amidst controversy over comments by BJP MPs on the use of tobacco.

There are 201 high priority districts from across the country where intensified vaccination drive will be taken up to cover all children who have missed out vaccination or are partially vaccinated. The vaccination drive is against seven vaccine preventable diseases -- diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and Hepatitis B.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the "Give it up" campaign should be taken up on the lines of "Swacch Bharat" and "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" initiatives.