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RRB NTPC Previous year Question Papers Pdf
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Tuesday, February 19, 2019
THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 19.02.2018
Monday, February 18, 2019
Daily Current Affairs, 18th February 2019
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1) List of MOUs/Agreements Signed During State Visit Of President Of Argentina To India
•MoU between the Republic of India and the Republic of Argentina for cooperation in the field of Tourism.
•MOU on Cooperation and Collaboration between Prasar Bharti, India and the Federal System of Media and Public Contents, Argentina.
•MoU in pharmaceuticals between Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), GoI, and National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology, Argentina.
•MoU on Antarctic Co-operation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Argentine Republic and the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Republic of India.
•Work Plan on Cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Production and Labour of the Argentine Republic within the MoU signed in 2010.
•Work Plan for the year 2019-21 between Indian Council of Agriculture Research Republic of India and the State Secretary of Agro-industry of the Ministry of Production and Labour of the Argentine Republic within the MoU signed in 2006.
•Joint Declaration of Intent on Cooperation in the field of Information & Communications Technology and Electronics between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of the Republic of India and the Government Secretary of Modernization of the Republic of Argentina.
•MOU between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP), India, and CNEA, the Secretariat of Energy, Argentina.
•Agreement for the establishment of India-Argentina Centre of Excellence for Information and Technology.
2) India’s First District Cooling System To Be Built In Amravati
•The agreement is for a contracted cooling capacity of 20,000 Refrigeration Tons (RTs) and will cater to the State’s Assembly, High Court, Secretariat and other Government buildings currently being constructed, for which cooling services will start in early 2021.
3) J P Morgan Became First US Bank With Cryptocurrency
•The cryptocurrency, called “JPM Coin,” is intended for the bank’s wholesale payments business that moves $6 trillion around the world daily and not for retail customers. It will be used internally by the bank to enable instant transfers of payments between institutional accounts.
4) ‘Simplicity & Wisdom’ Authored By Mr. Dinesh Shahra Launched
•A book ‘Simplicity & Wisdom’ written by Dinesh Shahra was launched at Parmarth Ashram in Kumbh Mela. Launched by the Governor of West Bengal– Keshari Nath Tripathi and Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Head of Parmarth Ashram, this book is dedicated to Late Vedanti Swami Pragananandji. The book aims at guiding towards saintly wisdom and leading a content and happy life.
5) Government Raised Rs.10000 Crore From Bharat-22 ETF Offering
•Bharat-22 is an Exchange Traded Fund ( ETF) which will closely track the performance of Bharat-22 index. It was launched by Government of India in November 2017. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund AMC will manage the fund.
6) Hina Jaiswal Becomes The First Indian Woman Flight Engineer
•Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal from Chandigarh, became the First Indian Woman Flight Engineer of the Indian Air Force(IAF). She was commissioned in the IAF’s engineering branch in 2015 and completed the 6-month Flight Engineer course from the 112 Helicopter Unit attached to the Air Force Station in Yelahanka, Bengaluru. The Flight Engineer branch was opened to women officers in 2018.
7) Abdul Aziz Muhamat Wins International Human Rights Prize
•It is sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize for human rights”. Abdul Aziz Muhamat’s podcast “The Messenger”, created from more than 4,000 WhatsApp messages Muhamat sent from the detention centre, had won best radio/audio feature at Australia’s Walkley Awards in 2017.
8) India Boosts Customs Duty To 200% On Goods Imported From Pakistan
•This step is likely to strike Pakistan’s exports to India which were $381 million in the April-Nov period and for overall FY18, it was $489 million. This 200% tariff rate is higher than the average bound rate of 113.5% for agriculture products and 34.6% for non-agriculture products. The MFN applied rates are 32.8% and 10.7%, respectively for farm and non-farm products.
9) Sunil Chhetri Given First Ever Football Ratna Award
•He is popularly known as Captain Fantastic. He has scored the 2nd highest number of goals in international matches among active players after Cristiano Ronaldo.
RRB ALP 2nd Stage CBT Answer Key Released (Official) | Check here
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The HINDU Notes – 18th February 2019
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📰 How the 16th Lok Sabha fared
Important bills were passed; but going forward there must be debate on the anti-defection law
•The 16th Lok Sabha had its final sitting last Wednesday, marking an end to a disappointing five-year period. This Lok Sabha was surpassed only by the preceding one in terms of the low number of hours it worked. It met for 1,615 hours, 40% lower than all full-term Parliaments. This shows a decline in the number of sitting days over the decades as well as a significant part of the scheduled time lost to disruptions. This Lok Sabha sat for 331 days (against a 468-day average for all previous full-term Lok Sabhas), and lost 16% of its time to disruptions.
•Though there were no extreme incidents — an MP used pepper spray in the 15th Lok Sabha — MPs often broke the rules. The House was often disrupted by MPs carrying placards, entering the well, and even on occasion, blocking their colleagues from speaking. A big casualty was Question Hour — the Lok Sabha lost a third of this time and the Rajya Sabha 60%; consequently, just 18% of the starred questions in each House got an oral reply.
•Another notable event was the Speaker blaming unruly behaviour for her inability to count the required number of MPs demanding a no-confidence motion but allowing the Union Budget to be passed in the interim. There was a similar episode at the end of the 15th Lok Sabha when the Speaker was unable to conduct a no-confidence motion but let the House pass the Act to bifurcate the State of Andhra Pradesh.
Key legislation
•However, Parliament made some important laws. The Goods and Services Tax was implemented and the bankruptcy code was enacted. The IIM Act gave premier management educational institutions a level of autonomy not available to other public educational institutions. The Juvenile Justice Act allowed children (between 16 and 18 years) accused of committing heinous crimes to be prosecuted as adults. New Acts were passed: for treatment of mental health patients, and those with HIV/AIDS. Another Act was passed to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities.
•There was some effort to address the issues of corruption, black money and leakages. The Prevention of Corruption Act was amended to make bribe-giving an offence. Laws were made requiring a declaration of assets held outside India, and to declare as fugitives those economic offenders who had fled the country. The Aadhaar Act was passed to create a biometric-based identity system.
Bill passing
•This brings us to the manner in which some Bills were passed. The Aadhaar Act was passed as a Money Bill — and upheld (incorrectly in my opinion) by the Supreme Court. The Constitution defines a Bill as a Money Bill if it contains provisions that exclusively relate to taxes or government spending. Importantly, such Bills need majority support only in the Lok Sabha, with the Rajya Sabha having just a recommendatory role. Arguing that Aadhaar was primarily a subsidy delivery mechanism, and not an identity system seems like a stretch, but that was the majority decision of the Supreme Court. However, there has not been much conversation on the various Finance Bills that have been passed as Money Bills.
•The Finance Bill is traditionally introduced with the Budget, and contains all the legislative changes to tax laws. Therefore, it is usually a Money Bill. However, Finance Bills, in the last few years, have included items which have no relation to taxes or to expenditure of the government. The Finance Bill, 2015 included provisions to merge the regulator of commodity exchanges with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The Finance Bill, 2016 included amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act which relate to donations to non-profits. The Finance Bill, 2017 went further and changed the compositions of 19 quasi-judicial bodies such as the Securities Appellate Tribunal, the National Green Tribunal and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), and repealed seven other bodies including the Competition Appellate Tribunal.
•About half the clauses of the 2018 Bill were on issues unrelated to taxes. Even the Finance Bill, 2019 presented with the interim Budget amended the provisions related to attaching property under the money laundering law. It is difficult to see how these Bills would fall within the narrow definition of Money Bill, as defined in Article 110 of the Constitution.
•A few other Bills, such as the Triple Talaq Bill and the Citizenship Bill, were passed by the Lok Sabha but will lapse as they were not passed by the Rajya Sabha. It is evident that the government was able to have its way on every issue in the Lok Sabha and was held in check only due to a lack of majority in the Rajya Sabha; even this check was bypassed occasionally using the Money Bill route. The government could do this as a result of the anti-defection provision which gives complete control of all party votes to the party leadership. This law has converted MPs from being representatives of the people to delegates of the party. If the party in government has a majority of its own, it can have any provision passed; even coalition governments have to convince just a handful of leaders of their alliance partners.
Review the anti-defection law
•Parliament plays the central role in our democracy by holding the government to account and scrutinising proposed laws and financial priorities. With the end of the 16th Lok Sabha, it is time to ponder on how to make this institution more effective. An important step will be by reviewing the anti-defection law that has hollowed out the institution.
📰 The challenge in the Pulwama attack
UPSC civil services 2019 notification: Applications to release on February 19
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UPSC civil services 2019: The candidates can apply through the official website upsc.gov.in. Check eligibility, exam date, application form, fees, exam pattern
UPSC civil services 2019: The registration for the civil services preliminary examination will start by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on its official website – upsc.gov.in on February 19. All those who are interested in applying for this competitive exam are required to check out the registration and other important details such as that of eligibility, exam scheme, patter etc at the website itself.
The exam is conducted to select candidates to fill administrative positions in different All-India Services and central civil services including IAS, IPS, IFS, IRS, and IRTS.
Exam pattern
The preliminary test comprises of Paper-I and Paper-II.
In the objective type, multiple choice questions are asked that carry a total of 400 marks. In the general studies paper – II, a candidate has to qualify with minimum of 33 per cent marks.
Negative marks for every question is one-third of the marks assigned to that question. The questions in Paper-I come from seven different test areas like 1) Science and technology, 2) history and culture, 3) geography, 4) Indian Polity, 5) Indian economy, 6) environment and ecology and 7) current events of national and international importance.
Eligibility criteria: The candidate has to be an Indian national for IAS and IPS posts. For others, they can be a citizen of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibetan refugee. Check more for in the official notification.
Age limit: A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 32 years on August 1, 2019. This means they must not be born earlier than August 2, 1986 and not later than August 1, 1997. There is age relaxation for reserved category.
Educational qualification: The candidate must hold a degree of any of Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be deemed as a University Under Section-3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, or possess an equivalent qualification.
UPSC Civil Services prelims 2019: How to apply
The registration is divided into two parts — Part-I and Part-II. The last date to submit the application form is by March 6 (6 pm). Candidates have to read instructions and press “I agree” button after he /she finds that information supplied by him /her is in order and no correction is required.
After completing the application, an auto-generated email will be sent on the email-id registered by the applicant.
source: indianexpress.com
