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Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Annual Policy Review April 2020-March 2021 PDF

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aditya 19:48

Annual Policy Review April 2020-March 2021 PDF

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Daily Current Affairs, 14th September 2021

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aditya 19:40

1) Hindi Diwas celebrated on 14 September

•Hindi Diwas or Hindi Day is observed every year on 14 September to mark the popularity of Hindi as an official language of India. The language was adopted under Article 343 of the Indian Constitution. The first Hindi day was celebrated on 14th September 1953.

2) Nuakhai Juhar harvest festival celebrated in Odisha

•Nuakhai Juhar, the agrarian festival of Western Odisha, was celebrated with religious fervour and tradition. It is celebrated 1 day after the celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi. Nuakhai is a crop festival celebrated by people of Western Odisha and Southern Chhattisgarh, to welcome the new rice of the season. Nua means new and khai means food. So, the festival of nuakhai is a festival to celebrate newly harvested food by the farmers.

3) Haryana topped in installation of solar pumps under PM-KUSUM

•Haryana has topped among all other states of the country in terms of installation of off-grid solar pumps under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahaabhiyaan (PM-KUSUM), as per the data by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Haryana has installed 14,418 pumps against 15,000 sanctioned pumps for the year 2020-21. Haryana was given a target of 15,000 pumps for the year 2020-21 with a total cost of Rs 520 crore.

4) Chhattisgarh govt launches ‘Millet Mission’ to become Millet Hub of India

•Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has announced the launch of ‘Millet Mission’, which aims to provide proper price rates to farmers for minor cereal crops. The initiative is also a step towards the Chief Minister’s vision for the state to become India’s millet hub. To implement the mission, the state government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), Hyderabad and the collectors of 14 districts of the state.

•Other important benefits under the Millet Mission to farmers will include input assistance for millet, procurement arrangements, aid farmers in the processing of crops and ensure that the farmers get the benefit of the expertise of experts.

5) India and US launch the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue

•India and the United States of America (USA) have launched the “Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)”. It will strengthen India-US bilateral cooperation on climate and environment. The dialogue was launched by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Bhupender Yadav and Mr John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate (SPEC) in New Delhi.

6) ‘Medicine from the Sky’ initiative launched in Telangana

•Civil aviation minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia has launched a first of its kind “Medicine from the Sky” project in Telangana. The project has aimed at transporting vaccines and other essential products to remote areas using drones. The Medicine from the Sky project will be taken up on a pilot basis in 16 green zones in Telangana and later scaled up on the national level based on data.

7) Aziz Akhannouch elected as new PM of Morocco

•Aziz Akhannouch has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Morocco by the country’s King Mohammed VI. Akhannouch’s National Rally of Independents (RNI) party secured 102 out of the 395 seats in the parliament election, held on September 10, 2021. Prior to this appointment, the 60-year-old was the Minister of Agriculture from 2007 to 2021.

•The announcement came after Akhannouch’s National Rally of Independents (RNI) party triumphed in Wednesday’s parliamentary polls. The pro-business RNI managed to secure 102 out of the 395 seats in parliament, toppling the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which won a paltry 13 seats.

8) ICRISAT awarded “AFRICA FOOD PRIZE 2021”

•Hyderabad-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has been awarded the Africa Food Prize for 2021 for improving food security in sub-Saharan Africa. The Tropical Legumes Project developed 266 varieties of improved legumes and half a million tons of seeds for a range of legume crops, including cowpeas, pigeon peas, chickpea, common bean, groundnut, and soybean. The improved seeds benefitted over 25 million farmers in climate-resilient approaches and to control pest outbreaks across the region.

9) Justice Venugopal appointed as acting Chairperson of NCLAT

•Justice M. Venugopal has been named as the new Acting Chairperson of the appellate tribunal, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). This is the third time in a row that an Acting Chairperson is at the helm of the NCLAT, after the retirement of permanent Chairperson Justice S J . Mukhopadhaya on March 14, 2020.

•Justice Bansi Lal Bhat was the first Acting Chairperson from March 15, 2020, followed by Justice A I S Cheema from April 19, 2021, and subsequently Justice M. Venugopal from September 11, 2021.

10) Skyroot Aerospace becomes first Spacetech startup to formally tie-up with ISRO

•A Hyderabad-based Space technology startup, Skyroot Aerospace has become the first private company to formally enter into an agreement with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The Framework MoU will allow the company to undertake multiple tests and access facilities at various ISRO centres and avail the technical expertise of ISRO for testing and qualifying their space launch vehicle systems and subsystems.

•The agreement was signed by R Umamaheswaran, scientific secretary at ISRO and chairman at Interim IN-SPACe Committee, and Pawan Chandana, who is the CEO of Skyroot Aerospace.

11) A book titled ‘Human Rights and Terrorism in India’ by Subramanian Swamy

•A book has titled ‘Human Rights and Terrorism in India’ authored by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy. He has come out with a book “Human Rights and Terrorism in India” which traces how the combating of terrorism can be harmonised with human and fundamental rights within reasonable restrictions that are permitted by the Constitution and upheld by the Supreme Court.

•It is the thesis of this study that to deter terror, India as a nation must foster a concept of identity. The release of three dreaded terrorists in exchange for hijacked Indian Airlines passengers in Afghanistan’s Kandahar in 1999 is the “worst capitulation” to terrorists in India”s modern history.

12) MS Dhoni to mentor Indian team for the T20 World Cup

•BCCI announced that the former India captain MS Dhoni will mentor the team for the tournament, which will be played in UAE and Oman in October and November. He announced his retirement from international limited-overs cricket on August 15, 2020.

•Dhoni had last played for India in the 2019 ICC World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Dhoni, who leads Chennai Super Kings, is a three-time IPL-winning captain and has brought home three major ICC trophies — World T20, Champions Trophy and World Cup.

13) IOC Suspends North Korea From Beijing Olympics

•North Korea was formally suspended from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on 10th Sept as punishment for refusing to send a team to the Tokyo Games citing the COVID-19 pandemic.

•IOC president Thomas Bach said the North Korean national Olympic body will also now forfeit money it was due from the previous Olympics. The unspecified amount — potentially millions of dollars — had been withheld because of international sanctions.

Vision IAS Weekly Focus Sui Generis Indian Federalism: Evolving Dynamics and Emerging Concerns PDF

Vision IAS

aditya 14:06

Vision IAS Weekly Focus Sui Generis Indian Federalism: Evolving Dynamics and Emerging Concerns PDF

Click Here to download Vision IAS Weekly Focus Sui Generis Indian Federalism: Evolving Dynamics and Emerging Concerns PDF

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The HINDU Notes – 14th September 2021

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aditya 14:00

📰 Govt. curbs funding for 10 climate change, child labour NGOs

RBI note says U.S., Australian, European entities to be placed on PRC list for foreign contributions as per Home Ministry

•Five years after it cancelled the registration of international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Greenpeace to receive foreign funds, the government has moved to restrict the funding for a group of ten American, Australian and European NGOs dealing with environmental, climate change and child labour issues.

•An internal Reserve Bank of India note dated July 1, 2021, that was sent to all banks, said the government had specified a number of foreign entities to be placed on the “Prior Reference Category” (PRC list) using the stringent Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010, that was tightened in September 2020, making both banks and chartered accountants accountable for any unauthorised funds that come through.

80 agencies on list

•The NGOs, that add to more than 80 international voluntary agencies now on the government’s PRC list, include the European Climate Foundation, three U.S.-based NGOs: the Omidyar Network International, Humanity United and Stardust foundation, two Australia-based NGOs: Walk Free Foundation and Minderoo Foundation, and U.K.-based Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Freedom fund and Laudes foundation, as well as U.K./ U.A.E. based Legatum fund.

•“The RBI has instructed that any fund flow from the (specified) donor agencies to any NGO/Voluntary organisation/ persons in India should be brought to the Ministry of Home Affairs so that the funds are allowed to be credited to the recipients only after clearance/ prior permission from the MHA’s Foreigners Division of the FCRA wing,” the notice sent out recently by a private bank to its branches, which The Hindu obtained a copy of, said.

•The Reserve Bank didn’t respond to a request for a comment, but officials confirmed informally that the note had been sent out, in line with previous such circulars sent to banks warning them of NGOs banned or suspended from acquiring or disbursing foreign funds.

•Significantly all the NGOs on the latest list work on climate change and environmental projects and/or child rights and slavery projects, subjects where the government has been sensitive to international criticism in the past.

•When asked why so many environmental NGOs are on the list, given the government’s stated international commitments on fighting climate change, an official said that despite India’s record in complying with the Paris agreement, “global pressures are intensifying on India to raise the Nationally Determined Contributions”.

•“In order to create noise in the media, several pro-climate NGOs are focusing on advocacy against coal, which is considered a violation of FCRA provisions,” the official added.

•In 2017, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had also objected strongly to the International Labour Organisation’s Global Slavery Index, “questioning the credibility of data” which had ranked India 53rd of 167 countries where “modern slavery” was prevalent, and as the country with highest number of people in forced labour, according to a reply in Parliament. The index is part of the Australian Walk Free Foundation’s annual survey that is used by other NGOs working in the field. Both the Walk Free Foundation, and its founding agency Minderoo Foundation did not respond to emails from The Hindu requesting a response.

•The MHA too declined to comment on the PCR listing, which is not made publicly available, although the government has released numbers of NGOs under the scanner of security agencies.

•According to the MHA’s responses in Parliament, between 2016-2020, the government cancelled the FCRA licenses of more than 6,600 NGOs and suspended those of about 264. Among those who have been put on the PRC list or had to downsize or even shut down their Indian operations due to FCRA action by the government in the last few years are Greenpeace International, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Compassion International, National Endowment for Democracy, U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Open Society Foundation.

•A UK-based NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has now taken the government to court for suspending its FCRA license, and won temporary relief in the High Court in Delhi in, allowing it to access 25% of its funds, and a final order is expected in October.