ABOU UBLICATION One of the leading publishers in India, Disha Publication provides books and study materials for schools and various competitive exams being continuously held across the country. Disha's sole purpose is to encourage a student to get the best out of preparation. Disha Publication offers an online bookstore to help students buy exam books online with ease. We, at Disha provide a wide array of Bank / Engg./ Medical & Other Competitive Exam books to help all those aspirants who wish to crack their respective different levels of Bank / Engg./ Medical & Other Competitive exams. At Disha Publication, we strive to bring out the best guidebooks that students would find to be the most useful for all kind of competitive exam. AIRS NATIONA VENTS comprising Chief Ministers of all the states and Lt. Governors of Union Territories. Apart from this, the NITI Aayog will NA APPOINTMENTS also have a Vice-Chairperson and a Chief Executive Officer COMMISSIO ILL (fixed tenure, in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India), who will be appointed by the Prime Minister. • The President Pranab Mukherjee on 31 December, 2014 signed National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, • The Aayog has been tasked with a role of formulating policies 2014. With this, National Judicial Appointments Commission and direction for the government and serving as a think- Act, 2014 has come into effect. tank, it will provide a national agenda for Prime Minister • The Bill also called the 121st Constitutional Amendment and Chief Ministers. It will also provide relevant strategic Bill, 2014 will set up National Judicial Appointments and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of Commission (NJAC) replacing collegiums system to appoint policy, like economic matters of national and international judges of higher judiciary. importance. MAIN FEATURES OF THE NJAC ACT, 2014 FUNCTIONS THAT WILL BE UNDERTAKEN BY THE NITI AAYOG • It gives NJAC a Constitutional status for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the High Courts. • It will develop mechanisms for formulation of credible plans • It also gives the executive an equal role in the appointment to the village level and aggregate these progressively at of judges to the highest judiciary, as a constitutional body. higher levels of government • It specifies amendments to Articles 124 (2) and 217 (1) that • Special attention will be given to the sections of the society deals with the appointment of judges in the Supreme Court that may be at risk of not benefitting adequately from and the High Courts, respectively. economic progress • Now the judges in the Supreme Court and the High Courts • It will also create a knowledge, innovation and will be appointed by the President in consultation with the entrepreneurial support system through a collaborative NJAC. community of national and international experts, • Once the NJAC is in place then Union government has to practitioners and partners intimate NJAC within 30 day about the vacancies in the • It will offer a platform for resolution of inter-sectoral and Supreme Court and the High Courts. Vacancies to come up inter-departmental issues in order to accelerate the within the next six months should also be intimated to the implementation of the development agenda commission in advance. • It will also monitor and evaluate the implementation of COMPOSITION OF NJAC programmes, and focus on technology upgradation and • The NJAC has the Chief Justice of India as Chairperson and capacity building. two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court as members, OTHER MEMBERS OF THE NITI AAYOG WILL BE apart from the Union Law Minister and two eminent Experts, specialists and practitioners with relevant domain personalities, one of whom would be nominated from among knowledge as special invitees nominated by the Prime Minister the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, minorities, the Other Backward Classes or women. • Members - Full-time • Part-time members: Maximum of 2 from leading universities AAY COMMISSION research organisations and other relevant institutions in an ex- • Union Government on 1 January 2015 set up the National officio capacity. Part time members will be on a rotational Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. NITI Aayog basis. that replaced the 65 year old Planning Commission will be • Ex Officio members: Maximum of 4 members of the Union headed by Prime Minister. It will have a governing council Council of Ministers to be nominated by the Prime Minister. • Secretariat as deemed necessary. 2 UNI GNE POLICY • Cultural cooperation 2008 SHANK CHIEF • Union Government on 5 January, 2015 aligned the Foreign SSIONER Direct Investment (FDI) policy with the upgraded National • Hari Shankar Bramha was appointed as the new Chief Industrial Classification (NIC) - 2008. This was done with Election Commissioner (CEC) by President Pranab an aim to improve the ease of doing business. The code will Mukherjee on 15 January, 2016. Brahma, the senior-most classify business activities and allow the industry to seek Election Commissioner in the Election Commission of India policy approvals for specific activities. succeeds V.S. Sampath. Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said • Sampath demitted the office on 15 January, 2015 after that the action has been undertaken to map the activities of attaining the age of 65, the upper age limit under the the Consolidated FDI Policy, 2014 with the National Constitution for holding the post. He will have a small tenure Industrial Classification, 2008. of three months till 19 April 2015, when he turns 65, the • In India all economic activities are classified in accordance upper age limit for the post. to NIC code and classification is necessary for seeking • He is a 1975 IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre industrial licenses and submitting industrial entrepreneurs' • He hails from Assam and has served as the former Union memorandum. DIPP, functional under the Ministry of power secretary Commerce and Industry, is the nodal agency on FDI policy. • He was appointed as an Election Commissioner on 25 August This agency compiles all policies related to India's FDI 2010 regime into a single document to make it simple and easy • After J.M. Lyngdoh, Brahma is the second officer from for investors to understand. northeast to be appointed to this post. • Election Commission of India is a permanent Constitutional INDO- DEAL Body. It was established in accordance with the Constitution • Barack Obama, the president of the United States, was invited on 25 January, 1950. to India as a chief guest for the Indian Republic Day parade ARVI 8 OF on 26th, January, 2015. On this occasion several important DELHI deals of importance saw light. Arvind Kejriwal was sworn-in as 8th Chief Minister of Delhi on • Defence: developing cooperation through the Defence Trade 14th February. In 2015Delhi Assembly elections, AAP staged a and Technology Initiative, historic victory by sweeping 67 of the 70 seats. This will be Arvind • Counter-terrorism: cooperating on anti-terrorism and Kejriwal's second term as Delhi Chief Minister. Earlier in February homeland security, 2014, he had resigned after running a 49-day government with • Economic ties: through increased trade and investment, the support of Congress. especially in infrastructure, MOHAMM SA EF • Climate change and clean energy: the two countries are MINISTE &K developing aPartnership to Advance Clean Energy, in • Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mufti Mohammed addition to nuclear. Sayeed on 1 March, 2015 was sworn in as the 12th Chief • But the nuclear deal was the big one. When India developed Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. This is the second time their own atomic weapons in the 1970s, the relationship that Sayeed will be heading a coalition government in the between America and India became rocky, to say the least. state. Earlier in 2002, he led a PDP-Congress alliance But nuclear energy is a huge part of India's energy future, as government and was Chief Minister for three years. Nirmal a way to bring hundreds of millions of people up into the Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was made the Deputy middle class without increasing the use of coal. Therefore, Chief Minister of the state. This is the first time that BJP has it was in the best interest of both countries to find a way to become a part of the government in Jammu and Kashmir address the nuclear issues. after PDP and BJP agreed to form a coalition government as no party secured an absolute majority in the J&K PILLARS OF (INDO-US) DEAL Assembly elections in December 2014. 1. Energy and Climate Change RAILWA BUD 2015-16 2. Education and Development • Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on 26 February 2015 3. Economy presented his maiden Rail Budget 2015-16 in the Lok Sabha. 4. Trade and Agriculture This was also the second rail budget of the Narendra Modi- 5. Science and Technology and Health and Innovation. led NDA government. • Civil Nuclear cooperation BUDGET ESTIMATES FOR 2015-16 • Defence cooperation • Passenger earnings growth pegged at 16.7 percent and target • Counter terrorism and internal security budgeted at 50175 crore rupees • People to People ties • Freight traffic is pegged at an all time high incremental traffic 3 of 85 million tonnes, anticipating a healthier growth in the • Wi-Fi connectivity at B category stations core sector of economy • A new department to keep stations, trains clean • Goods earnings proposed at 121423 crore rupees which • Operating ratio to improve to 88.5% in 2015-16 includes rationalisation of rates, commodity classification and distance slabs • Speed in 9 railway corridors to be increased from 110 kmph • Other coaching and sundries are projected at 4612 crore and 130 kmph to 160 and 200 kmph rupees and 7318 crore rupees respectively • Collision Avoidance System to be installed on select routes • Gross Traffic Receipts estimated at 183578 crore rupees, a • Proposed 77 new projects covering 9,400 km of doubling growth of 15.3 percent works.