SALEM INSTITUTE OF BANKING (IBPS /SBI -PO/Clerk/SO, RBI, RRB,TNPSC NIACL, OICL, NABARD, ) Current Affairs – August 15 to 21 NATIONAL NEWS Inter-State Council reconstituted with PM Modi as chairman • The government has reconstituted the Inter State Council and the Standing Committee of the Inter State Council. • Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Chairman of the Inter State Council. • Chief Ministers of all States and six Union Ministers including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah and Nirmala Sitharaman are the members of the Council. • While ten Union Ministers including Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan, S Jaishankar and Piyush Goyal are the permanent invitees in the Council. • Home Minister Amit Shah will be the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Inter State Council. Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Thaawar Chand Gehlot and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and eight State Chief Ministers will be its members. • These States are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Delhi: DTC to provide free rides to women on Raksha Bandhan • Women in the national capital will be able to travel free of cost on Delhi Transport Corporation, DTC buses on Raksha Bandhan. • The free travelling facility for lady passengers will be available in both, AC and non AC buses between 8.00 A.M. to 10.00 P.M. • Keeping in view of a heavy rush of commuters on this day, DTC has also decided to put its maximum buses on road to cater the extra rush of the passengers. • Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression “Raksha Bandhan,” Sanskrit, literally, “the bond of protection, obligation, or care,” is now principally applied to this ritual. Nagaland State Police Dept gets first Laboratory-cum-Training Centre • Nagaland State Police Department got its first Laboratory-cum-Training Centre for Prevention of Cyber Crime against Women and Children. • Inaugurating the centre at Police Training School, Chumoukedimaunder Dimapur district, Deputy Chief Minister Y.Patton said cyber-crimes pose a great challenge to the traditional policing and as such the police personnel need to sharpen their skills to tackle the threats. • An awareness creation for prevention of cyber-crimes must be given priority while imparting trainings as most people fall victims to cyber-crimes due to ignorance. • Meanwhile, IGP, CID, Nagaland, Zekotso Mero informed that the training will commence immediately where 50 police personnel from different police units will be trained. National tribal festival ‘Aadi Mahotsav’ begins in Leh-Ladakh • Aadi Mahotsav, the national tribal festival, will start at Polo Ground in Leh-Ladakh. • The nine-day event will be inaugurated by the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Satya Pal Malik. • The theme of the festival is – A celebration of the spirit of Tribal Craft, Culture and Commerce. • Around 160 Tribal artisans from more than 20 states across the country will actively participate and showcase their masterpieces in this event. • The event will have reputed local cultural troupes presenting Ladakhi folk dances. • It is being jointly organised by Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India. ANKING/RRB/SSC/TNPSC/TET 32nd Bakkiyam cmplx,Sankari Main Road,Tiruchengode Page 1 SALEM INSTITUTE OF BANKING (IBPS /SBI -PO/Clerk/SO, RBI, RRB,TNPSC NIACL, OICL, NABARD, ) Current Affairs – August 15 to 21 Massive campaign to be launched to make India free of single-use plastic • Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has announced that a massive campaign will be launched to make India free of single-use plastic. • In this regard, a series of meetings will be held with all stakeholders including state governments to chalk out a concrete plan to make it a people’s campaign to realise the ultimate target. • Mr. Javadekar made this announcement at Sau Paulo in Brazil, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech urged people to shun single-use plasticand encouraged the use of jute and cloth bags to protect the environment. I&B implements accessibility standards for differently-abled starting Aug 15 • Information and Broadcasting Ministry has decided toimplement Accessibility Standards for Persons with Disabilities in television programmes for private TV channels from this Independence Day. • This is a major step towardsimplementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act. • In a significant beginning from this year’s Independence Day, the Ministry has asked Private Satellite News TV channels also to telecast a short programme on Independence Day celebrations, along with corresponding sign language interpretation today in the afternoon or evening. • The Ministry was given Special Jury Award at this function for its path breaking work in making television accessible for people with hearing disabilities. Chief Ministers of various states agree to boost agriculture exports • Chief Ministers of various statesreached a consensus on how to boost agricultural exports. • Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis chaired the second meeting of the high-powered committee of Chief Ministers for transformation of Indian agriculture in Mumbaiorganised by NITI Aayog. • There was also unanimity on drafting a market intelligence based export policy. • The meeting was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar among others. • Mr Fadnavis while appreciating the participation of all states in the meeting, expressed that some states have come out with solutions on the difficulties faced in the agriculture sector and those aspects will be particularly looked into in future meetings so that they can be implemented across the country. There was broad discussion on universalisation of agriculture credit and also aspects related to productivity, marketing and export. Government relaxes norms for shares with differential voting rights • The Ministry of Corporate Affairshas amended the provisions relating to the issue of shares with Differential Voting Rights(DVRs) provisions under the Companies Act. • Its objective is to enable promoters of Indian companiesto retain control of their companies in their pursuit for growth and creation of long-term value for shareholders. • The key change brings in an enhancement in the previously existing cap of 26 per cent of the total post- issue paid-up equity share capital to a revised cap of 74 per cent of the total voting power. • Another key change brought about is the removal of the earlier requirement of distributable profits for 3 years for a company to be eligible to issue shares with Differential Voting Rights. • These two initiatives have been taken by the Government in response to requests from innovative tech companies and startups and to strengthen the hands of Indian companies. Scheme to involve school eco clubs in DDA’s plantation drive launched ANKING/RRB/SSC/TNPSC/TET 32nd Bakkiyam cmplx,Sankari Main Road,Tiruchengode Page 2 SALEM INSTITUTE OF BANKING (IBPS /SBI -PO/Clerk/SO, RBI, RRB,TNPSC NIACL, OICL, NABARD, ) Current Affairs – August 15 to 21 • In Delhi, a scheme to involve school eco clubs in the DDA’s plantation drive was launched at a green belt in Rohini’s sector 37 by Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri. • As part of an afforestation drive of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), four lakh indigenous trees will be planted this year across various biodiversity parks and other green belts in the national capital. • Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) and DDA Chairman Anil Baijalexpressed happiness at the response of the schools and said there was a need to incentivise the performers of the scheme. MP: About 80 lakh farmer families to benefit from PMKSNY • In Madhya Pradesh, about 80 lakh eligible farmer families will benefit from the Pradhanmantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana in the state. • Under the scheme, total Rs 6 thousand that is Rs 2 thousand each in three installments are being deposited every year directly in the accounts of the eligible farmer families. • The scheme has been envisioned with an aim to improve the life of small and marginal farmers of the country. • More than 35 lakh beneficiarieshave been selected so for in Madhya Pradesh for Pradhanmantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. • Out of them, over 29 lakh 70 thousand farmers have got the first instalment of scheme. • The second instalment of this scheme has also been deposited in the bank accounts of more than 9 thousand farmers of the state till 15 August. • To prevent any type of corruption in the Pradhanmantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, list of farmer families is being prepared by the Patwaris in collaboration with the Gram Sabha. • Only after the approval of the Gram Sabha, the benefit of the scheme will be given to the farmer families. HRD Minister inaugurates two-day international conference on teacher education • Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ inaugurated an international conference on teacher education in New Delhi. • For thousands of years, Indian teacher was considered as Vishwa Guru or world’s teacher. There are 85 lakh teachers in the country. • The two-day event is being organized by the National Council of Teacher Education as part of silver jubilee celebration of its establishment in 1995. • Secretary of Department of School Education and Literacy Rina Ray expressed that the Union Human Resource Development Ministry will launch the world’s biggest project for teacher training on August 22 to train over 42 lakh school teachers across the country. Assam gets its first ever CNG fuel station in Dibrugarh • Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will inaugurate the first ever CNG fuel station of the state in Dibrugarh. • With the inauguration of this clean and green fuel station, it will reduce environmental pollution. • Mr. Sonowal has given much emphasis to make the state free from pollution.