INDIAN AFFAIRS-JANUARY 07, 2019 Ministry of HRD constitutes a task force to look into the issue of JNV suicides On 3rd January 2019, the Ministry of Human Resource Development constituted a task force to look into the circumstances of reported suicides of 49 students, including Dalits and Adivasi students, of residential Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) between 2013 and 2017. Key Points: i. The task force, to be headed by psychiatrist Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, has been constituted to look into the circumstances leading to the suicidal deaths of students residing in the hostels of JNVs. ii. The task force will also suggest ways and means to arrest the trend of suicides by students of JNVs. iii. Furthermore, a proposal to engage two full time counselors (one male and one female) in each of the 630 functional JNVs has also been sent to the Department of Expenditure for approval from the HRD Ministry. About Ministry of Human Resource Development: ♦ Minister: Prakash Javadekar ♦ Minister of State: Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Shri Upendra Kushwaha ♦ Headquarters: New Delhi Government notifies High-Level Committee for implementation of Clause VI of Assam Accord Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has notified a High-level committee of nine members under the chairmanship of Shri M.P. Bezbarauah for implementation of Clause VI of the Assam Accord. What is Clause VI? The Clause VI of Assam Accord envisaged that appropriate constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards should be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the people of Assam. Key Points i. The Committee will submit its report within 6 months from the date of notification. ii. The 9 member Committee headed by retired IAS M.P. Bezbarauah includes eminent Assamese persons from different fields. iii. The State Government of Assam will provide necessary administrative and logistics support to the committee. iv. The effectiveness of actions since 1985 will be examined to implement clause 6 of the Assam Accord. v. The Committee will assess the required quantum of reservation of seats in the state Assembly and local bodies for the people of the state. vi. The Committee is also tasked to assess the requirement of measures that needs to be taken to protect Assamese and other indigenous languages of Assam. About Assam ♦ Capital: Dispur ♦ Governor: Jagdish Mukhi ♦ Chief Minister: Sarbananda Sonowal ♦ National Parks (NP): Kaziranga NP, Dibru-Saikhowa NP, Manas NP, Nameri NP, Orang NP Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu unveils schemes for marginalized Brahmins On 4th January 2019, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu unveiled various welfare scheme for the marginalized and economically backward Brahmins through AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation such as distribution of Cars to the Unemployed Brahmin youths, loans and subsidies. Key Points i. Brahmin youths who had undergone training as drivers were given Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire for the first time. ii. 30 cars were distributed on 4th January to the Brahmin youths. Youth bore 10% of the total on-road cost the diesel run cars. iii. Government has started at least half dozen schemes for Brahmins and around 10000 poor Brahmins have been given loans and subsidies. iv. Andhra Pradesh is the first state of the country which has established a Brahmin Corporation which aims to help poor people of Brahmin families by providing financial assistance for education, coaching, entrepreneurship, skill development and welfare and culture. About Andhra Pradesh ♦ Capital: Amaravati (de facto), Hyderabad (de jure) ♦ Governor: E.S.L. Narasimhan ♦ Chief Minister: N Chandrababu Naidu ♦ National Parks (NP): Papikonda NP, Sri Venkateswara NP Zero percent interest for loans upto Rs. 3 lakhs for Self Help Groups (SHGs) under the Mission Shakti scheme: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik On January 5, 2019, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced interest-free loans of up to Rs.3 lakh for six lakh women self-help groups (WSHGs) benefitting about 70 lakh women in Odisha. i. This was announced at the ‘Mission Shakti’ convention attended by about 50,000 women. ii. In the convention, the chief minister did the following: He distributed financial assistance of Rs. 3,000 each to six lakh WSHGs to digitally empower women. Launched a scheme to distribute Rs. 15,000 seed money per group to three lakh new self-help groups. He also handed over revolving fund of Rs. 25 lakh to 338 block federations. Also announced incentives of Rs. 500 per month for anganwadi workers and Rs.200 for helpers. iii. Also the Odisha government decided to build ‘Mission Shakti Home’ in each gram panchayat across the state, as a part of ‘Mission Shakti’ initiative. Background: The ‘Mission Shakti’ programme was launched in 2001. Odisha: ♦ Chief Minister: Naveen Patnaik. ♦ Governor: Prof. Ganeshi Lal. ♦ Lakes : Chilika Lake, Kanjia Lake, Anshupa Lake, Balimela Reservoir. 30th Edition of 9-day long International Kite Festival kicks off in Ahmedabad,Gujarat On 6th January 2019,30th Edition of the nine-day long international kite festival inaugurated ahead of Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti, the day when winter season starts changing to summer and farmers welcome the approaching harvest season, at Sabarmati River Front in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Key Points: i. This year’s Kite festival is inaugurated by Gujarat Governor O P Kohli,in which Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Ahmedabad Mayor Bijal Patel and State Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel also addressed. ii. This year’s kite festival is participated by about 500 kite fliers from 19 cities of Gujarat and 13 different states of the country are participating. Besides more than 150 kite fliers from 45 different countries are also taking part in the festival. iii. This year, the Gujarat government has also decided to organise a kite festival at Kevadia, the site of the Statue of Unity, a memorial to Sardar Patel and the also the world’s tallest statue.Other Venue’s are Vadodara, Kevadiya, Dwaraka, Surat, Rajkot, Jetpur, Songadh, Saputara and Dhordo in which the Kite festivals are planned to take place in the coming days. About Gujarat: ♦ Capital: Gandhinagar ♦ Chief Minister: Vijay Rupani ♦ Governor: Om Prakash Kohli ♦ National Parks (NP) in Gujarat: Gir Forest NP, Blackbuck NP, Marine NP and Vansda NP Secunderabad Railway Station: the first Railway station to hoist Tricolour National flag on a 100 feet tall pole under Railway’s order On January 2, 2019, Secunderabad Railway Station, in Hyderabad, became the first railway station of South Central Railway (SCR) zone to hoist a huge tricolour on a 100-foot tall pole. i. This was done according to the Railway Board’s order to hoist the national flag at 75 A1 category railway stations.Kacheguda, Hyderabad became the 2nd and 3rd railway Stations to hoist the100-foot tall pole. ii. The flag would be guarded by the Railway Protection Force (RPF). iii. Furthermore according to the order, SCR has taken the initiative to hoist the National Flag at 2 other ‘A1’ category Railway Stations they are Vijaywada and Tirupati. AAI signed MoU with SAMEER for boosting R&D in the field of communication On January 4, 2019, Airport Authority of India (AAI) signed MoU with Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) for joint research programs in the field of Communication Navigation and Surveillance (CNS). i. The MOU is under government of India’s ‘Make in India’ concept to indigenously design and develop CNS systems. ii. SAMEER is an autonomous research and development (R and D) institute under Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MeitY). INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Iran approved anti-money laundering bill for ease of business On January 5, 2019, Iranian council known as the Expediency Council approved an anti-money laundering bill to ease trade i. This bill will be in line with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Background: Iran is alone with North Korea on the FATF’s blacklist — although the Paris-based organisation has suspended counter- measures since June 2017 while Iran works on reforms. Iran: ♦ Capital: Tehran. ♦ Currency: Iranian rial. BANKING & FINANCE RBI limits customer liability in fraudulent PPI transactions On 4th January 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification for all authorised non- bank Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) Issuers in order to limit the liability of Customers in unauthorised electronic payment transactions in Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) comprising mobile wallets, prepaid payments cards, and paper vouchers such as Sodexo. Key Points: i. The RBI said frauds due to third-party breach where neither the customer nor the PPI issuer is at fault, there cannot be any liability for the customer, in case the incident in reported within three days. ii. If the fraud is reported between three and seven days, customer liability will amount to the transaction value or Rs.10,000, whichever is lower whereas for fraud reported over seven days, the liability of the customer will be according to the board-approved policy of the PPI issuer. iii. The PPI issuer has to credit the amount involved in the unauthorised transaction to the customer’s PPI within 10 days, after the customer reports the fraud. iv. Also the burden of proving customer liability in case of unauthorised electronic payment transactions shall lie on the PPI issuer. v. Furthermore there will be no liability to the customer if fraud is due to negligence or deficiency of the PPI issuer, irrespective of whether or not the transaction is reported by the customer. vi. However in cases where the loss is due to negligence by a customer, such as where he/she has shared the payment credentials, the customer will bear the entire loss until he/she reports the unauthorised transaction to the PPI issuer. vii. Besides if the PPI issuer is not able to resolve the complaint of fraud within the stipulated period of 90 days, the customer will have to be compensated “irrespective of whether the negligence is on the part of the customer or otherwise”.