UTTAR PRADESH
- Schools to take lead in rainwater harvesting
- As part of a unique initiative, all secondary schools— government and private—of five of the worst effected development blocks of the district including Baharia, Bahadurpur, Dhanupur, Pratappur and Chaka would now install rainwater harvesting systems on their campuses.
- These schools would be provided some financial support for installing the rainwater harvesting systems on their campuses.
- The rainwater harvesting system, if implemented in school premises, will not only help in water augmentation in terms of groundwater recharge or storage but can also act as a flood control measure.
INTERNATIONAL
- Benjamin Netanyahu becomes the longest serving Prime Minister of Israel
- Benjamin Netanyahubecame thelongest serving Prime Minister of Israel.He overthrew the record set by David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first leader. Netanyahu has spent 4,876 days,more than 13 years, in office as on 20 July, 2019. Netanyahu is the Israel’s youngest-ever Prime Minister as won his first election in 1996, at the age of 46.
NATIONAL
- Centre plans to introduce the Dam Safety Bill, 2019 in Parliament
- The Centre plans to introduce the Dam Safety Bill, 2019 in Parliament after getting clearance from the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).The Bill aims to put in place a systematic procedure to ensure that India’s 5,600 dams are made and maintained safely.
- The Bill make provisions for the establishment of a National Dam Safety Authority as a regulatory body to implement the policy. The State Dam Safety Organisation will be manned by officers from the field dam safety.
- The CCEA has approved the1,600 crore for initiate theDibang Multipurpose Project in Arunachal Pradesh, India’s largest hydropower project. The total cost estimated for the Project is Rs.28080.35 crore, which includes IDC&FC of Rs.3974.95 crore. The estimated completion period for the project sis 9 years from receipt of Government sanction.
- The Bill have been introduced since 2010in various edition in the State but has never been successfully passed. This is because, States have opposed at various times. Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Odisha have opposed the Bill and citied reasons that the introduction of the bill will encroach upon the sovereignty of States to manage their dams.
- Home Ministry working to expand scope of NRC across India
- While the finalization of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is at an advance stage in Assam, the Home Ministry is working on modalities to implement across the country the exercise to identify illegal immigrants for deportation.
- The amended order empowers state governments and even district magistrates of all states and Union Territories to set up tribunals to identify a “foreigner” who is living in India illegally.
- Until now, only the Centre had the power to constitute such tribunals, which were essentially quasi-judicial bodies unique to Assam.
- The NRC, first published in Assam in 1951, is being updated as per directions of the Supreme Court to segregate Indian citizens living in Assam from those who have illegally entered the state from Bangladesh after March 25, 1971.
- MHA launched Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for 2018-2020
- Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri G. Kishan Reddy Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) launched a scheme ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)’ for the period 2018-2020.
- The aim is to combat cybercrime in India in a coordinated and effective manner.
There are I4C 7 components namely:
National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit
National Cybercrime Reporting Portal
A platform for Joint Cybercrime Investigation Team
National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory Ecosystem
National Cybercrime Training Centre
Cybercrime Ecosystem Management Unit
National Cyber Research and Innovation Centre
- SEBI opposed Centres proposal to transfer surplus money to the Consolidated Fund
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI),the capital markets regulator, hasopposed the Centre’s proposal to transfer surplus money to the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).
- SEBI cited that agreeing the proposal would make it tocompromise its autonomy and its ability to function effectively towards the progress and development of the Indian securities market.
- The government has also proposed an amendment to the SEBI Act, 1992.The amendment states that SEBI would constitute a reserve fund. 25% of the annual surplus of the general fund would be kept in the reserve fund and the size of the reserve fund should not exceed the total of annual expenditure of the preceding two financial years.
- The amendment also proposed that the surplus of the general fund, after factoring in all the SEBI expenses and the transfer to the reserve fund, needs to be transferred to the CFI as per amendments proposed in the Finance Bill, 2019.
- CFI is the revenues collected by the Centre through direct taxes and indirect taxes, license fees, money received by govt. in loan repayment, profits from public sector undertakings. CFI is used for all the expenses of the government.
Money can not be withdrawn from CFI without the approval of Parliament.
- Delhi Traffic Police Launch New E-Payment System to Overcome Corruption
- The new e-challan system and the e-payment gateway for the use of Delhi Traffic Police
- The scheme was launched by the Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik
- The E-challan devices are enabled with active GPS
- The challaning officer and the violator can be logged and tracked to a particular geo-location.
- This is an important tool for evidence
- This tool is enabled to establish the credibility of the prosecution.
- The payment gateway mainly the citizens with the flexibility to log in securely at their convenience and settle the pending violation notices with proof of payment.