Current Affairs Assam – June 29 - 30, 2019
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of June 29 – 30, 2019 )
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June 29, 2019
HRD ministry releases five-year vision plan to transform higher education
- In a bid to transform the higher education sector in the country, the Ministry of Human Resource Development released a five-year vision plan.
- The report has been termed as Education Quality Upgradation and Inclusion Programme (EQUIP), which will be taken to the Cabinet for approval after inter-departmental consultations.
- 10 groups led by experts — former Revenue Secretary HasmukhAdhia, Principal Scientific Advisor K Vijay Raghavan, NitiAayog CEO Amitabh Pant, former Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan and Rediff.com founder AjitBalakrishnan –suggested more than 50 initiatives that would transform the higher education sector completely and would make it more accessible.
- The report contains recommendations to double the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education, position at least 50 Indian institutions among the top-1000 global universities, introduce governance reforms in higher education for well-administered campuses, promote research and innovation ecosystems for positioning India in the top three countries in the world.
- It also offers suggestions to double the employability of students passing out of higher education, harness education technology for expanding the reach and improving pedagogy, promote India as a global study destination and achieve a quantum increase in investment in higher education.
West Bengal rolls out free crop insurance scheme for farmers
- The West Bengal government has rolled out a crop insurance scheme, in collaboration with the Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC), for the 2019 ”kharif” season to protect farmers from natural disasters, and to ensure a steady income in case of unstable market prices.
- The crop insurance scheme would be “free of cost for the farmers” as the government would pay the entire premium and the insurable crops are Aman and Aus paddy, jute and maize.
- The scheme, called Bangla ShashyaBima (BSB), is applicable for farmers in the districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, East and West Burdwan, East and West Medinipur, Malda, Hooghly, Nadia, Murshidabad, Cooch Behar, Birbhum, Purulia, South Dinajpur, North and South 24 Parganas.
- The insurance scheme would cover any losses suffered during planting, cultivation and during the period post-cutting when crops are lying in the field, and for adverse weather situations.
US, India, Japan plan strong Indo-Pacific naval tie-up
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed ways to jointly build infrastructure and ensure peace and security in the maritime zone.
- The three leaders decided to make the summit meetings under the Japan-America-India (JAI) format an annual affair to “ensure successful cooperation in multiple areas, including maritime security, quality infrastructure, and advancing peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean and Pacific region and beyond.
- The leaders reaffirmed the critical importance of strengthening US-India-Japan cooperation to reinforce shared core democratic values, which promote global security and prosperity.
- The main topic of the discussion was the Indo-Pacific, about how the three countries can work together in terms of connectivity, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of ensuring that peace and security is maintained and in terms of working together to build upon this new concept so that it benefits the region as a whole and for the three countries of course.
Centre to launch ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme
- In a bid to curb corruption and dependence on one Public Distribution System (PDS) shop, the Central government will launch the ”one nation, one ration card” scheme.
- The schemewill ensure that all beneficiaries especially migrants can access PDS across the nation from any shop of their own choice.
- The Union Minister of Consumer Affairsasserted that the biggest beneficiary of this will be those migrant labourers who move to other states to seek better job opportunities and will ensure their food security.
- This will provide freedom to the beneficiaries as they will not be tied to any one PDS shop and reduce their dependence on shop owners and curtail instances of corruption. The objective of the department is to ensure that this is implemented nationally in a time bound manner.
- At present, the Integrated Management of PDS (IMPDS) is a system that is already operational in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura wherein a beneficiary can avail his share of food grain from any district in the state. Other states have also assured that IMPDS will be implemented at the earliest.
- There will also be the creation of a Central Repository of all RCs which will help in checking duplication.
June 30, 2019
North Eastern Council (NEC) ties up with National Productivity Council (NPC) on capacity building
- The North Eastern Council (NEC) and the National Productivity Council (NPC) have agreed on a tie up on capacity building and evaluation of projects.
- The proposed MoU would also include third party evaluation of projects, energy auditing, and digitization for smart governance.
- The tie- up said it would provide improved capacity in project implementation and management initiated by the Council.
FACTFILE – National Productivity Council (NPC)
- NPC is a national level autonomous organization under Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry to promote productivity culture in India.
- It was established as a registered society on 12th February 1958 by the Government with aim to stimulate and promote productivity and quality consciousness across all sectors in the country.
- It is a tri-partite non-profit organization (NGO) with equal representation from government, employers and workers’ organizations.
- It also has representatives from technical and professional institutions including members from local productivity councils and chamber of commerce on its Governing Body.
- It also implements the productivity promotion schemes of Government and carry out programmes of Tokyo based Asian Productivity Organization (APO), an inter-governmental body of which India is founder member.
G20 summit ends with declaration of support for free trade principles
- The members of the G20 bloc concluded their two-day Summit here by declaring support for the principles of free trade and economic growth amid global trade-related tensions.
- After the end of the two-day summit that the G20 leaders agreed on the need to boost economic growth and expressed concerns about globalization and the world trade system.
- The 20-member group reaffirmed its support for “the fundamental principles backing a free trade system” and placed special emphasis on achieving open, free and non-discriminatory markets and a level-playing field.
- Even though it was difficult to find one solution to so many global challenges at once, the group had managed to show a common will in many areas.
- The leaders also recognized the clear “downside risks” to the global economy.
- The member-countries had agreed to spearhead economic growth and stressed the need to reform the World Trade Organization.
FACTFILE – G 20 Group
- Established in 1999, the G20 is a central forum for international cooperation on financial and economic issues.
- It comprises 19 countries plus the European Union (EU).
- The member nations are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Britain and the US.
Government creates Rs 10K cr corpus for startups
- A corpus of Rs 10,000 crore has been established in order to meet the funding requirements of startups. The Fund of Funds (FFS) is anticipated to be given over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles based on progress of the scheme and availability of funds.
- The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) have recognised 19,351 startups across the country till June 24, 2019. DPIIT is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS.
- SIDBI has committed Rs 3,123.20 crore to 49 SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs). These funds have raised a corpus fund of Rs 27,478 crore.
- Rs 483.46 crore have been drawn from Fund of Funds for Startups. Further, the AIFs have invested a total of Rs 1,625.73 crore into 247 startups.
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