Assam Current Affairs – November 15-21, 2018

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Current Affairs Assam – November 2018

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of November 2018 )

November 2018 – Monthly PDF | Monthly Quiz eBook

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November 19

JPC chairman to take notes of 30 members on Citizenship Bill
  • A day before the much hyped meeting of JPC over the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, JPC chairman Rajendra Agrawal said he will take notes from all 30 members of the JPC before concluding its report over the contentious Bill.
  • Amid opposition by various groups, some organisations are supporting the bill in Barak valley of Assam.
  • The committee also heard views of the chief secretaries of Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Maharashtra.

FACTFILE – Joint Committee on Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955

  • Chairperson – Agrawal, Shri Rajendra
  • The JPC comprises 30 members. 20 members are from Lok Sabha and 10 members are from Rajya Sabha
  • It was constituted on 11 August 2016.

FACTFILE – Joint parliamentary committee

  • Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) is one type of ad hoc Parliamentary committee constituted by the Indian parliament.

FORMATION

  • Joint Parliamentary Committee is formed when motion is adopted by one house and it is supported or agreed by the other house.
  • Another way to form a Joint Parliamentary committee is that two presiding chiefs of both houses can write to each other, communicate with each other and form the joint parliamentary committee.

MEMBERSHIP

  • The Lok Sabha members are double compared to Rajya Sabha. The strength of a JPC may be different each time.

POWERS

  • A JPC can obtain evidence of experts, public bodies, associations, individuals or interested parties suo motu or on requests made by them. If a witness fails to appear before a JPC in response to summons, his conduct constitutes a contempt of the House.
  • The government may withhold or decline to produce a document if it is considered prejudicial to the safety or interest of State. The Speaker has the final word on any dispute over calling for evidence against a person or production of a document.
North East centre for Agricultural Biotechnology inaugurated at AAU
  • The Vice-chancellor of Assam Agricultural University (AAU) KM Bujarbaruah relaunched the Centre for Biotechnology as the North East Centre for Agricultural Biotechnology.
  • The ceremony was held in presence of TJ Higgins, world expert in the field of genetic engineering from CSIRO, Canberra, Australia and chairman of the scientific advisory committee of the Centre, Mohd Aslam, advisor, DBT , government of India and T Madhan Mohan, consultant advisor, NERBPMC.
  • The department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and technology, government of India, had sanctioned Rs 24 crore in the second phase for the Centre which would cater to the north east with extended functioning.
  • Five satellite laboratories would also be constructed in five states of the north east apart from the one in Assam.
  • The centre would facilitate and strengthen biotechnology and human resource development in the north east region.
  • The main focus would be on modification of rice for tolerance to biotic/abiotic stresses, gene technology for grain legume improvement, gene prospecting from soil microbes for acid tolerance and promotions organic farming.
Iran, India discuss trade cooperation under US sanctions
  • The outgoing Indian ambassador to Tehran and the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture have discussed ways of continuing Iran-India trade under reimposed US sanctions.
  • During the meeting, the Indian diplomat Saurabh Kumar and the Iranian official Masoud Khansari reviewed the ways to continue trade relations during sanctions.
  • The US sanctions may present a new window of opportunity for Iran-India ties, Khansari said, adding that the focus of mechanisms to facilitate cooperation between Iran and India should be laid on banking and financial cooperation.
  • Tehran Chamber is conducting studies on regional trade partners, including India, for import and export purposes
  • The Indian diplomat said that his country can import 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day for the next six months from Iran based on the US exemption.
  • Iran can, in turn, purchase essential goods such as food, medicine and humanitarian trade goods that are exempt from sanctions.

FACTFILE – United States sanctions against Iran

  • United States sanctions against Iran refer to economic, trade, scientific and military sanctions against Iran, which have been imposed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or by the international community under U.S. pressure through the United Nations Security Council.
  • Currently, the sanctions include an embargo on dealings with Iran by the United States, and a ban on selling aircraft and repair parts to Iranian aviation companies.
  • On 17 May 2018 the European Commission announced its intention to implement the blocking statute of 1996 to declare the US sanctions against Iran null and void in Europe and ban European citizens and companies from complying with them. The Commission also instructed the European Investment Bank to facilitate European companies’ investment in Iran.
China launches two more satellites to beef up own GPS system
  • China successfully launched twin BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into space to strengthen its satellite navigation network. The satellites were launched from a Long March-3B carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province.
  • The satellites entered their planned orbit after flying for over three hours, and will work with the 14 BeiDou-3 satellites already in orbit.
  • The satellites are the 39th and 40th of the BeiDou navigation system, and the 15th and 16th of the BeiDou-3 family.
  • The satellites and rocket were developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
  • China plans to send another three BeiDou-3 satellites into space to form a basic system to provide services for countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, by the end of the year.

FACTFILE – The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS)

  • The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is a Chinese satellite navigation system.
  • It consists of two separate satellite constellations, the first BeiDou system, the BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System consists of three satellites which since 2000 has offered limited coverage and navigation services, mainly for users in China and neighboring regions. Beidou-1 was decommissioned at the end of 2012.
  • The second generation of the system, officially called the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and also known as COMPASS or BeiDou-2, became operational in China in December 2011 with a partial constellation of 10 satellites in orbit.
  • Since December 2012, it has been offering services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • In 2015, China started the build-up of the third generation BeiDou system (BeiDou-3) in the global coverage constellation.
  • The first BDS-3 satellite was launched on 30 March 2015. As of January 2018, nine BeiDou-3 satellites have been launched. BeiDou-3 will eventually consist of 35 satellites and is expected to provide global services upon completion in 2020.
  • When fully completed, BeiDou will provide an alternative global navigation satellite system to the United States owned Global Positioning System (GPS), and is expected to be more accurate than the GPS.

November 20

Bru tribes to vote in Mizoram’s Mamit district
  • The Bru refugees living in Tripura at the inter-state border village of Kanhmun in Mamit district of Mizoram will participate in voting for the upcoming election, as the Election Commission of India has decided to hold polling for them in Mamit district.
  • The place of voting for 11,232 Bru voters has become the most controversial issue in the run up to the Mizoram Assembly polls, leading to replacement of the Chief Electoral Officer SB Shashank in less than two weeks ahead of the elections to the 40-member House. Shashank had reportedly facilitated voting by Bru voters in the relief camps in Tripura.
  • The six camps of the Bru refugees are located between two km and 10 km from the inter-state border between Tripura and Mizoram. The highest number of Brus are registered in Mamit district which has Hachhek, Dampa and Mamit constituencies with 14 per cent of the total voters being refugees.

FACTFILE – Reang (Bru)

  • Reang are one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian state of Tripura and are found all over the state and also in parts of Mizoram, Assam, Manipur.
  • They speak the Reang dialect of Kokborok language which is of Tibeto-Burmese origin and is locally referred to as Kau Bru.
  • Union Home Ministry’s decision to give voting rights to around 30,000 people who had fled from Mizoram to Tripura in 1997 in the wake of inter-community violence.
  • As many as 32,876 people of the Reang tribe (known in Mizoram as Brus) are set to be repatriated to Mizoram after a tripartite agreement was signed between the Centre, Tripura and Mizoram.
  • The Bru are the second most populous tribe of Tripura after the Tripuris.
Malaria cases drop 24% in India, Odisha best performer, says WHO
  • India has been identified as the top country marking maximum progress in reducing malaria cases among the 11 highest burden countries, registering a 24 per cent decrease in 2017 compared to 2016, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
  • As per the WHO World Malaria Report 2018, India is the only high-burden country moving in a positive direction, with Odisha emerging as the best performing state in its fight against Malaria.
  • The report suggests that malaria cases declined from 3,23,800 in 2017 (January-September) to 55,365 in 2018 for the same duration, along with a drop in deaths to single digits in Odisha.
  • However, the report suggests that 1.25 billion Indians still remain at the risk of getting diagnosed with malaria.
  • approximately 70 per cent of the world’s malaria burden is concentrated in 11 countries — 10 in sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania) and India.
  • In 2017, 151 million malaria cases and 2,74,000 death cases were reported in these 11 countries.

FACTFILE – Malaria

  • Malaria is a potentially life threatening disease caused by parasites (Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale) that are transmitted through the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes.
  • In 2016, 91 countries and territories had ongoing malaria transmission and an estimated 3.2 billion people were at risk of malaria.
  • WHO estimates that India accounts for 89 % malaria cases in South-East Asia.
  • Malaria is entirely preventable and treatable. Use of long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) by people at risk and indoor residual spraying (IRS) with insecticide to control the vector mosquitoes are useful.
  • Increased malaria prevention and control measures have dramatically reduced malaria across many countries, including India.
  • The incidence rate of malaria is estimated to have decreased by 18% globally between 2010 and 2016. In 2016, 7% decline in total malaria cases and 16% decline in total malaria deaths was recorded in India as compared to 2015.
  • The Govt of India launched the National Framework for Malaria Elimination 2016-2030 in February 2016 and the National Strategic Plan for Malaria Elimination 2017-2022 in July 2017 with WHO support.
  • India has a vision of a malaria free country by 2027 and elimination by 2030.
Indo-Russian joint military exercise INDRA starts in Vladivostok
  • The first ever tri-service exercise INDRA between India and Russia commenced in Vladivostok, Russia on 23rd November with special focus on counter-terrorism in an international scenario.  The armies, navies and air forces of the two countries will take part in the ten-day drill with an aim to boost their operational co-ordination
  • The Indian contingent includes nearly 450 personnel while the Russian side is being represented by around 1,000 troops. 
  • The opening ceremony of the exercise at Vladivostok was marked by tri-services march-past by both the sides, besides display of traditional martial arts by the Indian troops.
  • The Indian Army, Navy and Air Force have been holding bilateral exercises separately with their Russian counterparts for the last one decade but it is for the first time that the two countries are carrying out a tri-services exercise.
Indian, US Special Forces start joint exercise
  • The Indian and US Special Forces on 19th November started a 12-day joint military drill at Mahajan Field Firing Ranges. A contingent comprising of one officer and 10 other ranks from the Special Forces Group of the US Pacific Command is taking part in the exercise.
  • The rigorous joint training in semi-desert and rural terrain is aimed at enhancing inter-operability of the two armed forces and further military-to-military co-operation.
  • The contingents will train on aspects such as hostage rescue, building intervention, desert survival, medical aid and combat firing.

 

November 2018 – Monthly PDF | Monthly Quiz eBook

Go To Assam Current Affairs                                                                                                 Go To Assam Current Affairs Quiz

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