Current Affairs Assam – April 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of April 2018 )
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April 29
Sikkim’s Pawan Chamling Becomes India’s Longest-Serving Chief Minister
Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling became the longest-serving Chief Minister in India. He has completed 23 years, four months and 17 days of uninterrupted service in office.
He was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Sikkim for the first time on December 12, 1994. He broke the record of former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who held office for 23 years from June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000.
About Pawan Chamling
(i) Born on September 22, 1950, at Yangang, South Sikkim. Pawan Chamling dropped out of school after matriculation. (ii) He started his political career at the age of 32. served as the Minister for Industries, Information and Public Relations from 1989 to 1992 in the Nar Bahadur Bhandari Cabinet.
(ii) In 1993 he formed Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) after a series of political upheavals in Sikkim.
Uttarakhand HC declares practice of solitary confinement as unconstitutional
Uttarakhand High Court declared the practice of solitary confinement as unconstitutional. As per the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners laid down that solitary confinement shall only be used in exceptional cases as a last resort.
The bench made the observations while upholding the capital punishment awarded to two convicts by the lower court in a case relating to the gangrape and murder of a 55-year-old woman.
The practice of solitary confinement not only amounts to additional punishment but also amounts to torture and is violative of basic human rights.
The court further said that it should not be implemented only on the basis of the conviction of prisoners and it is violative of Articles 20(2) and 21 of the Constitution of India.
Govt. collects Rs 7.41 trillion from GST 2017-2018
According to the data provided by the Union Finance Ministry, Government of India has collected Rs 7.41 trillion in taxes in the first year of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from August 2017 to March 2018.
Key Facts
(i) The collection of Rs 7.41 trillion includes Rs 1.19 trillion of CGST, Rs 1.72 trillion of SGST, Rs 3.66 trillion of IGST (including Rs 1.73 trillion on imports) and Rs 620.21 billion of cess (including Rs 57.02 billion on imports.
(ii) Under GST, the tax levied on consumption of goods or rendering of service is split 50:50 between the Centre (CGST) and the States (SGST). On inter-state movement of goods as well as imports, an Integrated-GST or IGST is levied, which accrues to the Centre.
(iii) The government stated that there has been a steady increase in compliance with 62.6 per cent of those required to file returns doing so in March as compared to 57.7 per cent in July 2017.
Former PM Manmohan Singh Launches Economist Rao’s Book
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released a book titled ‘My Journey from Marxism-Leninism to Nehruvian Socialism’ by former Planning Commission and Finance Commission member C H Hanumantha Rao. Manmohon Singh called Rao ‘a most creative thinker, social activist, and distinguished economist.
About C H Hanumantha Rao
(i) He was born on 5 May 1929 in Karimnagar, Telengana.
(ii) He completed his PhD (Economics) in 1962 at the Delhi University and M.A.(Economics) in 1957 at Osmania University, Hyderabad; B.A.,1955, Nizam College, Hyderabad. He was also Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Chikago, 1966–67.
(iii) He was a member of the National Advisory Council from 2004 to 2008 and chaired the Technical Committee on Drought prone Areas Programme and Desert Development Programme of the Commission for Agricultural costs and prices.
(iv) He was awarded the Padma Bhusan by the president of India in 2004, for contributions in the field of Literature and Education.
April 30
Kavinder Gupta Takes Oath as Jammu and Kashmir Deputy CM
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly speaker Kavinder Gupta sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state. Gupta will be the new deputy chief minister in place of Nirmal Singh.
Seven others ministers were also sworn in the state’s PDP-BJP government led by Mehbooba Mufti. Four BJP legislators, Speaker Kavinder Gupta, minister of state Sunil Kumar Sharma and two PDP legislators took oath of office.
Kavinder Gupta was the first to take oath in Hindi followed by PDP’s Mohammed Khalil Bandh, BJP state president Sat Sharma, PDP’s Mohammed Ashraf Mir, MoS Sunil Kumar Sharma, BJP’s Rajiv Jasrotia, BJP’s DK Manyal and Shakti Raj.
Earlier, Gupta served as the secretary of the Punjab unit of the Vishva Hindu Parishad from 1978 to 1979. He also served as the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha from 1993 till 1998.
On 19 March 2015, Gupta was elected Speaker of the assembly. He also became the first ever Bharatiya Janata Party leader to be appointed as the speaker.
Swachh Bharat Mission launches GOBAR-DHAN to promote wealth and energy from waste
Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Sushri Uma Bharti, launched the GOBAR (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources – DHAN scheme at the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) Auditorium, Karnal. The scheme was launched under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).
Aim of this scheme is to positively impact village cleanliness and generate wealth and energy from cattle and organic waste. It also aims at creating new rural livelihood opportunities and enhancing income for farmers and other rural people.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) comprises two main components for creating clean villages – creating open defecation free (ODF) villages and managing solid and liquid waste in villages.
As over 3.5 lakh villages, 374 districts and 16 States/UTsof the country being declared ODF, the stage is set for ODF-plus activities, including measures to enhance solid and liquid waste management.
GOBAR-DHAN Scheme
(i) GOBAR-Dhan shall cover 700 districts in 2018-19. The scheme will be implemented in 350 districts on pilot basis. Remaining districts would be covered in second half of the financial year 2018-19.
(ii) This scheme will boost village cleanliness and generate wealth and energy from cattle and organic wastes.
(iii) It will encourage farmers to create new rural livelihood opportunities and enhance income for them and other rural people.
(iv) The scheme envisages the implementation of 700 bio-gas units in different states of the country in 2018-19.
(v) The cooking gas would be provided to rural habitations and technical support would ensure that the schemes functioned on a sustainable basis.
Rafael Nadal clinches 11th Barcelona Title
Rafael Nadal has won Barcelona Open tennis title for 11th time in Barcelona Spain. He defeated the 19-year-old Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas by 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
Recently, Nadal who also won his 11th Monte Carlos Masters title. Nadal now has 77 titles overall while his career clay-court match record stands at 401 wins against just 35 defeats.
India, Pakistan to participate in SCO counter-terror exercise for the first time
For the first time arch rivals India and Pakistan will be part of a multi-nation counter-terror exercise in Russia in September 2018. The military exercise will take place under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with the aim to enhance counter-terror cooperation among the eight SCO member countries.
The military drill will be held in the Ural mountains of Russia and almost all SCO member countries will be taking part of it.
India’s participation at the exercise was confirmed by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a meeting of SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting in Beijing in China.
It will be for the first time since Independence that India and Pakistan will both be part of a military exercise, though the armies of the two nations have worked together in United Nations peace keeping missions.
FACTFILE – Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
(i) It was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. SCO now represents over 40 per cent of humanity and nearly 20 per cent of the global GDP.
(ii) It is a political, economic, and security organization. Its main objective is military cooperation between the countries.
(iii) The SCO is primarily centered on its member nations Central Asian security-related concerns, often describing the main threats it confronts as being terrorism, separatism, and extremism.
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