(Current Affairs) National Events | September: 2016

National Events

All party meet to discuss Kashmir issue

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks with all political parties on the Kashmir unrest, Home Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Rajya Sabha.
  • The House also passed a unanimous resolution appealing to the people of the Kashmir Valley to restore peace and harmony, adding that there “cannot be any compromise on national security.”
  • Asserting that security forces were asked to show “maximum restraint” in using pellet guns against protesters, Mr. Singh was non-committal on their immediate withdrawal.
  • He said Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were issuing threats to family members of security forces and civil administration officials in the Valley.
  • Mr. Singh said there was no question of handing over Kashmir to the Army and rumours were being spread “deliberately.”

First unit of Kudankulam started

  • A President, a Prime Minister and a Chief Minister sitting in three different cities met virtually to dedicate the first unit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) to the nation.
  • Nearly 28 years after Russia and India signed the agreement to set up the plant, PM Narendra Modi, Russian President and Tamil Nadu CM did the honours through a video conference organised from Moscow, Delhi, Chennai, and Kudankulam.
  • The 1,000-MWe KNPP-1 is the largest single unit of electrical power in India. “In years ahead, we are determined to pursue an ambitious agenda of nuclear power generation.
  • At Kudankulam alone, five more units of 1,000 MWe each are planned,” Mr. Modi said.
  • He said the government planned to build a series of bigger nuclear power units in cooperation with Russia.
  • But Mr. Modi, a big proponent of solar power, also made a case for building partnerships “for green growth.”

Search operations still on for missing An-32

  • Finding no trace of the An-32 aircraft that went missing over the Bay of Bengal on July 22, two specialised vessels have now been deployed to beef up the search.
  • Oceanographic research vessel Samundra Ratnakar of the Geological Survey of India and research vessel Sagar Nidhi of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) will undertake sea bed profiling.
  • Sagar Nidhi , which was in Mauritius, was specifically called in for the purpose and it joined the search.
  • Assistance of these vessels was requested after the searching aircraft and ships failed to pick up any signal or visible signs of the aircraft. They have submersibles, which can be sent deep once a possible location is identified.
  • Meanwhile, ships and aircraft of the Navy, the Coast Guard and the IAF and a submarine are continuing the search both in surface and sub-surface domains.
  • Now that it is 20 days since the aircraft went missing, the teams are relying on passive means by scanning the sea floor.
  • The depth in the general search area is about 3-3.5 km. Officials said special cells had been formed to keep the families posted on a daily basis on the search efforts.

Opposition raised issues in Citizenship (amendment) bill

  • The Opposition parties, led by the Congress, want the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in July, sent to a Standing Committee of Parliament.
  • The original Act, passed in 1955, lists the ways to acquire citizenship, denying to undocumented migrants.
  • The amendments now seek to allow citizenship to undocumented migrants of all faiths barring Islam from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
  • The 1955 Act defines an illegal migrant as a foreigner who enters India without a valid passport or travel documents or stays beyond the permitted time.
  • But a key amendment readsIn short, members of every major religious community barring Islam coming into India without legal passports or staying on without valid papers will be entitled to Indian citizenship after six years of residence in India.
  • Peeved Opposition MPs are now pushing for the Bill to be sent to a Standing Committee.
  • A senior Congress member in the Rajya Sabha said: “This revives memories of 1947. How can one community be left out? India is not yet officially a Hindu state.”

Centre says attacks on Dalits reduced in last two years

  • Home Minister decried attempts to “create an impression” that the NDA government was anti-Dalit
  • He also assured the Lok Sabha that his Ministry had told the State governments that strict and tough action should be taken against “any anti-social elements, whether in the name of Gau Raksha or any other cause”.
  • The government had, after two back-to-back speeches on the issue by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to give in to Opposition demands for a debate in the Lok Sabha.
  • “I do not want to go into State-wise figures on crimes against Dalits, but overall figures show that in 2013 the cases of violence against Dalits were 39,346, which rose to 40,300 in 2014 and came down again in 2015 to 38,564,” Mr. Singh said.

India to give third largest maternity leave

  • The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill allows 26 weeks maternity leave as against 12 weeks permitted at present.
  •  However, a woman who has two or more children will continue to get only 12 weeks maternity leave.
  • Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill would vault India to the third position in terms of the number of weeks allowed for maternity leave, behind Norway (44) and Canada (50).
  • However, a woman who has two or more children will continue to get only 12 weeks maternity leave.
  • For the first time, women adopting a newborn, aged below three, and ‘commissioning mothers’ will also be entitled to maternity benefits and will get leave for three months.
  • A commissioning mother is defined as “a biological mother who uses her egg to create an embryo implanted in another woman.”
  • The Bill has an enabling provision which states that if the “nature of work” permits, woman may also be allowed to ‘work from home’ after the period of maternity leave.
  • Establishments with at least 50 workers will have to provide crèche facilities within a certain distance and women will be allowed four visits to the crèche in a day.

Differences between SC and Centre came out in open

  • In its sharpest-ever attack in open court, the SC asked whether the Centre intends to bring the entire judiciary to a “grinding halt” by sitting on recommendations of the Collegium for appointment and transfer of judges to High Courts across the country.
  • Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur made it clear to the Centre, represented by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, that the court would not shy away from a confrontation with the government if driven to a corner.
  • The CJI cautioned the government that if matters continued in the same vein, the court would be forced to intervene judicially and call for every file of every recommendation forwarded by the Collegium to the government for clearance.
  • Chief Justice Thakur had made an emotional appeal at a convocation last April in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the rising burden of judges due to vacancies and pendency.
  • He was not satisfied with Mr. Rohatgi’s assurances that the issue would be taken up at the “highest level.”

100 million for 100 million campaign for youth

  • Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi announced that he was planning to launch a campaign — 100 million for 100 million.
  • It will target 100 million youth, whose idealism, energy and enthusiasm would help liberate the 100 million children shackled in slavery and poverty across the world.
  • An easy way to direct the energy of the young people in universities, colleges and schools is to make them champions, spokespersons and leaders for children, the Nobel laureate said
  • “For an individual, it is very important to be educated and good quality education is much more rewarding.
  • A single year of schooling at primary level would result in an additional return of 10 to 15 per cent income in the later stage of life; similarly, every single year of secondary education would increase income by 20 to 25 per cent,” he said.
  • A study conducted by the World Bank some years ago in 50 different countries proved with empirical evidence that one single year of education in whole society increased the GDP by 0.37 per cent.
  • Though the country had produced a large number of engineers, around 80 per cent of them were unemployable.
  • “The question is whether we want to create fuel of economic engine or those who can care for the nation, and global society,” Mr. Satyarthi said.
  • The Nobel laureate urged teachers to “Listen to your students; the parents of students; the situation. We have to learn from the children, educators must learn what is happening in technology, the learning process must go on.”

Joint statement on Naga peace talk issued

  • Almost a year after the framework agreement on Naga peace talks was finalised, the Centre and the NSCN-IM issued a joint statement saying they were “closer than ever before to the final settlement and hope to conclude it sooner than later.”
  • The joint statement, issued by government interlocutor for Naga talks R.N. Ravi and NSCN-IM general secretary, said the political initiative of the two sides to amicably resolve the Naga political issue has received a new urgency during the last two years.
  • The Centre had signed the framework agreement with NSCN-IM on August 3, 2015 at a much-publicised ceremony at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.
  • The peace dialogue has become more purposeful, less ritualistic and far more frequent.
  • The signing of the framework agreement came after over 80 rounds of negotiations that spanned 18 years with first breakthrough in 1997 when the ceasefire agreement was sealed.

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