A.Lok Sabha passes Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016
1.Sabha has passed Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2016 by voice vote to make amendments to the Enemy Property Act, 1968.
2.The bill replaces the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation)
Ordinance, 2016 promulgated by President Pranab Mukherjee in January 2016.
3.Proposed Amendments are Once an enemy property is vested to the Custodian it
shall continue to be vested in him.
4.It shall not revert back to enemy subject
or enemy firm due to reasons such as death of subject or firm ceased to
function.
5.The law of succession does not apply to enemy property. Henceforth
there cannot be transfer of any property vested in the custodian by an enemy
till it is disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
6.Expands
the definition of the enemy to include
(i) legal heirs of enemies even if they
are Indian citizens or of another country which is not an enemy (ii) Nationals
of an enemy country who have changed their nationality to another country, etc.
Enemy Property Act, 1968 The act provided for the continuous vesting of enemy
property in the custodian. The possession of enemy properties spread across
many states in the country vest with the Union Government through the Custodian
of Enemy Property for India.
B.Beatles Producer George Henry Martin passes away
1.The legendary music producer George Henry Martin passed away in Wiltshire, England.
2.He was 90. He was popularly known as the
fifth Beatle as he had signed the rock band Beatles and became their
indispensable mentor and collaborator.
About George Henry Martin
Born on 3
January 1926 in Highbury, London, England. He was an English record producer,
composer, audio engineer, conductor, arranger, and musician.
Awards and Honours:
1.He
has won 6 Grammy Awards in various categories between 1967 and 2007.
2.He was
made a Knight Bachelor in 1996 in recognition of his services to the music
industry and popular culture.
3.He holds Guinness World Records as the most
successful producer ever, with more than 50 No. 1 hit records in the US and UK
over the five decades period.
C.India inks Raptor MoU to save birds of prey
1.India has signed ‘Raptor MoU’, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on conservation of birds of prey in Africa and Eurasia.
2.With this India becomes 56th county to sign the Raptor MoU under the Convention
on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS).
3.The MoU was singed Ambassador of
India to the UAE Shri T.P Seetharam the Convention on Migratory Species Office
in Abu Dhabi.
4.Earlier in December 2015, the Union Cabinet in its meeting had
approved the proposal of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(MoEFCC) to sign ‘Raptor MoU’.
About Raptor MoU
1.It is a multilateral agreement
under Article IV paragraph 4 of the CMS and is not legally binding on signatory
parties.
2.It was CMS in October 2008 and came into effect on November 1, 2008.
3.The MoU seeks willingness of the signatory states for working for conservation
of the raptor species and their habitats.
4.It covers 76 species of birds of prey
under its ambit and an action plan has been formulated under it that envisages
the conservation action for Raptor species.
D.Indo-Indonesia Joint Training Exercise Garuda Shakti IV begins
1.The fourth edition of the India-Indonesia Joint Training Exercise Garuda Shakti has begun at Magelang in Indonesia.
2.The 13 days
(till 23 March) bilateral exercise aims at
(i) Building and promoting positive
relations between the Armies of India and Indonesia.
(ii) Enhancing their
abilities to undertake joint tactical level operations in a counter insurgency
environment under United Nations Charter.
Key facts
1.In the 4th edition of the
joint exercise Indian Army platoon strength contingent will carry out cross
training with a platoon from the Airborne battalion of the Indonesian Army.
2.The
Indian Contingent has been trained for combat conditioning, firing, tactical
operations, tactical skills and special heliborne operations training.
3.Selected
Indian unit has had varied operational experience in Counter Insurgency and
Counter Terrorist operations in the Northern, Western and Eastern theatres.
4.The
exercise will be conducted as joint Counter Insurgency operations exercise in
urban and rural scenario and various facets of tactical Counter Insurgency
operations (CIO).
5.Both countries will share their experience of CIO and also
the ambit of identifying areas of expertise, evolution of combat tactical
drills of tactical and to undertake combined training for neutralization of
insurgency threat.
E.RBI inks information exchange MoU with Bank of Israel
1.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank of Israel (BOI) for exchange of
information pertaining to banking supervision.
2.It was signed by Parvathy V
Sundaram, Chief General Manager-in-Charge, Department of Banking Supervision on
behalf of RBI and Hedva Ber, Supervisor of banks on behalf of BOI. 3.With this RBI has signed 32 such MoUs, 1 Letter for Supervisory Co-operation and 1 Statement of Co-operation (SoC).
4.By signing such MoU/SoC with supervisors of
other countries, RBI is seeking to promote greater co-operation and share
supervisory information among the authorities.
F.Parliament passes National Waterways Bill, 2015
1.The Parliament has passed National Waterways Bill, 2015 to clear decks for the conversion of 106 rivers and creeks across India into transport waterways.
2.It was first passed in Lok Sabha in December 2015
i.e. in the winter session and later was passed by Rajya Sabha in March 2016
i.e. in the budget session.
Key facts
1.The National Waterways Bill, 2015 aims at
declaring 106 additional inland waterways as National Waterways in addition to
the five existing National Waterways.
2.It repeals the existing five Acts that
declare the existing 5 national waterways. These existing five national
waterways are now covered under the new Bill.
3.Thus the total number of national
waterways number will go up to 111 from existing five national waterways.
4.Inland waterways mainly comprise rivers, lakes, canals, creeks and backwaters.
It extends about 14,500 km across the country. However, potential of this mode
of transport has not been fully exploited so far.
G.CCEA approves Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana
1.The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) for providing free of cost LPG (cooking gas) connections to women from BPL Households.
2.This scheme will be
implemented by Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. It will be for the
first time ministry will be implementing a welfare scheme.
3.Under the scheme
Financial support of 1600 rupees for each LPG connection will be provided to
the BPL households.
4.The identification of eligible BPL families will be made in
consultation with the State Governments and the Union Territories.
5.It will be
implemented over three years’ time frame namely in the FY 2016-17, 2017-18 and
2018-19.
6.Government has earmarked 8000 crore rupees for providing five crore
LPG connections to BPL households.
7.The PMUY seeks to empowering women and
protecting their health by shifting them from traditional cooking based on
unclean cooking fuels or on fossil fuels that have serious health hazards to
clean cooking gas.
H.ISRO successfully launches IRNSS-1F satellite
1.Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched India’s sixth navigation Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) 1F satellite.
2.It was launched by ISRO’s workhorse
satellite launch vehicle, PSLV-C32 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre
(SHAR), Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
3.It was PLSV’s 34th mission. Key facts
IRNSS 1F satellite is part of the space segment satellites of the IRNSS system
that has total constellation of seven satellites. It has a 12 year mission
life.
Dimensions of IRNSS-1F:
It is 44.4 metre tall and has a liftoff
mass of 1,425 kg. Orbit: It will be located in the Geosynchronous transfer
orbit (GTO) in the space with a 20,657 km apogee (farthest point to Earth) and
284 km perigee (nearest point to Earth).
Payloads:
1.It equipped with two types
of payloads viz. navigation payload and ranging devices. The navigation payload
will be mainly used to transmit navigation service signals to the users.
2.The
ranging payload consists of a C-band transponder that will facilitate accurate
determination of the range of the satellite.
About IRNSS System
1.IRNSS System
consists of constellation of seven satellites of which three are geostationary
and four are non-geostationary. 4 Geosynchronous satellites:
2.They will be
orbiting in pairs in two inclined geosynchronous orbits. When observed from the
ground, these 2 pairs of satellites will appear to travel in figures of ‘8’. 3
geostationary satellites:
3.They will be placed in the geostationary orbit over
the equator. They match the Earth’s rotation and shall remain at a fixed
position in the sky. Services: T
