Current Affairs Assam – December 22 - 28, 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of December 22-28, 2018 )
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December 22
Assam Publication Board Lifetime Achievement Award to Nagen Saikia
- The Publication Board, Assam today announced its Lifetime Achievement Award for the current year to former Asam Sahitya Sabha president Prof Nagen Saikia.
- The award consists of a cash amount of Rs 2 lakh, a citation, a shawl and a packet of books published by the Publication Board.
India, China agree on ‘10 pillars’ of cooperation
- Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi held extensive talks under a newly set up framework and agreed on “10 pillars” of cooperation to enhance cultural and people-to-people exchanges to open a new chapter in Sino-India ties.
- Minister said the armies of the two countries are working to strengthen communication and striving to implement confidence building measures that will help in maintaining peace and tranquility in border areas, which she said, is an important prerequisite for development of ties.
- On trade ties, there was a need to find a solution to India’s expanding trade deficit with China and hoped that China will provide support for market access to Indian goods and services.
- India and China have agreed on ‘10 pillars’ of cooperation to enhance cultural and people-to-people exchanges. These pillars are cultural exchange, cooperation in films and television, museum administration and sports, exchanges between youths, cooperation on tourism, exchanges between states and cities, cooperation in traditional medicine, yoga and education.
India and Japan signed loan agreements worth more than Rs 6,600 crore
- India and Japan exchanged notes and signed loan agreements worth more than Rs 6,600 crore for developing the second phase of Chennai Metro, to help India on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for a dairy project.
- The Government of Japan has committed JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Official Development Assistance (ODA) totalling Yen 105.497 billion (equal to Rs 6,668.46 crore, approximately) for the three projects.
- The Japanese ODA loan for Chennai Metro Project (Phase 2)(I) is for JPY (Japanese Yen) 75.5 billion, JPY 15.0 billion for Program for Japan-India Cooperative Actions towards SDGs in India and JPY 14.9 billion for Project for Dairy Development.
- The notes were exchanged between Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs Additional Secretary C.S. Mohapatra and Ambassador of Japan to India Kenji Hiramatsu. The loan agreement for Chennai Metro and dairy project was signed between Mohapatra and JICA New Delhi Chief Representative Katsuo Matsumoto.
- The cooperative actions programme aims to promote SDGs in India especially in social development by supporting government efforts to strengthen policy framework and implementation mechanism, thereby supporting India in achieving SDGs by 2030.
- The dairy development project aims to increase sale of milk and dairy products by increasing farmers’ access to organised market, upgrading dairy processing facilities and marketing infrastructure and enhancing the capacity of producers owned institutions.
SDG India index by NITI Aayog
- The government’s premier think tank has developed the country’s first SDG India Index to document the progress made by India’s states and Union Territories towards meeting SDG targets and released a baseline report for 2018.
- Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have come out as the front runners in implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets.
- Along with the three states, the UTs of Chandigarh and Puducherry were also among the front runners on the SDG India Index with a score between 65 to 99 on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 signifies that it has achieved the 2030 national targets.
- The SDG India Index baseline report 2018 highlights the progress being made by states and UTs in moving towards multiple targets of the SDGs.
- The SDGs are ambitious global development goals that address key aspects of universal wellbeing across different socio-economic, cultural, geographical divisions and integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development.
- The Index has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Global Green Growth Institute and United Nations in India.
- The Index tracks progress of all states and UTs on 62 priority indicators selected by NITI Aayog, which in turn is guided by MoSPI’s National Indicator Framework comprising 306 indicators and based on multiple-round consultations with ministries and states.
Odisha govt approves Rs 10,000 crore KALIA scheme for farmers
- The Odisha cabinet approved the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme amounting to over Rs 10,000 crore for farmers.
- The scheme will provide financial, livelihood, cultivation support along with insurances to the farmers.
- Under KALIA, the amount will be spent over a period of three years till 2020-21. All the small and marginal farmers of the state (over 30 lakh) will be covered under this scheme.
- An amount of Rs 10,000 per family at the rate of Rs 5,000 each for kharif and rabi seasons will be provided financial assistance for taking up cultivation.
- This assistance is for five crop seasons spanning three years from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
- Annual financial assistance of Rs 10,000 per household will be provided to take care of sustenance of those farmers who may not be able to take up cultivation or avail livelihood options due to old-age, disability, disease or other reasons.
- Life insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh and additional personal accident cover of Rs 2 lakh will be provided to both cultivators and landless agricultural labourers covering about 57 lakh households.
December 23
State-level Farmers’ Fair held at Kahikuchi
- Two-day-long State level Farmers’ Fair cum Farmer-Scientist interaction programme on the topic, ‘Doubling the farmers income by 2022 in Assam: Technological options and way forward’ was organised by the ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Zone VI, at the Horticultural Research Station, AAU, Kahikuchi.
- The inaugural programme was attended by Parimal Suklabaidya, Minister of Fisheries, Excise, Environment & Forest, AK Singh, DDG, Agricultural Extension, ICAR, New Delhi, Dr SN Goswami, Vice-Chancellor, CMJ University, Jorabat, Meghalaya, Dr L Obed, Director, Coconut Development Board, Guwahati, Dr Bidyut C Deka, Director, ICAR-ATARI Zone-VII, Umiam, Dr Prasanna Pathak, DEE, AAU, Jorhat and other dignitaries of ICAR institutes and Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat.
Assam is a source state for child trafficking, says ASCPCR
- The Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) in collaboration with UNICEF Assam organised a State-level workshop ‘Prevention and response to combat child trafficking in Assam’ at the Assam Administrative Staff College.
- ASCPCR Chairperson Dr Sunita Changkakati mentioned that Assam is a source state for child trafficking since the children are trafficked to different destination states and subjected to various forms of torture and exploitation.
- Chief of UNICEF Assam, Dr Tushar Rane, gave a brief overview of the context and data on child trafficking and appreciated the child protection workforce for their tremendous work towards rescue and protection of vulnerable children.
- The workshop discussed the key bottlenecks in addressing the issues of child trafficking and also explored and identified the key areas of intervention to combat child trafficking and ensure justice to the victim.
- The participants included representatives from the Department of Social Welfare, State Child Protection Society, police, district legal services authorities, child welfare committees, district child protection units and civil society organisations from all the districts of the State.
Binod Khanal to receive Pratima Pandey Award
- This year’s Pratima Barua Pandey Award will be given to BinodKhanal, an exponent of folk culture from Biswanath district.
- The award, instituted by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in memory of legendary singer Pratima Barua Pandey, is given every year to a person having significant contribution in preserving and promoting the folk culture of the State.
Nuclear-capable Agni-IV successfully test fired
- Nuclear strategic ballistic missile Agni-IV was successfully test fired from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast on 23rd December.
- The Strategic Forces Command of Indian Army successfully test fired the surface-to-surface intermediate range ballistic missile from launchpad number-4 of the integrated test range at 8.30 a.m.
- The missile was test-fired as a part of user training exercise.
- The missile, which has the latest features to correct and guide itself for in-flight disturbances, is equipped with state of the art Avionics, 5th generation onboard computer and distributed architecture.
- Earlier in December, Agni-V was successfully test fired from APJ Abdul Kalam Island.
7th anti-terrorism India-China military exercise ends
- The 7th edition of anti-terrorism India-China joint military exercise concluded in Chengdu area of China. The Validation and Closing ceremony of the seventh edition of joint India-China military exercise ‘Hand-in-Hand 2018’ was conducted at Chengdu, China.
- The exercise included lectures and discussions on various counter-terrorism aspects, like cordon and search operations, raid on terrorist hideouts, intelligence collection and joint operations.
- Also, integrated live firing was conducted for both contingents to enhance interoperability and promote jointmanship.
- As part of validation exercise, troops of both armies carried out specialised joint counter-terrorist operations including room intervention and hostage rescue which was witnessed by dignitaries of both armies
- Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2018 was very successful in increasing the bonhomie and camaraderie amongst troops from both countries.
GST Council nods formation of Centralised Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR)
- The GST Council on Saturday gave its approval to creation of a Centralised Appellate Authority for Advance Ruling (AAAR) by amending the GST Act.
- The GST Council in its 31st meeting held here gave in-principle approval to the creation of AAAR to deal with the cases of conflicting decisions by two or more State Appellate Advance Ruling Authorities on the same issue.
- The Council also approved amendments to “Section 50 of the CGST Act”, which would allow interest to be levied only on the net tax liability of the taxpayer, after taking into account the admissible input tax credit.
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