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National
NEET Exam gets constitutional status
- Lok Shaba has passedtwo bills favoring the National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam (NEET) examination, for its constitutional status
- Rajya Sabha passed theIndian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and the Dentist (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeking to amend the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and the Dentist Act, 1948.
- bills were passed by Lok Sabha on 19 July and aim to bring private colleges under the ambit of the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill and Dentist (Amendment) Bill. These two bills assign constitutional status to the NEET examination.
- bill aims to end the multiplicity of medical examinations and pave the way for fair and transparent examinations.
- new legislation will end exploitation of students by colleges demanding capitation fees; a
- common entrance exam means students will not have to travel long distances to appear for various admission tests
bill amendments for the fast track recovery of bad debts
- two new bills imparts two new rectifications namely gives180 days for disposal of recovery applications
- also provides a 30-day timeline for the district magistrate to complete this process and he will also assist the lender in taking over the management if the lender has secured more than 51% stakein the company through conversion of debt into equity.
- Act provides for setting up of a central registry that will maintain records of transactions related to secured assets, which will help prevent fraud by providing clear rights over the assets.
- amendments are aimed at faster recovery and resolution of bad debts by banks and financial institutions and making it easier for asset reconstruction companies (ARCs)to function.
- new bankruptcy law which came into effect earlier this year, the amendments will put in place an enabling infrastructure to effectively deal with non-performing assetsin the Indian banking system.
Lok Shaba passes The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 for the betterment of transgender
- attempts to define a transgender person and also to prohibit the discrimination against the transgender.
- bill introduced in the Lok sabha deals with the following in order to empower the transgender population
- To definea transgender person;
2.To prohibit discrimination against transgender person;
3.To confer right upon transgender person to be recognized as such, and a right to self-perceived gender identity;
4.To issue of certificate of identity to transgender persons;
5.To provide that no establishment shall discriminate against transgender person in matters relating to employment, recruitment, promotion and other related issues;
6.To provide for grievance redressed mechanism in each establishment;
7.To establishment of a National Council for Transgender;
8.To punishment for contraventions of the provisions of the Bill. - Transgender community is one of the most marginalized communities in the country because they do not fit into the general categories of gender of ‘male’ or ‘female’.
- they face problems ranging from social exclusion to discrimination, lack of education facilities, unemployment and lack of medical facilities.
- With population of about6 lakh trans gender, this measure provides for a jail term from at least six months to a maximum of two years with a fine for those found guilty of using transgender for bonded labor or begging.
National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2016 for setting up NIT
- initial funding of Rs 40 crore, this bill seeks to establish an NIT in the West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh as like sanctioned in the 2016-17 budget,
- institute has begun operating from a rented space with900 students, but now 140-acre areahas been earmarked for the NIT’s establishment and this move is to fulfill a promise made to the people of Andhra Pradesh by establishing an NIT in the AP.
- National Institute of Technology Andhra Pradesh is the 31st institution among the chain of National Institutes of Technology started by the Government of India
- situated at Tadepalligudem, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh State.
Resolution for renaming of Madras High Court passed
- Tamil Nadu State Assembly has unanimously passed a resolution asking the union government to rename it as the High Court of Tamil Nadu.
- Decision from the state is against the centre, as it proposed High court of Chennai is been passed by the assembly.
- Resolution says that the court is meant that it is located in the city of Chennai but has jurisdiction over the whole State of Tamil Nadu so it would not be appropriate to keep the same name.
- The High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill, 2016’to rename the Bombay, Calcutta and Madras High Courts.
Bihar enacts Excise and Prohibition Bill, 2016 to restrict Alcohol Usage
- rigorous Bihar Excise and Prohibition Bill, 2016, was passed in the state Assembly of Biharby voice vote amidst boycott by Opposition over the state government’s rejection of their proposals in the over three hour-long debate on the legislation on August 1.
- Prohibition on the manufacture, sale, storage and consumption of alcohol was imposed in Bihar earlier in 2016, by amending the Bihar Excise Act, 1915.
- Bill replaces the 1915 Act and the Bihar Prohibition Act, 1938
- Bill outlines the following process to be followed in case an offence is committed:
- If a person is found to have committed any offence under the Bill (such as consumption, storage or possession of alcohol), any authorized person (such as the District Collector, Excise Officer, and Superintendent of Police) may take action against the offender.
- Bill allows an authorized person to arrest the offender without a warrant. Alcohol, any material or conveyance mode used for the offence may be confiscated or destroyed by the authorized person. In addition, the premises where alcohol is found, or any place where it is being sold, may be sealed.
- the offender will be tried by a Sessions Court, or a special court set up by the state.
- The offender may appeal against the verdict of the special court in the High Court.
- this clause include sending all family members above 18 years of age behind barsin case of recovery of alcohol from a house.
Odisha Govt. allows Transgender people to be a part of their Prison Warden posts
- Odisha government has initiated the process of recruiting transgender people as prison wardensin order to impart a social boom in their abandoned life style.
- Odisha government has decided to recruit them as jail warders following the Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission (OSSSC).
- Odisha government has provided livelihood support to the transgender community and has been welcomed by the community membersfor the step taken by the state government
- transgender community members can apply for 185 wardens posts in jails.
- Odisha is the first state to include transgender as a gender category in any government recruitment process.
- Earlier transgender were not eligible to participate in any of the recruitment processes due to absence of the third gender category.
Business and Economy
ICICI teams up with APOLLO India for an Asset Reconstruction Company
- ICICI banks teamsup with US based ApolloIndia Credit Opportunity Management LLC to launch an asset reconstruction company (ARC).
- tie-up is mainly emphasizing on the establishment of the ARC, which will acquire debt from lendersas well as equity stakes in companies.
- big shot asset buyers such as C. Flowers & Co and Apollo Globalare constellating to Indian markets, where banks have been ordered to clean up an estimated $120 billion of bad and troubled loans.
- Apollo Global Management, LLC is an American private equity firm, founded in 1990 by former Drexel Burnham Lambert banker Leon Black
- firm specializes in leveraged buyout transactions and purchases of distressed securities involving corporate restructuring, special situations, and industry consolidations.
- Apollo is headquartered in New York Cityand also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, London, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong and Mumbai.
NPPA cuts prices of cancer, HIV, cardiac drugs by around 25%
- Drug pricing regulator -National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has revised the ceiling prices of drugs used for cancer, HIV, bacterial infections, anxiety and cardiac conditions by 25% in average.
- Price revision of 24 scheduled formulations is done by the regulator as of schedule-I under Drugs (Price Control) Amendment Order, 2016.
- national regulator also revised the retail price of 31formulations under DPCO, 2013.
- prices of essential drugs is fixed by the center on the basis of the simple average of all medicines in a particular therapeutic segment, having sales of more than 1%.
People in News
Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale sworn in as new CJ of Allahabad HC
- Justice Bhosale belongs to a family of freedom fighters and his father Babasaheb Bhosalehad served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra
Dilip Rath took additional charge as the Chairman of NDDB – National Dairy Development Board
- Managing Director of the Dairy Board took an additional charge of Chairmanship following the reassignment of the former IAS officer T Nanda Kumar from the chairmanship of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
- Dilip Rath had a wide experience in dairy development and cooperatives especially in implementing various schemes of the Central Government, National Project on Cattle and Buffalo Breeding, Intensive Dairy Development Program, Clean Milk Production, Assistance to Cooperatives, besides being the divisional head of 12 cattle development organizations under Central Government.
- joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1979 after obtaining master’s degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University and served in different capacities under the State Governments of West Bengal, Odisha and the Central Government.
- he received MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Reliance Life gets its new CEO – Ashish Vohra, Former CDO of Max Life
- Ashish Vohra,former chief distribution officer at Max Life will be joining Reliance Life following his appointment as its Chief Executive Officer.
- Ashish Vohra worked with Fullerton India Credit and Citibank and at last he joined Max Life in 2010 and was leading the distribution channels, including bank assurance, direct selling, agency and online and he hasexperience of over 21 years spanning marketing, sales, product and business roles in financial services.
- Ashish Vohra paved a way for maintaining Max Life’s distribution foot print across the nation and acquiring key partnership and bank distribution alliances.
- Reliance Life Insurance Company(RLIC) is one of the largest life insurance companies in India with a market share of 5%
- company has over 7 million policy holders and a distribution network of close to1,230 branches with over 124,000 agents as of 31 March 2013.
- RLIC offers life insurance products targeted at individuals and groups, catering to four distinct segments:protection, children, retirement and investment plans.
Lt Gen Bipin Rawat to be new Army vice-chief
- He will fill the shoes of Lt Gen Ashok Singh.
- Prior to his new assignment, He was General Officer Commanding Maharashtra. First he was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Riflesfrom Indian Military Academy
- received Graduation from Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and the Higher Command Course at Fort Leavenworth, USA.
- he has been bestowed with the gallantry and notable service with the AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM, and COAS Commendation on two occasions.
Anant Maheshwari named as President of Microsoft India
- IT major Microsoft India appointed Anant Maheshwari as the President of its India’s operations.
- He will watch over the product, service, and support offerings across the country.
- he worked for Honeywell-India Operations as a president, He also had successful stint with McKinsey & Company for 6 years where he had worked at multiple industries as well as telecom, IT and e-commerce, private equity, engineering equipment.
Senior Bureaucrat Bhaskar Khulbe Appointed As PM Narendra Modi’s Secretary
- Bhaskar Khulbehas been named as secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- He had been serving in the PMO as an additional secretary.
- Khuble’s appointment was cleared by the Cabinet with an immediate effect.
- Khuble is a 1983 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre. He will be responsible for Cabinet Secretariat and thrust areas of the government.
Awards
Indian Artist won 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant
- Anita Gopalan,A Bangalore based Translator and artist has been awarded the 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grantf or her English translation of Geet Chaturvedi’s Hindi novel “Simsim”
- Anita Gopalan is the second Indian writer and First Woman translator to be titled the winner of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund.
- She has translated prose and poetry by contemporary Hindi author Geet Chaturvedi. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming in Poetry International Rotterdam, Modern Poetry in Translation, World Literature Today, Drunken Boat, Mantis, International Poetry Review, and Circumference.
- Fund, which awards grants of $2,000-$4,000to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English, received a total of 171 applications, spanning a wide array of languages of origin, including Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Chinese, Czech, Hindi, Yiddish, and has been augmented by support from Amazon for financial backing.
Environment and Ecology
Typhoon Nida impacts Southern part of China
- Large areas of southern China are on emergency alert in order to reduce the damage to life and properties in case of any natural hit.
- Typhoon Nida brought Hong Kong to halt with high winds and rains and many schools, businesses and transport services remained shut.
- strong typhoon packing winds up to 2 km per hour is moving northwest at 25 km per hour, and is expected to sweep across the cities of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhaoqing to Guangdong’s neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
- All flights from Shenzhen and Zhuhai were cancelled and hundreds of trains to and from Pearl River Delta citieshave also been delayed.
- Sea waves as high as 11 meters are expected in the northern South China Sea and the SOA also issued a red alert storm tides and estimated that the sea level off the Pearl River estuary will rise up to 220 cm.
Sports
India’s Vivek Teja becomes World Karate Champion
- Vivek Teja bagged the World Karate Champion(All Styles) at the Martial Arts World Championships in Sydney, Australia.
- Teja defeated James Chatfield from New Zealand in the first round and England’s Anthony Raiyas,in the second round, and beat Australian star Matthew Rose in the title clash to clinch the title.
- Teja becomes the first Indian to have acquired expertise in all martial art styles of the world in his 15 years fighting career
Wrestler Narsingh Yadav gets NADA’s clean chit in doping case
- National Anti-Doping Agency has given a clean chit to wrestler Narsingh Yadavfrom doping charges, with this he will be eligible to take part in Rio Olympics.
- wrestler had tested positive for a banned steroidin an out of competition test conducted by the Doping Agency.
- Praveen Ranawas named as the replacement of Yadav to secure quota in the in the 74kg category Wrestling in the Rio Olympics.
- Yadav qualified for the Rio after he won bronze medal in the World’s Championship held last year. India stages in 15 games including Wrestling with 120 athletesin the Mega event.
Science and Technology
Twitter Sewa to address the Comman Man complaints and needs
- telecom ministry and Department of Post will henceforth compile a list of complaints from this Twitter Sewa and categorize them into immediate, mid-term and long-term complaints.
- twitter handle of the Minister will be @manojsinhabjpand the Telecom operators from Government as well as private and the Department of Posts shall use the utility of Twitter sewa” to the fullest to address the grievances of the public.
- platform may be misused by some rogue elements, under such conditions Twitter authorities will take care of the same.
- new initiative will help in connecting Indian citizens through live communications platform to provide a transparent, clean and responsive and accountable administration.
China to perform world’s first human genetic editing trial
- China’s Sichuan Universityto perform world’s first genetic editing trial on humans aiming to cure lung cancer.
- university oncologists will inject cell that are modified using the CRISPR(Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas9 gene-editing technique into the humans to perform the trial.
- Cas9 is an enzymethat can make alteration of genetic patterns by genome modification.
- trail allows the scientists to take out microorganism parts and replace them with new DNA stretches.
- treatment the edited cells will be multiplied in the lab that will start the T cells to attack on the tumor cells. The Multiplication process will be carried out in a lab before being injected into the human.