Current Affairs – 16th March 2017

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Indian Affairs

Goa CM Parrikar wins trust vote with 22 votes

• The Manohar Parrikar government today proved its majority on the floor of the Goa Assembly by winning the trust vote with the support of 22 legislators in the 40-member House.
• The opposition Congress could muster only 16 votes against the government with one of its legislators absenting from the crucial floor test.
• The special Assembly session was convened to conduct the floor test following an order by the Supreme Court.
• The 61-year-old BJP leader proved his majority with 12 legislators from the BJP, three from the Goa Forward Party (GFP), three from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), three Independents and one from the NCP voting in favour of the trust motion.
• The test was passed through a clear division which was ordered by Pro-tem Speaker Siddharth Kuncolienkar, a BJP member.
• The Congress, despite emerging as the single largest party in the elections, could not form the government while the BJP made deft moves by securing support from regional outfits and independents.
• Ahead of the trust vote, all the 40 legislators took oath.

Centre’s gift to Employees and Pensioners

The Centre’s gift to 48.85 lakh employees and 55.51 lakh pensioners; Cabinet hikes dearness allowance and dearness relief to 4 per cent from existing 2 per cent from January 1, 2017.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the release of an additional installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners from, 01.01.2017. It has increased by 2% over the existing rate of 2% of the Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise.

Nat Health Policy to increase life expectancy to 70 yrs: Nadda

• The National Health Policy would aim at increasing life expectancy to 70 years from 67.5 and reduce fertility rate to 2.1 by 2025 and proposes free diagnostics and drugs at all public hospitals.
• Yoga would be introduced much more widely in schools and workplaces as part of the promotion of good health.
• The policy aimed at reducing Under-Five Mortality to 23 by 2025 and Maternal Mortality Rate to 100 by 2020. It targets reducing infant mortality rate to 28 by 2019 and neo-natal mortality to 16 and still-birth rate to a single digit by 2025.
• The last national policy was framed in 2002.
• The policy seeks to achieve ’90:90:90′ global target by 2020, implying that 90 percent of all people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90 percent of those diagnosed with HIV infection receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 90 percent of those receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
• It also seeks to reduce the prevalence of blindness to 0.25 per 1000 persons by 2025 and the disease burden by one-third from the current levels.
• Reducing premature mortality from cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory diseases by 25 percent by 2025.
• The policy focuses on tackling the emerging challenge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) by supporting an integrated approach where screening for the most prevalent NCDs with secondary prevention would make a significant impact on the reduction of morbidity and preventable mortality.

International Affairs

Banking and Finance

Awards and Recognition

Appointments & Resigns

Amarinder Singh takes oath as Punjab CM

• 75-year-old Amarinder was sworn in as the state’s 26th chief minister along with nine ministers, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.
• Speculation was rife that the cricketer-turned-politician would be given the post of deputy chief minister but he was the third among the list of nine ministers sworn in.
• Two Ministers of State – both women- were sworn in at the ceremony attended among others by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
• The ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan and the oath was administered by Governor V P Singh Badnore.
• Two women MLAs Aruna Chaudhary and Razia Sultana were sworn in as Ministers of State (Independent Charge).
• Congress sources said that an expansion of the state cabinet would take place at a later date.
• The state can have a maximum of 18 ministers including the Chief Minister.
• The Congress has 77 MLAs in the assembly.
• This will be Amarinder’s second stint as chief minister.
• Congress under the leadership of Amarinder had won 77 seats in the 117 member Assembly elections wresting power from the SAD-BJP alliance which was relegated to the third spot with 18 seats.

Acquisitions & Mergers

Business

Environment

Science and Technology

Schemes implemented by the Government to promote the sericulture sector

The following Schemes are being implemented by the Government of India through Central Silk Board (CSB) to promote sericulture sector in the country:
Integrated Scheme for the Development of Silk Industry (CSS)
Central Silk Board (CSB) has been implementing a rationalized restructured Central Sector Scheme “Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry” for development of sericulture in the Country, which is an umbrella scheme consisting of following four components for the development of Sericulture and Silk industry. The focus and emphasis are on improving production, quality and productivity of domestic silk thereby reducing the country’s dependence on imported silk.

• Research & Development, Training, Transfer of Technology and I.T.  Initiatives,
• Seed Organizations,
• Coordination and Market Development and,
• Quality Certification Systems (QCS)/Export Brand Promotion and Technology Up-gradation

An amount of Rs.154.02 Cr. has been allocated in Revised Budget Estimates during 2016-17 for the implementation of the Scheme. Against this, a total expenditure of Rs.128.51 Cr. has been made till February, 2017.
North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS)
Under “North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme” (NERTPS), 24 sericulture projects are being implemented under two broad categories viz., Integrated Sericulture Development Project (ISDP) and Intensive Bivoltine Sericulture Development Project [IBSDP] covering Mulberry, Eri and Muga sectors in all North Eastern States.
Aim: The projects aim at holistic development of sericulture in all its spheres from plantation development to production of fabrics with value addition at every stage of production chain.  These projects have been approved at a total cost of Rs. 820.78 crore with Government of India share of Rs. 691.60 crore, for implementation from 2014-15 to 2018-19.  The projects are under implementation for contributing additional production of raw silk during the project period and for involving more families to generate more employment.
These projects have been approved at a total cost of Rs. 820.78 crore with Government of India share of Rs. 691.60 crore, for implementation from 2014-15 to 2018-19.  The projects are under implementation for contributing additional production of raw silk during the project period and for involving more families to generate more employment.

Sports

Obituary