Daily news will speed up the preparation for the Civil Services Examination and it also plays a crucial role to grasp the current affairs topic comprehensively. Here we have covered most of the topics related to various categories including National, International, Sports, Science and Technology, and so on.
SWACHH SURVEKSHAN 2020
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the results of an annual survey of cleanliness, Swachh Survekshan 2020. This is the fifth edition of the survey that was introduced by PM in January 2016.
- It is the world’s largest cleanliness survey which covers 4,242 cities, 62 Cantonment Boards and 92 Ganga Towns.
- Swachh Survekshan’ programme was introduced with the objective of large-scale participation of citizens in the Swachh Bharat Mission and saw the participation of 1.87 crore citizens.
- 129 awards will be awarded to the top-performing cities and states in the programme, titled “Swachh Mahotsav”. Indore again gained the first rank and on the other hand Patna is at last.
- The Swachch Mahotsav is being organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has been conducting the Swachh Survekshan since 2016 to encourage cities to improve urban sanitation.
SWADESHI MICROPROCESSOR CHALLENGE
- The Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology has launched the Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge.
- It is the innovate solutions for Aatmanirbhar Bharat programme.
- This initiative is aimed at not only meeting India’s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors but also to potentially mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence and most crucially cutting dependency on imports.
- The challenge invites innovators, start-ups and students to use two microprocessors SHAKTI (32 bit) and VEGA (64 bit), developed by IIT Madras and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) respectively, to develop various technology products.
- The microprocessors were developed using Open Source Architecture under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
- The challenge will be taken place for ten months and the finalists can win financial and incubation support for their ideas.
Daily Important News from ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and others: 21 August, 2020
NATIONAL RECRUITMENT AGENCY (NRA)
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the proposal to set up the National Recruitment Agency (NRA).
- The NRA will conduct the Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts in government and public sector banks.
- This test aims to replace multiple examinations conducted by different recruiting agencies for selection to government jobs advertised each year, with a single online test.
- The Common Eligibility Test will be held twice a year.
- There will be different CETs for graduate level, 12th Pass level and 10th pass level to facilitate recruitment to vacancies at various levels.
- The CET will be conducted in 12 major Indian languages.
- Further, it will cover recruitments made by three agencies: Staff Selection Commission, Railway Recruitment Board and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection.
- CET will be a first level test to shortlist candidates and the score will be valid for three years.
- There shall be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET subject to the upper age limit. Age relaxation for SC/ST and OBC candidates as per existing rules will apply.
DIGITAL QUALITY OF LIFE (DQL) INDEX 2020
- It is global research on the quality of digital well-being in 85 countries (81% of the global population).
- The DQL Index 2020 is based on the five core pillars that define the digital quality of life. The five pillars are; internet affordability (mobile and broadband), internet quality (mobile and broadband), electronic government availability and advancement, electronic infrastructure development, and the state of electronic security.
- According to it, India ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of Internet quality.
- Seven out of ten countries where people enjoy the highest quality of their digital lives are in Europe, with Denmark taking the leading position globally. If looking regionally, Canada (3rd) takes the leading place in the Americas, Israel (8th) and Japan (9th) shine from the crowd in the Middle East and Asia, South Africa (59th) leads in the continent of Africa, and New Zealand (17th) stands out in Oceania.
Daily Important News from ‘The Hindu’, ‘PIB’, ‘Indian Express’ and others: 22 August,2020
DRONE BASED SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM FOR RAILWAY SECURITY
- The Indian Railways has procured two Ninja UAVs for better security and surveillance in railway areas like station premises, railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc. for Mumbai Division of Central Railway.
- These drones are capable of Real-Time Tracking, Video Streaming and may be operated on Automatic Fail Safe Mode.
- So far, nine drones have been procured by the RPF and there are plans for buying 17 more in the future.
- They are very useful while undertaking mapping of railway assets to assess the encroachments on railway property.
PM-CARES FUND
- The Supreme Court pronounced its judgment on a writ petition seeking the transfer of funds received in PM-CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
- The Supreme Court said that being a public charitable trust, “there is no occasion for audit of Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) by the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India”.
- It refused to order transfer of funds from the PM CARES Fund to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).
- The Supreme Court ruled that while NDRF is to be audited by the CAG of India according to the Disaster Management Act, 2005, a public charitable trust like PM-CARES Fund need not be. However, the Fund will be audited by an independent auditor.
RESERVATIONS BASED ON PLACE OF BIRTH
- The Government of Madhya Pradesh announced to give government jobs only to children of the state. However, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has not given details of the proposal, reservation-based solely on place of birth would not pass constitutional muster.
- While the Constitution specifically prohibits discrimination based on place of birth, the Supreme Court has held domicile reservation, especially in educational institutions as constitutional. The courts, however, are averse to extending such reservation to public employment because it violates constitutional guarantees made to citizens against discrimination.
- Article 16(2) of the Constitution states that “no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against, in respect of any employment or office under the State.”
DHANWANTARI RATH
- It is a mobile unit of Ayurveda health care services that would consist of a team of Doctors who would be visiting Delhi Police colonies regularly.
- It is a collaboration between the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) and Delhi Police for extending the Ayurveda Preventive and Promotive health services in the residential colonies of Delhi Police supported by the Ministry of AYUSH.
- These Ayurveda health care services are expected to reduce the incidence/prevalence of various diseases and also reduce the number of referrals to hospitals thereby reducing the cost to the healthcare system as well as patients.
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