Q. Why is this in news? On December 15, Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for a 30,000 MW (megawatt) hybrid renewable energy park close to the Indo-Pak border in Kutch district. The project is billed as the largest of its kind in the world. Q. What is this hybrid renewable energy park taking shape in Gujarat? With the Government of India committing itself to installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, the Gujarat government identified 1,00,000 hectares of wa... Read More...
Q. What are Tribunals? Tribunal is a quasi-judicial institution that is set up to deal with problems such as resolving administrative or tax-related disputes constituted with the objective of delivering speedy, inexpensive and decentralised adjudication of disputes in various matters. They are not originally a part of the Constitution of India rather introduced in 1985. Q. What are significance of Tribunal? The Tribu... Read More...
Why is it News? A Justice of the Supreme Court has recused himself from hearing a petition that sought action against the Andhra Pradesh CM for levelling political allegations against an AP High Court judge. What is the Recusal of Judges? Recusal is the removal of oneself as a judge or policymaker in a particular matter, especially because of a conflict of interest. Recusal usually takes place when a judge has a conflict of interest or has a prior association with... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? Recently CBI officers probing the alleged rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, arrived at the Gandhinagar-based Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) with the four accused for their brain electrical oscillation signature profiling (BEOSP) test to be conducted. Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature Profiling (BEOSP) also known as brain fingerprinting is a neuro psychological method of interrogation in which the accused’s participation in the crime is investigated by studying their bra... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? Recently Karnataka govt announced that they will soon declassify 6.64 lakh hectares of the 9.94 lakh hectares of deemed forests in the state (nearly 67%) and hand it over to Revenue authorities. The move has been taken after a study of the actual extent of deemed forest areas by local committees headed by officials from the Revenue, Forest and Land Records Departments in every district. The issue of deemed forests is a contentious one in Karnataka, with legislators across party lines often alleging that l... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? Recently, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has released the Draft Data Centre Policy, which aims to simplify clearances for setting up data centres in the country. Q. What is the vision of the Draft Data Centre Policy? Making India a Global Data Centre hub, Promote investment in the sector, Read More...
Q. What is the Maritime Cluster project? The concept of maritime cluster is new to India, but these clusters have been driving some of the most competitive ports of the world like Rotterdam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Oslo, Shanghai, and London. Simply put, a maritime cluster is an agglomeration of firms, institutions, and businesses in the maritime sector that are geographically located close to each other. The Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB), a nodal agency of the Gujarat government, has been trying to develop such a cluster at ... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? The Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, also known as Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across river Ravi, about five kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Punjab. The Pakistan government’s decision to transfer the management and administrative control of the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur from a Sikh body — Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (PSGPC) — to a trust under the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a non-Sikh body, has inviting s... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news ? A. On (October 29), the Mumbai civic body received the green signal from the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Nagpur, for translocating the corals off the coast of Mumbai for the Rs 12,700-crore Mumbai Coastal Road Project. The BMC aims to complete the translocation of 18 coral colonies over two days next month. Q. What are corals? Corals exh... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? A. The newly passed farm trade Bill has raised concerns that farmers may no longer be assured MSP for their crop. But MSP isn’t even mentioned in the new law or in existing ones. The recently enacted law that dismantles the monopoly of APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandis, thereby allowing sale and purchase of crops outside these state government-regulated market yards, may not have faced serious farmer opposition had it included a provision safeguarding the continuance of the existing min... Read More...
Q. What is the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project? The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation System is considered to be one of the world’s largest multi-purpose projects. It is designed to provide water for irrigation and drinking purposes to about 45 lakh acres in 20 of the 31 districts in Telangana, apart from Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The cost of the project is Rs 80,000 crore, but is expected to rise to Rs 1 lakh crore by the time it is completely constructed by the end of 2020. Q. What does the project entail? Read More...
Q. Why is this in news ? A. Recently NASA’s OSIRIS-REx — Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer — spacecraft briefly touched asteroid Bennu, from where it is meant to collect samples of dust and pebbles and deliver them back to Earth in 2023. The asteroid was named after an Egyptian deity by a nine-year-old boy from North Carolina in 2013 who won NASA’s “Name that Asteroid” competition. The asteroid was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Ea... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? Mount Everest or Sagarmatha, Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, is located in the Himalayas between China and Nepal Almost a year after China and Nepal together decided to re-measure the elevation of the world’s highest mountain, the two countries are soon expected to announce its latest official height, the Nepali Times reported. Mount Everest or Sagarmatha, Earth’s highest mountain above sea level, is located in the Himalayas between China and Nepal -– the border bet... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? The first of the five seaplane services in Gujarat, connecting Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad to the Statue of Unity in Kevadia in Narmada district, will be inaugurated on October 31, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Officials say Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to fly in the first 14-seater amphibian flight that will eventually be open to the public. The other spots are, Dharoi dam in Mehsana district, to connect Ambaji and Shatrunjay dam in Palitana of Bhavnagar ... Read More...
Q. What IMF data say about the per capita GDP of India and Bangladesh? Global growth is projected to contract 4.4 per cent, an upward revision of 0.8 per cent from its June update, the IMF said. International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) latest projection of Bangladesh’s real per capita GDP surpassing India’s real per capita GDP, after India had a lead of 25 per cent five years ago, is shocking, and calls for “bold fiscal/monetary policy”. Q. What do the IMF data show?... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news? Last week, a special CBI court convicted Dilip Ray, Minister of State for Coal in the A B Vajpayee government in 1999, for his alleged involvement in the coal block allocation scandal. Hearings on the quantum of Ray’s sentencing are set to begin, While convicting him, the court observed that Ray “abused his official position”, as his decision of “relaxation of policy without any logical or legal basis amounts to gross abuse of his powers by the minister”. Q. Why it ... Read More...
Q. Why is this in news ? “Only 6% of Indian farmers benefit from minimum support prices (MSP)”. So widely-quoted is this figure — especially in the context of the recently-passed Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act — that it has become a factoid or even truism. Q. What is the source of this claim and what is that isn’t counted? The apparent source of the 6% figure is the Shanta Kumar-headed High Level Committee o... Read More...
Q. Why in news ? The UP government wants to carry out sweeping tests on ‘all people on the accused and victim side’, as well as ‘police officers involved in the (Hathras) case and other persons related to the case’. A spokesperson for the Uttar Pradesh government said on Friday (October 2) that polygraph and narcoanalysis tests would be conducted as part of the investigation into the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19-year old Dalit woman by four men of the Thakur caste in Hathras last month. Read More...
Q. Why is this in news ? India’s first Pan India time use survey was released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation Q. What are time use surveys? A time use survey measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socialising. The primary objective of a time use survey (TUS) is to measure participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities. TUS is a... Read More...
Q. Why is it in News? A. Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has provided Y-plus category of CRPF security to an actress. Q What is VIP Security , and to whom it is provided? The protection is informally called “VIP security”, and it is generally given only to someone who holds a position of consequence either in the government or in civil society. Certain individuals, by reason of positions they hold in government... Read More...