All India Radio News Summary: 20 SEPTEMBER 2017
1.Government to take additional measures to improve growth, if needed in view of present economic situation;
a)The Finance Minister has said, the government will take additional measures, if needed, in view of the present economic situation to improve the growth. FM said, he had held a series of meetings with concerned Ministers and Secretaries in the last two days and discussed the factors relating to the economy.
- Finance Minister has termed the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel as temporary phenomena, saying it will soon be normalized. He said, the recent spike is due to shrinking of refining capacity which has been affected due to Hurricane in the US.
- The Finance Minister gave no indication of any cut in excise duty on petrol and diesel to cushion the spike in rates.
- He said the government needs revenue to support public spending. The government has increased public spending on infrastructure and whatever GDP growth is there, it is fuelled by public spending and FDI.
b) Union Cabinet has approved increase of cost norms for supplementary nutrition provided in Anganwadis and for out of school adolescent girls under Integrated Child Development Services.
- It will involve an additional investment of 12 thousand crore rupees over the next three years.
- Finance Minister said, the revised cost norms for children upto six years will be eight rupees, for adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers, it will be 5 rupees and for severely malnourished category 12 rupees will be given.
c) The Cabinet has approved productivity link bonus of 78 days wages for Railway employees. About 12.3 lakh non-gazetted employees are likely to benefit from the decision. This does not include Railway Protection Force and Railway Protection Special Force personnel. The payment will be made before the Dussehra puja holidays.
d) The government also decided to merge existing 17 government presses into five to rationalize and modernize them. Finance Minister said, the surplus employees will be re-deployed in the new presses. He said, 468 acres of land of merged presses will come to central land pool after merger.
e) The Cabinet has also approved the revamped “Khelo India” programme at a cost of 1,756 crore rupees for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20.
- The programme aims at mainstreaming sports.
- It will impact the entire sports eco-system, including infrastructure, community sports, talent identification, coaching for excellence, competition structure and sports economy.
f) The Cabinet was apprised of progress under the National Health Mission and decisions of Empowered Programme Committee and Mission Steering Group of National Health Mission. Health Minister said,
- Rate of decline of under-5 Mortality rate during National Health Mission period has nearly doubled.
- Millennium Development Goal-6 of halting and reversing incidence of Malaria, HIV-AIDS and TB has been achieved.
- National Health Mission has been a successful scheme.
g) The Cabinet today also approved extension of time period of the scheme Special Industry Initiative for Jammu and Kashmir, UDAAN till 31st of December next year. Initially, the time period of Udaan was up to 2016-17.
- Udaan is a national integration scheme with the goal to mainstream youth of Jammu and Kashmir with a rest of the country.
- India will continue to work on climate change beyond the Paris agreement, says External Affairs
India has said that it understands its responsibility towards planet Earth and will continue to work on climate change issues above and beyond the Paris Agreement.
- External Affairs Minister in UN Secretary General’s meeting with select leaders on Climate Change in New York said, India’s commitment is for the future generations. India is also ready to work closely with UNSG and relevant UN agencies, especially in the context of the International Solar Alliance.
- She said it is making special efforts to connect to all its friends across the world.
- She said, there have been interactions between the leaders of India and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member States on the sidelines of international meetings and forums.
- She, however, said there is also a need to exchange visits at the highest level from both sides to further strengthen political, economic and people-to-people ties during 3rd India-CARICOM Ministerial Meeting.
- She also said that counter-terrorism requires a strong global collective action and also a strong legal framework to address this problem.
The External Affairs Minister said New Delhi’s support for the Palestinian cause has been a reference point of its foreign policy. In her intervention in the Non- Aligned Movement-NAM Ministerial meeting on Palestine, she said, India’s commitment and its solidarity with the Palestinian people can never be undermined.
- Frantic rescue operations in full swing in Mexico after a powerful earthquake leaves more than 200 dead.
A strong earthquake has struck central Mexico, killing at least 248 people and toppling dozens of buildings in the capital, Mexico City after the 7.1 magnitude quake, and buildings across the city have been evacuated. People were feared trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings as rescue teams rushed to the hardest-hit areas.
- The US Geological Survey said, the epicentre of the quake was next to Atencingo in Puebla state, about 120km from Mexico City, with a depth of 51km. The megapolis is home to 20 million people.
- In Mexico City, thousands of soldiers, rescuers and civilians — including college students — are working side by side to dig through tall piles of rubble from dozens of crumbled buildings due to strong earthquake. Hundreds of volunteers have joined emergency services and rescue operations in the search for survivors.
- Uttar Pradesh government has announced to link land records with the Aadhaar Card
Uttar Pradesh government has announced to link land records with the Aadhaar Card.
- Chief Minister said, the decision has taken to check the benaami land transfer and frauds in land sell deeds.
- Uttar Pradesh government has written to Centre seeking permission to initiate the process for issuing Khatauni with mention of number of Aadhar cards.
- The government has accepted that one lakh 57 thousand complaints have been received during last six month for grabbing of lands illegally.
- Land disputes are one of the major reasons for litigation in the State and lakhs of cases are pending before different level of the courts on illegal transfer or sell of lands.
- District collectors to submit a report on the initiatives taken for protection of children in schools
Chhattisgarh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has issued a circular to all district collectors directing them to submit a report on the initiatives taken for protection of children in schools in their respective districts within 15 days.
- The circular said courts and the Centre have issued directions and guidelines from time to time regarding protection of school children.
- The commission has asked all concerned to ensure strict compliance of these guidelines.
- Indian Army has taken Swachh Bharat Abhiyan at Siachen
Indian Army has taken Swachh Bharat Abhiyan at Siachen, the highest battle field in the world.
- Defence Ministry has said that the drive is aimed at cleaning the areas, which remains snow clad throughout the year.
- The prime motive of the drive is to maintain ecological balance of Siachen glacier.
- Since the launch of the campaign in October 2014, Siachen troops have removed and sent back more than 63 tonnes of garbage to the base.
- These loads of garbage include packing material, barrels and perishables. A huge amount of garbage has been brought back through man-pack loads, porters, ponies and sometimes returning helicopters.
- On arrival of the trash to disposal areas, these are buried in deep trenches dug mechanically in areas which are not on run of the rivers and where landmass is not fragile.
- In Telangna, the Bathukamma festival has begun amidst traditional fervour and enthusiasm
In Telangna, the Bathukamma festival has begun today amidst traditional fervour and enthusiasm.
The nine-day festival, which reflects the spirit of Telangana culture and traditions, is celebrated by women with a variety of flowers that grow exclusively in the region.
Bathukamma festival
- Bathukamma is floral festival celebrated by the Hindu women of Telangana.
- Every year this festival is celebrated as per Shalivahana calendar for nine days starting Bhadrapada Amavasya (also known as Mahalaya Amavasya or Pitru Amavasya) till Durgashtami, usually in September–October of Gregorian calendar.
- Bathukamma represents cultural spirit of Telangana. Bathukamma is a beautiful flower stack, arranged with different unique seasonal flowers most of them with medicinal values, in seven concentric layers in the shape of temple gopuram.
- In Telugu, ‘Bathukamma’ means ‘Mother Goddess come Alive’ and Goddess Maha Gauri-‘Life Giver’ is worshipped in the form of Bathukamma – the patron goddess of womanhood, Maha Gauri Devi. It is also celebrated in some cities in Andhra Pradeshlike Vizag.
- It is the festival for feminine felicitation.
- Union Home Ministry gives final chance to IGNOU, Mumbai University and ICMR to retain their licences for foreign funding on disclosure of annual income and expenditure
Union Home Ministry has given a final chance to IGNOU, Mumbai University and ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) to retain their licenses to receive foreign funding if they disclose to the government their annual income and expenditure statements by October the 18th after paying penalty.
- These are among 4,842 institutes and organisations which have been granted permission to retain their Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, FCRA licenses.
- FCRA registration of 18,681 organisations and institutes were cancelled for not filing returns for five consecutive years, 2010-11 to 2014-15, despite being served repeated notices.
- No organisation is allowed to receive funds from abroad unless it is registered under the FCRA.
- It is mandatory under the law for such organisations to submit income and expenditure statement to the government annually else their registration is cancelled.
- Supreme Court directs Unitech to pay litigation cost to home buyers who have succeeded before the grievance redressal commission
In a first of its kind order, the Supreme Court today directed Unitech to pay litigation cost to home buyers who have succeeded before the grievance redressal commission in their lawsuit against the real estate major.
- A bench headed by Chief Justice directed the real estate major to pay Rs 80,000 each as litigation cost to 39 flat buyers in one of the developer’s projects.
- The court directed Unitech to pay the amount of the litigation costs within four weeks to buyers who have succeeded before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) in getting their principal amount and interest.
- The real goal of education is to provide best human beings and doing so will be a great service to entire humanity.
President said, the real goal of education is to provide best human beings and doing so will be a great service to entire humanity.
- He said, the Christian community has a special role in academic excellence of the country. He appealed to the students to use knowledge to enhance welfare of the under privileged in society.
- The goal of education is not just to acquire knowledge, it is much more critical to use the knowledge one gets from education to enhance the welfare of the less privileged among us.
- The truly educated are not those who collect degrees but those who use these degrees to underline his policy to become nation builders in our society.
- President said that education is crucial to harness the energy of young people and make the country a developed society.
- He stressed the need to upgrade the higher educational system and to the extent possible, make it future-proof.
- He said Indian education infrastructure, curricula and modes of teaching have to become 21st century compatible and dynamic enough to constantly embrace change.
- The dream of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is incomplete unless the fruit of development reaches everyone
Vice-President said the dream of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is incomplete unless the fruit of development reaches everyone. He said,
- Government is working in multi-dimensional manner for the development of the nation.
- There is a need for a special focus in integral approach to increase the number of micro, small and medium enterprises.
- The Vice-President asserted that there is no dearth of skill in the country, the need of the hour is to give people an atmosphere and a helping hand to enhance their skills.
