1.Business Reform Action Plan for the year 2019
News: Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs has announced the 4th edition of Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) ranking of states,2019.
Facts:
- Business Reform Action Plan(BRAP): The ranking of States based on the implementation of Business Reform Action Plan started in the year 2015.Till date, State Rankings have been released for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017-18.
- Who Conducts the exercise? The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade(DPIIT) conducts the exercise for all States and Union Territories under the BRAP.
- Objective: To attract investments and increase Ease of Doing Business in each State by introducing an element of healthy competition through a system of ranking states based on performance in the implementation of BRAP.
- Parameters: It includes 180 reform points covering 12 business regulatory areas such as Access to Information, Single Window System, Labour, Environment among others.
Key Takeaways:
News: The 3rd Rashtriya Poshan Mah is being celebrated during the month of September 2020.
Facts:
- Rashtriya Poshan Mah: It is being celebrated under POSHAN Abhiyan (PM’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nourishment).
- Objective: To encourage Jan Bhagidaari in order to create a Jan Andolan for addressing malnutrition amongst young children and women and to ensure health and nutrition for everyone.
- Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Women and Child Development being the nodal Ministry for POSHAN Abhiyaan is celebrating it in convergence with partner Ministries and departments at National, States/UTs,Districts and grass root level.
- Features: During this month activities related to nutrition awareness will be carried out by all the states/UTs up to the grass root level.
Additional Facts:
- Poshan Abhiyan: It was launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- Aim: To achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children (0-6 years) and Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM) in a time-bound manner and ensure attainment of malnutrition free India by 2022
- Targets: To reduce stunting, under- nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively.It would strive to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022.
3.Sonneratia alba to be state mangrove tree in Maharashtra
News: Maharashtra is set to become the first state in the country to declare Sonneratia alba as a state mangrove tree species.
Facts:
- Sonneratia alba or mangrove apple: It is an evergreen mangrove tree in the family Lythraceae.
- Distribution: It grows naturally in many tropical and subtropical areas from East Africa to the Indian subcontinent, southern China, the Ryukyu Islands, Indochina, Malesia, Papuasia, Australia and the Western Pacific region.Its habitat is sheltered around sandy seashores and tidal creeks.
- Uses: Sonneratia alba grow up to five feet and bear white flowers with a pink base as well as green fruits that resemble apples and are used to make pickles.
- Significance: They often grow on newly-formed mudflats and play an important role in combating land erosion. The flowers, which bloom at night, are pollinated by nocturnal creatures like bats.
Note: Maharashtra already has the state tree (mango), state animal (giant squirrel), state bird (green pigeon), state butterfly (Blue Mormon) and state flower (jarul).
4.First Ever International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies
News: Union Environment Minister will be chairing a webinar on the first-ever International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies.
Facts:
- The United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution to hold an International Day of Clean Air for blue skies in 2019.
- Aim: The day aims to:
- Raise public awareness that clean air is important for health, productivity, the economy and the environment.
- Demonstrate the close link of air quality to other environmental and developmental challenges and promote and facilitate solutions that improve air quality
- Bring together diverse international actors for concerted approach for effective air quality management.
- Theme: Clean Air for All.
5.Explained: Who are Yanomami Tribe?
News: Yanomami Tribe has asked the Indian Government to stop buying Blood gold which is gold mined illegally from the Yanomami land.
Facts:
- Yanomami Tribe: They live in the rainforests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela.
- According to Survival International, they are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America.
- They practice hunting and slash-and-burn agriculture and speak the Xirianá language.
- Note: Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa who secured the land rights of the Yanomami people was awarded the Right Livelihood Award-2019 also known as Sweden’s alternative Nobel Prize.
6.Explained: In SC reading of basic structure, the signature of Kesavananda Bharati
News: Kesavananda Bharati, who filed the famous constitutional case leading to birth of the legal doctrine of Basic Structure has passed away.
Facts:
- What was the Kesavananda Bharati case about?The case was primarily about the extent of Parliament’s power to amend the Constitution.
- The case initially started on the challenge to the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act 1969.
- Later, the court was reviewing a 1967 decision in Golaknath vs State of Punjab which had reversed the earlier verdicts and ruled that Parliament cannot amend fundamental rights.
- The court was also deciding the constitutional validity of several amendments passed by the Government.
- What was the judgement? The Constitutional Bench ruled that Parliament could amend any part of the Constitution so long as it did not alter or amend the basic structure or essential features of the Constitution.
- However, the court did not define the ‘basic structure’ and has been adding new features to this concept through various SC judgments which includes: supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, Independence of the judiciary, doctrine of separation of powers, federalism, secularism, principle of free and fair elections among others.
7.‘Moplah rioters’ not freedom fighters: report
News: A report submitted to the Indian Council of Historical Research(ICHR) in 2016 had recommended the delisting of Wagon Tragedy victims and Malabar Rebellion leaders from a book on martyrs of India’s freedom struggle.
Facts:
- Malabar rebellion also known as the Moplah rebellion was an armed revolt by the Mappila Muslims of Kerala in 1921.
- It was started as a resistance against the British colonial rule, the prevailing feudal system and in favour of the Khilafat Movement but ended in communal violence between Hindus and Muslims.
- Main Leaders of the Rebellion: Variyankunnath Kunjahammed Haji, Sithi Koya Thangal and Ali Musliyar
- The British government responded with aggression bringing in Gurkha regiments to suppress the rebellion and imposed martial law.
- Wagon Tragedy: A noteworthy event of the British suppression was the wagon tragedy when approximately 60 Mappila prisoners on their way to prison, were suffocated to death in a closed railway goods wagon.
8.HC asks Centre to decide on control over Assam Rifles
News: The Delhi High Court has ordered the Centre to take a call on the issue of bringing Assam Rifles out of the dual control of the Home Ministry (MHA) and the Defence Ministry (MoD).
Facts:
- The Assam Rifles is one of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in India.
- It was formed in 1835 as a militia called the ‘Cachar Levy’ to primarily protect British Tea estates and their settlements against tribal raids.
- The force operates in the North Eastern part of India and complements the Indian Army in countering the insurgency and guarding the borders.
- It is under the administrative control of the Home Ministry and operational control of the Indian Army.
Additional Information:
- There are seven CAPF in India. They are a) Assam Rifles (AR), b) Border Security Force (BSF), c) Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), d) Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), e) Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), f) National Security Guard (NSG) and g) Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
9.In Master Plan Delhi 2041, focus on city’s water bodies, green lungs and unauthorised colonies
News: Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will come up with Master Plan Delhi 2041.
Facts:
- Under the MPD 2041, DDA has proposed a ‘blue-green’ policy — integrating drains (blue areas) and land (green areas) around them.
- This includes developing orchards, planned parks and landscaped recreational greens alongside development of wetlands, ponds, lakes, natural drains, canals.
