CHRONICLE MARCH 2018

Padma Awards 2018

·         This year 85 Padma awards in including two duo cases (in a duo case, the award is counted as one) were given to distinguished personnel. They include 3 Padma Vibhushan and 73 Padma Awards. 14 of the awardees were women and the list also includes 16 persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 3 Posthumous awards.

·         Padma Shris was given to one person from all 10 Asean nations to mark 25 years of India's partnership with the southeast Asian grouping.

About Padma Awards

·         These are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/fields of activities, viz.-art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, civil service, ect.

·         'Padma Vibhushan' is awarded for exceptional and distinguished service; 'Padma Bhushan' for distinguished service of high order and 'Padma Shri' for distinguished service in any field.

PADMA VIBHUSHAN
Name	Field	State
Illaiyaraja	Art-Music	Tamil Nadu
Ghulam Mushtafa	Art-Music	Maharashtra
Parameshwaran  Parameshwaran	Literature and Education	Kerala
PADMA BHUSHAN
Pankaj Advani	Sports- Billiards/ Snooker	Karnataka
Philipose Mar Chrysostom	Other-Spiritualism	Kerala
Mahendra Singh Dhoni	Sports-Cricket	Jharkhand
Alexander Kadakin (Foreigner/Pos.)	Public Affairs	Russia
Ramachandran	Other-Archaeology	Tamil Nadu
Ved Prakash  Nanda (OCI)	Literature and Education	USA
Laxman Pai	Art-Painting	Goa
Arvind Parikh	Art-Music	Maharashtra
Ms. Sharda Sinha	Art-Music	Bihar

 

Some Distinguished Padma Awardee, 2018 and their field of Work

ART

Ghulam Mustafa Khan (Maharashtra): India classical musician in the Hindustani classical tradition, be belongs to the illustrious school of music of Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana which owes its allegiance to Seniya tradition.       

Ms. Sharda Sinha (Bihar): Folk-singer who sings in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Megahi languages. She is known for her version of the Chhath Puja themed songs.

Ms. Vijaylakshmi Navaneethakrishanan (Tamil Nadu): She is a Tamil folk artist, who was awarded for the collection, documentation and preservation of Tamil folk and tribal music.

Gobardhan Panika (Odisha): His skilled technique and creativity draws inspiration from nature and the local flora and fauna. His and-woven textiles have tribal motifs along with flowers, animals, fish, stars and pyramids. He sets the loom for each piece of handloom making all his textiles turn out to be unique.

Bhajju Shyam (Madhya Pradesh): He is an acclaimed Gondi artist. He received international recognition for his book The London Jungle Book (2004). For his book The Life of Trees Night (2006) he was awarded the 2008 Bologna Children's Book Fair.

Ibraihim Sutar (Karnataka): Known as Kannada Kabir, Sufi singer Ibrahim Sutar it famous for spreading social and communal harmony through has songs and bhajans for the last 40 years. He set up Harmony Folk Music Mela (team of artists) in 1970.

Literature and Education – Journalism

A Zakia (Mizoram): Him contribution towards the growth and development of the Mara language and literate were valuable for the Mara community. The Mara language, having just merely 50,000 speaking population is categorized as definitely endangered language by ISL International.

Bharirath Prasad Tripathi (Uttar Pradesh): His contribution to the language of Sanskrit is invaluable. He is also known to have invented a new technique for teaching Sanskrit without the need of painstaking memorization of hundreds of grammatical formulas.

Sports

Pankaj Advani (Karnataka): 18-time world champion in Clue Sport.

Ms. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (Manupur): She is the second woman from India to win gold medal at the Senior World Weightlifting Championships after Karnam Malleswari.

Marlikant Petkar (Maharashtra): He is India's first Paralympics gold medalist (1972 Heidelberg, Germany)

Kidambi Srikanth (Andhra Pradesh): World No. 3 badminton player is the only person from Andhra Pradesh to get a Padma award this year. He won six titles (French Open, Denmark Open, Australian Open, Indonesia Open, India Open and China Open) last year including four Super Series.

Others

Ramulus  Whitaker (Tamil Nadu): Romulus Earl Whitaker is a herpetologist, wildlife conservationist and founder of the Madras Snake, the Andaman and Nicobar Environment Trust (ANET), and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. He is hailed as 'The Snake Man of India.

Ms. Lakshmikutty (Kerala): She is popularly known as the grandmother of the jungle for her treatment of snake and insect bites using herbal medicines. She prepares 500 herbal medicine from memory.

MR Rajagopal (Kerala): He is known as the father of Palliative Care in India. He is the founder chairman of Pallium India, a palliative care non-government organization. He played a key role in the creation of the Naitonal Programme for Palliative Care and contributed to the amendment of the draconian Nacrotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985.

Science and Engineering

Rajagopalan Vasudevan (Tamil Nadu): The Man of India has found a way to reuse plastic waste and to make durable roads.

Manas Bihari Verma (Bihar): A former programme director of Tejas, India's first indigenous multi-role supersonic fighter aircraft.

Ashoka Chakra

·         IAF Garud Comondo Jyoti Prakash Nirala was posthumously awarded Ashoka Chakra, the country's highest peacetime gallantry medal.

·         Nirala, from Badladh village in Rohtas district of Bihar, is the first-ever IAF airman to get the highest medal for a ground combat operation.

Kirti Chakra

·         The Kriti Chakra, the second in order of precedence of peacetime gallantry awards was conferred on Major Vijayant Bist for foiling infiltration bid in Kashmir.

Republic Day Parade Awards

Best Marching Contingent

Among the Three Services: Punjab Regiment

Para-Military and other Auxiliary Forces: Indo-Tibetan Border Police

Best Tableau

State/UT

First Prize: Tableau from Maharashtra depicting coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The tableau was created by art director Nitin Desai and his team.

·         Actor Shah Rukh Khan was awarded with the Crystal Awards – as part of the World Economic Forum's 48^th Annual Meeting in Davos – for his leadership in championing children's and women's rights in India. Actor-director Cate Blnchett and singer Elton John are the other awardees this year.

·         Shah Rukh was feted as the founder of the non-profit Meer Foundation, which provides support to female victims of acid attacks and major burn injuries through medical treatment, legal aid, vocational training, training, rehabilitation and livelihood support.

·         The Crystal Award is given by the WEF to artists who make a difference

Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards

The Parliamentary Group, headed by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has decided to confer Outstanding Parliamentarian Awards to five Members of Parliament for different years. They are:

·         Dr Najma Heptulla: Former Rajya Sabha MP (for 2013)

·         Hukumdev Narayan Yadav: Lok Sabha MP (for 2014)

·         Ghulam Nabi Azad: Rajya Sabha MP (for 2015)

·         Dinesh Trivedi: Lok Sabha MP (for 2016)

·         Bhartruhari Mahatab: Lok Sabha (for 2017)

Om Prakash Rawat

·         Senior-most Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat has been appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). He replaced A.K. Joti, who retired.

·         Former Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa was appointed as Election Commissioner to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Rawat's elevation.

K Sivan

·         Renewed scientist K Sivan has been appointed as the chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

·         He was Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. He replaced AS Kiran Kumar.

Sivan's Contribution to ISRO  

·         Sivan contributed significantly to Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and GSLV Mk-III vehicle design. He has been credited for the development of the PSLV rocket that launched 104 satellites in a single mission, setting a world record in February last year.

Dilip Asbe

·         Dilip Asbe has been appointed as the Managing Director and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

·         NPCI is an umbrella organization for retail payment systems in India.

EC Constitutes Panel to Suggest Changes to RP Act

·         Election Commission has constituted a 14-member committee to suggest changes to Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act in view of social media expansion.

·         The Act prohibits poll campaigns in the last 48 hours of voting.

·         The Committee chaired by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha will study the impact of social media during the silence period and suggest modifications to the election law and model code the conduct.   

Malimath Committee Report

·         At the annual Directors General of Police (DGP) conference held at Tekanpur in Madhya Pradesh, the Malimath Committee Report was discussed recently.

·         The Committee on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System, or the Justice Malimath Committee, was constituted by the Home Ministry in 2000. It was headed by Justice V.S. Malimath, former Chief Justice of the Karnataka and Kerala High Courts.

·         In 2003 it made 158 recommendations on crime investigation and punishment among others.

Key Recommendations

·         Conferences made before a Superintendent of Police rank officer be admitted as evidence in a court of law.

·         Standard of 'proof beyond reasonable doubt' followed in criminal cases be done away with.

·         Stringent punishment needed for false registration of cases.

·         The Committee also suggested constituting a National Judicial Commission and amending Article 124 to make impeachment of judges less difficult.

SUMMIM/SEMINAR/EVENT

World Government Summit

·         The 'World Government Summit' will be held in Dubai between February 11-13.

·         India is the partner country in the summit which is a 'global platform dedicated to shaping the future of government worldwide.

·         Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the keynote speaker at the event.

India-ASEAN Commemorative Summit

·         The India-ASEAN commemorative summit was held in New Delhi which marked the 25 years of Indo-ASEAN ties.

·         The theme of the summit was "Shared Values, Common Destiny".

World Economic Forum Summit

·         The Annual Meeting 2018 of the Economic Forum was held from 23-26 January 2018 at Davos in Switzerland with the theme of 'Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World'.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Headquarters: Cologny (Switzerland)

Founder and Excutive Chairman: Klaus Schwab

Objective: Its mission is to improve the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.

Raisina Dialogue  

·         The third edition of the Raisina Dialogue was held in New Delhi the "Managing Disruptive Transitions: Ideas, Institutions and Idioms".

·         The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference held annually in New Delhi. Since its inception in 2016, the conference has emerged as India's flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics. The conference is hosted by the Observer Research Foundation, an independent think tank, in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

Teem Murti Haifa Chowk

·         The Tean Murti Chowk, Delhi has been rename as Teen Murti Haifa Chowk, in the centenary year of the Battle for Haifa as a symbol of friendship between the people of India and Israel.

·         The Israeli city was liberated from Ottoman occupation by Indian soldiers during World War I. A large number Brigade died during the battle to free the city and nearly 900 were buried in Israe.

·         September 23 is celebrated as Haifa Day in India and Israel every year.

Saving Trees: Mittni the Way

·         The Government of Sikkim has come up with a unique way of preserving trees by encouraging people to forge a relationship trees with trees through a practice locally known at Mith/Mit or Mitini.

Harsh Language to be a Cognizable Offence 

·         The Telangana government has decided to register cases and take up investigation without the permission of court into verbal attack by people using harsh language

·         Citizen Delhi: My Times, My Life – Sheila Dikshit

·         Imperfect : Sanjay Manjrekar

·         Why I am A Hindu: Shashi Tharoor

Australian Open 2018

·         Australian Open the first of the four Grand Slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) was held at Melbourne. It is played on grass courts.

·         The men's singles winner is presented with the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup that is named after Sir Norman Everard Brookes an Australian tennis player who during his career won three Grand Slam singles titles.

Mens' Singles: Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Marin Cilic (Croatia)

Women's Doubles: Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) beat Simona Halep (Romania)

·         Fedrer is the only male in the club of 20 or more singles Slam winners. Others are Margaret Court (24), Sarena Williams (23) and Steffi Graf (22)

·         Badminton P Gopihand Saina Nehwal/PV Sindhu/K Srikanth                              

            

CHRONICLE FEBRUARY 2018

Moortidevi Award

·         Noted Bengali poet Joy Goswami will be given the 31^st Moortidevi Award for the year 2017 for his poetry collection titled 'Du Dondo Phowara Matro.' It is the first time the award will be given to a Bengali poet.

·         "Du Dondo Phowara Matro" is an autobiographical account of the poet's life featuring his close ones including a pet cat.

 

Vyas Samman

·         Eminent Hindi writer Mamta Kalia of Uttar Pradesh will be honored with literary award Vyas Samman for the year 2017 for her novel "Dukkham Sukkham".

·         Kalia is known for her works in Hindi and English including "Beghar", "Janch AbhiJaari Hai". "Nirmohi", and "Bolne Wali Aurat"

 

R Hemalatha: R Hemalatha has been appointed as the new Director of the National Institute of Nutrition                (NIN), Hyderabad.

 

Dia Mirza: Cine actor Dia Mirza, has been appointed as UN Environment's Goodwill Ambassador for India

 

Justice U.D. Salvi

·         Justice Umesh Dattatraya Salvi took charge as acting chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), a day after Justice Swatanter Kumar retired.

Vijay Rupani: Vijay Rupani has been appointed as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the second consecutive term. Nitin Patel was given the post of Deputy CM.

Jai Ram Thakur: Jai Ram Thakur has been sworn in as the new Chief Minister of 13^th legislative assembly of Himachal Pradesh. He replaced Virbhadra Singh.

11^th WTO Conference

·         The 11^th biennial ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation was held in Buenos Aries, Argentina. It was chaired by Minister Susana Malcorra of Argentina.

 

India to Host Meeting of WTO Member Countries

·         India will host meeting of WTO member countries in February to master support for food security and other issues.

 

SCO Summit Sochi, Russia

·         The latest Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit was held in Sochi, Russia

·         SCO is an inter-governmental organisation founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in 2001 in a bid to promote multilateral cooperation in the fields of security, economy and culture.

·         The SCO has eight full members-India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan- and six dialogue partners and four observers.

·         Earlier in June 2017, at the 17^th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Summit held in Kazakhstan capital Astana, India and Pakistan were accorded full membership.

 

One Planet Summit

·         The One Planet Summit was organised in Paris, France, that discussed climate monitoring from space, including such areas as greenhouse gases, water resource management and the use of satellites during natural disaster.

·         In progress to set up a Space Climate Observatory that will act as a hub between space agencies and the international scientific community.

 

Indian Science Congress

·         The 2018 edition of the Indian Science Congress will be held at Manipur University, Imphal, in March.

·         The event was scheduled at the Osmania University (OU), Hyderabad, in the first week of January but had to be moved out due to "security problems".

 

Alappuzha

·         Alappuzha- often called "the Venice of East"- a coastal city in Kerala has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of the five models across the world (Clean City) for fighting the pollution.

 

Kacheguda

·         Kacheguda railway Station under the South-Central Railway (SCR) has earned the unique distinction of being the first Energy Efficient 'A1 Category' Railway Station on Indian Railways.

·         Kacheguda railway Station is a historic building and had completed 100 years. Situated in the heart of Hyderabad, it was built in 1916 by the Nizam's Guaranteed State Railway during the reign of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam.

 

Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project

·         The 60 MW Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project (HEPP) in Mizoram has been inaugurated.

 

·         Kerala Tourism is launching a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based inventory of around 1000 festivals in the State. These will be promoted as tourist attractions.

 

WHO Certifies Gabon as Polio-Free

·         The World health Organisation has declared Gabon a "Polio-free country".

·         Now the disease is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

·         India was declared polio-free in 2014.

 

Hokersar Wetland

Hokersar Wetland is located on the outskirts of Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir.

 

Udvada Festival

     Iranshah Udvada Utsav is a three-day festival held recently in Udvada, a town in Gujarat. The festival was witness to nearly 2000 Parsis from across the world.

 

 

 

IOC Bans Russia from Winter Olympics 2018

·         Russia has been banned from competing at next year's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea by the International Olympic Committee.

·         It follows an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored doping at the 2014 Games hosted by Russia in Sochi.

·         IOC will invite Russian clean athletes to compete under the name 'Olympic Athlete from Russia' (OAR).

 

·         China's first dam on the main upper reaches of the Brahmaputra was built at Zangmu.

·         Three more dams at Dagu, Jiacha, and Jeixu (small-scale projects) are under construction.

·         In 2015, China inaugurated the Zam Hydropower Station, largest in Tibet,the highest dam built on Brahmaputra.

 

Triple Talaq Bill

The Lok Sabha on December 28 passed by voice vote the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 that makes instant triple talaq of talaq-e-biddat a criminal offence, with a jail term of up to three years.

Need for the Bill: The object statement of the Triple Talaq Bill states that the Supreme Court's recent judgment has had no deterrent effect and therefore, a Bill criminalizing instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat was required.

 

Salient Feature of the Bill

·         The Bill makes all declaration of talaq, including in written or electronic form, to be void (i.e. enforceable in law) and illegal.

·         It defines talaq as talaq-e-biddat or any other similar form of talaq pronounced by a Muslim man resulting in instant and irrevocable divorce.

·         Talaq-e-biddat refers to the practice under Muslim personal Laws where pronouncement of the word 'talaq' thrice in one sitting by a Muslim man to his wife results in an instant and irrevocable divorce.

 

Offence and Penalty

·         The Bill makes declaration of talaq a cognizable and non-bailable offence.

·         A cognizable offence is one for which a police officer may arrest an accused person without warrant.

·         A husband declaring talaq can be imprisoned for up to three years along with a fine.

 

Shah Bano Act

·         The recent bill has ameded the Shah Bano Act.

·         Commonly known as the Shah Bano Act, The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986 was enacted by the Rajiv Gandhi government under pressure from the Muslim clergy to overturn the Supreme Court ruling in the Shah Bano case.

 

India's First Social Audit Law 

            Meghalaya on December 15 became the first state in India to operationalise a law that makes social audit of government programmes and schemes a part of government practice. The State Government launched 'The Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act, 2017', at a national convention in Shillong.

 

·         Arunachal Pradesh emerged as the second state in Northeast, after Sikkim, to be declared Open Defecation Free.

 

Chabahar Port: A Game Changer

·         The first phase of Iran's Chabahar port, which holds significant strategic and economic importance for India, was launched in December 2017.

·         India, Iran and Afghanistan have signed an agreement to grant preferential treatment and tariff reductions at Chabahar to Indian goods headed toward Central Asian and Afghanistan.

 

Methanol Economy Fund

About Methanol

·         Methanol (CH3OH) is a single carbon compound which can be produced from coal, natural gas, biomass (i.e. products which are capable of producing syngas), whereas DME (CH3OCH3) which is the simplest ether compound can be produced from methanol or directly from gases.

·         It can be produced from natural gas, Indian high ash coal, bio-mass, and stranded and flared gases.

·         Methanol is an efficient fuel (octane number 100) and emits lesser Nox and Particulate matter (PM) than gasoline and produces no Sox as there is no sulphur in ethanol.

 

·         The Ministry of Communications on December 21 launched DARPAN-"Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for A New India" Project to improve the quality of service, add value to services and achieve "financial inclusion" on un-banked rural population.

 

·         The Project shall increase the rural reach of the Department of Posts and enable BOs to increase traffic of all financial remittances, savings accounts, Rural Postal Life Insurance, and Cash Certificates

 

World Soil Day

·         World Soil Day is celebrated annually on the 5^th of December at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome and across the world.

·         2017 Theme: 'Caring for the Planet starts from the Ground'.

 

ISA Becomes a Treaty-based Organisation

            In terms of its Framework Agreement, with ratification by Guinea as the 15^th country on 6^th November 2017, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) became a treaty-based international intergovernmental organization ob 6^th December 2017.

About ISA

·         The ISA, headquartered in India, has its Secretariat located in the campus of National institute of Solar Energy, Gwalpahari, Gurgaon, Haryana.

·         The ISA is an Indian initiative, jointly launched by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and the President of France on 30^th November 2015 in Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21, the UN Climate Conference.

 

 

Ganga Gram Project Launched

      The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) on December 23 launched 'Ganga Gram' – a project for sanitation based integrated development of all 4470 villages along the River Ganga.

 

Highlights

·         Ganga Gram vision is an integrated approach for holistic development of villages situated on the banks of River Ganga with active participation of the villagers.

 

·         Ug99 or a strain of fungus Puccinia graminis tritici (Pgt) has been causing a wide damage to wheat crop across the world.

 

·         Scientist has now gained gene-level insights into how this deadly fungus attacks the cereal crop.

 

  Saraswati

A group of Indian astronomers have discovered a massive supercluster of galaxies which is only the third known supercluster.