1. LAVOOL VILLAGE
In Maharashtra, Lavool village of Majalgaon tehsil in Beed district is troubled by strange monkey menace for the past few days.
About:
- Three monkeys enter the village from adjoining forest. These monkeys pick any dog puppy and throw it from tall trees or high rise buildings. Monkeys started this revengeful act after a group of dogs killed a baby monkey.
- People started to assume that monkeys are on the revenge spree after their infants’ deaths by stray dogs. Meanwhile, monkeys began attacking everyone who ever tries to save puppies.
- One and a half month-long series of events came to an end when forest officials caught troubling monkeys and released them in the forest away from the village.
- He explained that monkeys were not killing dog puppies to have revenge, but monkeys were assuming those puppies as their own infants and taking them away from dogs. Eventually, puppies were not able to survive without food and water.
Source: All India Radio
2. PRASHASAN GAON KI AUR
The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is celebrating Good Governance Week on 20-25th December as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration.
About:
- The theme of Good Governance Week is “Prashasan Gaon Ki Aur”- a Nation-wide campaign for Redressal of Public Grievances and Improving Service Delivery will be held in all Districts, States, and Union Territories of India.
- Over 700 Districts Collectors will be participating in “Prashasan Gaon Ki Aur” and during the weeklong event will visit Tehsil/Panchayat Samiti Headquarters to provide timely grievance redressal and improve service delivery.
- On December 25th, 2021, “Good Governance Day” would be celebrated.
Source: PIB
3. ELECTION LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2021
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to link electoral rolls to Aadhaar number has been listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha.
About:
- The Bill allows electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar numbers of applicants wanting to register as voters to establish the identity of the applicant.
- It also seeks to allow the officers to ask for the number from “persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll, and to identify registration of name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency”.
- People who cannot furnish their Aadhaar numbers will be allowed to present other documents to establish identity.
Important Info :
Various Sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951 will be amended.
- Section 23 of the RP Act, 1950 will be amended to allow linking of the roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem “to curb the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person in different places”.
- Amendment to Section 14 of the RP Act, 1950 will allow to have four “qualifying” dates for eligible people to register as voters. As of now, January 1 of every year is the sole qualifying date.
- Now, “the January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 in a calendar year” will be the qualifying dates in relation to the preparation or revision of electoral rolls.
- Amendment to Section 20 of the RP Act, 1950 and Section 60 of the RP Act, 1951 will allow the elections become gender-neutral for service voters. It will also help replace the word “wife” with the word “spouse” making the statutes “gender neutral”.
Source: The Hindu
4. BABY FRIENDLY HOSPITAL INITIATIVE (BFHI)
The Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), in collaboration with the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI), which comprises more than 12,000 private hospitals, has launched an accreditation programme that will enable hospitals to get a “breastfeeding-friendly” tag.
About:
- This programme is called “Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI)”.
- The initiative is only for private hospitals and is based on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s MAA programme for government hospitals launched in 2016.
- The certification process involves two stages — the first stage includes self-assessment by a hospital, followed by an external assessment by an authorised appraiser who interviews doctors, nurses and patients as well as reviews different practices and training of staff.
- The accreditation process costs ₹17,000 per hospital.
- The BFHI programme is a worldwide programme of the WHO and UNICEF. Though India adopted it in 1993, it fizzled out by 1998 and is now being revived after more than two decades.
- Chennai’s Bloom Healthcare has become the first hospital to be recognised as “breastfeeding-friendly” under this programme.
Early initiation of breastfeeding continues to be low in the country.
- According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-2021), while there were 88.6% institutional births, only 41.8% of infants were breastfed within the first one hour, which has improved only marginally from 41.6% during NFHS-4 (2015-2016).
- In fact, many States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have shown a decline in the proportion of children breastfed within the first hour.
Source: The Hindu
5. OPERATION VIJAY
Every year on 19 December, Goa Liberation Day is celebrated in the state as Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule on that day in 1961. Goa was a Portuguese colony for 451 years.
About:
- Goa was taken over by the Portuguese from the Maratha rule in 1641 and began the minor Bicholim conflict, which ended in a peace treaty between the Portuguese and Maratha Empire.
- In the 19th Century, when there was a movement for Independence in India, the effects of which were felt on a smaller scale in Goa as well. Goans participated in Satyagraha in the late 1940s. After India got independence, the Portuguese refused to give up their hold over Goa.
- The government of India under Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 adopted a plan called Operation Vijay to free the Portuguese colonies in India. General JN Chaudhari was in charge of carrying out this plan. All the three sections of the Indian armed forces participated in Operation Vijay.
- A War Memorial at Indian Naval Ship Gomantak was constructed in memory of seven sailors and other personnel who laid down their lives on 19 December 1961.
Source: FirstPost
6. MEDIATION BILL, 2021
The Centre will table the much awaited Mediation Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
About:
- The Bill provides for establishment of the Mediation Council of India and for community mediation. The Bill intends to institutionalise the process of mediation by strengthening the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms.
- The Bill safeguards the interest of the litigants to approach the competent adjudicatory forums/ courts in case urgent relief is sought.
- The successful outcome of mediation in the form of a Mediation Settlement Agreement (MSA) has been made enforceable by law.
- Since the Mediation Settlement Agreement is out of the consensual agreement between the parties, the challenge to the same has been permitted on limited grounds.
- According to the Bill, the mediation process protects the confidentiality of the mediation undertaken and provides for immunity in certain cases against its disclosure.
- The registration of Mediation Settlement Agreement has also been provided for with State/ District/ Taluk Legal Authorities within 90 days to ensure maintenance of authenticated records of the settlement so arrived.
Source: The Hindu
7. GADCHIROLI
The herd of 22 wild elephants that has been in Kanker, Balod, Gariaband,and Dhamtari districts of Chhattisgarh for the last nine years, has successfully surmounted the last natural barrier to settle down in its new habitat in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
About:
- Conservationists say the habitat is ideal for elephants but express concern on possible human-elephant conflict during tendu leaf collection and in case of crop damage.
- According to the forest officials, the Chanda Hathni herd entered Dhamtari district from Balod district forest ranges somewhere in February 2021.
Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra
- Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra is categorised as tribal dominated with about 76% of its area is covered with forest.
- The main river basin of the district is the Godavari, while Vainganga, Pranhita and Dina are three other major rivers flowing through the district, he said.
- However, the district does not have any records of regular and resident elephants.
Source: The Hindu
8. CONTROLLED AERIAL DELIVERY SYSTEM (CADS-500)
Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra conducted a flight demonstration of a Controlled Aerial Delivery System of 500 kg capacity (CADS-500) on December 18, 2021.
About:
- The CADS-500 is used for precise delivery of payload upto 500 kgs at predetermined location by making use of manoeuvrable capabilities of Ram Air Parachute (RAP).
- It uses Global Positioning System for the coordinates, altitude and heading sensors for the heading information during its flight.
- The CADS, with its onboard electronics unit, autonomously steers its flight path using waypoint navigation towards target location by operating controls.
- ADRDE, Agra is an R&D laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Source: PIB
9. PROJECT 15B
9. PROJECT 15B
Mormugao, Indian Navy's second indigenous stealth destroyer of the P15B class, planned to be commissioned in mid-2022, proceeded on her maiden sea sortie on 19th December, 2021.
About:
- Mormugao is being built at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDSL) as part of the Project 15B destroyers.
- Mormugao will add significantly to the Indian Navy’s combat capabilities.
- With the recent commissioning in November 2021 of INS Visakhapatnam and the fourth P75 submarine INS Vela, commencement of sea trials of Mormugao is testimony to the cutting-edge capabilities of MDSL and the strong indigenous shipbuilding tradition of a modern and vibrant India.
Important Info :
P-15B
- The Visakhapatnam-class destroyers or simply P-15B, is a class of guided-missile destroyers currently being built for the Indian Navy.
- Designed by the Directorate of Naval Design, a total of four ships are being built by Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL).
- The first vessel of the class, INS Visakhapatnam was commissioned on 21 November 2021.
Source : PIB
10. CYPRUS
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has directed all engineering and technical colleges in the country to ensure their faculty members do not participate in conferences organised by countries which are not recognised by the Indian government.
About:
- The stern directive by the technical education regulator came following an objection raised by the Cyprus government with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) after some Indian academics participated in a conference organised in the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus.
- Cyprus , officially called the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
- It is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean and is located south of Turkey; west of Syria; northwest of the Gaza Strip, Israel, and Lebanon; north of Egypt; and southeast of Greece.
- The country's capital and largest city is Nicosia.
Division
- However, the Republic of Cyprus is de facto partitioned into two main parts:
- the area under the effective control of the Republic, located in the south and west and comprising about 59% of the island's area, and
- the north, administered by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, covering about 36% of the island's area.
- the area under the effective control of the Republic, located in the south and west and comprising about 59% of the island's area, and
- Another nearly 4% of the island's area is covered by the UN buffer zone.
Source: The Hindu