The Hindu and PIB Complete News Analysis : 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th February 2017

1st 2nd 3rd and 4th February 2017

1)Scientists have confirmed the existence of a “lost continent” under the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. It is left over by the break-up of the super-continent Gondwana, which started about 200 million years ago. The discovery was based on study of Zircon

What are Zircons? :- Zircons are minerals that occur mainly in granite from the continents. They contain trace amounts of uranium, thorium and lead. They can survive geological processes. They contain a rich record and can be dated extremely accurately.

2)The Union Budget 2017-18 has announced that Government will set up five Special Tourism Zones in partnership with States.

3)The Income Tax Department (ITD) launched Operation Clean Money (Swachh Dhan Abhiyan), an e-platform to analyse large cash deposits made during the demonetisation window (9 November to 30 December 2016). Under it, e-verification of large cash has been done using data analytics for comparing the demonetisation data with information in ITD databases.

4)According to Economic Survey 2016-17, the inter-state migration of workers in India has increased substantially to 90 lakh annually between 2011-16 period compared to the previous years.


5)The Union Cabinet had approved the amendments in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 to modify the list of SC in Odisha.

The amendment of SC list in Odisha makes inclusion of Sualgiri/Swalgiri caste in the list as it is Sabakhia caste which is already in the list of SC in Odisha.

6) The Finance Minister, in his Budget Speech has announced Rs 500 cr for setting up Mahila Shakti Kendras at village level in the Anganwadi Centres.

What are these centres for?

These centres will provide one stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition.

7)The government has announced measures in the Budget to bring in greater transparency in funding of political parties. These include capping cash funding by a single anonymous donor to 2000 that is at a tenth of the current limit and proposing electoral bonds that are likely to reveal the identity of the donor while keeping the name of the party hidden.

Both proposals will require amendments to existing laws. While introduction of electoral bonds will need an amendment to the RBI Act, the lowering of limit for anonymous contributions to Rs 2,000 from Rs 20,000 could necessitate an amendment to the Representation of the People Act.

Electoral bonds:

It is expected that RBI will issue such bonds on behalf of the government like any other sovereign bond to which a donor may subscribe from bank branches and take certificates against it.

Later, the bonds can be given to any political party, which will be able to redeem these securities at its bank account. So, the bearer’s identity is unlikely to be revealed in the books of the party and the recipient party will also remain unknown.

9)DARPGSEVA:
It is a Twitter Seva initiative of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

The Twitter Seva will enable the DARPG to reach out to the common public and various stakeholders for facilitating redress of grievances and other issues of importance relating to the department.

10)Kochi gets India’s first harbour defence system:
The system will enhance the security of valuable assets against asymmetric threats.

• IUHDSS is a state-of-the-art automated system capable of detecting, identifying, tracking and generating warning for surface and underwater threats.

THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY !!