19th Dec 2017 – Press Information Bureau (Daily PIB PDF-UPSC)

Table of Contents

Vice President’s Secretariat

10th Annual Lecture on National Commission for Minorities
Theme: ‘Minorities in Nation Building’
Development with Dignity must be the agenda of our nation and bringing a bill in Parliament won’t change many things unless we have political will and administrative skill.
The Vice President said that the notion of pluralism, inclusion and peaceful co-existence have to be the cornerstones of our governance
Minority Commission is mandated to suggest and devise appropriate measures for their socio-economic development of minorities.
The Commission has the underlying principle of inclusive growth ensuring that the benefits of political democracy reach those who are likely to be left out, he added.
It is the principle of ‘Antyodaya’, the empowerment of the weakest, the farthest and the smallest.
India is built on the four important pillars given by our Constitution – Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, adding that, the strength of these pillars determines the strength of the superstructure, the grand India we are building.
Minority Commission is mandated to suggest and devise appropriate measures for their socio-economic development of minorities.The Commission has the underlying principle of inclusive growth ensuring that the benefits of political democracy reach those who are likely to be left out, he added.
It is the principle of ‘Antyodaya’, the empowerment of the weakest, the farthest and the smallest.
India is built on the four important pillars given by our Constitution – Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, adding that, the strength of these pillars determines the strength of the superstructure, the grand India we are building.

AYUSH

The Ministry of AYUSH has setup Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) for undertaking coordinating formulating, developing and promoting research on scientific lines in Ayurveda.
The activities are carried out through 30 institute/Centres/Units under CCRAS located all over India and also through collaborative studies with various universities, hospitals and institutes.
The research activities of the council include medicinal plant research (Medico-ethno botanical survey, pharmacognosy and tissue culture), Drug Standardization Pharmacological Research, Clinical Research, Literary Research & Documentation, and other outreach activities.

Prime Minister’s Office

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today met and interacted with people, including fishermen and farmers, affected by Cyclone Ockhi, during a visit to the cyclone affected areas of Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In the course of the day, the Prime Minister interacted with people in Kavaratti, and Kanyakumari.
He also visited Punthura village near Thiruvananthapuram, which is one of the villages that faced the impact of the cyclone.
People explained to him, the hardships faced by them on account of the cyclone.
The Prime Minister assured the people that all help will be provided to them and that the Union Government stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of crisis.

Ministry of Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare is proposing a new integrated programme, called National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA), envisaging integrated use of Space and Geospatial Tools for Mapping, Monitoring and Management of Agriculture.
The programme will have four sub-programmes catering to various themes viz. Crop Assessment & Monitoring; Agricultural Resources Management; Disaster Monitoring and Mitigation and Satellite Communication and Navigation Applications.
All the current running programmes, such as FASAL (for crop forecasting), NADAMS (for drought assessment), CHAMAN (for horticultural assessment and development), KISAN (for crop insurance) and Crop Intensification planning, will be subsumed under this proposed programmes.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs

After notification of relevant provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 on 01.12.2016, 2,434 fresh cases have been filed before NCLT and 2,304 cases of winding up of companies have been transferred from various High Courts.
Out of these, a total number of 2,750 cases have been disposed of and 1,988 cases were pending as on 30.11.2017.
As per information received from Public Sector Banks (PSBs), as on 30.11.2017, an amount of Rs. 39.63 crore had been realized after filing of cases with NCLT, and an amount of Rs. 2.89 crore had been borne by the banks as haircut.
This was stated by Shri P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law & Justice / Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

Shri Nitin Gadkari, interacted with a group of young students and professionals of the Indian diaspora in New Delhi today.
The 40 member group that includes 20 women, is in India for a 25 day Know India Programmes (KIP) from 29th November to 23rd December.
The group includes participants of Indian origin from Fiji, Guyana, Malaysia, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, South Africa, Surinam and Trinidad & Tobago.
Shri Gadkari talked to the participants about the importance of Indian culture and heritage and urged them to be torch bearers of the same in their respective countries.
He also answered their questions regarding transport planning in India, and informed them about strides the country is making in this area.

World News

Iran today condemned the United States’ veto of a UN Security Council resolution rejecting recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Iran called the US President Donald Trump’s decision as “provocative and unwise”.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday vetoed the draft resolution which was backed by all 14 other members of the council.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said the US administration showed its lack of compliance with international resolutions by its provocative and unwise decision to recognise Al-Quds as the capital of the Zionist occupying regime.