Table of Contents
Special Topic: Eastern & North-Eastern Region
• There was a time when this region was having crumbling infrastructure, potholed roads and shoddy bridges.
• The region remains pulsating with unmapped potential even as the rest of the country has moved forward.
• If this region were to be a country it would be
A. Fifth largest bauxite producer
B. Seventh largest coal producer
C. Fourth largest iron ore producer
• The East and NER has a young population while southern and western India is seeing an ageing population, in fact at a rate comparable to that of European nations.
• Provide physical and intellectual infrastructure to empower youth. Imparting skills
• Healthy, Educated & Skilled youngsters are biggest asset
2,578 ITIs with seat capacity of 6.18 lakh have been set up for 13 of these states.
Short training courses: 900 training centres spread across these regions offering courses under our flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal
Vikas Yojana.
154 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras to serve as multi-skill centres of excellence, with employment and self-employment linkages.
6 National Skill Training Institutes in the region to drive training of trainers’ programmes
Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship to promote the “animal spirits”
• Further, towards recognising the diversity and uniqueness of our heritage govt. is pushing for certification of local artisans and craftsmen.
• Govt. has established a Skill-cum-Common Facility Centre in Cuttack to upskill and support the local filigree artisans and to provide training in this world-renowned art form.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has justifiably declared that the growth of India is incomplete without the development of the east and NER.
Purvodaya – or re-emergence of the east
• Central and state governments must work together for development
to reach the people.
• PMUY more than half – 2.76 crore new connections – have gone to the east and NER.
• $20 billion investment in Paradip and Dhamra ports in areas like refinery, petrochemical, LNG terminal, a multi-modal logistics park and port expansion.
• For energy security, work on the ambitious 2,655 km JagdishpurHaldia & Bokaro-Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline (JHBDPL) project – also
known as the ‘Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga’ project – is proceeding at full speed.
• GAIL is implementing the 721 km Barauni-Guwahati Pipeline (BGPL) to connect NER with the national gas grid.
• JHBDPL to be commissioned by December 2020 and BGPL by December 2021 will witness much developmental work across the length of the pipelines.
• There will be synchronised development of city gas distribution in Varanasi, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Kolkata as well as revival of three fertilizer units along the pipeline route.
• Additionally, some oil PSUs have signed an MoU to develop a gas grid system with a pipeline of 1,500 km within NER.
No Confidence Motion
• Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the opposition is not able to understand the faith people reposed in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• He said, after 30 years, a government with full majority was formed under the leadership of Mr. Modi in 2014.
• The Minister said, the continuous victories of BJP in assembly elections shows the trust of people in the Prime Minister’s leadership.
• Mr Singh said, the biggest case of mob lynching happened during 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He also assured the people of Andhra Pradesh of providing all assistance and support for the development of the state.
French Foreign Ministry
• Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Parliament on purchase of Rafale aircraft, the French government has said, India and France are bound by a security agreement not to disclose sensitive details of the deal.
• In a statement, the French Foreign Ministry said, the two countries concluded in 2008 a Security agreement, which legally binds them to protect the classified information provided by the partner, that could impact security and operational capabilities of the defence equipment of
India or France.
• The statement said, these provisions apply to the Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) concluded in September 2016 on the acquisition of 36 Rafale aircraft and their weapons.
• Mr Gandhi questioned the Government for not revealing the details related to the purchase of Rafale aircraft.
• Taking part in the debate, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected the Congress President’s allegation related to the Rafale deal. She cited a secrecy agreement signed during UPA rule in 2008 saying, the details of the deal cannot be divulged under this pact.
Soil Health Card scheme
• One crore six lakh farmers out of a total 1 crore 38 lakh farmers in Maharashtra have a soil health card. Due to this scheme, farmers are getting proper information about their soil quality, they are using this information to produce the desired crops and cereals.
• Describing the advantages of Soil Health Card, Babasaheb Katkar, a farmer living in Kadegaon of Jalna district, told that this health card has reduced his product cost also.
• At present, 77 percent farmers of the states are examining their soil every three years and accepting the changes of quality in it.
President
• President Ram Nath Kovind today said girls often outscore boys in board examinations, colleges and universities, but their number is distressingly low in the IITs and this has to be increased.
• Mr Kovind was delivering the 64th convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in West Bengal.
• He said, in 2017, of over one lakh fifty thousand candidates who
appeared for the IIT joint entrance examination, only 30,000 were girls.
• He added that of the 10,878 students, admitted to under graduate classes of the IITs in the same year, only 995 were girls. Mr Kovind said, this cannot go on, and something must be done about it.
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