Assam Government launches Health Insurance Scheme Atal-Amrit Abhiyan

Assam Government rolled out ‘Atal-Amrit Abhiyan’, a health insurance scheme to provide coverage against several critical illnesses.

 Atal-Amrit Abhiyan aims to make quality health care affordable to every individual member of a family in the state. This scheme is claimed to be the biggest health care initiative undertaken by any State Government in the country. It has financial outlay of the scheme is around Rs 200 crore. 

Under the scheme 

• Both Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) families with annual income below Rs 5 lakh are eligible to avail benefit. 
• Cashless cards will be provided to eligible individuals to avail treatment for as many as 437 diseases under six categories at most major hospitals across the country. 
• The six categories are cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, cancer, neo-natal diseases, neurological conditions and burns.

PM Narendra Modi lays foundation stone of Char Dham highway development project

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid the foundation stone of Char Dham highway development project or Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. 

The Chardham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojna is an ambitious initiative to improve connectivity to the Char Dham pilgrimage centres in the Himalayas.

Key Facts 

• The project’s main objective is to develop around 900 km of national highways. These highways will be built at an approximate cost of Rs 12,000 crore.
•  It will allow uninterrupted access for pilgrims to the four Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarakhand.
•  The all-weather roads will have tunnels, bridges and fly-overs to enhance road safety and uninterrupted access. It will have proper slope stabilisation to ensure protection against landslides. 
• It will benefit people visiting holy shrines in Uttarakhand.
•  It will generate additional employment for the local population and will change the economy of the State as it will give strong boost to connectivity and tourism.

Gujarat government announces Biotechnology Policy 2016

Gujarat Government announced its ‘Biotechnology Policy-2016’ to establish state as a preferred destination for manufacturing of biotechnology products.

 The policy has provisions for various incentives for investors who are keen to set up their units in the state. It aims to take annual turnover of biotechnology products to Rs 15,000 crore from current f Rs 4,500 crore turn over within next 3-4 years and make Gujarat top state in this sector in the country.

 Under the policy 

• State government will provide capital subsidy up to Rs 25 crore on the total investment for developing a Biotechnology (BT) Park.
•  In addition, the developer of such park will be eligible for 100% reimbursement of stamp duty paid on lease or sale of the land for setting such park. 
• BT Park developer will also be given 100% reimbursement for electricity duty paid for a period of five years. Capital subsidy up to Rs 10 per cent of the gross fixed capital investment(GFCI) with a ceiling of Rs 5 crore will be given to individual BT manufacturing units having GFCI up to Rs 50 crore. 
• Further, BT units borrowings up to Rs 50 crore will be entitled to an interest subsidy at the rate of 5% with a ceiling of 2.5 crore per annum. 
• Government would give 100% reimbursement of stamp duty paid on sale or lease of the land o encourage new start-ups in this sector.

UNESCO announces 9 new World Heritage Sites

9 new World Heritage Sites are

 Old city of Ani (Turkey): It is Turkish province of Kars. Once it had served as the capital of the Armenian kingdom in the 10th century.

Zuojiang Huashan rock art cultural landscape (China): Dates back to the 5th century 

 BC. The landscape straddles steep cliffs in southwest China and represent the only trace left of the Luoyue people.

 Qanat (Iran): They are ancient aqueducts trapped into alluvial aquifer and transported water

 underground across vast valleys. It helps in sustaining agricultural life and settlements in the

arid areas.

 Nalanda Mahavihara (India): It is an archaeological site having remains of a monastic and

 scholastic institution dating from the 3rd century BC to the 13th century AD.

 Artificial islets of Nan Madol (Micronesia): They are 99 artificial islets made of basalt

 and coral boulders. They are home to ruins ranging from temple to tombs dating between 1200 and 1500 AD.

Stecci Sites: Located in Bosnia, central and western Montenegro, southern Croatia and 

 western Serbia.They are medieval tombstones and graveyards carved from limestone, they feature decorative motives and inscriptions.

 Ancient Philippi (Spain): It is Greek archaeological site founded in 356 BC by the Macedonian King Philip II. It is located in the present-day region of eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

 Antequera Dolmens (Spain): It is comprises of three megalithic monuments as well as two natural mountainous formations.

 Gorham’s Cave Complex (Britain): They are natural sea caves in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The site provides evidence of Neanderthal occupation over a span of more than 125,000 years.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

 PMKVY is the flagship outcome-based skill training scheme of the Union Ministry of Skill

Development & Entrepreneurship. It is skill certification and reward scheme.

Objective of the scheme is to enable and mobilize a large number of Indian youth to take up outcome based skill

training and become employable and earn their livelihood.

Under the scheme, trainees who are successfully trained, assessed and certified in skill courses

run by affiliated training providers will be provided with monetary reward

China has no historic rights over South China Sea: Hague Tribunal

July 13, 2016 The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in Hague, the Netherlands has rejected China’s claims to economic rights across large swathes of South China Sea. Ruling in this regard was given by a five-member tribunal appointed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague in a case brought by the Philippines.

Disputes in South China Sea Disputes in South China Sea are fight mainly between China, Philippines, Vietnam over the territorial sovereignty in South China Sea along with other atolls, reefs and rocky outcrops.

 China’s claim: It is saying that major portion of these islands belong to them as part of the historical events and area defined by Nine Dash Line. Under its claim, China already has started and even completed building artificial islands and even strategic runways for mobilising its airforce from these islands.

China’s claim overlap the South Chia Sea areas of different claimants countries, that involve Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan and Malaysia. 

Importance of South China Sea: It is strategically located and major international shipping route as world’s half merchant ships passes through it.

The sea rich in energy (reserves of natural resources around them including petroleum), mineral and fishing resources. 

India’s position: Supports freedom of navigation and flight and unimpeded commerce based on the principals of international law in South China Sea. Believes that states should resolve deputes through peaceful means and exercise self – restraint.

Union Government notifies AADHAR Act giving UIDAI legal basis

The Union Government has notified the UIDAI (Terms and Conditions of Service of Chairperson and Members) Rules, 2016 to give legal status to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). These rules have been framed as per provisions of Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.

Key Facts These rules have detail provisions for appointment of its chairperson and members. The chairperson of UIDAI will be selected on the recommendation of a search-cum-selection committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary.

Besides, Secretaries of Department of Personnel and Training, Finance and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) and two experts will be its members. The two experts will be nominated by the Union Communications and IT Minister. The Chairperson will draw a salary of the level of a Secretary. Presently over 102 crore persons in the country have unique identity numbers and Aadhaar card.

The Aadhaar has been linked to more than 12 crore LPG consumers, 27 crore bank accounts, 13 crore ration cards holders and 7 crore MGNREGA workers. Background Union Government is going to notify the Aadhaar Act in two phases for complete operationalisation of the Act. After the chairperson and members are appointed they will pass the regulations for notifying rest of the Act. Presently, only Sections 11to 20, 22 to 23 and sections 48 to 59 of the Act have been notified for operationalisation.

Pokhara-New Delhi direct bus service launched

July 12, 2016 The first direct bus service between Pokhara (Nepal) and New Delhi (India) was launched to connect South Asia’s two important cities. The bus service was flagged off by Nepal Home Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet and India’s ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae from Pokhara (Nepal’s famous tourist spot).

Bangladesh, India sign agreement for joint coal fired power plant July

13, 2016 Bangladesh and India have signed an agreement for the construction of a 1,320 megawatt (MW) coal fired power plant near Sundarbans. The agreement was signed between Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited (BIFPCL), the joint venture enterprise and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).

BHEL was selected under an open international tender for constructing the super thermal plant at Bangladesh’s southwestern Rampal near the Sundarbans.

Key Facts This coal fired power plant is the biggest project under bilateral cooperation between both countries that would mark the transition from electricity export to generation level. India’s Exim Bank will provide US 1.49 billion dollars for the project and it is scheduled to start generating power in 2019.

Earlier Bangladesh had earmarked Maitree Super Thermal Power Project (MSTPP) as one of its fasttrack projects. It was started under a bilateral agreement between India and Bangladesh signed during Prime Minister Hasina’s India visit in 2010.

High-speed OPV INS Tarasa launched by Indian Navy

July 2, 2016 Indian Navy has launched INS Tarasa, the fourth and last ship in the series of the Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC). It is being built by Kolkata (West Bengal) based Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd (GRSE), for the Indian Navy. The WJFACs are ideally suited and used for interception of fastmoving surface craft.

About INS Tarasa INS Tarasa like the previously launched ships of WJFACs series has been named after the picturesque island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago in Bay of Bengal. It is an improved variant of the Car Nicobar-class high-speed offshore patrol vessels (OPVs). It is powered by the latest 4,000-series MTU engines and has displacement capacity of 315 tonnes. It is fitted with advanced machinery control system.

It has been designed to attain maximum speed of 35 knots and for an endurance of nearly 2,000 nautical miles at 12- 14 knots. The ship will be fitted with CRN-91 indigenous 30mm gun with optronic pedestal. It will also have the latest communication equipment and radars to enable effective surveillance. INS Tarasa will perform anti-smuggling, fishery protection and search and rescue operations.

State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)

State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) handed over the first two Tejas aircrafts to IAF as part squadron at the Aircraft System Testing Establishment in Bengaluru.

Key Facts The first squadron of LCA Tejas has been named as ‘Flying Daggers’. Its base will be located in Sulur, Tamil Nadu. It will have total 20 aircrafts, including 4 trainers. However, the two aircrafts will be operated initially by the squadron at Bengaluru for nearly two years. Remaining 18 aircraft including 4 trainers will be inducted at Sulur base in 2018.

About LCA Tejas Tejas is a single-engine lightweight multi-role fighter jet. It has been pegged as world’s smallest and lightest supersonic fighter. It is outcome of India’s LCA programme, which began in the 1983 to replace country’s aging MiG-21 fighters. It is a tailless and having compound delta wing design. It is powered by a single engine. It is mounted with inbuilt MultiMode Radar (MMR), Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) systems.

It is equipped with a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system in order to ease handling by the pilot. LCA Tejas has a limited reach of a little over 400-km. It will be mainly used for close air-toground operations. 

Note: LCA Tejas is not the first indigenous fighter to be inducted into the IAF. In April 1967, IAF had formed the first operational squadron with the indigenous HF-24 Marut fighter.

CURRENT AFFAIRS - INDIA

Railways Sets up Two New Directorates

• Railways has constituted a new directorate named as Non-Fare Revenue Directorate (NFR) to increase revenue by 10 % to 20 % from non-tariff sources like advertising and commercial exploitation of vacant rail land.

• The public transporter has also set up another directorate to focus on areas like speed enhancement as part of the Mission Raftaar announced in the budget. The Mobility Directorate will address various factors affecting train movement at enhanced speeds in a focused manne

President gives away National Florence Nightingale Awards 2016

• The National Florence Nightingale Awards were given away by the President Pranab Mukherjee to thirty-five nursing personnel at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of International Nurses Day. The Award carries a cash award of 50 thousand rupees, a certificate, a citation and a medal.

• The International Nurses Day is celebrated all over the world on 12th May every year to commemorate Florence Nightingale's birthday.

President gives away National Technology Day awards 2016

• President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday conferred the National Technology Awards on National Technology Day. 

• At a function in Vigyan Bhavan, the President awarded Bangalore's Racil Chemicals, Coimbatore's Aitom Electric and Tejas Network again from Bangalore with awards for the year 2016.

 Padma awards for Rajnikanth, Sania Mirza 

• President Pranab Mukherjee presented Padma awards to 56 eminent personalities in a Civil Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 10.05.2016, Tuesday. While Padma Vibhushan has been conferred on 10 persons including a posthumous award for Dhirubhai Ambani.

• Padma Bhushan has been conferred on 29 persons including a posthumous award late Swami Dayanand Sarawasati and Padma Shri on 112 persons.

• Padma Awards one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, 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, etc.

India’s first integrated Defense Communication Network launched

July 1, 2016 India’s first integrated Defence Communication Network (DCN) was launched by Union Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar in South Block, Delhi The network will enable India Army, Air force, Navy and the Special Forces Command to share situational awareness for a faster decision-making process

Key Facts DCN is the largest single satellite network in the Indian Defence Forces, spread across the country.

It is a strategic, highly secure and scalable system. It has has a pan-India reach from Ladakh to the North East to island territories.

The tri-communication network makes voice data and video data accessible to the three services over a secured network. It has been designed, developed and deployed by the information technology services, distribution and digital solutions firm 

HCL Infosystems. It is capable of working on both terrestrial as well as satellite mode of communication and has also been fixed onboard different military vehicles.

HCL Infosystems has had a long association with the Indian Defence sector. The company has worked with the Indian

Air Force (IAF) to deploy AFCEL (Air Force Cellular Network) and Air Force Network (AFNet).

AFNet: It is the first network of its kind for Indian armed forces which interlinks major installations throughout the country on a high bandwidth network and incorporates latest traffic transportation technology in the form of

Internet Protocol.

Union HRD Ministry launches Prashikshak, an online teacher education portal

• July 1, 2016 The Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has launched ‘Prashikshak’- an online teacher education portal for District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs).
• The Prashikshak portal was launched by the Union HRD minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi. It seeks to strengthen DIETs and bring quality teachers into the school education system.
• Key Facts The portal has been developed by the Union HRD ministry in collaboration with the Central Square Foundation, a policy think tank focused on improving quality of school education.It is an open online platform for collecting and reporting data from all DIETs which will help in the establishment of a strong monitoring mechanism.
• Prashikshak users will comprise pre-service teacher educators, DIET faculty and principals, policy makers at district, state and national level and the general public. The portal will strengthen the teacher education system in four ways

(i) It will equip government officials with data for decision making, (ii) empower aspiring teachers 

(iii) Support

innovation in teachers’ education and 

(iv) Increase transparency. It will help DIETs to make informed decisions about their institutes and compare the performance of their institute against other DIETs by facilitating online reporting of

data.

• It will provide insightful analysis to strengthen the teacher education scheme in the country and allow states to spot areas where resources can be targeted. District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) DIETs were formed under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE). They offer pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes for Government elementary school

International Solar Alliance

About International Solar Alliance

(ISA) ISA is India’s first international and inter-governmental organization comprising of 121 Countries. 

United Nations is its Strategic Partner. It was jointly launched by India and France in November 2015 during the United Nations climate change conference (COP21) in Paris. 

It has its headquarters in Gurgaon, India. It seeks to empower

solar-rich countries located between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn to make collaborative efforts to harness solar energy to generate the electricity.

Three Objectives of ISA:

(i)To force down prices by driving demand, 

(ii) To bring standardization in solar technologies and 

(iii) To foster research and development. 

It also seeks to improve access to energy and opportunities for better livelihoods in remote and rural areas and also to increase the standard of living.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE QUIZ - TNPSC

1.A river of 1.5m deep and 36 m wide is flowing at the rate of 3.5 km per hour. The amount of water that runs into the sea per minute is

3150 m3 31500 m3 6300 m3 63000 m3

2.Theethal Beach Located in the state of ....................

Maharastra Gujarat Kerala Karnataka

3./Arrange the following element in the order of their increasing atomic weight

C, AL, Na, P C, Na, Al, P Na, C, P, Al Na, C, Al, P

4.The ratio of numbers 3:4 and their H.C.F is 4. Their L.C.M is

12 15 24 48

5.Arun’s age is half as his father. Twelve years ago, his father’s age was three times that of Arun’s what is the present age of Arun?

24 48 36 12

General Knowledge for SSC Examinations

1.Pushkalavati was capital of which of the following acient Kingdoms?

Gandhara Kosal Magadha Kashi

2.The place Dharanikota in South India is related to which ancient dynasty?

Chola Satavahana Pandya Chera

3.In which of the following regions, maize is used as staple food ?

Western Europe Russia Middle Africa South-East Asia

4.The Sankosh river forms boundary between which of the following two states?

Bihar and West Bengal Assam and Arunachal Pradesh Assam and West Bengal Bihar and Jharkhand

5.The Pir Panjal range is located in which of the following states?

Arunachal Pradesh Jammu and Kashmir Punjab Uttarakhand

2016 Current Affairs

Stuart Blackburn has won the MM Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016 in United Kingdom for his novel “Into the Hidden Valley”. The book tells the story of the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh during British India. The award is named in memory of writer-historian Bennetts who was a specialist in early 19th century British history and the Napoleonic wars.

Om Prakash Kohli, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leader, has been sworn-in as the 26th governor of Madhya Pradesh. Kohli, who is also the Governor of Gujarat, succeeded Ram Naresh Yadav.

The United Nations charter, the seminal treaty of the UN, has been translated into Sanskrit by Dr Jitendra Kumar Tripathi, the secretary of the Lucknow-based Akhila Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad (ABSP). Currently, the UN Charter is available in all six official languages viz. Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. The United Nations Charter was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organisation, and came into force on 24 October 1945.

Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, has recently released report of “Swachh Survekshan” for rural areas. Excerpts of the report are Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg (Maharashtra) as the cleanest in the “Plains” category. Besides, the districts of Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) feature at the top of the index.

ICICI Bank has successfully deployed ‘Software Robotics’ for power banking operations. With this, ICICI has become the first Indian bank to deploy software robotics that emulates human actions to automate and perform repetitive, high volume and time consuming business tasks cutting across multiple applications.

GK & Current Affairs – 2016

1.Which bank has become the first Indian bank to deploy software robotics for power banking operations?

State Bank Of India Axis Bank ICICI Bank HDFC Bank

2.Which union minister has recently released report of “Swachh Survekshan” for rural areas?

Narendra Singh Tomar Rajnath Singh Praksah Javadekar Uma Bharti

3.The United Nations charter has been translated into which Indian language?

Tamil Sanskrit Telugu Hindi

4.Who has been sworn-in as the new Governor of Madhya Pradesh?

Om Prakash Kohli Banwarilal Purohit Ram Nath Kovind Kaptan Singh Solanki

5.Who has won the MM Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK)?

Helena Page Schrader Stuart Blackburn A K Ramanujan Kermit Roosevelt

General Awareness

1.Which registration module has been launched by the Union Government for Indian students studying abroad?

Madad Milan Bharat iBharat

2.Who has been appointed as the CMD of Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL)?

J Satyanarayana C.K. Asnani Vivek Bhandari Surya Deva

3.Who has become the first Indian woman cricketer to get the prestigious honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC)?

Shobha Pandit Anjum Chopra Sravanthi Naidu Mithali Raj

4.Ankur Dhama is associated with which sports?

Sprint Boxing Wrestling Discuss throw

5.Which weather satellite has been successfully launched by ISRO into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)?

INSAT-3WR INSAT-3MR INSAT-3SR INSAT-3DR

State Quiz

1.Tamil Nadu is the _________ Largest state by areawise in india
2nd 5th 8th 11th

2.In which year the Madras State was renamed as Tamil Nadu
1956 1961 1966 1969

3.Which one is recognised as state fruit in Tamil Nadu
Jackfruit Mango Banana Orange

4.How many UNESCO world Heritage Sites are loated in Tamilnadu
5 6 8 11

5.Total number od districts in Tamil Nadu
28 32 34 38