29-31 JULY 2016
Veteran tabla maestro Pandit Lacchu Maharaj dies
Tabla maestro Pandit Lacchu Maharaj passed away on 28 July 2016 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He was 72.
Lacchu Maharaj has been described as one of the frontline tabla players in the world.
About Pandit Lacchu Maharaj
•Pandit Lacchu Maharaj belonged to Banaras Gharana.
•His real name was Lakshmi Narayan Singh.
•Other than his professional performances all over the world, he played the tabla in many Bollywood films.
•He had married French woman Teena.
International Tiger Day observed
29 July: International Tiger Day
International Tiger Day was observed on 29 July 2016. The day is held annually on 29th July to give worldwide attention to the reservation of tigers.
The goal of the day is to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.
It was founded in 2010 at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, with the aim to double the big cat population by 2022.
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Statistic Details
Poaching and loss of Habitat
Threat in Sundarbans
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James Alan McPherson, first black writer to win Pulitzer Prize in fiction, dies
American author James Alan McPherson passed away on 27 July 2016 in Iowa City, U.S. He was 72.
McPherson was the first black author to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1978.
About James Alan McPherson
•Born on 16 September 1943, James Alan McPherson was an American short story writer and essayist.
•In 1978, he won the Pulitzer Prize for fictionfor his short story collection Elbow Room, becoming the first African-American to win the Pulitzer for fiction.
•He was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981.
•In 1995, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
•In 2000, John Updike selected his short story Gold Coastfor his collection Best American Short Stories of the Century.
•In October 2011, he was honoured as the inaugural recipient of the Paul Engle Award from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.
•He was also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Eminent writer, social activist Mahasweta Devi passes away
Mahasweta Devi, a colossal figure in Bengali literature and a respected social activist, passed away on 28 July 2016 at Kolkata. She was 90.
In a literary career spanning over half-a-century, she wrote over 120 books. Most of her work centred on the lives of the poor and downtrodden.
About Mahasweta Devi
• Mahasweta Devi was born into a family of literary figures in Dhaka in 1926.
• Her first book Jhansi'r Rani (The Queen of Jhansi), came in 1956 when she was teaching at Kolkata's Bijoygarh College.
• She was the author behind award-winning Hindi films Rudaali and Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa.
• Few of her other noted stories are Aranyer Adhikar (The Occupation of the Forest), Agnigarbha (Womb of Fire), Dhowli, Bashai Tudu, Dust on the Road, Till Death Do Us Part, Old Women, etc.
• She was also the founding member of Aboriginal United Association and a tribal magazine named Bortika, which she started in 1980.
• She has almost a 100 novels and over 20 collections of short stories to her name, primarily written in Bengali but often translated to other languages.
• In her 90-year-long life, Devi won the Sahitya Akademi award (1979), the Padma Shree (1986), the Jnanpith (1997), the Magsaysay award (1997) and the Deshikottam award in 1999.
Union Government forms 'Disha' for timely implementation of Central Schemes
Union Government on 28 July 2016 announced the formation of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DDCMC) that will be known as ‘Disha’. First meeting of Disha will be held on 13 August 2016.
Disha was created for effective development and coordination of Central Government's programme, whether it is for infrastructure development or Social and human resource development.
It will monitor the implementation of 28 schemes and programmes of Ministry of Rural Development and other Ministries to promote synergy and convergence for greater impact.
The terms of references of the committee includes
• To ensure that all programmes are implemented in accordance with the Guidelines.
• It will look into complaints/alleged irregularities received in respect of the implementation of the programmes. It will have the authority to summon and inspect any record for this purpose.
• The Committee may refer any matter for enquiry to the District Collector/CEO of the Zilla Panchayat/Project Director of DRDA (or Poverty Alleviation Unit). It can also suggest suitable action to be taken in accordance with the rules which should be acted upon by him within 30 days.
• It will closely review the flow of funds including the funds allocated, funds released by both Centre and the State, utilization and unspent balances under each Scheme.
The main purpose of the committee is to coordinate with Central and State and local Panchayat Governments. Efforts will be made to ensure the participation of people’s representative at all levels and successful implementation of flagship programme of central government.
The meetings of the committee should be held once in every Quarter (third Saturdays of April, July, October and February) and this has been made mandatory.
DDCMC will supersede the District Vigilance & Monitoring Committee currently mandated by Ministry of Rural Development.
Formation of District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DDCMC)
• Chairperson:He/she will be the senior most Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) elected from the district, nominated by the Ministry of Rural Development.
• Co-Chairperson will include
a) Members of Parliament (Lok Sabha) representing the district
b) One MP (Rajya Sabha) representing the State and exercising option to be associated with the district level Committee of that district (on first come basis)
• Other members of the committee will include
a) Members of the State Legislative Assembly elected from the district
b) All Mayors/the Chairpersons of Municipalities
c) Chairperson of the Zilla Panchayat
d) Five elected heads of Gram Panchayat including two women
e) One representative each of SC, ST
f) Women to be nominated by the Chairperson
The Member Secretary of Disha should be the District Collector/District Magistrate/Deputy Commissioner except in cases where specific exemption has been given by the Union Government.
IMD to use supercomputer to forecast monsoon with Dynamical Model
The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in the last week of July 2016 announced that India Meteorological Department (IMD) will use supercomputer to forecast India’s annual summer monsoon.
The forecast made by a supercomputer will be based on a dynamical monsoon model. It will be operational from 2017.
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What is Dynamical Monsoon Model? • The dynamical model is also known as the Coupled Forecast System. • It collates data on local as well as global weather patterns to simulate a forecast for a specific duration. • The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, has been using this model on an experimental basis for around 10 years to assist IMD’s annual monsoon forecasts. • To operationalise the alternate model, IMD is investing in supercomputers that can function at a speed of 10 petaflops-per second system. • The dynamical model has achieved a 60% accuracy at present and IMD aims to take it up to 77%. • The dynamical model provides a wider scope to upgrade forecasts for specific regions, in sync with the changing weather patterns and variations of a progressing monsoon. • The dynamical model and faster computing will also improve short range forecasts as the IMD will be able to access sharper resolution images.
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Current Model to Predict Monsoon
• IMD has been using the ensemble statistical model to predict monsoon since 2007.
• A basic statistical model was in use first since 1920.
• In 2007, it switched to the ensemble statistical forecasting due to the inaccuracy of the annual summer forecasts.
• The existing model relies on arriving at a prediction based on historical monsoon data coupled with data on sea-surface temperatures and winds.
Rajya Sabha passes Compensatory and Afforestation Fund Bill, 2016
The Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2016 unanimously passed the Compensatory and Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill, 2016 that allows States to access nearly 42000 crore rupees and channel into afforestation projects.
The Bill was already passed by Lok Sabha on 3 May 2016.
Provisions of the Bill
• The Bill establishes the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.
• These Funds will receive payments for: (a) compensatory afforestation, (b) net present value of forest (NPV), and (c) other project specific payments.
• The National Fund will receive 10 percent of these funds, and the State Funds will receive the remaining 90 percent.
• These Funds will be primarily spent on afforestation to compensate for loss of forest cover, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wildlife protection and infrastructure development.
Key Issues pertaining to the Bill
The Bill establishes the Funds for compensatory afforestation and forest conservation. However, there are several factors which affect compensatory afforestation and forest conservation. These factors are:
•Lack of planning and implementation: The state forest departments lack the planning and implementation capacity to carry out compensatory afforestation and forest conservation.
• Difficulty in procuring land:Procuring land for compensatory afforestation is difficult as land is a limited resource, and is required for multiple purposes, such as agriculture, industry, etc. This is compounded by unclear land titles.
•Decline in quality of forest cover: A High Level Committee on Environment Laws observed that quality of forest cover has declined between 1951 and 2014, with poor quality of compensatory afforestation plantations being one of the reasons behind the decline.
T Nanda Kumar resigns as Chairman of National Dairy Development Board
T Nanda Kumar resigned from the post of Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Kumar had submitted his resignation on 29 June 2016.
Kumar’s resignation was accepted by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet on 27 July 2016.
Kumar, who had a five-year term ending in 2019, will be relieved on 1 August 2016.
Who is T Nanda Kumar?
•T Nanda Kumar is a retired 1972-batch IAS officer from the Bihar cadre.
•He retired from the IAS in 2010.
•He was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of NDDB in March 2014 after the exit of Dr Amrita Patel in February 2014.
About National Dairy Development Board
•The National Dairy Development Board is an institution of national importance set up by an Act of Parliament of India in 1965.
•Its main office is in Anand, Gujarat.
•Its subsidiaries include IDMC Limited-Anand, Mother Dairy, Delhi, NDDB Dairy Services, Delhi and Indian Immunologicals Ltd., Hyderabad.
•It was founded by Verghese Kurien.
•NDDB launched its Perspective Plan 2010 with four thrust areas, which are Quality Assurance, Productivity Enhancement, Institution Building and National Information Network.
Madras Crocodile Bank Trust opens for public
Madras Crocodile Bank Trust: 40 years celebration of its opening for public
Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology came in news in fourth week of July 2016. It came in news because it is celebrating its 40 years of opening its gate for the public.
Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology (or Croc Bank)
• It is a non government environmental organization and was founded in 1976 by Romulus Whitaker.
• The Croc Bank currently consists of a large reptile park near Chennai, Southern India and several field projects located throughout the subcontinent reaching as far afield as the Nicobar Islands.
• It rears 17 out of the 23 different species of crocodiles in the world.
• It is a house of species like turtles, tortoises and iguanas.
• The main attraction is a 45 year old salt water crocodile called Jaws III which is 17 ft long and weighs 700 kg. It is also the largest crocodile in captivity in India.
• It also houses four Aldabra giant tortoises, which is the second largest tortoise species in the world. "They grow up to 5ft in length and 3ft in height.
• The park has anaconda babies and also the four komodo dragons.
• There are three field stations in the banks of the Chambal River for gharials, another one in the Western Ghats for king cobras and the third one is in the Andamans for projects related to marine biology.
Great Red Spot storm heating Jupiter's atmosphere: Study
Astronomers in a new study claimed that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a storm three times bigger than Earth, is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere else on the planet. The study was published in Nature on 27 July 2016.
GRS, the largest storm in the solar system, was detected using an infrared telescope at Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Observatory. The storm is based in Jupiter’s lower atmosphere and spans 13670 miles by 7456 miles (22000 km by 12000 km). The top of its clouds reach altitudes of about 31 miles (50 km).
The storms on Jupiter fail in making a landfall and dissipate, due to unavailability of land on the planet that is made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Unlike hurricane on Earth, the storm on Jupiter is calm but farther out winds reaches 270 mph to 425 mph (430 kmph to 680 kmph).
It is like a wheel that is wedged between two conveyor belts running in opposite directions. This helps them to add momentum at the top and bottom. They also feed the vortex to them and help in keeping them alive.
Based on the process of elimination, the study concluded that the newly found hot spot must be heated from below. However, the team concluded that the finding may fail to explain the real cause behind transfer of heat but provides a strong link between Jupiter's upper and lower atmosphere.
Change in Colour
Based on previous reports, the team of scientists concluded that over the time it has been changing its colour, as in a 1900 report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer it was described the oval storm as salmon pink. Recent images from the Hubble Space Telescope show it has become orange tinged and more circular.
30 July
Joint Indo-Thailand Military Exercise ‘Maitree’ culminates
The Indo-Thailand Military Exercise Maitree concluded on 29 July 2016 at Krabi, Thailand. The exercise had commenced on 15 July 2016 under the aegis of the Royal Thailand Army.
The aim of the joint exercise was to train contingents of both the armies on conduct of counter terrorist operations in an urban environment.
Exercise Maitree 2016
• 90 soldiers of Indian Army and Royal Thailand Army had participated in the two week long Exercise.
• The exercise included combined training, familiarization with weapons & equipment used by both the countries.
• It also included processes of analysing groupings, drills and tactics while operating in counter terrorism environment
• The shared modalities for conduct of Area Domination operations in urban environment apart from operations like Cordon and Search, raids and Seek and Destroy Missions.
• During the exercise both the Armies were able to evolve common tactical procedures and drills to enhance inter-operability.
United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Persons 2016 observed
The United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Persons 2016 was observed across the world on 30 July 2016.
On this day, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched the campaign #igivehopeto show victims of human trafficking.
The day aims at raising awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims, and promoting and protecting their rights.
In 2013, the General Assembly held a high-level meeting to appraise the Global Plan of Action. Member States also adopted resolution A/RES/68/192and designated July 30 as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons.
Human Trafficking
• Human trafficking is the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labour, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.
• This may include providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage or the extraction of organs or tissues.
• Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally.
• It is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim's rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation.
• It is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of trans-national criminal organizations.
• The forthcoming UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016 identifies a clear pattern linking undocumented migration to trafficking in persons.
• The UNODC report highlights the links between human trafficking and refugee flows from countries including Syria and Eritrea, and involving Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
International Day of Friendship 2016 observed globally
30 July: International Day of Friendship
The International Day of Friendship was on 30 July 2016 observed across the world.
The Day is aimed at supporting the goals and objectives of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010).
On this day, UN encourages governments, international organizations and civil society groups to hold events, activities and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding and reconciliation.
Background
The International Day of Friendship was proclaimed in 2011 by the UN General Assembly with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.
The resolution (A/RES/65/275) places particular emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity.
Pashudhan Bima Yojana launched in Haryana
Haryana Government on 29 July 2016 launched Pashudhan Bima Yojana in Jhajjar. The Yojna was launched by the state’s Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister, O P Dhankar.
The Yojna was started in accordance to the recommendations made in Swaminathan Report.
Dhankar said that the Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department has set a target to cover one lakh cattle under Pashudhan Bima Yojana.
Highlights of the Yojna
• It will provide insurance cover to cattle breeders in the state at different premium rates for different animals.
• Insurance cover will be provided at a premium of 100 rupees for cows, buffaloes, bulls, camels.
• Insurance cover will be provided at a premium of 25 rupees for sheep, goat and pig for a period of three years.
• Under it, the insurance companies would give compensation in case of death of animal (cattle).
• The scheme is free of cost for cattle breeders from the scheduled castes.
31 July
Satish Mathur appointed DGP of Maharashtra Police
Satish Mathur was appointed as Director General of Maharashtra Police on 20 July 2016 by Maharashtra Government. Mathur, the IPS of 1981-batch, is due to retire in June 2017.
Mathur will succeed Praveen Dixit, the IPS of 1977 batch, who is retiring from on 31 July 2016 on superannuation. Dixit was serving in the post since September 2015.
The order of his appointment was issued by the state home department after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis signed it.
Satish Mathur
• At the time of this appointment, Mathur was Additional DGP - Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the state. During his tenure in ACB, he solved few high profile cases like multi-crore rupee irrigation department scams and others.
• He is among the earliest and first IPS officer to be trained by the National Security Guard.
• He had a crucial stint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and also with Air India. During his association with the CBI, he was a part of the team that prosecuted the accused in the March 1993 Mumbai Serial blasts.
• He also helped in developing an online system that allowed the court to access the prosecution’s say and all the details of the accused at an ease.
• He was the first occupant of a new post, DGP-Legal and Technical, which was created to improve the conviction rate in Maharashtra.
• He also held the post of Pune Commissioner of Police from March 2015.
Jharkhand government to form separate cell for Primitive Tribes Group
Jharkhand government in July 2016 decided to form a separate cell for the Primitive Tribes Group (PTG) in the Welfare Department. The purpose of the cell is to monitor the benefits to the group under various schemes.
A Consultant and an Assistant would be placed in the cell.
The Union Government provides fund for the welfare of the PTG in addition to the state's own schemes.
There are nearly three lakh people belonging to PTGs in the state.
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Primitive Tribes Group (PTG) Particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) (earlier known as Primitive tribal group) is a government of India classification created with the purpose of enabling improvement in the conditions of certain communities with particularly low development indices. In 2006 the government of India proposed to rename "Primitive tribal group" as particularly vulnerable tribal group". PTG has since been renamed particularly vulnerable tribal group by the government of India. How it was identified and when happened? The Dhebar Commission (1960-1961) stated that within Scheduled Tribes there existed an inequality in the rate of development. During the fourth Five Year Plan a sub-category was created within Scheduled Tribes to identify groups that considered being at a lower level of development. This was created based on the Dhebar Commission report and other studies. This sub-category was named "Primitive tribal group". The features of such a group include a pre-agricultural system of existence that is practice of hunting and gathering, zero or negative population growth, extremely low level of literacy in comparison with other tribal groups. At present, India houses 75 communities of Primitive Tribal Group. PTGs in Jharkhand (including Bihar) are Asurs, Birhor, Birjia, Hill Kharia, Korwas, Mal Paharia, Parhaiyas, Sauria Paharia, and Savar. |
Earlier in June 2016, the state government decided to give two percent reservation to primitive tribal groups (PTGs) in education and government jobs. The move was aimed at institutionalising affirmative action required for these groups, which was not available to them.