9-10 September

Assam’s Majuli becomes first island district of India

Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on 8 September 2016 inaugurated Majuli as the 35th district of Assam. With this, Majuli became India's first island district.

The inauguration of Majuli as a district coincides with the 90th birth anniversary of music maestro Bhupen Hazarika.

Recently on 1 September 2016, Majuli replaced Brazil's Marajo to become the world's largest river island in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Key facts related to Majuli island

• Geographical features:It is a fluvial landform (a riverine delta), a unique geographical occurrence and a result of the dynamics of the Brahmaputra river system.

•It is bounded by the river Subanisri and her tributaries on the North West, the kherkatia Suli (a spill channel of the river Brahmaputra) in the northeast and the main Brahmaputra River on the South and the South west.

•It is the largest mid river delta system in the world. It is also comprised of many islets locally called the Chaporis.

•Its area has shrunk from about 1250 square kilometers in 1891 to about 352 square kilometers in 2014 due to the erosion of river-bank.

• Vaishnavite cultural centre:It is the abode of the Assamese neo-Vaisnavite culture initiated around 15th century by the revered Assamese saint Srimanta Sankardeva and his disciple Madhavdeva.

•There are a total of 30 Sattras or Vaishnavite monasteries including the Dakhinpat Satra which was established in 1584 AD.

•Each Sattra, represents, within its region, a centre for cultural activities and even acts as a democratic institution to settle local disputes.

•Most of the villages associate with respective Sattra, and the villagers partake in the activities of their own Sattra during festivals and occasions.

•These sattra villages and other vernacular settlements house people from various ethnic origins all of whom have settled in Majuli like Mishings, Deori, Sonowal Kachari, Koch, Kaivartta and Nath.

• Flora and fauna:It is a hotspot for flora and fauna, harbouring many rare and endangered avifauna species including migratory birds that arrive in the winter season.

•Among the birds seen here are the greater adjutant stork, pelican, Siberian crane and the whistling teal.

• Agriculture:Paddy, mustard, potato, pulses, sugarcane, wheat are the main crops cultivated on the island.

•Various seasonal vegetables and fruits like orange, banana, pineapple, jackfruit, etc are also grown in abundant quantity.

• Recognition:In March 2011, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) of the Union Ministry of Culture proposed to nominate the island for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Sushil Kumar nominated for Padma Bhushan

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) nominated the two-time Olympic-medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar for the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civillian honour.

The Federation also recommended female wrestler Alka Tomar and Dronacharya awardee Yashvir Singh, Sushil's coach, for the honour. These three names were recommended for the honour in August 2016.

Earlier, Sushil's name was recommended for the honour two years ago but was rejected.

Sushil is the only Indian athlete to have won two individual Olympic medals -- a bronze in the 2008 Beijing Games and a silver in the 2012 London Games.

Already bestowed with the Khel Ratna award -- the country's highest sporting honour -- Sushil is also a World Championships gold-medallist, a two-time Commonwealth Games gold-medallist, four-time Commonwealth champion.

GST Bill gets nod by President Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee on 8 September 2016 gave his assent to the Constitution 122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill, 2014 as per Article 111 of Constitution of India. With this assent, the bill becomes law and allows rolling out a new indirect tax regime.

After the Presidential assent, the bill will be notified to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council that will decide the tax rate, cess and surcharges. The council to be headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will comprise of state Finance Ministers.

Now, the union and state governments will have to draft the Central GST, State GST and integrated GST laws for being passed in the winter session of the Parliament. The CGST and IGST will be drafted on the basis of the model GST law.

On the other hand, the states will draft their respective GST (SGST) laws with minor variation, incorporating State-based exemptions. The IGST law would deal with inter-State movement of goods and services.

Goods and Services Tax

The GST is a single indirect tax, which will subsume most of the Central and State taxes such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), excise duty, service tax, central sales tax, additional customs duty and special additional duty of customs.

Background

The bill passed by both houses of Parliament in August 2016 and ratified by 19 states was sent to the President’s secretariat. The bill needed ratification by the legislative assemblies of at least 50 percent of the states.

The states that ratified the bill include Assam (first to ratify), Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Nagaland, Maharashtra, Haryana, Sikkim, Mizoram, Telangana, Goa, Odisha, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

ASEAN Summit 2016 concludes in Vientiane, Laos

The 28th and the 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit concluded on 8 September 2016 at Vientiane, Laos. The theme for the 2016 summit was Turning Vision into Reality for a Dynamic ASEAN Community.

H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith, Prime Minister of the Lao PDR, was the Chairperson of the summit that was held from 6 September 2016 to 8 September 2016.

The Summit was attended by the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. They are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Highlights of the Summit

•ASEAN leaders discussed the implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025and enhancing cooperation with ASEAN’s external partners.

•The leaders adopted the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) Work Plan III and the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025, which form an integral part of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

•They also signed the ASEAN Declaration on One ASEAN, One Response: ASEAN Responding to Disasters as One in the Region and Outside the Region.

•They adopted several outcome documents aimed at realizing the 8 priorities for ASEAN Chairmanship 2016 and implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

•They agreed to intensify ASEAN’s cooperation with Dialogue Partners and External Parties through ASEAN-led mechanisms namely ASEAN Plus One, ASEAN Plus Three, ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus, and East Asia Summit.

•Besides, the ASEAN Leaders had a candid exchange of views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and concerns, including traditional and non-traditional security challenges such as terrorism and extremism, natural disasters, climate change, irregular migration, human trafficking, etc.

•A diplomatic row between the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and U.S. President Barack Obama hung over part of the ASEAN meetings. During the summit, Duterte used foul language in relation to a planned meeting between them.

India's participation

•Prime Minister Narendra Modi represented India at the ASEAN summit. He addressed the14th ASEAN-India summit.

•He expressed deep concern over the rising export of terror, in an apparent reference to Pakistan. He said that it is a common security threat to the region and there was need for a coordinated response from the ASEAN member nations to combat the menace.

About ASEAN Summits and Themes

•ASEAN was established in 1967 by the five founding members namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia joined later.

•The Summit is ASEAN's highest policy-making body.

•The chair of the ASEAN Summit rotates annually in alphabetical order of the English names of Member States.

•By virtue of holding the chair of the ASEAN for a particular year, the concerned member state also chairs the ASEAN Summit and related summits. Further, ASEAN Summits are held bi-annually but with a common theme.

•The 26th ASEAN Summit was held at Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, Malaysia between 26 and 28 April 2015 with the theme Our People, Our Community, Our Vision. The 27th ASEAN Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur between 18 and 22 November 2015 with the same theme.

Anjum Chopra becomes first Indian woman to be honoured with MCC life membership

Former Indian women’s cricket team captain Anjum Chopra in the first week of September 2016 was awarded an honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC).

Chopra is presented with the honour along with former men’s team stalwarts Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag.

With this, Chopra became the first Indian woman cricketer to get the prestigious life membership of MCC.

About Anjum Chopra

•Anjum Chopra is a left-handed batswoman who bowls right-arm medium-fast.

•She has played in 12 Tests and 116 ODIs.

•She played her first friendly match with college girls team at the inter college level scoring 20 runs and taking 2 wickets. Later the same year, she was selected to play for New Delhi in the under−15 tournament.

•On 12 February 1995, she made her debut in One-day Internationals in the early age of 17 against New Zealand at Christchurch, New Zealand.

•She made her debut in Test cricket a few months later, against England at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on 17 November 1995.

Novel on Apatani tribe of Arunachal, Into the Hidden Valley, wins MM Bennetts Award

Novel, Into the Hidden Valley authored by Stuart Blackburn on 4 September 2016 won the 2016 MM Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction in the UK. The author was presented the award at the HNS Conference in Oxford.

The book published by Speaking Tiger narrates the story of the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh during British India. It also looks into a little-known episode in the colonial history of British India.

Into the Hidden Valley explores and portrays the impacts of the forces of colonialism on both sides when this settled civilisation forcibly collides with British Empire.

Into the Hidden Valley was chosen for the award ahead of Helena Page Schrader's Defender of Jerusalem and Allegianceby Kermit Roosevelt.

Stuart Blackburn

• Stuart Blackburn was born in Providence, Rhode Island.

• He completed his doctorate in Tamil language and international folklore from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980.

• He had served the Peace Corps (one of the few remaining alternatives to serving in the military in Vietnam).

• He is the author or editor of 16 books on Indian culture and folklore, mainly in south India (where his first novel, Murder in Melur, is set) and northeast India.

• One book, a study of shadow puppet theatre in Kerala, won the runner-up prize for the UK Folklore Book of the Year, while a translation of an early Tamil novel won the AK Ramanujan Prize in the United States.

• He was also the director of a five-year, multi-disciplinary grant to study Tibeto-Burman tribal cultures in northeast India, which provided him with the inspiration for Into the Hidden Valley.

MM Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction

The award is named in memory of writer-historian MM Bennetts who was a specialist in early 19th century British history and the Napoleonic wars as well as a keen cross country and dressage rider.

Before turning to writing novels full-time, Bennetts was a French translator and a longstanding book critic for the Pulitzer-prize winning newspaper, 'The Christian Science Monitor'.

NASA launches OSIRIS-REx to collect samples from asteroid

The US space agency, NASA, on 8 September 2016 launched OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft. The unmanned spacecraft, OSIRIS-REx, blasted off onboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

OSIRIS-REx is United States’ first mission to collect samples from an asteroid and return to Earth. The 800 million dollar mission will travel for two years on a journey to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid about the size of a small mountain.

NASA feels that the asteroid may hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules found on Earth.

Scientists at NASA said OSIRIS-REx's main goal is to gather dirt and debris at least 60 grams (2.1 ounces) from the surface of the asteroid and return it to Earth by 2023 for further study.

10 September

Mariyappan Thangavelu wins India’s first Gold medal at Rio Paralympic Games

Mariyappan Thangavelu won India’s first gold medal at the Rio Paralympics. He won the gold in the Men’s High Jump T-42 event with a leap of 1.89 metres.

With this, Thangavelu also became the first Indian high-jumper to win gold at the Paralympics. This was India’s overall third gold at the Games and the first after 12 years.

In addition, Bronze in the event also went to India through Varun Singh Bhati, who jumped his personal best of 1.86 metres to finish third. USA's Sam Grewe bagged the silver medal.

India had claimed a Gold and a Bronze at Athens in 2004. Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia had then won the Gold, with Rajinder Singh claiming the Bronze in powerlifting.

In the last edition of the Games in London, India had attained just a Silver. India had won its first ever Paralympics Gold in the 1972 Heidelberg Games through Swimmer Murlikant Petkar.

Swachh Survekshan for rural areas released, Mandi and Sindhudurg topped the charts

The results of the 2016 ‘Swachh Survekshan’ (Cleanliness Index) for rural India was released on 8 September 2016. Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) and Sindhudurg (Maharashtra) were declared as the cleanest districts in India.

Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg as the cleanest in the “Plains” category.

Overall Ranking - Swachh Survekshan Gramin

Category	Rank	District & state	Score
Hills	1	Mandi, Himachal Pradesh	98.4
2	West Sikkim, Sikkim	96.4
3	Shimla, Himachal Pradesh	94.1
Plains	1	Sindhudurg, Maharashtra	96.8
2	Nadia, West Bengal	95.0
3	Satara, Maharashtra	92.9

The results were declared by the Minister, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May 2016.

State wise, Sikkim and Kerala were ranked as top performing states in a Swachhta (cleanliness) survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), while Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were placed among the last on the table.

Assessment

The Ministry had commissioned Quality Council of India (QCI) to carry out the assessment. Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was places on accessibility to safe toilets and water. The parameters to judge sanitation status include:

• Households having access to safe toilets and using them (toilet usage, water accessibility, safe disposal of waste) (40%)

• Households having no litter around (30%)

• Public places with no litter in the surrounding (10%)

• Households having no stagnant wastewater around (20%)

The assessors appointed by QCI individually visited all districts covered under the Survekshan to make a comprehensive analysis of the on-ground situation & progress.

 Haryana bagged Best Horticulture State award

Haryana has bagged ‘Best Horticulture State’ award for the concerted efforts made by the state government to increase the income of the farmers in horticulture.

The award was received by Haryana Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar on 9 September 2016 at two-day 9th Agricultural Leadership Summit 2016. The summit was organized by Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) in New Delhi.

Horticulture in Haryana

At present, about 2.5 lakh hectares of land of the state is under horticulture and a target has been set to increase it up to nine lakh hectares. For this purpose, the state has decided to set a Horticulture University in the state.

It also decided to set up centers of excellence in horticulture in every district of the state and create 340 horticulture villages in the state.

In addition, it would also set biggest Horticulture Mandi of the country at Ganaur on the pattern of Rungis Mandi of France and Shenzhen Mandi of China.

Besides, the 2016 best agriculture state award went to Odisha. It was awarded with the award in recognition of the efforts towards development of agriculture and bringing rural prosperity.

 Civil Aviation Ministry prohibits use of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 phone on board aircraft

Civil Aviation Ministry on 9 September 2016 prohibited the use and carriage of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smart phone on board aircraft. The decision was taken in light of several incidents globally, involving the battery of Samsung Galaxy Note 7.

The Ministry has issued a public notice advising airlines and travellers not to turn on or charge the smart phones during flights. Passengers have also been advised not to stow them in their checked in baggage. As per notification, passengers can carry them in their hand baggage in switched-off mode.

The decision came a day after US regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a similar warning.

The Samsung has already recalled about 2.5 million units of the smart phone following the complaints. As per reports, more than 35 cases of exploding batteries has been reported since the phone was launched on 19 August 2016. The phone was launched with iris biometric scanner for enhanced security, upgraded S pen and a dual-curved screen.