[CA] New colour for Indian Passports

Ministry of External Affairs announced it would end printing family and address information in passports and offer a new jacket colour, based on an emigration check requirement status.

The government has decided to not print the last page of the passport, which contains information like the name of the passport holder’s father, mother or spouse, address, Emigration Check Required (ECR) and any old passport number with the date and place of issue. As the passport’s last page will not be printed now, passport holders with an ECR status would be issued a passport with an orange-coloured jacket. Those with non-ECR status will continue to get blue passports.

The government accepted the recommendation of a three-member committee comprising officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of Women and Child Development, seeking to examine various issues pertaining to passport applications, such as instances where a mother/child had insisted that the name of the father should not be mentioned in the passport, and passport issues relating to children with single parents and adopted children.

Consequent to that, the government is doing away with the printing of information contained in the passport booklet such as the name of the father/legal guardian, the mother, spouse and an address, contained in the last page of the passport.

No specific date for its implementation has been given as the Indian Security Press (ISP), Nasik, would be designing the new passport booklets in due course. Till such time as the new booklets are designed, manufactured and made available to the MEA, passports will continue to be printed with the last page. Existing passports continue to remain valid till the date of expiry in the passport booklet.

Three types of passports are issued by the government:

(a) Regular Passport — this has a navy blue cover; it is issued to citizens for ordinary travel like vacations and business trips.

(b) Diplomatic Passport — this has a maroon cover; it is issued to Indian diplomats, top-ranking government officials (joint secretary and above) and diplomatic couriers.

(c) Official Passport — this has a white cover; it is issued to individuals representing the Indian government on official business.

[CA/Bilateral/Econ] India - ASEAN trade

[CA] ASEAN Leaders in India

Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi with the heads of state/governments of 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries at Rashtrapati Bhavan (on Jan 25, 2018). The India-ASEAN summit began with a luncheon banquet hosted by President Mr. Ram Nath Kovind. Later, in his opening remarks at the plenary session, Mr. Modi said India was committed to enhancing maritime cooperation with ASEAN nations and shared their vision for rule-based societies and values of peace. The 10 dignitaries was the chief guests at the Republic Day parade.

[CA] New Smart Cities

Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareilly and Delhi’s next door neighbour Ghaziabad are among four cities from Uttar Pradesh that failed to make it to the final list of 100 smart cities under the NDA government’s flagship programme.

Union housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced a list of nine of the remaining smart cities. These are Bareilly, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Bihar Sharif, Silvassa, Erode, Daman & Diu, Itanagar and Kavaratti.

So far, 90 cities have been selected under the programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015.

The Centre was set to announce the names of the final ten cities but one of them, Shillong, could not submit its proposal. The state government has been given two weeks time to submit its proposal failing which, another city will be selected for the programme.

The nine cities have proposed an investment of Rs. 12,824 crore. Meant to change the way urban India lives, smart cities will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supplies, internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure, according to the government.

Under the programme, the Centre will spend Rs. 48,000 crore over five years. Each city will get Rs. 100 crore per year.

A matching fund of ₹48,000 crore will have to be contributed by states from their internal resources or through market borrowing and through private sector.

The selection is based on the scores cities get for carrying out urban reforms in areas including sanitation and governance. Cities that score the highest will be picked for the project, to be implemented over a 10-year period.

The number of cities that each state can select is based on a formula worked out by the urban development ministry that gives a 50:50 weightage to a state’s population and the number of statutory towns.

The nine cities were selected from among 15 cities.

[CA/GK/Awards] Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships

Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowships (Akademi Ratna)
Arvind Parikh	The Fellows receive a purse of three lakh rupees, an angavastram, and a tamrapatra.
R. Vedavalli
Ram Gopal Bajaj
Sunil Kothari

Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards
Padma Talwalkar	Hindustani Vocal Music	Received one lakh rupees, an angavastram, and a tamrapatra.
Prabhakar Karekar
Arvind Mulgaonkar	Hindustani Instrumental Music -Tabla
Kala Ramnath	Hindustani Instrumental Music –Violin
Neela Ramgopal	Carnatic Vocal Music
K Omanakutty
J Vaidhyanathan	Carnatic Instrumental Music – Mridangam
Mysore M Manjunath	Carnatic Instrumental Music – Violin
Ningthoujam Shyamchand Singh	Other Major Traditions Of Music – Nata Sankirtana, Manipur
Ratnamala Prakash	Other Major Traditions Of Music – Sugam Sangeet
Ahmed Hussain & Mohd. Hussain,	Other Major Traditions of Music – Sugam Sangeet (Hussain Brothers) (Joint Award).

[CA] Flamingo Festival

The three-day annual Flamingo Festival was held at Pulicat lake.

Flamingo Festival is held every year to promote tourism in Pulicat and Nellapattu. Flamingo Festival is being organised for the past 12 years. Migratory birds from Siberia have been visiting this place for breeding and the colourful birds are a treat to the eye of bird watchers.

Usually around 80 different avian species migrate to Pulicat for breeding. They hunt in shallow waters of the lake and breed in Pulicat. Once the breeding season concludes, they fly away to their native land with their offspring in tow. The conducive atmosphere for this seasonal avian guests is being conserved at Nelapattu bird sanctuary.

About Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary: It is considered one of the biggest habitat for some hundreds of pelicans and other birds. Located about 20 km north of the Pulicat Lake on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border, the sanctuary is spread in about 459 hectares.

About Pulicat lake: It is the second largest brackish water lake or lagoon in India, after Chilika Lake. It straddles the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu states with over 96% of it in Andhra Pradesh. The lake encompasses the Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary. The barrier island of Sriharikota separates the lake from the Bay of Bengal and is home to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Two rivers which feed the lagoon are the Arani river at the southern tip and the Kalangi River from the northwest, in addition to some smaller streams. The Buckingham Canal, a navigation channel, is part of the lagoon on its western side.

[CA] INSV Tarini in Drake Passage

An all-woman Indian Navy team headed by Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi on Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini has successfully crossed the notoriously rough Drake Passage, as they rounded Cape Horn off the Southern tip of South America, sometimes called the Mount Everest of sailing.

·        INSV Tarini is a 56 foot sailing vessel built in India by M/s Aquarius Shipyard Pvt Ltd, Goa. It was inducted into the Indian Navy recently in February 2017

·        The voyage of Navika Sagar Parikrama began from Goa coast in September 2017 and will be finishing around March 2018. The expedition will be covered in five legs, with stop-overs at 4 ports: Fremantle (Australia), Lyttleton (New Zealand), Port Stanley (Falklands), and Cape Town (South Africa). The project is considered essential towards promoting Ocean Sailing activities in the Indian Navy along with showcasing the Government’s support for empowering women.

About the Drake Passage:

·        The Drake Passage is the body of water between South America’s Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean (Scotia Sea) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean.

·        The passage between Cape Horn and Livingston Island is the shortest crossing from Antarctica to any other landmass. There is no significant land anywhere around the world at the latitudes of Drake Passage, which is important to the unimpeded flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which carries a huge volume of water through the Passage and around Antarctica.

[CA] India: 43rd member of Australia Group

India was admitted as the 43rd member of the Australia Group (on Jan 19, 2018), an informal bloc of countries that keeps a tight control over exports of substances used in the making of chemical weapons.

With its admission into the Australia Group, India is now part of three of the four key export control groups in the world. This includes the Missile Technology Control Regime—an informal and voluntary partnership among 35 countries that regulates trade in sensitive equipment and technologies to ensure there is no proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology capable of carrying payloads above 500kg for more than 300km. Last month, India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement, which is also an informal grouping of 42 countries, exercising control over the export of dual-use goods and technologies.

Click to know about NSG, NPT, Wassenaar Agreement,MTCR, Australia Group

The only export control group that India is not a part of is the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls the export of sensitive nuclear technologies and equipment, with the aim of preventing nuclear weapons’ proliferation.

[GK] NSG -NPT - Australia Group - etc...

Grouping	Objectives & Features	India’s Position
NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group)	Group of Nuclear Supplier countries based on Non – Proliferation Principle	Applied for membership in May 2016 [India is not a signatory in NPT (Non – Proliferation Treaty]
	Mandate is to regulate nuclear exports and nuclear related exports	Sought exemption from NPT on grounds of clean track – record
	Set up in 1974 as a response to India’s Nuclear Test	India’s pledge of “no-first-use” policy will help in getting membership
	Being a signatory of NPT is an important criteria to join the elite club	Got support from all major members; China poses hurdle
	Has 48 members including P5 of the UNSC	Membership helps in lucrative global nuclear trade
		Will get access to sensitive nuclear material & technologies
		Big boost to domestic industries & clean energy initiatives
MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime)	An informal and voluntary partnership among 35 countries	Applied for membership but denied membership in October 2015
	Set up in 1987 by the G7 countries	Major countries supported but Italy was reluctant (“due to rift on Marine case”)
	Aims to limit the proliferation of missiles and missile technology	Membership helps India in curbing global missile non-proliferation threat
	Focus on those that carry minimum payload of 500 kg & minimum of 300 km	More of strategic concern and no additional benefit in terms of trade
	Not a treaty and does not impose legally binding obligations on member	Because the group has no restrictions on trade with non-members
	Has 34 members & China is not a member	India became 35th member of MTCR on June 27, 2016
Wassenaar Arrangement	Set up in 1995 in Wassenaar (the Netherlands) & operation in 1996	Interested in joining this export control regime
	Focus is on conventional arms & dual-use goods and technologies	Meets 3 of the four conditions needed to join
	Seeks to achieve peace and security through export controls	They are – Producer of arms; Adherence to non-proliferation policies
	Has a 4-point criterion for membership	Third - Fully effective export controls (announced a list of 16 in August 2015)
	41 members including the USA and Russia	Fourth - Yet to comply with SCOMET list criteria
		Benefits – participation in trade and Play key role in deciding export regulations
		India became 42nd member of Wassenaar Arrangement on Dec 07, 2017
Australia Group	Informal group set up in 1985	Willing to join the group with the USA’s backing
	As a response to Iraq’s use of chemical weapons in 1984	Ratified the CWC and set up a national authority in 2000
	To control the export of chemical and biological weapons	With membership, gets a chance in deciding export items list
	Key role in the conclusion of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1997	India admitted as 43rd country on Jan 19,2018
NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)	To prevent the spread of nuclear weapons & weapons technology	Unwilling to sign the treaty as it is biased towards NWS
	Binding treaty and came into force in 1970 for 25 years	NPT discriminatory because it enables development of weapons only by NWS
	In 1995 extended indefinitely; Joined by 195 parties so far	India, Israel and Pakistan are the major non-signatories
	Two categories Nuclear Weapon States (NWS), which are also P5, & Non-NWS	Signing of NPT is crucial as it linked to membership in other control regimes
	NWS are those that conducted tests before 1 January 1967

[CA] Anandiben Patel: New Governor of Madhya Pradesh

President Mr. Ram Nath has appointed former Chief Minister of Gujarat,  Ms. Anandiben Patel as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh with effect from the date she assumes charge of her office.

Governors of States in India:

Governor is the head of the Executive power of any state in India, just like the President who is the head of the executive power in the Union. But, Governor is the nominal head of a state, unlike the Chief Minister who is the real head of a state in India. According to an amendment in the Constitution of India, brought about in 1956, the same person can be the Governor of two or more states.

Click for List of Governors for all the States and UTs

[CA] Assembly Elections 2018 - Part (01)

  

State	Election Date	Result Date	Current CM
Meghalaya	Feb 18, 2018	March 03, 2018	Mr. Mukul Sangma (INC)
Nagaland	Feb 27, 2018		Mr. T. R. Zeliang (NDP)
Tripura	Feb 27, 2018		Mr. Manik Sarkar (CPI – M)

  

State	Total No. of ACs (Assembly Const)	Reserved for SCs	Reserved for STs
Meghalaya	60	---	55
Nagaland	60	---	59
Tripura	60	10	20

Arrangements made by Election Commission:-

Ø EVMs & VVPATs shall be used in all the polling stations of all the three States of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura to enhance the transparency and credibility of the election.

Ø On the Balloting Unit, below the name of the last candidate, there will be a button for NOTA option so that electors who do not want to vote for any of the candidates can exercise their option by pressing the button against NOTA.   The Commission has provided a new symbol for the NOTA option, which was designed by Institute of Design (NID). This new symbol will facilitate the voters in casting of their votes.

Ø In order to facilitate the electors in identifying the candidates, the Commission has prescribed an additional measure by way of adding provision for printing the photograph of candidate also on the ballot to be displayed on the EVM (Ballot Unit) and on Postal Ballot Papers.

Ø Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) for Service Voter: Commission has implemented ETPBS on pilot basis in four states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur and in the entire state of Goa in the State Assembly Elections conducted during Feb-March, 2017 and in recently concluded Legislative Assemblies Elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh during November-December 2017. The Commission has decided to implement ETPBS in General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura Assemblies elections too.

2018 Election Results for Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura