The Union Cabinet has approved a new scheme – India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package Phase-II

1. Legislative Council in West Bengal

Recently, the Government of West Bengal, under Article 169 of the Constitution , decided to set up a Legislative Council in the State LegislativeA resolution has been passed in According to the law, if this proposal of West Bengal gets the support of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, then a Legislative Council with a maximum of 94 members (one-third of the total assembly seats) will be formed in the state. At present, Legislative Council exists in only six states- Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. It is to be known that in the past, West Bengal also had a Legislative Council, although in the year 1969, the then coalition government of the Left parties abolished the Legislative Council. In fact it was the first state in the country to have an Upper House. Notably, India has a bicameral system of legislature. Just as there are two houses of Parliament, Similarly, according to Article 169 of the Constitution, there can be a Legislative Council in addition to the Legislative Assembly in the states. Under Article 169, the Indian Parliament has the power to constitute and dissolve the Legislative Council. In this regard, a resolution is first passed by the Legislative Assembly of the concerned state, which must be passed by absolute majority.

2. Delhi government’s policy for street children

• The Delhi government has prepared a policy for the welfare of the children living on the streets in view of the pandemic situation . Women and Child Development Department of Delhi Government ( WCD)This policy, formulated by the U.S., encourages direct participation of civil society organizations in identifying and delivering masks and other equipment to such children residing in hotspot areas. The policy also suggests that district administrations may consider training street children (on attaining the age of 18) as civil defense volunteers, to help them gain respectable employment. and at the same time they will be able to help children coming from similar backgrounds. The policy also proposes the formation of a ‘District Child Protection Convergence Committee’ (DCPCC) along with a ‘District Task Force’ (DTF) to protect and protect children. This committee will be headed by the District Magistrate and along with it will include representatives of NGOs and ‘Delhi Child Rights Protection Commission’ of the state.

3. Japan imposed a state of emergency two weeks before the start of the Tokyo Olympics

• Keeping in mind the organization of the Olympics in Japan , a state of emergency has been imposed in the capital Tokyo to prevent Kovid infection . Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the emergency would remain in effect until August 22. The opening of the Olympic Games is scheduled to take place on 23 July . Meanwhile, cases of corona infection are increasing rapidly in Tokyo. In view of this, there is a lot of opposition to organizing the Games.

4. Newly appointed Union Ministers take charge of their respective Ministries

• After the expansion in theUnion Council of Ministers , many newly appointed ministers have taken over their ministries. President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to 15 cabinet level ministers and 28 ministers of state in a ceremony.

5. Delhi Metro Launches India’s First UPI-Based Cashless Parking

• Delhi Metro Rail Corporation ( DMRC ) has launched India’s first FASTag or Unified Payments Interface ( UPI ) based parking facility on July 6, 2021.started. This facility has been introduced to reduce the time for admission and payment. Dedicated Intermediate Public Transport (IPT) lanes for autos, taxis and rickshaws were also inaugurated at the station under the Multi-Modal Integration (MMI) initiative. DMRC is also planning to install a similar system at other parking facilities in Delhi-NCR. This facility was provided at Kashmere Gate Metro Station by DMRC Managing Director Dr. Mangu Singh. It can park 55 four wheelers and 174 two wheelers. Entry and exit payment of 4-wheelers can be done through FASTag. Parking will be deducted through FASTag thereby reducing the time taken for entry and payment. This facility will allow only vehicles with FASTag to be parked. The entry of two wheelers can be done only by swiping the DMRC smart card. The smart card swipe will be used only for entering the time of entry and exit and for calculation of fare. Money will not be deducted from the card while swiping. The parking fee can be paid through the UPI app by scanning the QR code.

6. Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh dies after prolonged illness

• HP ‘s former chief minister and Congress leader Virbhadra Singh died after a prolonged illness. Shri Singh was presently an MLA from Arki Assembly Constituency in Solan District . He was a nine-time MLA and five-time MP. Born on June 23, 1934 in ‘ Shimla ‘ of Himachal Pradesh, Virbhadra Singh was born a total of six times.Elected as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh. Virbhadra Singh also served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly from March 1998 to March 2003. Apart from this, he also served as the Union Deputy Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Minister of State for Industry, Union Minister of Steel and Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the Central Government. Shri Virbhadra Singh was earlier admitted to Max Hospital, Mohali on 12 April due to being infected with Kovid, where he recovered. Later he was admitted to Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla due to his ill health.

7. France’s Sanofi S and UK’s GlaxoSmithKline Plc approve clinical trials in India

• France ‘s Sanofi S and UK ‘s GlaxoSmithKline Plc have received approval for clinical trials of their anti-Covid vaccines in India . This information has been given by both the companies. These vaccines will be tested on about 3000 people in the age group of 18 to 55 years in the country. This test will last for about a year.

8. The Union Cabinet has approved a new scheme – India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package Phase-II

• The Union Cabinet has approved a new scheme – India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package Phase-II . 23 thousand 123 crores for the financial year 2021-22 under this schemeamount has been determined. After the cabinet meeting, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told that the objective of this scheme is to emphasize on the development of health infrastructure. Under this, the preparedness of the health system will be intensified for early detection of the disease and taking immediate measures for its prevention. This also includes child health care. He said that the second phase will be implemented from July 1 to March 31, 2022. The participation of the Center in this project will be Rs 15 thousand crore and the share of the states will be Rs 8,123 crore. The Union Cabinet has also decided to amend the Coconut Development Board Act, 1979 to make the Coconut Development Board more efficient. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that now the chairman of this board will be a non-executive person but he will have knowledge and experience of agriculture sector.

9. Department of Public Enterprises brought under the Ministry of Finance

• The government said Department of Public Enterprises ( Department Of Public Enterprises ) The Ministry of Finance has decided to bring under. The Department of Public Enterprises was earlier under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises . It has been brought under the Finance Minister to facilitate coordination with respect to future disinvestment plans. After the inclusion of the Department of Public Enterprises, now there are 6 departments in the Ministry of Finance. The other five departments are –

1. Department of Economic Affairs
2. expenditure department
3. Revenue Department
4. Department of Investment and Public Asset Management
5. Department of Financial Services.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced this change in her budget speech 2021-2022.

10. RBI asked all banks to prepare themselves for not doing LIBOR basis for short-term loans

• Reserve Bank all issued an advisory banks have said that they are short-term loans to international interbank market mutual transactions in Libor ‘s not based on experience preparing themselves to. The bank has said that the system of LIBOR is going to end after December 31, 2021. The Reserve Bank has suggested that all banks should henceforth use the Mumbai Interbank Forward Outwrite Rate in place of LIBOR . LIBOR(London Interbank Offered Rate) is the average interest rate offered by major UK banks.

11. Reserve Bank fined 14 banks for not following the guidelines

• The Reserve Bank has imposed penalty on 14 banks for non-compliance of certain provisions of its guidelines . These provisions were related to lending to NBFCs and small finance banks. The Reserve Bank has informed that it has issued notices after examining the accounts of these banks and imposed penalty only for non-compliance with the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The 14 banks that RBI has imposed fines on are Bandhan Bank Ltd., Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India, Credit Suisse AG, Indian Bank, IndusInd Bank Ltd., Karnataka Bank Ltd., Karur Vysya Bank Ltd., Punjab & Sindh Bank, South Indian Bank Limited, State Bank of India, Jammu & Kashmir Bank Limited and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank Limited.

12. World’s 1st women’s solo motorcycle campaign kicks off in New Delhi

• The world’s first women’s solo motorcycle campaign took place at Seema Sadak Bhawan in New Delhi . Kanchan Ugusandi covered 18 inaccessible passes in the northern Himalayan region in this expedition. Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had flagged off this mission from New Delhi on June 11. The Defense Ministry said that many records were made in this mission. Kanchan Ugusandi has become the first woman solo biker to cover the Umlinga pass, the first woman to cross 18 inaccessible passes and the first woman to cover a distance of three thousand one hundred and 87 kilometers in one go.

13. News On Air Radio Live-stream Global Rankings Released

• NewsOnAir Radio Live-stream Global Rankings released recently, includes countries where All India Radio ( AIR ) live-streams on NewsOnAir App are most popular. In this ranking, Fiji has jumped from 5th place to second place. Saudi Arabia has once again made it to the top 10. Kuwait and Germany are the new entrants. France and New Zealand could not make it to the top 10. The US has retained its ranking at 1. All India Radio’s Telugu and Tamil live-stream services are popular in the US. AIR Punjabi service is popular in United Kingdom.

14. Rajasthan to develop Tiger Corridor connecting three Tiger Reserves

• The Rajasthan government has established a tiger corridor connecting Ranthambore Tiger Reserve , Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve and Mukundra Tiger Reserve .planned to develop. The Central Government has recently given its approval for the construction of Ramgarh Vishdhari Sanctuary. The sanctuary will connect Ranthambore Tiger Reserve to the northeast and Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve to the south. The proposed site for this sanctuary is in Bundi district of Rajasthan. It will connect Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Sawai Madhopur district and Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve in Kota district. Tiger corridor will be developed by shifting eight villages. It will be a functional corridor to deal with the issue of overpopulation of tigers. Ranthambore Tiger Reserve currently has a population of over 65 tigers. There is only one tiger left in Mukundra reserve. Thus, this Tiger Corridor was proposed to balance the population distribution.

15. World’s tallest sandcastle built in Denmark

• The world’s tallest sand castle ( Sandcastle ) Denmark was created. It has set a new Guinness World Record of 21.16 metres. Denmark’s new Sandcastle is 3.5m taller than Germany’s earlier record of 17.66m set in 2019. The sandcastle is built in the shape of a triangle to protect it from falling. A wooden structure is built around the sand castle so that the artist can carve incredible shapes in the sand. This is a highly decorated monument in the small seaside village of Blokhus. It is made up of 4860 tonnes of sand.

16. China fines big internet companies in anti-monopoly cases

China ‘s anti-monopoly regulator ( Anti-Monopoly Regulator ) of new measures to strengthen control over their rapidly evolving industries Alibaba and Tencent is fined. Alibaba and Tencent have been fined in 22 cases. He was fined 500,000 yuan ($75,000) for actions such as acquiring a stake in other companies that could unreasonably increase his market power. The violators include six companies owned by Alibaba Group, five companies of Tencent Holding Limited and two companies of retailer com Limited. Alibaba was fined 3 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) in April for suppressing competition.

17. DoT will impose a fine of Rs 10,000 for fraudulent messages

• The Department of Telecommunications ( DoT ) has charged Rs 10,000 for fraudulent messagesproposed to impose a fine of Rs. DoT will impose a fine of Rs 10,000 for every call and SMS made by telemarketers after 50 violations. The norms have been made more stringent by reducing the slab for levying penalty. Rs 1,000 per violation for 0-10 violations. Rs 5,000 per violation for 10-50 violations, Rs 10,000 per violation for more than 50 violations. At present, there are slabs 0-100, 100-1,000 and over 1,000 violations under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018. Under the new norms, DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) will investigate violations at the device-level as well. DIU will send system generated messages to suspicious numbers to verify this. In case of non-re-verification, all the numbers will be truncated and the respective IMEIs will be put in the suspicious list. After that, No calls, SMS or data will be allowed for those IMEIs in the suspicious list for a period of 30 days. Any communication made by callers troubled by the new connection using the devices with the IMEI number entered in the gray list will be re-verified. If the caller changes the device, the IMEI number of the new device will also be put on the suspicious list by the system until re-verification is completed.

18. DCC approves satellite connectivity in telecom networks

• The Digital Communications Commission ( DCC ) has approved satellite connectivity in telecom networks as per the recommendations of TRAI .has been approved for use. Satellite connectivity through VSAT terminal will be used to provide services in remote areas as it is difficult to establish optical fiber network there. The DCC has also approved the Request for Proposal (RFP) to launch BharatNet project for broadband services in villages of 16 states in Public Private Partnership mode. The BharatNet project was approved with a viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore. Satellite connectivity in the telecom network will help the telecom companies to provide services in remote areas.

19. Delhi’s Excise Policy 2021-22 launched

• Delhi ‘s Excise Policy 2021-22 was launched to the public on 5th July. The Delhi government has made new norms for bars in hotels, clubs and restaurants under this policy. According to this policy document, Delhi is the 28th most visited city by foreign visitors worldwide. In India, Delhi ranks first in the list of most visited cities. Excise is an important source of revenue in the state. Thus, the excise policy was reformed and a new policy has been introduced with the aim of increasing the revenue in Delhi. This will also tighten the noose on the liquor mafia.

20. Draft norms notified to regulate direct selling companies

• Government to protect the interests of consumers in India Amway( Amway)and Tupperware ( Tupperware like) direct selling firms have notified a draft criteria to regulate. Under these rules, these direct selling firms will not be allowed to offer pyramid and money circulation scheme. The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs has framed the Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules, 2021. In 2016, the ministry had laid down guidelines for such direct selling firms or companies.

21. Delhi’s NO2 pollution increased by 125% in one year: Greenpeace

• Non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ),  Greenpeace ( Greenpeace , according to a study), in Delhi in the last one year period nitrogen dioxide ( NO2 ) is a 125% increase has occurred. This study analyzed NO2 concentrations in the 8 most populous cities of India, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Lucknow. According to this report, NO2 pollution increased between April 2020 and April 2021 in all the eight capital cities. Delhi recorded the highest growth during this period. In Hyderabad, NO2 pollution increased by 69%. During the same period, Chennai grew by 94%, Bengaluru 90%, Mumbai 69 52%, Jaipur 47%, Lucknow 32% and Kolkata 11%.