Current Affairs

 The Parliament approved a legislation to help the government bring back fugitives involved in white-collar crimes to stand trial in India. The fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 will become law after the President’s assent and will empower the government to seize both local and overseas assets of alleged offenders, such as Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. This will help the government confiscate properties of fugitives even before they are convicted. The bill also provides for confiscation of benami properties. ED will be the apex agency to implement the law. 
Source- The Livemint

 The 2nd Young Superintendent of Police Conference was held in New Delhi on July 26, 2018. The 2-day conference was inaugurated by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The conference was organized by Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D).
  • Young Superintendent of Police Conference
The theme of two day conference was “Predictive Policing and Contemporary Challenges for Indian Police Forces” It was attended by over 100 Superintendents of Police (SPs) & senior officers from the States & CAPFs. The purpose of the 2-day conference is to create awareness among young SPs and Commandants regarding latest technologies in areas of artificial intelligence (AI), predictive policing, crime analytics, dig data analytics, geospatial technology, cybercrime, surveillance tracking & UAVs, CCTV equipment, for effective delivery of police services to citizens.
  • Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D)
BPR&D was established in 1970 in furtherance of objective of Union Government for the modernisation of police forces. It is nodal national police organisation to study, research and develop on subjects and issues related to policing. It functions under the aegis of Union Home Ministry. It is headquartered in New Delhi. Since its  formation, it has evolved as multifaceted, consultancy organisation. At present it has 4 divisions – Research, Development, Training and Correctional Administration.

 West Bengal state assembly dominated by Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government has unanimously passed resolution to change state’s name to ‘Bangla’ in all three languages – Bengali, Hindi and English. The name change will only become official when resolution gets approval from Union Home Ministry and Parliament passes Bill. The main reason cited by State Government for changing name of West Bengal to Bangla is that whenever there is meeting of all states, West Bengal figures at bottom of the list, as it is prepared according to alphabetical order. With change in its Bangla, it will appear (or leapfrog) to fourth place after Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in list of states in alphabetical order.
Background : The move of comes West Bengal state assembly to change name of state comes almost two years after it first passed a resolution to change the name of the State in August 2016. The state government had earlier submitted a proposal to the Centre to change the name of West Bengal to to Bengal in English, Bangla in Bengali and Bangal in Hindi. The proposal was turned down by Union Home Ministry.
  • Procedure of changing name of state
Process for changing the name of a state can be initiated by state itself. However, by virtue of article 3 of Constitution, Parliament has power to change name of state even if such proposal does not come from the concerned state. If initiated by state assembly, it will first pass a resolution for such change and this passed resolution will be sent to Central government (Union Home Ministry). Then Union Home Ministry prepares note for Union Cabinet for amendment to Schedule 1 of Constitution. Thereafter, Constitution Amendment Bill is introduced in Parliament under Article 3 of Constitution, which has to be approved with simple majority, before President gives his assent to it. Thereafter name of state will be changed. The example of such change is change in name of Orissa to Odisha. The Government of Orissa initiated this change in 2008 when it forwarded resolution passed by State Legislative Assembly to Union Government to change name of state from Orissa to Odisha. This bill was passed by Parliament as Orissa (Alteration of Name) Act, 2010 to rename state.

 Union Government has announced that Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme will be open to all potential researchers from 2019 and not limited to candidates from IISc, IITs, NITs, IIEST and IISERs. The decision was made after Government failed to find adequate number of candidates for PMRF this year. Only 135 fellowships were finally offered against 1,000 positions.
  • Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme
The scheme was announced in the Budget Speech 2018-19. It will be implemented for period of seven years beginning 2018-19 at total cost of Rs. 1650 crore. Under it, best students who have completed or are in final year of B. Tech/Integrated M.Tech/M.Sc courses in Science and Technology streams will be offered direct admission in PhD programme in IITs/IISc. Maximum of 3000 Fellows would be selected in three year period, beginning 2018-19. Monthly fellowship: Selected students through selection process laid down in PMRF Guidelines will be offered monthly fellowship of Rs.70,000 for first two years, Rs.75,000 for 3rd year and Rs.80,000 in 4th and 5th years. Research grant: Each selected fellow students will be also provided research grant of Rs.2.00 lakh for period of 5 years to cover their foreign travel expenses for presenting research papers in international conferences and seminars.

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India-assisted emergency ambulance service through video conferencing from New Delhi. The inaugural function of emergency ambulance service was held in Jaffna, Northern Province, of Sri Lankan. The project is another milestone in wide-ranging development partnership between India and Sri Lanka. Jaffna is third province in Sri Lanka, were India-assisted emergency ambulance service has been launched. The service was earlier introduced in two provinces of Sri Lanka with grant assistance from India. It is planned to be expanded to remaining seven provinces of Sri Lanka. For this project, India in total has given grant of $22.8 million- $7.6 million for the first phase and $15.2 million for the country-wide expansion. This is largest ever Indian grant project in Sri Lanka after India funded housing project.
  • Background
India had launched emergency ambulance service in Sri Lanka’s western and southern provinces in July, 2016 with grant of US $7.6 million to uplift and improve medical facilities in the island country. In this regard, agreement was signed between Indian entity GVK EMRI Lanka Pvt Ltd and Sri Lankan Ministry of Health Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine. With this project, pverall, India’s development portfolio in Sri Lanka is nearly US $2.6 billion, out of which US $436 million is in the form of grants.

 Insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has constituted a 16-member committee to examine motor third party insurance pricing aspects and make recommendations on the premium rates for 2019-20. IRDAI Member P.J. Joseph has been appointed as the Chairman of the committee. This is for the first time IRDAI has formed such a committee. The committee has also been tasked to revisit the classification of vehicles, in view of the development in the industry. 
Source- The Hindu

 The 6th India-UK Science & Innovation Council (SIC) meeting held in New Delhi discussed a range of issues on S&T cooperation between the two countries. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences & Environment, Forests and Climate Change, India and Mr. Sam Gyimah, Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, UK led the Indian and UK delegations respectively. 
Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB)

 The heads of state and government of all five BRICS nations including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa convened for the 10th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The theme of BRICS Summit 2018 was ‘BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for inclusive growth and shared prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution'.  The summit saw the BRICS leaders come together and discuss various international and regional issues of common concern and adopted the 'Johannesburg Declaration' by consensus. The BRICS leaders have used the summit to reject the growing unilateralism and instead reiterate their commitment to the strengthening of multilateral institutions, calling for stronger intra-trade within member states. The declaration comes as the United States and China remain deadlocked in a trade war over tariffs. 
Source- The Economic Times

 The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in governance, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.
Two Indians, Bharat Vatwani (for Restoring Health & Dignity to troubled lives) and Sonam Wangchuk (for Harnessing nature, culture & education) made the country proud as their names figured in the list of 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award winners.
Here is the Complete list of winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Award 2018:
Sl.No. Winner Country
1. Bharat Vatwani India
2. Sonam Wangchuk India
3. Youk Chhang Cambodia
4. Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz East Timor
5. Howard Dee Philippines
6. Vo Thi Hoang Yen Vietnam
Source- India Today  

 According to the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) report, Karnataka is the new national leader in renewable energy generation. It has surpassed Tamil Naduthat had for quite some time been India's best renewable market. Karnataka has a sum of 12.3 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity installed till March 2018. IEEFA's report was titled as "Karnataka's Electricity Sector Transformation".
Source- Dailyhunt


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