1. Union Government launches PMKKKY for mining affected people
i. Union Government has launched the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra
Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) for the welfare of people affected by mining
related operations.
ii. The new scheme is meant to provide for the welfare of people and
areas affected by mining related operations by using the funds collected
by District Mineral Foundations (DMFs).
iii. The aim is to mitigate the adverse impacts due to mining operation
on the health and environment. It also seeks to ensure long-term
sustainable livelihoods for the affected people in mining areas.
iv. It is to to ensure long-term sustainable livelihoods to people in areas affected by mining.
2. Perumanna Grama Panchayat becomes first Panchayat in Kerala to declare a Water Policy
i. Perumanna Grama Panchayat in Kozhikode district of Kerala has become
the first Panchayat in the State, to declare its own water policy. The
water policy has been framed in the lines of the State government’s
water policy declared in 2008.
ii. The policy was drafted with the help of the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) Kunnamangalam.
iii. The policy notifies a 13-point action plan to ensure proper
utilisation and conservation of water in the 18 wards of Panchayat. The
first of the policy to increase water literacy in the panchayat through
extensive water conservation and awareness programmes.
iv. The policy also seeks to make panchayat garbage free by 2020, thus
eliminating water pollution completely. Under the policy, Water
conservation committees will be formed at ward level as well as
panchayat level.
3. Afghan refugee teacher Aqeela Asifi named for 2015 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award
i. Afghan refugee teacher Aqeela Asifi has won the 2015 United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Nansen Refugee Award.
ii.
As a teacher, she has been recognised for her tireless and brave
dedication to educate Afghan refugee girls in the Kot Chandana refugee
village in Mianwali, Pakistan by overcoming the struggles of life in
exile.
iii. Asifi is a former teacher who fled from Kabul, Afghanistan with her
family in 1992 for finding safety in the remote refugee settlement of
Kot Chandana in Pakistan.
iv. In the refugee camp she started teaching Afghan refugee girls by
overcoming strict conservative cultural traditions which does not allow
Afghan women to learn.
v. The award recognizes extraordinary humanitarian work and service of
an individual, group or organization towards refugees, internally
displaced or stateless people.
4. NASA may launch its Mars sample-return mission by 2022
i. A mission that could bring chunks of rock samples collected by NASA’s
2020 Mars rover back to Earth for analysis could launch as early as
2022, scientists say.
ii.
NASA’s Ames Research Center has developed a draft proposal for the “Red
Dragon” project which would see NASA team up with Elon Musk’s company
SpaceX.
iii. The mission, which remains a concept at the moment and not an
approved mission, would send Mars rock samples back toward Earth, where
researchers could examine the material for possible signs of past life
on the red planet.
iv. Mars is a cold and dry place today, but evidence gathered by NASA’s
Mars rover Curiosity and other spacecraft suggests that the planet was
warmer and wetter, with lots of surface water, billions of years ago.
v. NASA aims to grab and cache samples from a potentially habitable
environment with its next Mars rover, which is scheduled to launch in
2020. But the space agency does not yet have a firm plan or timeline for
bringing this material back to Earth.
5. Krishnan Balakrishnan new CFO of GoAir
i. Wadia Group-promoted no-frills airline GoAir has appointed Krishnan Balakrishnan as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
ii. Balakrishnan has replaced Siddhartha Datta who quit the airline some time back to pursue other “interests,” GoAir said.
iii.
Prior to moving to GoAir, Balkrishnan was holding the position of Vice
President for fleet management at Naresh Goyal-owned full service
carrier Jet Airways. He is the second senior executives to have parted
ways with Jet Airways in the recent past as earlier its Chief Commercial
Officer Raj Sivakumar also quit the carrier last month.
iv. Significantly, GoAir Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Prock-Shauer
is also formerly from Jet Airways. Prock-Shauer had quit the airline in
October 2009 after serving as its CEO for around six-and-a-half year.
6. Madhya Pradesh Government launched M-Shiksha-Mitra mobile app for teachers
i. To provide various services and teaching-related work to teacher in a
simple and easy way, Madhya Pradesh Government in September 2015
launched M-Shiksha-Mitra mobile app. With this, Madhya Pradesh became
the first state to develop such mobile app for teachers.
ii. The app developed by NIC that carries several facilities can be downloaded from Google Play Store in android mobile phone.
iii. Teachers can use Shiksha-Mitra mobile app to browse salary slip,
funds sent to school under various heads, scholarships, different
circulars and GPF statement easily. Through it, they can send SMS about
their problem and know status of its redressal. The app will also be
used for applying for leave and also e-attendance. Facility of free 200
SMSs has been given in the app.
iv. The app can be logged onto by using user name and password issued
for Education Portal. All principals, head masters, school in-charge
persons and teachers have been directed to register their mobile number
on education portal.
7. Union Finance Ministry launched NXT DIGITAL-Headend In The Sky platform
i. The Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley on 15 September 2015
launched the Headend In The Sky (HITS) digital platform initiative,
under the brand name NXT DIGITAL promoted by Hinduja Group.
ii. The platform will provide viewers access to over 500 television
channels of their choice be it international, national, regional and
local; besides a host of other services like e-applications and TV
everywhere.
iii. Customers in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab and
Karnataka will now have greater access to channels of their choice with
other states soon joining in. The customers will now pay for what they
want to see and it will also enable increase in revenues to the
government due to full transparency.
iv. The Hinduja-Hits Network will serve Multi System Operators (MSOs) as
well as Local Cable Operators (LCOs) and aims to tap the transition
from analogue to digital mode of cable TV services under the
government's Digital India initiative and Make In India mission.
v. The NXT DIGITAL Broadcast Centre is a state-of-the-art
next-generation MPEG-4 facility that has been designed and purpose-built
to provide a variety of services to the cable distribution fraternity
and their customers all across India.
8. EPFO increased maximum insurance cover to 6 lakh rupees
i. The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) on 16 September 2015
increased the life insurance cover of its subscribers from 3.6 lakh to 6
lakh rupees.
ii.
The central board of trustees (CBT), the highest decision-making body
of the EPFO, also decided that the subscriber will not be required to
serve continuous employment of one year in a company before being
eligible for insurance benefit.
iii. About 40 million contributing members of the EPFO will be
benefitted from the decision taken at the 208th CBT meeting in
Hyderabad.
iv. The life cover, called Employees Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI), is
paid to the family of the EPF subscriber in case of his/her demise.
9. Skeet shooter Mairaj Khan books Olympics quota
i. Veteran skeet shooter Mairaj Ahmad Khan celebrated the biggest day of
his 12-year career when he clinched a Rio Olympics quota place for
India at the ongoing ISSF Shotgun World Championship here on Thursday.
ii. Mairaj started the second day of the men's skeet competition in
ninth position with a score of 74 after the first three rounds of
qualification. After two more qualifications on Thursday, he entered the
final in sixth position with a total score of 122 out of a maximum
possible 125.
iii. Given that all the first five shooters in qualification had already
booked their Rio berths, Mairaj secured one of the two available quota
places. The other seat went to Germany's Ralf Buchheim who ended his
qualification round in eighth position with an identical score of 122.
iv. This is India's first quota place for the 2016 Olympics in the shotgun disciplines.
v. The 40-year-old Noida based Mairaj, who hails from Bulandshahr
district of Uttar Pradesh, had previously won gold in the men's Team
Skeet event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
