1. law, govt and politics
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Narendra Modi on May 9 in Kolkata,
capital of West Bengal.
• Operation Maitri
India launched a relief and rescue
Operation named Maitri in earthquake
hit Nepal on 27 April 2015. The
operation involved two dozen military
aircraft and choppers along with bus
services through road route. India also
pressed nearly 1000 trained personnel
of the National Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) into service after Nepal on 25
April was struck by the worst earthquake
in 80 years in which more than 7500
people were killed.
• Operation Raahat
Operation Raahat, a massive air and sea
operation, was launched to evacuate over
4000 Indian nationals from Yemen. The
operation will involve total of five ships
and four aircraft. The operation started
after India got permission to dock its
offshore patrol vessel INS Sumitra at the
Aden harbour of Yemen.
• Quantitative easing
An unconventional monetary policy
in which a central bank purchases
government securities or other securities
from the market in order to lower
interest rates and increase the money
supply. Quantitative easing increases
the money supply by flooding financial
institutions with capital in an effort to
promote increased lending and liquidity.
• Declassifying of Netaji files
Following the growing controversy over
declassified documents on Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose, as many as eight lakh
top secret files of Russian spy agencies,
including the KGB, SMERSH and GRU, will
be declassified and made available to the
public. Among the files dated 1917-1991
are said to be intelligence despatches
of Siberian gulags (Russian camp for
political prisoners), where Bose was
suspected to have been imprisoned.
Declassification
is
the
process
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• Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima
Yojana (PMJJBY)
PM Narendra Modi launched this social
security initiative on 9th May, 2015
in Kolkata. The scheme is aimed at
providing affordable universal access to
essential social security protection in a
convenient manner linked to auto-debit
facility from bank accounts. PMJJBY will
offer a renewable one year life cover of
` 2 lakh to all savings bank account
holders in the age group of 18-50 years,
covering death due to any reason, for
a premium of ` 330 per annum per
subscriber. The scheme would be offered
or administered through LIC or other Life
Insurance companies willing to offer the
product on similar terms on the choice of
the bank concerned.
•Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima
Yojana (PMSBY)
PMSBY will offer a renewable one year
accidental death-cum-disability cover of
` 2 lakh for partial/permanent disability
to all savings bank account holders in the
age group of 18-70 years for a premium
of ` 12 per annum per subscriber.
The scheme would be administered
through public sector general insurance
companies or other general insurance
firms willing to offer the product on
similar terms on the choice of the bank
concerned. This scheme was launched by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9
in Kolkata.
• Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
The pension scheme will focus on
the unorganised sector and provide
subscribers a fixed minimum pension of
` 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 or ` 5,000
per month starting at the age of 60
years, depending on the contribution
option exercised on entering at an age
between 18 and 40 years. The period of
contribution by any subscriber under
APY would be 20 years or more. The
scheme launched by Prime Minister
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of heritage sites, focusing not just on
maintenance of monuments but on
advancement of the entire ecosystem.
• EEU – Eurasian Economic Union
EEU is a political and economic union
between Russia, Belarus, Armenia,
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that came
into effect on 1 January 2015. A treaty
aiming for the establishment of the EEU
was signed on 29 May 2014.
•NSM– National Supercomputing
Mission
National Supercomputing Mission was
established in March 2015 with the
objective of putting India in the league
of world class computing power nations.
NSM would be implemented and steered
jointly by the Department of Science and
Technology (DST) and Department of
Electronics and Information Technology
(DeitY) at an estimated cost of Rs.4500
crore over a period of seven years.
• AMRUT – Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
Union Govt. has decided to rename the
second phase of JNNURM after Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, to rejuvenate India’s 500 cities
and towns. The scheme will be known as
Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban
Transformation (AMRUT).
• MRT – Mitochondrial Replacement
Therapy
MRT is a ground-breaking technique that
uses genetic material from three different
people to prevent certain inherited
and untreatable, genetic diseases from
passing from the mother to her offspring.
This therapy came to news after it was
approved to be adopted in Britain by
British Parliament’s lower house, the
House of Commons, on 3 February 2015.
The technique involves an IVF procedure
in which the egg’s defective mitochondrial
DNA is replaced with healthy DNA from a
female donor.
•BOSS – Bharat Operating System
Solutions
Bharat Operating System Solutions
(BOSS) is a free and open source
Linux distribution for usage in Indian
government departments developed by
the National Resource Centre for Free/
Open Source Software (NRCFOSS) of
India. The Union Govt. has asked states
to deploy the open source Linux-based
operating system BOSS meant to run
official computers.
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of documents that formerly were
classified as secret easing to be so
restricted, often under the principle of
freedom of information. Procedures for
declassification vary by country. Papers
may be with held without being classified
a secret, and eventually made available.
• NITI–National Institution for Transforming India
PM Narendra Modi replaced the Planning
Commission with the NITI Aayog or
the Policy Commission on 1 January
2015. The term NITI, was taken from
the new body NITI (National Institution
for Transforming India), will act more
like a think tank or forum whereas the
Commission imposed five-year-plans and
allocated resources to hit set economic
targets.
• PRAGATI – Pro-Active Governance
and Timely Implementation
PRAGATI launched by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on 25 March 2015
is a multi-purpose and multi-modal
platform to address public grievances.
The PRAGATI platform integrates
three latest technologies – digital data
management, video-conferencing and
geo-spatial technology. It also offers a
unique combination in the direction of
cooperative federalism.
•PaHaL– Pratyaksha Hastaantarit
Laabh
The acronym PaHaL stands for the Direct
Benefit Transfer Scheme for LPG Subsidy.
Under this scheme, LPG cylinders are sold
at market rates and entitled consumers
get the subsidy directly into their bank
accounts. This is done either through
an Aadhaar linkage or a bank account
linkage. PaHaL aims to reduce diversion
and eliminate duplicate or bogus LPG
connections.
•HRIDAY – Heritage Development
and Augmentation Yojana
HRIDAY was launched by the Union
Urban Development Ministry on 21
January 2015 which seeks to preserve
and rejuvenate the rich cultural heritage
of the country. The cities that are included
in this scheme are: Amritsar, Varanasi,
Gaya, Puri, Ajmer, Mathura, Dwarka,
Badami,
Velankanni,
Kanchipuram,
Warangal (Telangana) and Amaravati
(Andhra Pradesh).
It seeks to promote an integrated,
inclusive and sustainable development
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for the first time in 2016-17. The Central
Government notified adoption of the
proposed Indian Accounting Standards
(Ind AS) in March 2015. By pushing
Ind AS into Indian corporate balance
sheets, India will join the growing band
of nations in terms aligning accounting
standards for cross-border acceptability
and facilitation of two-way capital flow.
• AVAM – AAP Volunteer Action Manch
AVAM is the name of the break-away
volunteer group of Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP) that came to news during February
2015 after it claimed that AAP have
received cheques from these dubious
companies in lieu of cash and tried to
convert black money into white money.
•NERPAP – National Electoral Roll
Purification and Authentication
Programme
NERPAP is the name of the programme
launched by the Election Commission
of India (ECI) from 3 March 2015 with
the prime objective of bringing a totally
error free and authenticated electoral
roll. During the programme, EPIC data of
electors will be linked with Aadhar data of
UIDAI for the purpose of authentication.
•IRNSS – Indian Regional Navigation
Satellite System
IRNSS is an independent regional
navigation satellite system designed
to provide position information in the
Indian region and 1500 km around the
Indian mainland. ISRO has proposed to
place 7 satellites under the IRNSS series
and on 28 March 2015 the fourth satellite of
this series – the IRNSS-1D, was successfully
launched the IRNSS-1D navigation satellite
through PSLV-C27.
• MADE IN INDIA
It is a label that accompanies all goods
that have been manufactured in India.
• MAKE IN INDIA
It is a compaign launched by Narendra
Modi to encourage industrialists to set up
their manufacturing units in India.
• MAKE FOR INDIA
It was given by RaghuRam Ranjan which
says that focus on creating an environment
where all sorts of enterprise can flourish,
and then leaving enterprenuers to choose
what they wanted to do.
•FUDS
The WEF Future of Urban Development
and Services (FUDS) Initiative serves
as a partner in transformation of cities
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• UPI – Unified Payment Interface
UPI is a unified platform launched by
National Payments Corporation of India
(NPCI) on 18 February 2015 for providing
a single payment interface across all
systems. Under UPI, anyone who has
an account, should be able to send and
receive money from their mobile phone
with just an identifier without having any
other bank/account details.
• TLCs – Tech Learning Centres
Tech Learning Centres (TLCs) is a new
massive initiative launched by State Bank
of India (SBI) to empower its customers
through technology and awareness.
Under this initiative special SBI centres
across the length and breadth of the
country have started holding interactive
learning sessions and demos of the
bank’s tech-channels. This initiative has
been on since December 2014.
• JAM – Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile
JAM stands for Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar
and Mobile number. The government is
pinning its hopes on these three modes
of identification to deliver direct benefits
to India’s poor. The use of JAM gained
momentum after it was mentioned in the
Union Budget of 2015 delivered by Union
Finance Minister on 28 February 2015.
• PSF – Price Stabilization Fund
Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) was
launched by the Union Govt. in March
2015 with an objective of keeping
prices of perishable farm commodities
under control through suitable market
interventions. It will be used to advance
interest free loans to state governments
and central agencies to support their
working capital and other expenses
on “procurement and distribution”
interventions for such commodities.
• POTUS – President of the United States
POTUS stands for President of the United
States. This term has been used for
decades now to denote the U.S. President.
The use of the term POTUS was probably
started by the security team of the
President to call him in short. The term
was, however, used by the Indian media
in a wide-spread manner on the occasion
of President Barack Obama’s historic
visit to India in 2015.
• Ind AS – Indian Accounting Standards
Ind AS is the converged Indian version
of International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS) that will come into effect
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of former French President Charles de
Gaulle. It was in news after masked
gunmen on 7 January 2015 attacked its
Paris office killing at least 12 people.
•AMCA
Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft
is a fifth generation fighter aircraft,
developed by Hindustan Aeronautics
Limited (HAL) in collaboration with
Indian Air Force (IAF), Defence Research
and Development Organisation (DRDO)
and Aeronautical Development Agency
(ADA).
• Megh Rahat
It is a rescue operation undertaken by
Indian Army during Jammu and Kashmir
floods.
• Al–Khansaa brigade
It is an all-female branch of ISIS. It was
established in Raqqa city of Syria. ISIS
militants took over the city in August
2014.
•AWACS
Airborne Warning and Control Systems
(AWACS) can detect incoming aerial
threats like hostile fighters, drones and
cruise missiles from 400-km away.
•PMJDY
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is the
ambitious scheme aims to achieve the
gargantuan task of enrolling over 7.5
crore (75 million) households and to
open their accounts. The slogan for the
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan mission is
“Mera Khata – Bhagya Vidhaata”.
• Clean India, Green India
Government has released 2015 Calendar
with theme ‘Clean India, Green India. The
Calendar focuses on the government’s
flagship scheme Swachch Bharat- Clean
India Programme with picture of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi wielding the
broom on the first page of the calendar.
• Digital India
The programme is worth one lakh crore
rupees and intends to change the Indian
economy into a digitally empowered
economy. The Digital India programme
is a remodelled version of the already
running
National
e-Governance
programme.
• Twitter Samvad
Union Government has launched a new
digital platform “Twitter Samvad” in
association with social networking giant
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around the world as they seek to address
major urban challenges and transition
towards smarter, more sustainable cities
in this rapidly urbanizing world. The FUDS
Initiative works in collaboration with local
partners.
• MUDRA– Micro Units Development
and Refinance Agency Ltd.
The Bank was launched on 8 April 2015
under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri
Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). The bank will
provide credit of up to 10 lakh rupees
to small entrepreneurs and acts as a
regulator for Micro-Finance Institutions
(MFIs).
• Green Bonds
Green Bonds or Climate Bonds are fixed
income financial instruments (bonds)
linked to climate change solutions.
These bonds are either dollar or rupee
denominated and are relatively a new
asset class.
•SCRIP
SASEC Road Connectivity Investment
Program is a strategic initiative that aims
to achieve regional integration among the
members of the South Asia Sub regional
Economic Cooperation (SASEC) group by
improving road connectivity within the North
Bengal-North Eastern Region in India. The
members of this group are Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India and Nepal.
•AIIB
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
(AIIB) is a 50 billion dollar international
investment bank and was floated in
2014 by President Xi Jingping. The
bank was floated to provide support to
infrastructure projects in Asia.
• Vanaj 2015
Vanaj 2015 is a weeklong National Tribal
Festival. It will also showcase the rich
diversity of Tribal culture, art, painting,
music, dance, tribal medicine, tribal food,
and a special attraction- tribal cuisine.
•SMAP
Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) is
NASA’s first Earth satellite designed to
collect global observations of the vital
soil moisture. It was launched on 31 Jan,
2015.
• Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical
weekly magazine first appeared in 1970
as a successor to the Hara-Kiri magazine,
which was banned for mocking the death
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began at Aundh Military Station in Pune,
Maharashtra.
• SHC scheme– Soil Health Card
This scheme was announced by NDA
government led by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in its first budget presented
in July 2014. SHC is centrally-sponsored
nationwide scheme which aims to help
farmers to improve the productivity
of farms by providing them basic
information for use of nutrients or
fertilizers.
• RUSA– Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha
Abhiyan
It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS)
for reforming the state higher education
system. The National Development Council
(NDC) approved RUSA as part of the 12th
Plan.
•VPBY
Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY)
was introduced by previous NDA
Government in 2003-04. The scheme was
re-launched in New Delhi on 14 August
2014 by Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitely. The Scheme will be administrated
by the Life Insurance Corporation, LIC.
• Raksha Blu
The vaccine has been developed to
protect the animals against five strains
of the ‘bluetongue’ virus prevalent in the
country. Bluetongue Disease is caused by
the pathogenic virus, Bluetongue virus
(BTV). The vaccine was launched on 8
January 2015.
•GIS
Greenpeace India Society (GIS) is
an Indian chapter of Greenpeace
International, which is a non-profit
environmental organization having
presence in 40 countries across Europe,
the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. The
Union Ministry of Home Affairs on 9
April 2015 suspended the registration
of Greenpeace India Society (GIS) for
180 days for acting against public and
economic interests of the country.
• State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF)
Constitution of the State Disaster Relief
Fund (SDRF) at the State level is provided
under the Section 48 (I) of the Disaster
Management Act, 2005. Union Ministry
of Home Affairs (MHA) on 8 April 2015
issued an order for revision of norms with
regard to the centrally notified disasters
including flood, cyclone, drought,
hailstorm, tsunami and earthquake.
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Twitter. The service aims to boost the
nation’s e-governance plans and facilitate
direct communication between leaders,
government agencies and citizens.
• UN ECOSOC
India was elected to four key bodies
of the United Nations’ Economic and
Social Council (UN ECOSOC). Four key
subsidiary bodies are UNICEF (Executive
Board of United Nations Children’s Fund),
WFP(Executive Board of World Food
Programme ) and CCPCJ (Commission
on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
and UN Habitat.
• e-Tourist Visa
e-Tourist Visa Scheme is a preauthorization of Visa to foreigners that is
given prior to travel.
• Zero defect, zero effect
It is slogan coined by Narendra Modi,
which segnifies production mechanisms
where in products have no defects and
the process through which product is
made has zero adverse environmental
and ecological effects.
• SLACC Project
SLACC (Sustainable Livelihoods and
Adaption to Climate change) Project aims
at improving the adaptive capacity of the
rural poor particularly women farmers
engaged in farm-based livelihoods to
cope with climate change and scale up
the demonstrated best practices. India
signed a loan grant agreement worth
US $8 million with World Bank for this
project.
• Digital bank Pockets
ICICI Bank has launched India’s first
digital Bank on mobile phones, Pockets.
This service will enable users to instantly
send money to any e-mail id, mobile
number, friends on Facebook and bank
account.
•Kalvari
It is a first indigenously-built Scorpene
Submarine and was undocked at the
Mazagaon Dockyard Limited (MDL) in
Mumbai, Maharashtra on 6 April 2015.
•Amogh
It is a high-speed patrolling ship of India.
Amogh will be utilized by Indian Coast
Guard during emergency situations
such as accident and natural calamities
besides security purposes.
• Hand-in-Hand 2014
It was India-China Joint Training Exercise
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•PMKVY
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
(PMKVY) aims to impart skill training to
youth with focus on first time entrants
to the labour market and class 10 and
class 12 dropouts. The Union Cabinet
approved the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal
Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) on 19 March 2015
with an outlay of 1500 crore rupees.
•Rotavac
It is the first indigenously developed
Rotavirus vaccine The vaccine will boost
India’s efforts to combat infant mortality
due to diarrhea. Rotavirus a most
common causative agent of moderate-tosevere diarrhoea (MSD) among infants
below 11 months age group in India.
• Shipping Samvad
Shipping Samvad is a website, launched
by Union Ministry of Shipping, Road
Transport & Highways. The objective of
the website is to invite innovative ideas
and suggestions from general public and
experts related to Indian maritime sector
for improvements in the shipping, ports
and inland waterways sector.
•MADAD
MADAD seeks to help Indian citizens
living abroad to file consular grievances
online on the services offered by the
Indian Missions, Posts, Consulates and
Embassy abroad.
•BBBP
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)
campaign aims to spread awareness
about the declining trend of Child Sex
Ratio in the country. Its Objective is to
prevent gender biased sex selective
elimination by strict enforcement of laws
with stringent punishment to violators.
Haryana was chosen to launch the
nation-wide Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao
initiative because of the skewed sex ratio
in the state.
•NATGRID
“National Intelligence Grid” is a real time
intelligence sharing set up. It will discuss
the issues with the state government
and chalk out strategy on how to bring
synergy in data sharing, coordination
and dissemination of information. It was
proposed by former Union Home Minister
P Chidambaram after the Mumbai 26/11
attack in 2008.
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• Swachh Bharat Mission
The mission is to be implemented at a
total cost of 62009 crore rupees with
a targeted construction of 1.04 crore
household toilets, 2.51 lakh community
toilet seats and 2.55 lakh public toilet
seats besides assisting 37 crore urban
people in solid waste management.
• Nirbhaya Fund
It was set up by Union Government
under which various departments can
seek money from the Union Ministry of
Women and Child Development (WCD)
for schemes to improve safety and
security of women in the country.
•e-Kranti
The e-Kranti Mission is to ensure a
Government wide transformation by
delivering all Government services
electronically to citizens through
integrated and interoperable systems
via multiple modes, while ensuring
efficiency, transparency and reliability
of such services at affordable costs. It is
an important pillar of the Digital India
programme and the programme has
been envisaged by the Department of
Electronics and Information Technology
(DeitY).
• Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF)
The purpose of the scheme is to provide
interest free advances towards working
capital to the government agencies
which are involved in procurement
and distribution of perishable agrihorticultural commodities.
• Sagarmala Project
Its main objective is to promote port-led
direct and indirect development and to
provide infrastructure to transport goods
to and from ports quickly, efficiently and
cost-effectively.
•e-CPMP- ‘Electronic Coal Projects
Monitoring Portal’ is an institutional
mechanism to automate the entire
tracking of issues related to stalled
projects from submission of a new
project to commissioning on time.
• Mission Indradhanush- Mission
Indradhanush was launched for creating
awareness regarding the importance
to fully immunize every child against
all vaccine preventable diseases in
the country. The government wants to
increase the percentage of immunization
to 4-5% with this mission.
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