Current Affairs: August 9

Rajras Current Affairs August 9                         
Amended GST Bill finally passed by Parliament

• GST bill will form Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014
• AIADMK members walked out, however, all other parties supported it.
• The amendment bill will have to be ratified by Vidhan Sabha of atleast 15 States to become members.
• What is this?
• Well, the Constitution of India can be amended by multiple ways:
• Some articles can be amended by only simple majority ( i.e. greater than half of strength if house)
• Some articles need special majority to modify (greater than 2/3^rd of strength of house)
• There is 3^rd type of amendment, which cannot be passed by Parliament alone. These require consent of Vidhan Sabha of half of Indian states before becoming law.
• What are these articles: These are articles that effect or are related to federal structure of the Indian polity. Provisions include:
  • Election of President & its manner.
  • Extent of executive power of Union & States
  • Supreme Courts & High Courts
  • Distribution of legislative powers between the Union & states.
  • Any of the list in 7^th Schedule
  • Representation of states in Parliament
  • Power of Parliament to amend the Constitution & procedure. i.e. Article 368 itself.

River-linking to cost Rs. Approx. 5.6-lakh crore

• National Water Development Agency is the central agency that plans and prepares cost estimates for such projects.
• It has so far identified 16 peninsular Rivers and 14 Himalayan Rivers that could potentially be linked to transfer water.
• Linking of Peninsular rivers will cost approximately 1,85,000 Crores & linking of Himalayan river is going to cost 3,85,000 crores.
• Important Links:
• Ken-Betwa link:
  • Would partially submerge the Panna Tiger sanctuary,
  • Yet to be cleared by the National Wild Life Board
  • Will benefit drone prone areas of Bundekhand
• The Damanganga and Pinjal rivers involving water from Gujarat and Maharashtra
  Interlinking of Rivers: Source NWDA

Ponzi Scheme: Juisdisction

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) denied any regulatory purview over ponzi schemes, and placed the responsibility of protecting investors on State governments.
• Ponzi Scheme: is a fraud investment scheme in which the operator offers high return on investment based on new capital received rather than earning profit by using it in some legitimate activity.

 
Other News:

• International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has awarded Dr. Dhrubajyoti Ghosh
  (environmental activis), the Luc Hoffman award.
• Luc Hoffman: Swiss ornithologist, conservationist and philanthropist. He co-founded World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and helped establish the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands.

• 7^th India-Japan International Conference on ‘Science and Technology: Future Challenges and Solutions’, started at the University of Mysore.
• Organized by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Indian JSPS Alumni Association.

• Rio 2016 Olympics: Gymnast Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the apparatus finals of artistic Gymnastics.

• Odisha Government had launched Baristha Bunakar Sahayata Yojana, a special assistance scheme for elderly weavers.
  • Scheme aims at improving the financial condition of over 8,000 weavers in the state.

• Wildlife Institute of India (WII) will house the India’s first repository on tigers, under its new Tiger Cell.
  • The repository will consist of database on tiger conservation and population estimation, prepared with collaborated effort with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

• Union Government launched MAA (Mothers’ Absolute Affection), a nation-wide breast-feeding program.

• A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a website: Sachet.rbi.org.in -to curb illegal and unauthorized pooling of funds by unscrupulous firms.

• The Gujarat high court has quashed 10 percent reservation quota for the economically backward classes (EBCs).

• United States declared Pakistan based Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (JuA) as a ‘terror group’ by adding it to its list of global terrorists.

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