PUNJAB

Governor nod to amended desecration Bills

Governor VP Singh Badnore has given his consent to two amended Bills that seek life imprisonment for those who commit sacrilege. These will now be forwarded to the President for approval.

In the last session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha, the Indian Penal Code (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2017, and The Code of Criminal Procedure (Punjab Amendment) Bill had been unanimously passed.

The Bills were initially introduced in the Assembly in March 2016 but were withdrawn by the government after the President refused to grant assent. It was pointed out that it was not possible to give special punishment for desecration of holy book of one religion as it was a secular country.

In the proposed law, Section 295AA will be inserted in the IPC to provide that “whoever causes injury, damage or sacrilege to Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagvad Gita, Quran and Bible, with the intention to hurt religious feelings of people, shall be punished with imprisonment for life”.

Under the existing provision, Section 295A of the IPC makes acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class punishable by imprisonment of three years.

INTERNATIONAL

India ranks 130 in UN’s human development index

India climbed one spot to 130 among 189 countries in the latest human development index released by the United Nations Development Programme.

Within South Asia, India’s human development index (HDI) value is above the average of 0.638 for the region, with Bangladesh and Pakistan, countries with similar population size, being ranked 136 and 150 respectively.

In 2016, India’s HDI value of 0.624 put it at 131 rank.

India’s HDI value for 2017 is 0.640, which put the country in the medium human development category

Norway, Switzerland, Australia, Ireland and Germany led the ranking, while Niger, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Chad and Burundi have the lowest scores.

Gk bit – HDI (Human Development Index)

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical tool used to measure a country’s overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions. The social and economic dimensions of a country are based on the health of people, their level of education attainment and their standard of living.

Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq created HDI in 1990 which was further used to measure the country’s development by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

· Global Climate Action Summit: Indian Cities, States Step Up Climate Action Plans

Over 4000 businesses, cities, states and civil society delegates attended the summit and showed their commitments to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement.
The co-chairs of the Summit, Governor of California Edmund G. Brown Jr. and UN’s Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael R Bloomberg unveiled a new report demonstrating how cities, states and businesses can help the US in achieving its 2025 emissions reduction target.

NATIONAL

Hindi Divas: 14 September

Hindi Divas or Hindi day is an annual day celebrated on 14 September in India.

On this day in 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India had adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the official language of the Republic of India under the Article 343.

Hindi is spoken by 250 million people as the original language and it is the fourth language of the world.

There are 22 Scheduled languages of India, of which, two are officially used at Union government of India level: Hindi and English.

In 1881, Bihar accepted Hindi as its sole official language, replacing Urdu, and thus became the first stateof India to adopt Hindi.

Vice president Venkaiah Naidu gave away Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar2017-18 on Hindi Diwas 2018.

World First Aid Dayis also celebrated on 14th September.

· India’s first tribal circuit tourism project under Swadesh Darshan scheme inaugurated at Chhattisgarh

The central government had allocated about 100 crore rupeesto develop this project to highlight tribal culture to the domestic and foreign tourists.
The circuit connects 13 tourism sites in Chhattisgarh – Jashpur, Kunkuri, Mainpat, Kamleshpur, Maheshpur, Kurdar, Sarodadadar, Gangrel, Kondagaon, Nathiya Nawagaon, Jagdalpur, Chitrakoot, and Tirthgarh.
Under the theme of the tribal circuit, close to Rs 400 crorehas been sanctioned to the states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Nagaland.

Gk bit – Swadesh darshan scheme

Under the plan scheme ‘Swadesh Darshan’ and ‘PRASAD’ the Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations, for various tourism projects subject to availability of funds, liquidation of pending utilization certificates and adherence to the scheme guidelines.

Under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, thirteen thematic circuits have been identified, for development namely: North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit.

Coast Guard commissions patrol vessel ‘Vijaya’

The Indian Coast Guard commissioned the indigenously built patrol vessel ‘Vijaya’, fitted with advanced navigation and communication equipment.

The 98-metre ship will be based at Paradip in Odisha for extensive surveillance in the Exclusive Economic Zone.

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