Latest News
13th March 2021
Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav
Recently, the Prime Minister has flagged off the ‘Padyatra’ (Freedom March) and inaugurated the curtain raiser activities of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
‘Padyatra’ (Freedom March)
Recently, the INS Talwar, stationed at Gulf of Oman, has received a broadcast call from a stranded merchant cargo ship, MV Nayan.
INS Talwar
- It is a symbolic 386-km “Dandi March” from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad to Dandi in Navsari district of South Gujarat.
- It has marked the 91st anniversary of the historic salt march led by Mahatma Gandhi.
- The march will follow the original route via Kochrab Ashram and Chandola Lake, followed by a night halt at Aslali.
- The journey will see “big events at six places” associated with Gandhi.
- These include MK Gandhi’s birthplace Porbandar, along with Rajkot, Vadodara, Bardoli (Surat), Mandvi (Kutch) and Dandi (Navsari).
- It is a series of events to be organised by the Government of India to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of India’s Independence.
- It will be celebrated as a Jan-Utsav in the spirit of Jan-Bhagidari.
- It is based on five pillars i.e. Freedom Struggle, Ideas at 75, Achievements at 75, Actions at 75 and Resolves at 75 as guiding force for moving forward keeping dreams and duties as inspiration.
- The Azadi Amrit Mahotsav means elixir of inspirations of the warriors of freedom struggle and also elixir of new ideas and pledges and nectar of Aatmanirbharta.
- The Dandi March or Salt March was part of Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent protestagainst the British monopoly on production of salt.
- It was an act of civil disobedience led by Mohandas Gandhi to protest British rule in India.
- It was a 24-day march which began on March 12 and they reached Dandi on April 5, 1930.
- After making salt at Dandi, Gandhi headed to Dharasana salt works and was arrested on May 5, 1930, and taken to the Yerwada central prison.
- Lord Irwin was the Viceroy of India at the time of Dandi March.
- The Britain’s Salt Act of 1882 prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in their diet.
- The Indian citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from their British rulers, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also charged a heavy salt tax.
- The apex court highlighted that entrusting additional charge of State Election Commissioner to a government official has resulted in mockery of the Constitution.
- The top court also directed all state election commissioners across the country, who currently holds additional charge, to step down immediately.
- The Supreme Court stated that a government employee or bureaucrat cannot be appointed as Election Commissioner.
- The top court has issued the direction by exercising its powers under Articles 142 and 144 of the Constitution.
- Under Article 142, the apex court is empowered to issue directives to do “complete justice” whereas Article 144 obligates all authorities to act in aid of the Supreme Court.
- Appointment of SEC: The SEC is appointed by the concerned state Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister.
- Removal of SEC: The state election commissioner can be removed only by the President.
- He can be removed only in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of a high court.
- Functions of SEC: Article 243K provides the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to the panchayats shall be vested in the state election commission.
- Article 243ZA: The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to the Municipalities shall be vested with SEC.
- The State Election Commission should submit its annual or special reports to the Election Commission of India and to the Governor.
- The functions of delimitation, reservation and rotation of seats should be vested in a Delimitation Commission and not in the State Election Commission.
- Qualifications for SEC: The person to be appointed as the State Election Commissioner shall be a person:
- Who is or has been a judge of a High Court; or
- A person who has served the Government in the rank of a Commissioner for a minimum period of five years, or has served the State Government in a higher rank, namely, Financial Commissioner.
- Age: The State Election Commissioner shall not be below the age of fifty-five years.
- Term of office: The State Election Commissioner shall hold office for a period of five years from the date he assumes office;
- Provided that where the SEC attains the age of sixty-five years before the expiry of the said term of five years, he shall vacate his office on the date on which he attains the said age;
- Provided further that the State Election Commissioner may, at any time, by writing under his hand addressed to the Governor, resign his office.
- Reappointment of SEC: On ceasing to hold office, the State Election Commissioner shall not be eligible for any further appointment under the Government.
Recently, the INS Talwar, stationed at Gulf of Oman, has received a broadcast call from a stranded merchant cargo ship, MV Nayan.
INS Talwar
- It is a Talwar-class frigate of the Indian Navy.
- It is a modified Krivak III-Class frigate.
- It was built in Russia, and commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2003.
- It is a multirole frigate which has participated in various operations and exercises since her commissioning, including anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia.
- It supports naval forces during air, surface and sub-surface missions.
- It is used to detect and destroy enemy submarines and other surface ships.
- It is fitted with a Trebovaniye-M combat information and control system.
- Ayya Vaikunda (1809-1851) was a great humanist and social thinker.
- He lived in the Princely Kingdom of Travancore in the early decades of the 19th Century Kerala.
- He is remembered as the first well known social reformer in India who critiqued the caste discrimination and religious hierarchy and fought against the practice of untouchability.
- His gave an exhortation of 'ONE CASTE, ONE RELIGION, ONE CLAN, ONE WORLD, ONE GOD'.
- He was against idol worship and he did not allow the portraitures to draw his figure.
- His theory and practice like 'samathva samajam', 'sama panthi bhojan’, 'thottu namam podunkal' aimed at cultivating a thought of equality and unity in Indian minds.
- He founded 'samathva samajam' in 1836 and was considered the first socio reform movement in India.
- He called the rule of the British as ‘Ven Neechan’ and the rule of the king of Travancore as ‘The Neechan of Ananthapuri’.
- He advised his followers to practice Dharma and the most important form of Dharma was considered ‘Annadhanam’.
- He organized ‘Sama Panthi Bhojana’ in each and every place of worship in the name of ‘Annadanam’.
- The One Nation One Ration Card system was started initially in 4 States in August 2019.
- It has been swiftly rolled out in a very short span of time in 32 States/UTs by December 2020.
- The integration of remaining 4 States/UT (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and West Bengal) is expected to be completed
- It covers nearly 69 Crore NFSA beneficiaries (about 86% NFSA population) in the country.
- It has been developed by the Department of Food & Public Distribution and National Informatics Centre (NIC).
- The salient features of the Mera Ration App are:
- The beneficiaries can identify and locate the nearest fair price shop;
- The beneficiaries can easily check details of their:
- Foodgrain entitlement
- Recent transactions
- Status of Aadhaar seeding
- The migrant beneficiaries can register their migration details through the application.
- The application is currently available in English and Hindi.
- It will benefit especially those ration card holders who move to new areas for livelihoods.
- It aims to facilitate various ONORC related services among NFSA beneficiaries, particularly migrant beneficiaries, Fair Price Shop (FPS) dealers and other relevant stakeholders.
- The Indian Army is in the process of procuring MINT systems under Make II Category of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.
- It is envisaged as a lightweight, portable, state of art integrated communication solution with satellite backhaul.
- It is equipped with a wireless access system to support voice, video and data.
- It creates a dedicated high-speed 4G network bubble, with on-request support for interoperability between LTE handsets and other existing tactical networks.
- It is capable of supporting all or at least one of CDMA, GSM and TETRA connectivity in the proposed defence band.
- It is meant for use in the mountains and high altitude terrain for seamless communication.
- The robust communication support has always been a key enabler of combat potential of the field army.
- The advancements in communication technologies have facilitated solutions which can be adapted and customised as per operational requirements to give a distinctive winning edge.
- The MINT systems will enhance the operational communication capability of the field army in consonance to the self-reliance vision of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” for Defence production.
- The development of Atmanirbhar Niveshak Mitra Portal is under the “Invest India” agency
- The portal is aimed at handholding and facilitation, information dissemination, and facilitation of domestic investors.
- It will have a dedicated digital investment promotion and facilitation team which will facilitate domestic investors to directly connect or request meetings with the Invest India experts.
- It will digitally support investors throughout their doing business journey in India and help them getting all the information which includes:
- Finding an investment opportunity to exploring incentives & taxes applicable to their businesses;
- Information and assistance for doing business in India;
- Sources of funding; and
- Information on raw material availability, training, management requirement and tender information
- Daily updates on Policies and New Initiatives by Central and State Government will be made available on the portal.
- One on one Meetings & Discussions with the Invest India experts which will ensure adequate facilitation to domestic investors and issue resolution.
- AI based Chat Bot for resolving queries.
- One-stop-shop to access all MSME portals like Champions portal, MSME Samadhaan, MSME Sampark etc.
- Information on Export Promotion Councils and B2B platforms of chambers of commerce.
POSTED ON 13-03-2021 BY ADMIN
Next previous 
General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
IAS GOOGLE is googled by the team of Raja Sir’s Cracking IAS Academy. Sources include The Hindu, Indian Express, pib.nic.in, Down To Earth, Economic Times, Vigyan Prasar, AIR and the like. IAS GOOGLE has been prepared in pace with emerging UPSC Trends.