General Knowledge Current Affairs

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Mathematician Yves Meyer has been awarded the Abel Prize for 2017

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has awarded the Abel Prize for 2017 to mathematician Yves Meyer of the Ecole normale superieure Paris-Saclay, France, for his “pivotal role in the development of mathematical theory of wavelets.” The theory of wavelets that he started and made fundamental contributions to finds wide-ranging applications from image processing to fluid dynamics. #YvesMeyer #AbelPrize

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

India tops global slavery index

According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, released by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation on 31st May, an estimated 45.8 million people, including women and children, are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world, compared to 35.8 million in 2014. The report said India has the highest absolute numbers of people trapped in slavery with 18.35 million slaves among its 1.3 billion population, while North Korea has the highest incidence (4.37 per cent of the population) and the weakest government response to deal with it.

Friday, May 29, 2015

DD Kisan–India’s first television channel dedicated to farmers

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, launch  DD Kisan, Doordarshan's channel dedicated exclusively to farmers at New Delhi. The DD Kisan channel should keep an eye and inform farmers about the changes in weather, global markets etc., so that farmers can plan ahead and take the right decisions well in time. 

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today gave its approval for the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) with an outlay of Rs. 1500 crore.

This will be the flagship scheme for skill training of youth to be implemented by the new Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). The scheme will cover 24 lakh persons. Skill training would be done based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards. Under the scheme, a monetary reward is given to trainees on assessment and certification by third party assessment bodies. The average monetary reward would be around Rs. 8000 per trainee.

Out of the total outlay of Rs. 1120 crore to be spent on skill training of 14 lakh youth, special emphasis has been given to recognition of prior learning for which an amount of Rs. 220 crore has been provided. Awareness building and mobilization efforts would be focused for attention, for which Rs. 67 crore has been provided. Mobilization would be done through skill melas organized at the local level with participation of the State Governments, Municipal Bodies, Pachayati Raj Institutions and community based organizations. The focus under the scheme is also on mentorship support and placement facilitation for which an outlay of Rs. 67 crore has been provided. An allocation of Rs. 150 crores has been made for training of youth from the North-East region.

Highlights of skill training would be that it would be done on the basis of demand assessed on the basis of recent skill gap studies conducted by the NSDC for the period 2013-17. For assessment of demand of Central Ministries/Departments/State Governments, industry and business would be consulted. A demand aggregator platform would be launched for the purpose very soon. The target for skilling would be aligned to demand from other flagship programmes launched in recent times such as Make in India, Digital India, National Solar Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Skill training under the new scheme will primarily be focused on a first time entrants to the labour market and primarily target Class 10 and Class 12 drop outs.

The scheme would be implemented through NSDC training partners. Currently NSDC has 187 training partners that have over 2300 centres. In addition, Central / State Government affiliated training providers would also be used for training under the scheme. All training providers will have to undergo a due diligence before being eligible for participating under this scheme. Focus under the PMKVY would be on improved curricula, better pedagogy and better trained instructors. Training would include soft skills, personal grooming, behavioral change for cleanliness, good work ethics. Sector Skill Councils and the State Governments would closely monitor skill training that will happen under PMKVY.

Skill Development Management System (SDMS) would be put in place to verify and record details of all training centres a certain quality of training locations and courses. Biometric system and video recording of the training process would be put in place where feasible. All persons undergoing training would be required to give feed back at the time of assessment and this would become the key element of the evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of the PMKVY scheme. A robust grievance redressal system would be put in place to address grievances relating to implementation of the scheme. An online citizen portal would be put in place to disseminate information about the scheme.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Ratan Tata to head Indian Railways Kaya Kalp council

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu constituted 'Kaya Kalp' Council and appointed noted industrialist Ratan Tata as its head. The purpose of the Council is to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of railways.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Delhi airport ranked No. 1

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has been adjudged the world’s best airport in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category in the Airport Service Quality (ASQ) awards given by the Airports Council International (ACI) for the year 2014. The airport improved from an ASQ score (measured on scale of 1 to 5) of 3.02 in 2007 to 4.90 in 2014. It was ranked second in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Padma Vibhushan Award 2015

S. No Name of the Awardee Discipline State/Domicile
1. Shri L. K. Advani Public Affairs Gujarat
2. Shri Amitabh Bachchan Art Maharashtra
3. Shri Prakash Singh Badal Public Affairs Punjab
4. Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade Social Work Karnataka
5. Shri Mohammad Yusuf Khan alias Dilip Kumar Art Maharashtra
6. Shri Jagadguru Ramanandacharya
Swami Rambhadracharya
Others Uttar Pradesh
7. Prof. Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan Science and Engineering Tamil Nadu
8. Shri Kottayan K. Venugopal Public Affairs Delhi
9. Shri Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Foreigner) Trade and Industry France/UK

More details on Padma Award 2015