JHARKHAND
- Jobs, healthcare top voter priorities in Jharkhand: Report
- Employment, access to healthcare, law and order are the top three priorities for voters of the state in this general election but the raging debate over corruption is the least talked about on the ground, reveals a pre-poll survey conducted between October and December last year by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Election Watch (NEW) campaign.
- During the survey, ADR-NEW analyses 10 most important governance issues as rated by voters out of the 31 questions posed to them. Interestingly, the issue of corruption didn’t fare in the top 10 among rural voters, while in urban pockets, it remained the last. Jharkhand has had its share of scams, including on horse-trading, mining and 2011 National Games among others.
- The overall top three priorities of the the state voters, both in rural and urban pockets, are better employment opportunities (47.08%), access to better health care (40.08%) and law and order (47.08%). In all of these, the government performance has been abysmally below average when evaluated on a rating of 1-5 point scale.
In rural Jharkhand, the voter priorities were focussed on better employment opportunities (47%), agriculture subsidy for seeds and fertilizers (42%) and electricity for agriculture (40%). Here too, the government scores below average with rating of 2.15, 5, 2.06 and 2.09 respectively.
- On the contrary, for the urban voters, law and order (55%) topped the priority list followed by job opportunities (55%) and access to better/affordable healthcare (46%). The government’s performance on these priorities remained 2.10, 1.99 and 1.91 — all below average, the report said.INTERNATIONAL
- India-Singapore Joint Military Exercise Bold Kurukshetra2019
- Military forces of India and Singapore to participate in a joint exercise in Babina Cantonment in Jhansi.
- The three-day exercise, ‘Bold Kurukshetra–2019’, conducted to develop military technology, boost maritime security and bolster the nations’ fight against terrorism.
- The two countries signed a cooperation agreement to strengthen the defence ties between Indian Military and Singapore Armed Forces in November.
- Emirates Islamic became world’s first Islamic bank to launch banking via WhatsApp
- Dubai based Emirates Islamic has announced the launch of Chat Banking services for customers via WhatsApp, marking a global first in the Islamic banking sector.
- The Chat Banking solution allows customers to use features such as checking account balances and temporarily blocking or unblocking of an existing card.
- All messages on Emirates Islamic’s verified WhatsApp Business account are encrypted, ensuring confidentiality and security.
NATIONAL
- PM Modi awarded with Russia’s highest state honour
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred on the Order of St Andrew the Apostle highest state decoration of Russia.
- He was decorated with the award for his exceptional services in promoting a special and privileged strategic partnership between Russian and India.
- In 2017, Chinese president Xi Jinping was awarded the Order of St Andrew the Apostle.
- Recently, PM Modi has been awarded the United Arab Emirates’s top honour as well as of countries including South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Palestine and Afghanistan.
- Pink booth to attract women friends for their right to vote
- Pink polling booth at Jamui parliamentary constituency in Bihar.
- All polling party including security personnel are women discharging their election duty.
- Women in this constituency are happy and turning in a large number to vote for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019.
- The decision was taken to make women feel special and come in large number in order to cast their vote.
- The 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, will vote in the first of the seven-phase polls.
- Varanasi ranked third on the WHOs list of 15 most polluted cities
- According to the ‘Political Leaders Position and Action on Air Quality in India 2014-2019’ report, released by Climate Trends, the air quality in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha constituency, is ranked third on the WHO’s (World Health Organisation) list of 15 most polluted cities in the world.
- Fourteen of the 15 most polluted cities in the world, listed by World Health Organisation (WHO) are in India, of which four are in Uttar Pradesh.
- Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh is the most polluted city in the world and is ranked oneon the list.
- Faridabad in Haryana has been ranked second.
- Delhi is ranked sixth on the list.
- Gaya and Patna in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow, Cities of Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurugram, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur are also on the WHO list of most polluted cities.
- The air quality index (AQI) in Varanasi reached an alarming 490in 2017 and 384 (very poor category) in December 2018.
Gk bit :Air Quality Index (AQI) in India:
As per pollution control authorities, An AQI between
? 0 and 50 is considered “good”,
? 51 and 100 “satisfactory”,
? 101 and 200 “moderate”,
? 201 and 300 “poor”,
? 301 and 400 “very poor”, and
? 401 and 500 “severe”.