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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a Rs 4,500 crore financial assistance to Bhutan for its 12th five-year plan after holding wide-ranging talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Lotay Tshering.

In his media statement,Modi said hydro power cooperation with Bhutan is a key aspect of bilateral ties and that work on the Mangdechhu project will soon be completed.

Tshering arrived here on Thursday on his first foreign visit after taking charge as PM of the Himalayan nation last month following his party’s victory in the general elections.

Modi said he has assured the Bhutanese prime minister that India,as a trusted friend,will continue to play an important role in Bhutan’s development.

Delhi is once again grappling crisis of air pollution.The spike in the pollution has once again dipped capital’s air quality. Though it showed marginal improvement on 26 December morning, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) measuring 383, the problem doesn’t quite seem to get resolved with no long term solution in sight.And it’s not just Delhi,other major cities too are facing similar issues.Mumbai’s AQI measured ‘very poor’ near 400, Kolkata reels at severe and Lucknow too recorded the levels at ‘very poor’.

Early this week,following reports of the pollution levels,the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) had issued a three-day ban on industries and construction work in Delhi and NCR till December 26.Delhi government too is contemplating to bring in back the car rationing ‘Odd n Even’ rule if the need arises.

16 years after the commencement of work,the Bogibeel bridge over the river Brahmaputra was finally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.With a length of 4.94km long this is now the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India and comes as a big breather for the people of northeast.

With this bridge becoming operational distance from Dibrugarh to Rangiya will be reduced by 170 km and a train journey from Itangar, capital of Arunachal Pradesh to Dibrugarh will be only 180km.People from Dhemaji,Jonai and North Lakhimpur who had to earlier travel the whole day to cross the Brahmaputra to reach Dibrugarh,will now cross the river within minutes.

The Centre Government has given a big push to a diverse range of infrastructure projects in the North Eastern Region in the last four years. The emphasis has been on improving rail, road, air and inland waterways connectivity in the region.In addition to this schemes such as National Bamboo mission,Digital North East Vision 2022 and North East Industrial Development Scheme have also been launched for overall development of the north eastern states.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on 21 December said that India is rendering yeoman service in developing countries by providing access to life-saving medicines at affordable prices.

Addressing the 70th edition of Indian Pharmaceutical Congress, the Vice President said, rural health programmes, lifesaving drugs and preventive vaccines should also receive attention from policymakers and pharma companies alike.

He said speedy introduction of generic drugs into the market should remain in focus. The Vice President expressed happiness that the pharma sector is out-performing most other sectors in achieving consistently high growth.

The pharmaceutical industry is deliberating on various issues related to generic drugs and medical devices at the event in Noida, from December 21-23. IPC 2018 will see 125 speakers and organisers expect around 6,000 delegates this year from all the sections of the pharma fraternity from India as well as abroad.

A bill that bars commercial surrogacy and allows only close relatives to act as surrogates to needy infertile couples for “altruistic” reasons was passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 December with Health Minister J P Nadda terming the proposed legislation historic.

Highlights of the Bill

1.Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby an intending couple commissions a surrogate mother to carry their child.

2.The intending couple must be Indian citizens and married for at least five years with at least one of them being infertile. The surrogate mother has to be a close relative who has been married and has had a child of her own.

3.No payment other than reasonable medical expenses can be made to the surrogate mother. The surrogate child will be deemed to be the biological child of the intending couple.

4.Central and state governments will appoint appropriate authorities to grant eligibility certificates to the intending couple and the surrogate mother. These authorities will also regulate surrogacy clinics.

5.Undertaking surrogacy for a fee, advertising it or exploiting the surrogate mother will be punishable with imprisonment for 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.

Indicating that further simplification of the Goods and Services Tax is on the anvil, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government wants to ensure that ’99 per cent things’ attract sub-18 per cent GST slab. Before implementation of the GST, registered enterprises only numbered 65 lakh, which has now risen by 55 lakh, the PM said addressing a media Summit in Mumbai.

PM Modi indicated that the 28 per cent slab of GST would only be restricted to a few select items, such as luxury goods. The Prime Minister said the effort will be to ensure that 99 per cent of all items, including almost all items used by the common man, would be kept at a GST slab of 18 per cent or less.

The Lok Sabha on Monday passed a bill seeking to empower the transgender community by providing them a separate identity.

Highlights of the Bill

1.Prohibition against discrimination : The Bill prohibits discrimination of transgenders in relation to opportunities for education, job, health care services, and access to services, accomodation, transport etc.

2.Right to be recognized as transgender : It states that every person has a right to be recognized as a transgender.

3.Establishments not to discriminate transgenders : The bill imposes the obligation on establishments to not to discriminate transgenders in relation to employment, promotion, and other job benefits.

4.Right of Residence : No transgender person shall be separated from parents on the ground of being Transgender.

5.National Council for Transgender persons sought to be established.

6.Compelling a Transgender to indulge in begging or bonded labour is made an offence.

7.Government is mandated to formulate welfare schemes for transgender persons.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on 15 December said there are women officers engaged in exercises like mining and de-mining operations and also manning the air defence system, but cited difficulties in assigning them frontline combat roles.

He said that in frontline combat there are risks of officers getting killed. In combat, when body bags come back, our country is not ready to see that.

The army chief added, we have women officers as engineers, they are doing mining and demining work. In air defence, they are manning our weapon systems. But we have not put women in frontline combat because what we are engaged in right now is a proxy war, like in Kashmir.

He cited logistical reasons also behind not posting women on frontlines. The Army Chief questioned whether a women officer with commanding responsibilities can stay away from her post for long?

The Supreme Court has once again on 13 December made a strong observation on the situation of prisoners lodged in jails.

The Supreme Court has issued instructions to all state governments to make changes in prison rules.

During the hearing, the court said that in all the states, prisoners’ rights should be fully taken care of.

Also, the court observed that prisoners sentenced to death should be allowed to meet psychiatrists.

In November, during a discussion on the plight of the jails, the court had said that there are very poor arrangements for prisoners.

Upkeep of jails has not been undertaken for years.

Toilets and sewage system are not cleaned in the jails. There is not enough room for children of prisoners in prison. The list of problems is endless.

To know more about our Samachar Manthan course which deals with enhancing your Mains answer writing skills along with Current Affairs preparation, read & Subscribe here:

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To know more about our Samachar Manthan course which deals with enhancing your Mains answer writing skills along with Current Affairs preparation, read & Subscribe here:

https://www.civilsdaily.com/samachar-manthan/

To know more about our Samachar Manthan course which deals with enhancing your Mains answer writing skills along with Current Affairs preparation, read & Subscribe here: https://www.civilsdaily.com/samachar-manthan/

To know more about our Samachar Manthan course which deals with enhancing your Mains answer writing skills along with Current Affairs preparation, read & Subscribe here:

https://www.civilsdaily.com/samachar-manthan/

This video is a part of our Demystifying Economics- Core & Current Affairs Buildup Lecture Series

The lecture covers the following topics:

1) The theory of protectionism

2) The basic theory of trade barriers: Tariffs

3) US-China trade war

4) Cost of tariffs imposition

5) Gains and losses from impositions of tariffs

Know more about the program and join here: https://bit.ly/2x1rWe4

To know more about our Samachar Manthan course which deals with enhancing your Mains answer writing skills along with Current Affairs preparation, read & Subscribe here: https://www.civilsdaily.com/samachar-manthan/

Here is a detailed trend analysis of previous years UPSC Prelims GS Papers by Sajal sir

In this video he focuses on:

– Subject level trend analysis of last 6 years Prelims papers
– Strategy for 2019 prelims (which sources to refer)
– Scrutinizing the 2018 prelims paper (destroying the myth that clearing UPSC prelims is fully based on luck and regular sources have become useless)
– Highlighting themes from which UPSC is asking the most number of questions and areas which are being ignored to help you in prioritising most important topics

Share this video with your friends and post your doubts related to the preparation in the comments section

We have launched Batch 5 of our CD Prime Prelims Test Series also having advanced level static subject videos

You can join it at a special 10% early bird discount until November 18th

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View the detailed discussion of Test 1 of our Mains Guidance Program below

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