NATIONAL

Parliament passes “The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019”:

• The Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 has been passed by the Parliament, with the Rajya Sabha approving it last night. 125 members supported the legislation while 105 opposed it. The House also negated the amendments moved by Opposition parties while approving the Bill.
• The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday. 311 members had voted in its favour and 80 members opposing it.
• The bill amends the Citizenship Act, 1955 to make illegal migrants of six communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. The communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.

Features of The Citizenship Amendment Bill:

• The new bill is passed to provide Indian citizenship to the illegal migrants, who are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and are

1. Hindus
2. Sikhs
3. Buddhists
4. Jains
5. Parsis and
6. Christians

• The Bill seeks to amend the act to allow cancellation of OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) registration if the person has violated any provision of the act or any law in force in India. A provision is also to be added where the OCIs are given opportunity to be heard in courts before the cancellation.
• The Bill says that on acquiring citizenship:
• such persons shall be regarded as Indian citizens from the date of their entry into India, and
• all legal proceedings against them related to their illegal migration or citizenship will be closed.
• The bill also proposes to amend the 3rd Schedule to the Act, to make the applicants of the aforesaid religions and countries eligible for citizenship by naturalisation if they can prove their residency in India for five years instead of the existing eleven years.
• The illegal migrants who have entered into India up to the cut of date of 31.12.2014 shall be granted the certificate of registration or certificate of naturalisation and they may be given the citizenship of India from the date of their entry in India if they fulfil the conditions.

WHAT ARE THE EXAMPTION?

The Bill adds that the provisions on citizenship for illegal migrants will not apply to

1. the tribal areas of Karbi Anglong (Assam), Garo Hills (Meghalaya), Chakma District (Mizoram), and Tripura Tribal Areas District and
2. the areas under the Inner Line Regulation, whose permit regulates the visit of Indians to Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

Bill introduced in Lok Sabha to amend welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act:

• The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Lok Sabha today.
• It was introduced by Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot.
• The bill, among other things, seeks to remove the ceiling of ten thousand rupees as maintenance and includes the preference to dispose of applications of senior citizens, above 80 years of age.
• It also provides for the registration of senior citizens’ care homes and home care service agencies and seeks to ensure that minimum standards are maintained at such homes.

Private satellite TV channels asked to strictly adhere to programme, advertising codes:

• Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked private satellite TV channels to strictly adhere to the programme and advertising codes as prescribed in the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995. TV Channels have been advised to be particularly cautious with regard to any content which is likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order.
• The channels have also been advised to be cautious with content which promotes anti-national attitudes or contain anything affecting the integrity of the nation. The Ministry asked TV channels to ensure that no such content is telecast which is violative of the codes.

STATE:

Andhra Pradesh Govt takes historic decision to protect women, children:

• The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken a historic decision to protect women and children. The Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy yesterday approved enacting Andhra Pradesh Disha Act, 2019, Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2019 and Andhra Pradesh Special Court for Specified Offences against Women and Children Act, 2019.
• The draft Disha Act provided for harsher punishment, including death sentence, to those guilty of heinous crimes against women. The Act would cover sexual offences against women and children, acid attacks and harassment of women.
• To ensure speedy trial, the Government is establishing special courts in each district to deal exclusively with cases of offences against women and children, including rape, gang rape, acid attacks, stalking, voyeurism, sexual harassment and also cases under the POCSO Act.

Assam: Army conducts flag march; law & order situation under constant monitoring:

• In Assam, the Army is conducting flag march at Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Jorhat. Law and order situation is being monitored constantly by the senior officials. The Officer-in-Charge of the Duliajan Police Station in Dibrugarh district injured last night in a clash with the protesters.
• Meanwhile, the proceedings of fourth day’s play of the Ranji Trophy games in Guwahati and Agartala have been suspended today due to the curfew imposed in the region following protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

TAMILNADU:

Tamil Nadu books first case of child pornography under POCSO Act:

• The Tamil Nadu police has booked a suspect who allegedly downloaded / uploaded and circulated child pornography under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Information Technology. This is the first time the State police has invoked provisions under these amended Acts to curb child pornography.
• The Tiruchi city police on Thursday arrested Christopher Alphonse (42) of Khajapet on charges of possessing and circulating child porn to his contacts through a social media platform.

Eight of 15 Mayor posts reserved for women in Tamil Nadu:

• Tamil Nadu government has reserved eight of the 15 Mayor posts for women, including one for Scheduled Caste in Vellore. It may be noted that the elections for urban local bodies have not been announced as yet.
• While Vellore is reserved for Scheduled Caste (woman), Mayor posts in Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Dindigul, Madurai, Coimbatore and Erode Corporations are reserved for women (General), according to the notification issued by the Municipal Administration Department recently.

ECONOMICS:

IBC (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 introduced in LS:

• The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. It was introduced today by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the pre-lunch session.
• The amendment is for streamlining corporate insolvency resolution process and to protect last-mile funding to promote investment in sectors that are financially distressed. Union Cabinet gave its approval to the amendments last Wednesday.

International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill passed by Lok Sabha:

• The Lok Sabha  passed the International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019.
• It seeks to establish a unified Authority to develop and regulate the financial services market in the International Financial Services Centres or IFSC’s in India. Currently, multiple agencies are entrusted with regulating the specific market including the RBI, SEBI, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, IRDA and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, PFRDA.
• Fourteen Central Acts would be amended including seven relating to the RBI, three each relating to the SEBI and the IRDA and one on the PFRDA.

Cabinet authorises setting up of Infrastructure Investment Trust by NHAI:

• Union Cabinet today gave its nod to the proposal of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, authorizing National Highways Authority of India, NHAI to set up Infrastructure Investment Trust,  as per Guidelines issued by Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI.
• It will enable NHAI to monetize completed National Highways that have a toll collection track record of at least one year and NHAI reserves the right to levy a toll on the identified highway.
• The trust as an instrument provides greater flexibility to investors and it is expected to create opportunities like the generation of specialized Operation and Maintenance Concessionaires, attract long-term capital to the Indian highway market and retail domestic savings and corpus of special institutions to be invested in the infrastructure sector.

SPORTS:

3rd T20I: India beat West Indies by 67 runs:

India beat West Indies by 67 runs to win the third and final T20 International at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday. With this victory, India won the three-match series by 2-1.

Sports Minister announces cash awards to SAG medalists:

• Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju today announced a cash reward of 1.5 lakh rupees each for the 174 gold medallists of the South Asian Games held in Nepal.
• The South Asian Games concluded yesterday with India topping the table for the historic 13th time in a row, winning 312 medals including 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze medals. The silver winners will receive one lakh rupees and bronze winners  50,000 rupees each.

PDF Download

For Online Test Series	Click Here
To Subscribe Youtube	Click Here
To Join Whatsapp	Click Here
To Join Telegram Channel	Click Here