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Highlights The cabinet has also suggested that Assamese will be made compulsory in all schools of Assam. The move comes in the wake of rising insecurities among Assamese population in the state. After the passing of Citizenship Amendment Bill, there has been an increased wave of insecurity in the Brahmaputra Valley. In order make the move successful, the Central Government will now have to amend Article 345. If amended the article will remove fears of people fighting for their rights to culture and language in the region. |
Current Scenario Currently Assamese and Bodo are the official languages in Assam. However, certain districts of Assam in Barak valley use Bengali as official language |
Article 345
Article 345 says that subject to provisions of Article 346 and 347, the state legislature might adopt one or more languages to be used as official languages.
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The factor of amendment comes in as the Assam Government intends to exclude a section of the state which is against the current constitutional provisions. |
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About ‘Chillai-Kalan’ These 40 days are when the chances of snowfall are highest and the maximum temperature drops considerably. During Chillai-Kalan, the weather in Kashmir valley continues to remain dry and cold with minimum temperatures hovering below freezing point and the snow during this 40-day period freezes and lasts longer. Even after Chillai-Kalan ends, the cold wave, however, continues even after that. Therefore Chillai-Kalan is followed by a 20-day-long period called ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (small cold) that occurs between January 31 and February 19 and a 10-day-long period ‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold) which is from February 20 to March 2. |
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Source: The News on AIR |
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Source: The BBC |
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Source: The NDTV |
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Highlights: World Globally the number of tobacco users have declined by 60 million people. In 2000, the overall tobacco users were 1.397 billion and it has come down to 1.337 billion in 2018. The report says despite the reduction in numbers, the global target set by governments to reduce the use of tobacco by 30% by 2025 remains off track. So far only 32 countries are on track to reach the target. Around 43 million children (of age 13-15) are using tobacco in 2018. The number of women using tobacco was 244 million. Of all the regions of the world, South East Asian region has the highest use of tobacco. The only region on track to achieve the target is the Americas. |
Highlights: India According to the report, India is off track to achieve the target of 30% reduction by 2025 as compared to 2010 level. Along with India 163 countries are off the track. However, the consumption rate in India is going down by 21.6% as compared to 2010. The current users of smokeless form of tobacco in India is estimated to be 257,020,000. |
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Key Highlights Kolkata Night Riders shelled out Rs.15.5 crore, nearly 43% of their purse, for the New South Welshman at the auction for IPL 2020, the 12th edition of Indian Premier League tournament. The 26-year-old is currently the number one ranked Test bowler in the world. He has previously played for Delhi Capitals or Delhi Daredevils (as they were known then) in 2017 edition and Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2014 edition. Prior to Cummins becoming the most expensive overseas buy in IPL, Ben Stokes was the player a team had spent most money on and that was when he was picked up for 2.16 million in 2017 by Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS). Overall, Cummins is third on list of most expensive IPL players ever bought with Yuvraj Singh occupying the first rank ande Gautam Gambhir occupying second rank, having also been bought by KKR. |
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What is Space Force? It is United States’ first new military service in more than 70 years, since Air Force was spun off from US Army in 1947. While Space Force is not designed or intended to put combat troops in space, it will be the provider of forces and will build on work of US Space Command (SpaceCom). SpaceCom was created in August 2019 as the overseer of US military’s space operations. Space Force would comprise around 16,000 Air Force and civilian personnel and will be funded by an initial US $40million for its first year. Instead of being its own military department, like US Navy, US Army and US Air Force, the Space Force will be administered by Secretary of Air Force. |
What will the Space Force actually do? It is not intended to put troops into orbit, but will protect US assets like hundreds of satellites used for communication and surveillance. This space mission comes as US military chiefs see China and Russia making advancements in military final frontier. The space mission is part of a broader vision of achieving American dominance in space as amid grave threats to US national security. |
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Highlights The authority has decided that the front of the pack and the general labeling regulations must be de-linked. The authority will soon provide threshold limit of sugar, salt and fat in food products. The Front of Packet Labeling helps to identify the green (vegetarian foods ) and red (non-vegetarian foods). It also includes pictorial representation of nutrients, food group nutrients and summary indicators, etc. This can at times be misleading as consumers fail to give a detailed read about the product. |
Front of Pack Labelling FoPL is a policy tool that help consumers to make healthier food choices. It was included for the first time in draft Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display Regulations), 2019. It aims at creating awareness to consumers about products that are high in sugar, fat and salt content. There are two aspects of FoPL namely threshold limit and the way the limit is depicted on packets of processed food. |
Why the delinking? Delinking is breaking the connection or cutting off. On December 17, the Centre for Science and Environment released a report based on its study on packaged food. The Centre tested 33 foods, 19 fast foods, four different types of wrapped sandwiches, fried chicken, pizza, etc. The results showed high content of salt and fat in the food items. The thresholds that the companies follow were not up to Indian Standards. Therefore, FSSAI has delinked the FoPL standards from labelling regulations and will set new threshold. |
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Highlights India and China agreed to intensify their efforts in order to achieve reasonable solution to boundary problems. Also, the countries recognized the importance of Confidence Building Measures in order to promote communication between the border personnel. |
Significance The India-china border dispute is in Aksai region in the western end and at the McMahon Line one the eastern side. The countries held 21st round of talks at Chengdu in China in 2018. The Special Representatives talks are given utmost importance by both the countries as it involves highest officials. It is also important the forum discusses common issues of the countries along with border issues. |
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