Current Affairs 15th December 2018

• Current Affairs 15th December 2018 - Important Points
• Employers must be considerate, sympathetic towards pregnant employees: Delhi HC
• India, Saudi Arabia sign bilateral yearly Haj 2019 MoU
• Brijendra Pal Singh nominated as President of FTII
• Supreme Court gives Clean Chit to NDA Government over Rafale Deal
• SIPRI Report published Four Indian PSUs feature in world’s top 100 arms producers
• Ashok Gehlot to be sworn-in as Rajasthan Chief Minister; Sachin Pilot as Deputy Chief Minister

Current Affairs 15th December 2018 - Details

Employers must be considerate, sympathetic towards pregnant employees: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on December 12th, 2018 instructed that females should be honoured & treated with self-respect at offices and detected that employers must be considerate as well as sympathetic towards a pregnant worker.

The High Court directed that the employer must realise the physical complications that a female would face in accomplishing her duties at the offices while pregnancy/looking after the new born child.

The High Court's comments came while guiding the Delhi government to have a female in the panel for guest teachers and make use of her services as and when needed by the school, subjected to her medical fitness.

Judgement’s important Points

The High court stated that females constitute almost half of the section of the society, must be given due weightage, honour and treated with dignity at work places. The bench guided that to become a mother is the most natural miracles in the life of a female.

The court instructed the office of Deputy Directorate of Education, Delhi government to publish essential order to this effect within 2 weeks.

India, Saudi Arabia sign bilateral yearly Haj 2019 MoU

India and Saudi Arabia on December 13th, 2018 inked the bilateral yearly Haj 2019 MoU at Jeddah. The MoU was inked by the Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi & Haj and Umrah Minister of Saudi Arabia, Dr. Mohammad Saleh bin Taher Benten.

The MoU is a part of reinforced bilateral ties of the both nations. Both India and Saudi Arabia share strong cultural, historical, economic & political ties. Speaking on the same, the Saudi Minister informed that Saudi Arabia has always played an active as well as effective role to make sure safety & better facilities to the Indian Haj pilgrims.

Important Highlights

• A huge number of Muslim females are likely to travel to Haj 2019 without ‘Mehram’. Above 2100 females have already applied.
• The Indian Government had removed the restriction on females going to Haj without a male companion for the 1st time in 2017.
• As a result of the restriction, approximately 1300 Indian Muslim females had gone to Haj in 2018 without any male companion. They had been excused from the lottery system. 
• To support these females Haj pilgrims, for the 1st time, above 100 females Haj Coordinators & Haj Assistants had been positioned in 2018.
• Presently, the Haj Committee of India has received above 2 lakh 47 thousand applications for Haj 2019, among which 47% are from females. 
• For the 1st time after Independence, a record number of Muslims about 1,75,025 in numbers, from India completed Haj 2018 and that too without any aid and among them 48% were females. 
• The Indian Government has demanded the Saudi Arabian Government to increase India’s yearly Haj quota for Haj 2019.

Brijendra Pal Singh nominated as President of FTII

The Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on December 13th, 2018 designated “CID” Director-producer Brijendra Pal Singh as the new President of Film and Television Institute of India- FTII and as the Chairman of Film and Television Institute of India Governing Council.

The suggestion was made by the Ministry under Rule 3 & Rule 22 of the Rules of the Film and Television Institute of India. BP Singh is currently the Vice Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India Governing Council. 

BP Singh is a Film and Television Institute of India alumnus of 1970-73 batch who is specialised in film cinematography.

He is the Producer as well as Director of popular television serial ‘CID’ which lately completed a record 21 years of efficacious run on SONY TV. 

In 2004, he made his ticket to the Limca Book of Records for having a single continuous shot of 111 minutes to mark the completion of 6 years of serial CID.

He was the Chairperson of Film and Television Institute of India Academic Council during 2014 to 2017.

It was his vision to release Film and Television Institute of India's countrywide film education outreach initiative Skilling India in Film and Television- SKIFT in May 2017 which had nearly 120 short courses directed in more than 24 cities & towns across India, reaching approximately 5000 learners so far.

Film and Television Institute of India

FTII recognized in 1960, and is considered as a premier institute for training in Cinema & Television. 

It is an independent institute under the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and is supported by the Central Government. It is located in the premises of the erstwhile Prabhat Film Company, Pune. 

Film and Television Institute of India is a member of the International Liaison Centre of Schools of Cinema & Television, a group of the world's leading schools of film & television. It has been conferred the status of Institute of National Importance by the Union Government.

Supreme Court gives Clean Chit to NDA Government over Rafale Deal

Supreme Court of India has issued clean chit to NDA government for purchase of 36 Rafale fighter Jets. The 3 Judge bench led by Ranjan Gogoi, find nothing wrong during the purchase of 36 fighter jet instead of 126 from France.

Important Points

The bench consists of Ranjan Gogoi as chairman and other 2 members S.K.Kaul & K.M.Joseph, issued clean chit for procurement of Rafale jets from France. The hearing had questioned the deal on the ground of pricing process, commercial favouritism & procurement of a smaller number of fighter jets. The petition was 1st filed by Advocate M.L.Sharma. The petitioners requested CBI to record a FIR for the such irregularities in deal. The Supreme court rule has 2 main points including 1) It finds nil marks of commercial favouritism and 2) It is not the job of court to handle comparative pricing process.

Rafale Deal

Dassault Rafale earnt the MMRCA competition in January 2012 to stock 126 Jet aircraft with extra 63 aircraft to IAF. 1st 18 aircrafts were to be provided by Dassault & residual were to be produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Dassault declined to ensure the quality of aircraft produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. In 2014 the amount of deal raised to $30 billion. This formed the price question on the deal and deal couldn’t be inked. Then after NDA government, the deal was completed with the 36 multirole fighter aircraft of Rs. 58000 crores from Dassault Aviation, France. The deal has been in debate since its inception.

SIPRI Report published Four Indian PSUs feature in world’s top 100 arms producers

The recently released rankings by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute- “SIPRI” have positioned 4 Indian Public Sector Undertakings among world’s topmost 100 arms producers. These PSUs are as-

1. Indian Ordnance Factories at 37 Ranking
2. Hindustan Aeronautics at 38 Ranking
3. Bharat Electronics at 64 Ranking
4. Bharat Dynamics 94 Ranking

Important Points

This was for the 1st time that 4 Indian PSUs have placed in top 100 arms producer organisations of world. These 4 PSUs have sold arms worth amount USD 7.52 Billion in year 2017.

India’s present share in total global arms sales stands at below 2 percent which indicates that India has been a weak producer in international markets.

Successive government have tried to change India into a global defence producing hub and take multiple policy actions to involve private sector in defence production. However, utmost of such measures has been on the papers only till now.

About SIPRI

SIPRI was recognized in 1966, which is a Swedish think tank dedicated to research into battle, armaments, arms control & disarmament. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute provides information, analysis & approvals, based on open sources, to policymakers, scientists, media and the interested public.

World’s top arms producers

The universal arms market is dominated by United States firms which have an enormous 57 percent of the market share, trailed by Russia with 9.5 percent, UK with 9 percent and France with 5.3 percent. As of 2017, Lockheed Martin is world’s largest arms with sales of $ 44.9 billion. Boeing is the 2nd largest arms producer firm in the world.

Ashok Gehlot to be sworn-in as Rajasthan Chief Minister; Sachin Pilot as Deputy Chief Minister

Ashok Gehlot is expected to be taking oath as Rajasthan CM for the 3rd time. While, Sachin Pilot will sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Rajasthan. The result was declared on December 14th, 2018 after Congress President Rahul Gandhi saw both Gehlot & Sachin Pilot in Delhi on December 13th, 2018. 

2-time CM Ashok Gehlot & Rajasthan Congress Chief Sachin Pilot were challenging against each other in the race for the post of Rajasthan CM.

About Ashok Gehlot

Gehlot has worked 2 terms as the CM Rajasthan, once from 1998-2003 and then from 2008-2013.

After his 1st appropriate job as NSUI's Rajasthan president from 1974-1979, he carried on to become the Jodhpur district Congress Committee President from 1979-1982.

Gehlot was 1st-elected to Parliament in 1980 and carried on to secure Lok Sabha elections 4 more times.

Since 1999, he has characterized the Sardarpura assembly constituency, winning 5 consecutive terms in the House.

Gehlot has worked as various ministries including Union Ministry of Tourism; Civil Aviation; Sports & Textiles in different stints between 1982 and 1993. 

Rajasthan Elections Results 2018

The Indian National Congress came out as the single largest party in Rajasthan, winning 99 seats on its own and 1 more with RLD in the 2018 Rajasthan Assembly Elections.