Current Affairs 20th September 2017

Current Affairs 20th September 2017 - Important Points

• Shaheed Gram Vikas Yojana launched by - Jharkhand Government
• First woman General Prosecutor of Brazil - Raquel Dodge
• Non-communicable Disease Progress Monitor 2017 report released by - WHO
• First BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise 2017 to be conducted by - India
•  Mobile app for retiring government staffs to be launched by - Union Government
• Chief of Sashastra Seema Bal appointed by - Rajnikant Mishra

Current Affairs 20th September 2017 - Details

Shaheed Gram Vikas Yojana launched by - Jharkhand Government

The state government of Jharkhand launched the ‘Shaheed Gram Vikas Yojana’ on 18th September 2017 to develop villages of freedom fighters. Amit Shah inaugurated this initiative along with Jharkhand Chief Minister at Ulihatu Village of the state, where Jharkhand's tribal icon and freedom fighter - Birsa Munda was born. Speaking on the occasion, Amit Shah said, “If we can't give a developed village to the descendants of the great Birsa Munda and so many others like Nilamber-Pitamber and Siddo Kanu, then we will not be able to return their debt.
Entire India is indebted to their sacrifice, as they kept raising their voices against the British rule time-to-time.”

Key Highlights

• Villages of many tribal freedom fighters will be developed and their habitants will be provided with basic amenities under the scheme.
• The concerned villages have remained inaccessible for quite a long time since Independence because of Left-wing extremism.
• The current scheme will now be providing the inhabitants of the Ulihatu village with 136 pucca houses.
• The pucca houses will be including two rooms, a verandah, bathroom and a toilet each.

 Other than this, Shah gave away gas connections, solar lamps to some of the freedom fighter descendants. He along with Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das also planted saplings at the
site.

More about Birsa Munda

• An Indian tribal freedom fighter and folk hero, he belonged to the Munda tribe.
• He is known to spearhead an Indian indigenous tribal religious millenarian movement that arose in the tribal belt of modern-day Bihar and Jharkhand in the late 19th century against British Raj.
• A series of revolts and uprisings led by him in order to assert rights of the Mundas as the real proprietors of the soil and the expulsion of middlemen and the British.
• He is the only tribal leader who has the honour of having his portrait hung in the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament.
• He was arrested by the Britishers on 3rd February 1900 and died in mysterious conditions on 9th June 1900 in Ranchi Jail. The British government has declared that he died because of cholera even though he didn’t show any symptoms disease.
• Birsa in his short lifespan of 25 years managed to arouse the tribal mind-set and mobilize them in a small town of Chotanagpur against the British rule.

First woman General Prosecutor of Brazil - Raquel Dodge

Raquel Dodge was appointed the first woman General Prosecutor of Brazil on 18th September 2017. She took over the position after replacing Rodrigo Janot, who held the same position for four years.
She sworn in as the new prosecutor general in the presence of President Michel Temer and Supreme Court President Carmen Lucia.

More about Raquel Dodge

• Born on 26th July 1961, Raquel Dodge previously served as a sub-prosecutor general of the Republic and served on the 3rd Chamber of Coordination and Revision.
• She also served in the Superior Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office and was coordinator of the Criminal Chamber of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
• She holds a bachelors degree in law from the Brasília University and a masters in law from the Harvard University.
• In 1987, She joined the public prosecutor's office.
• On 28th June 2017, she was appointed by president Michel Temer to substitute the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Rodrigo Janot, even being in second place during the triple list sent by the
• National Association of Prosecutor of the Republic to the Presidency of the Republic, which is not legally obligated and constitutionally to nominate any one of the appointed ones.
• On 12th July 2017, her appointment was approved by the Senate with 74 votes for and 1st against the nomination.

Non-communicable Disease Progress Monitor 2017 report released by - WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) released the report titled Non-communicable Disease Progress Monitor 2017 on 18th September 2017. As per Progress Monitor 2017, governments must step up efforts to control Non-Communicable Diseases in order to meet globally agreed targets such as to prevent the premature deaths of millions of people from these conditions.

Key Highlights of the report

• It states that limited national progress has been made in the fight against NCDs such as cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases, cancers and diabetes.
• These NCDs are the world’s biggest killers and claim 15 million people's lives aged between 30 to 70 years annually.
• More than 90 countries have set national targets to address NCDs, up from 59 in 2015.
• 94 countries have implemented operational multi-sectoral strategies in order to address NCDs as compared to 64 in back in 2015.
• 90 countries have developed guidelines for managing the four major NCDs, up from 50 in 2015.
  100 countries have conducted physical activity awareness campaigns.
• Six countries have not achieved any of the progress indicators as compared to 14 in 2015. Five out of six countries are African.
• Costa Rica and Iran will be leading the 10 of the best performing countries, with each achieving 15 of the 19 indicators, followed by Brazil, Turkey, Bulgaria and the UK (each 13); Finland, Norway, Saudi Arabia and Thailand (each 12).
• None of the country from the WHO African region achieved above eight of the progress indicators.
• The Progress Monitor also provides data on 19 indicators of WHO’s 194 Member States.

First BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise 2017 to be conducted by - India

The first BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise 2017 will be conducted by the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) as the lead agency from 10th October to 13th October 2017. The Exercise will be conducted in NCR.
This Exercise will be serving as a platform for sharing best practices on all aspects of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), strengthening regional response and coordination for Disaster Management among the BIMSTEC member countries. It was decided at the 17th BIMSTEC Senior Officials Meeting held in Kathmandu, Nepal on 7th February 2017 that India would be organizing the first annual Disaster Management Exercise for the region.
Important highlights

• Delegates from all seven nations of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) grouping, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, will be participating in the event.
• The main focus of the BIMSTEC DMEx-2017 will be to test the region’s resilience and preparedness towards effective activation of inter-Governmental interaction/dialogue/agreements for immediate deployment of regional resources for disaster response.
• The BIMSTEC DMEx-2017 will going to be conducted in two phases in Delhi and NCR.
• The main exercise will be comprising of Table Top Exercise, Field Training Exercise and After Action Review which is scheduled for 10th October to 13th October 2017.
• It will be helping to create synergy and synchronize efforts to institutionalize regional cooperation among the member countries.
• The exercise will be helping strengthen the effective utilization of the search & rescue teams for disaster relief & emergency response, including emergency rapid assessment teams and management of mass casualties especially in those situations which involve infrestructure and communication breakdown.
• At the end of the four-day Exercise, a publication will be brought out on the recommendations and outcomes of the joint or common exercise and include agreement among BIMSTEC Nations on regional cooperation for Disaster Management and Emergency Response.

 Mobile app for retiring government staffs to be launched by - Union Government

The Union Government has launched a mobile application for central government employees on 20th September 2017. The app will be helping the retiring government employees to monitor the progress of their pension settlement cases. In addition to that this app will also be allowing the retired employees to assess their superannuation funds and record complaints through the pension calculator.
They will also be able to register their grievances and get updates on the orders issued by the department as well.

The app will be launched by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh in New Delhi.
Uses of Mobile App

• Reports have suggested that the newly launched mobile app will have all services meant for the pensioner, which is available at the portal of the Department of Pension
  and Pensioner's Welfare.
• Other than this, Dr. Singh also inaugurated the first series of Pension Adalat. The Pension Adalats is being convened with the objective to bring the aggrieved pensioner, the concerned department, the bank on a common table so that such cases can be settled within the framework of extant rules.

Chief of Sashastra Seema Bal appointed by - Rajnikant Mishra

Rajnikant Mishra has been named as the new Chief of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in September 2017. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet took this decision on 18th September 2017. Mishra will be succeeding Archana Ramasundaram who is set to retire on 30th September 2017.
Rajnikant is a 1984 batch Uttar Pradesh Cadre IPS officer. He has been posted as Special Director General in Border Security Force since 2012.
More about Sashastra Seema Bal

• It is one of India's Central Armed Police Forces.
• It is under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) at present.
• The force was known as the Special Service Bureau (SSB) before 2001.
• The Special Service Bureau was set up in early 20th December 1963, following the Sino-Indian War.
• The primary task of the force was to provide armed support for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) with a secondary objective to inculcate the feelings of national belonging in the border population and assist them to develop their capabilities for resistance through a continuous process
  of motivation, training, development etc.
• The SSB has 76337 active personnel in 67 battalions as of 2017.