Current Affairs 27th September 2017

Current Affairs 27th September 2017 - Important Points

• Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour Portal launched by - Union Government
• Indian Navy commissions INS Tarasa on - 26th September 2017
• Saudi King issues decree allowing women to drive on - 16th September 2017
•  Union Government launched Divyang Sarathi mobile application on - 26th September 2017
• Joao Lourenco sworn in as President of Angola on - 26th September 2017
• Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt System launched by - Union Government
• Kandla Port renamed as Deendayal Port on - 25th September 2017

  Current Affairs 27th September 2017 - Details

Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour Portal launched by - Union Government

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour (PENCIL) Portal on 26th September 2017 during the National Conference on Child Labour which was organised by the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment.

At the same time the ministry also launched the Standing Operating Procedures for the enforcement of legal framework against child labour. These SoPs focuses to ensure complete child labour prohibition and protection of adolescents from hazardous labour leading towards Child Labour Free India.

Key Highlights of PENCIL portal

• It is an electronic platform aiming to involve Centre, State, District, Governments, civil society and the general public in achieving the target of child labour free society.
• It encompasses various components- Child Tracking System, State Government, Complaint Corner, National Child Labour Project and Convergence.
• The Districts will be nominating District Nodal Officers (DNOs) who will be resposible to receive the complaints.
• Within 48 hours of receiving the complaints, DNOs will be checking the genuineness of the complaint and take the rescue measures in coordination with police, if the complaint is found to be genuine. So far, 7 states have appointed the DNOs.
  

  Indian Navy commissions INS Tarasa on - 26th September 2017

A Water Jet Fast Attack Craft named INS Tarasa was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 26th September 2017. The Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, Maharashtra commissioned the craft.

Important highlights

• INS Tarasa is decked with proven and tested design, low draught, good endurance, high speed and manoeuvrability. As a result, the craft is most suited for its primary role of extended coastal and offshore surveillance and patroling.
• This is the Indian Navy's second ship to be named INS Tarasa.
• The first INS Tarasa was in service of the Navy between 1999 and 2014. The new INS Tarasa will be based in Mumbai under the operational control of Western Naval Command.
• It is the fourth and simultaneously the last of the follow-on Water Jet FAC's built by the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata.
• The first two ships of the class i.e. IN ships Tarmugli and Tihayu were commissioned in 2016 and are based in Visakhapatnam; while the third ship INS Tillanchang was commissioned at Karwar in March 2017. These ships are an upgraded version of the Car Nicobar class Fast Attack Crafts with the Indian Navy, which were also indigenously designed and built by GRSE, Kolkata.
• INS Tarasa is 50 m long and powered by three waterjets which give it speeds of more than 35 knots.
• It is armed with a 30 mm main gun indigenously built, and a number of light, medium and heavy machine guns which undertake costal defence operations.
• The ship is an ideal platform for coastal and off-shore surveillance, EEZ Patrol, law enforcement and non-military missions such as Search and Rescue, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.
• Praveen Kumar,the Lieutenant Commander is the commissioning Commanding Officer of the ship.

Saudi King issues decree allowing women to drive on - 16th September 2017

Saudi King Salman issued a decree that allows women to drive cars on 16th September 2017.
The royal decree will now end a long conservative tradition seen by rights activists as an emblem of the Islamic kingdom's repression of women. The decree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to give advice within 30 days and then implement the order by 24th June 2018.

Moreover, the women would not be needing permission from their guardians to get a license or have a guardian in the car and would be allowed to drive anywhere in the kingdom, including the Islamic holy cities - Mecca and Medina. Women with a license from any of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries can drive in Saudi Arabia.
However, it is up to the Interior Ministry to decide whether they can also be professional driversor not.

 Union Government launched Divyang Sarathi mobile application on - 26th September 2017

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot on 26th September 2017 launched the Beta version of mobile application named Divyang Sarathi. This accessible and comprehensive mobile application will be ensuring easy information dissemination to Divyangjans so that they can understand all details pertaining to the schemes, statutes, scholarships, institutional support systems and other relevant information at the button click.

Important Highlights of the Divyang Sarathi mobile application

• It will be providing all the relevant information pertaining to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) including its various acts, regulations and guidelines, schemes, rules, information about the various outreach institutions and employment opportunities.
• The two Assistant Secretaries Anunaya Jha and B Susheela in the DEPwD developed this application.
• This app is also compliant with the principles of UNCRPD for Universal Access and the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
• The Act mandates that all the information should be made available in an accessible form.
• It is also an integral part of the ICT component of the Accessible India Campaign launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3rd December 2015.
• Embedded audio notes in the application are its unique feature, as it converts the written information into an audio file.
• It has been developed bilingually i.e. the information is available in Hindi and in English both.
• It can be accessed by any Android smartphone user who may or may not have access to the internet and will also be available to download on Google Playstore.

Joao Lourenco sworn in as President of Angola on - 26th September 2017

Joao Lourenco was sworn in as the President of Angola on 26th September 2017. He became the first new President of Angola in 38 years with this.
Lourenco took over the position from Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who was ruling the country since last four decades. The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola has governed since Angola's hard-fought independence from Portugal in 1975, with Dos Santos taking power in 1979.

More about Joao Lourenco

• Born on 5th March 1954, Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco is an Angolan politician.
• He served as the Minister of Defense between 2014 and 2017, before being appointed as the President of Angola.
• He has also been Vice-President of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola since 2016.
• Between 1998 and 2003, he served as the Secretary-General of the MPLA.
• He stood as the presidential candidate of the MPLA in the August 2017 legislative election also.

More about Angola

• It is the seventh-largest country in Southern Africa.
• The capital which is also the largest city of Angola is Luanda.
• The country is bordered by Namibia to the south, Zambia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to west.
• The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy is among the fastest growing ones in the world, especially since the civil war cessation.
• Angola was influenced by Portuguese colonisation, which started with, and was for centuries limited to, coastal settlements and trading posts established beginning in the 16th century.
• Independence was achieved in 1975 under a Marxist-Leninist one party state, which then backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba after a protracted anti-colonial struggle.

Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt System launched by - Union Government

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan launched the Web Portal of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA)  & Electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWR) System in New Delhi on 26th September 2017.
Paswan appreciated the initiatives taken by the WDRA in simplifying the Warehouse Registration Rules, digitizing the entire process of registration, monitoring & surveillance and creation and management of Negotiable Warehouse Receipts in electronic form through two repositories
while launching the system.

 Kandla Port renamed as Deendayal Port on - 25th September 2017

A notice has been issued by The Ministry of Shipping renaming Kandla Port Trust as Deendayal Port Trust with effect from 25th of September 2017. Kandla Port, situated on the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, is one among the 12 major ports in the nation.
According to the Ministry's notice, the Central Government, in exercise of power presented on it under Indian Ports Act, 1908, made the correction to rechristened "Kandla" with "Deendayal". While introducing different undertakings at Kandla Port in May 2017, Prime Minister gave the proposal to rename Kandla Port after Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, who fought for the upliftment of poor and weaker segments of society.

More about Kandla port:

• Kandla port 's journey started in 1931 with development of a jetty by Maharao Khengarji. This port in Gujarat turned into the number one port in India gradually and on 31st March 2016 it made history by taking care of 100 million tons freight in a year—the first Major Port to accomplish this feat.