India-Russia Agreement
- Cabinet has given its approval for signing an agreement between India and Russia on cooperation in the field of combating all forms of terrorism and organized crime.
- The proposed Agreement will replace the Agreement of October 1993.
- It is a step towards jointly fighting the new and evolving risks and threats.
Pay Revision for Judges
- The Union Cabinet has recently approved the revision in the salaries, gratuity, allowances, pension of the Judges of the SC and HC and retired Judges of SC and HC following the recommendation of Pay Commission.
- Salaries, gratuity, pension, allowances of Judges of Supreme Court are governed by the Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1958.
- For Judges of High Courts, it is governed by High Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1954.
- An amendment in the acts is required whenever there is any proposal for revision of salaries/pension gratuity, allowances.
- Therefore, the government intends to move bills to amend the two acts in the ensuing winter session of parliament.
Free float
- It refers to the portion of the total outstanding shares of a company that is in the hands of the public.
- Hence, it is available to be freely traded on the market.
- The shares of the companies with sufficient free float exhibit lesser price volatility than companies whose shares are mostly held by a close group of promoters.
- This is mainly due to availability of buyers for free floated shares held by public.
- Whereas promoters held the shares for the long run and do not engage in daily buying and selling activity.
Bishnois of Rajasthan
- The Bishnois are a sect of people mainly found in Bikaner Region in Rajasthan.
- They will not tolerate killing of wild animals and felling of a green tree.
- They are called as “The Protectors of Black Buck”.
- Jammeshwarji Maharaj launched this sect in 1542 A.D who preached 29 principles to the followers.
- It covers various aspects of brotherhood, penance, fighting social evils, reserving rights for women, wildlife preservation and kindness towards animals.
- Bishnois treat these principles a religion and follow them with devotion.
- They staged a protest recently against the poaching of Chinkara.
Chinkara
- The chinkara (Gazella bennettii), also known as the Indian gazelle, is a gazelle (Antelope) species native to Iran, Pakistan and India.
- They live in arid plains and hills, deserts, dry scrub and light forests.
- They are being poached allegedly by the Bawaria community, a Scheduled Caste whose traditional occupation is hunting.
- The Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary, located in Kachchh district of Gujarat is especially important for chinkara.
- It got the highest protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
- The Bishnoi sect guards chinkaras in the Marwar region where it lives in majority.
UDAY scheme
- Nagaland, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu recently signed MoU with GoI under UDAY Scheme.
- Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) is an initiative of the union ministry of power.
- It aims to provide financial and operational turnaround of power distribution companies.
- It has target of making all DISCOMs profitable by 2018-19 through four initiatives.
- It includes improving operational efficiencies of Discoms, Reduction of cost of power, Reduction in interest cost of Discoms, Enforcing financial discipline on DISCOMs through alignment with state finances.
- Under this programme, States shall take over DISCOM debt.
Source: The Hindu, PIB
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