ASSAM

A northeast regional conference on transformation of Indian agriculture was held in Guwahati

The objective of the conference was to derive inputs from all the northeastern states and industries which will be compiled in the form of a report that will be submitted to the high-powered committee formed by the NITI Aayog, in the next meeting to be held on August 16 in Mumbai.

The thrust is on making policy decisions on existing acts concerning agriculture produce marketing, contract farming and Essential Commodities Act (ECA), among others, to provide the agriculture sector a paradigm shift in the next few years to enhance farmers’ incomes.

INTERNATIONAL

· Canada to create a protected marine area in Arctic region

Canadagovernment plans to create a protected marine area in the country’s Arctic region. The move is after a severe climate change that took effect three times faster than global average weather.

Multiple species in the coast of Baffin Island,in Canada’s northeastern Arctic archipelago are threatened by the Glacial melting and maritime traffic.

The move aims to protect marine area in arctic regionsand protect the populations of belugas, narwhals, walruses, seals, polar bears and thousands of other species who depend on year-round sea ice to survive.

NATIONAL

Maharashtra has granted infrastructure project status for a $10 billion plan to establish the world’s first ultra-fast hyperloop project.

Hyperloops use magnets to levitate pods inside an airless tube, creating conditions in which the pods can shuttle people and freight at speeds of up to 1,200 km per hour.

The status could help fast-track land acquisition for the project over a 117.5 km stretch that will shuttle people between the cities in about 35 minutes.

· State Bank of India and Shanghai becomes first Indian bank to link up with CNAPS

State Bank of India’s Shanghai branch linked to China’s National Advanced Payment System (CNAPS). It is the first Indian Bank to operationalize it. The CNAPS, launched in 2008 by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) provides real-time settlement services for all payments cleared in China. The CNAPS system is complemented by its international counterpart, the CIPS (China International Payments System or Cross-Border Interbank Payment System) launched in 2015
To boosting international use of the Chinese currency, yuan. The participants from multiple countries across the globe participated.

Rajya Sabhapassed the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2019. The bill will repeal redundant and absolute The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 29 July.

The Bill aims to ensure minimum legislation and maximum governance as it is a continuous process. It will repeal 58 old central lawsthat has been used to achieve maximum governance. A committee constituted by the government has identified 1824 old laws. Previously 1,428 old and archaic central Acts and about 75 laws have been repealed till date.

The Bill will make amendments to two Acts that are related to the substitution of certain words in theIncome Tax Act, 1961 and the Indian Institutes of Management Act, 2017.

The Bill will repeals various Acts, such as the Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976,the Tea (Amendment) Act, 1980, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2001, the Central Road Fund (Amendment) Act, 2007, and the Central Universities Act, 2009.

Lok Sabha, the lower house, cleared theJallianwala Bagh National Memorial (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The amendment will remove the position of Congress president as a permanent memberof a trust that runs the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial. The Bill was passed with 214 in favour and 30 against it.
After the removal of the Congress chiefas a member, the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha will be added as a member of the trust.
The amendment bill empowers the central government to terminate the term of a nominated trustee even before the expiry of the tenure without assigning any reason.

Centrehas decided to prepare a National Population Register (NPR) by September 2020 across the country.
The collection of information of all citizens who are residing residing within the jurisdiction of local registar,except Assam, will be undertaken between the 1st day of April, 2020 to 30th September, 2020.The notification regarding NPR was issued by Vivek Joshi, Registrar General of Citizen Registration and Census Commissioner.

The move aims to lay the foundation forpan-India National Register Citizens (NRC). Registering in the NPR is mandatory for every usual resident of India.
NPR aims to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. All the demographic and biometric particulars will be contained in the database.

Gk bit : National Population Register

NPR is generally a register of usual residents of the country. For the entry of NPR, a usual resident can be defined as a person who has resided or intent to live in a local area for past six months or more.

Under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955and the sub-rule(4) of rule 3 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, the NPR will be prepared at the village and the sub-town level, sub-district, district, state and national level. The Centre has made it compulsory that every usual resident of India must register in the NPR.

University Grants Commission (UGC) released a list of 20 institutes .There are 10 public and 10 private for the grant of the status of Institutions of Eminence (IoE).The institutions which are given IoE status from public category includes, Delhi University, BHU, Hyderabad University and IIT Madras and Kharagpur.

The UGC made the recommendations on the report of the Empowered Expert Committee set up by the government under the chairmanship of N Gopalaswami. Jadavpur University and Anna University can be considered for issue of the IoE status only after the respective State Governments have issued an official communication allocating their share of the funds (up to 50%).