The Daily Brief – 21st September 2018

India and Morocco have signed revised Air Services Agreement enabling greater air connectivity through modernized agreement. The agreement will enable code sharing with airlines of other party. It will also provide greater freedom in mounting direct flights. In long term this agreement will enable people of each country to travel to other country leading to better economic and cultural ties.

Monthly e-newsletter MSME Insider has been launched by Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The e-newsletter will give information of activities undertaken by MSME Ministry and also act as bridge between Ministry and millions of MSME units spread across the country. It will also provide information about latest innovations in the field of technology, upcoming events and training programs for the month and will also carry interesting articles on relevant topics.

Pilot project has been launched by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for transport of sputum specimen for Tuberculosis (TB) Diagnosis by utilising services of Department of Post in Karawal Nagar, New Delhi. The learning from this pilot project experience will be useful for adaptation of specimen transport mechanism through Postal Department across the country. Health Ministry also launched web-based application of Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP), Nikshay Version 2.0, with better user interface and data structures.

Joint air exercise of India and Russia Aviaindra 18 was held in Lipetsk, Russia from September 17 to 28, 2018. The second session of Aviaindra 18 will be conducted in Jodhpur, Rajasthan (India) from December 10 Dec to 22, 2018. It was conducted for first time in 2014 and since then it is conducted bi-annually (twice a year) in both countries. The aim of this exercise is focused towards anti-terrorist operations in bi-lateral scenario.

The Employee’s State Insurance (ESI) has rolled out Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojna for providing unemployment allowance to workers rendered jobless due to changing employment pattern. It was announced at 175th ESI Corporation meeting chaired by Union Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar in New Delhi. The current scenario of employment in India has been transformed from long employment to fixed short term engagement in the form of contract and temping. ESI is self-financing social security and health insurance scheme for Indian workers. It is autonomous corporation by statutory creation under Ministry of Labour and Employment. It was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in New Delhi.

The Union Cabinet has cleared ordinance to make practice of instant triple talaq penal offence. It was signed by President Ram Nath Kovind later as per Article 123 of the Constitution. It prescribes punishment with jail term for three years to husbands practicing triple talaq. In landmark 3-2 verdict in August 2017, five-judge Constitution Bench of Supreme Court had declared centuries-old practice of instant triple talaq or talaq-e-biddat unconstitutional.

India has decided to place four more reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. It was announced by Sekhar Basu, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) at 62nd General Conference of IAEA held in Vienna, Austria. The four reactors include two Russian-designed Pressurised Light Weight Reactors and two Pressurised Heavy Reactors being built with Indian technology. With this, total of 26 Indian nuclear facilities will be now under IAEA safeguards.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on September 20, 2018 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up the state-of-the-art Integrated Control Room for Emergency Response (ICR-ER) in Ministry of Home Affairs. The MoU was signed by Joint Secretary (Disaster Management), Sanjeev Kumar Jindal on behalf of MHA and PVN Rao, Deputy Director, NRSC, ISRO. It will also address strategic level monitoring, situation awareness, command and control, preparedness and response in the diverse internal security situation and disaster related emergencies.