NATIONAL MAY 2014

NATIONAL MAY 2014

• Narendra Damodardas Modi was sworn-in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014. Along with him, 45-member Council of Ministers that includes 23 Ministers with Cabinet rank, 10 Ministers of State with independent charges and 12 Ministers of State also took oath of their offices. Oath to the office and secrecy was administered by the President Pranab Mukherjee in the Rashtrapati Bhawan. 
  The Council of Ministers are as follows-
  

  1.

  Narendra Modi Prime Minister

  Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space All important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any Minister

  
  CABINET MINISTERS

  1.	Raj Nath Singh	Home Affairs
  2.	Sushma Swaraj	External Affairs Overseas Indian Affairs
  3.	Arun Jaitley	Finance Corporate Affairs Defence
  4.	M. Venkaiah Naidu	Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Parliamentary Affairs
  5.	Nitin Jairam Gadkari	Road Transport and Highways Shipping
  6.	D.V. Sadananda Gowda	Railways
  7.	Uma Bharati	Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
  8.	Dr. Najma A. Heptulla	Minority Affairs
  9.	Gopinathrao Munde	Rural Development Panchayati Raj Drinking Water and Sanitation
  10.	Ramvilas Paswan	Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
  11.	Kalraj Mishra	Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
  12.	Maneka Sanjay Gandhi	Women and Child Development
  13.	Ananthkumar	Chemicals and Fertilizers
  14.	Ravi Shankar Prasad	Communications and Information Technology Law and Justice
  15.	Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati	Civil Aviation
  16.	Anant Geete	Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
  17.	Harsimrat Kaur Badal	Food Processing Industries
  18.	Narendra Singh Tomar	Mines Steel Labour and Employment
  19.	Jual Oram	Tribal Affairs
  20.	Radha Mohan Singh	Agriculture
  21.	Thaawar Chand Gehlot	Social Justice and Empowerment
  22.	Smriti Zubin Irani	Human Resource Development
  23.	Harsh Vardhan	Health and Family Welfare

  
  MINISTERS OF STATE

  1.	General V.K. Singh	Development of North Eastern Region(Independent Charge) External Affairs Overseas Indian Affairs
  2.	Inderjit Singh Rao	Planning (Independent Charge) Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge) Defence
  3.	Santosh Kumar Gangwar	Textiles (Independent Charge) Parliamentary Affairs Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
  4.	Shripad Yesso Naik	Culture (Independent Charge) Tourism (Independent Charge)
  5.	Dharmendra Pradhan	Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
  6.	Sarbananda Sonowal	Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)
  7.	Prakash Javadekar	Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge) Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge) Parliamentary Affairs
  8.	Piyush Goyal	Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
  9.	Dr. Jitendra Singh	Science and Technology (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences (Independent Charge) Prime Minister Office Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space
  10.	Nirmala Sitharaman	Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) Finance Corporate Affairs
  11.	G.M. Siddeshwara	Civil Aviation
  12.	Manoj Sinha	Railways
  13.	Nihalchand	Chemicals and Fertilizers
  14.	Upendra Kushwaha	Rural Development Panchayati Raj Drinking Water and Sanitation
  15.	Radhakrishnan P	Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
  16.	Kiren Rijiju	Home Affairs
  17.	Krishan Pal	Road Transport and Highways Shipping
  18.	Sanjeev Kumar Balyan	Agriculture Food Processing Industries
  19.	Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava	Tribal Affairs
  20.	Raosaheb Dadarao Danve	Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
  21.	Vishnu Deo Sai	Mines, Steel, Labour and Employment
  22.	Shri Sudarshan Bhagat	Social Justice and Empowerment

  
  
• The Union Cabinet on 27th May, approved constitution of Special Investigating Team (SIT) to implement the decision of the Supreme Court on large amounts of money stashed abroad by evading taxes or generated through unlawful activities. The SIT will be headed by Justice M.B. Shah, former Judge of the Supreme Court as Chairman and Justice Arijit Pasayat, former Judge as Vice Chairman. 
  The SIT has been charged with the responsibility and duties of investigation, initiation of proceedings and prosecution in cases of Hasan Ali and other matters involving unaccounted money. SIT shall have jurisdiction in the cases where investigations have already commenced or are pending or awaiting to be initiated or have been completed. SIT will prepare a comprehensive action plan including creation of necessary institutional structure that could enable the country to fight the battle against unaccounted money. The SIT should report to the court the status of work from time to time.
  The Members of the High Level Committee will comprise -
  1. Secretary, Department of Revenue,
  2. Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India,
  3. Director (IB)iv. Director, Enforcement,
  4. Director, CBI,
  5. Chairman, CBDT,
  6. Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau,
  7. Director General, Revenue Intelligence,
  8. Director, Financial Intelligence Unit,
  9. Director, Research and Analysis Wing, and
  10. Joint Secretary (FT&IR-1), CBDT. 
      
• The Loan Agreement for World Bank (IDA) assistance of US$ 1006.20 million for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan III has been signed between the Government of India and the World Bank in New Delhi on 29 May. Nilaya Mitash, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs signed the Agreement on behalf of Government of India and Mr. Michael Haney, World Bank’s Operation’s Advisor in India signed it on behalf of the World Bank. The assistance from the World Bank will be in the form of Credit under IDA 16 at a concessional rate from the International Development Assistance (IDA). The Objective of this project with World Bank assistance of US$ 1006.20 million is to improve education outcomes of elementary school children in India. The project is to be implemented in 3 years. Ministry of Human Resource Development is the implementing agency. 
  • Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the largest ongoing Education for All (EFA) program in the world. ·
  • It is the flagship programme for universalizing elementary education. 
    
• The Prime Minister Mr. Narenra Modi on 31st May decided to abolish all the existing nine Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoMs) and twenty-one Groups of Ministers (GoMs). It is a major move to empower the Ministries and Departments. This would expedite the process of decision making and fasten in greater accountability in the system. The Ministries and Departments concern, would process the issues pending before the EGoMs and GoMs and take appropriate decisions at the level of Ministries and Departments itself. Wherever the Ministries face any difficulties, the Cabinet Secretariat and the Prime Minister’s Office will facilitate the decision making process. 
  
• The President's rule imposed in united Andhra Pradesh on June 2 will be revoked partially to facilitate the swearing-in of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao as Chief Minister of Telangana but it will continue in Seemandhra till TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu takes charge on 8 June. A notification is expected to be issued in the morning of June 2 revoking the President's rule in Telangana to facilitate K. Chandra Sekhar Rao taking charge as the first Chief Minister of the country's 29th state. The notification will clarify that the President's rule will continue in residuary Andhra Pradesh till Mr.Chandra Babu Naidu takes oath as Chief Minister either on June 8.President's Rule was imposed in Andhra Pradesh on March 1 this year after N Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned as Chief Minister following Parliament's nod for bifurcation of the state to create separate Telangana. Sources said that before Rao is sworn-in as chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan, who was given the additional charge of the proposed state of Telangana, will himself have to take oath. 
  
• Pawan kumar Chamling was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Sikkim on 21 May 2014 for a record consecutive fifth time. Governor of Sikkim, Shrinivas Patil administered the oath of office in Gangtok. Chamling is the leader of Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) and has secured a two-third majority in the Assembly elections by winning 22 seats out of 32. He has been the Chief Minister of the State since 12 December 1994 and has competed 20 years at the post till now. Until now the record has been held by the late communist leader Jyoti Basu, who served West Bengal as a Chief Minister for 23 years from 1977 to 2000. 
  
• The Andhra Pradesh High Court on 24th May, lifted a temporary stay it imposed on generic drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's $3.2 billion takeover of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, paving the way for both companies to complete the deal. The court last month ordered an "interim status quo" on the deal, pending a decision on a petition for a probe into alleged insider trading. The petition was filed in late April by two individuals who requested that the court ask the market regulator SEBI and the two main stock exchanges to halt the deal and order a probe. Ranbaxy shares jumped 24 per cent and trading volume tripled in three sessions ahead of the companies' announcement on April 7 that Sun Pharma would buy the loss-making company from Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Ltd. 
  
• Anandiben Patel (73) was sworn-in as the first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat on 22nd May 2014. Kamla Beniwal, the Governor of Gujarat administered her oath to the office in Gandhinagar. Anandiben Patel was appointed as the new Chief Minister of Gujarat after Narendra Modi resigned from the office on 21 May 2014 to take over the post of Prime Minister of India. She was serving the state as the Gujarat Revenue Minister. 
  
• Jitan Ram Manjhi was sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Bihar on 20 May 2014. His oath of the office and secrecy was administered by the Governor of Bihar, DY Patil in Patna. He succeeded Janata Dal – United leader, Nitish Kumar who resigned from the post of Chief Minister on 17 May 2014 after the defeat of the party in the 16th Lok Sabha election. Nitish Kumar served as Chief Minister of Bihar for two terms from 2005 - 2009 and from 2009 - 2014.In the Nitish Kumar Cabinet, Manjhi was SC’ST welfare minister. Manjhi is the third Dalit Bihar Chief Minister after Bhola Paswan Shastri and Ram Sundar Das.
  
• The President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee on 12th May 2014 gave his assent to the Whistleblowers Protection Bill 2011, thus it became the Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2011. The Bill carries provisions for setting up regular mechanism to encourage persons to disclose information on corruption or wilful misuse of power by public servants, which includes Ministers. The Bill also includes adequate protection to persons who reports corruption or wilful misuse of discretion, which bring in a demonstrable loss to the government. The Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on 11th December 2011 and by Rajya Sabha on 21st February 2014. 
  
• Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh on 17th May 2014 tendered his resignation to the President of India Pranab Mukherjee. His resignation was accepted by the President. After accepting his resignation, the President has asked Singh to continue as the caretaker Prime Minister till the new government takes charge of the office. Before tendering his resignation to the President, Dr Singh chaired the last meeting of the Union Cabinet, which recommended the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.
  • He served India as the Prime Minister for two consecutive terms from 2004 to 2009 and from 2009 to 2014.
  • Manmohan Singh is the third longest serving Prime Minister of India after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. 
    
• Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar resigned from his office on 17th May 2014. He gave his resignation to the Governor of Bihar Dnyandeo Yashwantrao Patil after his party JD (U) United was able to win only two seats of the 40 in the 16th Lok Sabha elections. He also recommended dissolution of the Bihar Assembly as his party is in minority. In this election, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 22 seats and emerged as a single largest party. 
  
• Justice BS Chauhan, the Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 14th May 2014 was appointed as the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT). Justice Chauhan will succeed Justice NP Singh. Justice Chauhan, who is due to retire on 1st July 2014, was appointed as the Chairman of the Tribunal on the recommendation of the former Chief Justice of India, Justice P Sathasivam. The tribunal headed by Justice NP Singh gave its final award on Cauvery River Dispute on 5th February 2007. According to the Final Award, the CWDT recommended 419 tmcft for Tamil Nadu, 270 tmcft for Karnataka, 30 tmcft for Kerala, and 7 tmcft for Puducherry. 
  • The Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) was constituted by the Government of India on 2nd June 1990.
  • It was constituted with an aim to give its ruling on the water dispute regarding inter-state river Cauvery and the river valley thereof. The Tribunal was constituted under the chairmanship Justice N.P. Singh. 
    
• The Supreme Court on 6th May held that the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which mandates 25 per cent seats in all schools be reserved for the economically disadvantaged, is not applicable to minority institutions as it is "ultra vires" of the Constitution and will "abrogate" their right. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice R M Lodha said the 2010 judgement of its three-judge bench which held that the 2009 Act was applicable to aided minority schools was "not correct". The larger bench also ruled that Article 21A (right to education) and Article 15 (5) (relating to economically weaker sections) does not alter the basic structure or framework of the Constitution and they are "constitutionally valid". The bench also comprising justices A K Patnaik, S J Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and F M I Kalifulla, said. 
  
• Central-government appointed Pratyush Sinha committee on 8th May recommended 163 posts of IAS, 112 of IPS and 65 of Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers for newly-formed Telangana state. The composition of three all India services was recommended by a six-member committee headed by former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) Pratyush Sinha in its preliminary report to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). Of these posts, 114 posts of IAS officers, 78 of IPS and 46 of IFoS are kept in direct recruitment category. At present, there are 284 IAS officers, 209 IPS and 136 IFoS officers working in Andhra Pradesh. The report says that the bifurcation of cadre strength will be in the ratio of 13:10 for residual Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which is the ratio of number of districts in the newly-formed state. Of the total posts earmarked for 163 IAS officers in Telangana, one each will be for Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary, 10 for Principal Secretaries and 27 for Secretaries among others. Among the 112 IPS posts, one is for Director General of Police (DGP), five Additional Directors General (ADG), 13 Inspectors General (IG) and 11 Deputy Inspectors General (DIG) among others. For 65 IFoS posts, two will be for Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), three for Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and five for Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) among others, it said. The Committee has recommended 211 posts for IAS, 144 for IPS and 82 for IFoS officers for residual Andhra Pradesh.
  • The committee was formed by the DoPT to make recommendations regarding determination of the cadre strength of Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and IFoS of the two successor states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It will finalise its reports after analysing comments or suggestions received from concerned persons or any stake-holder.
  • Telangana, the country’s 29th state, will be born on June 2nd and start functioning from that day.
  • The DoPT has also formed a six-member advisory committee, under the chairmanship of former IAS officer C.R. Kamalanathan, to decide on allocation of employees (excluding all India services) from Andhra Pradesh to Telangana. 
    
• The Supreme Court on 9th May took a tough view on Andhra Pradesh government not complying with its directions to ensure drinking water and separate toilets for girls and boys in schools and directed the state's Principal Secretary to appear before it and explain the exact position. A bench of justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda said these provisions are essential for basic human rights that enhance the atmosphere where the education is imparted. The S.C directed the Principal Secretary for the state of Andhra Pradesh to file an affidavit explaining the exact position and the progress and also directed that the Principal Secretary, Education, shall remain personally present on the next date of hearing, i.e., July 7th, 2014. The bench also rejected the explanation given by the state that there has been some compliance but it requires more time to comply with all the directions. 
  
• The Supreme court on 9th May handed over investigation into Saradha chit fund scam to the CBI. It is a major setback for the West Bengal government. The West Bengal government had strongly resisted the plea for handing over the investigation to the CBI. The court also asked the CBI to investigate ponzi scheme scams in Odisha, Assam and Tripura. It also said that the CBI will investigate all cases against 44 chit fund companies in Odisha. The SC also asked the Enforcement Directorate to join CBI in finding the money trail. The ED is already conducting a probe into the scam. The apex court said it wanted the chit fund scam in these states to be probed by an independent agency like CBI because of involvement of politicians and influential persons in the cases. The court also said the CBI is the right agency to probe the cases as the roles of market regulator Sebi and also that of RBI are under scanner. Earlier, the Calcutta high court had refused to grant the prayer for a CBI investigation into the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen was arrested on April 23rd, 2013.
  
• The Supreme Court on 1st April, appointed Justice (Retd.) MB Shah as the chairman of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to investigate the stashing away of black money in foreign banks and suggest ways to bring it back to India. MB Shah replaced Justice (retd.) BP Jeevan Reddy, who had expressed his inability to undertake the task due to personal reasons. The Supreme Court on 4th July, 2011, had appointed Justice Reddy and Justice Shah as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the SIT mandated to undertake the investigation into unaccounted money stashed away outside the country and on formulating steps to bring it back. The SIT was also asked to probe the Liechtenstein bank accounts of Indian citizens whose names were revealed by Germany. The bench of Justice HL Dattu, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Madan B Lokur also appointed former apex court judge Justice (retd.) Arijit Pasayat as its vice chairman. The court order came on a plea by Ram Jethmalani, saying that the government was not carrying out the directions of the court even though operation of the July 4th, 2011, order was not stayed. 
  
• The Union Cabinet on 1st May 2014 approved the proposal for setting up of the Polavaram Project Authority. It will be set up for the execution of the Polavaram irrigation project.
  The Polavaram Project Authority would be an autonomous body under the chairmanship of a Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be appointed by the Centre. CEO will be of the rank of Additional Secretary to Government of India (GoI) with a fixed tenure of three years. The principal secretaries/secretaries of irrigation of the successor States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to be nominated by the respective State Governments would be the members. The constitution of the Centrally-funded PPA and its governing body was in accordance with the section 90 of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. 
  
  • The multipurpose Polavaram project is expected to irrigate 2.91 lakh hectares. It will generate 960 mw of power and supply 23.4 tmc drinking water to Visakhapatnam city and also to Vizag steel plant. It will also facilitate an inter-basin transfer of 80 tmcft annually to the Krishna river basin.
  • The Centre will fund and execute the project and obtain all the requisite clearances including environmental, forests and rehabilitation. All the assets and liabilities of the Polavaram project will be transferred to the authority and a separate PPA fund would also be created to which the funds released by the Centre will be credited. 
    
• The President of India on 29th April 2014 approved dissolution of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and a fresh proclamation of Central Rule in the state. This move of the President has granted a period of two months to the central government before approaching the Parliament for the mandatory ratification of President’s Rule in the state. The President’s decision came after the Union Cabinet meet on 25th April 2014 and recommended dissolution of the Assembly of Andhra Pradesh and extension of the President’s rule there beyond 30th April 2014. This decision was made following the submission of a report by the Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan to the centre about the prevailing situation in the state. 
  
  • On 1st March 2014, the President’s rule was imposed in Andhra Pradesh after the Chief Minister of the state, N Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned from his office. His resignation from the office came after the nod of the Parliament for bifurcation of the state to create Telangana State.