CURRENT AFFAIRS

The 2023 Union Budget shines special attention on laboratory-grown diamonds (LGD) as the sector has “high employment potential”.

INS Vagir, the fifth of the Kalvari-class submarines under Project-75, has been commissioned into the Indian Navy at a time when China is making forays into the strategically important Indian Ocean region.

Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankar’s recent public criticism of the judiciary and remark that courts cannot dilute “parliamentary sovereignty” sparked a debate on the separation of powers, bringing the focus back to the “basic structure” doctrine of the Constitution.

The Central government has constituted a committee headed by Amarjeet Sinha to review the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, especially to assess the programme’s efficacy as a poverty alleviation tool.

The Supreme Court recently announced that it would examine whether minor girls, as young as 15 years, can marry on the basis of custom or personal law when such marriages are considered an offence in statutory law.

The Army has begun the process for selection of women officers for command postings in the rank of Colonel, which has so far been the domain of male officers.

The theme of UN World Water Day 2022 was ‘Groundwater, Making the Invisible Visible’ is a reflection of the importance given to the resource across the globe.

Recently, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved an incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay debit Cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (person-to-merchant) in FY 2022-23 with an outlay of Rs 2,600 crore.

Signs of a confrontation between Raj Bhavan and the elected government in a State are not infrequent in the country.

In an order on January 20, 2023, the government used emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2021 and Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to direct Twitter and YouTube to disable access to the documentary within India and prevent its re-upload.