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Vice President's Secretariat

*10th Annual Lecture on National Commission for Minorities

*Theme: ‘Minorities in Nation Building’

*Development with Dignity must be the agenda of our nation and bringing

a bill in Parliament won't change many things unless we have political

will and administrative skill.

*The Vice President said that the notion of pluralism, inclusion and

peaceful co-existence have to be the cornerstones of our governance.

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*Minority Commission is mandated to suggest and devise appropriatemeasures for their socio-economic development of minorities.

*The Commission has the underlying principle of inclusive growth ensuring that the benefits of political democracy reach those who are likely to be left out, he added.

*It is the principle of ‘Antyodaya’, the empowerment of the weakest, the farthest and the smallest.

*India is built on the four important pillars given by our Constitution –Justice, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, adding that, the strength of these pillars determines the strength of the superstructure, the grand India we are building.

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*The role of minority groups in nation building has been phenomenal and

they could do this because they gave predominance to their identity as

Indians, he added.

*The Vice President said that once “we keep the national interests at the

top of our development agenda, the other factors become less

important”.

*“Irrespective of caste, creed, region, religion and language, we are

Indians first,” he added.

*The Vice President said that one must introspect and identify divisive,

destructive, demeaning tendencies and aberrations.

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AYUSH

*The Ministry of AYUSH has setup Central Council for Research in

Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) for undertaking coordinating formulating,

developing and promoting research on scientific lines in Ayurveda.

*The activities are carried out through 30 institute/Centres/Units under

CCRAS located all over India and also through collaborative studies with

various universities, hospitals and institutes.

*The research activities of the council include medicinal plant research

(Medico-ethno botanical survey, pharmacognosy and tissue culture), Drug

Standardization Pharmacological Research, Clinical Research, Literary

Research & Documentation, and other outreach activities

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Prime Minister's Office

*The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today met and interacted with people, including fishermen and farmers, affected by Cyclone Ockhi, during a visit to the cyclone affected areas of Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In the course of the day, the Prime Minister interacted with people in Kavaratti, and Kanyakumari.

*He also visited Punthura village near Thiruvananthapuram, which is one of the villages that faced the impact of the cyclone.

*People explained to him, the hardships faced by them on account of the cyclone.

*The Prime Minister assured the people that all help will be provided to them and that the Union Government stands shoulder to shoulder with them in this hour of crisis.

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Ministry of Agriculture

*The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare is proposing a new integrated programme, called National Programme on use of Space Technology for Agriculture (NPSTA), envisaging integrated use of Space and Geospatial Tools for Mapping, Monitoring and Management of Agriculture.

*The programme will have four sub-programmes catering to various themes viz. Crop Assessment & Monitoring; Agricultural Resources Management; Disaster Monitoring and Mitigation and Satellite Communication and Navigation Applications.

*All the current running programmes, such as FASAL (for crop forecasting), NADAMS (for drought assessment), CHAMAN (for horticultural assessment and development), KISAN (for crop insurance) and Crop Intensification planning, will be subsumed under this proposed programmes.

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Ministry of Corporate Affairs

*After notification of relevant provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code2016 on 01.12.2016, 2,434 fresh cases have been filed before NCLT and 2,304cases of winding up of companies have been transferred from various High Courts.

*Out of these, a total number of 2,750 cases have been disposed of and 1,988cases were pending as on 30.11.2017.

*As per information received from Public Sector Banks (PSBs), as on 30.11.2017, an amount of Rs. 39.63 crore had been realized after filing of cases with NCLT, and an amount of Rs. 2.89 crore had been borne by the banks as haircut.

*This was stated by Shri P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law & Justice / Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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Ministry of Road Transport & Highways

*Shri Nitin Gadkari, interacted with a group of young students and professionalsof the Indian diaspora in New Delhi today.

*The 40 member group that includes 20 women, is in India for a 25 day KnowIndia Programmes (KIP) from 29th November to 23rd December.

*The group includes participants of Indian origin from Fiji, Guyana, Malaysia, Israel, Mauritius, Myanmar, South Africa, Surinam and Trinidad & Tobago.

*Shri Gadkari talked to the participants about the importance of Indian cultureand heritage and urged them to be torch bearers of the same in their respective countries.

*He also answered their questions regarding transport planning in India, and informed them about strides the country is making in this area.

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World News

*Iran today condemned the United States' veto of a UN Security Council

resolution rejecting recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Iran

called the US President Donald Trump's decision as "provocative and

unwise".

*US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday vetoed the draft

resolution which was backed by all 14 other members of the council.

*Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said the US

administration showed its lack of compliance with international

resolutions by its provocative and unwise decision to recognise Al-Quds as

the capital of the Zionist occupying regime.

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Answers

1. The highest coal producing country in the world is

A. India

B. USA

C. China

D. Russia

2. Shompen tribe is found in

A. Nilgir Hills

B. Nicobar Islands

C. Spiti Valley

D. Lakshadweep islands

3. Black Buck: Highly Endangered Species

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Questions

1. Know India Programme is organized by which Ministry of Indian

Government?

2. Name the partner States of India for the 44th Know India Programme.

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