100 Days of Modi Sarkar – Day 71

Day 71 of Modi Sarkar
Day 71 of Modi Sarkar

Day 71 of Modi Sarkar

Nepal is an immediate and important neighbour. With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit during the last couple of days, the bilateral relations have changed dramatically. On his arrival a special welcome was accorded to him by the Nepali army as well as the Prime Minister, who broke protocol to come and greet him at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The Indian Prime Minister has since returned from Nepal and found it to be a memorable one.

India pledges to assist Nepal anyway possible

The extent of Modi’s satisfaction with the visit can be gauged from the fact that the Indian Prime Minister has stated that no effort will be spared in order to fulfil the commitments made during the visit and achieve the aim of a better tomorrow. Right from the first day of his regime as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has shown that establishing relations with the immediate neighbours, or rather mending fences with them, will be top priority for him as opposed to the UPA’s policy, where perhaps the smaller neighbours did not get the same priority as countries such as the US and Iran. To a certain extent it is praiseworthy that Modi has seen it fit to address this area considering the proximity of these countries to India.

Government methods fail to impress UPSC candidates

The unexpected change in the pattern of UPSC examination had put off the aspirants who had responded with protests. The government had then instituted a committee to look into the various aspects of the said changes and then dilly-dallied in submitting the committee’s report in Parliament. This had led to several rounds of protests from the Opposition parties and also interrupted parliamentary proceedings. Now it seems even the students are not appreciative of how the government has dealt the issue and decided that they will be continuing their protests till their demands are sufficiently met.

The candidates for the CSAT examination want the paper to be completely scrapped. Till now – the protests have gone on for 25 days – they have been protesting at Mukherjee Nagar in north Delhi and are now supposed to take it to Jantar Mantar, a hotspot of sorts for anyone who wishes to protest against anything in Delhi. The students have stated rather clearly that they are not satisfied with the changes brought about by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel. It is strange as to why the views and opinions were not taken into consideration while drafting the changes and even if they were, why they were not given due importance.

India planning safety protocol for discharging dam water

Of late a major issue being faced by people across different parts of the country has been the disasters resulting from the discharge of water from hydropower dams. The Narendra Modi-led administration is looking to come up with a plan that will have the safety measures necessary to deal with this menace in an effective manner. The immediate beneficiaries of this plan are going to be the areas where these projects are running and the river banks.

One of the latest disasters in this regard took place at Himachal Pradesh where 24 students from Hyderabad lost their lives. Uttarakhand also saw the worst incident of floods in recent years when it was inundated by Alaknanda river and 6000 people either died or went missing. Recently Bihar has been flooded by Kosi and this has caused approximately 65,000 people to be evacuated from the place. The systems for dealing with natural disaster in India are not exactly the best and it is heartening to see that the government is finally turning its attention to the same.

Bill for providing special powers to SEBI presented in Lok Sabha

One of the major themes of Narendra Modi’s administration is to modernize the country and an important part of this is to provide the corporate sector more power. As part of this the NDA administration has come up with a Bill in the Lower House of Indian legislature that is expected to provide greater authority to the SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). The Bill named Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 was presented by Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman as, she said, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was unwell and could not attend the House.

With the amendments, the SEBI will have the authority necessary to stop any company or person from taking part in any activity that is related to the financial market. With the new power, the SEBI will be able to extract dues from any entity that may have defaulted and search its premises. Its representatives will also have the power to wrest away documents that are related to infringement of capital markets by a guilty party. As far as investigating cases of insider trading is concerned, the new Bill will also enable it to get access to call data records. The Bill, as and when passed, will bring about changes in the Securities Contracts (Regulations) Act and the SEBI Act.

India looking for help from US to deal with encephalitis

India, or at least some parts of it such as northern Bengal and Assam, has been under the throes of encephalitis that has assumed deadly proportions, killing swathes of people. Evidently, unable to contain the outbreak of this disease India is now considering taking help from the US. It is being stated that India will ask for US’ assistance in determining the reasons for the spread of Japanese encephalitis as well as the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome.

Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, has stated that the Centre for Disease Control, based out of Atlanta, is looking into the causes of this deadly disease and the Indian Council for Medical Research and the National Centre for Disease Control are collaborating with it. One of the several causes touted for the outbreak of these ailments had been the presence of different virus strains but the latest investigations have ruled out such possibilities. Till now in 2014, 800 lives have been lost to encephalitis. The investigation is also focusing on various factors such as toxins that may be leading to the spread of this disease. One just hopes that the investigation comes up with a worthwhile result soon enough so that more loss of lives can be stopped.

Economic indicators

Indicators Value Rise/Fall
SENSEX 25723.16 242.32
NIFTY 7683.65 81.05
Rupee/Dollar 60.93 -0.25
Gold 28,116.00 -106.00
Silver 44,146.00 -281.00
Crude oil 6,020.00 46.00

Read More:

2 Years of Modi Sarkar 
One Year of Modi Sarkar
Top Programmes Launched by Modi 
Pradhan Mantri Yojana
Narendra Modi