27-28 August
RBI announced interest subvention scheme for Women Self-Help Groups
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 25 August 2016 asked all commercial and Co-operative banks to provide loans to women self-help groups (SHGs) in rural areas at 7 percent per annum.
The laons will be provided for the financial year 2016-17 under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in 250 districts.
Interest subvention scheme for Women SHGs - Year 2016-17
• All women self-help groups (SHGs) will be eligible for interest subvention on credit up to three lakh rupees at 7 percent per annum.
• SHGs availing capital subsidy under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) in their existing credit outstanding will not be eligible for benefit under this scheme.
• All banks will be subvented to the extent of difference between the weighted average interest charged and 7%, subject to the maximum limit of 5.5% for 2016-17.
Further, the SHGs will be provided with an additional 3% subvention on the prompt repayment of loans. For the purpose of interest subvention of additional 3% on prompt repayment, an SHG account will be considered prompt payee if it satisfies the following criterion as specified by RBI.
National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)
NRLM (Aajeevika) was launched by the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) in June 2011. In 2015, the mission was replaced by the Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana.
Aided in part through investment support by the World Bank, the NRLM aimed at creating efficient and effective institutional platforms of the rural poor. It seeks to enable them to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services.
Humans have been causing global warming for almost two centuries: Study
A new study suggests that man-made global warming has been around for nearly two centuries.
The study was published on 24 August 2016 in the journal Nature.
The results of the study suggest that global warming began during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. The warming was first detectable in the Arctic and tropical oceans around the 1830s.
Key highlights of the study
•The researchers studied reconstructions of climate for the past 500 years to determine exactly when the current trend of sustained warming of the planet began.
•The researchers evaluated climate histories preserved in corals, cave decorations, tree rings and ice cores across the world.
•They also evaluated thousands of years of climate model simulations, including data used for the latest report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
•They also used climate models to separate the human-induced warming from natural factors such as volcanoes.
•They found that even the major volcanic eruptions in the early 1800s were only a minor factor in the early onset of climate change.
•According to the research, even relatively low levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the first decades of the Industrial Revolution contributed to a temperature increase.
•Climate warming appears to have been delayed in the Antarctic, possibly due to the way ocean circulation is pushing warming waters to the North and away from the frozen continent.
Union Minister Maneka Gandhi launches POCSO e-box
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi on 26 August 2016 launched Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses, POCSO e-box, in New Delhi.
POCSO e-box is a platform where a child victim of sexual abuse can report such cases online. It is initiative of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, for direct online reporting of child sexual abuse.
Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Raj and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Key Highlights
• The e-Box is an online complaint management system for easy and direct reporting of sexual offences against children and timely action against the offenders under the POCSO Act, 2012.
• It is incorporated on the home page of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) website http://ncpcr.gov.in/.
• To register complain, a complainant will have to push a button named POSCO e-Box, which will navigate him/her to a page where he/she will have to select at least one picture option (describing the category of harassment).
• Later, he/she will also have to fill a form with details such as mobile number, e-mail and description of the harassment followed by the ‘submit’ button, after which a unique auto-generated complaint number will be flashed.
Under POSCO Act, any human being up to the age of 18 years is recognised as a child
Sri Lankan cricketer Tillakaratne Dilshan announced retirement from International Cricket
Veteran Sri Lanka batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan on 25 August 2016 announced his retirement from international cricket.
He will play his last ODI in Dambulla on 28 August 2016 against Australia (third of the five-match series). He will play his last T20 international in Colombo on 9 September 2016.
Dilshan, who is most famous for inventing the Dilscoop, had already retired from Test cricket in 2013. He played 87 Tests and scored 5492 runs at 40.98, and also picked 39 Test wickets. Dilscoop is a process of hitting the ball behind the keeper. He also was a Test wicket-keeper.
Highlights of Tillakaratne Dilshan career
• Dilshan, 39, made his one day debut against Zimbabwe in 1999 and has, so far, played 329 ODIs.
• He has amassed 10248 runs that include 22 hundreds and 47 half-centuries.
• He has scored 1884 runs in 78 Twenty20 Internationals, so far.
• He is only the fourth Sri Lanka batsman and 11th batsman overall to pass the 10000-run mark.
• His career-best score is 161 not out against Bangladesh in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup.
• An all-rounder, he is also a capable off-break bowler, took 106 ODI wickets, with best figures of 4 for 4 against Zimbabwe in Pallekele in 2011.
• In 78 T20Is so far, Dilshan has 1884 runs, including a high score of 104 against Australia, in Pallekele in 2011. He took 7 T20Is wicket in his account.
PM announces Task Force to prepare action Plan for next three Olympics Games
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 26 August 2016 announced the decision to set up a task force to prepare action Plan for the next three Olympics Games. The task force will be set up over the next few days.
The announcement was made at the meeting of the Council of Ministers in New Delhi.
The task force will prepare a comprehensive action plan for effective participation of Indian sports persons in the Olympic Games to be held in 2020, 2024 and 2028. The 2020 Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo.
The task force comprising members in house as well as outside experts will prepare overall strategy for sports facility, training, selection procedure and other related matters.
The decision was made in backdrop of the dismal performance of India at Rio Olympics in which the country was able to win only one silver and one bronze medal after sending the biggest contingent of 118 athletes.
28 August
Bombay High Court allows entry of women inside Haji Ali Dargah
Bombay High Court on 26 August 2016 ruled that women should be permitted to enter the sanctum sanctorum of Haji Ali Dargah set in the heart of Mumbai.
The 15th century dargah of the Sufi saint, Haji Ali Shah, is located on an islet off the coast of Worli in the southern part of Mumbai.
A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Revati Mohite Dere in its 56-page judgement said that a ban imposed by the Haji Ali Dargah Trust on women entering the sanctum sanctorum contravenes their fundamental rights and must be lifted.
Highlights of the Judgement
• The court said that the ban on entry of women inside Haji Ali Dargah violates their fundamental right to practice any religion.
• Rebuking the Dargah Trust, the court said it has no right to discriminate entry of women into a public place of worship under the guise of 'managing the affairs of religion'.
• It refused to accept the claims that allowing women in close proximity to the grave of male Muslim saint was a sin in Islam.
• It also refused to accept that the ban was imposed to prevent sexual harassment of women.
• The court in its judgement also highlighted few constitutional provisions that give equal rights to all faith practitioners (men and women) to profess and practice whatever they wish as per their religious dictates. Articles used in the judgment include
The bench asked the Dargah Trust to take effective steps like having separate queues for men and women as was done before. It also added that the state government is also duty bound to ensure safety of women at such places.
The judgement was passed on public interest litigation (PIL) filed by filed by Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), a Muslim women's rights group based in Mumbain and several other women activists urging the court to lift restrictions imposed on entry of women in the dargah by the Haji Ali Dargah Trust. Noorjehan Safia Niaz and Zakia Soman are the founders of BMMA.
However, the court has stayed its order for six weeks following a plea by the Dargah Trust, which wants to challenge this decision in the Supreme Court.
Background
The Haji Ali trustees, who banned entry of women into the mausoleum in 2012, were the first so-called Sufi followers in India to bar women from the spiritual tradition of shrine visitation.
In February 2016, Maharashtra Government said to the Bombay High Court that women should be allowed to allowed to enter the inner sanctum till the Daragh Board in not able to prove that ban is part of their religious practice with reference to Quran.
Earlier in April 2016, the Bombay high court passed a similar ruling lifting ban on women’s entry to the Shani Shingnapur temple in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. The Trust of the temple imposed the ban on the basis of a 400-year-old tradition which proclaimed against women entering the inner sanctum of Lord Shani temple. The trust allowed women to enter the temple within a week of the order of the court.
Philippine government, communist rebels sign ceasefire deal
The Philippine government and Communist guerrillas (National Democratic Front (NDF)), on 26 August 2016 signed an indefinite ceasefire deal. The deal signed in Oslo, Norway will facilitate peace talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.
As per the Norwegian government, which is facilitating the talks, both sides agreed to implement unilateral ceasefires which are unlimited in time. Norway has had a role as facilitator for the peace process since 2001. Fitful peace talks have been going on since 1986.
The agreement extends a truce in place for the Oslo meeting, which began on 22 August 2016 and is the first formal negotiating session over the conflict since 2011.
The Communist Party of the Philippines launched rebellion in 1968 that has so far claimed the lives of 30000 people, according to official estimates. The 3000-strong New People’s Army, the armed wing of the communist party, operates mainly in the east and south of the Philippines.
The ceasefire agreement included a timetable for talks about political, economic and constitutional reforms. It also mapped out a path towards an amnesty for political prisoners. The two sides would meet again in Oslo on 8 October 2016.
President of Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte said he wants to end guerrilla wars with both communist and Muslim rebels that have been hampering economic development.