Bihar Affairs
Six years on, central university at Vikramshila site yet to take shape
The announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi almost six years ago regarding establishment of a central university at the historic site ofVikramshila Universityin Bhagalpur is yet to take shape. The central government had also allocated Rs 500 crore for the purpose.
The committee constituted by theUnion HRD ministrymore than 18 months ago for selecting the final site for the proposed university submitted its report to the Centre recently.
The Centre had asked Bihar to provide 500 acres of land for setting up the university. The , however, expressed its inability in procuring this much land in Bhagalpur and offered 200 acres for the purpose as most of the lands are agricultural and fertile. The central government accepted the proposal and asked the state to provide two to three alternative locations.
The state government in December 2018 furnished the details of three locations in Kahalgaon circle of Bhagalpur district.
The entire project is being monitored by the Union HRD ministry and the state government has been providing all the required facilities to the Centre. Moreover, the allocated fund of Rs 500 crore has not been received by the state till date.
National and International Affairs
Ranking of airports globally
Worlds top-5 include:
Doha Hamad International Airport
Tokyo Haneda airport
Changi airport Singapore
Seoul Incheon International Airport and
Tokyo Narita
It was constituted under the Chairpersonship of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.
The council look after the implementation of the Policy and advise the Government to formulate and implement policy and programmes for senior citizens.
NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).
Third meeting of the Council was held in June, 2018.
Issues like Schemes, Programmes and Act were discussed in the meeting for the welfare of Senior Citizens.
Status or action taken by the Government is listed below:
Council suggested to strengthen the Amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007. Following it, government introduced Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.
Council suggested to organise more distribution camps under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RYY). Based on this, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment revised RVY to cover all the districts across country.
Council also advised to simplify the process of registration of NGOs following which, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been running a simplified Online NGO portal called e-Anudaan.
It suggests to provide financial assistance to senior citizens who are cancer patients from Senior Citizens Welfare Fund (SCWF). In line with the suggestion, government is providing financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.