TAMIL NADUThe Chief Justice of Madras high court A P Sahi - inaugurated a ‘Justice Clock’ at the principal bench in High Court Campus, Chennai on December 16

‘Justice clock’ is an LED board which displays information such as the ranking of all the courts across the country based on the filing of cases, their pendency and disposal by the courts.

It is nothing but a communication system which will connect to the masses Earlier, in 2017, the Prime minister Narendra Modi desired to have such a clock

in all the courts, which was readily accepted by the then Chief Justice of India. The ‘clock’ not only provides information to public but also encourages the

speedy disposal of casesGreater Chennai Corporation (GCC) commissioner G Prakash - has constituted a committee of all chief engineers to streamline various rates fixed for material used in laying of roads and other infrastructure projects by the civic body. The committee will comprise of all chief engineers and is headed by the

principal chief engineer. It will have a sub-committee consisting of engineers chosen from executive

engineers of bridges, electrical, storm water drain, roads, works, mechanical, buildings and parks

Henceforth, any new item of work which requires fixing of rates including purchase and receipt of new materials would have to be placed before the committee

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EVERYDAY CURRENT AFFAIRS – DEC

Also, the departments which require modifications, corrections or technical decisions would have to request the committee for convening a meeting.

At present, the schedule of rates for material like sand, concrete and bricks is prepared by the Public works department and the buildings department.

This is calculated as per the basic rates provided by the public works department (PWD) or the highways department every year.

The rates are then placed before the council for approvalArchaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) Chennai Circle - is set to be bifurcated with a new second circle to be established in Trichy

ASI’s Chennai circle manages around 411 monuments and heritage sites and it receives Rs 5 crore annually for maintenance

The Chennai circle of ASI is the largest circle in the entire country With the Cauvery basin being taken as the border, 15 districts situated north of

the river will continue with Chennai Circle, while 22 districts will be part of the new circle that will include Kanyakumari, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli districts, currently part of Thrissur in Kerala.

Chennai and Trichy circles will have 129 and 122 monuments under their control.

The move will facilitate better attention on ASI activities in southern districtsJaswant Munoth, Director of the Chennai-based Munoth Industries Ltd, has been chosen as a member of the Expert Review Committee (ERC) of Centre of Excellence (CoE) on ‘Rechargeable Battery Technology’ The CoE will be established at C-MET, Pune, under the aegis of Union ministry

of electronics and information technology (MeitY).

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Munoth will be the lone representative from the private sector in the eight-member ERC

The eight-member ERC will be chaired by Prof V K Aatre, former scientific advisor to the defence minister and visiting professor at IISc, Bengaluru

Munoth Industries is planning to establish a lithium cell manufacturing facility, at an investment of close to 800 crore, near Tirupathi.₹

The CoE on ‘Rechargeable Battery Technology’ (Pre-Cell) is being established with an outlay of 2,087.67 crore with the financial assistance from industry. ₹

The project is for a time period of five years. The ERC would provide requisite direction, steering and close monitoring of the

objectives, goals and targeted deliverables of the CoE in a time bound manner. The CoE will work on the Li-ion and Na-ion battery manufacturing machinery

design and transfer of end-to-end indigenous technology for cell manufacturing in India

Besides Aatre and Munoth, the other members of ERC include – K Balasubramanian, Director, NFTDC; Shantanu Das, Scientist, BARC Mumbai; Ajit R Kulkarni, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Material

Science, IIT Mumbai; Rajiv Jain, Senior advisor, IESA; Sandip Chatterjee, Director and Scientist, MeitY and Sanka Dip Das, Scientist, MeitY.

The ERC will also define the roadmap for translation of the output for commercialization, leading to the commercial production of the proposed battery

NATIONALNational Legal Services Authority (Nalsa) chairman Justice N V Ramana - announced that free legal services will be offered to the poor from the stage when they are called to the police station in pre-arrest stage.

Justice Ramana, the senior-most SC judge, announced that free legal aid would also be extended to victims of crime who hail from poor sections of society

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Lawyers empanelled by legal services authorities will train the poor people in various sections of law “relating to pre-arrest, arrest and remand” stages of a case

SUPREME COURT VERDICTThe Supreme Court - set a deadline of February-end to constitute Pocso courts and passed directions against the erring states Earlier, the apex court has instructed setting up of exclusive Pocso courts in

each district where more than 100 cases pertaining to sexual abuse of minors are pending.

On the direction of the SC, the Centre had proposed to set up a total of 1,023 fast-track special courts for the speedy trial of over 1.66 lakh pending cases of crime against women and children across the country.

Of these, 389 courts will exclusively handle cases registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

The remaining 634 fast track special courts will deal with either rape cases or both rape and Pocso Act cases, depending upon pendency and requirement.

A bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta announced that in certain judicial districts, more than 300 cases under Pocso are pending and directed that 2 designated courts be constituted for expeditious disposal of cases.

ECONOMYThe RBI - has operationalised 24x7 National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) transactions from 12.00am on December 16 It has also barred member banks from levying any charges from their savings

bank account holders for funds transfers done through NEFT system which are initiated using internet banking or mobile apps

The rules are effective January 1, 2020. Till now, banks used to charge about 5 for NEFT transactions between₹

10,000 and 1 lakh, 15 for transactions between 1 lakh up to 2 lakh and₹ ₹ ₹ ₹ ₹ 25 for the 2 lakh- 5 lakh range.₹ ₹ ₹

The directive comes six months after the RBI had waived the fees it charges to banks and had asked them to pass on the benefits to the customers.

Following the RBI circular, Paytm Payments Bank announced an immediate enablement of 24-hour NEFT.

APPOINTMENTSIndian Army’s vice chief, Lt Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane - is set to be the next chief of the Indian Army

Naravane will be the 28th Chief of the Army Staff

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Army Chief General Bipin Rawat is set to retire on December 31, 2019, after a three year tenure.

The senior-most Army officer after Gen Rawat, Naravane was commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment in June 1980.

He has served in various command and staff appointments in peace, field and highly active counter-insurgency environments in Jammu & Kashmir and the northeast in his 37 years of service.

Naravane served as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka He has also commanded a Rashtriya Rifles Battalion in Jammu and Kashmir

and served in Assam Rifles Naravane had also served as defence attache at the Indian Embassy in

Myanmar for three years He became Indian army’s vice chief in September this year He will have a tenure till April 2022 till his superannuation. He will be the third Army chief from the Sikh Light regiment after Gen. V.P.

Malik and Gen. Bikram Singh. Earlier, Lieutenant General Naravane was handling the Eastern Command of

the Army, taking care of nearly 4,000-km border with China.  Lt General Naravane was honoured the Param Vishisht Medal in 2019, Ati

Vishisht Seva Medal in 2017 for leading strike corps, Sena Medal (Distinguished service) for commanding his J&K battalion and Vishisht Sena Medal in 2015 for his services.

Apart from that, he was also conferred Operation Parakram Medal, Special Service Medal, Samanya Seva Medal.

AWARDSAmitabha Bagchi’s novel, ‘Half the Night is Gone’ - has won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019.

The announcement was made at 8th edition of the IME Nepal Literature Festival in the city of Pokhara on December 16.

The Award was presented by Pradeep Gawali, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nepal, in the presence of Surina Narula, founder of the DSC Prize, and the four-member jury

Bagchi is the author of three novels - Above Average, The Householder and This Place.

The award winning novel is a post-colonial narrative which covers three generations and deals with stories of fates and cultures.

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A major part of ‘Half the Night is Gone’ is based in age-old world of scheming zamindars, dubious morals and a man lamenting lost opportunities.

This year’s international jury panel was chaired by Harish Trivedi, former Professor of English at University of Delhi.

The award carries a cash prize of $25,000. The award, instituted in 2010, is given annually to writers of any nationality

writing about South Asia themes and belonging to South Asian region It is given for an original full-length novel written in English/ translated into

English.

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