National
New Governor of West Bengal
» Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose has assumed charge of the office of the Governor of West Bengal on 23rd November 2022. Dr. C.V. Ananda Bose became the 22nd governor of the state. He replaced La Ganesan as the state’s constitutional head.
CV Ananda Bose on 23 November 2022 took oath as the new governor of West Bengal. He was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Prakash Shrivastava in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Speaker Biman Banerjee at a programme in Raj Bhavan.
- Dr Bose is a retired IAS officer of 1977 batch from Kerala cadre.
4th edition of Indian Chemicals Council (ICC) Sustainability Conclave
⇒ Secretary Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals Shri Arun Baroka inaugurated 4th edition of Indian Chemicals Council (ICC) Sustainability Conclave on 17 November 2022 at New Delhi.
Theme:
The Conclave was held on the theme of ‘boardrooms to Community-ESG, Carbon Neutrality, Operational Safety, Greener Solutions’.
Organized by:
The Conclave was organized jointly with United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) with due support of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change.
Key Points:
- The two-day event promoted sustainability in the management of the entire life cycle of chemicals.
- Various speakers expressed their views on climate, sustainable development and the steps that could be taken in this direction.
- CEOs and representatives of the Indian and global chemical companies, people working in EHS dept. in companies; Central and State Government officials, Pollution Control Boards, international multilateral organizations, Global chemical industry bodies and experts from Academia and civil society organizations participated in the event.
International
National Museum and Kolding Museum sign MoU for exhibition
⇒ In the beginning of March, 2023 Museum Kolding and the National Museum in New Delhi will open the joint exhibition “Silver treasures from Denmark and India”.
An MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) of the exhibition was signed and exchanged between the National Museum, New Delhi, India and the Museum Kolding, Kolding, in New Delhi on 17 November 2022.
Key Points:
- The exhibition will showcase the finest of the silver collection from the Museum Kolding and the National Museum in New Delhi in March 2023.
- The exhibition “Silver treasures from Denmark and India” is focused on the Danish and Indian Silver artefacts where both museums will show the best silver objects from their collections.
- Elucidating the beauty and magnificence of silver craftsmanship in both the countries, the exhibition will showcase the best select of 200 objects in total.
- For the first time, at the National Museum visitors will be able to see the parallel traditions of the Indian and Danish silver objects.
Background:
- The collaboration and exhibition is under the recently agreed cultural exchange programme between India and Denmark for the years 2022 to 2026.
CEC of India invited as International Observer for Elections in Nepal
⇒ Chief Election Commissioner of India Shri Rajiv Kumar was invited by Election Commission of Nepal as International Observer for the elections to Nepal’s House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly.
» Elections were held in Nepal on 20th November, 2022 for the Federal and Provincial elections to elect 275 members of the Federal Parliament and 550 seats of the seven Provincial Assemblies.
- Shri Rajiv Kumar led a delegation of ECI officials as State guest in Nepal from 18th November to 22nd November, 2022. During his visit Shri Kumar visited Polling stations at Kathmandu and areas around.
ECI also has a similar International Election Visitors Program where members from other Election Management Bodies are invited to experience firsthand our General and Assembly Elections held periodically.
Other Points:
- ECI’s India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) has by far trained more than 2200 officers from 109 countries of whom 70 officers from Nepal have also been trained as part of capacity building initiatives. A capacity building program for 25 officials from Election Commission of Nepal is also scheduled to be held from 13th to 24th March 2023 at IIIDEM.
- ECI had been chairing the Association of World Election Bodies, which is the world’s largest international organization in the field of election management – since Sept 2019 to October 2022. A-WEB currently comprises 119 Election Management Bodies (EMBs) from 109 countries.
- ECI has now been unanimously elected as the new Chair of the Association of Asian Election Authorities (AAEA) for the term 2022 to 2024 thus globally acknowledging ECI’s presence and efficient conduct of Elections in world’s largest democracy.
Important Day
2nd Audit Diwas- 2022
» The second Audit Diwas was celebrated on 16 November, 2022.
» Audit Diwas was celebrated to mark the historic origins of the institution of CAG and the contribution it has made to the governance, transparency and accountability over the past several years.
The Vice President, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar addressed a gathering after inaugurating 2nd Audit Diwas celebrations at CAG office in New Delhi on 16 November 2022.
- The Vice President described accountability and transparency as twins that help to sustain our democratic progress. He highlighted that CAG has a pivotal role in ensuring these values; corruption and inefficiency would creep into the system, otherwise.
» On this occasion, the Vice President also felicitated the winners of the National Online Essay Writing Competition – 2022 organized by CAG as part of its 2nd Audit Diwas celebrations.
About Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG):
- CAG was established under Article 148 of the Constitution to audit expenditures of the central as well as state governments.
- It is the statutory auditor and also conducts a supplementary audit of companies in which the government has an equity share of 51%.
- The CAG is ranked ninth in the order of precedence and enjoys the same status as a Supreme Court judge.