National Current Affairs June 2016

Union Government Launched Centre to Assess Environmental Impact on Health

• The Union Health Minister JP Nadda launched centre to assess the impact of environment-related problems like air pollution, climate change, pesticide use and sanitation on health on May 19, 2016.
• It is a joint initiative of the Public Health Foundation of India and the Tata Institute of Social Science. Its mandate also includes capacity-building, advocacy, outreach and remedial issues.
• The centre will also establish a policy engagement platform with regular meetings with the government, civil society, academia and the private sector to develop pathways for better implementation of the eco-friendly policies.

Intelligent Operations Centre Inaugurated

• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated an Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) and launched a Mobile App Monitor for transformation of President’s Estate into a smart township at a I function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 19, 2016.
• The IOC is a software solution designed by IBM which helps collect and make sense of the rich data streaming in from several sources within the Estate to provide intelligent insights, It offers integrated data visualisation, near real-time collaboration and deep analytics that will help agencies prepare for problems, coordinate and manage response efforts and enhance efficiency-of services.
• The ‘Monitor’ mobile application is a Residents collaboration tool of the Intelligent Operation Center. This will help residents and domain (Energy, Water, Horticulture, Waste and Security) supervisors to j collaborate in a smarter way for their observations.

New Policy for Women Unveiled

• Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on May 18, 2016 unveiled the draft National Policy for Women 2016, which focuses on issues like housing, issues related to single women, and cyber crime against of women. It will enable the government to recognise single women ‘divorced, widowed and unmarried women’ as independent entities.
• The draft policy says maternal and pre-natal mortality remains a key priority, but also focuses on issues like gender transformative health strategy, which recognises women’s reproductive rights with a shift.

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Union Government Launched e-Portal to Fast Track Taxpayers Grievances

• The Income Tax department launched a special electronic grievance redressal system called e-Nivaran (unified grievance management system) in order to fast track taxpayer grievances and ensure early resolution of their complaints on May 17, 2016.
• It will integrate all online and physical complaints gathered by the department at this platform which will be monitored by the Assessing Officer of the case upto the supervisory officers in a paperless environment.
• It will also ensure that grievances related to any section or domain of the tax department is transferred quickly to the department concerned like that of refunds issue or any other IT matter concerning an assesse.

INFRACON, ePACE and up-Scaled INAMPRO Launched

• On May 16, 2016, the government launched ePACE, INFRACON and an updated version of INAMPRO, three innovative IT initiatives of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, developed in house by .National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation limited (NHIDCL).
• ePACE (Projects Appraisal & Continuing Enhancements) is an online integrated Management Information System that brings projects from all wings of the Ministry under a common platform, ensuring their effective and real time tracking. The portal also allows for validation checks to prevent wrongful entries, making it difficult to fudge figures. It has also been provided with GIS interface to enable easy geo-tracking of the projects.
• INFRACON is the national portal for infrastructure consultancy firms and key personnel. This portal acts as a kind of bridge between consultancy firms working in the road engineering and construction sector and domain experts and key personnel who are deployed both for project preparation and supervision.
• INAM PRO developed as a web-based application for infrastructure and material providers. It will facilitate contractors and cement buyers engaged in executing Central/State funded roads and highways and bridge construction projects to place cement orders online with the registered cement companies offering cement at competitive rates in the vicinity of project execution locations.