On the occasion of Constitution Day, Chief Justice of India Justice T S Thakur today released the book published by Publications Division titled “Courts of India – Past to Present”. 
●    Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology was also present on the occasion.
●    The book has been designed as a Coffee Table Book which has several photographs of archival value which was steered by an Editorial Committee headed by Justice S.A Bobde and other eminent luminaries of the country. 
●    The 'Courts of India' traces the historical evolution of the courts, identifies the diverse court system, compile their customs and practices and also contextualizes it. 
●    The book seeks to introduce Indian Judiciary to the citizens in a lucid manner.
●    The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Constitution of India, the highest constitutional court, with the power of constitutional review.
●    It comprises the Chief Justice of India and 30 other judges. It has original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions.
●    As the final court of appeal of the country, it takes up appeals primarily against verdicts of the High Courts of various States of the Union and other courts and tribunals.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board (IBBI) of India on 23 November 2016 notified three sets of regulations- (Insolvency Professional) Regulations, 2016; Regulations inter alia provide for registration, Regulation and oversight of insolvency professionals.
●    These regulations were notified under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and will come into effect from 29 November 2016. 
●    Advocates, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants with 10 years’ of practice or employment.
●    A Graduate with 15 years of post-qualification managerial experience on passing the Limited Insolvency Examination.
●    Any individual who has passed the National Insolvency Examination.
●    However, Advocates, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants with more than 15 years of practice experience can register without any examination till 31 December 2016 and such registration shall be valid for a limited period of six months.

Union Cabinet on 23 November 2016 approved the introduction of Merchant Shipping Bill, 2016 in the Parliament. Simultaneously, the cabinet also approved repealing of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 and the Coasting Vessels Act, 1838.
●    The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 has been amended 17 times between 1966 and 2014 resulting in an increase in the number of sections to more than 560 sections. However, these provisions have been shortened to 280 sections in the Bill.
●    It allows substantially-owned vessels and vessels on Bare Boat-cum-Demise (BBCD) to be registered as Indian flag vessels.
●    It introduces welfare measures for seafarers by providing them with the wages till they are released from hostage captivity of pirates and reach back home safely.
●    It directs owners of vessels to take insurance of crew engaged on vessels including fishing, sailing, etc. This applies for the vessels whose net tonnage is less than 15 tons.
●    It calls for registration of few residuary category of vessels not covered under any statute and makes provisions for security-related aspects.

The Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Ashok Gajpathi Raju has said that his Ministry is committed to provide a hassle-free and comfortable air travel experience to people. 
●    To do this, he said, it is necessary to recognize the pattern of problems that people face, and make suitable systemic improvements in our working. 
●    The Minister launched the AirSewa portal and mobile app in New Delhi today. AirSewa is an initiative of the Ministry to offer people a convenient and hassle-free air travel experience. 
●    It will be operated through an interactive web portal as well as through a mobile app for both android and iOS platforms. 
●    The portal will include a mechanism for grievance redressal, backoffice operations for grievance handling, flight status/schedule information, airport Information and FAQs.
●    Participating in a panel discussion on the occasion Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation said that flight delays, problem in refunds, long queues and lack of proper facilities at airports and complaints of lost baggage are the most common problems that air travellers are facing today.
●    With the launch of AirSewa, passengers will be able to register their grievances through the mobile app or a web portal. 
●    The users will have the facility to upload voice or video along with an elaborate description of their issues. 
●    They will be given a unique reference number for each of their reported grievances which would also be communicated through an email as well as an SMS.

Chinese technology company Lenovo has partnered with Paytm to ensure hassle-free cashless transactions that will benefit laptop buyers who are facing cash crunch after demonetisation.
●    The company’s entire notebook portfolio is covered under this initiative and is currently rolled out in 40 cities covering 350 retail partners of Lenovo.
●    “We have designed these schemes specially for our consumers and channel partners so that they can have a convenient and comfortable buying experience,” said Rajesh Thadani, Head and Executive Director, Consumer, Online and E-commerce, Lenovo India, in a statement.
●    Lenovo has also collaborated with Pine Labs to allow smooth conversion of transactions into EMI.
●    In addition to this, Lenovo has introduced special zero interest EMI option which will allow consumers to purchase any Lenovo laptop with zero down payment at the time of purchase, and is valid till November 30.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on 23 November 2016 approved the setting up of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in 62 uncovered districts with an outlay of Rs 2871 crore.
●    The expenses for this purpose will be Rs 109.53 crore during the 12th Plan.  
●    It will provide good quality modern education to the talented children notably from rural areas.  
●    A full-fledged JNV provides employment to 47 people and 62 JNVs will provide direct permanent employment to 2914 individuals.
●    JNVs are residential and co-educational in nature, thereby, all the staff and students will reside in the Vidyalaya campus.
●    It will also create large opportunity for local service providers such as barber, tailor cobbler, manpower for housekeeping and security services.
●    Presently, there are 598 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in 576  districts. Out of these, 591 are functional.  
●    75% of the seats in a district are filled by candidates from rural areas of the district. 

The upgraded Jaguar DARIN III twin-seat aircraft on 24 November 2016 received the Initial Operation Clearance (IOC). 
●    IOC is a significant milestone for India’s military aviation sector.
●    This completion of IOC for DARIN III was announced by Deputy Chief of IAF, Air Marshal RKS Bhadauria. 
●    It was created by upgrading three DARIN I Standard Jaguars.
●    Three DARIN I (Display Attack Ranging Inertial Navigation) jaguars were indigenously upgraded at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Mission and Combat System Research and Design Centre (MCSRDC).
●    Organisations involved in upgrading Jaguar from DARIN-I aircraft to DARIN-III included Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the trial team of the Aircraft Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), certification agencies and others.
●    HAL is India’s aerospace and defence company. 
●    It is based in Bangalore, Karnataka. 
●    It is governed under the management of the Indian Ministry of Defence. 
 

The first payments bank in the country has gone live. 
●    Airtel Payments Bank , which has rolled out a pilot project in Rajasthan, launched with the promise of being a disruptor, offering 7.25% interest on savings bank accounts. 
●    This is the highest return offered by a bank in India, with most lenders giving only 4%.
●    Airtel, which was earlier offering a wallet — Airtel Money — was the first to receive a payments bank licence from the Reserve Bank of India . 
●    After receiving the approval, Airtel entered into a pact with Kotak Bank, which agreed to acquire a 20% stake in the bank. 
●    The bank's focus is on financial inclusion and it will not be issuing ATM or debit cards, but will allow cash withdrawal facilities at designated Airtel retail outlets which will double as banking points. 
●    The bank is also providing a free personal accident cover of Rs 1 lakh with every savings bank account.
●    Payments banks are the brainchild of former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, who came up with the idea of differentiated bank licences.

India today successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile twice in quick succession as part of a user trial by the army from a test range at Chandipur in Odisha.
●    A similar twin trial had been conducted on October 12, 2009 from the same base where both tests were successful.
●    The missile is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines.
●    It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target, they said.
●    The missile trajectory was tracked by the DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha. 
●    The downrange teams on board the ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown.
●    Inducted into Indian armed forces in 2003, the nine-metre-tall, single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi-II is the first missile to be developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, defence sources said.

Central Government announced that it has so far approved construction of 12,83,616 affordable houses for urban poor in 2,329 cities and towns crossing the 12,40,968 mark approved under the ten years of Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
●    Making the announcement at a media conference here today, Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that his ministry today cleared construction of 1,97,402 housed for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(Urban) in seven States and there by crossing the JNNURM mark in a very short period.
●    States sanctioned affordable houses by the Ministry of HUPA today are: Tamil Nadu-1,13,327 houses with an investment of Rs.3,714 cr, Karnataka- 31,880 (Rs.1,186 cr), Gujarat-18,248 (Rs.1,096 cr), Madhya Pradesh-16,448 (Rs.813 cr), Punjab-16,187 (Rs.447 cr), Rajasthan-1,280 (Rs.50 cr) and Meghalaya-32 (Rs.1.00 cr).
●    Shri Venkaiah Naidu stated that withdrawal of high value currency notes announced by the Government would have a positive impact on real estate sector, ultimately benefitting the sector and all stakeholders. He said it will lead to stabilization of prices and result in a ‘new normal’ in the sector. Since the fixed income and salaried people are the main buyers of affordable housing, this move would help affordable housing segment where in unaccounted transactions are almost non-extant. Shri Naidu said that he would soon have a meeting with sector representatives to hear their point of view.