CIVILS WEEKLY

  SHIROMANI GURDWARA PARBANDHAK COMMITTEE (OR SGPC) Bibi Jagir Kaur, the first woman to be elected SGPC president more than 20 years ago, has made a comeback and has been elected as the new SGPC president. About: The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (or SGPC) is an organization in India responsible for the management of gurdwaras, Sikh places of worship in three states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh and union territory of Chandigarh. SGPC also administers Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. The SGPC is governed by the chief minister of Punjab. The SGPC manages the security, financial, facility maintenance and religious aspects of Gurdwaras as well as keeping archaeologically rare and sacred artifacts, including weapons, clothes, books and writings of the Sikh Gurus. It was formed in 1920. The first and the only woman and also incumbent President of SGPC is Jagir Kaur . GURU NANAK Guru Nanak Jayanti or Gurpurab is being celebrated with religious fervour across India and the world

  GLOBAL INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE (GITA) At celebration of the 9th Foundation Day of GITA, Union Minister of Science & Technology underlined how Global Innovation and Technology Alliance (GITA) served as a catalyst for nurturing innovation and industrial R&D. About: Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) is a “not–for–profit” Section-8 Public Private Partnership (PPP) company. It is promoted jointly by the Technology Development Board (TDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry had, in 2010, recommended incorporation of a Government’s arm’s length entity under PPP mode to professionally manage the Government’s funds for providing flexibility to industry for undertaking R&D along with global partners. The GITA platform encourages industrial investments in innovative technology solutions by Mapping technology gaps, Undertaki

  LOK VIRASAT Films Division (FD) is organising Lok Virasat, a festival of films on folk art and painting starting from November 27, 2020. About: an exclusive bouquet of documentary films on folk art and paintings - Lok Virasat - is being showcased, between November 27–29, 2020 on FD website and You Tube channel. The films being streamed include: The Kingdom of God , on the great Indian heritage of art and culture with focus on various folk art traditions, Bhavai - Fading Memories, a film on Bhavai - a folk art of Gujarat, Naman – Khele, a film on the ancient folk art performed in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, Sahi Jata, The Fusion Cult, a film on the unique fusion of muscle and music in the form of folk art on the back-drop of the ancient Orissa town of Puri and Therukoothu : Dancing For Life , a film depicting the age old Tamil folk art. PERIOD PRODUCTS (FREE PROVISION) (SCOTLAND) BILL The Scottish parliament passed a landmark legislation that has made period products such as sanitary pads

  INDIAN ECONOMY India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted 7.5% in the second quarter of 2020-21, following the record 23.9% decline recorded in the first quarter, as per estimates released by the National Statistical Office. About: The country has now entered a technical recession with two successive quarters of negative growth. Agriculture, which was the only sector to record growth between April and June this year, grew at the same pace of 3.4% in the second quarter. Manufacturing gross value-added (GVA) staged a sharp recovery to record 0.6% growth between July and September after collapsing 39.3% in the first quarter. Electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services also recorded 4.4% growth in the second quarter, recovering from a 7% contraction in Q1. But it remained a bleak quarter for several sectors, including mining, services such as retail trade and hotels, construction and financial services. While the 7.5% contraction in GDP came as a positive surprise, the