Current Affairs in Short: 7 January 2022

Ex-Chief Minister of Goa gets lifetime cabinet status

•  The Chief Minister of Goa Pramod Sawant announced that the state cabinet has decided to give the permanent status of a cabinet minister to the former Chief Minister of Goa Pratapsingh Rane.

•  Pratapsingh Rane is currently a Congress MLA who represents the Poriem Assembly segment. He is also an ex-speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly.

•  The decision to accord Rane the honour was taken as he completed 50 years as a legislator in Goa Assembly during the current tenure.

•  Pratapsingh Rane, the 87-years old MLA has been the Chief Minister of Goa for four terms from 1987 to 2007 on different occasions.

Major General Vikas Lakhera assumes charge as IG Assam Rifles (North)

•  Vikas Lakhera, Major General, has assumed charge as the 20th Inspector General of Assam Rifles (North). He took over charge from Maj Gen VPS Kaushik.

•  Major General Lakhera was in 1990 commissioned into the Sikh Light Infantry regiment which he later commanded in Western Assam.

•  Major General Vikas Lakhera is a post-graduate from the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Lakhera has also attended the Higher Defence Management course as well as the prestigious National Defence College Course in London.

•  He is a Sena medal awardee and has immense experience in planning and conducting counter-terrorist operations.

Ministry of External Affairs signs agreement for second phase of Passport Seva Programme with TCS

•  The Ministry of External Affairs has signed an agreement for the second phase of the Passport Seva Programme with Tata Consultancy Services. The ministry has appointed them as the Service Provider of the project.

•  The second phase is a continuation and the enhancement of PSP-V1.0, an e-governance instrument, which had introduced an unprecedented transformation in passport related services delivery.

•  The Ministry of External Affairs has also been working towards the opening of a Seva Kendra in every Lok Sabha Constituency where there is no Post Office Passport Seva Kendra or Passport Seva Kendra.

•  Currently in India, 93 PSKs, 428 POPSKs and 36 Passport Offices are operational.

Defence Minister flags-in country’s first multi-dimensional adventure sports expedition

•  The Defence Minister of India Rajnath Singh flagged-in India’s first multi-dimensional adventure sports expedition that will be conducted by the National Institute of Mountaineering and Allied sports in France.

•  The expedition was conducted in November 2021 and the team comprised of 12 people- four youths of Arunachal Pradesh and eight Army Personnel.

•  The Defence Minister also interacted with some of the members of the team. He distributed the appreciation certificates and also commended the team for completing the expedition without any injuries to the members.

•  The expedition team had carried out over 250 kms of winter trekking in the Alps Mountain Ranges.

EAM S. Jaishankar speaks to Israeli counterpart

•  The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to Yair Lapid, the alternate Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Israel.

•  Both the officials had an elaborate discussion on the plurilateral and bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

•  EAM Jaishankar also said that he has been looking forward to mark the 30th  anniversary of the diplomatic relations between India and Israel.