Notes:
National Mission for Clean Ganga which functions under the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation-Ministry of Jal Shakti organised its flagship rafting and kayaking expedition programme called “Ganga Amantran Abhiyan”.
The exploratory open-water rafting programme was organised from Devprayag (Uttarakhand) to Gangasagar (West Bengal). The programme which concluded recently allowed people to connect with the river Ganga.

Notes:
Chameli Devi Jain Award is an annual award which has been presented since 1981 for outstanding performers in the field of Journalism. Chameli Devi Jain was a legendary freedom fighter and community reformer.
This year, the award for outstanding woman journalist was presented jointly to the Journalist of ‘The Wire’- Arfa Khanum Sherwani and a freelance journalist named Rohini Mohan. Arfa was chosen for her reporting from Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh while Rohini was awarded for her investigative coverage on the NRC exercise in Assam.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet recently passed the ‘Recovery of Damage to Public Properties Ordinance 2020’ for recovery of losses caused by damage to public property during violent protests.
The decision which was taken in a cabinet meeting headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath aims to prevent loss of public property in the state. The damages in the violence shall be recovered from the rioters, as per the ordinance. This comes at the backdrop of several violent protests in the state against Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement from Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh, there shall be a common eligibility test (CET) from 2021 for applicants for jobs in railways, banks and lower levels of Central government jobs.
The Centre is to set up an autonomous National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct this online test. The CET is expected to replace the first level tests conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) and the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

Notes:
Renowned poet and Malayalam scholar Puthussery Ramachandran recently passed away at the age of 91. He played an instrumental role in making Malayalam getting recognised as a classical language by the union government in 2013.
Ramachandran has won several prestigious awards, including the Sahitya Akademi award, the Ezhuthachchan Puraskaaram in 2015, Kerala Sahitya Akademi award among others. He was also associated with the Communist movement of Kerala.