Pakistan to release captured IAF pilot today

  • IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman who had been captured by the Pakistan army yesterday after his MIG-21 crashed in PoK will be released today and returned to India.
  • Pakistan Prime Minister announced this yesterday as a peace gesture.
  • Meanwhile, Mamta Banerjee has asked the centre to give details of the air strike that India carried out at JEM camps in Pakistan, and asked BJP to stop politicising the topic. Several ministers from BJP have been giving speeches around the increased tension between the two neighbouring countries at political rallies.
  • Pakistan skipped the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting as the group has decided to extend an invitation to India’s External Affairs Minsiter, Sushma Swaraj.

Reservation for people living at international border at J&K

  • Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said people of Jammu and Kashmir have been extended the recently-approved 10% reservation of economically weaker section.
  • This was done through the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Amendment Order, 2019.
  • Jaitley said that people living near the international border live as disturbed a life as people living along the Line of Control, and the 2004 quota only provided reservation to those living along the LoC.

New AIIMS in Haryana approved by cabinet

  • The new AIIMS will be set up at Manethi, Haryana.
  • The All India Institute of Medical Sciences will have 100 undergrad seats and 60 nursing seats.
  • The new institute will serve 1000 outpatients and will be equipped with 750 beds and 15-20 super-specialty departments.

Ordinance to make Aadhar voluntary for banks and phones approved

  • Lok Sabha had passed the bill on January 4th but Rajya Sabha did not get a chance to vote on it. Thus, an ordinance was necessitated.
  • The ordinance was necessitated to comply with Supreme Court judgment in September 2018.
  • The ordinance prohibits services cannot be denied for want of Aadhar or prohibits storage of Aadhar number or biometric data.