TODAY ON March 28, 2023
GK News Headlines

Nashville school shooting | 3 children among 6 dead; suspect had drawn maps, done surveillance
The suspect in a Nashville school shooting on March 27 had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance before killing three students and three adults in the latest in a series of mass shootings in a country growing increasingly unnerved by bloodshed in schools.

Trinamool joins Cong.-led protest, but Uddhav’s party aloof
In a zero-sum game, on the first day of Parliament after disqualification of senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, the Opposition ranks on March 27 gained an ally in the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has so far stayed away from all joint opposition events, but lost an old ally Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), which, irked by Mr. Gandhi’s “denigrating” comments on Savarkar, pulled back.

States advised to undertake mock drills to ensure operational readiness of COVID-19 infrastructure
The Union Health Ministry on March 27 directed States and Union Territories to be on alert and ensure preparedness for COVID-19 management, in view of the rise in infections in the country.

Students to get new NCERT textbooks after a gap of nearly 20 years
After nearly two decades, school students at all levels will learn from updated textbooks to be introduced in the 2024-25 academic year, top officials in the Ministry of Education (MoE) have said. This is in keeping with the National Education Policy 2020 and National Curriculum Framework (NCF) released in August 2022.

PPF, Sukanya Samriddhi Account interest rate hike may remain elusive
Investors in the popular small saving schemes Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA), whose rates have not been hiked since January 2019, are unlikely to get higher returns anytime soon, a top government official has indicated.

Papers hurled at Lok Sabha Speakar’s chair as Congress MPs protest Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification
Dressed in black to protest the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Opposition members in the Lok Sabha on Monday created an uproar by trooping into the Well, with two Congress members seen hurling papers towards Speaker Om Birla’s chair.

Affinity test cannot be the litmus test to decide a caste claim: SC
An affinity test cannot be the litmus test to decide a caste claim, the Supreme Court has held in a judgment. A three-judge Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said an affinity test is not an essential part of the process of the determination of correctness of a caste or tribe claim in every case.

Bihar caste-based survey | 2nd phase form ready, enumerators being trained; statisticians worry about data integrity
With the second phase of Bihar’s caste-based survey set to begin from April 15, training of field enumerators is on in full-swing. The mobile app to be used in the second phase – Bijaga (Bihar Jaati Adharit Ganana) – is ready, with 17 columns and a list of 214 caste names, and senior district officials in each district have been briefed on the form.

Minority community leaders urge RSS chief to speak more against attacks on Muslims
In a letter to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, prominent Muslim leaders and intellectuals, who are engaged in a dialogue with the organisation to bridge the communication gap between the minority community and the RSS, said there was virtually no let-up in the constant barrage of hate speech, calls for genocide and acts of violence against Muslims.

SC frees man on death row after realising he was a minor at the time of crime 28 years ago
The Supreme Court on March 27 released a death row convict who spent more than 28 years in prison for the gruesome murder of five women and two children on realising that he was just over 12 years old at the time of the crime in 1994.

Netanyahu delays judicial overhaul after mass protests
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced a delay in his judicial overhaul plan, saying he wanted to give time to seek a compromise over the contentious package with his political opponents.