Government schemes

CURRENT AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2019

Chennai students invent new

biometric voting machine

Issue
A team of students from Chennai have come up with a biometric voting
machine that aims to make election process more simple and
transparent.

Background
Despite India having a huge population, voter turnouts are much lower
than in other countries. Through the Biometric voter machine, people only
need to go through a fingerprint or a retinal scan for authentication.

Details
The students said that through this system, a voter needn’t go to the
specific booth that he has been assigned to, but can vote from any
machine since their biometric credentials will be linked to their Aadhaar
data.
The biometric voting machine is among the many projects that students in
the school have been encouraged to work on, in the Atal Tinkering Lab
which has been set up in the school under NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation
Mission (AIM).

www.studyiq.com
Government schemes
CURRENT AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2019

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative set up by the NITI
Aayog to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across the length and
breadth of the country.
AlM's objectives are to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and
entrepreneurship across the country at school, university, research
institutions, MSME and industry levels.

Core functions
Entrepreneurship promotion through Self-Employment and Talent
Utilization, wherein innovators would be supported and mentored to
become successful entrepreneurs.
Innovation promotion to provide a platform where innovative ideas are
generated.

Atal Tinkering Labs

The ATL program is undertaking on-the-ground activities to engage
students and teachers in identifying problems in and around their
communities and creating innovative solutions leveraging the ATL
technologies to achieve the objectives of the program.
Notes

www.studyiq.com
Government schemes
CURRENT AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2019

Electoral bonds

Issue
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has accused the ruling party of
ignoring the RBI fears regarding misuse of poll bonds, and allowed it to
continue as a medium of black money generator for election funding.

Background
The Congress comments were in response to a media report that quoted
communications between the RBI and the Ministry of Finance on electoral
bonds.

Details
The RBI had said that the government’s proposal to enable scheduled
banks to issue electoral bonds would result in multiple, non-sovereign
entities being authorised to issue bearer instruments, which goes against
the RBI’s sole authority to issue bearer instruments.
Bearer instruments have the potential to become currency and if issued
in sizable quantities can undermine the faith in banknotes issued by the
central bank.

www.studyiq.com
Government schemes
CURRENT AFFAIRS NOVEMBER 2019

Poll bonds
The Finance Bill, 2017, introduced "electoral bonds", that are interest free
bearer bonds.
It is an instrument that is used to donate money to political parties. The
parties involved will probably be a donor, the political party and the RBI,
which acts as the intermediary.
Electoral bonds can be purchased from an authorized bank, issued to a
political party and can be cashed in via the party’s verified account within
15 days. The identity of the donor will be known only to the bank and
otherwise be kept anonymous.
Donations will be tax deductible, and the benefitting political party will get a
tax exemption for the amount received.
The bonds can be purchased only from the State Bank of India. They can be
bought by a donor with a KYC-compliant account.
The bonds will be available for purchase only for a period of 10 days in the
beginning of each quarter, in the months of January, April, July and
October.
They can be bought for any value, in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1
lakh, Rs 10 lakh or Rs 1 crore.
Notes

www.studyiq.com
 TOP SELLING courses

UPSC/IAS All Govt SSC & Bank

(Pre + Mains) Exams Combo
Rs.52,000 Rs.26,000 Rs.16,000
Rs.27,000 Click Rs.13,000 Click Rs.8,600 Click
Here Here Here
Rs.22,500 Rs.11,500 Rs.7,200

UPSC Prelims 2019- Madhya Pradesh

Test Series PSC
Rs.9,000 Rs.57,000
Rs.7,000 Click Rs.28,000 Click
Here Here
Rs.3,750 Rs.24,500

Uttar Pradesh
Bihar PSC CAPF (A.C.)
PSC
Exams
Rs.57,000 Rs.52,000 Rs.27,500
Rs.27,500 Click Rs.28,000 Click Rs.17,500 Click
Here Here Here
Rs.24,500 Rs.22,500 Rs.14,500

UPSC Opt -
RBI Grade B
Geography
Rs.25,000 Rs.20,000
Rs.13,500 Click Rs.11,000 Click
Here Here
Rs.11,500 Rs.8,900