THE
TOP CITY IN URBAN GOVERNANCE – THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
·
The capital city of Kerala,
Thiruvananthapuram stood as the top city in the Urban Governance.
·
On the basis of many governance
indicators, the review had been given.
·
Mumbai stood in the 4th position which
stood in the 2nd position last year.
MEITY
TO PROMOTE DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS REPLACING NITI:
·
Ministry of IT & Electronics has
taken the responsibility to promote digital transactions by replacing the NITI
Ayog.
·
In the view of Digital India, the
government has decided to follow digital transactions.
MADHYA
PRADESH ANNOUNCES DEENDAYAL RASOI YOJANA FOR THE POOR IN THE BUDGET 2017-18:
·
Under Deendayal Rasoi Yojana Minister
released a sum of 10 crores to implement infrastructure and provide food in
subsided rate for the poor people.
·
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
announced to provide meals for Rs. Five for the poor people listed in four
major cities.
·
The year 2017 is celebrated as Garib
Kalyan March as it is the birth centenary year of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya.
·
Under this Yojana, the government
released money for education, rural development, energy sector, urban
development, and pension to unemployed widows.
NEW
DELHI JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY – NOMINATED FOR ‘VISITOR’S AWARD’ FOR THE
BEST UNIVERSITY IN THE COUNTRY:
·
Jawaharlal Nehru University situated in
the capital city of our country New Delhi was recently nominated for “Visitors
Award” for Innovation and Research.
·
The award includes the citation and a
cash prize of Rs. 1 Lakh which will be given by the President of India.
SUPERSONIC
PRITHVI INTERCEPTOR MISSILE SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRED:
·
Indigenously developed supersonic
Prithvi interceptor missile was successfully test-fired from launch complex III
of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Abdul Kalam Island in Balasore, Odisha.
·
The indigenously developed supersonic
interceptor missile is capable of destroying any incoming enemy ballistic
missile at low altitude.
·
The successful test validates the
reliability of its two layered Ballistic Missile Defence.
·
Earlier in February 2017, DRDO had
successfully carried out test of the exo-atmospheric interceptor missile
destroying the target outside the earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of over 85
km.
KEY
FEATURES OF MISSILE:
·
The Prithvi interceptor missile has been
indigenously developed by DRDO. It is a 7.5-metre-long single stage solid
rocket propelled guided missile.
·
It is equipped with a navigation system,
a hi-tech computer, inertial navigation system and an electro-mechanical
activator.
·
It can destroy the incoming hostile
ballistic missile in the endo-atmospheric region (less than 30 km altitude) at
a low altitude of less than 30 kms.
·
It has its own mobile launcher, secure
data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and
sophisticated radars.
ABOUT
INDIA’S BMD PROGRAMME:
·
The Research Centre Imarat (RCI) of the
DRDO has played pivotal role in the development of all strategic missiles,
spearheaded under the India’s double-layered ballistic missile defence (BMD)
programme.
·
The BMD consists of two interceptor
missiles, Advanced Area Defence (AAD) missile for endo-atmosphere or lower
altitudes and Prithvi Defence Vehicle for exo-atmospheric ranges.
·
The DRDO expects deployment of BMD
shield by 2022.
·
India will be fourth country in the
world after the US, Russia and Israel to successfully built effective
anti-ballistic missile system.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
TOPS CITY GOVERNANCE RANKING: ASICS
·
Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala
has topped in city governance ranking of the Annual Survey of India’s City
Systems (ASICS) 2016 conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and
Democracy.
·
This year it was the fourth edition the
annual survey which had evaluated 21 major cities from the 18 states.
·
It highlighted inadequacies in urban
governance that could affect public service delivery and quality of life.
WHAT
IS ASICS?
·
The ASICS is designed to help city
leaders pin point issues in urban governance in their cities and help them
chalk out a reform roadmap to make them more livable.
·
It ranks citites in the scale of 0 to 10
scale.
·
The better scores of city in the survey,
indicat es it will be able to deliver better quality of life to citizens over
the medium and long-term.
·
The major parameters of the survey
included urban capacities and resources, urban planning and design, empowered
and legitimate political representation, and transparency, accountability and
participation.
HIGHLIGHTS
OF 2016 ASICS:
·
Thiruvananthapuram
topped in 2016 Survey.
·
Pune is ranked second, up two ranks from
2015.
·
Kolkata retained its third slot.
National capital Delhi slipped to ninth rank from seventh.
·
Bhubaneswar was the biggest gainer in
the 2016 survey as it jumped eight places from 2015 to the 10th spot.
KALVARI
SUBMARINE:
·
INS
Kalvari is the first of India’s six Scorpene-class
submarines which are being built under the Project 75.
·
It has been designed by France’s DCNS
and was manufactured at state-owned Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai,
Maharashtra.
·
The anti-ship missiles will provide the
Kalvari class submarines ability to neutralize surface threats at extended
ranges.
ABOUT
SIX SCORPENE-CLASS SUBMARINES
·
The diesel powered Kalvari (Scorpene)
class submarines have superior stealth.
·
They use guided weapons such as
tube-launched anti-ship missiles and torpedoes on enemy submarines from the
surface or underwater.
·
Besides warfare, they can perform varied
functions will include intelligence gathering, mine laying and area
surveillance etc.
·
The second Kalvari class submarine INS Khanderi was launched in Mumbai in
January 2017. The other four submarines are expected to be launched at nine-month
intervals.
WCCB’S
OPERATION THUNDERBIRD AND OPERATION SAVE KURMA FOR FIGHT AGAINST WILDLIFE
CRIME:
·
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has
successfully coordinated Operation Thunder
Bird from January 30 to February 19, 2017 in its fight to end poaching of
India’s wildlife animals.
·
It also had convened Operation Save Kurma, a species
specific operation on turtles between 15 December 2016 and 30 January 2017.
KEY
POINTS:
OPERATION
THUNDERBIRD:
·
It is code-name of INTERPOL’s
(International Criminal Police Organization) multi-national and multi-species
enforcement operation for wildlife protection.
·
It has resulted in huge seizures of 2,
524 Live species of scheduled animals, 9 wild animal carcasses, 19.2 kg
elephant ivory, 1 tiger skin, 1 organ pipe coral, 1 jar snake venom, 8 leopard
skins and 1 Indian Mujtac skin.
OPERATION
SAVE KURMA:
·
It was species specific operation on
turtles.
·
Under it total of 15,739 live turtles
were recovered from 45 suspects, having inter-state linkages.
·
It helped the enforcement agencies to
focus on the existing trade routes and major trade hubs in the country, which
will be continued in future.
SWATHI:
·
Developed by DRDO’s Electronics &
Radar Development Establishment (LRDE).
·
The Defence Research and Development
Organization (DRDO) formally handed over an indigenously developed Weapon
Locating Radar (WLR) system dubbed as ‘SWATHI’ to Indian Army.
·
The DRDO also handed over a Nuclear,
Biological and Chemical (NBC) recce vehicle Mk-I and NBC treatment drugs to the
Indian Army.
·
It has a range of 50 km which brings all
artillery guns presently in service worldwide under its coverage.
·
Performs two roles i.e. Weapon Location
Mode for enemy Artillery and Direction of
Own artillery Fire (DOOAF) Mode
for Artillery.
·
Provides quick, automatic and accurate
location of all enemy weapons like mortars, shells and rockets firing within
its effective zone of coverage.
·
Simultaneously it can handle multiple
projectiles fired from different weapons at different locations.
·
It can also direct artillery response
based on the incoming enemy fire. It has been extensively tested along the Line
of Control (LoC).
·
The WLR has been a critical requirement
of the Indian Army and in the aftermath of the Kargil conflict it was imported
from the US in 2002 to fill critical needs.
ABOUT
NBC RECCE VEHICLE MK-I:
·
Developed by DRDO’s Vehicles Research
& Development Establishment (VRDE) for carrying out post event recce of
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) contaminated areas.
·
It is capable of collecting solid and
liquid samples of biologically contaminated areas, mark the nuclear and
chemical contamination zone and transfer the recce data speedily to support
formations.
NBC
TREATMENT DRUGS:
·
Developed by DRDO’s INMAS (Institute of
Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences) which is is actively engaged in research
in the field of radio protectors, de-corporating agents and antidotes for CBRN
emergencies, combat casualty care and other lifesaving drugs.
NARENDRA
SINGH TOMAR LAUNCHES SWACHH SHAKTI SAPTAH IN HARYANA:
·
Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, The Union
Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation launched the week long Swachh Shakti Saptah at national level
in Gurugram, Haryana to highlight the role of women in Swachh Bharat Mission
and to recognize their leadership.
·
The programmme would have nationwide
events including honouring women champions, women sarpanches, ASHA workers,
school teachers, young students and senior citizens.
·
An exhibition was also organized at the
venue to educate women participants about benefits of cashless transactions.
INDIA & WORLD BANK SIGNS USD 63
MILLION FINANCING AGREEMENTS FOR TEJASWINI: SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF
ADOLESCENT GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN PROJECT:
·
India has signed a financing agreement
of USD 63 million with World Bank in Jharkhand for its Socio-Economic
Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Project named “Tejaswini”.
·
The World Bank will finance the project
through its arm International Development Association.
·
The project aims to empower adolescent
girls and young women with basic life skills and provide opportunity to them to
complete their secondary education and further acquire market driven skill
training.
·
Three
main components of the project: Expanding social,
educational and economic opportunities, Intensive service delivery and State
capacity-building and implementation support.
SRI
LANKA WINS ‘MOST POPULAR TOURISM DESTINATION AWARD’:
·
Sri Lanka has bagged the most “Popular Tourism Destination” Award for
the 2nd consecutive year at the International Travel Fair Travel Fair in
Guangzhou, China.
·
The GITF award will further label Sri
Lanka among visitors to gain greater exposure and visibility for its unique
destination brand.
ASSAM
TO HOST RIVER FESTIVAL ‘NAMAMI BRAHMAPUTRA’:
·
Assam will host its first river
festival- Namami Brahmaputra at the
riverfront of Brahmaputra in Guwahati from 31 March to 4 April 2017.
·
The state’s government has invited
India’s President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ambassadors
of all the countries and all Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries to
participate in the mega event.
·
The five-day festival aims to promote
the state’s economy, culture, art, tourism, skill industry, investment option, trade,
commerce and heritage.
·
Namami Brahmaputra, which means
“Obeisance to the Brahmaputra”, will showcase the grandeur of the river and the
land it flows through.
·
It will be spread across 21 districts of
Assam.
FOR MORE DETAILS : Vetrii IAS Academy Chennai
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