Current affair of 11th September 2019

Gurugram traffic police partners with Google maps for traffic updates

The Gurugram traffic police from the Haryana State has partnered with Google maps for real-time traffic updates. The tie-up will provide traffic-related information in real-time for public use.

Key highlights:

1. The Gurugram traffic police with Google maps will share the information such as planned road closures, diversions, traffic alerts regarding road crash, etc. The Google maps will immediately respond to the given search conditions and update the information on its public maps.
2. The reason aimed to prompt commuters to make intelligent choices in order to make their commuting experience hassle-free. 
3. This mechanism has been tested successfully and it was found working effectively.

Gujarat State govt to apply lenient approach on reducing fines under motor vehicle

The BJP party of the Gujarat government declared a reduction of fine amounts under the motor vehicle (MV) Act as Rs.1,000 from Rs.10,000 in Parliament passed motor vehicle Bill of 2019 on 31 July.

Key highlights:

1. Gujarat government fixed the MV fine amount with a reduction like Rs.1000 for driving a two-wheeler without a helmet into Rs.500.
2. For triple-riding on a two-wheeler the fine will be Rs.100 not as Rs 1000.
3. Talking on the phone while driving would attract a fine of Rs.500 for first-time offenders and Rs.1000. 
4. For dangerous driving, the first-time penalty would be Rs.1,500 for three-wheelers, Rs.3,000 for light-weight automobiles and Rs.5,000 for larger vehicles and Rs.10,000 for a repeat offense. 

Savarkar: Echoes from a forgotten past, 1883-1924 book was released

Bengaluru-based historian Vikram Sampath's book titled Savarkar: Echoes from a forgotten past, 1883-1924 was released. The book was published by Penguin.

Key highlights:

1. Savarkar: Echoes from a forgotten past, 1883-1924 book describes the life of freedom fighter and Philosopher Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. He was popularly known as Veer Savarkar. 
2. The first volume of the two-volume series covers the life of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar). It expresses and explains the incidents from his birth in 1883 to his conditional release to Ratnagiri in 1924.
3. The uniqueness of the new book is the historian Vikram Sampath brought out the often missed aspects of politician Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s life and times.

EAM S Jaishankar met Singapore Deputy PM Heng Swee Keat

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar along with Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep S. Puri visited Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat during their visit to Singapore.

Key highlights:

1. Mr.Swee Keat is a minister of finance for refreshing the India-Singapore agenda by exploring opportunities provided by New India.
2. The minister’s meeting on Singapore co-chaired with the sixth Joint Ministerial Commission with Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan and reviewed the bilateral problems. 
3. He conjointly had a decent interaction with Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing on scaling up trade and investment. 
4. Jaishankar conjointly attended the India-Singapore Business & Innovation Summit planning proposals on mega-trade.

Two new species of ginger was discovered from Nagaland

Research Scientists from the biological science Survey of India (BSI) have discovered 2 new species of ginger. Zingiber prenense has been discovered from the Peren district of Nagaland and Zingiber dimapurense was found within the Dimapur in Nagaland on 11th Sept.

Key highlights:

1. The first new species Zingiber dimapurense is looking with the flower in white color with dark- red blotches and its leafy shoot is about 90-120 cm tall.
2. The second species Zingiber perenense reach up to 70 cm tall with the lip of the white flower with purplish-red streaks.
3. The specimen of genus Zingiber dimapurense was collected in October 2016 from the Hekese village. The genus Zingiber perenense was collected in Sep 2017 in peren, Nagaland.
4. They began flowering in June 2018. The Zingiber has 141 species distributed throughout Asia and more than 20 species are found in northeastern India. 

PM Modi lanched National Animal Disease Control Programme

PM Narendra Modi launched the National Animal Disease Control Programme for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Brucellosis in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. The government has announced that it will fund the Rs.12,652 crore for the programme for a period of 5 years till 2024.

Key highlights:

1. The programme aims at vaccinating over 500 Million livestock including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and pigs against foot and mouth disease (FMD).
2. It also aims to vaccinate 36 million female bovine calves annually in its fight against Brucellosis disease.
3. The programme has two components to control the diseases by 2025 and to eradicate FMD by 2030

India participated in the 84th TIF in Greece

The 84th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) was held in Greece. The fair is being held from 7 September- 15 September 2019. TIF was organized by TIF-Helexpo. The 9-day event is expected to bring approximately 80 enterprises from various sectors of the Indian economy including technology and primary production to Thessaloniki. India is the honoured country in the international trade fair.

Key highlights:

1. TIF aimed to deepen the long diplomatic relations of Greece and India. It stressed the need to further support the two countries’ economic relations. 
2. The Indian delegation was led by Minister of State (MoS) for Commerce and Industry, Hardeep Singh Puri. 
3. The delegations included senior officials of Indian Government from the Ministries of Commerce and Industry, Electronics & Information Technology, and Tourism, and officers of Embassy of India in Greece, International Trade Promotion Organisation, India Brand Equity Foundation and Confederation of Indian Industry as well as prominent Indian entrepreneurs.
4. Also, exhibitors including National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Agricultural Produce Export Development Authority (APEDA), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), companies from the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector and tiles and ceramics industry and handicrafts participated.

Kerala to introduce iWTC in Kozhikode

For the first time ever, the Kerala State government is to set up India's first International Women's Trade Centre (iWTC) in Kozhikode. It is in consonance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Key highlights:

1. iWTC aims to boost women entrepreneurship and secure gender parity by providing women a safe place away from home to start new businesses, set up or expand, and get their products marketed globally. 
2. The first phase of iWTC is being implemented the Gender Park’s Vision 2020. The Phase-I is scheduled to be completed by 2021.
3. iWTC will provide space to promote and showcase performing arts and cultural forms like dance, music, and theatre.
4. Using the latest technology, it will involve women entrepreneurs and tradeswomen from the local region and connect them to world markets. It aims to build or expand their businesses

ANGAN, an international conference, was held in New Delhi

An international conference Augmenting Nature by Green Affordable New-habitat (ANGAN) was held from 9-12 September in New Delhi. The conference focus on Energy Efficiency in the Building Sector.

Key highlights:

1. The conference was inaugurated by Shri Raj Pal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Power and Shri Abhay Bakre, DG, BEE.
2. The conference aims to provide a platform to deliberate on the interdependence between organizations, systemic sustainability and feedback loops for better resource efficiency.
3. It also aims to improve the efficiency in high energy consumption sectors at a reasonable cost. It will also provide thrust to address the challenges faced by the stakeholders.
4. The Conference was organized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power in collaboration with GIZ under the Indo German Technical Cooperation.

National conference on crop residue management 2019 was held in New Delhi

The National Conference of Farmers on crop residue management 2019 was held in New Delhi. The National Conference was held with an aim to address concerns of farmers and State Governments.

Key highlights:

1. Farmers from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi participated in the conference. Around 1000 farmers participated in the conference.
2. The national conference was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
3. The national conference proposed to intensify In-Situ Management of Crop Residue to stop the straw burning. 
4. During the conference, 20 farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were honoured for their contribution in managing the crop residue by using identified agricultural machinery.
5. The straw burning incidents in 2018 have reduced by 15% and 41% as compared to that in 2017 and 2016 respectively.

Modi and Oli inaugurated Motihari Amlekhgunj energy pipeline

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepali Prime Minister Right Hon'ble K.P. Sharma Oli jointly inaugurated South Asia’s first cross-border petroleum products pipeline on 10 September. The energy pipeline is from Motihari in India to Amlekhgunj in Nepal.

Key highlights:

1. This project will deepen the bilateral relations between India and Nepal and expand across diverse sectors. The Nepali PM Oli announced to reduce the price of petroleum products by Rs.2 per litre in Nepal.
2. The energy pipeline project was first proposed in 1996. The two governments agreed to implement the project in 2015.
3. The estimated cost of the project was Rs.275 crore but it escalated to Rs.325 crore.
4. The project is led by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the Nepal Oil Corporation.
5. 69-km Motihari-Amlekhgunj pipeline is an important connectivity project between the countries. The pipeline has a capacity of 2 million metric ton (MMT) per annum. It will provide cleaner petroleum products at an affordable cost to the people of Nepal. 

PM to inaugurate Sahibganj Multi Modal Terminal at Jharkhand

Sahibganj Multi-Modal Terminal (MMT) will be inaugurated by PM Modi with the Minister of Shipping & Chemical Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya on 12th September in Jharkhand. It is a two-way data communication system and India's second riverine Multi-Modal terminal on the Ganga river. The MMT was built at a cost of Rs.290 crores in 2 years.

Key highlights:

1. Sahibganj Multi-Modal Terminal will play an important role in the transportation of domestic coal from the local mines in Rajmahal to varied thermal power plants settled on National Waterway 1 (NW-1)
2. Apart from coal, stone chips, fertilizers, cement and sugar square measure alternative commodities are expected to be transported through the terminal
3. The capacity of the MMT is 30 lakh tonnes per annum. After an investment of Rs.376 crores for capacity enhancement in Phase II under PPP mode, it is expected that the MMT will grow to 54.8 lakh tonnes per annum. Further development in Phase II will be taken over by the private concessionaire

PM of St.Vincent and Grenadines visits India

Prime Minister of St. Vincent and Grenadines Dr.Hon'ble Ralph Everard Gonsalves met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his 5-day visit to India. PM Gonsalves also participated in the high-level United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) Symposium held at New Delhi.

Key highlights:

1. PM Gonsalves appreciated India’s developmental cooperation with the region and for India’s prompt assistance subsequent to natural calamities.
2. St. Vincent and Grenadines is a non-permanent member of the UN security council (UNSC). 
3. The two leaders agreed to cooperate together within the areas of ability development, training, education, finance, culture and disaster management.
4. St.Vincent and Grenadines is the smallest island country located in the Carribean nation. 

Jammu and Kashmir topped the highest consumption of iodized salt

Jammu & Kashmir topped the highest consumption of iodized salt and Tamil Nadu ranked last as the lowest consumption of iodized salt in the country. The study has shown 76.3% of Indian households use iodized salt with fifteen components of per million of iodine.

Key highlights:

1. Gujarat produces 71% of salt in the country
2. It is followed by Rajasthan at 17% 
3. Tamil Nadu, being the third-largest producer of Salt in India, produces 11%
4. The rest of the country produces 1% of the salt produced
5. The survey was conducted by Nutrition International unitedly with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and also the Indian Coalition for the management of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD). The survey tested the iodine content in samples of preparation salt from households to estimate the coverage of iodized salt.   
6. The survey said that 13 out of 36 States have already achieved Universal Salt Iodisation or have 90% of households with access to adequately iodized salt. The study was to make sure that the iodine coverage does not fall below current levels.   

Prime Minister addresses the High Level Segment of the 14th Conference of Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification

Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed the High Level Segment of the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Key highlights:

1. India have always given importance to land. In Indian culture the Earth is held as sacred and treated as a mother.
2. India’s Indices were submitted at the Paris COP at the UNFCCC. It highlighted india’s deep cultural roots of maintaining a healthy balance between land, water, air trees and all living beings. Friends it would make you happy that India had been able to increase its tree cover.
3. Between 2015 to 2017 India’s tree and forest cover  increased by 0.8 Million Hectares.
4. The government launched a program to double the income of farmers by increasing crop yield through various measures. 
5. This includes land restoration and micro irrigation. We are working with the motto of per drop more crop. We are increasing the use of bio fertilisers and reducing the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers.