Kolkata to get India’s first underwater metro
➽ Kolkata’s metro network is being extended under the Hooghly River, making it the first “underwater” metro line in India. The new line will link the Howrah area of the city, which lies on the west side of the river, with Sealdah railway station on the east side.
➽ It will be connecting two main terminals, Howrah and Sealdah, each of which has a footfall of about 10-12 lakh (1-1.2 million) passengers per day. Tunnelling work is already underway, with approximately one million tonnes of mud already having been displaced. And the project faces further challenges; the tunnel will also stretch beneath many heritage buildings, so engineers need to ensure they are not endangered. The 16.6km line is expected to cost INR600 million (US $9.3m) and will be completed by the end of 2019.
CiNaRe passes away
➽ Noted Telugu poet and writer C Narayana Reddy passed away on 12th June. He is known for his contribution to the Telugu literature in form of poetry, stories and also several popular songs written for Telugu films.
➽ He was felicitated with a Padmashree in 1977 and Padmavibhushan in 1992. For his poetic work Vishwambhara, which was translated in three other languages, Reddy won the prestigious Jnanpith award in 1988. He is the second Telugu writer to have received the award.
➽ He was also conferred with Kala Prapurna (Honoris Casua) by Andhra University in 1978, Raja Lakshmi award in 1988 and Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1982. He was nominated to the Upper House of Parliament in 1997.
➽ He was born in Hanumajipet of Karimnagar district (at present in Siricilla district) in Telangana on July 29, 1931. He served as a professor there. He also served as the ViceChancellor of Telugu University. He instituted an award named after his wife Susheela which is presented annually to the female writers
Chenab to get tallest rail bridge
Around two years from now, the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir will be spanned by the world's highest railway bridge that is expected to be 35 metres taller than Paris' Eiffel Tower.
➽ The massive arch-shaped structure, being constructed at a cost of around Rs.1,100 crore, will use over 24,000 tonnes of steel and will rise 359 m above the river bed. Designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 260 km per hour, the 1.315-km- long ''engineering marvel'' will connect Bakkal (Katra) and Kauri (Srinagar).
➽ The bridge forms a crucial link in the 111-km stretch between Katra and Banihal, which is part of the UdhampurSrinagar-Baramulla rail link project.
National
58 New medical colleges
Stressing the need for rapid expansion of
medical infrastructure in the country to cater to
the growing demand, J.P. Nadda, Union
Minister for Health and Family Welfare, said that
58 new medical colleges will be established
across the country by 2018 at a cost of
Rs.11,000 crore.Real estate Act The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) will finally give India's real estate sector its first regulator from, May 1, 2017.
➝ According to RERA, each state and Union territory will have its own regulator and set of rules to govern the functioning of the regulator.
➝ As per the new act, 70% of the funds collected from buyers would have to be deposited in a separate bank account in case of new projects and 70% of unused funds in case of ongoing projects.
No tourist entry into Odisha National Park Bhitarkanika National Park authorities have imposed restrictions on entry of tourists into the park for three months to provide undisturbed environment for breeding by estuarine crocodiles.
➝ Located in the estuarial region of BrahmaniBaitarani, in the north-eastern place of Kendrapara district of Odisha, the sanctuary covers an area of 672 square kilometers of mangrove forests and wetland.
➝ Bhitarkanika is one of the largest sanctuaries of crocodiles in the region with 1,671 reptiles.
Naval Commanders' Conference
➝ A four day Naval Commanders' Conference was held in New Delhi from 02 - 05 May 17.
➝ The Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, with the Commanders-in-Chief, will review major operational, training and administrative activities undertaken in the last six months and deliberate the away ahead on important activities and initiatives in the near future.
Loan waiver for 'Divyangs' After waiving loans of farmers, the Uttar Pradesh government is contemplating forgoing loans upto Rs.1 lakh of the differently-abled or 'Divyangs'.
➝ For resolving problems of the 'Divyangs', the government will also hold "Samadhan Diwas" on the second Wednesday of every month.
HIMMAT Delhi Police has made its mobile application for the safety of women - HIMMAT - more secure and user-friendly.
➝ The app's data is now stored on the National Informatics Centre (NIC) cloud storage.
➝ The app contains cellphone numbers of women and earlier this data was being stored on Amazon cloud storage
1000th birth anniversary PM released a stamp on the occasion of the one thousandth birth anniversary of the great social reformer and Saint Shri Ramanujacharya.
➝ Ramanuja (traditionally, 1017-1137) was a Hindu theologian, philosopher, and one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism.
➝ His Vishishtadvaita philosophy has competed with the Dvaita philosophy of Madhvacharya, and Advaita philosophy of Adi Shankara
Central Health Services (CHS) The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, J.P. Nadda inaugurated the first-ever induction training programme for the newly appointed General Duty Medical Officers (GDMOs) of the Central Health Service Cadre at National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), at New Delhi.
U.P. deploys ambulances for cows Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya flagged off an exclusive ambulance service for cows, complete with veterinarians and assistants.
➝ The Gauvansh Chikitsa mobile van service will transport ill or injured cows to gau shalas or to a veterinary facility. A toll-free gau seva number has been released for the people to report about cows in distress.
➝ In its initial phase, the service will be available in Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Mathura and Allahabad
January-December fiscal format Madhya Pradesh became the first state to announce shifting of its financial year format to January - December from the present AprilMarch cycle.
➝ The decision comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi making a pitch for shifting the fiscal year to January-December period during NITI Aayog's governing council meet in the national capital recently
Tarang Sanchar The Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha launched 'Tarang Sanchar', a web portal for Information sharing on Mobile Towers and EMF Emission Compliances.
➝ The portal will allow users to get a tower or base station checked for radiation emission, for a fee of Rs.4,000
Vidya Veerta Abhiyan Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar launched the VIDYA VEERTA ABHIYAN in New Delhi.
➝ A wall of valour will be built in colleges and universities across the country and this will be built on contributory funding by students and teachers on voluntary basis.
➝ This wall will be 15 x 20 feet in size and will depict the portraits of all the 21 Param Vir Chakra recipients.
➝ The Param Vir Chakra (PVC) is India's highest military decoration awarded for the displaying distinguished acts of valour during wartime.
e-tendering The Uttar Pradesh government decided to scrap the manual tendering process in government departments and replace it with online tendering and procurement systems to bring in transparency.
Maharajas' Express The Indian Railway PSU, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) has decided to start two new circuits of their flagship luxury train Maharajas' Express, this year.
➝ These two new trips have been named as 'Southern Sojourn' and 'Southern Jewels' which will cover prominent destinations in West and South India.
➝ The Southern Sojourn will cover Goa, Hampi, Mysore, Ernakulam, Kumarakom and Trivandrum.
➝ The Southern Jewels will cover Chettinad, Mahabalipuram, Mysore, Hampi and Goa.
Smart cities Rajasthan will develop 3169 smart villages, which will have clean drinking water, roads, sewerage system, Wi-Fi facility, e-library, sports ground, street lights and health facilities.
➝ State Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Rajendra Rathore said that 3169 villages have been selected for the year 2017-18, which will be developed into "smart villages". This comes along the lines of smart cities project.
SAMPADA The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for re-structuring the schemes of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) under new Central Sector Scheme - SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) for the period 2016-20 coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission cycle.
Environment compensation The National Green Tribunal announced that anyone found dumping electronic waste (ewaste) on the banks of river Ramganga in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh would have to pay Rs.1 lakh as environment compensation.
India and UK The First Home Affairs Dialogue between India and UK was held in New Delhi.
➝ The Indian side was led by Union Home Secretary, Rajiv Mehrishi and the UK delegation was led by Ms. Patsy Wilkinson, Second Permanent Secretary, Home Office, and Government of UK.
★ The meeting was held as a follow up of UK Prime Minister's visit to India in November, 2016 and the commitment of the two Prime Ministers for enhanced and strengthened Dialogue.
Swachh Jungle ki kahani, Dadi ki Zubani Books published in 15 Indian languages by Publications Division to enable development of cleanliness habit amongst children.
➝ M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information & Broadcasting released a set of books titled 'Swachh Jungle ki kahani - Dadi ki Zubani' published by Publications Division.
➝ The set of four books written in a storytelling format by renowned children's author Dr. Madhu Pant would convey the message in an interesting manner through the clean Jungle tales
First wind auction Scheme The Memorandum of Agreements (MoAs) for purchase of 1000 MW wind power under MNRE's first wind auction Scheme were signed between PTC India, the trading company, and Discoms of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Odisha and Assam.
➝ The signing ceremony took place during the two days Conference of Power, New & Renewable Energy & Mines Ministers of States and UTs.
Indore emerges as the Cleanest City of India Indore, Bhopal, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Mysuru, Tiruchirapally, NDMC, Navi Mumbai,Vadodara, Chandigarh make the Top 10. Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are the Movers and Shakers, says M.Venkaiah Naidu.
➝ 12 Gujarat cities, 11 from MP, 8 from AP among the top 50 Clean Cities. Varanasi ranked 32 this year as against 418 in 2014.
➝ Mysuru slipped to fifth rank this year but no decline in sanitation standards, says Minister.
➝ Swachh Survekshan-2017 aimed at capturing the outcomes on ground of the ongoing efforts to make urban areas Open Defecation Free and to improve door-to door collection, processing and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste.
➝ Of the total score of 2,000, 900 marks were assigned for performance in respect of ODF and solid waste management, 600 marks for Citizen Feedback and 500 marks for Independent Observation.
New Controller General of Accounts (CGA) Mr. Anthony Lianzuala took over as the New Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
➝ The Government of India had appointed Mr. Anthony Lianzuala, a 1982-batch Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) Officer, as the new Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance with effect from May 1, 2017.
➝ He is the First person from the NorthEastern Region to hold this position.
➝ Controller General of Accounts (CGA), in the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, is the Principal Accounting Adviser to Government of India and is responsible for establishing and maintaining a technically sound Management Accounting System.
Note: Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) both are different institutions. Where CGA is a statutary post, CAG is a constitutional post under the Article - 148 of the Constitution.
