General Awareness

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2016

Dec 2016

Jan 28, 2019

Train 18 to be called Vande Bharat Express

India's fastest train, Train 18, will be known as Vande Bharat Express.
The 16-coach train will run between Delhi and Varanasi at a maximum speed of 160 kmph and will be flagged off by PM Narendra Modi.
The train was manufactured in 18 months at a cost of Rs 97 crore by Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. The train received all statutory clearances for commercial operations.
The fully air-conditioned train will stop at Kanpur and Allahabad and will have two executive chair cars and and 14 non-executive chair cars. The train fare is likely to be higher than what is charged in Shatabdi trains, which will include food as well.

Jan 27, 2019

MP Becomes First State to Map Trees

In a move that will make wood poachers think twice before felling a tree in a protected reserve, for the first time in the country, Madhya Pradesh' s Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary has started collecting DNA samples of standing trees, stumps and logs.
This smart use of technology will not only discourage wood poachers from felling trees in reserved forests, but also fix responsibility of conniving officials.
Wood mapping has been used in the United States and elsewhere in the world to identify and prosecute wood smugglers with success but Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary.
The samples will be sent to State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) Jabalpur, where DNA will be extracted. Then, a DNA data bank of all trees will be prepared and the samples preserved.
Whenever a forest team catches wood smugglers or spot protected wood made into furniture or other products, their DNA samples will be taken and matched with those in the data bank.
A match of samples will make it easy to book the accused in a court of law, because it will be possible to trace back the origin of the smuggled wood to the source.
Officials say that wood smugglers usually chop off the tree bark at the point where there are markings by the forest department, cut the wood and sell it as jungle wood for furniture and other products. When forest teams encounter anyone carrying wood, it is difficult to prove that it has indeed been sourced from a protected reserve.
The DNA technique is now giving forest officials fresh hope.
Nauradehi is Madhya Pradesh's largest wildlife sanctuary. It was created in 1975 and consists of forest spread over 1,197 square km across four districts of the state.
In addition to precious trees like teak, saja, dhawda, sal, tendu, bhira, mahua and sandalwood, the sanctuary is also home to the keystone species of the Indian wolf, the Bengal tiger, the Indian leopard, the striped hyena, crocodiles and many other wild animals and rare birds.

Citizenship Bill Creates a New Identity

The northast's most-populous state, Assam, is a veritable museum of competing tribes, sub-tribes and ethnicities. Bablu Nandi, a Hindu Bengali young man whose community is now staring at a looming identity conflict, has added one more community to that simmering list: "Assamese Bengali."
The birth of this new identity can be attributed to the Centre's push to the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to give citizenship to any non-Muslim from Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan who wishes to settle in India.

Jan 25, 2019

Metro line to G Noida Opens

Three years after work began on Metro's Aqua Line that will connect Noida with Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath formally inaugurated the much awaited corridor.
At 29.7 kilometres, this line is the longest Metro corridor in the country to be inaugurated at one go. At 29km, the Hyderabad Metro held the earlier record.
Work on the Aqua Line started in May 2015 and was completed in a record time of three-and-a-half years. It has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 5,503 crore.

Jan 24, 2019

MoU to protect Indian workers in Kuwait

The Union cabinet approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between India and Kuwait for cooperation on recruitment and providing stronger safeguards for Indian domestic workers in the Gulf nation.
There are around 3,00,000 Indian domestic workers in Kuwait. This includes around 90,000 women workers.
A joint committee will be set up to implement the terms of the MoU which provides a structured framework for cooperation on matters related to domestic workers.
It provides for stronger safeguards for Indian domestic workers, including women workers.
The MoU is initially valid for a period of five years and incorporates provision for automatic renewal.

Solar Powered Dandi March Memorial at Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate a solar-powered memorial to the 1930 protest march Mahatma Gandhi led against British monopoly over salt in Gujarat's coastal village of Dandi on Gandhi's 71st death anniversary on January 30.
Gandhi began the march against the ban on Indians producing or selling salt from Ahmedabad to Dandi near Surat, over 380 km away, on the Arabian Sea coast on March 12, 1930.
He led his followers in picking up handfuls of salt as a mark of protest against the ban around a month later on April 6, 1930.
The march was among the first protests in Gandhi's civil disobedience movement against the British.
A laser-lit salt making experience has been planned for the visitors at the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial (NSSM).
IIT-Bombay was assigned the task of designing, coordinating and implementing the project under the Central Public Works Department's supervision.
The memorial is spread over 15 acres of land and will be powered by as many as 41 solar panels.

Jan 23, 2019

Mauritius PM to Cooperate with India for Promotion of Hindi

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth said Mauritius would cooperate with India on the promotion of Hindi globally, including in the United Nations, at the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jugnauth held a bilateral meeting on cooperation in trade and investment on the sidelines of the event .
The Mauritian premier lauded India's soft power and said the recognition of the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations was a manifestation of it.

Google to Verify Political Ads

In a bid to ensure transparency in election advertising, internet search giant Google announced that it will introduce an India-specific political advertising transparency report and searchable political advertisement library ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The report and library will provide comprehensive information on who purchases election ads on Google platforms and how much money is being spent.
The report and ads library, which will go live in March 2019, will enable voters to get election-related information.

Muslim-Hindu couple's child has right to share in father's assets

Coming to the help of a man born out of a wedlock between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman, the Supreme Court said that any child born out of such wedlock is legitimate and entitled to claim a share in his father's property.
Supreme Court bench of justices NV Ramana and Mohan M Shantanagoudar held that the marriage of a Muslim man with an idolater or fire-worshipper is neither a valid nor a void marriage, but is merely an irregular marriage. And a child born out of such irregular marriage is entitled to claim a share in his father's property.
Delivering the verdict the bench held that the plaintiff was born out of an irregular marriage. He is the legitimate son of Mohammed Ilias, and consequently is entitled to inherit shares claimed in his father's estate.
Clearing the air surrounding the rights of a woman in a Muslim–Hindu irregular marriage, the court said that the legal effect of an irregular marriage is that in case of consummation, though the wife is entitled to get dower, she is not entitled to inherit the husband's properties.
But the child born in that marriage is legitimate just like in the case of a valid marriage, and is entitled to inherit the father's property.

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