Current Affairs Assam – December 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of December 2018 )
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December 12
Khandu launches Lepa Rada as 24th district of Arunachal Pradesh
- One more new district, Lepa Rada, was officially launched in Arunachal Pradesh by Chief Minister Pema Khandu, a day after inaugurating Shi Yomi district, taking the total number of districts in the State to 24.
- The newly created district, Lepa Rada, was carved out of Lower Siang district. Headquartered at Basar, the new district comprises of four administrative Circles – Tirbin, Dari, Sago and Basar.
- The Chief Minister also unveiled the vision statement of the new district.
Demand for inclusion of Kamtapuri language in 8th Schedule
- The Kamtapur Progressive Party has again raised its demand for recognition of Kamtapuri language in the 8th Schedule.
FACTFILE – Kamtapuri language
- Kamtapuri, Rangpuri or Rajbangshi is a Bengali-Assamese language spoken by the Koch-Rajbonshi people people in India, Rajbanshi and Tajpuria in Nepal, and in Bangladesh.
- Rajbonshi shares 48 to 55% of its vocabulary with Assamese and Bengali and 43 to 49% with Maithili and Nepali.
PM Modi inaugurates Partners’ Forum 2018
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the fourth Partners’ Forum, an international conference organised to improve the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents, with about 1,500 participants from 85 countries.
- This is the second time India is hosting the Partners’ Forum. The last one was held in 2010. The programme of the Partners’ Forum will be framed around the objectives of the Global Strategy of Survive – Thrive – Transform.
- The Forum will also present and explore the findings of the 12 Success Factors case studies that showcase how countries are collaborating across sectors to improve women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health.
- The Partners’ Forum is a global health partnership launched in September 2005 to accelerate efforts to reduce child and maternal mortality, improve adolescent, child, newborn and maternal health.
- The mission of PMNCH is to support the global health community to work successfully towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the health-related SDGs as articulated in the Strategy for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in support of ‘Every Woman Every Child’ (EWEC) movement.
World’s first floating nuclear plant operational in Russia
- Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s first “floating” nuclear power plant (FNPP) for installation in remote areas, has been started and brought to 10 per cent of its capacity.
- The power start-up is a series of functionality and safety tests conducted on Lomonosov’s reactor required to be completed before connection to the grid
- During each stage, various operation modes are tested in order to ensure the FNPP’s safety. All tests are likely to be completed by March 2019.
- In the second half of 2019, the FNPP will be transported to its final destination to the port of Pevek in Russia’s extreme north-eastern region of Chukotka, where it will replace the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant and the Chaunskaya coal-fired power plant.
- An FNPP is basically a mobile, low-capacity reactor unit operable in remote areas isolated from the main power distribution system, or in places hard to access by land.
- They are designed to maintain both uninterruptible power and plentiful desalinated water supply in remote areas.
- The FNPP has a capacity of 70MW and is equipped with two reactors of 35MW each, an FNPP’s operational life span is 40 years, with the possibility of being extended up to 50 years.
- Russia is already working on second generation floating nuclear power plant which will be equipped with two reactors with an increased capacity of 50MW each.
Gujarat’s women group gets UNFCCC award
- Gujarat got a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) award for women’s leadership with low cost and sustainable technology to tackle storms.
- The Gender Just Climate Solutions Award of the Women and Gender Constituency, one of the nine stakeholder groups of the UNFCCC, was given to Gujarat at a side event of the ongoing 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) in this Polish city in the technical category.
- The award mentions that Gujarat, prone to short periods of heavy rains and flooding, followed by long droughts, has combined women’s leadership with low cost and sustainable technology to tackle the severe impacts of excessive rainwater from storms.
- This technology protects groundwater via a filtration system and increases soil fertility by reducing salinity. The units conserve one to four million litres of runoff water and can irrigate 22 acres during the dry season.
- While women still do not own the land, by owning the technology they help their community double their harvest which in turns has a tremendous impact on their role in the community as decision-makers.
- Since 2011, more than 3,500 units have been installed in India and also increasingly abroad, in Ghana, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
- Each installed “Bhungroo” provides food security for 30 to 100 people, generating an additional income of about $5700 per year.
FACTFILE – Women and Gender Constituency
- Established in 2009
- Consists of 28 women’s and environmental civil society organisations, who are working to ensure that women’s voices and their rights are embedded in all processes of the UNFCCC framework.
December 13
Manipur observes Nupi Lan Day on 12 December
- The 79th Nupi Lan (Women’s War) Day was widely observed in Manipur on 12th December, by paying floral tribute to women freedom fighters who took part in the first and the second Nupi Lan against the British rulers, on their memorials.
- The State-level observance was held in front of the Nupi Lan memorial complex, where Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar, along with their Cabinet colleagues, MLAs, the Chief Secretary, the DGP, officials and students, were present.
FACTFILE – Nupi Lan (Women’s War)
- The Nupi Lan took place in 1904 and 1939 against mass exploitation and the artificial famine triggered by the British imperialists.
First Nupi Lan
- The first Nupi Lan which broke out in 1904 was against the British order to send Manipuri men to Kabow Valley to fetch timber for re-building the then Police Agent’s bungalow after it was ravaged by fire.
- The first Nupi Lan was stirred up by the heirs-apparent of the erstwhile ruling family who did not like the selection of Chura Chand Singh as the King of Manipur. They persuaded the women of Manipur to resist the British government’s order to resuscitate the Lalup (A sort of forced labour where the male member of society between the age of 17 and 60 should work freely for ten days in every forty days of work).
Second Nupi Lan
- The second Nupi Lan was set off by the indiscriminate export of rice from Manipur by Marwari business men with the support of British rulers. It resulted in a famine-like situation in Manipur even though it was harvest season.
- Although the movement was started as an agitation by Manipuri women against the economic and administrative policies of the Manipur Maharaja and the Political Agent – Mr. Gimson- of the British Government (1933–45) in Manipur, it evolved into a movement for the constitutional and administrative reform in Manipur.
- When the Manipuri women, whom had been playing a decisive role in the agrarian economy of the region, came out in legion on the streets against the British policy of massive export of rice, the authorities responded by deploying military and police force against the unarmed women protesters. They fought valiantly against the British policies and a few of them lost their lives in the agitation.
Dejoo Tea Estate hospital becomes best tea garden hospital in Assam
- Dejoo Tea Estate hospital in Lakhimpur has become the best tea garden hospital in Assam and it also bagged the Best Tea Garden Hospital Award of the Assam government recently.
- Goodricke India’s Dejoo Tea Estate has been in focus since a long time for its developmental works for the betterment of employees, workers and environment.
- The hospital in Dejoo Tea Estate has a 30-bed facility which is managed by a doctor, two nurses, one pharmacist, one laboratory technician and paramedical staff.
- The hospital is serving a 6000 resident population of Dejoo Tea Estate along with unspecified patients from the surrounding villages under Nowboicha Revenue Circle.
- The tea garden, which used to be infamous for malaria a few years back, has now been reporting nil malaria cases in the last four years due to persistent anti-malarial activities in the workers colony initiated by the management. There have been no infant mortality cases and no maternal mortality cases in the last three years.
- Besides these, awareness meetings on health, sanitation, hygiene and healthy food habits are being organised regularly in collaboration with district health department in the tea garden. These activities is showing a positive result as there is no epidemic reported in Dejoo Tea Estate during the last few years.
India to launch GSAT 7A satellite for Indian Air Force
- India will be launching GSAT 7A, a military communication satellite for the Indian Air Force (IAF), with its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk II) rocket.
- GSLV rocket will launch the 2,250-kg communication satellite, GSAT-7A from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
- The satellite with a maximum life of eight years will be for the use of IAF. The satellite is built to provide communication capability to the users in Ku-band over the Indian region.
Indian Navy inducts first deep-sea submarine rescue system
- Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba inducted the Indian Navy’s first flyaway deep-sea submarine rescue system at the naval dockyard in Mumbai. The acquisition is a significant jump in the Indian Navy’s capability in deep submarine rescue.
- The Indian Navy currently operates submarines of Sindhughosh, Shishumar and Kalvari classes as well as nuclear-powered submarines.
- The operating medium and the nature of operations undertaken by submarines expose them to high degree of inherent risk. In such an eventuality, traditional methods of search and rescue at sea are ineffective for a disabled submarine.
- To overcome this capability gap, the Navy has acquired a third generation, advanced submarine rescue system considering of a non-tethered Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) and its associated equipment.
- The system would have a global footprint and can be mobilised from the naval base at Mumbai to the nearest mobilisation port by air, land or sea to provide rapid rescue to the submarines in distress.
- The newly acquired capability would be operated and deployed by the crew of Indian Navy’s newly formed Submarine Rescue Unit (West) from its base in Mumbai.
- The Indian Navy’s Deep Sea Submarine Rescue System, considered to be the most advanced system currently in operation globally, is capable of undertaking rescue from a disabled submarine up to 650-metre depth.
Shaktikanta Das appointed as 25th Governor of RBI
- Shaktikanta Das assumed charge as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
- The government appointed Shaktikanta Das, who as Economic Affairs Secretary steered the monetary situation post-demonetisation, as the new RBI Governor.
- He will have a three-year term, He will be the first bureaucrat to head the central bank in almost five years.
- He was a 1980-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, who retired as Economic Affairs Secretary in May 2017, oversaw the re-monetisation of the economy after the shock decision to withdraw 86 per cent of the currency in circulation in November 2016.
FACTIFILE – Shaktikanta Das appointed new RBI governor
- The 25th Governor of Reserve Bank of India, is 1980 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
- He was member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India, and India’s Sherpa to G-20
- He was also Economic Affairs Secretary of India, Revenue Secretary of India, Fertilizers Secretary of India.
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